Here is chapter eleven! There will only be two more chapters and one of them will be an epilogue. Please review and tell me what you liked, thought could have been better, etc. It's nice to have some input from the readers.

Vi908

I don't own anything except for Liz.

The taxi pulled up to the ballet studio around 1:15, which meant I had approximately fifteen minutes before I had to go in and face James. My poor heart was pounding so loudly and hardly in my chest that I could hear it clearly in my ears; I felt like I was about to have a massive heart attack. I had never been so close to death before. As much as I told myself to calm down, I couldn't.

I got out of the cab and thanked the driver for taking me there before I turned around to stare at the building I had been brought to. I hadn't been there in months, but I still knew it so well. It was an older building in the middle of downtown with slightly chipped bricks and I make out a spot where someone had spray painted their name in big gold and silver letters on one of the far walls. Overall, on the outside it looked slightly run down and old, like no one had ever used it for much of anything, but it was home to one of the best ballet schools in Arizona and I had once been a proud member of it.

I could remember the first time my mother had brought me here when I was five years old. She was signing me up to take dance classes because she had just realized how terribly clumsy and uncoordinated I was becoming, and she also wanted me to become involved in more activities outside of school. As she registered me at the front desk, I looked into the studio and saw the beautiful ballerinas twirling and whirling all around the huge room and I knew in that very minute that was what I wanted to do when I grew up. I wanted to be just like them, wearing those beautiful pink Pointe shoes and the costumes that made you feel like a princess. When I used to tell people about that moment, I would always call it 'the beginning of my life' since my life was all about dance and that was the first time I realized I wanted to dance.

It was horribly ironic that where I considered my life to begin was the exact place where it would end.

I walked into the empty studio (it was a Sunday and there were no lessons given on Sundays) and immediately a rush of cold air blew at me, chilling me to my very core. I had always welcomed that cool rush of air after a long day of school or on a hot summer's day. Never had it made me feel such a sense of dread. The dance studio had always been a happy place for me, almost like a second home. I loved dancing and, naturally, I loved the dance studio as well, but as I walked through the eerily silent lobby, I had never hated it more.

I had been hoping that my dream, no, nightmare, wouldn't be true, that it was just like any other regular dream that any normal teenager had, but the moment I walked into the main room, my hopes were dashed. There was blood everywhere, and I mean everywhere. All over the hard wood floor, the mirrors that adorned the front wall, and it was even on the pictures that hung on the back wall. I looked and saw a place where a picture of me had hung for a long time, but the space was empty now. Nothing hung there anymore, except for the blood that drenched the walls.

"Bella!" Liz's shrill voice called out to me. Thanks to my nightmare, I knew exactly where she was and what was to come after I went and saw her, but there was nothing I could do now. I couldn't change the path that had been laid out in my vision. It was meant to happen, just like I was meant to meet the Cullen family.

I couldn't regret the choices that had led me here to ballet studio because they had also led me to Edward and to Alice and the rest of the Cullens. Without them, I didn't know where I would be, more than likely still in Forks moping around and mourning the death of my mother. I definitely wouldn't be dancing, and I probably wouldn't have any friends either. I couldn't make myself wish that I had never met them, either. They had changed me, for good.

"Bella!" Her voice screeched in pain and snapped me out of my train of thought. As I made my way over to the small closet, I could see trails of her blood smeared all over the floors, like she had been dragged in there. "Bella!"

I knew what was to happen next. Liz was going to call out for me one more time before I would open the door to the closet and see her laying there, from there things would get even worse as I would turn around to see James.

As if on cue, Liz's weak voice called out for me one last time. Her strength was fading. "Bella."

The door was as hard to get open in person as it had been in my dream so I had to push with all of my strength to get the thing to budge open. Exactly like in my dream, Liz was lying there on the floor in her blood with her right leg bent strangely and her golden hair and face were covered in dried blood. It was hard to look at, but I couldn't manage to tear my eyes away from her, knowing that this might be the last time I saw her alive. We were both standing on the doorstep of death.

She struggled to raise her hand and point at the thing standing behind me before she whispered only one terrifying word. "Run."

I felt the hair on the back of my neck raise on end and I slowly turned around and looked into the eyes of a monster.

He was even more horrifying than I remembered. Even though it had only been days since I had encountered him in the club in Seattle, he looked even more menacing. His eyes, which had always been blood red whenever I saw him in my dreams or in real life, were completely black. I knew that this meant that he was thirsty. His mouth was twisted up into some sort of snarl. He was having a hard time controlling himself around all of Liz's blood, which was good seeing as once he started feeding and lost control to the blood lust, he would hurriedly finish the two of us off. He was too thirsty to leave us to suffer for long.

