Acceptance
I woke up to see the light streaming through the window onto the sheets. Alice skipped over to the bed and handed me a plate of cinnamon rolls. They were sweet, but had a slightly bitter aftertaste. From the cinnamon.
"Come on, Ness. We gotta go," Alice said. She was the only other one in the room.
"Where are the others?"
"They're out finishing up some preparations. Come on!" She was practically yanking me off the mattress. I looked at the clock. Only 8:30.
"Alice, we're going to the Volturi at ten. It's only eight-thirty. I can sleep another half-hour," I muttered, turning my face back into the pillow.
"Not if you're planning on seeing Jacob! His flight leaves at nine-fifteen!" she said as she pulled the covers back. That had gotten my attention. Jake.
"I'm up!" I said as I spun out of bed and across the room to my duffel bag. I pulled out a green sundress and tossed it on. Alice came over to help "perfect" my outfit. Sometimes I wonder why she doesn't just work as a fashion designer in Milan. I pulled my sneakers on and walked out the door. Alice followed me out to the car. We started on the road to the airport.
"We're here, sleeping beauty."
"Huh? What?" I muttered.
"Just come on," she said. We got out of the car and walked to the main building. The lobby was full, but it was easy to see Jacob's tall form. I ran up and jumped to his arms.
"Hey, Nessie. Finally come to say goodbye, did you?" he said. I sobbed into his t-shirt and reached my hand up to his cheek.
"Ness, it's okay. I'll come to visit if I can. We'll be fine at home. This is what we need to do to protect you. Besides, you're lucky. You get to live in Italy. I'm stuck in plain old Washington. It's okay," he said. The option of comforting me was gone when Luke started tracking us. But it was nice, anyway.
"Say hi to everyone on the reservation," I muttered. They were the only ones we were allowed contact. They knew what was happening.
"And Claire. Tell her bye for me," I added. I guess once you've been imprinted on you bond with others of your kind…
"Flight's almost here, Ness. You'd better get going. It's a half-hour till you have to get to the castle," he said, setting me back on the ground.
"Bye Jake," I said through my sobs, as if the message hadn't been put through.
"Bye Ness. Love you," he said, and wiped a tear off my cheek.
"Love you too," I said, as I turned back to Alice. She walked up and they both hugged for a second. Then they both pulled back quickly. Neither could stand the smell of the other for too long. We waved a final goodbye, and then Alice and I headed out to the car. The plane had just pulled down to the runway.
We met with the others at the entrance to the office. Rosalie had come down, once the wolves were able to handle things in Forks. Two minutes were spent on that reunion. Then we headed into the office. It wasn't what I'd expected. When they called it a castle, I'd thought of cold dark hallways and stone dungeons. This looked like any regular business building. There was a nice woman at the desk.
"Morning, Laura. We have an appointment for ten. With the Volturi," Carlisle said to the receptionist. I saw some people give utterly confused expressions when he said "Volturi". Apparently humans used the office as well. Humans that had no clue that vampires exist. Humans that could very well be next. The lady directed us to a plain wooden door across the lobby. Carlisle led us through. We came into a chamber area, empty besides a torch nailed to the far wall. This was more what I was expecting. Brick dungeons. Yeah, this fit the description.
"Felix! It's been too long," Carlisle said.
"Quite, yes. When was it last? Oh, when Edward had that suicide attempt, wasn't it. Well, he seems content now. Come, come. Aro is expecting you," Felix said. He led us through another door. Now my expectations were fulfilling. We entered a large stone room, with three wooden thrones at the head of the chamber. A line of dark grey cloaks lined up from the seats. And three black cloaks sat in them. When we were in the middle of the room, the vampires became alert. I saw one, on the end of the line, begin to walk out. But another pale hand held them back. Then I saw Jane. She stood near the thrones, maybe two spots away. She had pulled her hood back, and was smirking at me. I growled back at her. We were both ready for a fight, but then the person on the middle seat rose and came to greet us.
