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Without further ado... strap yourselves in.
12. One Way Ticket
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TRIGGER WARNING!
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Recap:
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When Bella regained consciousness there were four things, she immediately took notice of, as they assaulted her every sense. First, the air was incredibly thick, and it was hard to breathe. Second, it was immensely hot and she felt like she was being squeezed from all sides. Third, the smell was a horrible mixture of sweat, dirt and something suspiciously like human waste. Four, the noises around here were startlingly overwhelming, shouts, cries and an overflow of voices all talking over one another. She blinked rapidly, trying to adjust her eyes to the darkness. After a few moments she began to scan her environment and panic began to rise in her chest. She was inside some sort of a room, although it felt like it was moving, and it was packed with people; almost every space filled out. It was hard to move, since she was in the middle of the throng, and she felt incredibly claustrophobic. She hated people violating her personal space in general, barely even tolerated with people she knew, much less a pack of strangers. Bella tried to find her center and force the incoming panic away. She needed to find out more about her whereabouts before having a complete meltdown, ignoring the fact that she had been having one in the exact moment she traveled.
"Focus," she berated herself and breathed out slowly. It took a moment for her to sort through the sound and voices, in the hopes of locating where and when she was this time. To her dismay, there was no language she could latch on that gave her a hint. She was no expert, the furthest from it actually, so she quickly gave up on that theory when she realised that it was practically hopeless to even try. Amidst the crying and yelling, she could detect at least five different languages being spoken all at once.
"Fuck," she closed her eyes and wished she had managed to take at least one sip of that whiskey.
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Bella's POV
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Despite the fact that Bella had somewhat adjusted to the darkness of the place, aided by a few cracked holes on one wall that allowed a sliver of light inside, it was hard to make out the faces. She mostly had to rely on her listening, which was even harder since the noise was deafening. The only thing she knew for certainty that there were women, men and children and they all came from many different places. She was flying blind here.
"English?" she called out, but no one answered. A different approach then. "Anglais?" not French. "Inglés?" Spanish was out. "Inglese?" No one was Italian either.
Bella cursed herself for not studying different languages. She needed to put that high on her to-do-list if she was doomed to this time traveling lifestyle. There could be no more slacking off, she needed to be prepared for every scenario.
"English?" she repeated louder, feeling utterly foolish when several people stared at her like she was going mad. Bella frowned. Did she hear someone speak Yiddish?
"Angliĭski?" someone poked her in the shoulder. Bella could not detect the nationality but understood the sentiment. She nodded so quickly that she immediately started feeling dizzy. The woman, who seemed to be around forty, although Bella couldn't be sure, said something to the person behind her, who pointed at another man.
"Tam," the woman turned to her, nodding towards a man leaning against one of the walls. Bella mustered a smile of gratitude and started to move slowly towards the man, careful of not pushing anyone to the floor; although it was extremely hard with the tight quarters. It seemed like hours, while it probably was only a few minutes, when she finally reached the man. He was in his early twenties; his clothes were torn, and his shoes were missing. It was hard to tell in the near darkness, but she guessed he wasn't caucasian, had short curly black hair, a strong jaw and gentle eyes. Despite the chaos around them, he gave her a shaky smile.
"I was told you speak English?" she asked him hesitantly. His jaw slackened in surprise for a moment, until he nodded eagerly.
"Yes. Hello, I am Aleksi," his accent was thick but luckily understandable. Bella breathed out in relief. "I understand English, I worked as translator for Pravitelstvo," he paused and added. "The Bulgarian Government,"
"Hi Aleksi, I'm Bella," she greeted in return. "Where are we? What is going on?"
"We are in train," he replied hollowly, his expression defeated.
"A train to heading where?" Bella asked warily, eyeing the distressed people around them. She had a horrible feeling about all of this.
"We do not know exactly," Aleksi quickly looked around before he leaned forward, as if he was about to share a secret. "I have my suspicions but only from rumours," Bella resisted the urge to sigh. That did not help her in the slightest.
"What are the rumours?" she probed, doing her best to match Aleksi's slightly lower tone, although it was hard with all that noise.
"They put all the evrei on trains and none of them return," the man answered darkly.
"Evrei?" Bella wracked her brain for a possible translation.
"Jews," Aleksi clarified. Bella drew in a sharp breath.
