Italians Do It Better


I returned to a dim parody of consciousness, every sensation nothing but pain for me.

The rush of cold air over my skin.

The ripping and tearing inside of me.

The noises slicing into my brain.

The harsh light searing my eyes.

"Demetri, hurry. The placenta may have detached!" a voice called.

I knew what that meant. My twins would die within me.

"Get them out. NOW!" I cried out, screaming from the pain of feeling my body torn apart, with blunt, molten knives of steel.

And then a new pain was added to the old, and I arched, before there came a snapping noise, and I slumped, my legs inanimate.

Hot liquid gushed over my body, bubbling up in my mouth, spilling over my lips, as I struggled not to choke, fighting to remain awake, not to slip down into the inviting darkness.

"Her spine's broken. She can't feel anything, just do it!" I heard someone shout angrily, and then a slicing pain reverberated through my entire body. "Felix, hold her!"

Hard, cold arms held my shoulders and chest, as I felt my body go numb.

Reality and death blurred together as one.

And then-

"Bella?"

That voice, it was so lovely, quiet and authoritative. It gave me strength, to focus through the pain, as I opened my eyes. I couldn't feel, or see properly, but I could hear, and that voice needed me to open my eyes.

"Bella, stay with me," that voice called to me, as if from a distance, before it left me. "Demetri hurry! Her heartbeat is weakening!"

"Hold on, Bells," another voice said. Dad? Felix?

I couldn't be sure anymore.

I slipped back into blackness, tiny spots of darkness blotting my hazy vision, as I began to succumb to the lethargy filling every atom of my being.

"Bella?" that beautiful voice again, as I levered my lids up, my breathing shallow and harsh. Suddenly everything was clear.

Aro stood there, covered in blood, two small shapes in his arms, as he leant down.

I raised my arms. "Please, let me…."

They were brought as close to me as possible, their warmth pressing against my arm. Their moist skin was scorching- as hot as a werewolf's. As hot as Jacob's.

Suddenly my vision had never been so perfect.

I raised one trembling hand, and laid it on their heads.


"Alicia….Ed….."

My son and daughter did not cry, but looked at me with eyes shining with intelligence, breathing shallowly, their twin expressions ones of shock.

Alicia's face was a perfect heart-shape, tapering to an oval chin, angelic, mesmerising. Her long black hair hung in matted curls around her shoulders, bloody and sweaty, her skin, beneath the blood, a pale ivory yet with the blush of human blood in her cheeks. She looked at me curiously through eyes of the deepest brown, chocolate, mine and Charlie's eyes. She was beautiful.

Charles Eduardo was a mix of me and Aro, with my brunette hair in deep, luscious waves that yet hung limp against his forehead, his skin a deeper shade of beige, warm and silky as he pressed his face to my cheek, his mouth smiling to reveal rows of perfect white teeth. But his eyes….his eyes were omniscient pools of shimmering silver, haunting and lovely. Aro's human eyes.

My children.

They were even more beautiful than their father, or their namesakes. Something I'd thought impossible.

"So…beautiful. Alicia….Ed…" I could only speak in gasps. They both smiled at me this time, as their father leant in.

"You were so strong, Bella. I'm proud of you," he murmured, before his lips brushed my sweaty, bloody forehead. "Heidi, Jane come here quickly. Watch over the twins; protect them with your immortal lives. Demetri, Felix accompany them,"

My children were taken from me.


What! No!

But I slumped back, my anchor to reality gone, before a cold hand returned to my skin.

"Soon, it'll all be over, dearest Bella. Immortality awaits," he whispered, before a new pain, nothing to the agony still sweeping through my nerves, shredded my skin. Weakness took me, as I felt what was left of my life drain from me. Then it stopped abruptly, to be replaced by agony so fiery, it consumed everything.

"Soon, Isabella, we will have eternity," he whispered in my ear, as I convulsed, that pain I had felt once before coursing through every cell.

It was too hot, I was burning, I was on fire, from my heart, to the very tips of my hands and feet.

Agony.

My world was one of waiting. Waiting for the pain to cease, waiting for the dawn to break. For my eternity to begin.

The flames burnt, so I could only be a charred remnant of a human being.

Still I waited, determined not to make a sound.

Consciousness and self-possession returned in trickles, although the pain did not abate, my heart thundering laboriously.

I became aware of sounds and smells, of gentle light that penetrated my closed eyelids.

Of a warm hand soothing the pain minutely.

Of a melodic voice distracting me from the pain.

Still I waited for the flames to die.

Hours. Days. Years. Centuries.

Any and all of these could have passed and I wouldn't have known anything about it. I writhed in the flames.

The pain receded from my toes first, trickling back from my fingers. My head cleared.

I could hear only four heartbeats close by. Two were as fast and light as a hummingbird's, whilst the other was slower, more laborious, indicative of blood being forced through tiny veins.

The last was slowing.

Suddenly the fire shot back to my heart, and I burned in agony fiercer than before. My heart became a supernova of pain and flame, as I arched, tensing my jaw against the screams that longed to be set free.

Thump…..thump…..thump…..thummmmp…thummmmmmp…thummmmppp…..

Then nothing.


The fire burnt away, and nothing remained.

Then I opened my eyes.