I woke gradually, feeling murky and dizzy. Immediately a man's face was inches from my own, grinning hungrily at me with handsome, glittering red eyes. He held a phone in his hand and, when he saw I was awake, he dialed a number and waited patiently as the rings buzzed through my skull like lightning through fog. After two rings, someone picked up.

I stared at the phone as he shoved it in my face. He grinned at me, seeing the dizzy pain in my face.

"It's your sister, pretty girl." He seethed.

"Isabella." I mumbled, not really understanding.

Bella's voice rang out from the phone, frantic. "Gen? Are you ok? Did something happen? Is Charlie ok?"

He brought the phone back toward him, speaking quietly into it.

"Gen?"

"Be careful not to say anything until I tell you to." The man hissed cheerfully into the phone. He was watching me with a hideous glee. "Now, Genny. I don't need to hurt you any more, do I?"

I stared at him blankly.

"No." he said. "So you will both do exactly as I say and Gen here will be fine." He patted me on the head and I winced away, my head swirling so that I had to fight to keep my stomach still. The man stood and moved away, leaving the phone on speaker so that I could hear. "Now repeat after me, and do try to sound natural. 'No, Gen. I am not coming back.'"

I couldn't hear what Isabella replied and the vampire seemed to agree that she wasn't speaking loud enough.

"I can see that this is going to be difficult." He said with a smile. "Why don't you walk into another room now so that your face doesn't ruin everything. There's no reason for your sister to suffer. As you're walking, please say, 'Gen, just listen to me.' Say it now."

"Gen, just listen to me." Isabella begged.

I stared at the man, starting to remember a little but still at a loss for what was happening, for where I was.

"There now, are you alone?" He turned back to me and grinned again, proud of himself and still hungry. "Just answer yes or no."

"Yes."

"But they can still hear you, I'm sure"

"Yes."

"Alright then. Say, 'Genevieve, you can't.'"

"Genevieve, you can't."

"I can and I will." I interrupted, words slurring.

The man was instantly before me, too fast for eye to follow. His eyes narrowed and then he casually slapped me across the face so that I felt something crack and had to whimper with the pain. I heard a laugh and turned to find the red haired woman from the day before.

"This worked out better then I'd thought." He crowed softly. "Your sister was quite easy to lure away. I was prepared to wait but… It's easier this way, isn't it? Less anxiety for you. Now I'm going to need you to get away from your friends."

I rubbed at my cheek, fighting back pain and wishing I could understand a piece of what was happening.

"Can you do that? Answer yes or no."

"No."

"I'm sorry to hear that. I was hoping that you would be a little more creative than that. Do you think you could get away from them if your sister's life depended on it? Answer yes or no."

There was a long pause. I started to stand but fell back.

"Isabella?" I asked again, focus coming with the word. "Isabella?"

"Yes."

"Is… wait, what are you-?" I reached out as though I could possibly snatch the phone. He slammed a hand over his mouth and knelt next to me as he finished, smiling apologetically at me.

"Very good, Bella. Now this is what you have to do. I want you to go to your mother's house. Next to the phone there will be a number. Call it, and I'll tell you where to go from there. Can you do that? Answer yes or no."

"Yes."

"Before noon, please, Bella. Your sister hasn't got all day. Have you, Genny?" He dropped the hand from my face, giving my broken jaw a pat so that I whimpered into the phone.

"It's important you don't make you friends suspicious when you go back to them. Tell them that your sister called and that she was threatening you to make you come back. Now repeat after me, 'I'm not coming back, Gen.'"

"I'm not coming back, Gen." Her voice was thick.

The man opened his mouth and then looked at me, smiling and considering his next words. "Now, 'Gen, I can't do this." He reached over and patted my hair back into place, grinning as I winced away from him. I heard the red haired woman hiss angrily.

"Gen, I… I can't do this."

"And now this is when Gen hangs up on you. I will see you soon, Bella."

Click.

He turned and grinned at me again. I looked away only to see the red haired woman creeping closer, eyes locked on the two of us with a hint of obsession.

"Who are you?" I mumbled, hysteria leaking into my voice.

They both laughed at this, filling the dark space around us with the beautiful peels of their voices: soprano and tenor, a song that thrilled through me in a wave of terror.

"Not who, Genny. What." The man said softly.

Standing, he walked away and disappeared into the darkness. A little later, there was a click and the room was flooded with light, revealing mirrors and the wooden floor of a ballet studio. I saw now that the redhead vampire was holding a camera on me, flashing a little red light as the man approached me again.

"Fine." I said, trembling. "What are you? Mafia? Serial killers?"

He laughed again. "No. Kind of." He turned to the woman. "Victoria? Give her a hint."

The woman gave him a look of stomach turning puppy love and then she handed him the camera. In the time it took me to blink she was then in front of me, staring into my brown eyes with her brilliant, bloody irises.

"You… you wear contacts?" I asked. My brain felt frayed, unable to put together what I saw with their new burst of laughter. "What the hell is wrong with you people?"

"Poor, blind little human." Victoria simpered.

Human?

