BPOV

Marcus' head snapped, turning quickly to the side and looked away from me. He pointed a finger at Alec and seemed to be shouting. Alec nodded and his body seemed to loosen up, my hearing returning to me. Aro crossed his arms.

"Marcus, I'd prefer if we could finish the test without anymore of your interruptions. If you'd kindly step to the side," Marcus nodded and stepped away from me. I stared after him with longing eyes. He seemed to be the only one looking out for me in this godforsaken place. Aro motioned back toward Alec and I braced myself. After another moment where it seemed nothing was going to happen, the world went dark. I gasped but quickly realized this again was Alec's power acting upon me, and quickly clamped my mouth shut.

"She is blinded now, master." Alec said quietly to Aro. There was silence.

"Yes, go ahead. Continue. As we'd planned, Alec." The next few moments were horror. He put me under stress, giving me sight and jerking away, letting me hear and then damning me to silence. I tasted venom in my mouth then could barely notice the occurrence of liquid in my mouth at all. Finally it seemed my mind could not take any more, I collapsed to the ground and panted, exhausted from the stress of it all. I felt my hearing and vision creep back into me and heard Aro speak quietly.

"Thank you, Alec. That will be all." I listened as Alec turned and walked briskly out of the room, feeling the cool stone on my cheek. I heard footsteps fall close to me and I looked up carefully. It was Aro again.

"Well, Bella, how do you feel?" I gulped and panted a little, rising carefully to my feet. I thought for a moment as to how I would answer, and opted for the truth.

"Thirsty." He nodded. "Bring in the girl's dinner. That will be all for today." He turned and walked out of the room, Caius in tow and Marcus following after him, after a quick glance back to me. I sat down carefully by a wall and waited for a moment. After a second or two of impatience, I rose in place and ran out one of the many doors out of the room. I ran with all the speed I could muster, doors and people flying past me. I turned randomly, left and right then left again, blasting through doors and slipping on hairpin turns. Bolting through one final door, my heart sank when I found myself back in my room. Placing a supportive hand on the doorway, I bent down and panted though I was not out of breath. I nearly collapsed into the door and shut it behind me with my foot. I sat down up against the bed and closed my eyes, pretending to sleep. I clamped my eyes shut as tight as I could when I heard footsteps coming down the hall. They were large, a male, and sounded oddly heavy. I pulled myself up onto the edge of the bed as he knocked and entered. His eyes were the brightest red I'd ever seen, fresh from having just eaten, and his chin was held high away from the woman he carried. She looked to me, horror in her eyes, and I cocked my head to the side. She was young, I could hear her blood pumping on overdrive in her veins. But I couldn't smell her.

"For you" the man said, setting the girl's feet on the ground and shoving her forward carefully. The girl merely collapsed to her knees and placed her forehead on the floor. I sat still, completely unmoving, as I waited for the animal in me to take over. Soon her scent would waft into my nose and I would lose myself to it.

It didn't come.

He stared at me and I stared at the girl. He grabbed the girl by the neck and snapped it, a sickening sound. I flinched, jumping back a bit, and he picked her up again. He handed her to me but I just stared. Why couldn't I smell her? Why wasn't I going nuts? The man dropped the girl back onto the ground and turned away from me. He left the room without a sound and returned seconds later with Aro.

"What's wrong, Bella my dear? Something wrong with your meal?" I shook my head and he came toward me. He grabbed my chin and made me look into his eyes, then knelt down next to the woman. "Leave" he said to the man, and the man left without a word. He stuck his finger into one of the woman's veins and pulled it out, stained blood red. Bolting back to my side, he placed his finger back up against my nose. I gasped with his gesture and readied myself again for the insanity. Though I remained in control, venom began to drip down my throat as I tasted the air around us.

"Very interesting..." he looked to the door, pondering, then back to me. "Come with me dear, if you please." I nodded and stood, a zombie, following him out the door. Looking back I saw the woman's corpse lying on the ground, blood began to leak from the hole in her neck. Aro tugged on my hand a bit harder and I turned back to him. He brought me back into the main room where he left me in the middle and walked to stand next to one of the walls. Raising his voice slightly, he called out to Alec who appeared through one of the doors. He stared at me for a moment, a look of disgust painted clearly on his face, then went and stood next to Aro. They spoke silently, no matter how hard I tried I couldn't hear what they were saying. I watched Aro's lips move and Alec nod a few times, then braced myself as Alec took a step toward me and closed his eyes. Why were they doing this to me? Hadn't I performed well enough for them before? Why were they making him torture me again? I clenched my hand into a fist, readying myself, but felt nothing. Alec turned back to Aro and spoke quietly.

"It's not working, master, I apologize." Aro didn't meet Alec's eyes, instead he stared at me with bright red, unblinking eyes.

"Don't fret, it's not your fault. This is Bella's doing" He said, placing his hand on his chin.

A/N:

Alrighty, like I said before, shorty chapters. This one probably isn't going to be all that long in it's entirety, but at least it's being written.

Of course, don't worry, Edward and the Cullens will return. This is just the most important part of the story here, where they're discovering everything, so it must be written.

As for Jacob... well I love his character and usually try to keep him incorporated, but I'm not sure how it'll happen this time. My stories usually end with a depressive tinge, I can admit most characters are either killed or commit suicide at the end, seeing as I hate happy endings, but I can't really think of one that I haven't used already...

Review please,

-dsmldejection