"Aro! How have you been here?" Carlisle inquired.
"Quite well, good friend. Of course there were some adjustments to make with the new additions, but they've been quite mild-tempered with all this. We've been getting along fine," Aro said, and nodded back to the end of the line. He looked kind of familiar to me. I didn't know where from though.
"We did have a little controversy when Irina was brought up, but we've settled that matter quite well." That brought it back. The meadow. The army. The insane amount of vampires set on killing me. I screamed, and it was quite earsplitting, as I stepped behind Alice, peeking my head around her stomach. I set my hand on her arm to tell her we needed to leave.
"Renesmee, we are not leaving. No, they don't want to kill you anymore- I don't think they do," she said as she sent a questioning glance at Aro.
"Oh, and Renesmee as well! What a grand visit this is Carlisle!" Aro said again. This didn't frighten me. Jane was glaring at me again, and appeared to be concentrating. And getting frustrated. I growled at her.
"Oh, Jane. The Cullens are our friends! Do not harm them, so that Bella is not forced to use her shield for no reason. Now would you mind acquainting our guests instead of attacking them, hmm?" Aro seemed to be more pleasant than I remembered him as.
"Now, why don't we have little Renesmee come meet Jane, shall we?" I just stepped away from Alice to align with my worst enemy. It was pretty much a stare down from there. And a lot of growling, crouching, and snarling from both of us. I wanted to fight her, and I was ready. By the time Aro broke the little showdown, she looked about to have an emotional breakdown. That made me smirk.
"Now, girls, can we play nice?" he asked. That was it. The only thing we had in common. We both broke out laughing like idiots. Like we could really "play nice". Jane and I. Really, it went on for five minutes, at least.
"Would that be a yes or a no?" Alice asked. They were all genuinely confused. Probably because in between laughs, were the most evil glares we could manage to shoot at each other.
"No!" we said in unison, the laughter finally dying down.
"Hmm. Jasper, do you mind?" Aro asked.
"Not at all, sir," Jazz replied. He stared at us for a second, and I didn't feel any extreme hate for the demon in front of me. It only lasted a second though. Then the hate was back, but the need to fight was gone. It looked like something was about to happen, but was interrupted by surprise when Alice's face went completely blank.
"Alice!" Jasper said as he ran over to her. He tried talking to her, snapping her out of it, but she just stared blankly at the wall.
"No!" she screamed.
"Alice, what did you see?" Jasper asked. She was shaking, but frozen to the spot.
"H-he wanted to make sure I saw it. H-he had a message straight to me. He's coming. But the army is too big."
"How many?" Emmett said, "Twenty? Twenty-five? This should be fun."
"No. Sixty," she said.
"God! Why does this keep happening!" I yelled to no one in particular. That's when everyone switched their attention from Alice.
"First I practically kill my own mother before I'm even born, then I cause a war, now what? I cause the death of the royal vampire coven? Or does he only want my family? Why am I even alive!" I stormed out of the room and into the other chamber. Felix was still at the door into the lobby, so he tried to block my exit. Until the surprisingly fierce growl that escaped my teeth made him back away. I think they were all in shock, because no one had come to retrieve me yet. I headed out of the building and into the shady alleys. I set my phone on silent in case they tried to call me. Then I ran.
I got out of the gate and headed into the forest. They really must be in shock. I tried to pick up a scent, because I was still thirsty. All I could tell was a small group of deer. So bland. I'd have to suffice, though. I followed it as far as I could, until it stopped. I jumped, and brought one down as the others took off. I drained the one kill, but was too tired to pursue the others. I couldn't' decide what to do. I wanted to go find Luke and just beg him to kill me. At least someone's pleasure would come out of my life. But I couldn't. I knew it would hurt Jake. He'd probably kill himself. The whole point of this was for me to die so that no one else had to. But I knew it couldn't work out that way.