"You said you weren't going to hurt her," I was really in no place to be saying anything bad, but I couldn't go down without a fight. How cowardly would I be if I just let him take me then and there? I was going to die fighting.

"I changed my mind," He smiled evilly, revealing two rows of shiny, white teeth. "I was getting tired of waiting for you to come along so I thought I'd…warm up on sweet Liz here."

I was furious that he had hurt her and I could only imagine how much pain she was in at the moment. She had lost so much blood; she couldn't make it much longer without medical attention.

"Well, I'm here now," I was commending my mentally on how well I was taking my impending death. I had never thought much about the way I would die, but I guessed that at least I could say I died bravely trying to save someone I loved.

"Yes, you are," James licked his lips and moved towards me. I had already shut the closet doors back. If she was conscious, I didn't want Liz to see any of the things that were about to happen.

Suddenly, James had me in the same position he had me in while we were in the small alcove in the club. I was terrified and my heart felt as if it was about to literally jump out of my chest. James smirked as he heard it. Through all my bravery, he had been able to sense that I was still scared to death of what was going on.

"You know what, Bella?" He released my throat from his death grasp. I was now gasping for breath do the fact that he had cut off my oxygen supply for a good minute. "I think I'm going to have some fun with you."

He held up the picture of me that had once hung on the back wall of the room. It was one of me dancing the role Odette in Swan Lake two years ago; it reminded me of the fact that I would never be able to dance again, and that hurt more than anything else ever could.

"This is a very beautiful picture of you," The way he said it made me feel disgusted. "You look so…happy."

Before I could even react, He leaned towards me and brought his foot down on my lower calf extremely hard. I screamed in pain as I felt, and heard, my leg crack in two. I could even feel the bone sticking out of my skin and blood starting to trickle down my broken leg. He just continued to smile as I cried out from the pain. I didn't even have time to recover from his first blow before he had pushed me all the way across the room and straight into the mirrors. I heard the crack behind me and I raised my hand up to feel blood coming from my scalp. He continued to throw me back and forth across the room, and before long he had thrown me into the back wall where tons of pictures proceeded to fall on me, cutting and scratching me even more.

"It wasn't hard for me to get the information I needed to find you here in Phoenix," James explained everything, how he had Victoria, the female vampire I had seen in my dreams, break into Forks High School and steal my records and how he had kidnapped Liz on her way to the ballet studio yesterday afternoon after he had seen a picture of her in my room while he broke into my house looking for me.

I tried to crawl away from the wall of pictures, but it was hard. I was surrounded by glass from the picture frames and every single move I made caused more and more of it to pierce my skin. The pain was too much for me to take so I just sat there, surrounded by pictures of my friends and legendary ballerings, such as Margot Fonteyn and Gelsey Kirkland.

James paused before continuing his attack on me. The blood was starting to overwhelm him and I could tell it would only be minutes before he would lose control and have to finish me off. He stood on the opposite side of the room from me with his eyes closed, letting the smell of the blood come to him. After a minute, he turned back towards me and I was sure that it was the end when a figure flew out at him, knocking him away from me.

"Bella," A voice called out to me. It wasn't Liz this time, and for some reason when I hear that voice, I felt a rush of hope. "Carlisle, go check the other girl, she's lost even more blood than Bella has," the high, feminine voice sounded by my head on the floor. By now, my body was numb and all the sounds I heard were muffled. I felt like I was drowning. "Bella, it's me, Alice. We're here to help you, Bella. Please, don't close your eyes."

"Jasper, you might want to get out of here," Another voice said, only it was male. It was much deeper, but I couldn't tell who it was although it sounded familiar. I was having trouble concentrating on anything besides a coming darkness that was threatening to overcome me.

"I can handle it," Another male voice said. It wasn't as deep as the second voice, but I also recognized it.

"How is she, the other girl?" The feminine voice asked.

"I'm afraid it's too late to save her," A fatherly like voice responded from somewhere beside me on the floor. I could feel the cold hand touch my skin and it shocked me, it was so cold. "But we might be able to save Bella, if we work fast. Rosalie, quick, give me your jacket."

I could feel something soft propped under my head now, but I was still having trouble focusing. I had figured out that the Cullens were here, all of them I suspected, but I couldn't help but drift towards the darkness that was overtaking my mind. I wanted to speak, but my mouth just couldn't form the words.

