sorry this took so long. i'm visiting my grandparents and i couldn't get a internet connection until now. whatever. heres the next chapter!

"I will find him," I insisted. She simply shrugged.

"Whatever you want to believe," she said.

The next second, without any warning, I felt her razor sharp teeth sinking into my neck.

The pain was unbearable. Her breaking my fingers and my wrist before was nothing compared to this. I couldn't hold in a scream. As I screamed, Victoria tore her mouth away from my neck, something I didn't expect her to have the control do to.

"Shut up, you filthy, pathetic human!" she yelled. I stopped screaming immediately, but the pain was still there. It was like a knife was pushed into my neck. And to make it worse, I was now bleeding, and I could smell the blood pulsing out of my neck. Apparently, Victoria smelled it to, because she suddenly perked up and sniffed the air. She leaned down and I felt her teeth pierce into my flesh once again.

The scent was overpowering. The pain was worse than I could've ever imagined. But I did not cry out again. One thought overpowered all of the other pains and awful things happening to me.

Edward. Edward. Edward.

His name played over and over in my mind. Thinking of him was all that kept me strong. And so because of this, I did not scream.

After what seemed like hours of agonizing pain, but I knew to only be less than a minute, I began to feel lightheaded and weak. Victoria somehow managed to pull away from my neck and my blood once more. I was, yet again, surprised by the control she had. She looked me in the eyes and grinned.

I saw that her eyes were now bright red.

"How does it feel now, Bella? So close to death..." her fingers brushed along my jaw. "So close to your sweet Edward. Or, so you think..." she grinned evilly.

"I...will...see...him..." I whispered, using all my strength.

"Oh, I have no doubt of that," she said. I was confused. But my head was throbbing and I felt pain throughout my whole body, and I couldn't think about what she meant. "You might just see him sooner than you think..." she continued. She turned to look at the door. "Bring them in," she yelled.

One by one, Edward, Alice, Emmett, and Jasper were pushed through the door. They were each held by two other vampires. I noticed that there were four vampires holding Emmett down.

As Edward saw me, he began to struggle. He was trying to escape. To save me.

I was in too much pain to even begin to understand what was going on. Or to care, really.

Victoria laughed as she saw Edward struggling. She walked over to him and slapped him. I didn't move. I didn't gasp, or cry out. I didn't react in any way. I was numb to everything that was going on around me. None of this mattered. I was going to die soon anyway. My last few minutes on this earth didn't matter anymore.

"I suppose you're wondering why your sweet Edward and his siblings are standing before you right now..." Victoria said as she turned back to look at me. Again, I didn't respond or react. She noticed. She looked angry.

"Why isn't she upset, boss?" one of the guys holding Alice asked.

"Ya, I thought you said she would be crying or screaming or something," one of the guys holding Emmett added.

"She should be," Victoria said, not taking her beady red eyes off of me. She walked back over to me. "What's up, hun? Decided you don't care about the love of your life anymore?"

I looked up at her. She looked angry. Very angry. I looked around the room. Emmett and Jasper were struggling to get free. Alice stood looking at me, confused and a little hurt. Edward's face was the most noticeable. He was struggling to get free, but he, like Alice, looked confused and hurt as well. But the most noticeable things about him were the cuts he had across his face and arms, and torso. His shirt was torn in many places, where cuts were showing through, and I could see a shiny liquid around all the cuts.

I was in to much pain to care.

The next second, I felt even more pain. I looked down at my leg, where the pain was coming from. Victoria had stepped on it, and it had snapped. Just like in Arizona a year ago. I didn't scream. Yes, it hurt, but I was too weak, too exhausted, and in too much pain from everything else to care about this new pain.

Suddenly, a huge burst of another kind of pain began to pulse through my body. It was even worse than the pain I was feeling before. I knew it must be the venom running through my bloodstream. I fell over, and out of the corner of my eyes I saw Edward struggling even more. But I didn't care about that right now. The pain was just so awful.

I was going to die. I was going to die and I would be all alone. Edward and the rest of the Cullens were still alive. But not me. I was going to die.

