I screamed like I had never screamed before. As the monster came into the moonlit meadow it stood on its hind legs, the fur on its body looked like it was melting off. The creature shrank and became the size of a man, its features morphing to fit that of a person. It was still crouched on the ground after the metamorphosis was complete.
When It stood, it was wearing nothing but torn pants, his skin was pale like a vampires, his chest was broad and muscular, his arms were strong, he had thick legs with cords of muscle bulging out of his legs, muscle built up from lots of running.
I let out another loud scream as it came closer to me.
"What the hell are you? Are you a werewolf? Get away from me!" I yelled. I glanced over to Victoria; she looked as shocked as I was by the transformation.
The creature looked pained, its hand extended to touch me. "I am nothing. I am empty. No longer human, not a vampire, not a werewolf, I am a creature of hell." He said. He had a strange accent.
"I've been waiting for this moment for 481 years. I'm back Isabella." He said looking at me again, stepping forward.
"I don't know you. Who the hell are you? How do you know my name?" All of this was rather shocking. This thing had gone from monster in the shadows to human in five seconds, now it was calling me by my proper name. What was it going to do next? Start tap dancing?
"Don't you recognize me Isabella? It's me, Alessandro. Alessandro Di Medici. We met at the funeral of King Francis I, you were escort to his niece, Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre. Do you not remember, my love?" Alessandro said, introducing himself.
"My love? What? I've never even seen you before!" The name Francis I sounded familiar. I dug around in my memory, back to world history. King Francis I, King of France…he died in like, 1500 something.
"I wasn't around in the1500's. I was born in the 80's! You've got the wrong person." What was going on here?
"Isabella, my love, do you not remember? The night we met by the fountain, the moon, a witness to our first kiss. Your hair fell down your back in beautiful waves that gleamed in the moonlight, your eyes lit up as are lips parted, they were like pools of sweet honey." He closed his eyes as if to remember the moment, he was definitely a love sick puppy. "Then Eduardo stepped into the light, telling you my secret, the secret I was going to tell you, that you were in love with a vampire. I want you to know that I tore Eduardo apart for what he did to you; I have never forgiven myself for what happened that night. 400 years of wallowing in heartache." Alessandro lifted his hand to stroke my bruised cheek, his icy fingers felt good on my skin, and the chill sent shivers down my spine.
"What happened?" I asked, what had this girl been through?
"Eduardo drank your blood. He murdered you, my sweet. I have never forgiven myself for allowing that to happen, I died the moment you let go of life in my arms. I sold myself to Lucifer; he promised that I would be with you again once I served him for 1,000 lifetimes. But now I have you here, and I'm ready to die now that I have you."
Oh, no. Isabella, that's not me, died 400 years ago, but he thinks I'm her. This could be bad, very bad.
"I've waited so long to say this to your face, Isabella, I love you." He leaned forward, pressing his mouth to mine. His kiss was so passionate that I couldn't have stopped him if I tried; my hands were literally tied behind my back. He thought that I was his lover, so I played the part, as long as it kept me alive a little bit longer.
Alessandro parted as there was a sound of chains hitting the ground; Victoria had slipped through her bonds. She attacked Alessandro with such force he was knocked backwards onto his back. She was on top of him, scratching his eyes, his face, punching him, kicking him. I screamed in horror, he wasn't fighting back; he was lying there taking every blow Victoria dealt him.
"Fight her Alessandro! Fight back!" My voice was horse as I screamed, tears running down my face. And no matter how much I yelled he never moved to block a hit, never flinched as Victoria's nails dug into his face, not once. I closed my eyes to the horrors.
When I opened them again, I saw Victoria heading straight for me, looking over her shoulder, I could see that Alessandro was gone. She kept coming to me, shoulders and hands shaking with rage. This was it, I thought. I was going to die in our meadow. I thought for a second, once decided, I took a deep breath for one last scream; I was going to make it count.
"I love you Edward!" my words echoing into the forest, bouncing this way and that on the trees thick trunks until they faded into nothingness. I had said all I needed to say. So now, I waited for my imminent doom, promising that I wasn't going to say another word utter another sound, I was going to die quietly.
Victoria circled me a few times then lunged to kick me in the knee, making my legs buckle and lowering me to the ground a bit. I quickly got up so my arms wouldn't be dislocated because they were still tied to the post. I unclenched my teeth and waited for the next blow, I still hadn't screamed.
"Are you trying to act tough? Well lets see just how much little Isabella can handle before she begs for death." Victoria stuck her nails deep into my thigh twisted her hand around and down about four inches from my knee then let go. Tears ran down my pain twisted face, they were the only notion to the fact that I was hurting.
