Twilight and New Moon belong to Stephenie Meyer.

sniff I'm so happy! You all responded (well, not all, that would have given me a heart attack) and voted on Brendon's fate. Thank you so much! I'll tell you that it was very close! Enjoy!


I ran.

I followed his scent, mixed with that of Laurent's, in a strait path towards him. I propelled myself off the ground in the direction I knew he would be.

As I ran, I realized what I was doing was insane. I was going to try to save the life of the man that had taken my life away. Brendon had kidnapped me, taken me from my family and friends, and then made certain that I could never see them again. I should hate him, totally and completely.

So why did all of that seem insignificant as I thought about what Victoria was going to do to him?

Because he was a friend, because, even though changing me into a vampire was something that was irreversible and unforgivable, had allowed me to spend eternity with Edward. Anything that did that demanded a return favor.

I ran alone as Lilly informed the rest of her family of the situation. I didn't really know what I was going to do. I had no plan in my head, other than to find Brendon and drag him back to the house. If he had reached Laurent and Victoria by then…I would have to wing it at that point.

I reached a clearing and looked around. I knew Brendon had been here, I could still smell him, but his scent seemed to have stopped, it didn't lead anywhere. I twirled around in circles trying to decide where to go next. I couldn't see him, the foliage was too thick. I suddenly heard a crash, like a tree had fallen. I followed the sound, again running through the forest, never growing tired.

I emerged on a large cliff face, the edge dropping down an immeasurable difference. I saw the tree lying on the ground, but there was no one around. Out of no where, Brendon flew through the air and hit the collapsed tree. The tree made a huge cracking sound as it split in half.

"Brendon!" I screamed as I ran over to him. His eyes were filled with fear and shock as he saw me.

"Bella! What are you doing here!?" I stopped halfway to him.

"I'm here to stop you from getting yourself killed!"

"You're a little too late for that." Another voice said.

Laurent walked out of the woods that Brendon had just been thrown from. He had something in his hands, but I couldn't grasp what it was. It seemed too unreal to be true. It didn't sink in until he threw it at me and the object landed at my feet. It was an arm.

Brendon's arm.

I looked in shock over to Brendon as he stood up. Sure enough, the left side of his body was missing an important limb. I couldn't throw up, so I did the next best thing. I fell onto my knees and dry-heaved. When I looked up, the two vampires had again disappeared into the woods. Brendon's arm remained on the ground. I got up and slowly approached it. When I reached the severed limb, I screamed and fell back onto the rocks.

It moved.

The arm was now trying to crawl towards the woods. I sat in horror as the appendage tried in a desperate attempt to reach its host. The fingers were grabbing onto indents in the rock face and pulling it forward. I dry-heaved again.

Closing my eyes, I got up and turned away from the arm. I could still hear it as crawling, so I stumbled into the woods. I caught glimpses of Brendon and Laurent as they fought, moving between the openings between the trees.

It suddenly hit me that there was no noise. The entire wood was completely silent. All I could hear was the gentle sound of Brendon and Laurent's footsteps on the ground, and the crackle of the foliage that the brushed against. No birds were chirping; there were no animals in the surrounding area.

I had heard that when a natural disaster is about to occur, animals have an instinct in them that gives them a forewarning of the event. They somehow know to run before everyone else does. Somehow, the woods saw this coming, this disaster, this clash of the invincible. So now, we were all alone.

They moved with blinding speed, but I saw their attacks with perfect clarity. And it was becoming more and more apparent that Brendon was losing. With only one arm he was at an obvious disadvantage, and Laurent was taking benefit of the fact. He focused attacks on the left side of Brendon's body, so in order to defend, Brendon had to twist around to block with his right, leaving him in an awkward position, or move away from Laurent.

I then realized another sickening truth. Laurent wasn't trying to hurt Brendon. He was trying to move him in a certain direction. He attacked on the left side so that Brendon would move away toward wherever he wanted him to go. Wherever that was couldn't be good.

So instead of joining in the fight, I ran in the direction Laurent seemed to be pushing Brendon. I followed a strait line, not knowing where it led. The trees obscured my vision, and for all I knew I was heading strait into a trap.

When I reached the end of my invisible line, I ended up on another cliff edge much like the first. But two things were different, one good and one bad. One was that there was no arm lying on the ground crawling towards the woods. That was good. The other was that, instead of an arm, Victoria stood in its place, just as terrifying, just as frightening.

Very very bad.

