Give Me Envy, Give Me Malice, Give Me Your Attention

Bella Moore stumbled over her feet, hardly believing this was real, as she tried to rush towards her best friend. Her pace wasn’t good enough; if she didn’t get to Anna right now, she'd disappear in a puff of smoke.

“I can’t believe it…” she breathed as she flung her arms around her best friend’s neck. Tears had spilled over already, but she didn’t even know what they meant. Tears of joy? Amazement? Anger? Disbelief? Sadness? Confusion? What was it? The hundreds of indescribable emotions filling her body were overwhelming, and she didn’t quite know how to handle them.

Anna stood frozen in shock. How was she supposed to react? Why would Bella be acting this way? After a year, Bella could have come and seen her any time she damn well wanted. Why was this so huge? Her heart melting into some sort of twisted relief and happiness, Anna hugged Bella right back, as if would her grip loosen, Bella would be taken away again.

William Beckett watched on in positive fury. Anna Thorn… It had been more than a year. Everything was going just fine. Why the fuck was she choosing to cause trouble now? And what was that with Ryan Ross? In the short time span of ten seconds, William realized just how complicated he had made his life that night a year ago.

Ryan stood, eyes wide in fear for Anna, looking directly at the snarl painting itself of Beckett’s face. Why did he bring her up here? What was going to happen now?

“How… how are you here?” Bella asked, eyes boring into those of her friend.

“What do you…” Anna began, but was interrupted by a terrifying voice that sent shivers down her spine.

“Ross!” Beckett barked. “Get her out of here!”

Anna turned to face the man who had ruined her. The man she despised with such a ferocious passion. The man who had fooled her best friend. Ladies and gentlemen; William Beckett. Anna wanted to kill herself for the part of her that wanted to feel his lips on hers.

“Anna,” Ryan whispered in a slightly scared voice, appearing closer to her side. “Come on. We have to go.”

Anna shook her head, tears cascading, and held tighter to Bella’s hand.

“Don’t go,” Bella begged.

“Ryan, don’t make me go,” Anna cried.

“GET HER OUT OF HERE!!!” Beckett thundered.

Ryan lifted Anna up over his shoulder and ran as fast as he possibly could back to her room, ignoring her struggling arms and flailing legs attempting to break free.

Bella’s screams directed towards her lover were so loud that Anna and Ryan could still hear them, even at the furthest point in the mansion.

“YOU LIED TO ME!!!”

“Bella, baby, listen…”

“NO! YOU TOLD ME SHE WAS DEAD!!!”

“Technically…”

“YOU WATCHED ME CRY MYSELF TO SLEEP FOR MONTHS, KNOWING THE WHOLE TIME SHE WAS LIVING IN THE SAME FUCKING HOUSE!? HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU GOING TO EXPLAIN THAT TO ME, WILLIAM?”

“She’s different now, Bella. I did it for you. For us.”

“HOW THE HELL WOULD YOU EVEN KNOW? YOU DIDN’T EVEN KNOW ME WHEN I WAS HUMAN!”

“See? This is what I mean. We were going so well, and now she’s come between us!”

“This wouldn’t have happened if you just told me the truth in the first place! Do you know how lonely I’ve been? You don’t let me speak to anyone other than you, and occasionally Mike or Brendon when you’re busy. I spend almost all of my time in your study watching Lara because the only comfort that was keeping me going was that she was still alive and living her life! You were the one who destroyed it, Beckett!”

“Bella…”

“DON’T TOUCH ME! STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!”

A few seconds later, a door slammed so violently the house seemed to shake.

“Ryan…” Anna whispered, afraid.

“Yeah?” he whispered back.

“I think you should go.”

“Are you sure? I’ll stay with you if you want…”

“No, really. I think it’s best if you go.”

“I’m here for you, Anna,” he said, removing his protective arms from around her and beginning to walk towards the door.

Suddenly, the bedroom door slammed open angrily to reveal an extremely pissed off William Beckett.

“Get out of here!” he spat at Ryan, face contorting in rage. “I’ll deal with you later.”

Reluctantly, Ryan slowly left due to the begging him to leave in Anna’s eyes. As soon as she was out of his view, he heard a hard slap and his eyes began overflowing with tears he had held back until then.

Turning a corner, he saw a small crowd of vampires, heads poking out of the ‘dining hall’ that was really just for show to look at him. There was a mixture of emotions on the faces; sympathy, haughtiness, indifference. Terror, written all over Chiz and Travis. He couldn’t relate to any of them as he swept past the curious onlookers and up to his room, knowing that two people were following close behind.

“Ryan?” Chiz asked. “What’s wrong?”

“Where’s Anna?” Travis demanded.

Ryan took in a deep, shaky breath and sobbed into his hands before looking up through his tears at Chiz and Travis. He gulped and tried to piece words together.

“He… he’s got… Beckett’s got her. He’s got her, and he’s mad. And he’s hurting her.”