Skimming the ocean floor, she couldn't help but feel a bit like Ariel from that Disney movie, The Little Mermaid. Everything was shiny and she wanted to explore it all. Renee always loved watching cartoons on Saturdays with her when she was little.

Renee... Charlie... Jacob... she had meant for them to have a body to mourn, but fate had a different plan as usual. Now their mourning would probably be delayed while they searched for her. But they would never find her. Eventually they would give up. Eventually they would move on. She hoped they would find happiness sooner, rather than later. They deserved to be happy.

She swallowed a bit of salty ocean water as she sobbed tearlessly. The cool water did nothing to appease the burning in her throat, only call attention to her need to feed. And soon. She wondered if any vampire had existed on a diet of fish blood before as she swam a short distance and grabbed a shark. It took her several bites, but eventually she found a vein and drained the poor creature.

She almost let it float away before she realized that a blood-drained shark would be suspicious if found. She ripped it to tiny shreds before looking for another to help alleviate her thirst. It was hard to think past the pain in her throat and she was immensely grateful that she had come straight into the ocean and avoided humans entirely.

She drank until she felt sloshy. The burn in her throat was neither gone nor forgotten, but it was more tolerable. What now? She couldn't just sit on the floor of the Pacific for the rest of eternity.

Eternity. Fate was truly cruel. All she wanted was death. What did she get? Immortality! It's not true. The old poem about it being better to have loved and lost... no. Ignorance would have been better. And now she was cursed, not with a lifetime of the pain of being abandoned and unloved, but an eternity. An eternity to remember that he didn't love her, didn't want her. None of them did. How had she accumulated enough bad karma for this torture?

He'd once compared them to Romeo and Juliet. Now she understood and agreed with his comments about the ease with which humans can be released from their fragile existences. Unless of course the particular human was her, apparently.

Vampires. Immortality. It was all overrated if it meant an eternity of pain and sorrow. Could she do what he had talked about? Could she find the Vampire Kings? She knew they were in Italy but she couldn't go to shore. Her release from this existence was not worth the price countless humans might pay for her mistakes if she tried to walk among them.

No. Not yet, but one day—some day soon. She would get this hunger under control. She would find the brothers and beg again for a respite from the never ending misery of her existence.

Over the next several months she carefully made her way south, traveling deep down on the ocean floor and far from any shores. She barely registered the temperature changes as she rounded the southern end of the globe and began back up through the Atlantic and ever closer to her eventual destination.

She tasted many types of ocean life, but she was careful to avoid any that she knew to be endangered. She also shredded her meals to the tiniest scraps to prevent leaving any breadcrumb trails. Not than anyone would be looking for her here and even if they were, it was a big ocean, but it was better to be safe. The last thing she wanted was to draw any attention of any kind.

She decided that the carnivores tasted best. Some sharks or the occasional whale were her preference. She tried to be careful not to kill too many of any one type of creature. She did not want to harm their ecosystems as she passed through.

She often found herself distracted by shiny objects. There were so many wondrous shipwrecks, caverns, and reef systems to explore. She tried not to disturb too much, but took a few valuable coins she found here and there. There was always a chance she would need some currency whenever she eventually hit shore.

She thought often, as she swam ever closer to them, of the three faces she had seen in the painting in Carlisle's study a short time ago, those who were revered as gods by humans and respected as royalty by vampires. They were the feared upholders of vampire law. The Volturi. Aro, Caius, and Marcus. He had told her that irritating these three would be the end of any vampire.

What would they be like in person? Would they grant her plea? She was sure they would be stubborn and used to getting their own way. That level of privilege precludes any spark of empathy, right? With great power comes great... greed, most likely. She had to remember going into this what they were. They were not like the Cullens. These were soulless, human-drinkers. They were evil.

What right did she have to judge though? What had she really seen of the world? What did she understand? Nothing. The Cullens, after all, were not that good to her. Had she ever really known them? She was just a pet to them, no one of consequence. Sure, they didn't feed from humans, but was treating one like property any better?

The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. He had swept into her life and taken away her choices. Sure, he said he had her welfare at heart, but he obviously had no clue as to what she really needed. Nor did he care what she wanted. If he had, she would not be lurking in the Mediterranean Sea, trying to decide if she was ready to test her ability to resist human blood!

No, she was here because Mr. Knows-better-than-anyone-what's-best-for-Bella never once gave a damn what she thought was best for herself! Never once asked what she wanted. Tearless sobs racked her frame as she cursed the one she used to love and sank into the blue mud below her feet. The one she gave her heart to broke it. Now here she was. Immortal. Broken. Terrified. Weak. Angry. Outraged! How dare he?

She resolved she would find the strength she needed and she climbed out of the water and walked up the Tuscan shore.