Chapter Three

Monsters

Bella Swan

December 2004

"Up against the wall," Archer ordered as the door swung open and hit the wall loudly at the top of the stairs.

Sequoia and Dakota both jumped up, along with everyone else, and marched to line up against the long wall closest to me. There wasn't a trace of hesitation to their movements. I, on the other hand, didn't react so quickly. I stumbled over myself as I rushed to join them, trying to not gain anyone's attention. Archer walked confidently to the middle of the room, his thick boots thudding loudly on the concrete floor. His eyes scanned the line of vampires before him, and I thought I saw his eyes settle on me for just a few milliseconds too long, before the edges of his lips curled up into a wicked grin.

"We have so much to teach our newest soldier. Roland, Farrah, pair up."

They marched forwards and took their place in the center of the room in front of Archer.

"Attack stance."

The two of them shifted into crouches, one foot slightly ahead of the other. Their knees were bent, heads inclined towards each other. Farrah's delicate hands were splayed, florescent lighting glinting off her sharp-looking fingernails. There were several feet between the two, but it seemed to me that they were only inches away from charging the other. Archer walked around the two in a circle, pointing out details for me to observe.

"Notice the positioning of the feet. Keep your balance, your weight, evenly displaced. Always ready to shift."

I tried to concentrate on what he was saying, but I was so mesmerized by the way in which Roland and Farrah obeyed his every word. Was Archer really so powerful?

"When I give the command, show Bella the proper way to hold your opponent." Archer instructed Roland before turning to look at me. "You have such great strength being so young, surpassed by so few. You have to learn to use it to your advantage. Always assess your opponent fully. No escape. No mercy. Roland, go."

Roland sprinted forward, wrapped an arm around Farrah's middle, and grabbed her by the neck.

She snarled ferociously as she beat at his sides and back with strong fists, but he held his stance, the massive muscles in his arms bulging as he kept her restrained.

"Ground." Archer commanded.

Roland used his hold on Farrah's throat and middle to throw her to the ground. Before she could recover, he pinned her to the ground with the full force of his weight. Farrah kicked wildly beneath him, her face pinned to the concrete, and she hissed and spit at him.

Roland put his teeth against the crook of her neck and it looked like he had cut her there when she cried out, "I submit!"

Roland released her immediately and held his hand out in order to help her up. My mind cataloged the phrase that seemed to be the safe word.

I was surprised when Archer looked so disappointed.

"Next time you keep her down until I give you the command," Archer demanded of Roland. "More force applied to the spine will render her kicks useless against your strength. Farrah, your turn."

I chewed at my lip. Farrah was so small compared to Roland. The fight hardly seemed fair. I knew she was strong, we were all much stronger now, but a large part of me wondered if she was even capable of holding him, let alone pinning him down.

I shouldn't have ever doubted her.

Farrah laughed a gleeful sound and lunged viciously towards him. Her nails looked like talons as they landed on Roland's throat and grabbed him there. Her arms encircled his torso quickly and in one lithe movement she slammed his massive body to the ground with a hard thunk. Farrah hissed and dragged her teeth along Roland's neck, making him squirm and writhe uncomfortably beneath her.

"I submit!" Roland gasped in pain as Farrahs teeth punctured his shoulder.

So if you don't submit quickly, then pain gets inflicted upon you? Noted.

"Enough." Archer ordered, pulling Farrah up into a standing position by the back of her neck. "Everyone pair off and hold your opponent. Roland and Farrah, keep working. Everyone else, your usual pairings."

Everyone split off then, leaving me standing along the wall like a fish out of water.

Archers burgundy eyes wandered the room to observe the pairings being formed before his eyes settled on me. "It seems our pairings are uneven now. You're unlucky number thirteen, Bella." He frowned in mock sympathy. "Looks like you'll have to partner with me." He grinned mischievously.

My skin crawled at receiving his attention.

Archer stood a few paces from me and beckoned me forward with his hand, "After you. Show me what you've learned."

I took a deep breath and lunged towards his midsection.

Archer stepped aside at the last moment, trying to trip me up, but something in my brain corrected myself and had me counter his movement perfectly. I wrapped my arm around his torso as I passed him and spun him around to face me before catching him by the throat and throwing him to the ground.

I was shocked at how fast the whole thing had happened but even more thrilled by the strength I now possessed. I had never felt so powerful as I held him to the concrete floor.

