Chapter Text
“How are you not excited about this?” Carlisle asked as he closed his locker, falling back into step with Bella as they headed to science class.
“Well, I’m not not excited. But…come on, Carlisle. It’s obvious that this trip is a last ditch effort to save my parents' marriage, and now I’m just gonna be forced to tag along. Going to Italy sounds cool in theory, but having to be stuck with Charlie and Renée Swan on a plane for however many hours and then sardined into one cramped hotel room? Yeah, no, that’s a recipe for disaster.” The halls of Forks High School weren’t exactly busy– the town small enough that their graduating class would probably be less than a hundred kids– but the halls suddenly felt smaller as Bella pictured this trip. She had been dreading it for weeks, trying her best to get out of it, but it was inevitable. She was going, that was final.
Her one constant friend, Carlisle Cullen, shrugged. “I mean, I’ve never been to Italy, but as someone who grew up in England, I’ve always heard from my friends who went on holiday there that it’s quite nice. And besides, worse comes to worst, at least you’ll be cramped in a beautiful city.”
“Oh my god, don’t remind me that you’re British, I keep forgetting since you lost the accent.” They entered science class and settled in their seats. “Let’s just change the subject actually, talking about it only reminds me how miserable I’m going to be. Let’s talk about…prom.” She smirked a bit as she turned to Carlisle. “Are you taking Esme?”
He laughed a bit, his eyes getting wistful as he thought about her. Esme Platt had been his childhood friend and longtime crush. Every summer when Carlisle was young he visited family in Forks, and had been her temporary next door neighbour. The rest of the year they were pen pals, writing each other a letter every week without fail. As they had grown up– and especially when Carlisle had officially moved to Forks– they had been practically inseparable. “Well…I want to, but it might be a little scandalous.”
“Oh, it absolutely will be. A twenty year old as your date? You, a lowly seventeen year old? She’s a certified cradle robber.”
“We’re not officially dating or anything, especially not until I’m eighteen, but…I can’t really take anyone else now, can I? Esme’s the girl for me, Bella, I’m telling you. She’s perfect.” Carlisle was absolutely daydreaming now, not listening as the bell rang and class officially started. The rest of the day went by without much of note, and Carlisle said his farewells as Bella hopped in her rough and tumble red truck. This old girl was her child, and she cherished her. But she dreaded the drive home, knowing that once she arrived they would be on a plane to Italy within three hours. So she took her time, taking the scenic route. Which, considering they lived in Forks Washington, was pretty much any route you took as long as you liked the woods. She passed by the reservation, tempted to go to Charlie’s friend Billy Black and just hide at his place. Billy was like a second father to her in a way, Charlie’s longtime best friend and maybe the one that got away from how Billy looked at him. Bella didn’t want to assume anything, but they did go on a lot of trips alone out in the woods for hunting and fishing. Things happen when two men are alone in the woods together. Bella shook her head, trying to get the image of her father’s possible sexual escapades from her mind. She couldn’t avoid it any longer, since she was sure Billy would rat her out for this one, so finally she turned onto the road home and pulled into the driveway.
“Bella! Come on, we have a long drive to the airport and we gotta go!” her mother called out almost immediately, hauling her bag to the car to toss in the trunk.
“Right, no problem.” Bella dragged her feet only a little bit to get her stuff, but she was in the car promptly, her walkman playing and the sounds of The Carpenters to drown out her obvious misery. She basically checked out for the airport, and the flight, and the drive to their hotel. It didn’t take long for her parents to begin to snap at each other. Renée had said she was going to plan their entire trip, but she hadn’t really done anything to deliver on that. Charlie just wanted Bella to have a good time, and wanted to trust Renée to actually do something, but she was always flaky. It was never-ending. Charlie Swan was a pushover and Renée Swan was pushy but without much to show for it. They were the worst of two worlds. And Bella continued to be just a sulking mess during it. At least until they were walking around the cramped and sunny streets of Volterra and some woman asked them if they would like to join the tour about to happen through the old city. Bella was confused, because wasn’t the entire place old? It sure looked like it. She said as much, and the tour guide just smiled at her.
“Oh no, not the upper city. The lower city. There is an older city below these newer buildings. It is quite exciting. A hidden gem. Come, the tour will begin. It is very interesting, I promise you.” She gestured them inside the doors, and Bella just shrugged her foam headphones back on and followed, wanting to get out of the blistering sun anyway. With Bella taking the lead, Charlie and Renée entered as well. But Bella could still hear them arguing through her music.