"What year is it Aleksi?" she tried her best to sound nonchalant but wasn't entirely successful since he gave her a queer look. "I know it's a strange question but just…please?"
"It is February the 16th," Bella held her breath. "1943," Aleksi finished. Terror seized Bella's chest. She knew exactly that that meant. An unknown train ride, Jews going missing and the year 1943.
"Fuck," she swayed dangerously on the spot, feeling lightheaded. Aleksi quickly reached out with his hands to steady her.
"You all right?" he looked worried. Bella didn't have the strength to muster a convincing smile, so she simply shook her head. "You know rumours too?" his voice sounded urgent and a bit desperate. Bella's mouth opened and closed several times, unsure how to reply.
"Yes," she settled on after a long pause.
"This is not good, no?" Aleksi asked gravely.
"No, the furthest thing from it," Bella squeezed her eyes shut. How the hell was she supposed to get out of this one? She was literally being shipped off to be murdered.
"They took my sister two days ago," Aleksi's voice broke on the last syllable, the pain tangible in the air. "I do not know where," Bella's heart broke for him. There was nothing she could say to ease his pain or qualm his worries. She had a fair idea what happened to his sister.
Before she could come up with a reply, the train suddenly stopped. Cold sweat ran down Bella's back when everyone inside fell silent. She could hear men shouting outside and while she could not understand the language, she recognised it as German. Bella swore violently under her breath. She was doomed.
There was a loud click and then the carriage was pulled opened, daylight streaming in and half blinding everyone inside. Bella blinked violently, white spots swimming in her vision. Someone outside yelled an order and then chaos erupted. Men in Nazi uniforms gathered in front of the train started grabbing onto people and practically ripping them off the train. Screams and cries blended in with barking orders in German, creating a horrifying soundtrack to the scene. Aleksi's hand somehow managed to find Bella's in all of this, and they clung on to one another. Even if Bella didn't know Aleksi, she still felt small comfort at holding his hand. That however didn't last long. A Nazi soldier took ahold of her other hand and yanked it hard, sending her sprawling off the train and onto the platform. Bella hit the ground hard, headfirst. It was a miracle she didn't black out, although she was dangerously close to it. White noise buzzed in her ear and her vision grew blurry. With a groan she raised her head, only to be grabbed by her shirt and roughly manhandled to the side. She fell back on the ground, thankfully this time she landed on her backside. Bella looked around, trying to comprehend the situation, dizziness overthrowing all her senses. After a few moments the white noise ceased, although she desperately wished it had remained. The noise was chilling and the sight even more. People were screaming, begging and crying all around her. Nazi soldiers had gathered a group of people and were mercilessly beating them with bats, some even laughing while doing so. A few men and women resisted, which earned them more hits, and some were pulled away from the rest and carried off, half-unconscious. Bella shivered at the thought of those people being killed only a few minutes later.
Bella tore her eyes from the beatings and looked around the platform. It looked like a regular train station in that time period; including a ticket sale, a giant wooden clock and rail terminal signs. There were three names for possible destinations; Przemysl, Bialstok and Ukraine. When Bella read the biggest sign that hung down from the ceiling platform, her heart almost stopped. Treblinka. She knew that name.
"God no," Bella forced herself to take deep breaths when she realised she was in danger of hyperventilating.
When Bella and Jasper did a presentation on Oskar Schindler, they dived deep into information about World War 2 itself. The Nazis set up a chilling amount of what they called concentration camps, along with six extermination camps spread out in Central Europe; which was a part of what they called The Final Solution. That was basically a code word for genocide. Everyone in the future knew about World War 2 and heard about Auschwitz, the most famous camp. Treblinka, while much talked about, was not as known as Auschwitz, but definitely should be. Bella read one testimony from a survivor of the holocaust, who lived through six such camps and said 'Auschwitz was a walk in the park', compared to Treblinka. That horrifying statement made Bella look more into Treblinka and afterwards she wished she hadn't. Treblinka was a guaranteed death sentence. People were sent straight to the gas chambers upon arrival, aside from those selective few who were forced to help the Nazis with digging the bodies and loading people into the chamber. The treatment from the guards was cruel and some took pleasure in torturing before shipping everyone into the chambers. Only 67 people ever escaped Treblinka and that was only a pure miracle in itself.
