CPOV

It felt like an awful role reversal for me. I would often look at patient's families sat in waiting rooms and pity them. Some would stay for hours staring into space just trying to cling on to any form of hope that they had left. That was just like we were now. It doesn't sound dreadful till I remembered the countless times I saw families sat hoping whilst, as a doctor I already knew that the outcome was certain. Was that how we were? As I watched more of the lizard creatures came in and out I couldn't help but wonder whether they knew that there was no more hope for Isabella, but were letting us live with an illusion that there was, like I had often done for families countless times.

Beep… Beep… Beep…

An alarm went off inside the hospital. We looked between our group, almost thankful for some distraction from the sorrow.

"I'll see what is happening." Said Aro and he got up to ask someone.

"Darling you don't think its an alarm about Bella's condition do you." Esme's scared face looked up at me. I tightened my arms around her.

"No, no. It is too loud, personal patient alarms are generally much quieter and they wouldn't have it sounding through the whole hospital." I said trying to convince my wife and daughters, as well as myself. My attention turned to the door though when Aro opened it. The workers were rushing this way and that and patient beds on gurneys were being pushed along corridors. The worker who had met us at the entrance was heading towards us. Aro called out to him asking what the noise was for. He came to us and spoke to us all.

"There has been a malfunction with some operating machinery and it has caused a fire. We are having to evacuate everyone. Luckily you are vampires and so we can just move you out to the front but our more startling patients have to be taken to a-joining buildings to keep them from human eyes. Please follow me, I'll show you the way out."

A little startled at this sudden change we moved out the door.

"How large has the fire become?" I asked "Is there no way of stopping it?"

"We are trying to control the area but we can't use sprinklers because water can be dangerous for some of our patients. Don't worry though we can leave easily, just down here." He lead us back to the entrance. We crossed to the opposite street and looked back at the hospital. Smoke was sneaking out of the windows. And people in the street were stood pointing in horror. There was a faint siren showing that the fire engines were on their way. I pulled Esme and my daughters to me, feeling the loss of my three sons and my lost daughter. The guard stood around us at a loss of what they should do. Aro spoke up from my right.

"I hope this doesn't injure the angel more. Surely such a sudden move isn't going to be good for her."

"I hope not." I replied, "Have you heard from the guard you sent to Settle yet?"

"They arrived about an hour ago. Hopefully it will not take them long to track the army dawn and destroy them. Isabella just has to clutch on to life for a couple more hours. Don't worry Carlisle, anytime now the mission she was given will be completed, Isabella will be the first angel to actually come back from this dreadful state." I nodded to him and smiled, perhaps there was some hope.

EPOV

I sat against the bars still reeling from everything. Not long ago I'd believed that Bella was dead and I had wanted nothing more than to die and follow her on, but then she stumbled into my arms. My Bella. My beauty. She was alive and with me, but then my eyes had taken in just how close to death she looked. My mind was frantic over thoughts of her being so badly ill. I had barely registered Alec and Felix asking us to return with them. Their reaction to Bella was completely unexpected but I was so concerned with her that I didn't listen in to their thoughts.

Everything felt so much worse when they separated me from Bella. She was in pain and I needed to comfort her. The guard had dragged me off to what was basically a vampire's version of a police cell. Instead of stone walls there were metal bars that ran from the ceiling to the floor cris-crossing at the top and bottom making a cage locking me in. The metal was unique, only the Volturi knew the formula to create it, and it was probably the only thing that was stronger than a vampire.

I started to panic about what they were doing to Bella; hopefully Alice was still with her. I tried searching for Alice's thoughts, hoping for any link with Bella, but I couldn't find anything, no ones thoughts came to me. I had never felt so alone before.

Many hours later.

I kept going over pictures of happy times with Bella trying to full my mind with images of her smiling glowing face instead of the hollow gaunt picture I had of my last sight of her. I let out a small sob was this the hell I faced as punishment? Would I be strong enough to survive this for eternity?