“Renée, are you sure about this? This feels like a scam.”
“Nonesense, this seems exciting, just like the lady said. And Bella seems excited, doesn't she?”
“Does she?”
Bella looked back at them and held her thumb up to show her enthusiasm, hitting them with a clearly phoned-in smile. But it was fine. This whole tour was probably going to be cool if you were into history or architecture. And surely her parents had some sort of interest in something. Bella could never really tell what her parents' hobbies were supposed to be. Her dad just worked and hunted and fished, but she would argue that those were Billy’s hobbies and Charlie only had Billy as a friend, so they were now his hobbies by default. Renée on the other hand didn’t keep hobbies. She started a lot, but never kept them up or finished them, which made their house a stuffy and cluttered mess at all times. As the tour began, it was them and about ten other people as they were guided deeper and deeper into this old building. Bella’s eyes were almost glazing over from how boring it all was, but then they came to some sort of open circular room, like a tower. Light streamed in from above, but not down to the three men sitting on thrones across the room. Three men who seemed almost otherworldly beautiful.
The one on the left was young, maybe only a couple years older than her, and he seemed as bored as she was. Over it all. He stared off at the empty corner, probably checked out. He had his chin in his hand while the other tapped the arm of his throne in no particular rhythm. The one on the right was probably the oldest of the three by a good margin, pale– well, they were all pale– but he looked even more so since he had platinum blond hair that was long as it draped around his face. They all had long flowing hair. The one in the middle had eyes like a cat, always plotting and prowling from person to person as he took the group of tourists in. He also had great cheekbones. He seemed not too old but not too young, mature. And then Bella noticed that all of their eyes were a bloody red. That was…weird. Bella slipped her headphones off, stopping her walkman and cutting off the music.
She continued to stare as the tour guide spoke around them. Then Bella noticed more people coming into the room. She glanced back at where they had come in, and two guys were closing the door and standing in front of it. All of them had these midnight black cloaks on. Oh man, was this a cult? Bella’s unease was clearly reading, since the three on their thrones stood and the middle one began to approach. There were voices, the middle one was speaking, but frankly Bella couldn’t hear him over the ringing in her ears, her mind whirling as she tried to figure out an escape plan. Figure out the best way out of here. The guys at the door would be a problem, so where were the other exits? Her eyes darted from one thing to the next. Then someone screamed. Bella turned to the sound to see the cloaked figures leaping on people, moving far too fast to fathom. And then someone grabbed her with frozen hands.
Bella cried out as her eyes were shielded, a voice speaking softly in her ear. “Don’t look, child. It will only make it…worse.” Then a gasp as Bella was turned around, the one who looked like a cat was holding her face in his hands, his evil red eyes piercing her as he stared intently. His hands moved across her face, as if looking for something. “This is…unexpected.” He began to laugh, pulling her against him as he continued to hide the vicious carnage happening behind him. She could hear it so clearly, the cries of pain and fear. And in the mix were her own parents. She screamed as she hit against her captor, trying to break free of his iron grip. But he held her firm until she was the only one screaming. He brought her to the ground, Bella crumpling against him as he ran a hand through her hair, trying to soothe her. But the action brought her no comfort. “Remove the bodies, quickly. A decision must be made. I need to know if this one can be useful to us.”
“No! No, mom, dad!” Bella wailed. She didn’t care anymore about all the bickering and how they were just one bad argument away from an actual divorce, they were still her parents. She had to see them. She had to… She shuffled in his grip and managed to peek over his shoulder, seeing Charlie and Renée lying there, eyes wide, faces afraid, their skin pale as they were covered in bites and spattered blood. And Bella felt her eyes well up with a fresh set of tears.
“What’s the meaning of this, Aro?” the blond one asked, hovering over them as he stared at Bella in what could only be described as unrelenting hatred. His chin dripped with the remnants of his killing, and he was wiping it slowly, lapping at the excess on his fingers. She wanted to cower from his anger, but she didn’t want to cower into the man holding her.
“Oh Caius, you don’t understand, this one is special.”
