Chapter 8 – The Room

"Aw, yes." Aro nodded his head as my mother spoke softly about our lives. Not putting into detail about marriage to a werewolf, of course.

We had discussed this, and we would do everything to not involve Jacob or the pack. Just one slip of mentioning them would cause the to go into a frenzy. They, of course, had known about our truce with them but we still didn't want them knowing anything more than we had to share.

She spoke about how happily I grew into what I am now, feeding on animals and being taught at home. I grew up too fast to be in the public eye.

"So, you are seven this year then?" He looked at me.

"Yes."

He looked me up and down and then winked at me. I felt a sudden urge to slap that stupid smile off his face. What a sick freak. I breathed in the cold air and shivered. I needed to get out of here.

"You do smell good though! I never thought that would be the case with a half-human." He laughed heartlessly and stood up. "I guess that'll be it then. It would be nice for you to stop in occasionally though. We always love having visitors, don't we Felix."

"Yeah." Felix hissed and rose out of his seat.

"Such a pleasure, always a pleasure! See them out will you, Felix, my dear old friend?"

I could feel the heat of my mother's shield around me once more as Aro came to take my hand. He leaned in for a kiss on the cheek and took a sniff on the way back. "Mmm!" He chuckled and held the door open for us.

I felt relief as I saw the grungy walls that surrounded us now. Felix took us a different way before, hallway after hallway. A human wouldn't possibly know that it was any different, considering it looked much the same. Something wasn't right on my mother's face as Felix held open a 4-foot thick door. He motioned for us to go in and before we realized it, the door slammed and locked behind us.

I spun around, and he wasn't there. "What's going on? Where did he go?" I shouted.

We were in a large white room with nothing more than a few couches and a bad paint job. Some of the walls looked punched through and the dry wall was just lying out on the floor.

"I don't have a good feeling about this." She said uneasily.

"What do you mean? Are we waiting for someone else? I don't get it. Mom!" I was shaking her now. But she stood like a beautiful, carved stone.

"I think they might be holding us hostage." She said in the quietest I've heard her speak. Every emotion that her face could hold was flushed away and she slowly walked to the couch and sat down. She planted her face in her palms and started taking in deep breaths.

"Well, Alice, she'll tell them, and they will come looking for us." I tried to reason with her.

"Alice can't see you clearly."

"But she can at least see me, maybe not clearly, but she can see something. She has to know something is wrong."

The phone in her pocket was violently shaking and she pulled it out in a swift movement and flipped it open. "What's going on?" Edward's voice boomed.

"I…don't…know. He was leading us out, and then he was gone." She mumbled.

"I'm coming to get y-" he suddenly broke off and she pulled the phone away to look at it.

"No reception?" She wailed. "I just had full bars!"

"I'm sorry Bella. No unsupervised phone calls, dear." A man shouted from the speakers in the corner. "Now, I'll give you your reception back, and you will call dear Edward and tell them that you are fine. Is that clear? No funny business. We're always watching." The speaker went dead.

I was trembling. Why was this even happening? I searched my mother's panicked face.

She flipped her phone open and pushed the speed dial number.

"Bella. What is going on?"

"Edward, it's okay. Everything is fine. We're just waiting for the city to clear out before we head back." She lied coolly. Her eyes were closed and she was nibbling at her lip.

"Okay then. If there are any problems, call me."

"I love you. I love you. I love you." She repeated quietly.

"More." He answered back.

The phone line went dead, just like the speaker had.

"Why didn't you just tell him, Mom?" I pleaded.

"You heard him. If we don't play the game right…" She trailed off.

Time passed and the room seemed to be getting smaller. My mother sat there like a statue just waiting for our fate to come rushing through the heavy door. I went over our story hundreds of times to find something that might of set them off. I couldn't figure out what we had said wrong. There wasn't a mention of Jacob once, but maybe the wedding ring had been noticed. I knew I should have taken it off, but I couldn't bring myself to do that. It had been easy not to not mention him in our story, just pass by it, but if they were to flat out ask me about the ring I wouldn't be able to sit there and lie. How disrespectful it would be for me to do such a thing. It'd be a slap in his face for him to just pretend like nothing was going on, even if it was to protect him. I know if it were the other way around, I would rather be held at the stake then hear him deny his love for me! It would as if a thousand knives were stabbing me in the back.

I had paced the room for the 74th time before my mother changed positions. She was now staring at her phone. I suspected she was going over phone conversations in her head, wishing she could hear Edwards voice again.

"Alice will see Aro's decision, right?"

"If he's made a decision. I don't know, Renesmee." She exhaled. She looked more tired than I have ever seen her, with stress written lines all over her perfect face. I glided over to her and put my arms around her squared shoulders and squeezed. We had each other. It was going to be okay.

"The thing is, they probably don't even realize what they are doing. They don't know what they have against us, and that our family will come looking for us if we don't show up at the airport in the next 24 hours."

"Maybe it's just what we need to bring the Volturi down." I whispered in her ear. I glanced around noting all the tiny cameras I hadn't bothered to notice before. I'm sure they could read my lips if their microphones couldn't pick up my voice.

I thought about all the ways they would fight them off. We wouldn't be able to leave the humans either. I could see Carlisle's disapproving face and the way he'd hesitate before he would slaughter the innocent. I couldn't imagine the pain he would suffer afterward. He wouldn't let himself get away with such a cruel crime. Maybe, somehow, they would clear the city before the ambush. I don't know they would do that with going unnoticed. It scared me to even picture Jacob in werewolf form with his lips pulled over his teeth, and the anger in his eyes that would drive him to go completely crazy. He would risk his life, and the lives of the pack for me. I think that was the scariest part.

I know they wouldn't be able to do it alone. I don't know how long it would take for them to come up with more help. It might take days, weeks even, and I didn't have the slightest idea of how quickly the Volturi would act on their decision to kill us. They knew Edward wouldn't live without Bella, hell; the whole family couldn't live without her. She was too much of a vital member to just settle with the fact she had been killed. They knew that they'd come for her, and for me, maybe. The horrible monsters might even be looking for a fight. It was definitely something to consider. How could they possibly want to risk their lives for that? Alice, nor Edward, would ever be open to the option of joining by their side. I remember Bella telling me that Alice and Edward had such desirable gifts that they would do anything for. How could they think holding us hostage would be the perfect way to lure them into this horrible lifestyle?

Maybe that was just the thing. They would gladly give their lives up to be sure we could go home safe. Bella wouldn't leave without Edward. Another way to get some more talent added to the disgusting family.

I shook the thoughts out of my head and grabbed my mother's hand and placed my head on her shoulder.

Time wasn't going to go any faster if I kept worrying.