"This is not happening," Bella whispered to herself.
"Treblinka?" Aleksi was suddenly beside her, staring at the sign with a puzzled look.
"Poland," Bella answered faintly and more on reflex if anything, since she was technically busy inwardly panicking.
"Why are we here?" Aleksi whispered, flinching when his eyes wandered where an officer was beating a woman. "We have to do something," his eyes burned with determination. Bella's hand shot out to grab his arm when he made to stand up.
"Don't," she warned him helplessly. "There's literally nothing we can do,"
"I am not coward!" Aleksi protested vehemently, although the fear in his eyes could not be masked.
"I never said you were," Bella told him seriously. "This is beyond horrifying but if you try to intervene, you'll end up just like him," she discreetly pointed at a man, who lay in a pool of his own blood. "We are defenceless and they have weapons," the words sounded hollow in her mind. Who was she to argue? They were going to die anyway, so it technically didn't matter which method was chosen. Everything about this was wrong and to bear witness to the most horrible part in history was soul crushing. Bella knew that she would have been just like Aleksi, if she didn't already know what was about to happen.
She had never felt as helpless in her life, and that was coming from someone who used to be a gladiator in the Roman empire. She could stand up and run to the poor people who were getting brutally beaten, perhaps attack a few guards and if she was lucky, take some down with her. But ultimately, she knew there was no point to it, with or without her help – all of them were going to die. The only reason she had to even try to help, was to give herself some peace of mind in her last hour. Let's say she was capable of carrying out such a task, which seemed unlikely at the moment, did she even deserve some peace? Even if she did, her body refused to work with her, every limb frozen with paralysing fear. A gunshot sounded in the distance, making both Bella and Aleksi flinch.
"I…" Aleksi trailed off, eyes conflicted as he stared at the scene. Bella eyed his clenched fists and reached out on instinct, prying his hand open and interlocking their fingers.
"I want to do something too," she confessed lowly. "I just see no way how to help," the young man's shoulders slumped, and he nodded faintly in agreement.
"You know what is going to happen," he posed it as a statement and not a question. Bella hesitated for all but two seconds before nodding. "We are dying in Treblinka, yes?" A lone tear slipped down Bella's cheek. She wanted to scream at the injustice of it all. Aleksi and all the people around her, not to mention the six million just like them, were innocent. They had literally done nothing wrong. The more Bella had read about the holocaust, the angrier she got and poor Jasper had to use his gift the entire time while they did their research. However, it was one thing reading about the holocaust and a whole different matter to experience it. Even armed with all the history books in the world could not have prepared her for this.
"I'm so sorry Aleksi," Bella murmured brokenly, feeling guttered when the man only squeezed her hand gently in return.
"So am I," he choked out.
Their moment violently came to an end when soldiers started barking orders and those sitting, like Aleksi and Bella, hastily stumbled to their feet and followed the rest behind the platform. About 100 meters away from the track was a high barbed wired fence, surrounded by wooden area, which most likely served the purpose of hiding the location of the camp. Two barracks inside the fence were placed on each side of the gate.
Bella did her best to hold on to Aleksi, although it was a challenge amidst the chaos and screaming. As soon as everyone was inside, the group was immediately separated into two groups. Aleksi was torn from her grasp and pulled to the right side, along with the rest of the men, while Bella was pushed to the right with the women and children.
A Nazi with a cruel smile barked an order to Bella's group, pointing at the barrack on their side. It took no genius to understand his meaning and everyone shuffled inside. They were led inside a huge room, void of furniture but had three organised piles on the floor. Bella drew in a sharp breath. A young teenage boy in ratty clothing yelled at everyone in German, although his accent was thick enough to make it clear he was from another nationality. His eyes met Bella's for a brief moment and her heart broke for him. She had never seen anyone with such hollow eyes, dead, detached. It was obvious he was being forced to do this. The gaze only lasted a second, before he blinked and repeated his words. Women and children around Bella started getting undressed, putting their clothes in the first pile and tying up their shoes and placing them in the second. The third pile was for personal items, such as jewellery and anything else they had on their person. Bella glanced down at her father's watch, and despite the terrifying moment, anger rose in her chest. This was the last piece she had of her father and she was supposed to hand it off to Nazis?