"Her head is bleeding badly," Carlisle noted. I could feel Alice holding my only hand that wasn't hurt. The other I had broken sliding across the floor when James through me.

"I think it might be time, Carlisle."

"Edward won't allow," Emmett's deep voice sounded from somewhere near me.

"It's either that or let her die," Jasper responded bluntly. His voice sound strained. He paused a moment before saying something else softly. "I'll go take care of the other girl."

"If Edward won't do it, then I will," Alice shouted. I could hear noises in the background that kind of sounded like floor being ripped up and I also thought I smelled smoke at one point in time. It must have been the blood loss making me imagine things.

"Alice, are you sure you're strong enough?" Emmett asked her.

"For Bella, I am," That made me love Alice even more than I already did.

"No, Alice," Edward cut in harshly. I wasn't sure where he had come from. I hadn't remembered hearing his voice earlier, and I definitely would have recognized his voice if he had been speaking to me. His voice took on a much gentler tone when he turned to me and grabbed my hand away from Alice. "Bella, hang on, we'll get you to a doctor and you'll be all right."

"Edward, I'm sorry, but you're sister is right," Carlisle had stopped trying to tend to my many wounds. I heard Edward growl in protest. "She's lost too much blood already. By the time we could get her to a hospital, she would be dead. We have two options here."

Here it was, the moment I had been waiting to learn about since Alice had first told me I would become one of them.

"No, I won't do that to her!" Edward shouted. "I won't condemn her to this type of existence. I can't do that to her. She deserves better than this."

Edward didn't want me to be like them? I couldn't understand why he wouldn't. I would get to spend forever with him if he turned me into a vampire now. Didn't he want that as much as much as I did? I loved the Cullens and the thought of being separated from them, especially Edward, made me hurt even more than I already did. Anyways, didn't he realize that if I wasn't turned into a vampire now that I would die and never be able to see any of them again?

"Well, if you won't do it, Edward, I will," Rosalie's voice cut in smoothly and calmly through all the chaos that was surrounding us. She was the last person I expected to come into this conversation. She had practically hated me all these months. "Edward, we love Bella like you do. She is the one who finally completes our family, and I, personally, do not want to hear you complaining about how she died for all eternity. So either you do it, or I will."

I was losing consciousness more and more as Edward and Rosalie continued to argue over whether I should die as humans do or become a vampire like them. It seemed that I didn't really have a say in the matter since I couldn't even keep my eyes open anymore. I had decided a long time ago that I wanted to be a vampire. I couldn't bear to lose the family I had come to love so dearly.

"We don't have much longer," I heard Carlisle's urgent voice. "Make your decision."

That was the last thing I heard as I drifted off into a land of darkness and burning, hot fire. I wasn't sure if I had been left to die or if Edward had relented and decided to make me one of them. Only one word could describe what I was experiencing: hell.

"Jasper, she's waking up!" I heard a bubbly voice squeal. I knew that voice anywhere: Alice.

I moved to get up, but I still found myself struggling to get up. Slowly, I moved my fingers and my eyelids fluttered open and my eyes immediately adjusted to the bright light in the room.

"Bella!" Alice sprung on me with all the force she had in her tiny little body, which was a lot seeing as she was a vampire. I was surprised that she hadn't killed me with all the force she used.

Jasper smiled at me from my bedside. Speaking of bedside, I was just now realizing where I was. I was in Alice's room at the Cullen house.

"What happened?" I pushed Alice off of me and flung my legs to the floor and pushed myself up out of bed.

"You don't remember?" Jasper asked, puzzled.

Then, it all hit me. The hotel, James, the ballet studio, Liz, and the blood, oh God, there was so much blood. "The last thing I remember was Carlisle saying that there wasn't much time left."

"Wow, I'm surprised you remembered that much. You seemed like you had been out of it longer than that," Alice told me as she, Jasper, and I congregated in her room.

"So I'm a…" I stated quietly. It was weird to say it. I didn't feel much different than I had days ago.

"You're a vampire now," She smiled happily and gave me the biggest bear hug imaginable from a girl Alice's size.

"What exactly happened?"

"I think we should wait to explain until we are all downstairs and the whole family is here," Jasper advised us.

Family, that made me think of Charlie. What had he heard about me? Had he just heard that his daughter had gone missing and not realized that she would never be found because she was actually a vampire now?

"Edward and Carlisle should be home in about five minutes," Alice told us as we walked down the stairs.

