29.

Lisa's perspective –

The minute the door was closed I nearly ripped the dress off my body and pulled my own clothes back on. My throat was still burning, though it was better now that I was not surrounded by the smell. Finally I could think clearly.

So Aro was going to try to bribe me to join him by offering me human blood. But I would refuse to play his little games, even if it tore me inside out to resist. I wasn't going to let that man get any kind of control over me.

Oh Alice, where are you?

The shield was still there and I wondered where it was coming from. It had to be somewhere close to be so effective; the guard outside my door? If he had a special power, why was he just a silent guard? Nothing was making sense to me as I tried to sift through everything I had seen and heard since being kidnapped by Aro.

I crawled unto the bed and hugged one of the big fluffy pillows close to my chest, pondering what it could all mean.

John, I miss you.

Experience told me that John would fall apart if the Cullens didn't find me soon. Everything I had helped him through; fighting the addictions and depression, pulling himself away from the alcohol; had taken us almost two years and had nearly broken us apart many times. But I had seen something in John, something not many people saw, a small light that was just waiting to be fed so it could burn. It was that spark that had made me fight so hard for his sake. When he was finally over it all, he had proposed to me and immediately I had said yes, knowing there was no one else I would ever love like the man I had given my blood, sweat, and tears to for the past two years. He had finished his college, received his degree in business, and gotten an amazing job. My dad had helped John climb the corporate ladder fast, giving him tips and insights into the business. Having a father figure in his life had transformed him into a strong man and I was so sure he would have made an incredible father.

I would do anything to make sure John never fell back into his dark hole. I won't let that happen again, John. You've worked so hard.

I lost track of time as my thoughts pulled me this way and that, leading me from memory to memory. The lock on my door slid open and a small hooded figure stepped into my room. All I could see of her face were the brilliant red eyes, burning into me. Even before she spoke, I knew who it was. I would recognize those cold eyes anywhere.

"Come," said Jane in a flat voice, and I felt I had no choice but to follow as the big silent guard crowded into the room behind her, demanding me to move with his mere presence.

Again my mind began sending me warning signals as I numbly followed the floating black cape down the hall to a different set of stairs at the other end of the hallway. As we traveled down them, the stench of death and mildew grew stronger.

There was a door at the very bottom of the stairs, looking very ancient and rotten. She pushed it open and all I could see were stone rooms, closed off by steel doors. One door stood open, allowing me to see the cold inside of the room; the only window in the room was covered by metal bars. I shuddered. How had I ever gotten myself into this?

Magically, a ring of keys appeared in Jane's white hand. She used one to unlock the third metal door, beckoning me inside. My moment of hesitation brought forth a harsh push from the guard behind me. The force of his push nearly made me fall into the wall. This room had a window like the other, though it was much smaller and higher up. A sort of table chair sat in the middle of the room, complete with bolted down arm and feet restraints. Blood had stained the wood a dark brown. The room smelled stale and I could imagine the mildew growing all over.

The door closed behind me as I was looking around the room. Before I had a chance to turn around though, crippling pain shot through my whole body and I screamed in terror. The pain was worse than anything I had ever felt before. If my limbs were being torn off my body, it would not have hurt half as much as this. The pain was not only physical but also mental. I gasped for air, suddenly feeling like I was drowning in the pain.

Somewhere in the room I heard Jane chuckle lightly. The pain left as quickly as it had come. "Sit down." She ordered me sternly.

I glanced at the table wearily, wondering if she wanted me to sit there.

"Sit!" she nearly screeched at me. Strong hands grabbed my arms, pushing me down onto the torture table, shackling me in.

I nearly laughed. Any vampire could easily break through these bonds. I began to pull at them, but then the pain was there again. My back arched upwards from the table, my mouth wide in a silent scream. I felt like I was going blind as white light filled my eyes.

"Stop!" I managed to scream.

"Hmm? What was that?"

Jane was right above me, watching me with an amused grin. She glanced at the guard. "Did she ask me to stop?" A giggle erupted from the girl's throat.

The guard merely grunted in reply to her question.

Again the pain left me, feeling absolutely weak and scared to death.

"I assume your smart little brain has figured out why Aro brought you here," Jane said curtly.

I gasped, unable to answer quickly enough.