He began to kick underneath me and I pressed my knee against his spine and applied pressure to keep him still. His hands tried to reach behind his body to grasp me but he couldn't get a good hold of me. I actually laughed before I remembered I was supposed to be making him admit defeat.

I wasn't sure how to bite someone without actually hurting them, and so I took my teeth and scrapped his shoulder like I had seen Farrah do to Roland.

"Ah! I submit!" Archer choked out and I quickly stood to my feet and backed away from him.

The room was still. Everyone had dropped their sparing sessions and stared at Archer and I in utter shock. I thought that I may have made a serious mistake. By their expressions, I guessed that Archer wasn't taken down very often at all.

He spun around and hovered over me, intense eyes staring down at me with a wildly angry expression. I couldn't understand what I had done wrong, except maybe embarrassed him a little.

"How did you know to counter me like that?" He demanded. "I haven't shown you that yet."

"I don't know I just...did it?" I offered. "I didn't have to think about it. It just happened."

"Hmph." He grumbled before turning away from me to observe the room, occasionally calling out commands or observations.

I was equally inspired and terrified by my new abilities. I felt so out of place in my own body, so far beyond the realm of getting accustomed to the way it moved, and that confused me.

The demonstrations continued on for hours, Archer using a pair to demonstrate something before having all the pairs face off again. He never returned to pair up against me. While it wasn't physically exhausting, it was all still draining somehow. I found it so difficult to keep my mind entirely focused on the exercises, especially when my instincts were pulling my focus to the burning in my throat.

It seemed I wasn't the only one focused on other things. Multiple people throughout the room started to give half their energy to deflecting or initiating attacks. Some people began to get too competitive and would actually hurt each other during their sparing matches. Archer seemed to perceive the change in us as well, because he snapped his fingers and brought the room to order.

"Enough. Against the wall."

Once we had returned to our spots against the wall, Archer spoke again.

"It's nearing darkness. You've done well. I suppose well enough to earn your meal."

Hissing sounds of excitement broke out amongst members of our grouping. I tried to hold back the eager suspense building inside of me, to hold back the desire to quell the burn in my throat, but the idea of soothing my pain was so appealing.

"First," Archer interrupted the excitement, "there's one more lesson I want to teach our new recruit tonight. Come here, Bella."

I looked to Sequoia and she turned her eyes to look at the ground instead. I took a step towards Archer and noticed several people cowering against the wall.

"You have to be prepared for battle at all times. Any moment a clan could encroach upon our territory and threaten our way of life, our existence. You can not afford to lose focus over a silly little thing like pain. You have to be accustomed to the sensations and push past them." Archer explained to me.

Suddenly, he reached down and grabbed underneath my knee. He threw me to the ground and put his foot on my stomach before wrenching my knee from its socket.

I screeched from the pain, my skin was stinging and my open wound burned as badly as I had during my change. Archer tossed my leg aside and I felt it as it landed on the concrete floor. I was horrified that I could still feel it, moving on the dirty floor, and watched as it began to angle itself towards me.

"Farrah, Dean," Archer barked and they appeared at his side. "Attack stance." He ordered.

"But...Archer." Dean shook his headful of dark curls as he moved to position. "She's down and-"

"Movement three." Archer demanded and the two vampires lunged at me.

Farrah caught me by my throat and wrenched me upright onto my one leg and Dean swiftly caught my midsection. Instinctively, I began to punch and claw at them in order to get them to release me but my brain quickly realized that wasn't going to work. Instead, I took a deep breath and supported my weight against Farrah before I used my leg to knee Dean in the stomach as hard as I possibly could. He fell backwards and hit the ground hard as I took Farrah's wrist in my hands and twisted opposite directions. Her wrist broke off of her arm with her hand still wrapped around my throat. I wrenched her hand off of me and threw it across the room before I fell to the floor and pushed myself backwards several feet in case they attacked again.

"Stop!" Archer ordered us all, though the command only worked on Farrah and Dean. I was still in such a fight or flight mode that I was snarling at my opponents viciously, shielding my dismembered leg as best I could.

Archer stomped over to me and crouched to the ground beside me, hovering over me as he had before.

"You are one interesting little thing." He frowned down at me, looking at me as if he were trying to hear what was going on in my mind. "Fix her up!" He barked as he stood to his full height and crossed the room.

Arms landed all over me and I hissed and screeched as someone grabbed my leg.