"Yes. Should we leave her like that?" The man wondered. "Or should we give Bella an even better surprise when she comes running in those doors?"

Victoria thought about this, looking a little excited. Then she shook her head. "No, I'm hungry, James. Waiting for the girl is going to take long enough…" She began to bob up and down a little, jittery with impatience. "Do we have to wait? The human will be upset either way…"

"No." James reached out and took the camera, holding it steady on my frightened face. "No, we are going to put on a show. And for that we need patience."

"But James…"

"No."

Victoria turned and walked off in a huff, gone in seconds. James was still looking at me.

"Poor little girl." He whispered. "This isn't your fault."

"What are you?" I demanded.

"A nightmare." James said with a shrug. "A killer." His eyebrows raised and he waved his hands as he mockingly said his next words, "An animal."

"Animal… you've been attacking those people?" I had to rest for a second: talking was sending splinters of pain through my broken jaw. "But that's impossible."

"Not for a monster like me." James said with a smile. "But all that can wait. For now, we need you to save your strength for your sister's visit tomorrow!"

"I have to sleep again?" I asked, seeing him pull out a needle.

"Yes, dear. Sorry. I know it's so much more interesting to talk with me, but…" He shook his head. "Don't want you squirming around and tempting Victoria to have an early supper, do we?"

"Sup…" I felt a sting in my neck again.

And all was black.

"Time to wake up, Genny."

Pain and horror washed over me as I woke up to find myself still in the ballet studio.

"You're real?" I whimpered, finding the man—James'—face before me, his red eyes flashing.

"Oh, I'm real." He said, grinning viciously. "But we can talk about that later, Genny, dear… You're sister's here."

"Isabella?" I squeaked.

"Gen!"

I looked away from James to find Bella breaking through the double doors and storming into the room, stopping short when she saw the man with me.

"Hello, Bella." He said smoothly. "I am sorry about this." He reached over and smoothed my hair down, soothing me as I trembled from terror and the pain in my jaw and head.

"Sorry?" Bella said doubtfully.

"There really was no need for your sister to get involved. Victoria got a bit carried away, I'm afraid." Here he turned to me, smiling. "Speaking of which, don't try to get away, little Genny. Victoria is watching the back and you'll never make it to the front. But you realize that." He shook his head and gave me one last gentle pat on the head. "Poor little pet."

"I'm here: you can let her go." Bella said, only a slight shake in her voice.

James smiled. "I will give your strange coven this much, you humans can be quite interesting. I guess I can see the draw of observing you. It's amazing — some of you seem to have no sense of your own self-interest at all."

He stood up and walked toward my sister, stopping to cross his arms and look at her curiously. I began to look around, desperate for a way out, still not quite sure what I was dealing with. Bella and the man kept talking, he teasing her and loving the power he had over her. I saw Bella tense and her body grow stiffer as he talked about my dad and Edward, about how he'd caught me: something about me wandering away from my bodyguards. I began to understand a little; somehow Edward had pissed this guy off and now he wanted revenge, that's what it seemed like.

As I found that there was no escape, James began to finish up his monologue, throwing out one or two little barbs for Bella before he ended it.

"Would you mind very much if I left a letter of my own for Edward?" James said, giving her the gentlest of smiles as she recoiled in horror. It wasn't anything new for me: just the camera he'd had out the day before, balanced over on a stereo so that it saw the whole room. I wondered again why he'd bothered to have me—to start the video on me, to have me in the shot of whatever he was going to do to Bella. I began to tremble and he looked over at me.

"What?" I snapped, affecting a very poorly acted bravado.

"I'm so sorry, Genny, dear. I forgot about you. And you could tell, couldn't you? Like I said, Bella." He winked at my sister. "I get a sense about my prey. And Genny here was probably just thinking about how unimportant she is compared to you."

"You said you wouldn't hurt her." Bella begged. "Please—"

"Oh, I'm not going to kill her: which is what I promised… I think." James laughed. "Who can remember? But really, kill a pretty thing like that?" I started to struggle to get up, finding then that something—probably Victoria—had broken my left leg, making me fall back against the glass wall. James clucked his tongue as he heard me gaps with pain and then he turned back to Bella. "No, I'm keeping her."

"No!"

"Which, really brings me to my next point." James said. I could tell now that he was really loving it, the drama. If he hadn't been a nutcase, I would have told him to try acting. He had the looks for it. I gritted my teeth and started to stand again, staying on my good leg. "I would just like to rub it in, just a little bit. The answer was there all along, and I was so afraid Edward would see that and ruin my fun. It happened once, oh, ages ago. The one and only time my prey escaped me. You see, the vampire who—"

Oh.

Oh.

I understood now.

I was having a psychotic break from an animal attack: James was probably my doctor, who I'd glimpsed in a moment of consciousness… Victoria was… ambulance driver? That would be why I thought she'd brought me here… I tried to stand again and the pain cleared my head, forced my belief in reality to sharpen.

This was real.

I shuddered and leaned back against the glass, trying to get as far away from the man and my crazy sister as I could…

Vampires are real, I thought.

And I think I'm about to become one.