Puzzles
Summary: What if the meeting in the clearing during Breaking Dawn had gone differently? What if a mysterious human claimed she could help? Taking apart a puzzle is easy, the hard part is putting the pieces back together.
Some spoilers for Breaking Dawn!!
I stared through the smoke. It was clearing, but it was still a reminder. A stupid, freaking reminder. A reminder of everything that had happened.
It was over now, all of it- the fight, my family, my life. But they all kind of tied in together, didn't they? Hmmm… oh well.
She grabbed my arm and pulled me back, turned me around, and we walked slowly towards the house. If she could cry, she probably would be right now. So would I, and the rest of the people in the house.
So we won… yay. It doesn't mean much, since we really lost. All of us lost, so much.
TNMEBDTNMEBD
Edward's POV-
The house felt so much emptier, and that was only because of the ones who would never come back to it. I knew exactly how many we'd lost- 17. I had counted the deaths on everyone's minds, including my own. I knew people wanted their privacy, but they were all buzzing and knocking inside my head so much that I had to do something to relieve my headache.
The 34 of us left were all huddled in the living room. Surprisingly we had spaced out enough so we all had personal space. We needed it since nobody wanted to speak.
Rosalie was sitting against the doorframe, knees up, head hung low, clutching a sleeping Renesmee to her chest. Emmett was next to her, with an arm around her shoulder, and Jacob was on the other side, arm outstretched holding Nessie's little hand. Carlisle was on the other side of the doorframe, his head back, eyes closed.
In one corner of the room, Kate was curled up with her head in Garrett's lap. In another Leah was sobbing, a werewolf named Red was holding her, and the other werewolves left were leaning against the wall, not talking, and not daring to look at each other.
The rest of us left lined the walls. Anyone with their mate still there clung to each other. We weren't separated into our covens, since most of them were broken anyways.
I turned my back on the room and walked to the front staircase, where Alice was sitting, staring blankly ahead. I sat down next to her without facing her. Ten minutes passed. "Nothing will ever be the same again."
"No."
"This will never pass over. No matter what."
"No."
Alice crossed her arms over her knees, and put her chin on them. "I can't see anything anymore. I've tried and tried for hours, but I just can't see. Everything is foggy." She sighed. "It's not even the pack or Nessie being here. I just can't see." She looked at me in a way so that I knew she would be crying her eyes out if she could. "I need him back Edward. I need him back."
"I know. I want Bella back too." I put my arm around her and pulled her into a hug.
An hour later we were all in the same place. I had a feeling we could stay that way forever if nobody made us move. There was suddenly a knock on the door, and me and Alice shot up. I walked very slowly to the door and opened it. There stood Charlie, hands in his pockets, completely oblivious to what he just walked into.
He came in smiling, but stopped when he saw Alice's expression. "What's going on here?" He looked around. "Where's Bella?" He started making his way to the living room. "And Nessie?" He stopped short in the doorframe when he saw our company. I tried to grab his arm and pull him away, but he shook me off and crouched down to Renesmee.
Rosalie's head shot up, teeth bared, and she clutched Nessie tighter, only relaxing when she saw that it was just Charlie. Charlie reached for Nessie, and Rose reluctantly let her go. When he turned back to me, Charlie asked, "where is my daughter?"
I told him to give Nessie back to Rosalie, which he did, and me and Alice led him outside. "Charlie…" Words tripped over my tongue, not something I usually do, as I said the words that would make my living nightmare officially true. "Bella is dead." I was choking on no air as I said it.
"How?" Quietly.
"She was killed." Alice took over, she knew I couldn't speak anymore. "We were attacked. Us and the rest of them in there. We tried to make peace but they didn't listen. We won the fight, but so many of us were lost." She sounded like she was having as much trouble speaking as I had.
"I'm sorry." He said, and we all stared at the ground. "How many?"
"17." I breathed.