My phone beeped in my pocket saying that I had a text message. I snatched it out hoping it was Alice with some news of what was happening with Bella. It wasn't Alice though. The number was withheld.

Isabella is in danger.

Ospedale mitico

Legature modo

San Cipriano

Volterra

G

Panic, anger, desperation rose up in me, images of what could have happened flashed through my mind till only one thought was there. 'Get to Bella' I slammed myself at the bars clawing at them. I had to get to Bella, I had to. I pulled at the unyielding metal desperate to reach her. For a second nothing happened but I felt a surge of strength from deep within me and I peeled back the bars, bending them in ways I never thought would be possible even with my strength. I quickly hoisted myself up through the gap I had created and tumbled to the floor. Scrambling up I began to run, I had to get to Bella, I just had to.

Even from my brief visit I remembered the layout of the castle. I ran down the corridors not being at all quiet in, what was essentially, my escape from prison, but the corridors were practically deserted. I pushed my way out of the doors on to the street. Thank goodness that the sun was sinking, I had to travel fast and staying in the shadows would be easier now. I did not truly know that city but somehow I knew the way to Bella. Something was calling out to me urging me on and on. Every step I took took me closure and closure to Bella, the only place I could be right now. I had to get there. I had to get to Bella.

CPOV

A few minutes later the worker who had lead us out appeared behind us very breathless. He had covered a lot of his skin and blended in quite easily. We pressed him for information wanting to know anything about the new situation.

"The fire started because of a machinery malfunction in the Eastern wards. It spread quite fast. We managed to hold the fire back and contain it to the back end of the hospital. The patients from the top floors and the Northern and Western sides of the ground floor were successfully evacuated, but there are still patients and a few staff members trapped inside. They were almost behind the fire and had no way to an exit. We've estimated that about 54 people are still inside."

He faltered in his speech here and I felt myself grow cold as I took in his words. We had gone a long way into the hospital with Bella.

"Where was Bella placed? Her room where was it?" I whispered as everyone waited silently. None of us would really have needed his tragic answer all we had to do was take in Alice's tear stained face as she cried over the fate she could see for her sister. I clutched Esme to me as she cried for the loss of her daughter. All of us were silent as we watched the flames pushed slowly higher so we could see them licking over the roof from the back of the building.

"I'm sorry." The worker whispered "We have had to stop all attempts at a rescue its just become to dangerous. I'm sorry." And he respectively moved away leaving us to cry… and cry. There was nothing else we could do. I had no words to comfort Esme with nothing to ease the pain at all. Rose broke the silence through whispering Edward's name. My thoughts turned to my son locked up far away, alone and not knowing about Bella's death at all. "It's going to kill him." I whispered in reply to Rose.

"Edward." Spoke Esme in a tone of shock, like she had only just remembered him.

"I know." I said and kissed the top of her head softly.

"No Edward is there." She pointed towards the entrance of the street to where the fire men were stationed to late to save the hospital but doing their best to protect the surrounding buildings. Edward was pushing his way through them, dodging their obstructing arms. Shock fell over me at seeing Edward. He looked so different to the last time I had seen him. He had been lost looking, desolate even dead after losing Bella. Now though he looked stronger, alive. Determined. I felt horrified when I realised where his thoughts lay and yelled for him to stop. Some of the guard ran forward trying to intercept him, but they were too far away and Edward was too close to the hospital. Our screams for him did nothing to deter him pushing his way through the front door of the hospital.

