To Wonder
By: Exic
Well readers, I hope this story is enjoyable. It has taken me a while to decide where to go with this story, but I have figured it out. Please review and I'm so sorry for the wait.
"Bella."
It was a whisper, echoing. All she could see was blackness. Bella's heart raced. She screamed inside the darkness, but it just echoed back to her.
She could feel her arms suspended on either side of her, pulling her muscles as far as they would stretch. Her feet were tied together, and she felt no ground beneath her.
"Bella…" Another whisper. This time several unknown voices uttered her name. She suddenly felt a horrible pain rip through her, and she screamed again. Her voice was going hoarse.
She began to sob. "Please, please, I need light from somewhere! Edward!" she cried.
A tinkling laugh echoed in her dead night, and she heard a familiar voice echo her name, "Bella, Bella, Bella. My Isabella Swan."
She screamed his name, "Aro! Save me, I love you! Save me!" He laughed again.
"Save you!" voices hissed and echoed in her head, mocking her. Suddenly she was blinded by a marvelous light.
She swung her head back and forth, looking at her surroundings as her eyes adjusted blurrily to the bright white of where she was at.
Many people, so many people in white robes stood around her. They almost blended in with the glaring light off the white marble floor and blank walls. There were no corners in the room, so it seemed to be circular. The ceiling was not a ceiling at all, but a huge opening where snow fell from above and a horrible, terrible light that felt cold beat down on her.
All the people were quiet, their heads and hoods down and hands behind their backs. Only one person stood out from the crowd.
"Aro," Bella whispered. Her voice cracked and she felt bloody tears trickle down her cheeks. He was dressed in pure white too, but his hood was down and his black hair flowed down his back. He did not smile at her, but he laughed his laugh throughout. Suddenly he looked so sinister, so horrifying, she could not take her eyes away.
"Bella, I am so glad you are here," he said, his face still frozen, emotionless. "You please us all with your... perfection."
"Perfect, so pure," the voices whispered. She looked around, panicked.
"Why am I here?" she asked, her throat straining to force out the words.
Aro's face tightened up slightly, and his eyes stared blankly over her shoulder. "We need you."
Bella faced him again, but her eyes shifted around the room. "Why?" she asked, and in response his eyes finally met hers, then rose to look at her arms and legs. She finally looked at what she was suspended on, and her heart clenched.
Her entire body hung on a cross. Her arms stretched out to her sides and her feet were bound at the bottom. She could feel the wood rubbing against her back and legs and realized she was naked.
"We have been damned for a very long time, Isabella," she heard a voice say dryly toward her. She looked up to see Marcus step out of the crowd. His face looked old, but wise and elegant. She looked into his eyes and pitch blackness stared back.
"I don't understand," she croaked.
"All forgiveness requires a sacrifice in return," Aro said stiffly, softly. His eyes bored into hers and they cried for her, cried silently.
"By giving you his blood, Aro has made you physically perfect," Marcus told her slowly. "He did this for a reason. It made you admired, loved, because you are so perfect, and it also made you weak to his calling. We did this for a reason."
"You are our sacrifice to God, pitiful child!" she heard a voice growl, and Caius appeared on Aro's other side.
Bella's heart stopped. Her tears stopped. She looked into Aro's eyes and her love grew cold. Her sadness and fear burned to a crisp inside her, and she glared at him. "I had no choice. It must be done," he told her.
She kept glaring. Marcus faced the crowd and spoke to them while Aro's voice entered her mind. 'I love you, Bella,' he told her. 'You must not hate me for this.'
Marcus pointed to a person in the crowd and he was handed a torch. Bella stared into Aro's eyes. Marcus once again spoke to the crowd.
'I would have never forgiven you I lived, had I known your true intentions,' she said to him, her thoughts cold.
'You must forgive me, Bella,' he whispered in her mind. 'I cannot live unless you forgive me.'
Marcus walked to her, and stood behind her. "We give thee our sacred sacrifice, O Lord. Accept her into your sight as our expression of remorse for our damnation and forgive us of our sins."
'I cannot forgive in death,' Bella said back to him. She felt the flames lick her back, and she was suddenly consumed in a cold fire. Her hair rose around her and her rope bindings burned off, yet she remained suspended, glaring at Aro.
In her peripheral vision, she saw all the people in the room look up at her, their shocked expressions repeated throughout the entire space. Aro stared up at her in awe.
"All forgiveness requires a sacrifice in return," she said, and her voice was powerful. "You have no sacrifice to give me, Aro!" Aro dropped to his knees in front of her.
She clapped and fire shot from her hands, incinerating him on the spot. His ashes rose in swirls and were blown out of the top of the building and Bella stared at the crowd in disgust. "Be damned!" she screamed, and disappeared.