Wedding preparations were not any different from what one would expect. As Jasper handed her off to a horde of servants, Bella couldn't shake a feeling of disappointment. She had been looking forward to more time with him.

The servants brought her to a room located somewhere within the labyrinth. Bella would be damned if she knew where the hell she was.

The rebel's mouth almost unhinged itself. Here was a room that was made solely for the purpose of preparing a bride. A wall full of white fabric hung from one wall. Cascading in luminous waves were numerous types of fabric; satin, lace, cotton and ones that Bella couldn't name. In the middle of the room was a podium with a dress on it.

Her dress.

Dwelling on this made it only all too real.

How many brides did these vampyres go through? Hundreds? Thousands? This was a factory. Bella's arms crossed over her chest. She wasn't ready for this. No.

"Miss, it's time for your bath."

Numbly, Bella let them lead her to an adjoining room. The luxury of the room was uncalled for. Bella had always been quite a minimalist, but seeing these rooms made her crave understated elegance. There simply was no way that someone could live in a place like this and be happy. Not that that was ever the point.

"How many times does this room get used?" Bella's arms were being gently massaged, and immediately she found her body relaxing.

"Depends on the king. Sometimes, once every seventy to one-hundred years; others, once every couple weeks."

The servant who answered had a calm voice, reminding Bella of the soft waters of a lake.

"Can't they just change them into vamps?" asked Bella, already fearing the doom that would be hers.

"No one has been deemed worthy to stay one of us." The lake had shards in its icy depths.

The silence that followed was a valiant effort for Bella to keep her mouth shut. She successfully kept her mouth shut, but her body tensed for a fight. This action alone was words enough. No one spoke a word.

They lifted her out of the tub, dressing her with towels. The remnants of the poison were ever too clear.

"What are those marks on your legs, Miss?"

Bella lifted her chin. There was no way that she was going to admit that she sustained this while laying on a bed, helpless .

"Life is unfair when fighting. I was on the lucky side."

The chorus of voices that met this remark almost knocked Bella off her feet.

"You fought in the war?"

"They let you?"

"Where did you learn to fight?"

"Did you handle guns?"

Their eyes were wide.

Bella was nothing if not surprised as well. How long had these vampyres been vampires? There had only been about five years of the war. Before the war, there were only about a couple thousand vampyres. There was no way that they had not been alive before this all started. Unless they were turned during.

"Stop it, everyone." The calm voice finally finished inspecting Bella's legs. It was obvious that she was the one who called the shots. Obediently, everyone shut up, including Bella.

"The marks seem to be healing. We will cover them with tights, but the Sultan will be notified were not mentioned in your medical records."

Bella tensed at the sound of "I'm gonna tell on you", but didn't say a word. That would make it sound too suspicious, and the last thing she wanted to do was expose Carlisle. Why did she even care? Carlisle was a vampyre. Gah. A promise was still a promise no matter what it was given for. Or who, for that matter.

Bella was too busy worrying about this that she didn't pay attention as they dressed her. Their touches were like butterfly wings brushing against bark. It was only when the calm lake told her to step towards a large mirror to the right that Bella finally understood the magnitude of her situation.

As soon as she saw herself, thoughts of being princess on her wedding day flew out of her mind. It was a simple thing. Satin gently rolled from her waist and then crept up her chest. Just under the collarbone, the satin gave way to lace which covered her arms. A small collar-like thing protruded into the back of her neck. Somehow, out of all the things the dress could emphasise, it seemed to center around her neck.

The vampyres never did anything without intent. This wedding dress was only there to brand her. Bella dreaded of what happened at the actual wedding. The neck was so vulnerable that she had felt the need to hide it.

"You look..." The calm voice seemed at a loss for words."..delectable, I mean, perfect."

The predator did not even bother to hide itself in her words.

Then Bella saw the shoes. They were as white as the rest of the ensemble, and very high heeled. They were trying to compensate for her height.

"There's no way I'm going to be able to walk in those,"Bella quickly protested

"You only have to walk a couple meters. The Sultan will take care of everything else."