"Why are we even here?" Bella's head snapped up at the spoken English. She blinked in surprise as two extremely attractive people entered the barrack. They both wore fine Nazi uniforms, which wasn't unusual given they were in a Nazi camp, but the English accent confused Bella. Why would someone from England associate with Nazis? England was at war with Germany.
"Relax, I'm just curious," the man answered the woman in an American accent. Bella frowned. American too? This was getting queerer still.
"I don't like this," the woman argued quietly, eyeing the women and children. Bella's eyebrows rose in disbelief when she took in the woman's facial features. Unearthly beauty, pale skin and crimson eyes. Vampire.
"A Nazi vampire?" Bella blurted out stupidly. As soon as the words were out of her mouth, two sets of red eyes zeroed in on her. The time traveler mentally cursed, what a stupid mistake.
"Now this is interesting," the man was in front of her a moment later. His blonde hair was pulled back in a low ponytail, an oddity compared to the rest of the soldiers Bella had seen so far, whose hair was all shortly cut. "A fellow American?" he questioned curiously.
"Strange," the woman with the English accent agreed. She had long, curly, brilliant orange hair. Although they were both vampires, the woman's features were more striking. There was something oddly familiar about her, but Bella could not place it, only a feeling that she's seen her somewhere before. "How do you know we are vampires?" she tilted her head.
"Pretty obvious with the red eyes," Bella snarked. Under any other circumstances she would have reacted carefully but the shock of her current predicament and location, added with the fact that Nazi vampires actually existed, was too much for her brain to handle.
"My my," the man laughed gleefully. "What a delightful surprise to see someone still with some spark in a place such as this,"
"Delightful indeed," Bella deadpanned. The woman's lips twitched at the sarcastic tone.
"Why are you here?" the man pressed.
"I'm on a holiday," Bella wondered why the hell she was engaging them, much less making jokes. She was clearly losing her mind. The man laughed loudly, drawing shocked glances from the nearly naked women and children around them. Bella closed her eyes in despair. This was the last place for laughter, defence mechanism or not – it was incredibly disrespectful. What was wrong with her?
"I like you!" the man exclaimed happily. Bella knew it was definitely not a good thing to be liked by a Nazi vampire, so she refrained from commenting.
"As fun as all this is, can we go?" the woman commented in a bored tone, although her eyes spoke of her uneasiness. "This is fucked up James, even for you,"
"Patience Victoria," the man, James, waved his hand dismissively.
"You wanted to see how evil the Nazis are, and you got your answer. I don't wish to be here," Victoria whispered angrily. Bella's eyes widened in surprise. Okay so not Nazi vampires, just morbidly curious vampires – not that it was any better. They had the means to save everyone in the camp and kill all the soldiers and instead they went sightseeing? Definition of fucked up.
"You're so sensitive," James rolled his eyes. "We should take this one with us," he pointed at Bella, who perked up. "Her blood smells divine," What was worse? Being murdered in a Gas Chamber or murdered by sadistic human-drinking Vampires? Tough choices.
"You know we can't," Victoria replied firmly. "We've drawn enough wanted attention to ourselves already, it's a miracle they even let us in here,"
"Such a pity though," the man released a huge sigh. "Fine," That option was off the table then. "Although…" a mischievous twinkle entered James' eyes. "We can always change her here, see what happens," Bella's eyes bulged out in horror. As if the situation wasn't bleak enough, changing into a newborn vampire in this environment was even more nightmarish. Jasper had told her about newborns, albeit reluctantly. As a newborn she would have no control over her blood-thirst and while the thought of killing all the Nazi's was an attractive notion, there was no way for her to stop herself from killing the innocents too.
"No thank you," the time traveler choked out. Victoria seemed relieved too with her answer.
"Suit yourself," James shrugged. "Okay then, let's go. I heard about one where everyone wears striped pyjamas,"
"Wait!" Bella called out as soon as they turned to leave. Both vampires paused and turned around. "I…know this is a strange request and you have no reason to say yes but – "
"We're not saving you girl," Victoria interrupted harshly.
"I know," Bella swallowed thickly. "That's not what I'm asking for,"
"I'm not allowed to kill anyone here either," James shot Victoria a glare, as if it was her fault.