"Alright, this little "die silently" thing is starting to piss me off. I'm going to make you scream one way or the other, you are going to scream."
My only response was shaking my head "no". This simple gesture of defiance sent Victoria into a deadly rage. She began to punch, slap, kick, and claw every part of my body she could get at. I forced my eyes open for a moment to see a blur ram into Victoria, sending her flying. More blurs entered the meadow, but I never got a good look at them. I had to close my eyes against the pain, moving my head to the side to vomit, once again.
I could hear growling, roaring, sometimes it sounded like there was a rockslide happening right next to me. Then there was silence. It felt like my bonds were cut and I was falling into nothingness until I hit something hard, the ground maybe?
There were muffled voices all around me, they were angelically beautiful, the angels were calling to me, beckoning me closer to their open arms. One voice stood out above the rest, it was kind and gentle, and he told me that he was my Guardian Angel. "My Guardian Angel? I'm coming!" I yelled back, reaching my hand out to hold his so he could guide me to where I was supposed to go.
His hand was smooth, and cool. He was tall and pale with auburn hair, something was familiar about him, was it his eyes? They were like the color of light honey.
"Come on Isabella, I'm bringing you Heaven." His voice nice and comforting.
"Okay. I'll follow you angel."
He still had a hold of my hand, while we were falling down through warm, crystal-clear water. I looked around in the water, pictures and scenes from my life were playing out on the water. When I was almost ran over by Tyler's van, packing to leave for Forks for the first time, my parents' wedding picture, the first time I went over to Edward's house, the last time Edward's lips were on mine. The moments of my life that mattered to me.
Then my Angel led me through a waterfall, I realized we had actually fallen up. My angel and I walked through some trees and stepped into mine and Edward's meadow. The sun was shining, birds singing, the wildflowers blowing in the wind. A man in a white shirt and pants had his back turned to me, looking into the distance.
"Here, I have brought you Heaven." My angel whispered in my ear, I turned to find him, but he was already gone. I turned to the man in the meadow, "Hello?"
The man turned to face me, I gasped as I saw that it was Edward. He looked different, he wasn't as pale and his eyes were beautiful green. He…he was human.
"Edward? How did you get here? Please don't tell me that Victoria got you too." Tears were streaming down my face. Edward ran to meet me, his arms in a protective hold on my shaking frame.
"Shhh. It's okay Bella; it's going to be okay." Edward said pressing his lips to my hair, comforting me.
I turned to stare at him; he was as beautiful as he had always been as a vampire. I looked at him, remembering his face. The frown lines on his forehead, the cuteness of that crooked smile I loved so much. "You're human." I pointed out.
He laughed out loud, a happy sound. "Yep, pretty cool, huh? I can stay with you forever, come on lets go." He pulled me to the trees, still chuckling.
"Wait, this is Heaven, you can't just leave." Edward's behavior was confusing me.
"The angel told you that he had brought you Heaven. Well, he was talking to me. Lets leave now, I need you back home."
I still held onto his hand, and we were under the water once more. Going up, up. And with such sudden force and shock, my head broke through the surface, I looked around me, there was no water, just a sea of wild flowers in the meadow, the moon lighting the place. But my eyes soon found Edward's. My whole body thrashed with pain. I screamed as someone put pressure to my leg and shoulder. I tore my gaze from Edward's to look up and see Emmett, holding me down, a towel pressed to my shoulder. It looked like he wasn't breathing.
I looked down to my leg and saw Carlisle pressing a towel to my thigh. Looking back at Edward, I could see he wasn't breathing either, but his body was shaking with sobs.
"Oh, Bella, I thought I had lost you." He looked up to the stars, "Thank you Jesus."
I saw a flicker of orange behind him, "Was' that?" I slurred, my face very swollen.
"Alice and Jasper are taking care of Victoria. Don't worry about it, I need you to focus on getting better." His voice was tense at Victoria's name.
I realized why Jasper and Alice were so far away, Jasper was the "newest" edition to the Cullen's and was the most weak when it came to being around blood.
"I'm tired." I moaned, Carlisle was poking my leg.
Edward glanced at Carlisle for a moment, nodded once then turned back to me. "That's okay, honey. You can go to sleep now, I'll be right here."
"Mmmm." I closed my eyes. "Where's Alessandro?" I asked.
"Who the hell is she talking about? Dad, how much morphine did you give her?" Emmett asked.
"We'll ask questions later. She needs sleep, I need to stitch her up, and you need to hold that towel to her shoulder. We all have jobs to do Emmett, the least you could do, is do yours in silence, I need to concentrate." Carlisle said in an even tone.
I drifted into La, la land, while Edward held me close.