"Anyone else?" He was choking on his own words. He loved Bella just as much as I did.
"That you knew?" Alice said softly, and nodded.
"Jasper." I cut in, and Alice fell to the floor. "And Esme, and Seth."
"Oh." He whispered. "I have to go." He turned and walked very slowly to his car.
I stood staring down the driveway even two hours after Charlie had left, an hour after Alice had walked inside, and a half hour after Nessie had come out to curl up at my feet. I was thinking.
Life is a puzzle; mine had been put together, but it wasn't anymore. It's easy to take apart a puzzle- putting it back together will be the hard part.
TNMEBDTNMEBD
Five years later, Alice's POV-
I peeked over the walls of my cubicle; not many people in the office today- good. I minimized the spreadsheet I was supposed to have done in a half hour and clicked into the internet. In the Google search bar I typed in "bring dead back to life" and hit enter.
On the list that popped up, all of the titles were lettered purple, that meant I had clicked into them before. I scrolled down and clicked the little 57 at the bottom, and was taken to the page I had left off on two days ago. Only two of the titles were purple.
So maybe you could call me a little obsessed. Call me a nut job, I really don't care. But you can't say I don't miss my family. After the fight, we all kind of spread out. The only one I've really heard from was Carlisle, but still I haven't had contact with him in the past 3 ½ years. People change. Well, vampires change.
So, for the past 4 years of course I've been looking for a way to bring the rest of my family back. I tried every method, read every article up to page 57, but none of them worked. I couldn't see anything in the future about it. Every time I try to see the future all I get is blurriness, with the outline of a person. It's weird, really.
Anyways, as I was reading through the fifth article of the page, my eyes lit up and I was about to click the 'contact' button when my boss, Mr. Lou Ruths, just happened to walk up. He rolled his eyes impatiently when he saw my screen. "Alice? Black magic again? You know how Mr. Aren," that would be Lou's boss, "feels about that." He tsk tsked me and tapped his clipboard. "I thought you had a spreadsheet due in," checking his watch, "oh look, five minutes!" He seemed overjoyed over another chance to fire me.
"First off, Mr. Rude-"
"It's Ruths."
"I know. But first, it's not black magic, okay. It's something important to me, so mind your own business. Second, look," I pulled up the spreadsheet on the screen, "I'm doing both; multi-tasking. You ever heard about it?"
"Ms. Cullen, that isn't even halfway done. Mr. Aren isn't going to be happy." He began to walk away and I rolled my eyes. I could finish the stupid thing in two minutes, so I did. Once I'd printed it off and asked the other secretary to deliver it, I pulled the article back up.
I clicked the 'contact' button and began typing. "I'd like to meet you. I think you can help me with my problem. Please respond.
Alice Cullen"
The next day I checked my e-mail, and there was one there from ; "2385 Thrist Ln., White Sands, New Mexico"
Shortest e-mail ever, but it gave me what I wanted to know. And New Mexico was only a state away from Colorado, I just needed to MapQuest White Sands.
I hopped up from my desk and began dancing (hadn't walked like that in a while) to Mr. Rude's office. I knocked on his door and let myself in, he looked up from his desk. "Lou, I'm taking a few days off, 'kay? Good." I began walking out but he started talking.
"I have really had enough of you thinking you can bend all the rules around here, Ms. Cullen." He said this almost to himself, "oh, I've been waiting a year and a half to say this," more out loud, "Ms. Cullen, you're fired."
"I'll clean out my office when I get back."
"No, please clear out your cubicle immediately." I rolled my eyes, left, and had all of my possessions in a box in ten minutes.
I drove back to my apartment, which I'd have to find another job to afford, emptied the box and filled it with clothes for a few days. I got back in my car and typed the address into the GPS Navigation screen, and set off.