"Bella, it's okay, we've got you." I recognized Farrah as she cradled my head in her lap and smoothed my hair down with her one hand. I wondered why she was being so nice to me. "Can you believe that Dean? No one's ever fought like that during that lesson!"

"You're a badass, Bella!" Dean grinned at me, pinning my arms down as someone worked to reattach my leg.

The stinging sensation was even worse now and the burning had somehow intensified as well. It was driving me insane it hurt so badly. I couldn't help myself as I growled and spit at the vampires holding me down.

"You'll be fine in a minute or two, Bella." Sequoia spoke from somewhere near my feet and I wondered if she were the one putting me back together or holding me in place.

True to her word, a minute later the pain began to fade quickly and my leg began to feel normal again. I bent my knee once the hands had let go of me and was amazed that I could move without crippling pain. It still stung like hell around the joint, but it was fading. Farrah and Dean helped me to my feet and held onto me for a moment to make sure I was steady.

"Better?" Dakota asked, standing next to Sequoia, as he reached a hand out and placed it on my shoulder.

"Yeah." I nodded, still a little disoriented from the quick fight and harsh pain. I looked down at my leg and saw my jeans had been ripped off above my knee, and I could see the raised line of a scar wrapping around my knee. The scar was what still stung.

"The venom helps us heal, but it leaves scars. We're all covered in them."

"It hurt like hell." I complained. "Why is it still stinging?"

"It's always going to hurt, the sting will fade soon, that's your lesson here." Archer frowned in disappointment at me. "You've always got to push through it. You can fight without a leg, but never without your head. If you loose a part, if you're bitten or punched, you keep going until your opponent, or yourself, is dead."

"Bella, you did great. Most of us just laid there and took the beating during our pain lesson." Dakota told me.

"Enough," Archer ordered "it's group b's turn to feed tonight. That includes you, Bella. Let's go." He motioned for us all to follow him upstairs.

There was no hesitation from the group that rushed to follow Archer upstairs. I couldn't decide if it was his talent or the promise of satiating their thirst that propelled them up the staircase and out of the door. I hesitated for a moment, conflicted completely about what my immediate future entailed, before I scrambled to catch up to them as they left the room.

I was surprised by how well I could see in the pitch black darkness of the night as I ran after the grouping ahead me. All the while I kept a careful distance just in case things took a turn for the worst. Several times I caught myself thinking of making a break for it. Then I would notice Archer glancing back over his shoulder as if he were making sure I was there, and any plan I was forming came to an abrupt end.

I caught the scent of something that made liquid pool in my mouth and my stomach tightened in anticipation. Fire burned harshly in my throat as I felt my mind slip away into a more predatory state. It was both so wrong and so right all at the same time.

Archer led us to a grouping of houses out in a more secluded part of the desert. Maybe ten or so houses all dispersed amongst plots of lands. Some houses had cattle or horses or donkeys in fences behind their properties.

"Here's your reward." Archer offered, eyes gleaming as he assessed the houses. "Leave no one behind." He ordered. "Go, have fun." He smiled and everyone took off running to the various different houses.

Sequoia surprised me by grabbing my arm and pulling me off towards one of the houses farther off. She left me in the entryway of the home, having broken the door in, before she disappeared up the stairs of the dwelling.

I was about to go after her before my mind clouded over from the assault of that strong scent from before. My mouth pooled with liquid again and I rushed to find the scent, stomping through the house and throwing open the door keeping me from the delicious smell.

A boy sat up in his bed and screamed as I threw open his bedroom door. His heart was racing erratically, the sound so enticing as it permeated the air with the scent of his delicious blood. I leapt at him, pounced on top of him and crushed his body to mine before sinking my teeth into his jugular.

Finally!

Soothing heat rushed through my system as I drowned in the mouthwatering flavor. The sweet blood coated my tongue and throat and quelled the burning that had been never ceasing since my last meal. I relished in the deliciousness of my meal and growled in anger as my life source ran dry.

As soon as I was done, my mind returned to me, and I shuddered in horror as the feeding frenzy ceased.

The carnage before me was truly terrifying. The poor boys head was nearly torn off of his shoulders from the force of my bite and my need for every drop of his blood. Muscle and tendons spilled from the disgusting wound.

How had I shown such little mercy? The boy was probably only a little older than me, young with long sand-colored hair, and probably had a family that loved him very much.