"But, why? Can't you just get me flats? I am just as likely to hurt myself as a person walking on knives."

"They will make you look even more delec- perfect."

Bella pursed her lips and let the death machines be slid onto her feet. The calm voice instructed her to stand up. They made her walk around the room a couple times, giving her pointers on how to walk. Heel to toe. Shoulders back. Confident smile. Under no circumstances should anything be spoken.

After about fifteen minutes of agonizing scrutiny, the group of vampyres left. Bella quickly stepped off of the knives and headed for the door herself. Locked.

The only thing that she could think of doing was to inspect herself in the mirror, again.

There seemed to be a permanent frown imprinted onto her face.

Bella remembered herself to be a laughing type of person. The one who put a smile on the faces of people around her. As she leaning closer to the mirror, she could see the remnants of an imprint from a long forgotten smile.

Her cheeks had always been slightly rosy, either from acne or from plain blood. Now, there was nothing but a smooth alabaster covering the high cheekbones.

A feeling to reclaim what had been hers seized her by the neck. Why couldn't she remain unchanged? Why was it so easy to lose the very fundamentals of what one was?

Bella traced a tiny scar under her chin, which was invisible to outside viewers. Only she knew the imprint that the rusted monkey bar made as she came hurtling down from the top of the world.

Pain would always stay. Happiness was like a lover that made promises but only fulfilled them when you were deemed good enough for them.

Bella had not yet been deemed anything.

Although, she was about to be deemed something.

Bella watched the hope flutter through her own thoughts, into her chest and then back out again. Hope, that maybe this would be her forever, even if forever ended in death. Only fools let hope flourish in such desert.

The door quietly clicked open, someone being roughly pushed in.

"Darling…"

Edward stood, dressed in a tux. His bronze hair, ever unchanged, was in a messy mop atop a flawless skull. Whoever dressed him knew this very well.

Bella's answering smile was a husk of what it had been.

"You look simply ravishing."

"Thank you." Bella had no other words to offer.

Edward's eyes danced up and down Bella's frame, his eyes narrowed ever so gently. It might have been anger, or maybe lust. It was unlike any other look that Edward had ever given her.

Silence stretched long and thin before them. Being the stubborn asses that they were, neither was going to break it.

Edward was different. This wasn't him.

"So, this is it then? What are they going to do with you?" Bella crossed her palms over each other.

"They can't do anything with me. I'll stay as constant as those frown line on your pretty little face, dear."

Condescending, mocking arrow straight into the gut. Damn the mindreaders.

"What did they do to you, Edward?"

"Me? I haven't changed one bit. It's you, sweet pea."

"Stop it," Bella cringed. "You have no right to be calling me those anyways."

"You can't handle a little anger?"

"Not when I don't fucking deserve it."

"Oh, really?"

His chest was puffing in and out. Bella's stomach lurched. Something was very wrong. A flame had been kindled. Someone had to put it out, now. Unfortunately, Bella had never experienced anything like his anger, and she had no idea what type of water to throw onto it.

"What do you want, Edward?"

Bella wasn't going to go onto the offensive. She was too tired, and scared shitless of by this new Edward. There was something not quite human about him. Yet, definitely not vampyre. His eyes were too bright, glistening with tears. His body had an unnatural tension to it, like a cat ready to spring.

"I want to get you out of here." He took a couple of deep breaths. "I want you to be just another human who was sent to the Lunatiki."

Bella nodded.

"I want to erase all of your pain, past and present. I want us to live in the real world up there. Far away from this damn society. I don't want to stand there as I give you a man who will only throw you away after x number of years."

His words would have sounded sincere, had his lips not been lifted in an almost snarling gesture.

"Well, I'm sure I'm going to be fine."
"You aren't. This is where my plan will fall apart."

Bella took a step backward. His negative emotions were pouring out of him, and not in the way that would have been counted as fitting for the situation.

There was lust, hatred, and frustration.

Bella was scared, for the first time, for her life.

