Disclaimer: I do not own twilight or any of its characters.
The room erupted with hisses and growls – something I had never experienced before. My family was always so... controlled. They rarely let their animalistic instincts emerge. I wondered if they had even realised that they all turned to their mates protectively. My body ached to be with Sara. I wanted to crouch over her, never let her out of my sight for however long it takes. I wanted to fight for her, and I would fight to my death if it meant the preservation of hers. But I needed to stay here. I needed to know. I needed to know what was going on.
"Why?" Bella practically cried. "Why do they have to bother us?"
"It appears as though we have made quiet a large impression on them." Carlisle sighed, rubbing his face. A very human characteristic. "They feel as though they have to keep us in check."
"Because we're a threat." Jasper added.
"But they already checked up on Renesmee and the twins. They know that don't pose a threat!" Rosalie said, anger boiling in her voice.
"Not of exposure, Rose. We're a threat to their power." Jasper added. "We have been ever since we rallied an army to fight them."
"That was not the intention..." Carlisle justified.
"I know that Carlisle, but do you really think that they believe that?"
Esme whimpered, unable to hide her emotions.
"Alice," Emmett asked. "How many are they sending? Last time they only sent a handful."
"I see Demitri, of course, Felix and Santiago. The strongest of the guard. They are not sending Jane or Alec, seeing as they're useless against us and would be no help. It's just a check up – nothing to worry about." She seemed relaxed when she said their names.
"There's no need to worry then. The twelve of us could easily take them... I mean – if a fight were to break out." Emmett declared.
"But..." Alice's eyes suddenly shifted to meet mine, and then fell back to Carlisle's. "If Sara is still human they will see it as a breach of the rules and..."
"... send for back up!" Edward said frankly.
"That's one way to put it..." Alice said.
"Well that's simple then." Rosalie said. "We change her – there's nothing they can do then! There will be no-one there to read our minds. They will not know that she knew our secret. For all they know she'll just be a newborn that we found and invited into our family."
Carlisle's moaned slightly.
"There's no need to worry about her age Carlisle! We've encountered vampires younger than seventeen. And she'll have all of us here to help her. We won't let any mistakes happen!" Rosalie continued.
It upset me slightly to hear her discussing Sara's effective death as though it was irrelevant.
"When are they coming?" Carlisle asked Alice calmly, but looking as though he was considering something.
"A week. They'll be here next Thursday."
"We'll have to do it soon then." He continued. "Toby?" He asked, searching for my approval.
I was speechless. I hadn't prepared myself for this. The moral issues behind it – behind taking her life.
"You wouldn't be taking her life, Toby. You'd be saving it." Edward said strongly.
"Slight change of heart there Eddie." Emmett said very quietly.
"They will kill her, Toby. If she is still human." Bella's brow creased as she let down her shield. "We do not offer second chances." Those words were playing on repeat through Bella's mind. The voice wasn't clear. It was as though it was said underwater. Bella had heard this while she was human.
"We'll tell Sara in the morning." I said, nodding. I felt so guilty that I had made this decision while she was sleeping.
"That's reasonable, Toby." Carlisle said. "This can wait at least that long."
With it cleared up, I ran up the stairs to Joy's room where Sara was sleeping. Her face was not the relaxed, peaceful one that I had left all those minutes ago. I ran to her side and stroked her face, hoping it would calm her dreams.
Down the hall, I could hear my parents stirring suggesting that the sun would start to rise momentarily, bringing with it the day that Sara's life, as she knows it, would end.
***
Carlisle had explained to Sara what had happened during the night. She sat surrounded by my family, each of them offering her support. Esme and Alice both held her hands and Jasper stood behind her, calming her emotions. I sat on the sofa opposite her, never taking my eyes off hers.
She sat and listened so patiently, her heartbeat hardly rising in response to Carlisle's words. Though I'm sure Jasper had a helping hand in that.
She had responded in much the same way as Rosalie – begging to be changed immediately.
"Isn't there anything you want to do, Sara? Before you are changed?" Esme had asked.
Sara had responded in such a way that made me love her even more, always so accepting. "Pancakes." She laughed. "They're my favourite."
Esme smiled, lovingly and kissed Sara on the cheek before rushing to the kitchen. "Jacob, would you help me?" She had said quietly as they went to cook Sara her last meal.
The sound of a flock of birds fleeting the area brought me back to the present. I was about fifteen miles away from home, in a forest near the Canadian Border. I was a coward. I had let everyone down. I had let my Sara down.
Edward had persuaded me to stay for the transformation, saying that Sara would – at some point – be aware of my presence.
Sara was placed in a comfortable bed that Esme and Alice had bought that day, in Carlisle's room. Carlisle had put her under sudation and had injected high levels of morphine into her. So much so that it overpowered the scent of Sara's blood. We had waited over twenty minutes before he injected her with his venom – getting the idea from Edward. I cringed at this sight, but nothing appeared to happen. There were no screams. She wasn't moving, but I could hear the sudden acceleration of her heartbeat and could feel the drastic rise of her temperature. With that I too felt completely sudated. Unable to move. Unable to feel.
But after eight hours everything changed, and nothing could prepare me for what happened, even though I had seen this in visions.
Sara's body suddenly tensed and her chest arched so much that it rose from the bed. As it fell back down a piercing scream shredded through the air. I felt as though my dead heart would burst out of my chest.
"Carlisle!" I screamed, even though there was no doubt that he had heard. Carlisle, Jasper, Alice and Edward were in the room before the second was over.
"She's come out of sudation." Carlisle had said instantly.
Another scream.
And another.
"Toby –" Jasper said, taking my arm in an attempt to calm me.
Another.
I couldn't cope. I pulled my arm away from Jasper. Anxiety building up within me, taking control over ever muscle in my body. I had to run. I had to get out. I could not listen to this anymore.
Jasper held on tightly to my arms. "Emmett!" He had called, although it had felt as though he was a million miles away. I was absorbed in Sara's thoughs. Burning. Burning. BURNING. I screamed in synchronisation with her.
"Jasper! His anxiety is not directed at us. He's not angry with us. He doesn't mean us any harm. He just needs to go!" Edwards voice, always the voice of reason.
Emmett appeared at the door. "What the hell is going on?"
I once again pulled my arms free of Jasper's grip, so hard that I almost pulled them from their sockets.
Emmett, seeing this and not understanding what was going on, leaped in the air and tackled me to the ground. His arms in a much tighter grip that I could not escape from.
"Emmett! Let him go." Carlisle said calmly. "Don't you see how hard this is for him."
Emmett stopped, looked at Sara and was instantly by her side. "Is she ok? What's happening?" Of course, he had not seen this either. "Bella's was... was different."
He started to think about his own transformation -something he had not done in a long time - and then he cringed at another of Sara's screams, but I was already gone by the time he had time to turn to face me again. I ran through the rest of my family who had gathered in the hall way, each of them reaching out to touch my arm as I passed them.
And here I was, sitting by myself on a hard, cold, stone rock that was so similar to myself, as I had been for the last twenty eight hours. In doing so I had once again sudated myself. Unmoving. Too scared to go home. I was grateful to my family for not coming to find me, although it would be easy enough to follow my scent. I was so selfish. I was not the one who was going through this pain – nor had I. Maybe that was why I was so scared by it. I had not experienced this before. I should be there for Sara, to hold her hand, to tell her that she's ok and that I love her. The sound of galloping footsteps and an all too familiar scent approaching did nothing but supported this thought.