TNMEBDTNMEBD
After two days of driving around, trying to find ways around the construction and stuff my stupid GPS missed, I found Thrist Lane. It was a long, dusty road with a single house way at the end. I pulled into the driveway, which was broken, car-less, and being overrun by weeds. The house was much like the driveway, and looked abandoned, but when I knocked on the door a little girl answered.
"Are you Alice?" She said quietly from behind the heavily crimped brown hair hanging in her face. I nodded and she giggled and ran off down the hall. I had noticed the tight, and weirdly medieval-style dark dress she'd been wearing, it was strange. Another girl came to the door. She had long blonde hair pulled up into intricate knots and twists, with chopsticks and a large bow holding it up in the back. She wore a green and white kimono-like dress. She looked no older than 16.
"Are you Alice Cullen?" I once again nodded. "Then follow me." She led me to the back of the house. On the way, I saw the other little girl. Her head was poked around a corner, and she laughed quietly, disappearing before me and the teen rounded the corner.
We walked into a huge room with tons of candles, incense, herb jars, etc. I could tell I was in the right place. "Now then, I'm Namiee Braston." She pronounced her name 'nah-mee-ey.' "You told me you had a problem. Please explain."
"Well, the article said that you believe you can bring the dead back, so I was wondering if you could help me."
"Well I realized that. That was the point of the e-mail. I mean, who is it that you want to bring back?" She plopped down in a chair by the wall.
"It's my…" I thought for a second. "Actually, how powerful are you?" She gave me a look. "I mean, what if there's more than one someone that I want to bring back?"
"I can do more than one person. It's just going to be a bit harder for you."
"Why?"
"Because I'll explain later. How many do you want to bring back?"
"17." Her eyes widened.
"What the heck happened?" Yeah, she was definitely a teenager. She wasn't acting all weird and voodoo-ey mystifying, or anything.
"There was this big fight between my family and friends, and some people we disagreed with. It got out of hand." I shifted uncomfortably. I still didn't like talking about it.
"How long ago?"
"5 years."
"Oh, this is going to be terrible for you then." She shook her head and laughed a bit. I gave her a confused look. "I assume most of your friends are a bit spread out by now?" I nodded. "And I assume you don't know where most of them are?"
"Well, actually I- no, I don't." She shook her head and laughed again.
"Oh, then you're really gonna hate me." She leaned forward. "For the spell to work, I can get everything I need, even for 17 people, except one thing. And this is where you come in, because I ain't gonna do it. I need the person who was closest to the dead one while they were alive. So you need to find all seventeen of them." I heard a giggling behind me and turned around. "Zary, I told you to stay out while Alice is here."
Zary literally vanished, just like a ghost. I turned to Namiee. "Yeah, Zary is a ghost. I'm sure you've noticed by now. She's actually my big sister, believe it or not." She lowered her head. "Zariana was eight when she died. I was ten when I tried for the first time to bring someone back, and I wanted to bring back her. Let's say it wasn't my best work. I ended up with a pesky ghost little sister." She shook her head. "As I was saying, the seventeen closest living people to the seventeen dead people. You got that?"
I nodded. "But how long does the process take. Could you do one of them right now?"
"Were you one of the closest people?" I nodded. "Well, the process takes two days the way I do it. For that time you can stay in Zary's old room. People worry about the whole ghost thing, but it's not like she sleeps. In fact, she hardly ever goes in there. She usually just bugs me. Come here, I'll show you."
On the way to Zary's room, which was on the third floor, Zary walked up beside me. "So you know my name now?" She whispered, with her hair still hanging in her face.
"Yeah, Zary."
"And now you're staying in my room." I nodded. "I know what you are." I stopped and turned to her in the same instant.
"You what?" She giggled and disappeared just as Namiee turned around.
"Here it is." She pushed the door open to a room that was all pink, butterflies, and dust. "I haven't had anyone stay in here in a while." She sighed. "By tomorrow morning I need a picture of the person, and a sentence. Now this sentence has to tell me all about that person. And don't try to do that thing where you drag a sentence on for a paragraph. I mean it, one sentence. Okay? Now remember, the way I do this, things won't turn out the way you expected. You just have to go with it, okay?" She walked out before I could answer.