A family Sequoia was probably slaughtering upstairs.

I wanted to cry, to scream in agony, and run away from all of this despair building up to a crescendo inside of me. But, I realized with frightening clarity, I couldn't. If I wanted to survive, if I wanted to make it home, then I would have to continue to fight and kill. There was no escape possible if I gave up now.

"You okay?" Sequoia asked as she appeared in the doorway.

"No." I told her truthfully before shaking my head and carefully laying the boy back down onto his bed. The least I could do was show a little remorse as I shut his eyes and covered him up with his quilt.

"...okay." Sequoia observed me with wary eyes. "Umm, well, there's one more down in the basement. You want that one? I've had two."

"No, you go ahead." I told her. My insides were twisting from the immense amount of guilt I was facing.

"Here, he looks about your size." Sequoia mused, going to the boys closet and rummaging through his clothes. She tossed me a pair of jeans and a green long sleeved shirt. "Put those on, yours are pretty torn up." She told me before leaving the room in pursuit of her next victim.

As I dressed in the dead boys clothes, I recognized the savage I had become, a total monster, and I vowed to try to atone for my behavior in some way. There must be some way for me to not give in to the dark beast crawling under my skin.

I was horrified that the boys clothes fit me so well.

"Finish. No one alive!" Archers voice called from outside on the street. "It's nearing dawn. Time to get back!"

I walked out into the living area just as Sequoia came bounding up the stairs of the basement, her fire engine red eyes alight with joy.

"What's wrong?" she asked, sensing my discomfort. "Didn't you get a good meal?"

"Fine, yeah." I nodded.

"It gets easier." She offered kindly and the sensation of cool water running through my veins worked to calm me.

"Thanks."

We followed Archers scent back to the decrepit house and descended down into the basement again. I resisted the urge to cover my ears as various vampires recounted the tales of their meals tonight to the group that had stayed behind. Those that hadn't gotten a meal tonight were envious of those that had and my stomach twisted with nausea.

"Stay here." Archer ordered the room. "I'll return before morning for training." He relayed before his eyes scanned the room to find me. "I can't keep you here, like everyone else." He realized. "Do not let Bella leave." He instructed the room.

Plenty of questions began to race in my mind as Archer left the basement. If I were ever to leave, I'd have to escape Archer and his ever binding words of power. While they didn't affect me, they were certainly plenty powerful on the others. I had no doubt in my mind that if I tried to leave, they would all prevent me from doing so, even Sequoia and Dakota.

I chewed on my lip, an old habit I had when deep in thought or nervous, and I listed my problems.

I couldn't fight all twelve of my fellow soldiers, especially not when I'm so new and they're all so experienced. I've barely begun to learn how to fight. Sure I had managed to surprise Archer and defend myself from two attackers at the same time, but was that just beginners luck? Even if I managed to become a brilliant fighter, how could I ever manage to defeat twelve vampires by myself? And could I really hurt my new friends, Sequoia and Dakota, if it came down to it?

How was I ever going to manage escaping this nightmare if Archers words made them into such ruthless guards? I'd have to gain some trust. Become the perfect little soldier, just like Maria and Archer wanted me to be. The idea was entirely repulsive to me, but it was the only way I could decipher to escape and find my way back home.

My thoughts wandered to Renee and Charlie then. I wondered what they were going through. Are they out searching for me or waiting by the phone for updates that will never come? Is Charlie with Renee in Arizona? Or is he all alone in Forks? Who is there to take care of him? I knew my mother would be fine having Phil and plenty of friends surrounding her. I couldn't remember a single friend of my fathers. My muddy memories of the town I had been born in were hard to decipher. I couldn't be sure what was real and what was fiction created by my desperate mind.

Eventually, amongst the memories already clouded by a dusty filter, I found that I had vague images of playing in the mud with two pretty twin girls and their little brother. It seemed to me that these were the children of my fathers friend...Willy? Billy?

Maybe he would be there for my father in his darkest times, as he searched for the daughter that had been taken from him late one night in December.

I remembered with a start that my father was on the phone with me when I had been forced off the road and attacked. What had he heard? My last screams and pleas for help? Had he called the police, panicking from hundreds of miles away, thinking his daughter had been murdered while on the phone with him? How horrible!

I vowed then to become the perfect soldier, the shinning example, and fight my way back home...no matter the cost.