Everything I had told Victoria I wasn't frightened of, I was now terrified of. The pain was a million times worse than before. And I wouldn't have the love of my life with me when I died. I would be alone. And the fact that I was dying did frighten me now. I was leaving the earth. I was dying.

Dying.

The scent of my blood drifted to my nose once more. I had blocked it out before, but now it was coming back. The awful scent of rust and salt. With a small laugh, I remembered when Edward and I talked about that when I first came to Forks.

Wait, I laughed? What was happening to me? Why was I laughing?

I remembered when I had been in the hospital not long ago, and the painkiller medicines had made me crazy and do very strange things. I had laughed then too, even though I was in pain. Thinking of that made me laugh again.

I thought of all the people I would be leaving behind as I died. Charlie, Renee, Jacob, and the entire Cullen family. With a smile, I remembered some of the times Jacob and I had together. Working on his car in his garage, figuring out our ages, learning how to ride a motorcycle. I was going to miss him.

And Charlie, I was going to miss him, too. All the times I had come up to Forks when I was a little kid to visit him, the good times we had while I was living up here, and I would even miss the bad times. At least they were...times...

I realized, with a pang of sadness, that my life was flashing before my eyes. Not sadness because I was going to miss all the good times with the people I love, but sadness because I knew that this was something that happened to people right before they died.

I was dying. Really dying.

I remembered the good times I had with Renee. Living together in Arizona, and all the fun we had. Me growing up, and her having to take care of me. I laughed again as I realized that, most of the time, it was me taking care of her.

I thought about each of the Cullens in turn.

I remembered Alice and all our trips together, whether they were shopping trips, or epic trips like our trip to Volterra.

I remembered Jasper, and how, even though we weren't as close as I would've liked, we still had many fun times together.

I remembered Emmett, and his loud, booming laugh when I did something stupid.

I remembered Rosalie, and how I had just begun to maybe make progress with her.

I remembered Esme, and her motherly, loving care for me.

I remembered Carlisle, and how he had saved me countless times, and his positive outlook on life.

And, last, I remembered Edward.

That is when I began to cry again. Edward. I thought of all the wonderful, blissful times we had together. Taking me to his meadow, where we had first told each other our true feelings for one another. Playing baseball with him and his family. Running away from James, and how far he had gone to protect me. The perfect summer we had together. Him leaving (I began to cry even harder as I remembered this.) Alice and I going to Volterra to save him, and what I thought to be our last moments together in the sewers of Volterra. Him proposing to me (I began to cry even harder as I remembered.) And now this.

I realized that I would never see my Edward again. Never see his perfectly angelic face again. Never see his crooked smile, never hear his laugh, never hear him play the piano for me. Never drive in his Volvo with him again, never hear him make fun of my car.

Never visit the meadow with him.

Never marry him.

I would die alone. Without him. Without anyone.

I began to feel lightheaded again. I realized that Victoria had brought her mouth to my flesh again, and was drinking the rest of my blood. I faintly heard someone yelling out to me in the background.

"Bella! No! Bella!"

Edward.

"I...love...you..." I whispered. It took all of my strength. I wasn't even sure if he heard me.

Then I heard something I thought I never would.

Crying. And not the typical, dry sobs I was used to hearing from vampires, but real, true crying. With tears and all. And it was coming from Edward.

I didn't think it was possible. In fact, I knew it was impossible. But for some reason, it was happening. A vampire was really crying, with real tears.

"Bella..." Edward whispered between his sobs. "I love you..." he said.

It felt like those were the magic words. I knew we both loved each other. And this seemed to put my soul at rest. My body gave up at trying to fight death. I now let it come. I stopped trying to breathe. I let the pain come. I let the smell of rust and salt into my nose. Anything that would make the end come quicker, I welcomed with open arms.

And then the pain stopped. But I felt like I was falling. Falling through a black, endless hole. All I could see was darkness. I tried to open my eyes, to see where I was, but I realized they were already open.

And then, at the bottom of the endless hole, I saw a tiny prick of light. Like a small star. As I continued to fall, the star got bigger and bigger. When I thought I was close enough to reach out and touch the star, it disappeared.

And the pain came back.

And then it ended.

oooooooo. whats going to happen?!?!?!?!

next chapter out soon!

please review!

.:danielle:.