"Not that either," Bella glanced down at her watch. "I have…" she searched for the correct word but came up empty. She had no idea if they were also homophobic, although all signs pointed to it since they were tourists in an extermination camp. "…family at home and I need them to know what happened to me," she finally settled on.
She couldn't bear the thought of Rosalie waiting for her, never knowing if she was alive or dead. What if she believed Bella had abandoned her? The smallest mercy Bella could give was to at least let her know she was dead. It would give the blonde-haired goddess a chance to move on.
"We don't work at the post office sweetie," James dismissed, obviously bored with the conversation. Bella looked at Victoria, whose eyes had softened marginally. Bella knew she was her best chance of seeing this through.
"Please?" she begged. The red-haired woman looked at James, whose attention was on the ruckus outside, and hesitated for a second before finally nodding.
"What's your name and address?" the vampire requested softly. Bella almost cried out in relief until she realised her error. It was not as if she could ask her to find Rosalie now. While Bella once met Rosalie when she was human, the blonde didn't recognise her until Bella sparked her memory later on. If Victoria would find Rosalie in 1943 then it would mess up the timeline and there was no guarantee if they would meet again in 2005. Plus, Rosalie never mentioned before she had heard about Bella in the 1943, so she couldn't really change that fact now. Bella didn't know how time travel worked properly so it could have catastrophic consequences. She had no idea if and how that would have an impact on Rosalie's life. The only logical solution to this problem was to reveal her time traveling secret. Bella eyed Victoria warily.
"This is going to sound even stranger, but since you're a supernatural being this should be easier for you to believe than most," she said slowly. Victoria seemed both confused and intrigued by this, even James looked at her. "I need you to deliver this to Forks, Washington at the Cullen residence. My name is Bella Swan," she took off her father's watch and carefully handed it to Victoria, who plucked it out of her hand. "However, you need to deliver this at an exact right date and time,"
"Okay?" the woman frowned. "That's specific,"
"Send this only, and I mean only, on September 14th, in the year 2005," Bella stared at the two vampires, who gave her identical incredulous expressions.
"Are you drugged?" James laughed with a shake of his head. Bella ignored him and instead focused on Victoria, who looked equally skeptical and suspicious.
"This is not a joke," Bella insisted firmly. "I am not from here,"
"Your accent makes that pretty obvious sweetheart," James mocked but she spared him no mind.
"I'm a time traveler," she stated, irritated when James laughed harder. "Give me the benefit of the doubt," Bella thought furiously of a way to convince them. "The war will end in 1945," Victoria remained unimpressed. "Adolf Hitler commits suicide by gunshot on 30 April 1945 in his Fuhrerbunker in Berlin,"
"It's not as if we can confirm that now," James pointed out, obviously finding great enjoyment in pointing out the flaws in her plan.
"I know," Bella bit out. "Wait until that day before you make that decision," she paused as she realised that would probably not be sufficient enough information. "If you're still unconvinced by then, wait until 1963 when the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy will be assassinated by a man named Lee Harvey Oswald," what if it wasn't enough? "A man named Martin Luther King, a leader in the civil rights movement, will be shot in 1968 by James Earl Ray," What the hell was wrong with her? Why can't see find less creepy facts?
"For a time traveler you sure are morbid. Do you only know facts about murders?" James paused. "Not that I don't approve," Again, not a thing Bella aspired for.
"Well excuse me for having a difficult time thinking about happy things when I'm literally about to be murdered myself!" Bella snapped. "Sorry, just…" she lowered her tone when she noticed the others in the room were starting to pay attention to them now. "Please?"
"Fine," Victoria rolled her eyes. "I'll send it if those three things happen." She turned to James. "Can we go now?"
"Of course," the man bowed theatrically to Bella. "I wish you a happy death," Bella fought the urge to punch him, vampire or not. Victoria pocketed the watch and spared Bella a final look, her eyes almost sympathetic.
"Thank you," Bella said as sincerely as she could. The vampire nodded her head and turned away. Bella released a breath she didn't know she was holding. It was a desperate act to rely on those two vampires to carry out her message but for some reason Bella knew Victoria would deliver the watch. She was a good actor but no one with the slightest amount of humanity left in them would ever feel comfortable in this setting. Victoria clearly felt uneasy, so sadistic or not, she was a better bet than James, who honestly seemed to be enjoying himself playing Nazi. Were they honestly going to visit more camps?
