"Does anyone else not really feel like fighting anymore?" I asked idly as I played with a twig that had somehow made its way into the house. I would flick it across the room, and then call it back using my power. It had been a week since they had taken Jasper, and we were all so bored that everyone was watching me play with the twig, and had been watching me for the past five hours.

"Me," Rosalie answered.

"Me too," Victoria agreed.

"I just want to see Carlisle again," Esme said.

"Okay, I guess the better question would be, 'Is there anyone besides me who still wants to fight?' Because I get the feeling that you're all just ready to give up." Emmett said.

"Pretty much," Victoria agreed. "It's really rather pointless."

"Are you speaking from past experience or this experience?" Rosalie asked.

"Both," Victoria answered. "We won't win."

"We might as well just tell them to kill all of us at the same time," I sighed.

"I'm still fighting," Emmett said stubbornly.

"I don't really care anymore," Rosalie said. "We know it doesn't matter anyway. We're severely outnumbered."

"And out-talented," Esme pointed out. "The only gifts left in our family are Victoria's and Bella's."

"Neither of which do any good," Rosalie concluded.

"Victoria's could," Emmett argued.

"Don't you think that if I could confuse them I would have done it by now?" Victoria asked. "They're blocked, but I'm not sure how. This is when we need Edward to see what's happening inside their heads."

"Maybe that's why they killed Edward first," I suggested.

"We'll never know," Esme sighed.

"So who do we think is the next to go?" Rosalie asked.

"Probably me," Emmett said glumly. "I'm the only guy left."

"It won't be me," I said.

"Or me," Victoria said. "They want to torture me with all the deaths too."

"It might be me," Esme said.

"Or I suppose it could be me," Rosalie finished.

"We won't know until they come," Victoria said with a shrug.

It was silent for a while. None of us knew what to say.

"When was the last time you hunted, Bella?" Esme asked.

"The day they took Carlisle," I answered, not looking away from my twig as it flew across the room.

"You need to hunt," she told me. "The rest of us have hunted more recently than that."

"I'll get around to it," I said with a shrug. "I don't feel like leaving the house right now."

"You need to hunt tonight," she said. It was sunny, or I got the feeling she would have told me to go right then.

"I will," I promised.

But I didn't get the opportunity to hunt that night, for Rosalie was the next to disappear. We were too busy comforting Emmett and Esme for me to go anywhere. The weird thing is that we didn't even know they had been in the house until Emmett asked if we had seen Rose recently. We had all been in our rooms, and Rosalie had gone downstairs to get a magazine that she had bought. When she didn't come back in twenty minutes, Emmett went to look for her. We found a note on the couch saying that they had taken her. Emmett raced out into the sunset, but by the time we got to her ashes they were almost cold. We had been too late again.

The next day Emmett disappeared. This time there was more of a struggle, but not much. Emmett didn't want to fight anymore, and the rest of us didn't want to fight either. So we put up a halfhearted fight, only going to check the ashes out of habit rather than hope.

And so only three of us were left. Esme didn't come out of her room for two days. Victoria and I tried to coax her out, but failed miserably. She didn't talk, and didn't move.

Finally, after the second day, she came out.

"I'm going hunting," she said.

"We'll come with you," I said.

"Thank you, Bella, but I'll go alone." She gave each of us hugs and a kiss on the cheek. "I love both of you very much," she said, "and I don't ever want you to forget it."

"We won't," we promised. We knew it was the end. Esme knew, and we did too, that if she went out alone that she wouldn't return.

We were right. We smelled the smoke three hours later. Victoria and I didn't even bother going to check. It wasn't worth the effort. It had gotten to the point where we didn't care. We knew that we should grieve our family members dieing, and they deserved at least a little bit of a mourning period, but we knew that they were going to die. We were prepared for it, and that dulled the pain.

We just didn't care anymore.

"Do you think it will be painful?" I asked at one point as Victoria and I were lounging in the living room.

"Most likely."

"Do you think it will be fast or slow?"

"Slow and painful."

"Are you afraid?"

"Terrified."

"When do you think they will come?"

"I don't know," Victoria sighed, closing her eyes.

"Should I shut up?"

"Please."

"I'll be in my room."

"Fine."

I stood up and went upstairs. Once in my room I flopped down on the bed and just lay there, staring at the black ceiling.

I lost track of time. It could have been one day, or it could have been five. I wasn't sure. Nothing happened during that time anyway. The event that pulled me out of my brooding was when my bedroom door opened.

I didn't look up. I figured it was Victoria.

"My, aren't we unobservant today?" Adeliza asked.

"Go away," I said tiredly without moving. "I don't want to deal with you."

"Neither did Victoria. She came willingly a few days ago."

"Good for her."

Adeliza knelt next to my bed and started whispering in my ear. "Don't you want to come willingly? I promise to end the pain soon. It will be practically painless if you cooperate. You won't feel a thing."

"I don't care what happens," I informed her without looking away from the ceiling. "But I think you'll find I won't put up much of a struggle."

"Come with me," she whispered seductively. "Take my hand, and I'll lead you to your final destination. It will be fast. You'll get to be with Edward again."

I didn't respond.

"Come with me," she repeated. She stood up and held out her hand for me to take.

I had nothing to live for anymore. I took her hand.