"Aro has a strange obsession with finding all those… wonderfully talented ones among our kind. And then he becomes so obsessed with this idea of making them his, it literally consumes him. He nearly went mad when he couldn't have that little girl Bella." She spit her name out like it was poison. "But then he found you," she added.

Her fingernail ran against my skin, circling my belly button. "Which is why we're here today. Aro was quite furious that his little blood trick didn't work, though I could have saved him the trouble and told him you were much too strong to simply buckle with that little trick. So he called me in." Again she chuckled.

A sob filled my throat, bursting out from my throat in a wail. With all the intensity of the pain, sadness washed over me, pulling me down into darkness. I screamed in anger when I realized Jane was going to play games with my feelings. I clenched my teeth together, trying to fight off the sorrow.

"Aah, what a little fighter we have here," Jane mussed, smiling darkly. "This will be quite fun. Perhaps too fun…" An evil cackle turned her head up to the ceiling and all I could think of was a mad scientist who had just invented the potion to end the world.

At some point during the night, Aro had wandered into the hallway outside and peeked through the little barred window in the door. But that information was lost inside the raging sea of emotions that Jane was pulling through. She wore a constant look of pure pleasure on here face as she tortured me with pain and anguish, hunger and frenzy. I was unable to move as I was pulled from one extreme to the next, my mind going numb so that I lay absolutely still, fixated only on the feelings. Some part of my mind had been trying to fight, trying to keep me from slipping into this state of helplessness, but at some point even that had failed me.

As time slipped by, the shadows in the room changed as the sun went down and came back up again. Slowly Jane was moving closer and closer to me, looking like she might explode with happiness.

A shadow fell over my face and I unclenched my eyes to see Jane's face inches from mine, wearing a crafty grin, her eyes shinning with amusement.

"Are you having fun?" she asked me.

I opened my mouth but all that came out was a soft gasp as another wave of pain hit me. Suddenly, it was like a spark had reignited that part of my brain that wanted to fight back.

Get out of this, Lisa!

My thoughts began to race, screaming at me. What could I do, I wondered desperately.

Before the answer fully got hold of me, my arm was already moving. I pushed against the numbness and pain and pushed my arm away from my body. My fingers touched cold skin and wrapped around Jane's arm. I squeezed tightly and heard Jane gasp in horror, her facial expressions changing from enjoyment to pure shock in less than a second.

With my hand wrapped around Jane's forearm, I was able to stop the pain from assaulting me and pushed it unto Jane instead.

She fell to the floor, screaming and writhing under my touch. I began to laugh as relief and a sick perverted sense of justice fell over me like a rope tossed out to pull me in. "How does it feel, Jane," I said in a sing-song voice, watching her squirm and beg.

I could feel her trying to make me feel something, but I had the same power she had now, so she was unable to harm me.

Less than a minute had flown by since I first made contact with Jane's skin. Suddenly a huge figure was standing over me, it's arms coming down to grab my from behind. In a split second, I turned around, one hand on Jane, the other pushed out to the giant's chest. He stopped dead in his track as I pushed paralyzing fear into his head.

And that's when I felt it: my ray of hope shone down on me as the guard's shield fell down under the fear. Voices came crashing in on me, bombarding me with information, until I found one that was as familiar as my own skin.

Edward, I screamed in my head.

I wasn't sure how it was happening, but somehow I was able to hear everything Edward was hearing, use his gift, though he was nowhere near me.

Edward! I'm in Italy! I rattled off the coordinates I had memorized in the plane hangar. Please find me, Edward, please.

And then it was all over. Jane had used my own tactic against me, stopping the pain I was immobilizing her with. Her arm wrenched out from my grasp and I crumpled to the floor as she took her anger out on me. The growled in pure rage as she grabbed hold of my arm and pulled it off, ripping it at the elbow.

"Bring me a human!" she yelled at the guard, who shuffled off. He was back a few minutes later. Jane pulled the girl into the room and grabbed at her, biting off a chunk of her arm. The girl screamed in terror as blood began seeping out of the wound, spilling unto the floor.

"You won't get away with what you did!" screamed Jane at me as my throat closed up and my eyes began to burn. The smell was so intoxicating and I was weak from all emotional roller coaster Jane had put me on. Before the pain hit me, all I thought was, please let Edward have heard me.