This is back to Bella's POV. Most of this chapter was inspired from New Moon, when Bella sees and talks to Laurent in the meadow.


Chapter 12 Pain

I was aware someone was tying my hands and legs. There was no noise, except a muffled sound of chirping birds and my own heart. My side was pressed against what felt like a hard-wood floor, and my hands were tied in front of me around something large and hard. It surprised me that I knew who was calmly tying me. I did not think I should have been able to remember everything that had happened with Victoria, but I could recall the memory of being kidnapped very easily.

That still did not mean I wanted to accept what had happened. I refused to open my eyes, even though I felt wide awake. I tried to ignore the terror I felt, but I found that was not possible. My heart was racing and I could not catch my breath. But I still kept my eyes shut, because I did not want to look at the face of my killer.

"I think it's time you wake up," Victoria's shrill voice spoke softly in my ear.

I almost began to hyperventilate, but I would not allow myself to make a reaction to add to her enjoyment. I felt ice cold hands lightly touch my hands, and I repressed a shudder. The cold finger deliberately tapped each of my fingers on both hands. My heart was thrashing so hard it hurt. My body began to tremble violently, and I knew there was no way Victoria still thought I was asleep. I squeezed my eyes tight, still not wanting to look at her.

I felt her fingers clamp over my left thumb, and before I knew it there was an unbearable searing pain on my nail. My eyes popped open from the pain, and a scream forced its way out. As I blinked away some tears and tried to bear the pain I noticed it was not my nail that hurt, the nail was no longer there at all. My sobbing increased when I saw Victoria take my next finger in her hand, and pause.

"Please stop," I sobbed.

"That would not be very fun for me. No, I have decided your death will come slowly and painfully. Besides, I think you might taste better this way, your blood will just be more satisfying." Victoria said pleasantly. "I thought your nails would be a good warm up," her smile widened as she spoke. With that I saw her pop the next nail with a flick of her finger.

I saw the thick blood ooze out from the absent nail before I felt the nauseating pain. I couldn't restrain another scream, and my sobs increased to a new level. Why couldn't I just pass out? Why couldn't Victoria just kill me quickly? Victoria was obviously thrilled with my reaction, and she laughed. Her eyes were shining as she bathed in her revenge.

She grabbed my middle finger and positioned her other hand to take the nail off. I almost started to beg and plead, but I realized it would only add to her delight. I shut my eyes again and tried to only focus on something else. My sobs had not subsided at all, and I could feal my heart hammering throughout my entire body. I counted the rapid beats, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. . .

That's when I felt the pain. I couldn't hold my eyes shut any longer or resist the scream. Victoria laughed out loud, and her chime-like laugh only added to my distress. Without warning, she flicked the last two nails on my left hand off. My blood curdling scream was the only sound in the house. As I screamed I felt myself drift in and out of conciousness. I felt very nausious again and threw up on the floor. I tried to breath, and stop screaming, as Victoria continued watching me with delight, as if she was seeing a good action movie.

"Do you want a snack," I heard a familiar voice say between my cries. I glanced up and saw Laurent standing above me Why was he here? I thought he had moved to Alaska to try a new life style. "There are two humans coming to investigate the noise," he said with a quick look at me and a grin, showing off his perfect white teeth. I was able to see his eye, and they were a very dark red, the color of a thirsty vampire's eyes who had a diet of human blood. The same colored eyes Victoria had. It seemed he no longer planned to be a "vegetarian".

"A snack sounds wonderful," she practically purred. In a flash they were both gone, leaving me alone with my pain.

My thoughts were too occupied with my own problems to worry about the unlucky hikers. At least they would be killed quickly. I felt so unbearably weak, and I was becoming mad at myself for making so much noise. It was my fault after all for getting two inoccent people killed, just because I couldn't deal with this pain quietly.

My sobs diminished a bit, and I focused on taking deep breaths. The smell of my own vomit near my face was intoxicating though, and made deep breaths much more difficult. My body was still trembling uncontrollably, and the pain was excruciating. The searing pain from each finger felt like it was traveling up my entire arm. I had never been in this much pain from anything I could remember, and this was only the start of what Victoria, and now Laurent could and would probably do to me. I tried to take my mind off my pain, disscomfort, and fear by looking around.

The room I was in looked like a dining room in an old abandoned house. My hands were tied to some kind of support beam. The wood was splintery, and every inch of the house I could see was covered in a thick layer of dust. The only source of light was from the shaded woods outside the grimy windows, and the only furnature I could see was broken parts of what was probably once a table and chairs.

There was a blur of movement, and two sets of bright red eyes were in front of me again. I looked away from them and stared at a large dirt spot on the floor in front of me. I did not want to look into there eyes, and I did not want let them see the pain and fear in mine.

"Where did we leave off?" Victoria asked happily as she bent down and took my right hand.

I couldn't believe what I did next, as I began screaming and pleading hysterically and incoherently. I did not even know what I was saying, but I was begging with Victoria. Giving her exactly what she wanted.

She laughed, thrilled with my reaction and snapped my thumb nail off. Again, I could not hold back the scream. As I sobbed, an image of Edward came into my memory. I wished he was here, even if it was just to comfort me. Just his presence would give me the strength to bear this pain. I thought about how I was letting him down by giving Victoria her desires. The least I could do to fight back, the least I could do for Edward, would be to not give anymore fuel to Victoria's victory. I promised myself I would not show anymore emotion and pain until I died. There had been other people in history who had been tortured for various reasons who did not give in, and there was no reason I could not do the same.