"Bella!" For the second time, I was grabbed into a big bear hug, but this time it was Emmett who was squeezing me like he hadn't seen me in ten years.

"Hey, Emmett," I hugged him back just as strongly. I had no doubt that I would be taking advantage of the extra strength newborn vampires had and would be using it against him.

"Oh, Bella," Esme also came and hugged me, but not as strongly as Alice or Emmett did. "It's so good to see you up again."

Rosalie sat on the couch reading Italian Vogue and although she didn't get up and hug me like Esme, Emmett, and Alice had, she did look up from her magazine and gave me a warm smile, like she used to when we were friends.

Carlisle and Edward walked in exactly when Alice said they would, and they both looked surprised to see me up, Edward especially.

"Bella, I'm sure you have some questions," Carlisle said as we all sat down around the living room. I sat on the couch beside Jasper. I was sure that he was keeping my emotions tightly guarded.

"What happened exactly? I was in and out of it so I didn't really catch everything that was going on."

"Well, after you went off to the ballet studio, Rosalie got worried about you because you had been downstairs an awfully long time so she and Edward went to the lobby looking for you when the receptionist gave Edward your note," My eyes flashed up to Edward's face when Carlisle mentioned the note. I had almost forgotten about that. "Alice was looking through your friend's neighborhood when she saw what was happening. She was the first one to get to you.

"Emmett, Jasper, and I had been tracking James, but we lost him up in the Rockies. The moment we realized he was coming here, we got here as fast as we could and we met up with Edward and Rosalie, looking for you. When Edward remembered your dream about the ballet studio, we were all convinced that was where you were so we went there and there you were.

"It was horrible what he had done to you, Bella," Carlisle grimaced just thinking about and I saw Edward wince. He, too, had seen the horrifying images Carlisle had pictured. "While Edward took care of James, the rest of us went to taking care of you. We want you to know, Bella, that we would never have forced this life on you if you had any chance of living. You had lost too much blood by the time we got to you."

"What about Liz?"Selfishly, I had been caught up in my own whirlwind and had just remembered my best friend that was also there with me that afternoon. The last time I had seen her, she had been barely hanging on. I could only hope for the best.

"It was too late to save her," Carlisle informed me sadly. "We had to turn her as well."

"What do you mean? Liz is a vampire? Where is she?" All my questions spewed out of me. How did, in one day, Liz and I both become vampires? It was a crazy world we were living in.

"Liz, your friend, has become a vampire as well, but I'm afraid having more than one newborn vampire in one household is a hard job," Carlisle informed me. "You remember Edward telling you about our friends in Denali? Tanya, Kate and Irina?" I nodded. "Liz will be living with them for a while, at least until she learns to control her thirst. After then, she will be free to do whatever she pleases, including visiting you."

I smiled. Somehow, both of us managed to make it out alive. I wasn't sure how we had pulled off that one. "What about Charlie?"

"I'm sorry, Bella, but you won't be able to see Charlie ever again," Carlisle answered gravely. I knew that was coming, but it still hurt. I felt horrible for the last things I had said to him. "We made it appear like you had a car accident and ran off of the bridge going towards the south. It was the easiest way to end things."

I nodded. I had accepted that becoming a vampire meant giving up my past life, even if that meant giving up Charlie. I could picture how hard it would be for him losing the love of his life (my mother that he had never gotten over) and his only child within a year of each other.

"Do you have any other questions?" Carlisle asked me patiently. I knew that it must have been rather dull relaying the events to me and telling me the rules of his family as he had done many times with the others he had brought in to join him.

"Uh, yeah, we aren't going to stay in Forks, are we?" It would be hard for me to stay in Forks close to all these people I knew and not get caught. I would never stay in the house all the time, but I couldn't afford to leave and get caught.

"No, we own a house up in Rochester, New York. That's actually where we found Rosalie. We'll be going there for a little while," He explained. "I'm sure you will love it."

I sat there in the living room of the house I knew so well and I couldn't tell if I was sad or happy about what had transpired over the past couple of days. Yes, I was happy that Alice's visions had come true and I was now a part of their lives permanently. I was also happy to have Liz be able to share that life with me, but it was a somewhat sad as well. When I became a vampire, I had to leave a part of me behind that I never wanted to lose: my family. It would be hard not to keep in touch with Phil or not to want to go to my dad's house and listen to him watch sports in his living room with Billy and Jacob Black, but, in the end, I had been able to gain so much more.

Only two more chapters left, guys. Hope you enjoyed it, please review!