Disclaimer: I dont own anything but the plot

Chapter 18 Transformation

Bella POV

Dec 17th 1997, Phoenix, Arizona

The clock on my nightstand read 2:37 AM. Something had woken me up. I sat up in bed and looked around. Nothing in my room looked out of place. Everything was quiet. My throat was dry, so I decided that since I was already awake, I would go to the kitchen for a glass of water.

I was walking down the hall when I heard a noise coming from my parents bedroom. It sounded like muffled crying.

"Did mom have a nightmare? That must have been what woke me up." Maybe her pregnancy hormones were acting up again. She was only two weeks from term, so emotions were very high.

The door to the room was slightly ajar and I could see only darkness in there. I opened the door a bit.

"Mom?" She sat on the bed alone and her head swilled towards me. Her eyes were so filled with fear I couldn't help but be a little afraid myself. I rushed over to her.

"Mom, what's…"

"Bella. DON'T!"

The door slammed behind me as soon as I reached her. I froze where I was. My mom wasn't looking at me, but at something right behind me. I felt a cold chill travel down my spine at the low sinister laugh that filled the room. I turned very slowly to see what or who was behind me. I was met with the sight of a man holding a beaten up Phil around the neck with one arm.

"Why, if it isn't Bella. I'm so glad you could join the party." The man said in a sickly sweet voice.

He had long, dirty, dark blonde hair, crimson red eyes and a wicked smile that made my hair stand on end.

"Who are you?" It came out as a whisper.

He answered in an amused tone. "My name is James, little flower."

"What do you want?" I don't know where I got the guts to speak from, but as long as he was talking, he wasn't hurting anybody.

"I want a show. You see, I like to watch and so does my girl Victoria. It has been such a long time since we've had a good show." He took a step closer and threw the unconscious Phil on the ground. "And I have a feeling this is going to be a great one. Watching shy, timid girls become a bloodthirsty monster is always entertaining." His smile widened.

Mom started to sob behind me on the bed. "Keep him talking Bella. You need to figure a way out of this."

"I don't understand."

"Oh don't worry. You'll understand soon enough. As soon as I make you just like me, that is."

"Like you?"

"Yes, like me. And then you're going to give me the best show yet. I can't wait to see you tear your own family apart." He laughed like a child who had just been handed a present and couldn't wait to open it.

"I will never do that!" Where did the volume come from? My voice had more courage than I felt.

"Oh, but you will Little flower. Soon you won't want to do anything more. You're going to drink them dry. Renée, Phil, that little kid in your mom's belly. You're going to feast on all of them."

He grabbed my left arm and pulled me over to him. I tried to get free but his grip was like frozen iron. "Let me go!"

"Stop struggling." His voice was bored now. "You're only going to hurt yourself."

A sharp CRACK! I screamed in pain and my knees buckled under me. He had broken my arm and it was now hanging like a broken tree branch. Only being held on by my flesh.

"I told you not to struggle. No matter. It will heal soon. Oh shit!"

I was suddenly aware that I wasn't the only one screaming. "MOM?!"

James grabbed me by the throat and pulled me up to look at him. "Looks like the newborn is gonna feast on a newborn. Not the way I wanted it, but the irony is funny." He chuckled darkly.

I instinctively swung out with my good arm when his head advanced towards me and he bit down on my forearm. His teeth pierced my flesh and it felt like he had acid in his mouth. I screamed again. Louder this time.

"Get off my daughter, you monster!"

"You should really focus, Renèe. I've heard that childbirth is very painful. Not as painful as what Bella will soon do to you, but still. If that baby is coming out now, I want both of you to be conscious and alive."

The pain of his bite was getting worse. I thought I felt him kick me or maybe shove me. I was rolling on the ground for a moment, gritting my teeth and pressing my eyes together, I tried not to scream again. Mom had gone into labor because of the stress of the situation and my screaming would only make it worse. A loud crashing noise sounded next to me and I thought I heard a door open. "See you in a couple of days everyone. And Bella? I hope you enjoy yourself." Then the door closed and I heard the lock click into place.

The acid from his mouth was traveling up my arm, spreading all over my body. It felt like he had put my body on fire. The flames burned and it was becoming extremely hard to keep from screaming. My mother's cries of pain hurt my ears. I vaguely thought I registered Phil speaking.

"Renée, what's going on? Bella? Holy crap! Honey, are you in labor?"

I tried to hear and answer, but the fire roared in my ears and the world became engulfed in the flames. It felt like I was in hell. Burning for sins I didn't know what were. What had I done to end up in the eternal flames of the underworld? The screaming in the room was SO loud, I didn't know if it was coming from me or my mom. Had I started screaming? What had that monster done to me? Why did it feel like my flesh was searing of my bones, yet when my hand reached my chest to clutch at my heart I could feel both clothes and skin underneath? And what had he meant? Make you like me. Rip them apart. drink them dry. I would never hurt my family. I would never cause them harm. He wanted me to destroy the people I loved. But I wouldn't! I never will! "No! If I am to be cursed with the power of destruction, I will use that power to protect them! Protect them from him!"

After an eternity of burning, slowly, extremely, excruciatingly slowly, a layer of ice started to put out the fire. It felt heavenly. I'd never liked the cold, hated it actually, but this felt so nice.

For a split second I thought that my agony was finally gonna go away. But then a new pain showed itself. A high pitched screeching filled the air around me. It sounded like nails on a chalkboard. I thought the screaming was loud, but this was a whole new level of ear piercing. This reminded me of the descriptions of hearing loss after an explosion. My ears were ringing. Where was that damned noise coming from? It needed to stop! Why wasn't it stopping?!

"No, Bella! You need to focus! It's just another thing he's done to make you go crazy and attack them! You have to protect them! PROTECT them!"

