Author's Notes: Only a few more chapters left in this story, everyone. Your reviews will be greatly appreciated. You know I'm famous for cliffhangers, and I'm trying to decide whether or not to end the final chapter on one, or if I should include an epilogue. Your reviews will be the deciding factor!

Freesia Juliet

Part Three: Trust

Chapter Nineteen: The End of the World

(Bella's Point of View)

There was an incessant humming in the base of my skull, like someone had shoved a tiny kazoo into my brain. Everything around me was strangely foggy, like a bad dry ice projector or taking a walk in a San Francisco morning. I knew vaguely that I had no control over my own body, but this bothered me little, because I felt the presence of two friends beside me.

I wondered if Colette and Carlisle were feeling the same effects that I was. If I moved slow enough, I found that I could lift my head to see Colette's face. Her eyes were hazed by the same hypnotic glaze, blinking sleepily despite our brisk pace. Good. I was not alone.

I wondered who or what controlled my deliberate footsteps. Was it Gina? No, that did not seem to be her talent. Could it be the ever-mysterious Lady Genevieve? No, I doubted she would force us, especially when we had come this far willingly. Then it must be a third presence, one that we had not met as of yet. Not an acquaintance of Colette or Henri- they would have warned us.

At some length we arrived at an ornamentally carved set of double doors. I felt Carlisle hesitate behind me- they were identical to a prominent pair in the Volturi compound. I felt no such hesitation, mostly because I couldn't.

"Hello, Isabella," hissed the sickeningly familiar voice of Aro.

I was frozen, rooted to the ground, partially because of fear, but mostly because of the overwhelming power that controlled every muscle.

The world erupted around me. Carlisle shouted something, something that my muffled ears could not comprehend. I could not even turn my head and watch the chaos as a swarm of vampires rushed out to subdue my struggling companions.

There was screaming. Then the scream was cut short, and the terrible smell of fire hit my overly-sensitive nose. My mind accepted what my heart could not- someone was dead, and doubtless it wasn't Aro.

My senses were overwhelmed, and my mind pitched forward into the safety of black despair as cold hands dragged me away.

"Where am I?!" I screamed into the darkness for the umpteenth time.

To my surprise, this time I got an answer. "You are safe here, Bella." The voice was light and lyrical, with a heavy accent of a long-dead language.

"Who are you?" I asked with a whimper as a towering phantom lit up the eternal light. It was like watching a moving painting, and once again I could appreciate the skill of the artist Michelangelo. This was Genevieve, the most beautiful of the Volturi queens. The last of the Etruscan princesses.

"I am Lady Genevieve," she explained unnecessarily in her benevolent, musical voice.

My voice was shaky and weak, but I managed to reply, "I bet you knew Romulus and Remus."

She laughed jovially. A chorus of angels. No wonder she lived all holed up in the mountains- she presence was too glorious for lesser beings. "Remus was my grandfather," she said with a wink, enjoying my reference to the Roman legend.

"Well then," I said, cowed by her presence, "I suppose you know who I am and why I am here."

"Marcus filled me in on the details, my dear," she agreed. The light pouring from her skin faded, but the room as a whole brightened until it was bearable.

It was my bedroom, back in Forks.

I nearly fainted.

"You don't like it?" Genevieve said with motherly concern. "I picked it out of your memories as being a happy place. But maybe I was wrong…" She nibbled on her lip as she surveyed her creation with frustration.

"How did you do this?" I demanded.

"My gift, dear Bella, is to create illusions in the mind. Not very useful for fighting, but excellent for consoling prisoners. You don't even want to know where you are really." Her voice became unexpectedly bitter. "I cannot stop Aro and Caius from doing as they please, though I have some sway over my son Marcus."

"Oh," I said, my mind numb as I carefully picked up a CD from the nightstand. It was the one that Edward had burned for me for my eighteenth birthday- funny that I would leave it behind in Charlie's house.

I had never come back to the place where my father died, so this all was a bit of a nasty shock to me. At least there weren't blood stains smeared across the floor.

"Aro forced Maelus to use his power on you, Gina, and Colette; I tried to intercept him, but only ended up getting Colette and myself killed."

Panic swarmed over me. "You're… dead? Then am I?" I hissed.

"Oh, no, no, poor Bella. You're still alive. You can see me as an echo of my gift. In fact, I only exist in your mind now."

"Good," I breathed, but then felt guilty. "I'm sorry about what happened to you."

She laughed. "It was a noble sacrifice, one I had been looking for, for a long time. When you get to be my age, you begin to wonder if eternity is worth it! Besides, Colette and I bought your family a little more time. Marcus and Maelus are so angry that they may just quit the Volturi altogether." She seemed to thing this was humorous.

"Who is Maelus?"

"Maelus is my other son. Poor thing was born unable to speak, but his gift more than made up for it."

"What is his gift?"

"Telepathy. He can communicate with his mind."

"And he controlled us," I said, angry.

A sharp pain pierced the back of my skull. "Bella!" Genevieve shrieked as I spiraled back out of this dream world…

I can not tell you how long I had been in this blackened room. Long enough, I suppose, to be impossibly thirsty.

Every muscle quivered as I struggled to restrain myself. I had discovered that if I could not see where I was going, I could not use my powers to get there. Heaven help the world if I could free myself in such a condition!

Suddenly, there was someone with me in this pitch-black space. "Hungry, Isabella?" simpered Caius from somewhere to my right. I lunged, snarling, no longer able to form rational thoughts. This one did not smell like food. But the other one… yes, the other one smelled very much like food.

Unable to stop myself, I attacked the being, who did not even have time to whimper before I destroyed their jugular. Blood. Food, I thought as I frantically finished my meal. For those who do not understand, starving a vampire is like torturing a man to insanity. One more day and I might have never come back from the edge of madness.

But there was a price. Oh my God! I thought with unimaginable horror, I've just killed a human!

Shivering and shaking, I collapsed, wailing softly and rocking back and forth.

What sort of monster had I become?

To me, this was the end of the world.