EPOV

I could feel the heat of the fire around me, eating up the building but it didn't feel like danger to me; it felt like if I moved out the building it would be more dangerous than if I stayed. Something in me told me she was here, I could sense her presence even through the anger of the flames. With no idea of the ways to turn I followed the pull that came from inside me. The words still rang in my mind, 'Get to Bella'. It had become a chant in the back of my mind, propelling me forwards pushing me on. As I delved further into the building the flames closed in on me. The twisting corridors were the worst maze I had been in. I was panicking more and more as my heart screamed for Bella but I was getting more and more blocked in by the flames. I narrowly avoided a falling shelf of some kind as it was eaten up by the flames. I twisted down a corridor and the call I felt inside me when I saw her laid out on a table as still as frozen ice. I slammed myself against the window, separating us still. Desperation reached its peak within me as my fingers clawed furiously at the last barrier between me and my love. Gaining some control I searched for something anything to break the glass with. The fire was so much worse here, without my vampire sight I would have been completely blinded. I seized a metal carrying trolley sweeping off the top contents that were burning. The hot metal hissed as my frozen skin touched it. I lifted the trolley onto my shoulder and rammed it into the window on the 2nd hit it started to break. Once the cracks came I abandoned the trolley and slammed my shoulder at the centre of the cracks I had to get to her I had to. It felt like it took an eternity to break the window, but soon I was by my beloved's side.

Collapsing by her side I brushed a strand of her hair away from her eyes. She was so cold even with the raging fire closing in around us. Her skin appeared to have grown worse, and was stretched over her bones cracked red and larger patches of burnt areas slowly turning black. But it was the claws that hurt me. Angry black, infected claws were expanding out from her back. What had these people done to her? I wanted the, away from her, she was to pure and innocent to be infected by such cruel looking things. I promised myself that I would see that they were gone as soon as she was safe once more. Her faint heart beat stirred me on, I tucked my arm under her legs and one round her shoulders supporting her as gently as I could. She felt like nothing but air in my arms. I eased her out of the window careful not to cut her on the glass. I turned back to the way I had come only to see flames licking at the door way. I braced Bella against my chest and pushed on down the passage. The fire was eating up everything in sight. I could no longer distinguish the way back, my previous sense of direction had vanished, I had reached Bella, she had been like a magnet pulling me in, but now I had no idea where to go. We were trapped at the heart of the fire, as the fire forced the buildings structure to collapse around us. I looked down at Bella lying so still in my arms. At least I was with her in the end.

CPOV

No one knew what to do the flames were crawling higher and soon the front windows showed them as well. The building was far too dangerous to be inside. We stood waiting and praying for Edward to return. None of us wanting to give up hope as time ran on. Flames ate up more and more of the hospital. I pulled Esme and my girls into my arms and turned my head away as the roof of the hospital bowed in on its self and flames lashed out of the front door.

EPOV

I knew that the heat was becoming to strong for Isabella. We were moments away from being merged with the ash that lay at our feet, when a wall fell in to our left almost taking us down. Through the flames I saw a sign on a door, a flash of hope sparked within me.

'Basement'

Jumping forward as fast as I could manage whilst dogging flames. I pushed open the door and almost fell down the stairs in an attempt to escape the flames. The basement was full of stacks of boxes and new towels in plastic wrapping. Keeping Bella as still as possible in my arms, I weaved through the storage and drew us up against the back wall. I could hear the fire crackling away above us heat leaked down too us as well as wisps of smoke. At least it was marginally better below though. With nothing left to do, nowhere else to run to I sunk down my back resting against the well and Bella laid in my lap. Even as ill as she was she was so beautiful. The cracking of wood from above us. The building was coming down. The ceiling above cracked as walls fell on it I twisted my body over Bella's as rubble fell down on us. A vast part of the floor above toppled forward until it collided with the floor. I waited for the crush on my back, but it never came. I slowly sat back up, my body braced to protect Bella from any falling rubble. I took in the situation and realised what had happened. What had previously been the ceiling for us was on a hinge and balanced by the floor, creating a triangle between the wall and floor. The fire ranged above us but we were cut off from it trapped in the section between the wall and the floor that had fallen down.

CPOV

The fire roared higher and higher and there was no sign of Edward. We were all desperate for answers. After minutes of waiting we looked to Alice, waiting for her to tell us, what was going to happen...

Her eyes refocused on the fire as she came out of her vision and she whispered, "They're dead. They're both dead."