She scared me just as much as she had when I was human. She hadn't noticed me hiding in the tree line yet, but her stance was tense. She stood with her hands at her sides, and they were clenched into fists. No part of her moved except her eyes, they darted around resting on no object for less then a second. She seemed ready to spring at the slightest chance of movement.

Her eyes transfixed me. They were so odd, moving so quickly, never seeming to rest. They were black, of course, but it only added to the mystery of them. Suddenly, they stopped moving. It shocked me, the lack of movement from something that seemed so wild. I didn't even take in what the eyes were looking at for a moment. But when it did, it hit me like a brick. She was staring at me.

There was nothing I could do. I stepped out of the wooded area into the daylight. My skin sparkled like diamonds as I walked towards the deadly vampire in front of me. For one of the first times in my life, I felt strong and beautiful. I felt like a commanding presence. For about a second and a half. Then I realized this was Victoria I was up against, and the happy feelings flew strait out the window.

Victoria only glared at me, her eyes focused on my face.

"Waiting for me?" I tried to ask casually, but my voice was a whisper and it cracked slightly at the end, making the commanding air I had wanted to put out vanished. I waited for her to respond.

"Why would I wait for you?" she asked, and I almost fell over. Her voice was not anything like what I had expected it to be. It was high and musical, almost like a young girl's would be. Her outward appearance was harsh, her hair wild around her, her clothes torn, frayed, and dirty. It was hard to imagine that such a melodious voice came from such a cruel person.

"You and Laurent are looking for me, aren't you?" I asked, confused.

"How do you know Laurent?" she asked, her eyes narrowing. Her voice once again wanted to make me run away. It was disturbing.

"He was in your coven. You know, with James." Something wasn't fitting together.

"So? What is your point?"

"You tried to kill me…and you're after me again…aren't you?" her eyes narrowed even further this time, then suddenly grew very wide. Her mouth opened slightly, and a few words managed to escape her lips. She sounded like some one had knocked all the air out of her.

"You're her…but…no…this wasn't supposed to happen…"

But whatever the point she was about to was interrupted by Brendon. He came flying out of the tree line, to land rolling across the rocky cliff. Laurent walked out onto the rocks and didn't acknowledge either Victoria or my presence. Brendon used his one arm to hoist himself back onto his feet. His clothing was torn, and a large gash ran down his face. It wasn't bleeding, and the skin seemed to be reattaching itself together. I was reminded of the arm, crawling towards the woods, trying to get to its host.

Laurent didn't seem to be quite as bad, but I noticed he favored his left leg as he walked. Neither of the vampires were breathing heavily, and both seemed very calm. Victoria's voice broke the sudden silence.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?"

Many things then seemed to happen at once. First, Laurent turned his head and looked over to Victoria as she spoke. Brendon, seeing Laurent's distraction, crouched down and launched himself forward. Victoria, seeing this all unfolding, also propelled herself forward at almost the exact same time. She roughly shoved Laurent to the ground and planted herself firmly in his place. Brendon's momentum would not let him stop, so he kept continued full tilt at Victoria.

When they collided, she grabbed his good arm, pulled him forward even harder, and tripped him. He lost balance, and Victoria took the opportunity to grab a fistful of his hair. The she pulled, hard.

I'm not sure exactly what happened next. I don't remember it very clearly. I think some one screamed, whether it was me or Brendon I'll never be sure. I know that after that scream, I fell onto my knees and dry-heaved. The scene kept running through my head, over and over again. In one quick movement, she had beheaded him. I'm pretty sure I dry-heaved again.

It was only when Victoria started walking toward the cliff edge that I looked up. Before I could move to stop her, she had launched his body and his severed head over the edge. I watched as his body fell. I couldn't look at his head.

I had stood there the whole time like a deer in the headlights. I just stared at the edge for what seemed like forever trying to comprehend what had just happened. In my peripheral vision I saw Laurent stand up. He and Victoria began whispering to each other, and then Laurent pointed to me. And all I could do was kneel there.

"You…you threw him off the cliff…you just threw him…"I mumbled to them. Then it hit me.

Brendon was dead. Brendon was not going to come back. Brendon was gone.

Forever.


Final Poll - total of 50 votes, live had 21, die had 29. It was oh so close. Live was actually ahead for a while, and I wrote out the chapter as such, but then it changed and I had to go back and rewrite it.

Speaking of numbers, if 50 of you voted, why don't I usually get 50 reviews? Hmmmm? Guilt trip! Seriously, please review!