"Edward!" I gasped, unable to articulate anything more than just his name. I turned to face him completely, taking in the changes as quickly as I could under so much shock, so much pressure. His pallor was less intense, less moon-white and more like my own fair skin, the slightest blush painted over the tops of his high cheekbones. His face was less angular somehow, his nose not quite as inhumanly straight as before. And his eyes —there I found the biggest change of all. More than the sudden green-gold flecks that were so unfamiliar to me, the shock and stillness I found there was more unusual.
He had never been more surprised than he was in this moment, and it showed. He was rigid with shock.
I understood that Aro was so close to us, and that the Volturi were impatient, and there would be no moment of private exploration or conversation for the two of us. My intuition flared that this was no gift from them, but a trap.
Still, for this one, singular moment, I took him in as he stood in silence. Our hands parted, and I felt the loss of his unfamiliar warmth immediately. He placed his hands in front of him, palms up, turning them slowly as he studied himself.
"Isn't this just lovely?" Aro said. His sudden sharp tone broke my enchantment, the puzzle of a sudden human Edward. "It's nice to meet you, by the way."
My face tightened in confusion. I stared at Aro carefully, trying to understand his cryptic comment. His burgundy eyes and black hair were identical to just moments before when Maxim attacked us, but I noticed his clothes were different. His dark robes were a dark red color that matched his eyes instead of the midnight black I was used to.
My eyes found Edward, seeking solace in his eyes. I found none. He didn't register that I was by his side, nor did he give Aro any attention at all. His shock was deep, penetrating every part of him physically and mentally. Icy worry crept through me.
"What do you mean?" I asked, my voice breaking from sudden panic.
Aro released a slight laugh. "I suppose this is very confusing, Bella. —Bella, correct?"
My brows knitted tighter together. "You know my name." Accusatory.
"In theory, only, dear Bella." He didn't clarify, instead finding silence. He turned, ignoring us, as he addressed his companions in a lowered, whispered rasp. "Maxim never disappoints. Shame he's so difficult to work with, right?"
The others near him stared at Aro but didn't respond, remaining as stone still as ever. Aro once again looked disappointed and I fought back an urge to laugh, even though I couldn't understand why. Perhaps I understood what danger I was in and was feeling the trauma surge through me, feeling something break deep within me.
Or, more accurately, it was a dark, hidden humor that relished in Aro's suffering.
"And this is Edward, right? I'm sure he's in quite the shock if what Maxim had said is true. It's never been done before."
"What's never been done before?" I asked, concern in my voice. My feet shuffled closer to Edward, moving in front of him. I felt his arms —still so strong, so smooth— grip me as he placed himself in front of me. He crouched as he became my shield, and I heard him inhale the fog-coated forest air deeply as his piercing gaze found Aro.
"What have you done to me?" Edward had found his voice at last. My heart lurched at its familiar melodic lilts.
"Well, I've done nothing." Aro smiled at the both of us. "I've never even met you before."
Edward stepped forward, leaving me. He paused only when he reached Aro's face. They paused so closely together it looked almost intimate. My fear deepened as I realized Edward's proximity to Aro meant something different now, with his impossible human nature.
"I am not in the mood for games." No hesitancy in his voice, only raw power. "Tell us now."
"Temper, temper," Aro said, as he extended his finger alongside Edward's face. Edward didn't recoil as Aro had intended. He remained still, unmoving.
Terrifying.
"I thought you would be happier about this. Isn't this what you've always wanted?"
"It's not possible." Edward breathed again. "What did you do?"
Aro inhaled, smelling Edward as his nostrils flared and his eyes dilated. It made my stomach turn. I wanted nothing more than to run to him, jump over the ferns and moss and logs to my fiancé.
"Edward…" I called. Would he acknowledge I was here? Did he understand our shared fragility?
My voice broke through to Edward and he backed away, slowly returning to my side. We remained in silence as his hand gripped my own. He squeezed my hand gently, and in that moment I understood we were to protect each other. I caught his eye as we stood on the forest floor. We would escape, or die, as one. Edward's grip tightened.
"How much did you speak with Maxim?" Aro asked in our silence.
"Not at all," Edward answered.
"Maxim is a very unique vampire," Aro continued. "Maxim is the eldest of our kind. Most of us live for a very long time, but fate encounters us all. Maxim has a certain…talent of avoiding this. Some say he can even control fate itself.
"I have never met you, but Maxim shared that you have a very unique gift, Edward. That you can read minds and understand the thoughts of everyone around you. This delights me, as it's not so different from my own gifts. I mention this because Maxim's gift is uniquely coveted by the Volturi, a gift we have tried to capture for millenia. Maxim can manipulate time."
Aro's words made no sense to me, and I gripped Edward's hand so tight my knuckles were white. I felt blood rush from my head. Whatever Maxim had done, it was not for our benefit at all, and the depths of this were only beginning to be unveiled. I shuddered.