I shrugged and pulled a post-it note off of the cobwebby desk and stared at it for a while. In half an hour Zary joined me, apparently she was bored of Namiee. After two hours it was almost ten o' clock and I still hadn't written anything. How in the heck could I describe Jasper in one sentence. This girl was crazier than I thought.
Zary was staring over my shoulder the entire time. "You know, it's easier if you don't try to complicate it too much." She was still whispering. I gave her a look, but took her advice. She was right, it was easier, and I wrote my sentence down and left the post-it and the picture of Jasper on the desk. I sat on the bed, and Zary stood by the door, watching me.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
"I'm supposed to make sure you go to sleep."
"Why?"
"Nami told me to."
She was true to her word and stood there until I closed my eyes and pretended to sleep. Around one a.m. she was satisfied and vanished.
TNMEBDTNMEBD
After two days were up, I went down the stairs to find that room again. Zary had come to get me, but vanished and left me to find it myself.
When I walked in Namiee wasn't in there. All the candles and incense were out, and the only light was from the two windows that had been covered by dark curtains before. What I noticed the most though, was the little boy lying on the chair. He was sleeping and had a note pinned to his shirt.
"Dear Alice,
My part with this person is done. When you have all sixteen of the others, you can find me back here. And trust me, I will know. Remember what I told you about the way my spell works. And bring the tyke along with you. He needs you.
Namiee Bras
Actually, try to send them one at a time. It kinda makes things easier.
Namiee Braston"
The boy was waking up. When he did he sat directly facing me with his hands at his sides. I recognized the face, but it was different. It had color to it like a human. The boy had a heartbeat and I could smell the blood. Then I realized; what was I expecting? Though Zary had said she knew what I was, she probably didn't. And even if she did, she probably wouldn't have told her sister. And Namiee wouldn't have known.
The boy tilted his head. "Who are you?" He spoke in a southern accent. I glanced down, he was looking expectantly up at me.
"I'm Alice. Who are you?"
"I'm Jazz. Do you know where I am?"
"Uh, Jazz. Could you tell me your last name?" I knew the question that was coming. "Mine is Cullen."
"My full name is Jasper Carlton Whitlock."
"Oh. I was afraid you'd say that." He looked at me strangely. "How old are you?"
"I'll be five on June 5th." He jumped up and started walking around. "Where's my ma?"
"Uh," I tried to think of something. "Actually, your mom is a friend of mine. She had to go away, and asked me to take care of you for a while."
"Oh." He stopped walking around and looked at me. "Is she dead?" He asked this as casually as if asking my name.
"No!" I said frantically. I really didn't want to lie to him, but I also really didn't want him to start bawling.
"So is this where you live?" He was walking around again, picking up and examining things. "It's really weird."
"No. I really don't have much of a house right now." I thought of something. "So you don't recognize me at all?" He shook his head. "Not one little bit?"
"Nope."
"Okay… how would you like to go on a little adventure?" His eyes brightened and he ran out the door and tried to find his way out of the house. I took a fairly straight path, while he ran zigzagging through all the halls.
When we got into the car, little Jazz looked at me and said. "Wow, what is this?!" Oh yeah, he thinks it's 1848. "And don't I have to go home and pack my things first? And while we're there can I get something to eat? I'm hungry."
I slouched as I turned on the car and tried to think of answers to the questions. Namiee was right, this wasn't what I'd expected at all. As I pulled the car out of the driveway, Zary appeared on the porch. "Who's that?" Jazz asked.
"The little girl who lives there." I responded.
"How come I didn't meet her?"
"She's not much of a people person."
Zary waved slowly, giggling a little, as I turned the car around. "So where are we going?" He asked.
Honestly, I didn't know. What have I gotten myself into?