Her thoughts about the vampires abruptly came to a halt when pain exploded in stomach and breath was knocked out of her. Bella barely managed to keep balance. An angry Nazi stood in front of her, holding a metal pipe. The time traveler sucked in a harsh breath, desperate to fill the air in her lungs. The man yelled at her in German, making angry hand gestures. Bella only blinked stupidly, which made him hit her again. Bella held her hands up in defeat when he raised the pipe for a third time. A quick glance to her right made her realise everyone else had already taken their clothes off, so she hurriedly began to strip, biting down on her tongue to stifle the painful moans that threatened to escape. It felt as if her stomach was on fire and she was pretty sure she had broken ribs, not that it mattered now.
Dutifully, she placed her clothes and shoes in the piles and stood naked and waiting, like the rest. Bella tried to ignore the frightened cries from the children and their mother's (or sisters) frantic reassurances, but it was hard. Gunshots in rapid succession were fired outside, making everyone flinch in response. Bella knew it was only matter of minutes before someone would collect them all. She had read enough to know what came next, first the torture then death.
It was a surreal to realise you were about to die. Bella had tried to take her own life and had been pretty determined about it, but this felt a lot different than her failed attempt. Of course the reason for her death was the blatantly obvious difference, but it was still more than that. Bella had wanted nothing more but to die then, but now she wasn't as sure. Her life was still complicated, and she still had difficult thoughts, but it had changed drastically. In that moment she realised how must she had underestimated the impact Rosalie and the rest of the Cullen's made on her life. Truthfully, she wasn't ready to give it up yet. It was like giving a dehydrated person a bottle of water, only to take the bottle back as soon as the person took the first sip. That was what this felt like. She finally got a taste of something that suspiciously felt like hope but now it was being snatched away.
Bella hadn't known them for a long time, but the Cullen's were slowly starting to become the family she never had. She thought of Emmett's goofy smiles and jokes, Alice's boundary-less teasing and obliviousness, Esme's loving smile and freshly made cookies, Edward's sly comments and eye-rolls, Carlisle's curious questions and concern, and Jasper's calming presence and quick wit. Most of all she thought about Rosalie. She would give anything just to see her one last time. Bella cursed all the times she didn't kiss her like she wanted in those moments or when she had held back a compliment or a silly joke. She drew up pictures in her mind of the times Rosalie fumbled awkwardly around her, made a cutting remark at her siblings when they teased her, gave insightful comments whenever Bella thought out loud or just stared at the time traveler as if she was the only person who mattered in the world. Bella was quite positive that she had been slowly falling in love with the vampire, or maybe she already was. It was a blessing to meet Rosalie Hale, despite the short time they got to spend together. Bella decided not to dwell on regrets and instead felt incredibly thankful for having the opportunity in the first place. She hoped Victoria kept her promise and Rosalie would find out she didn't leave this earth voluntarily, this time at least.
Bella thought about her friends at Forks, Angela especially. She cursed herself for being a shitty friend to the sweet girl. She hoped Angela would forgive her for seemingly disappearing. Like with the Cullen's, she felt lucky to have met Angela and cherished their friendship. Hell, she was even grateful for Jessica, even though she was 70 percent of the time a pain in her ass. Mike and Eric were okay too. She really hoped they would be okay in the future.
Next her mind drifted to her parents. She had never truly made up her mind about the afterlife but after her first-time traveling experience, she didn't rule it out. It would be a pleasant surprise if she could meet them again, there were so many things she wanted to say to them. Maybe she would get a chance now. What did Albus Dumbledore tell Harry Potter; that death is but the next great adventure? Maybe she could turn into a ghost and haunt Emmett.
A Nazi officer walked inside the room, wearing a sadistic smirk.
"Ivan," Bella heard an older woman breathe out in terror next to her. Bella quirked an eyebrow. Ivan the Terrible? Seriously? Maybe she could perform one last act in her life and take the bastard out. Fuck the consequences, that man deserved to die. Knowing she would most likely be shot down as soon as she would approach him, she took one final moment to herself. A strange wave of peace overtook her when she realised this was it. After all those years wishing for death, now the moment finally came.