As I felt Victoria take my next finger, I lightly closed my eyes and thought about Edward. His image in my mind became a great thing to help control my emotions. I felt the next nail get ripped off, but this time, with all my determination and as much focus as possible on happy memories, I was able to keep my mouth closed. There were still three more nails to practice with before Victoria moved on to a more painful torture, and that was how my last nails were pulled. I managed to keep myself controlled, and my eyes never opened. My mind felt like it was becoming detatched from my body. It felt very strange to force my mind into a differnt place, while I was still aware of damage being put on my body.

I felt a sudden blow on my lower stomach, so hard it threw me against my restraints. I could feel damage there from the force, but still I did not react, make a sound, or open my eyes. I continued to focus on Edward, think only of Edward. A snap on the upper right side of my back made my eyes fly open, but I still did not make a sound. It felt like a rib had been cracked on my side.

With my eyes open I could see the disappointed angry look on Victoria's face. Clearly my change in reaction had made her angry, and now it was my turn to feel some amount of victory. I had discovered something I could use to fight back, at least a little.

"We are going to have to move," I heard Victoria say disgustedly to Laurent, who had been standing contently to the side, happy just to watch. "I can feel our pursuers coming near. We should relocate before the come any closer."

Pursuers? Who was chasing us?. Somewhere deep down my mind already knew who it was, but I didn't want to fully realize it. I was afraid if I hoped too much that I could be saved, my mind would reconnect with my body, and I would feel this pain more intensly again. I had to do everthing I could to keep my power against Victoria and remain quiet and emotionless. So, I didn't think too much about why we were moving somewhere else, or the possibility of being rescued.

She easily broke the thick ropes binding my hands, and picked up my limp body. Essentially, I had let my body die, and only kept my mind alive. I did not even pay attention to the passing scenery as she ran, and still thought about Edward. I remembered the first time I saw him, and I thought about some of the best times I had ever been alone with him. I imagined his perfect face, velvet voice, and wonderful scent. I could almost feel his cold hard lips on mine as I pictured us kissing, and his gentle arms around me as he held me.

After what seemed like a couple hours, I felt my body get dropped, jostling my broken rib, and bruised hip. My mind floated away, and watched the abuse continue more severely to my body from a distance.

It was just disorganized thrashing, hitting, and beating. Victoria broke several more bones, and caused more bruising around almost every part of my body. Every move she made was deliberately slow, so she could try to make them as painful as possible. She waite at least five minutes between each hit, to let the pain of each injury sink in before the next one. At the same time, she was careful with each blow not to hit too hard, because she still didn't want me dead yet.

I was able to watch Victoria pick up a broken shard of glass from the barn we were in. Laurent was standing above me, eying me hungrily, or in his case, thirstily. She made a very slow long cut down one arm, then made another on my other arm. Dark red blood gushed from the deep wounds, but I had perfected my control over myself so well now I didn't even twitch or whimper. Victoria's face showed disappointment, anger, and determination, but no longer held any trace of enjoyment.

My consciousness was definitely slipping now. My ears began to ring loudly, and my already distant vision of reality became darker and darker. I was able to notice Laurent's face, he looked crazy, ravenous, like he could not stay away from me any longer. His eyes looked very eager to get to me, and his breathing became loud and rapid. My slow mind finally realized what was different. This was the first time any blood had come out of me. Until now Victoria had not let me bleed, except for the tiny bit that came from my nails. I was at this point lying in my own blood, and I couldn't help but remember how I had been told, at least a couple times, that I smelled very apatizing.

My eyes closed, and I felt myself drift. Then I was back again, and I opened my eyes to see Victoria fighting Laurent. Her face looked similar to his, ravenous, and unbearably thirsty, but she still did not want to kill me yet.

"I just want one more reaction from her," she said in between her efforts to push him away.

"She's almost dead, I want to get to her now!" I almost couldn't recognize Laurent's voice because it was so wild and frantic.

I continued to drift rapidly in and out of consciousness. Each time I woke up, the two were still struggling. Victoria was still very determined to get me to scream, writhe in pain, show some fear, cry, or something. I felt happy again to have that power over her. I would be the winner In a way when I died, because Victoria was not going to get any more satisfication from me.

The next time I drifted out and into consciousness, I had to blink several times to make sure what I saw was real. Edward was right in front of me, crying tearless sobs. Victoria and Laurent were wrestling with Jasper and Alice.

"Bella, I'm so sorry," he cried. "I should have been able to stop her, I should have been more careful." As he said this he very gently took my hand with one hand and stroked my hair with the other, pushing the sticky strands out of my eyes and off my face.

"Edward," I murmured slowly. "You're really here." I had spent such a long time focusing only on thoughts of him, and now I could tell he as really here.

I had not been able to feel much of the damage inflicted on me, but now I could feel Edward's cold touch. I felt his cool perfect touch on my face, and my hand in his. He seemed to suddenly bring me down to Earth. I felt as much pain as my body was probably capable of feeling at once, and I began to sob. Everything became sharper, my heart began to pund harder, my body started to tremble violently again, I felt a little more awake, but at the same time the pain was unworldly. I was amazed I was alive, let alone concious. My body must have been stronger than I thought.

I was giving Victoria the reaction she had wanted after all. But it didn't matter anymore now that Edward was here. I couldn't even find the energy to scream, so I could only sob. I wanted to pull myself into Edward's lap. I longed for him to hold me, but my body felt so heavy, I couldn't even lift my hand, and I could not speak in between my cries.

I suddenly wanted to live, I had the strongest desire not to let myself die. I wanted to have the oppertunity to be with Edward. I knew I had the strength and determination to live, and I did not want to let Edward or myself down.