How I Would Die

I'm burning. I'm going to die.

Merde.

I'd never really given much thought to how I would die. But dying in the place of someone I love seems like a good way to go, noble even.

My mark is blazing as a white hit trickle of heat slithers down my spine. I won't make it. Nyx, tell my grandma I love her, and Stevie Rae and all my other friends. Tell them to stay true, and tell Lenobia, my teacher in equine studies, that I am grateful for all her help, and sorry that I failed. Tell Dragon, the fencing teacher, I will tell Anastasia, the teacher of spells and potions and Dragon's late wife, that he loves her and that we will stick together.

And Neferet.

I love Neferet as my mother, as my own is so cruel to abandon me for that stupid John Heffer, and elder of the People of Faith. Tell her to stick by my Grandma and that they should both remember I love them. I am sorry Neferet, I failed you.

I scream. It's getting worse; it's shooting through me like a white hot poker with extra spikes on the side. And then everything goes black.

I'm dying. I'm dead.

"She's bleeding out, Alice, pass me your belt," said a sweet but low male voice

"Here," said a female, who sounded scarily like Neferet. I heard the click of a metal buckle.

"Tie it above my hands. Bella, get Nessie out of here, she doesn't need to see this. Find Edward, tell him not to worry."

"Okay, come on Renesmee."

"You're not still cheesed off about the whole Nessie thing, are you?" said a new male, sarcastically, I think.

My eyelids flickered open for a split second. There was a blonde male working over me, and a girl with spiky black hair sticking in every direction possible, but it looked quite cool, actually. A bronze-skinned male with dark, chin-length hair was just leaving the room, following a curvy brunette with a curly-haired child on her hip and looking at me over his shoulder.

I could just about feel the pressure of the belt and the blonde man's hands on my right thigh. I could see the trees and foliage around me. I was in a forest, the same forest I thought I'd died in.

"She's with us," said the blonde one, a huge grin spreading across his face. At least he was happy. I felt so sticky and bloody I had to look a right mess. I started to sit up, when a stab of pain struck me in my lower back. I screamed. I think I shook the whole forest. The blonde male's face was suddenly tinged with worry and then it was too much for me. I did what I had only ever done twice before in my life: I fainted.

It can't have been for long, because when I came to I was being carried on a huge sheet or something. My body wasn't burning like before. It was worse, far worse. I couldn't feel my body at all; it was numb.

But my marks were blazing. All across my face, down my back, across my chest and on my palms, I was on fire.

I opened my eyes. We were moving out of the forest, and the blond man, the one who nursed me, was gazing in awed amazement at me. There was a bright white light shining at me from his eyes, and as I scanned the faces in my circle, they all looked the same, a bright white light dominating their vision. There was the blonde man, the small, spiky-haired girl (who looked far too small to be carrying me), a tall but lean boy with red-bronze hair and pitiful golden eyes that still shone white light at me, and...

I did a double take.

A wolf! What? That's not possible!

My eyes widened at the creature and its big brown eyes rolled, also shining brightly. It carried in its mouth a corner of something, a bed sheet maybe? Well, whatever it was I was being carried on it.

Suddenly my mind shouted at me, 'how could I be taking all this in when it was so...?'

PAINFUL!

Then I looked for memories of what happened. My mind felt huge. Spacious. Again with the mind babble! Ow!

The pain shot up through my neck, white hot, and somehow gave me a brain freeze, or a brain-heat or... whatever – ow!

We reached an opening in the forest and as it passed I realised how fast we were moving! And yet I could see every crease and crevice in every tree, fern and... lump of moss. Wherever I was, it was very green. Ew.

Once through the break in the trees, I saw the sun , but it didn't hurt me, not like usual. See, I'm kind of a vampyre, the sun hurts my eyes, or so I thought.

The people carrying me (and wolf) glittered (not the wolf)and their skin threw rainbow spectrums in every-which way. My eyes widened again.

I may have gotten a world-record eye-pop at this rate.

There was a huge house standing in the middle of a lush meadow, shaded by six huge conifers. It was big. No, that was an understatement. It was huge, and white and the entire east wall was totally made from glass. There were several stone steps with a metallic rail against a pale stone wall leading up to a pair of huge wooden doors. A huge, burly dark-haired boy, or most probably a man, opened one of the wide doors to let us through. His expression was flat, he showed no emotion and he had the same golden eyes as the bronze-haired boy and also the spiky-haired girl and the blonde man now I came to think about it.