“And how can you tell?” He crossed his arms, almost itching to pounce on her like the others that had devoured the pile of dead bodies slowly being removed from the room. Bella tried to pull from this Aro guy's grip again, but he held firm. It was like a stone statue was holding her, keeping her in place against him.
“Her mind. I see nothing. I touch her and yet there is nothing. No sign of any thought ever having passed through her head. It’s…fascinating.” Aro was almost absentmindedly stroking at her hair, trying to find something that apparently wasn’t there.
The blond one tilted his head, giving her a once-over. “Is that not all women?”
The third one, the young one, slapped at his arm, eliciting a fist being held up in warning. “You’ve just had her parents killed, Aro. I don’t think she’ll want to join.”
“Nonesense, everyone does.”
“If you can’t hear her think, what makes you think she’ll be manipulated like all the others?”
This made Aro take pause. He looked at Bella, a sobbing mess in his arms, and he held her tighter. “Well, even so, we have ways of keeping people here without Chelsea’s intervention. Bring out Jane and Alec. They’ll be able to answer the question of whether or not she’s truly special or if I’m the exception.”
Aro stood back up, pulling Bella with him as he handed her off to the blond, his grip aggressive as he held her arms. His body was cold, like Aro’s had been. Assumedly they all were. The blood on his hands pressed against her skin, and Bella wanted to throw up. Bella saw two kids emerge from the frey, and she was concerned about why there were kids in this…vampire cult. That’s what this was, what they were, vampires. They approached Aro and he put a hand on the back of each of their heads, smiling like a proud parent. “Jane, Alec, this is…” he paused. “My apologies, I didn’t catch your name. Usually I can glean it when I read your thoughts, but you’re still a mystery. What’s your name, child?” Bella shook her head, shutting her eyes as more tears fell. The grip on her shoulders tightened enough that she could almost feel her bones break. She screamed. “Caius! Enough!”
“This is a waste of time. Either get it over with or I’ll consume her myself. This group wasn’t enough.”
“Fine, fine. Jane, she’s all yours.” Aro gestured towards her and this girl, Jane, stepped forward. Her stare was off-putting, her eyes wide.
“Pain.” Her stare deepened as she looked at Bella across the room. Bella had no idea what this was, but she glanced between Jane and Aro, seeing his smile widen as the seconds passed. Jane didn’t waver, didn’t even blink, until Aro suddenly clapped his hands in excitement, snapping her out of whatever it was she was supposed to be doing.
“It’s a miracle! Once we hone this power she’ll be able to protect us from damn near anything! Caius, did you see?”
“If we’re to make her one of us, then why are we waiting another second?” He began to lift Bella up, but the other one grabbed his arm.
“Not by you. You’ll just kill her.”
“What, like you crave the honour?”
“I wouldn’t call it that, but I didn’t get a bite in all the chaos. It’s up to Aro though, since he didn’t get a taste either.” They all turned their attention to Aro, who was just watching Bella with unrelenting excitement. It was almost uncanny how he smiled at her with his off-putting stare.
“Well, I’m sure you could find the balance, Marcus. But it would be nice to have a quiet meal for once. Bring her over.” Bella was dragged kicking and screaming across the bloody floor towards Aro as he knelt down. She was shoved to the ground as Caius held her down. Marcus grabbed her feet, completely pinning her, and then Aro had a hand holding her jaw. He wiped a couple tears from her eyes as she tried in vain to get out of this. “When this is all over, you’ll thank us. Welcome to the Volturi Miss…I still haven’t gotten your name. Won’t you tell us?”
Bella only gritted her teeth and tried to fight the strong hands on her. Marcus reached into her pocket and found her wallet, opening it to see her ID. “Her name is Isabella Swan.”
“It’s Bella,” she spit out. She didn’t know why, but she did know that she hated being called Isabella more than anything. Even here and now. If there was one thing she could fight for and win, it was her name.
Aro nodded, his smile getting bigger. He traced a couple fingers down her cheek as he adjusted her head, making Bella flinch from the touch. “Miss Swan…welcome to the family.” And he bit into her neck, igniting every bloodcell in her body with a hellish flame. A flame that burned her for three days straight in unending agony. And the three men who’d descended from their thrones held her down for three days straight. Aro, Marcus, and Caius, her new brothers for the rest of time. At the end of the third day she opened her eyes, and they were now a prominent and bloody red. Bella Swan was dead. She was a vampire now.