Edward advanced towards her, words pouring out of his mouth. There was no use in listening to them. Bella realised that it wasn't tears that were filling his eyes. Whatever liquid that was in there turned a distinct shade of pink. The green eyes were becoming darker and darker.

The pink infected the green. Soon enough, his eyes were too dark a pink to be called pink.

They were fucking red.

Bella's ears finally turned on, when he grabbed her shoulders and shook her violently.

"You don't get a damn thing. It's you I want."

"What?"

"Yes, you."

Edward leaned down towards Bella's exposed neck. He inhaled.

"You're such a fucking tease, you know that? Everything you do taunts me"

For a moment, the only thing that Bella could do was be his prey. Play the game.

"You will be mine, mark my words, you will. " It sounded as though the bloodlust was making it hard for him to speak. Bella's stomach heaved. This is so disgusting.

"Get away from me, you fucker. I don't know what the hell you think you will get from me but this you will not get."

"Oh, Isabella, you don't know a damn thing."

Frantically, Bella pushed him away. Her knee artfully came up, but he danced backwards.

"Well, fuckward, I am delightfully enlightened now. Ya fucking vampyre."

Bella had wanted to be menacing but it only served to amuse him more.

"You say that like an insult, when I have the ultimate advantage."

You will always have the ultimate advantage, Bella thought.

"Stop fighting, little temptress." His voice was velvet and honey, but also bee stings and frayed edges.

"LEECH!" Bella screeched and jumped away from his outstretched hands.

"Tut, tut. You still forget how easily I can play with your consciousness."

The darkness choked her with unusually cold arms.


"Bella, darling, wake up. Your wedding is in a mere thirty minutes."

Alarm bells rang in Bella's head. He was not to be trusted, but for what?

"Bella, seriously, if you are late they are going to gobble you up before you can say I do."

"Oh hell," Bella whispered.

Everything was white. Flashes of diamond-like skin around her. Diamonds that were trying to kill her. Edward's face swam in her vision, his kind green eyes crinkled with concern. Why did she feel so unsafe?

"How are you feeling?" Edward helped her sit up. Her vision was finally coming into focus, like a vintage camera's.

"My head feels like cotton."

"You said you were tired. Then you slept."

Bella reached up to scratch her head, but one look from Edward told her not to touch it.

"I had the most awful dream."

"I'm sure you did," Edward chuckled.

Bella glanced at the abandoned white shoes lying to the mirror, and groaned.

"I'm gonna die."

"That's what I've been trying to tell you."

Bella waved away Edward's amusement.

"I mean, those things, are going to kill me." A finger was pointed towards the heeled offenders from hell.

"No worries, love, I brought you these."

From a bag next to the door (Bell had not seen that), Edward pulled out two very purple looking converse. Bella squealed from delight. They were perfect.

"I feel like Cinderella, from that one movie."

Edward smiled, a genuine smile.

"Anything to make your night special."

Eagerly, Bella pulled them on. As soon as she did, combat boots and hospital slippers were a thing of the past.

"Thank you, Edward. For everything."

Bella hugged him. His arms encircled her.

The only thing she received from him was coldness. It was easy enough to disregard that.

For the rest of their time together, they talked about the cruelest ways to end the vampyre race.

Too soon, a severe-looking, dressed up guard led them around the labyrinth once.

It shocked both Bella and Edward when they came upon a set of stairs.

Up and up they went.

It made it Bella sad to know that the staircase most certainly did not lead to heaven. That didn't stop Bella from humming the tune to herself.

At last, they came to a set of doors. Edward gripped Bella's hand in reassurance.

Bella thought frankly.

God, you haven't been present at all lately, but I beg one thing of you. Make it ok. You don't have to fix anything, but just make everyone ok. Ok? Ok.

Bella felt Edward's eyes on her. There was a look of terrible sadness in them.

Thank you for coming back !

Next time: THE WEDDING (I don't know why I just can't to it). It's like these damn characters don't want it to happen.

Thank you to 4MeJasper for beta'ing thins. All mistakes are mine.

MWAH

Cvaboda