"I hope you're right Dumbledore," she mumbled to herself and took a step forward. The women on her either side frantically whispered in what sounded like Yiddish, and although Bella didn't understand the words themselves, she recognised the warning. Rosalie's gorgeous smile entered her mind and she paused mid step.
Didn't she just make an argument earlier for not fucking up the timeline? If she killed Ivan now, didn't she doom the world? Would she really bet Rosalie's life on it? Bella mentally rolled her eyes at herself, this was not the moment to contemplate the Trolley Problem, not equipped in the least to make a hasty decision in her state of mind.
Before she could think about the next step, quite literally, Ivan the Terrible was suddenly standing in front of her. He spat something at her in a mocking tone and withdrew a sword, of all things, from his belt. Bella hunched down when pain hit her. She yelped when a hand grabbed her hair and yanked her head up. She absently noticed the sword was raised high. Malicious eyes bore into her own. Bella closed her eyes and tried to replace those eyes with her favourite topaz ones. Two seconds later, she gasped out in pain, tasting blood in her mouth and her eyes shot open. The last thing she saw was Ivan's twisted smile before everything went black.
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Rosalie's POV
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Rosalie stared blankly at the magazine in her hands, not really taking in the words. She was worried.
"Have you heard from Bella?" Emmett looked up from the video game he was playing, his eyes hopeful.
"You'd know if I had," the blonde bit out.
"Yeah, sorry," the big man deflated. "I'm just worried. She promised to watch the premiere with me and usually she's here on time…"
"Me too," Rosalie sighed, looking at her phone for what felt like the millionth time that evening. "Premiere of what though?" she added, mostly to distract herself than asking out of real interest.
"That new TV show Rome," Emmett informed her with an excited grin. "I want to know if it's accurate or not,"
"Seriously?" Rosalie raised one eyebrow unimpressed.
"What better source? She was literally there!" Emmett defended.
"Isn't that a bit insensitive though?" Jasper asked from the other room.
"She's interested in it too," the burly man informed them.
"It was premiered yesterday," Alice entered the room, plopping herself down on the couch next to Rosalie.
"What?" Emmett gasped. "No!" Rosalie eyed Alice, who was the picture of innocence. "I read it would be released on September the 14th!" Emmett almost sounded distraught at the thought of being misinformed.
"Alice," Rosalie said pointedly, not in the mood for Emmett's sulking.
"Fine," her sister pouted. "You're no fun,"
"You're fucking with me?" Emmett crossed his arms with a glare.
"Language!" Esme berated from the kitchen.
"You're too easy," Alice laughed. Emmett opened his mouth but paused when someone knocked on the front door. Rosalie exchanged a puzzled look with Alice.
"Are we expecting anyone? Bella usually just walks in," the blonde threw the magazine away and stood up. "There's no heartbeat," she hesitated. "There's also a smell of human blood,"
"I didn't get a vision," Alice frowned. The blonde raised an eyebrow before heading to the front hall to answer the door. She paused in front of it and strained her ears, but there was no sound. Rosalie opened it hesitantly but no one was there. She scanned the area briefly before taking a step to go out to investigate. Her eyes shot down when her left foot grazed a small box. The blonde crouched down and curiosity got the best of her and she pried the lid open. A man's watch lay innocently at the bottom, attached to a note. Rosalie picked it up and inspected it. It looked old and rather unremarkable, the glass was broken, and the leather was worn. She flipped it over and on the back there was name engraved; Charlie Swan. Bella's father? The blonde's breath caught in her throat when she read the note.
There, written in dry blood was, 'Tic Toc, time is up. Now you will pay,' before she could even begin to decipher its implication, there was a loud thud followed by a crash inside the house, accompanied with a shocked cry from Esme.
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To be continued...
Phew, okay so you guys all right? Some guessed right about where I was going with this, so kudos to you! I have to admit that I found this particular chapter very difficult thing to write. World War 2 is such a heartbreaking affair and those camps were the very definition of Evil, so I tried to tread carefully.
I did a lot of research for this and this is as accurate as I am willing to write it (don't ask questions).
So introducing Victoria and James to the play. James is a sadistic fuck, so I can picture him being comfortable in those places. I have a plan with those two. Yes we will get a reunion with the Witch Twins in the future. And yes I'll make a few things clearer in the next chapter about the time travel itself.
Anyone curious about the note?
What did you guys think?