"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet". Romeo and Juliet ( Quote Act II, Sc. II).

The Awakening

The first thing that she noticed as she woke up was the sickly sweet smell of anesthetic; it was a familiar smell, but she did not know where she had smelt it before. It was a sedating smell at first, a scent so pungent that it almost pulled you in for a split second; but then after getting a good whiff of it, it smelled bitter and sedating, a smell that would make you sick to the stomach. It was then that she almost remembered where she had smelled the aroma once before.

A small girl sat in the waiting room of a hospital, her feet swinging beneath her chair as they couldn't touch the ground. She had a thin face, but bright and intelligent eyes. She could smell the 'cleanliness' of the hospital, the disinfectant smell that made her stomach turn and her nose to wrinkle in disgust.

It was a short memory, but one that seemed familiar to her, like she knew the girl in the hospital, or she was close to the girl; or maybe she even was the girl once? That was the first thing she had noticed when she had wakened. The second thing she noticed was how uncomfortable she was. She didn't open her eyes, but squirmed around ever so slightly as she lay there on the ground. The floor was carpeted, but the carpet was rough and itchy and it felt as if it hadn't been cleaned at all. It was then that impatience clouded over her and she finally opened her eyes.

She gasped as she opened her wide eyes, cringing away from the sudden light that came streaming from the window near the ceiling. It was like she was opening her eyes for the very first time and she wasn't sure how to react to it all. Where was she? What was she doing lying on the floor? Who was she? All of these questions came piling down on her and she felt as though she were about to suffocate on all of the unanswered pleas she sent out- she needed someone to come and tell her what was going on, how she came to be there? But no-one came and she lay there silently.

She didn't know exactly how long she lay on the carpeted floor, wrapping her tiny hands around tufts of thread from the carpet and yanking them out without having to use any strength at all. But the mouth-watering scent that came pouring from underneath her door sent her into hysterics. She sat upright for the first time, her crimson red eyes glowing with hunger and desire; she needed to capture that sweet aroma and taste. She stared longingly at the wooden door of the room, waiting for the scent as it came closer and closer to her. But just as she was imagining pouncing on whoever came through the door, her vision failed her and the room before her wavered out of sight and she was in another room.

The house was large and open; the white-washed paint on the walls giving the impression that someone very rich and important lived there- and the family that stood outside it were five of the most beautiful people that she had ever laid her eyes upon. A blonde-haired man had his arm around a graceful-looking woman with caramel-colored hair and a smile that would just melt you. There a larger male holding hands with a blonde woman, although this woman did not have the smile of an angel; she looked as if she were sulking about something. And the last of the family was a slight male who was standing by himself, he had reddish-brown hair and he had a look of intelligence about him.

The vision kept changing and she was getting flashes of the family. Her vacant eyes flickered ever so slightly as each vision changed to another to show a different scene playing in her head.

They were all ghostly pale and she could almost feel their cold touch, but it was obvious that they all loved each other and they were a compassionate family. But they were different.

They were hunting animals in the woods, draining them off blood.

The older male worked in a hospital, resisting the urge to drink the human blood that smelled more wonderful than anything Alice could ever imagine.

She knew their names, too;

Carlisle and his wife Esme, Emmett, Rosalie and Edward.

They called themselves vegetarians.

They didn't want to kill.

She snapped out of the vision, her sight suddenly coming back to her and the smell of the human outside was still lingering deliciously in the air. But she knew what she had to do, she had to find this family and she had to get the hell out of that room, before she did something that she would regret.

It only took her a few mere seconds to decide an escape route; which was through the small window above the bed. It was a tight squeeze, but considering her size, she figured that it would be possible to sneak out of there without being noticed. So without hesitation, she stood up from the floor and fled at a blinding speed over to the bed, climbing easily on top off it. She noticed that the bed had brown straps attached to the sides, like belts just hanging from the mattress. But they looked more frightening than belts- more like restraints. She averted her gaze quickly to the window and jumped uncertainly towards the glass; it was easier than she thought. She caught onto the sill and hastily pushed open the window and squeezed lithely out of it without a second's thought. It was exhilarating.

I didn't kill. I'm not a killer. I won't ever kill. I'm going to be a vegetarian.

A million thoughts swam through her mind as a wave of sheer victory swept over her as she realized what she had just done. She had avoided killing the stranger that had smelt so good it was almost irresistible. She wasn't a monster, after all, she could be good, like the family she had seen in her vision.

The vision.

Her thoughts immediately went back to when she blacked out in the middle of the room and she began seeing things so vividly she was sure that it was real; everything felt so real to her. How did she see them? How did she even know they even existed? But something deep inside her told her to trust her intuition and to go along with everything she seen. And that's what she did. Although she didn't know what was wrong with her, she knew that she would set out on her journey to find her new family and nothing would stop her from reaching this goal.

And with that last burst of confidence, she began walking determinedly away from the place she had been sleeping in; but she suddenly realized that she didn't even know where she had been. So in one fluid movement, she turned around to look at a sign that stood in front of the building.

Biloxi Asylum

She didn't understand. Why was she in an asylum? Didn't she have a home with a family? Wasn't she supposed to wake up with people around her? No, she was alone. She frowned, creases appearing on her forehead as she looked as though she wanted to go back into the room and curl up on the disgusting carpet and sleep again; sleep forever. She tried to cry, but she couldn't. She reached down into her soul and tried to pull up the sadness to weep. But the tears never came. She put her hands idly into the pockets of her nightgown and found a piece of torn parchment in her left pocket. Curiously, she pulled the torn paper out of her pocket and looked down at the word scrawled untidily on the page.

Alice.