The animals break out their cages

Now chaos is raining down around us

But here we stand with our arms folded

Do you wanna be free of this?

Chapter 5: Second Hand News

Liam POV:

"Have we tried the East coast yet? I mean it's something the Volturi would do right? Set up camp right underneath our noses."

"Yes! We've fucking checked everywhere Colt!" I was beyond frustrated at this point. Three months. That's 25 percent of a year. I have failed my best friend, my partner in crime. I'm failing Bella every day.

"You need to stay calm Liam."

"You've been telling me that for three months Colt! How the fuck am I supposed to keep calm when-?" My cell phone ringing interrupted my angry rant. I composed myself slightly, not wanting to scream at the poor soul who decided to call me at that moment. "Jackson speaking."

"Well hello 173953." My body went rigid at that voice. That cold hearted, sadistic, torturing voice of Aro.

"How did you get this number?" Colt looked up at me concerned, my voice was full of tension.

"Really? Of all the questions to ask, you ask that one?" I did my best to keep calm as he taunted me, all the while grabbing a pen and paper to write with. Track who is calling my phone. NOW. Colt nodded and quietly took the note to the tech team.

"Where is she? Where is Bella?"

"Oh she's free. Or she will be very soon."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"Do you want the full rundown of my diabolical plan? Can your brain keep up?" I grit my teeth, I refuse to be baited. I need to keep him on the phone as long as I possibly can.

"Yes."

"Well where should I start? You see I've been planning for so long, it's hard to remember where to begin." Just keep him talking Liam, don't get mad. He knows where Bella is. This is for her, not you. "I guess it all started when you two geniuses escaped. I was furious at first of course, but then I realized, this was my chance to perfect something. We weren't prepared for the success of your transformations. But now we had time to think. We couldn't control you, that was option one. We couldn't kill you, that was option two. So now we had to find an option three."

"And what would that be?" His confidence was making me worry.

"Chaos. Unleash complete and total chaos."

"How do you plan on doing that?" Keep him on the line. His cockiness would be his downfall.

"Oh I have done it. I just finished my plan a few minutes ago." I waited for him to continue, not interrupting this time. "You see, I knew 173952 would be a hard one to crack. But everyone has a weakness. And hers happened to come in a small package, and it came with the ability to see everyone's future but her own mate's." Oh my god. Alice.

I ran down the hall, my phone still pressed firmly against my ear. Please not Alice. I burst into the lounge room and everyone looked up at me with shocked expressions.

"Alice! ALICE?" I scanned the room frantically, my panic rising fast.

"Yes? What's wrong Liam?" That beautiful little vampire was right behind me, perfectly unscathed.

"Did you really think I could get past your security a second time? You need to use your head some more."

"Liam what's wrong? Is everything alright?"

"She was strong, cunning. There was no way I could fool her in her right mind. No, of course not. I had to weaken her. And not just physically, mentally too. That was the hard part of my plan. It took weeks, months to shatter her. But I prevailed. I always do."

"Who are you talking to?" Alice was still asking me questions, concerned about how I'm sure I looked. I ignored her, my stomach was churning at what Aro was saying.

"After several drugs, and an abundance of venom, the time had come. I found the lucky candidate. Short, small stature, not a perfect match no. But good enough. Once she was turned, all I had to do was tell her she would be safe if she kept her mouth shut. It was a lie, obviously." My heart was plummeting, what did he do? "I wish you could have seen her face. How she begged, pleaded. But I took it all from her. It was priceless." Colt came running in with a sheet of paper. Two more minutes. Keep talking.

"Wha-what did you do?" Tears had filled my eyes as I was slowly realizing his meaning. Everyone was watching me, but I didn't care.

"I gave her the push she needed. And by now she should be free of her cell, free of all emotions. Such a beautiful thing isn't it? The humanity switch?"

"Where are you? Where is she?" My body shook, hoping against hope that this was some sick lie or joke he was playing on me.

"I couldn't tell you where she is. But I'm sure the body trail will lead you to her. As for me, I'll be sitting back, watching the world burn." I heard crunching and the line went dead. He destroyed the phone.

"Fuck." Colt said, listening to his earpiece. "We narrowed it down to somewhere near Russia but the signal was on the move. Who was it?"

The room was staring at me, expecting an answer. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think. If what he said as right, then everything had changed.

"Liam? What's wrong?" Alice had come up to me, holding my hand.

"Bella." Her eyes went wide with my one word.

"Bella? Was that Bella on the phone? Did she escape?" A bit of hope crossed her face, something I hadn't seen in months.

"No. No that was Aro." Silence greeted that. "I-I think. Alice I think he made her turn off her humanity."

"What?" She had the same look that I did, terror. "Why-why do you think that?"

"Because he told me she did. He-he said he weakened her. And led her to believe-to believe that…" I couldn't finish, not with Alice right there in front of me.

"To believe what?" I think she knew, but she wanted to hear it.

"To believe that they killed you."

A/N: Short chapter. I know. But I'm writing the next already. It just felt like a good breaking point. Another side note: I don't know if anyone has the app and has updated recently, but the text to speech aspect is super cool. Yeah it definitely needs work, but it's a really cool step in an awesome direction.