We trotted up the steps and the sheet upon which I lay jostled me suddenly and so violent that that whit-hot poker stabbed through my back again, and I screamed. Again. I writhed in this new agony that I couldn't break free from, and surprised even the burly boy and the bronze-haired one with my next, loudest scream.

Once we got inside a long, blonde amber-eyed beauty Took a corner of the sheet with a beautifully elegant face that looked like it'd been set in stone. I felt a side order of jealousy to go with my burning pain. Ouch already!

A blonde boy was stood in the corner of the room, but he looked unhappy to be there, almost like it was hard for him. Suddenly, he sent a pained but determined glare my way and a feeling of ease and slight relief came over me. This helped, but I was still in a lot of pain and I started to cry. How was that going to help? I'm seventeen for crying out loud!

I was transferred from the sheet to a hospital-style cot and a drip was immediately (and painfully) shot into my arm, but I didn't feel anything. No relief or even the prick of the needle. But that burning came back.

Is it possible to die twice in the space of Nyx knows how long (sorry, Nyx)?

It shot through me like lightening and it was worse than anything I swear any human or vampyre has ever felt. I felt like I was being roasted for a Sunday lunch or stewed up or baked on the surface of the sun. I thought that it was unbearable. I wanted to die.

I wanted to die.

This was definitely the opposite of noble. I screamed again and the blonde male looked pained, helpless. I started to tense and relax and arch my back as if I was trying to fly away from the pain beneath me.

I screamed through my tears and I started to cough, almost as bad as that stupid red-head afro-Elliot.

Elliot. Coughing, and now blood. I was rejecting the change. Crap, now I really was going to die! 'Nyx, would you mind resending my prayers, please?' I thought. Nyx was my goddess and I loved her more than anything, though she was only just above Neferet and my grandma.

However, that did not solve my problem. If a fledgling (someone in the middle of human and vampyre) rejected the change they would die. I was too far from the real vampyres, and it was killing me, just like Elliot died in my Lit class last year, in front of all our class mates (though, they didn't really like him much) and Prof. P, before Neferet came to give him that milky drink to ease the pain and kill him more quickly.

And now it was happening to me.

But I had no relief, no milky white liquid to help me die. I was just going to. I knew it.

"I've never seen anything like it," said the blonde male. I reckon he must be a doctor. And why was he so happy? This was painful! I was dying!

The monitor strapped to me by some coloured wires started to decrease from its maniacal rate to an almost human pace. I stopped coughing.

I was very confused.

The bleeding ceased and the burning pain came back, creeping from my fingertips and toes, to my heart, but it seemed to take an eternity, like a snake-bite which kills you slowly but surely and painfully.

The burning feeling continued against my squeezed-shut eyes and gritted teeth.

Were these strange people trying to kill me for meat or something?

The burning became worse than ever and I almost screamed again, but that

pained look on the blonde males face popped into my mind.

They couldn't be hurting me on purpose or for food, because that man looked so guilty for my pain, as though it was his fault. So I didn't scream. I lied on the stiff hospital table (apparently I had been moved again (I fell unconscious for a time)) absolutely still and, strangely, became more and more aware...

I started to hear footsteps every-so-often, people coming in to check on me: I could also hear the buzzing of the monitors. Then I started to hear sounds from downstairs: doors opening and closing, more footsteps and the T.V.

My hearing got better and better and I even managed to listen in on an episode of Glee. (Which is brilliant, by the way) soon I was listening out for the headlines and seeing what was making the charts on the apparently much-favoured music channels. Also, I heard the ticking of a clock, and I started to count the seconds, minutes and hours (I'm good at maths) to while away the time.

After a long time of second-counting, which I think was about twenty-four to twenty-eight hours (I know it's hard to be that far out but occasionally I became very aware of the burning sensation and I stopped counting. Somehow, I managed to remember the last number so I could resume), the pain subsided from my fingers and toes, and after several more hours faded all the way up to my thighs and shoulders.

The burning pain was still strong, though, and as it faded my heart became more and more painful until I thought it would burst. Soon after 5200000 seconds (about twenty-four hours) my chest was alone in it's battle against the burning army of flames, which had escalated in temperature and pain rating: they were now 12/10 on the pain front and believe me, that hurts.

Suddenly the pain just shot to my heart as though it was going to explode and disappeared from the rest of my torso. The monitor's constant, steady beating shot up in speed and several pairs of footsteps came running at the sound.

After about 10 minutes of this excruciating pain it died into the centre and just... went.

And I opened my eyes.

"She's made it," said the perfect blonde male of whom I could see every single beautiful detail.