Me without You
A/N: Hey, I'll keep this short but I just wanted to say that this is a story I'm using to relieve writers block and it will probably be fairly short, but hopefully it will still be good and you'll like it :) If you have any questions or requests of what you want to happen just ask :)
Chapter 1
~Alice POV~
I hurled a rock at Jasper.
"How could you even think that?" I screamed. Jasper dodged the rock, glaring daggers at it as it shot past at inhuman speed.
"You've been feeling guilty for weeks." Jasper said
"Yeah, because we've been fighting loads, not because I was having an affair!" I yelled, spitting the word out like it was poison in my mouth. I couldn't believe that Jasper had thought for even a second that I would cheat on him! Sure, we'd been fighting a lot recently, but that didn't mean I was being unfaithful!
"And why have we been fighting loads?" Jasper shot back. The second rock in my hand that I had been about to throw crumbled as I crushed it in my frustration.
"I don't know!" I shouted, then quieter, "I don't know." I looked at the collection of holes in the ground and trees around Jasper that had been created by the many rocks than I'd hurled at him with vampire strength and speed, then I looked back to Jasper's golden eyes, "What's wrong with us Jazz?"
"Nothing's wrong with us." