Twilight Morning Sky (COMPLETE)

Chapter Twenty Five, Fire

IMPORTANT NOTICE AT BOTTOM
Chapter Twenty Five

I was on fire.

It felt like someone had just injected liquid fire from The Phlegethon river in Tartarus into my veins. The pain was overwhelming, I felt like I was sawed in half, hit by a bus, submerged in acid, beaten by a prize fighter, and trampled by bulls all at the and time. The pain was bewildering, and all I remember is seeing Aro stand in my doorway, then he held my neck at a painful angle and whispered in my ear, "This is for Jane and Alec." Then this pain that washed over me like a wave of pirañas and I was their prey. Aro dislocations my shoulders, breaking my legs, and fracturing my ribs where like a stubbed toe to this pain, being thrown and dropped, like walk through the park on a sunny day, not being able to breath because of tulips, like laying on a cloud. I could take on all of that tenfold and it still would not match this monsoon of horrible, terrible, retching pain that burned through me. I would rather be shot with a rocket launcher, ran over by a tank, and then thrown into a lake tied to cinderblocks than put up with this pain. It was like I was being burnt alive, like I was a woman accused of using the dark magics, accused of witchcraft and my body and bones where the kindling to the fiery venom coursing through me and lighting me on fire. Aro was a snake, and I was the horse dumb enough to come close. Aro was the mouse, and I was the scared little elephant. Aro was the vampire, and I was his prey. I had shut my eyes when Aro's teeth broke my skin on the side of my neck, and I was to afraid to open them, in fear that I would see my body engulfed in flames, or find myself sinking in lava.

I heard voices all around me, and I wasn't sure what was going on around me, but I could hear familiar voices coming and going. "It was Aro!" One yelled. "Do you think we can get the venom out of her?" Another asked. "No, the venom has spread to much, he got what he wanted." A third voice answered. Then there was one closer to my ear, one that made me want to open my eyes and see if I really was sinking in a lake of lava, or being burned at the stake on trial. "Clara, hang on.... I love you Clara... stay with me." It whispered in my ears, but then all of my consciousness completely faded and I fell into something peaceful and pain free.

I came back to consiousness, but realized that I hadn't opened my eyes, an my body felt dead, I couldn't move a muscle. 'The morphine.' I thought with a sudden burst of remembering Emmet injecting me with the pain medication. It had to have some effect on me being paralyzed like this. I slowly regained the ability to move each of my limbs, starting with my fingers and toes, then moving to my face. As soon as I was able to open my eyes, I did, and I found myself not surrounded by flames, but in fact, alone in a large room. My hearing and eyesight had sharpened, and I could hear everything around me, but mainly, I heard the voices of the Cullen's in the next room over. "Bella, I thought you said you didn't feel a thing." Edward's voice filled my ears as he spoke. He wasn't angry, but instead he sounded pained and guilty. "You said that you didn't remember anything, and that the morphine numbed the pain, not that it made you paralyzed."

"Edward," Carlisle's voice came into my hearing. "What Bella said over a hundred years ago does not matter, she said what she did to protect you from feeling this guilt, and Bella, it is much appreciated that you thought so highly of us during your changing that you concealed the pain." I heard a few shuffled footsteps and then all conversation died. As I lay there, suddenly, the broken bones in my legs and the cracked and fractured ribs all me mended themselves, and that's when I did something crazy. I forced myself up, and that's when I realized over the roar of the fire rippling through me, that my shoulders where no longer stiff, they moved in fluid motions with the slightest bit of pain, apart from the venom. I swung my legs over the edge of the table and pushed myself onto the ground, there was not a single sound when I got up, and as I manage myself to stand and ignore the pain, I shuffled into the room where I heard the Cullen's voices, but to my surprise I did not make a single sound with my feet, or trip over something not there. When I got to the doorway, I heard a few gasps, and the first ones next to me where Jasper and Emmet, then the rest stood behind them. "Jasper, Emmet, she is not of threat at the moment, listen to her heart, she is not yet in the final stage of turning." Carlisle said, and I realized that he was the voice of reason in here now, I didn't often hear or understand them when they spoke, but Carlisle was the one that understood and helped the others understand.