My Name Is Alice
A/N: Hi, all. This is a one-shot that I've been debating on turning into something longer. I'm not totally sure yet. Leave me your thoughts, if you'd like, of course. I know I'd like it;) This is my first fan fiction that I'm sharing with everyone, so I'm kind of nervous. Any who, thanks and enjoy! - Gigi
"She's forgetting. All of her life is leaking out of her. Soon there will be nothing left." ― Isobelle Carmody
Mississippi, September 24, 1925
She saw pictures of him, with his brown-blonde hair and blood red eyes. Of course, those eyes had once been blue… But of what significance was that once Destiny herself had gotten to him, snatched him up? His human years had been cut short and now he waited for her. The pictures were hazy and confusing, but somehow, she just knew.
She tried to speak, but then, even at nineteen, she was still afraid of the dark. So instead, she screamed. She screamed and gripped her recently shaved, but slowly growing hair in her fingers, as if yanking it out would somehow help her escape the black hole she found herself in. "I can't remember," she sobbed quietly in the corner. "I can't remember! Who am I? Why can't I remember!? I am not a witch!"
Nothing changed for so long, it was always dark, and she always hurt. People weren't very nice to her.
She locked eyes with a middle-aged man. "You're going to die," she told him in a panicked voice, her mind a flurry of indistinct and clouding pictures. "I'm not a witch, and you're going to die." She blacked out from the pain of the 'therapy,' and tears leaked from her eyes. Two hours from then, that man was killed by a lorry while walking to a near-by bar. She couldn't say she told him so — she was in too much pain to even think the words.
The old man sometimes sang to her, sometimes he spoke softly to her and asked her questions. "I've grown very fond of you," he told her then. "You're different — special, my little one." She didn't scream when he came near. In fact, she didn't even seem very surprised when, close to what she knew was the end, his teeth —
She longed to see the man with the honey hair. He seemed nice, and she knew he was waiting for her. "I'm sorry, Ma'am, my apologies."
She had to find him. And in time, she knew she would. It wasn't so much he who waited for her, but really, she was waiting for him. She was waiting for the time when she would walk right up to him and take his hand in hers.
But he wasn't ready yet, and neither was she. Not yet. So for now, yes, she would wait.
And she waited a long time…
… Until finally, one day, she opened her eyes and there was no more dark. There wasn't much of anything for a while. There were no memories of who she had been, or maybe who she would have become if fate hadn't intervened… It was just herself and the burn in her throat… the blood she spilled, and the pictures inside her head.
She didn't know how she had gotten there to that hidden spot in an abandoned barn someplace in the Mississippi countryside. She didn't know much of anything, except that she thirsted for blood and knew nothing of anything besides. But of course, she knew she was a vampire! She knew it well, with each and every innocent life lost — no… not lost. Taken, ripped, stolen!
The woman in the farmhouse, her young son, and the old man… They had screamed when they realized what she was doing to them. The man with the green eyes had smiled at her, his heart stuttering, as she had skipped forward to sink her teeth into his throat… She was a monster; she understood that fact rather well.
She was so distraught after seeing the sweet smelling liquid that covered her ratty clothes, smelling it and wishing for more — that with strength she hadn't known she possessed, she hid herself away in the forest, away from every oh-so-tempting, wet, walloping heart. Her own heart was dead and silent, and no air was passing through her purposeless lungs. She sat, hugging her knees, staring at a faded bracelet on her wrist.
She could read only one word, even with her perfect vision. The rest of it was incomprehensible, but that one word, as scratched and covered in mud and blood as it was, that one word — that name — resounded in her mind.
Alice…
Alice…
Alice…
She sobbed, but there were no tears. Was that her? Was she this Alice? She stared at the bracelet, lost in her confused and longing thoughts. Am I Alice? I must be…
Suddenly, her neck snapped up and with her extraordinary hearing, she heard something enticing. Stifling a keening wail, she clawed at her ears, begging for it to stop. Turn away… But her silent pleads had no effect whatsoever and the sound came closer.
Thump, thump, thump…
Alice.
Thump.
Alice.
Thump.
Alice, Alice, Alice…
Thump.
She couldn't help it — she drew in a sharp breath. She shot from her perch on the forest floor, her bare feet pounding lightly against the ground. Her lip was pulled back in a sneer, her teeth glinting, and her skin glowing faintly in the dim sunlight. Need it… Nothing else mattered, just the burn in her throat and the need to satiate it.
Thump. Alice, Alice, Alice.
She launched herself at the creature, bowling it over, and sank her sharp teeth into its neck. Futilely, it tried to escape, but she easily snapped its neck with just a flick of her wrist, and its heart slowly ceased to beat until it was still and silent, just like her own. Draining it dry, she fell back, pushing the warm body of her. She stared for a moment, her small hand covering her mouth, her red eyes wide, until quite suddenly she grinned.
"I am Alice," she breathed. "My name is Alice!"
Still looking at the downed buck, her smile grew until she couldn't help the quiet giggles that escaped her. Feeling better than she ever had, she threw her head back as her giggles turned into a full-bellied laugh and tugged on her short, spiky hair. She laughed at the feeling of total happiness, at the tremendous feeling of being free.
That's when she had the first vision of her new life.
"You've kept me waiting a long time," she said.
"I'm sorry, Ma'am," the man said as he ducked his head, almost looking sheepish. "My apologies."
She held out her hand, and almost as if it were reflex, as if it was the easiest and most natural thing in the whole world, he took it.
The petite, black-haired, pixie-like young woman looked up to the sky, beaming. She twirled around in her ragged dress and jumped around with absolute ecstasy. One day, in the not-so-near future, she would find him.
And with that knowledge of the future, that hope, she started her first day towards forever.