Aro continued. "We've bargained with Maxim for years to officially join us, but he is nearly impossible to track down. He's a frustrating fellow, only working for himself. It's annoying, quite honestly." He laughed. We didn't laugh in return. "Maxim approached us recently that we needed to be at this specific spot in America at this very specific time to receive a gift from our future selves. Apparently future Aro is quite clever—"
"What did you do to us?" Edward seethed, his impatience bubbling to the surface.
Aro paused. "The year is 1918. Maxim has sent you back before you…transformed, Edward, and in that process made you… human." He said the word with disgust.
I stopped breathing. I felt Edward next to me stop breathing as well.
"Apparently the two of you have caused quite a lot of trouble in… 2005? Is that correct?" He looked at us, but we were motionless. "I wish I could say our gesture was to grant your wishes of a very happily ever after. But, we're under strict orders from future Aro to turn this into a bit of a game…" He trailed off, absorbing our confused expressions. "I know, it's a bit wild, isn't it? We've been playing this calculus for centuries now on occasion, and we don't understand it either." He laughed. He actually laughed. "Time for games!"
He clapped his hands and a wicked smile crossed his features, revealing his menacing teeth.
"We're about to start!" He took a step towards us, moving across the dimming forest light. The others, all hooded in their cloaks, took a measured step forward as well.
They paused, so still.
"I will give you one moment." Aro said conversationally. "Take it."
"What are you doing to us?" Edward repeated, panic in his voice. "Leave us be, we can't harm anyone. We'll go on our own."
"That's not the plan, Edward."
I turned to look at Edward. I memorized the flecks of amber in his green eyes, hazel almost. I pictured brushing my thumb along his brow, his cheekbones dotted with pink, the almost invisible stubble that shadowed his jaw. His lips found my forehead for a second before he leaned into my ear. I found the warm breath of his whisper.
"Whatever they do, don't come for me. Take care of yourself first and find Maxim to go back home."
Goodbye. This was his way of saying goodbye to me.
Silent tears fell. His thumb caught them. I grabbed him, pulling him close to me, my tears staining his shirt.
"Don't leave me." I breathed. I'd said it a thousand times before, but never in the way I meant now. "Stay with me."
"I love you." He breathed into my hair. A nonanswer.
"No, don't say that." My voice was barely a whisper. "No."
"What beautiful young lovers." Aro had no humor in his voice now as the sun began to burn through the clouds at sunset, bright rays starting to creep through the forest. Rainbows bounced off the Volutri's diamond skin, beautiful despite the terror. "But I'm impatient now, especially since we traveled so far to get here."
He gestured to Caius, who stepped forward and pulled his hood down, revealing his white hair and red eyes.
Aro pointed to me. "Attack her. Marcus, grab him but do not harm him. He's coming with us."
It was over before I registered what was happening.
I was on the ground, the dampness of the forest floor seeping through my clothes as I felt the bite puncture my neck. Caius didn't drink, didn't touch me at all, but instead bit through my neck, the blood freely rushing to the ground and mixing with the dirt. My head collapsed to the ground as I watched him walk away, so calm and so smooth, like nothing had happened at all.
The last thing I saw before I blacked out was Edward, on his knees with his hands bound behind him, his forehead touching the earth as a scream escaped him.
My awareness is only now returning. The darkness of night is around me, consuming me.
I am locked in place on the forest floor, so painfully aware that I am alone now. There is no one near me, no one to cry to. No vampires, no humans, no animals. The forest around me is still and silent, a portrait of midnight blues and deep violets. My eyes are open for just a moment, taking in the faint moonlight radiating from the ferns and evergreens around my broken body.
I'd always wondered what the pain would be like. Edward had always avoided describing it, but now I experienced it in its full force.
It was layered, multifaceted. Just as I thought I registered one sensation, a deeper, more acute pain would blossom.
The burning sensation in my neck as Caius's venom scalded my veins with every slowed beat of my heart.
The open wound of his strike, healed enough to stop my death, but not enough to stop the faintness.
I convulse against the dirt and pine needles.
My heart slows, freezing from venom, from blood loss.
My brain hazes, the only sensation the feeling of dying.
And the greatest pain of all: the pain of the last memory of Edward, bound to the ground. He is gone, and my heart skips realizing his danger and my incapacitation. A silent cry escapes me and I realize how much I want to experience the joy of being human with him for even a second, and how that would never come to pass.
The darkness overtakes me once again, and the only sensation is now the feeling of being burned alive.
The night turns to dawn but still no birdsong finds me as I continue to lay, soaking wet, exposed on the forest floor and covered in small bugs, winding their way through my hair and across my skin.
The pain intensifies as I feel my fingers, my wrists, my arms completely submerge in fire as the venom continues to pierce me.
I wish for death by the time the second evening finds me.
The venom pulses through me, finding my toes in the evening as it turned to twilight once again, bringing the sensation of my nails being pulled off. I beg, to no one, that I could move, could exit my mind, could kill myself to escape.
The venom finds my brain and I sink into the depths of unconsciousness, the pain abating as night falls again.
I awake in the morning, transformed.
