*Hey guys! Sorry it's been so long! With the world so crazy I was MIA but I'm back!*
The world was spinning. Fast.
Gravity pulled at me, holding me to the floor as if I were filled with cement. My face sending throbbing strums of pain only to collide with the sharp stabbing sensation coming from my ribs.
I took in a breath...or I thought I did. The breath felt empty, like filling a balloon with a hole in it. I tried to take another, this time sputtering a mixture of blood and spit.
I managed to crack open my swollen eyes, only to see a blurry mix of pale faces, their hair colors and shapes all running together as if they were made out of watercolor. The corners of my mouth pulled up a bit, finding the blend of people a bit funny. But that hurt too, so I stopped.
I was exhausted and my hearing was muffled, everything dull but a high pitches ringing which wouldn't stop.
"Jasper, hold him over there. Edward, go outside, guard the door." I heard who I thought sounded like Carlisle's voice say sharply. Far too sharp to be the golden vampire. I had no idea who Jasper was and I immediately realized I did not hear someone's name mentioned.
Aro.
Immediately I squeezed together my stomach muscles, trying to sit myself up, but gravity wouldn't let me and what felt like a dozen swords going through my side shot a new kind of pain up my torso.
I felt two strong hard, cold, hands hold me down. Was it Carlisle? Was it Vladimir? Did I care anymore? I was tired and I was in pain and everything was spinning. What did it matter anymore?
"Her ribs were shattered and her right lung has been punctured." The voice that sounded like Carlisle said.
I should have been surprised, upset, worried, but I wasn't. Instead I felt nothing but the same beating of swollen wounds in and against my body. I wondered when I would fall asleep and these voices would leave me alone.
"You have to do it now." A new voice said. A magically beautiful voice. It was more desperate than I was used to, sad, broken, but still beautiful. Like an angel.
"Aro, you can do it. You have more than enough control." Carlisle's voice said, urgent.
"No, Carlisle." The angel's voice sang again "I do not want to hold that kind of position in her life. She thinks of you like a father. Please do it now." Aro pleaded, closer now. He smelled like a calming mixture of spices and leaves. Then he laid an elegant hand in my hairline. I winced back but only for a moment. His cool hand easing some of my pain.
But a new pain had started. An excruciating pain that suddenly made all the others disappear. Tears started selling up and flowing from my eyes and I wanted to scream.
Why weren't they helping me?
I was clearly on fire.
Why wouldn't they put it out?
Immediately I remembered the fires on the field where they were burning fallen vampires and panic set in.
They thought I was dead.
They had thrown me in the fire because they thought I had died.
I tried to move, but I couldn't. I couldn't show them I was alive. That they needed to pull me out.
I began to sob.
There was nothing I could do but let the flames swallow me whole. I could feel the fire burning me, consuming me. But that was when I heard a voice.
"Annabelle, I know you are in great pain, dear one." The voice of Aro said.
I wasn't sure if I was imagining him or if he were truly speaking.
"But you will come out of this pain and you will be beyond anything anyone could have imagine. And I will not leave your side until you do."
Better than I could have imagined? Like an angel? Maybe I would be going to heaven after all. But knowing Aro's voice, real or not would be with me until it was over, was a comfort in and of itself.
Just as I thought I could handle the flames, someone even hotter ones would emerge, burning me, scorching every vein and eliminating every organ in its path.
I could no longer focus on the voice, though I could hear the vibrations telling me it was there. I could no longer focus on where the fire was, as it had taken over completely, drowning me with burning licks of flame.
I had lost track of time completely but I knew there was no way I couldn't have been dead already. The voice was all but gone and there was no way I hadn't been consumed by the fire yet.
But my heart...it was beating. It wasn't until it started beating so fast that I realized something was wrong. It was going to explode! It moved so fast I thought it was going to erupt; scattering pieces of me around the field.
But then...it stopped.
All of it.
My heart, the pain, the fire.
It was over.
I was dead.
I laid there still for a moment but the fact that I could think threw me off. Was I supposed to open my eyes? Another moment of stillness went by before I decided that I would need to. Perhaps people in heaven got to wake up.
And so I finally opened them and a blinding amount of light came blaring at me, causing me to snap them shut again. I opened them once more, this time knowing what to expect, and managed to sit up, only to see a gorgeous face.
It was Aro...but he was even more spectacular. I blinked a few times, but he did not change or leave. Instead I could see him as if he was under a microscope. Every piece of hair could be told apart, every clerk of red in his eye could be dissected. Every perfect feature fully clear.
I opened my mouth to ask him if he had died too, the feeling of tears in my eyes at the thought but instead, the fire came back, shooting down my throat like a power sander had been shoved down it.
"I know." Aro's voice said, happier than I had ever heard him, clearer than I had heard anything before. "We will make sure your throat feels better in a moment, loved one. But first allow me to look at you. You are the most glorious vampire I have ever seen." He said, taking me into his arms with a force that should have snapped me in half...but it didn't hurt at all.