Because that had to be what he was doing right? Making me go through this pain and burning so I would lose my mind. Become so crazy from the pain, that I would attack anything around me. The ice was spreading, much like the fire had done, just agonizingly slower. As the fire slowly went out, the screeching seemed to get louder. But for some reason it stopped. Then it started again some time later and then stopped again. It kept going like this for so long, I was sure James would succeed in making me go insane. But I kept up my mantra.

"Protect them. Don't hurt them. Protect them. Don't hurt them. Protect them. Don't hurt them."

Then finally, the world was quiet. The fire went out. The screeching stopped. The pain was gone.

My body was still and cold. I was lying on something hard. The floor? My limbs were incredibly stiff. How long had I been lying here? I felt like an ice sculpture or maybe a marble statue. I was so cold, but it was weirdly not uncomfortable. When I flexed my fingers, I found that the stiffness wasn't painful, and it was very easy to move. I opened my eyes. The room was very dark, but I could clearly see minute cracks in the plaster of the ceiling and the tiny dust particles in the air that one would normally only notice in bright sunlight.

There was a gasp to my right. My ears twitched. I didn't know my ears could twitch. I realized that the world wasn't so quiet. There was sound in the room. Breathing and.. Were those drums? No, wait. They sound like different heartbeats. I had first thought upon awakening that it was my own heart frantically trying to pump blood out to my burnt body. Racing because of the pain I had just been in. But the sound was coming purely from my right side of the room I was in. I moved my head to find where the sounds were coming from. My head moved so fast, I was a little surprised I didn't get dizzy.

Mom. And Phil next to her. They were sitting on the floor, which looked to be wet. They both flinched when I looked at them. My nose twitched. What was that smell? It smelled really good. I found that not all the flames had disappeared. My throat was dry as the desert outside. I never did get that water. I was thirsty.

"Bella?" Mom whispered. "Bella? Is it still you in there?"

I blinked. Confused. They gasped again and flinched. Panic started to set in. Why were they so afraid? WOW! When did I sit up? My nose twitched again. What is that smell?

"Bella. Please don't hurt us." Phil was speaking, his voice shaking. "You said you would never hurt us. Remember?"

The smell was coming from them. Something over there smelled good. I started to crawl forward. I felt strangely like a cat.

"Bella! Bella, Please!" I stopped. Mom was panicking. I don't like it when mom is scared. What was scaring her? Was the man back? I looked behind me. No. No one was there. I faced her again. She must have seen the confusion in my eyes.

"Bella. My little girl. You are still in there. Aren't you?"

Wait. Was she scared of me? WHAT WAS THAT SMELL?! Something moved in her arms. She was clutching a blanket to her chest. AND IT MOVED! What the hell? A tiny arm came out of the blanket. She had seen me staring down at it, and moved it a bit so I could see better.

"Bella. This is Luke. Your little brother. Please don't hurt him Bella. He's so small and…"

Her voice faded away into the background. The smell was coming from this little creature. It was covered in a thick dark substance. I realized that the same substance was all over the floor. How had I not noticed? "Hold on. Is that blood?" On instinct, an instinct so engraved I didn't think about moving my body, I slapped my hand over my mouth and nose and moved backwards. I slammed into the wall opposite them. The fast action and loud bang heard from me hitting the wall, caused the little creature to wake up and make that horrible screeching noise again. I couldn't take it. It needed to stop. But she had said brother. I couldn't hurt him.

"The bed! I need a pillow. Where is the bed?" I found it upside down in one end of the room, splintered into pieces. I was still holding both my hands over my mouth and nose. Holding my breath. The screeching abruptly stopped. I looked at the creature and found my mom soothing the little thing. My little brother. Luke she had called him.

Phil moved a bit to sit in front of them and made eye contact with me. He liked his lips before speaking. "Bella? If that really is you. Please nod your head."

I did. I didn't trust myself to speak. The scent of blood had always made me sick. Weird that it hadn't yet. Even weirder that I hadn't run out of air yet. But I didn't question it. Phil and my mom looked a little relieved, but still very apprehensive.

"That's good. Listen, Bella. I don't think those two are currently in the house. But we don't have a lot of time. Are you thinking about blood at the moment?"

I nodded again.

"I knew it. Bella, this is gonna sound crazy, but I need you to trust me. He's been in here a couple of times to see 'how you were coming along' he said. I got some answers out of him. Bella, he said he was a vampire. I didn't believe him at first but it makes sense. The bloodthirst, the impossible strength, the talk about 'draining us dry', the bite he gave you. Bella, I think he turned you into a vampire."

"Bloodthirsty? I was thirsty. But for blood? Was that why Luke had smelled so good? Because he was covered in blood? Then why not the floor?" I almost removed my hands to check if I would truly not get sick, but then it registered what Phil had said. "Vampire?! I was a vampire?! Did I think Luke smelled good because I wanted to drink his blood?!"

Panic settled in my stomach and my eyes widened. The mantra returned and I shot my eyes tight. "Protect them. Don't hurt them. Protect them. Don't hurt them. Protect them. Don't hurt them."

"Bella. Your mother doesn't have a lot of time. She's... There were some complications with the birth. Listen. We have made a plan." He moved over to the broken bed slowly and pulled something out from under it. It was his gym bag from the closet.

"In here are both of our credit cards and some paper with the codes on it. Take out all of the money the atm's will allow. There are some old t-shirts you can use for diapers for Luke and some other essentials I thought you could use."

"What are you… Talking about." I gritted out behind my hands.

He dragged the bag out and pushed it towards me. "Bella, your mother is dying. And if you are gonna have a chance to get away we need to prepare. We don't have long before they come back. Now. Grab my hand."

He held out his hand to me. "WHAT?!"

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