Remembering Bella

Chapter 2

He had thought that this task would be an easy one.

Break her spirit... and wear these.

Aro had handed him the golden contacts that he was to wear during the... beatings. If you had asked him a century ago that it would be a pathetic human girl to make him regain humanity he would have scoffed and ripped out your throat.

The first beating had been easy.

Humans were weak things, the tricky part was to not kill her. Hurt her badly... play with her mind a little with the contacts... but under no means was he to kill her. So the blows had to be careful... strategic. He wasn't used to keeping his prey alive, he had never enjoyed the cat and mouse game such as Heidi. Perhaps he was wrong about not having some small piece of humanity left.

Still.

It bothered him how much hurting her... bothered him. She cried out for one person only as her body shook with pain and her blood stained the stone floor of the ancient dungeon.

Edward.

That name over and over again... begging him to save her, to help her, to end her suffering. Asking him why he didn't love her. Why she wasn't enough.

It intrigued him... this fierce attachment she had for one of his own kind. It wasn't as if all immortals had the same gift Chelsea had. They weren't Dracula... they couldn't put a human in a thrall. Still if he didn't find the idea ridiculous he would say the human girl... cared for this Edward. Not just him though... his whole family. She, a pathetic weak thing, had offered her life to save theirs. She had volunteered to be subjected to this torture so they could walk free.

It was confounding to him and for some reason it made it very hard for him to carry out the beatings. After the first one he had gone to Aro and told him he couldn't do it. Aro had stared at him with a devilish stare that left him unsettled and then shrugged before telling Felix to take over.

He had taken one look at the wicked gleam in Felix's eyes and changed his mind. He would continue it... if only to stop Felix from taking it too far. He had thought he was doing the girl a kindness. Perhaps he was.

He wondered how long Aro would have them do this before he changed her. He let her wounds heal just enough before he sent him down there again to reopen the wounds both internal and external. The contacts irritated his eyes as he stared at her through the bars of the cell. She was sleeping on a dirty mattress on the floor. The tank top she wore was once white but now it was stained brown with dried blood.

She began to stir and he only stared at her as she whimpered and sat up. A bottle of water was left for her and he watched as she opened it and chugged it.

"Will you kill me today?" She croaked. She had begun asking this after the third visit.

"Not yet." He said.

He let himself into the cell and walked at a human pace to her mattress. He touched her chin and she flinched but let him pull her chin up. She stared into his eyes and began to cry. Just as she always did.

"Please... just kill me." She begged softly and he felt something stir in his chest. Something that he thought had died with him two centuries ago.

"Why do you wish for death?" He was genuinely curious.

"Why delay the inevitable? I am tired and your eyes hurt me to look at but I am not sure why. My head pounds and I can't remember how long I have been here... I can't remember what it feels like to be warm."

"Neither can I." He told her and despite her swollen cheek she smiled a little.

"You're a kind angel... aren't you? You won't let me suffer forever?" She was talking nonsense but her words shook him. He let go of her chin and left the cell.

He found Aro in his office. Writing with a quill on some parchment.

"She's ready." He said.

Aro looked up at him and seemed bored.

"I believe I'll decide that." He said and went back to his writing.

"She doesn't remember anything. Her head has taken too many blows. She's ready." He insisted. Aro ignored him.

It could have damned him. He could have gotten his head ripped clean off for even approaching in such a hostile manner but her words were repeating in his head over and over again.

You're a kind angel... aren't you?

He slammed his fist on the table and Aro looked up at him in shock and fury.

"She. Is. Ready." He gritted out and felt like a mad man. Why was he behaving this way?

Aro only stared at him with that cold face that he usually wore.

"If I didn't know any better... I would say you had some pity for the human girl." Aro said with narrowed eyes.

He looked away. Wondering where his self control had gone. He felt the bond with Aro like all of them did... the loyalty that would make him kill for him...
Die for him. His loyalty was being pulled somewhere else though... to a tiny frail human in those dungeons.

"Any more trauma and it will be irreversible even with venom. We need to change her now." He said as a reply.

"Very well... do it then." His eyes shot to Aro's again and he felt his stomach clench from the wicked glee in the ancient immortal's eyes.

"I don't know that I could stop." He said quietly.

"Of course you can and you will. I will go to her once the change is complete and feed her the background I have concocted. Then she is yours to train." He said matter of factly.

"You're dismissed. Come to me when the change is complete." Aro picked up his quill again and began writing.

He went to leave, feeling as if he were in some sort of daze.

"Oh and Demetri?" He stopped and turned to Aro who watched him like a cat.

"If you ever show such brutish behavior towards me again I will have her killed right in front of you. Do you understand?" He asked.

Demetri only nodded and left the office.

He didn't understand why the thought of her getting hurt because of him caused such a horrible feeling to settle in his gut.