Chapter 7

Bella's POV:

Now that I calmed myself down just a tiny bit, I decided there was really no point in having internal conflicts within myself. I would figure out how to exit this imagination later; for now, I felt that I needed to at least prevent… myself from feeding from the human. However, I could not just approach my other self. She – or I – would attack me – or her – thinking I was an illusion, which I probably was. No, I would need to think this carefully, hopefully in the next few milliseconds.

Suddenly, my face lit up when an idea popped into my head. It was definitely a poorly thought idea. But, it would most likely do the trick. At this point, the other Bella was whispering in the man's ear. I would need to act fast – or else, all would have been in vain.

I took a deep breath, and shouted, "Bella? Bella?" I tried my hardest to imitate the voice of Renée, my mother. I desperately hoped that my other self would recognize the voice, especially since James had taken advantage of it several months ago, while I was still human. It was a devastating experience, and I knew I would never forget what happened that day. The only question was, was my love for my family greater than my desire for blood, or would my efforts not be enough of a reminder?

Thankfully, the newborn seemed to be distracted. She – or I – glanced toward my direction, gave out a confused look, and stared back at the emotionless man. Then, I felt relief flow through my body as I saw her face form a shattered and horrified expression. She crouched still, and then lightly struck the black-haired man's neck in order to relieve him to unconsciousness. This was good. After he woke up tomorrow, he would believe everything that occurred was all just a nightmare; that is, if he remembered anything.

My other self cautiously approached my position, and I froze as still as a frightened animal. I frantically wished she would leave, that she did not see me.

Fortunately for me, after an awkward silence, she shook her head twice and left. When I was entirely sure she, or I, was out of hearing distance, I let out a grateful sigh.

Well, now that my sin was officially cleansed, I had one more problem to worry about. If this was not a dream, what was I doing here? Would I ever get back to my own time? One part of my brain told me that I had somehow miraculously traveled back to the past, but the rest of it told me this: I was going crazy. Yep. Isabella Marie Swan, who was eighteen and recently turned into a newborn vampire, developed mental issues. As of this moment, my life was great.

However, I could not shake off the feeling that the latter explanation was wrong. What if it was really possible to go back to the past? It could have been a vampire thing; after all, I knew little to nothing of their powers and gifts. The Cullen family may not have told me of all the possibilities a vampire could achieve…

Still... the idea to move through time seemed impossible. After all, even Alice Cullen, my former best friend, could only see the future, not experience it. And her power was of the rarest of the rare.

Nevertheless, I decided that I would attempt to travel back in my own time. In my opinion, trying was better than staring off into space like an idiot, which was exactly what I was doing right now. But the problem was that I had no idea how I was going to approach this. Maybe I had to shout something. Or chant a spell.

Go back, I shouted in my head loudly. Nothing.

Travel back! Abracadabra!

Still nothing.

I chuckled to myself. What exactly was I doing? This wasn't going to work…

I recalled what my thoughts were right before I woke up in this time period. Actually, I remembered the exact lines – I wished to go back to the past and fix my mistakes… Hmm. This just gave me an idea. Maybe – just maybe – if I stated a specific command, I would be able to go back to my time.

Now that my mistakes stand corrected, I wish to return to my present time, I said to myself.

I waited. And waited, but there was no change at first. After that, I felt a tingling sensation at the tip of my fingertips. I felt myself swaying, and just like before, darkness crushed me like a human would squash an ant.


Marcus' POV:

After Isabella had scurried off, all three Volturi members became worried. Because of our carelessness, there was a high potential that our secret would be revealed. However, for some reason, I was more worried about the newborn's safety. We were all aware of what a newborn vampire would most likely do. If she located a human, there was no doubt that she will chase after the odour like a madman.

It had been precisely forty minutes since Isabella disappeared from our sights. Although we were following her scent with the best of our abilities, we still could not locate her. Really, it was a shame Demetri did not join us. It would be so much easier with him, but alas, not all things were to our advantage.

Suddenly, we stopped in our tracks. Our fears were confirmed; there was the scent of human blood not far ahead. Even worse, the newborn's scent was mixed with it. This only meant… we were too late.

I did not know why my heart felt crushed. After all, it wasn't as if this situation had not happened before. Isabella was not the only vampire who was against the idea of feeding from humans. In fact, I recalled the time when even the twins were reluctant to kill innocent lives. Now take a look at them. They loved human blood as much as every one of the Volturi guards did.

"Well now, what do we have here?" Felix sounded pleased, and I swiftly turned to look at his face. I was so very close to snarling at him, since he was the one at fault in the first place for initiating the race. But as soon as I saw the mysterious glint in his eyes, I knew there was something else. I turned to where he was staring at, and incredulously, there was a live human lying there with blood pooling under his palm.

"Master, why is he still alive? Shouldn't Bella have finished him already?" Jane asked with a shocked tone. I stayed silent, and we both knew that I was just as clueless as she was.

"In any case, I'm getting pretty thirsty. And there's always a chance that this one knows something he shouldn't know, right? Dibs," Felix announced while picking the frail head of the human up with his giant hand.

I turned away in disgust as Felix began to feed. In the end, no vampire took pleasure in watching another vampire feed unless they were watching their mate. Putting that aside, I was becoming anxious for Isabella. It was apparent that she did not feed on the human, so where exactly was she?

As though she read my mind, Isabella, the subject of our concern, appeared. Just like that. Out of thin air. There was a thud as Felix dropped his victim in surprise, and all three of us were gawking in astonishment at the vampire before us.


Another chapter finished! Hope you guys liked it :)

And to the person who asked whether the pairing is Bella/Aro or Bella/Marcus.. you'll find out later *smug smile*

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