Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Twilight series or any of its characters. I also do not own the lines that I have taken from the book to make this story more real and to lead the readers into it.

Another chapter, I know, it's so exciting!! Okay, for this chapter, I suggest you read kind of slowly. Don't look at what happens next; stay on the word you're reading. Read it at the speed the words tell you to.

The last thing I heard was a blood-curling scream accompanied by a sharp, bursting pain before the dark.

It's not so much that the darkness lifted, it just changed its form. Instead of empty, suck-the-breath-out-of-you darkness, it was thick, heavy, damp fog: a cold ocean without a breath of air instead of an outer space that took the air straight from your lungs.

Then I could hear. I could hear ragged breaths that were resting more than sucking up vital oxygen. I could hear a more frantic breathing a few feet away. Then an impatient sigh from a different direction. The fog was lifting.

Now I could feel. Not necessarily a good thing. My wrist was stinging. My head was throbbing. A new pain: my leg was almost numb but had an underlying stab to it that kept dragging my sharpening focus away from the outside of my body.

I could feel my eyes flutter and open. It took a few seconds, but they focused on the ceiling above them. Then a figure stepped into my view, blocking the blades of a metal fan over me. After a moment, I realized the figure was James. My body said run, but my mind was faster and told me to stay put. Even attempting to run would just send me back into space or sea.

"James." My voice sounded weak and rough. I paused to catch my breath, needing to after just one word.

"Bella. So glad you're awake. It's time for my finale." James's voice was anything but weak. It wasn't excited or nervous, planning or calculating. He had everything under control. He was smooth and ready.

He walked by me. I let my head fall to the left and let it hang there lifelessly. He grabbed the camera and its red light and walked them to another stool I hadn't noticed. Stools don't belong in dance studios.

Again, the light on the camera was hypnotizing. I stared at it and everything else faded away. All I saw was red light. I was vaguely aware that James was walking around, but his silent movements faded into the light as well. It seemed to pulse. Then the pulse became a rhythm. It was not an unpleasant rhythm, just a rhythm. A red light, pulsing out a rhythm. A ruby colored rhythm. With a black fog. A ruby colored rhythm with a black…fog…A ruby colored light, pulsing out a red rhythm with a black fog. A black fog.

This time it wasn't space or sea. This time, my unconsciousness was a meadow. Light and free and airy. There were birds. There were butterflies. There was a bubbling brook somewhere, too. But as it got louder, the brook wasn't so sweet. The birds cried instead of sang. The butterflies fled in fright. If my arms were still connected to my body, I would have covered my ears.

"He bit her!"

Who bit whom? There were only butterflies and birds here.

"Bella, he bit Bella?!" A large roar erupted and another bird screeched.

"No. Not Bella. She isn't bitten."

"Then who is?"

"Renée." Renée. Renée.

Renée.

The brook stopped running, and I bolted upright, not noticing any pain.

My mind didn't even fully register what had happened to my mother before I was screaming for someone to get it out. To get the poison out of her. There was no way I was going to let my mom become a vampire. It wasn't fair to her. She didn't deserve to be subjected to such pain. To be confined by a world where everything was frozen.

Three vampires are staring at me and Carlisle jumps across the room with Emmett on his tail to help. A gentle movement catches my eye, but I'm too focused on Renée to notice. The movement continues, like a wave. There are two protective bodies around me, Edward and Jasper, and they're focused completely…on something else.

James leaps the entire studio in one bound, a mangled arm climbing up my body from where it was discarded after being ripped off.

Before anyone can react, even more blood is being drained from my body, like it is from Renée's. She's losing blood to live. I'm losing it to die.

It wasn't even enough time for my dimmed senses to make sense of before James was ripped away from my arm. In a few short moments, he was completely dismembered by Emmett and Jasper. Edward was still frozen above me; Carlisle was working on my mom.

Jasper said something to Carlisle then grabbed Renée and ran out of the building.

My head turned to lead, and I collapsed to the floor. I was caught by a newly thawed Edward. He placed me gently on the floor. My breathing, practically non-existent a moment ago, was on the verge of hyperventilation.

I could hear Edward and Carlisle talking in hushed, rapid, urgent voices. I felt pieces of cloth pushed against various parts of my body. I felt cold hands brushing against my skin. I felt arms wrapping around me and lifting me up, an unpleasant feeling.

I would have seen, but my eyes wouldn't open.

I felt rushing. I sensed talking. I felt needles and wires and liquids and sponges. I felt Edward's hand and soft, inviting sheets.

I felt quiet.

I felt cool lips press against my ear and say, "Sleep, my Bella. Dream happy dreams. Get better. Feel better. Then wake up for me." They pressed down again, and I did what the lips said: I slept.

Wow. I hope that got to you like it got to me. It felt like I had written a novel, an hour-long movie by the time she fainted after seeing the red light. Of course, writing takes longer than reading. Please, please review; if enough people want it, I'll probably write something about Bella waking up and what she's told and what she tells people and what Renée knows. So review!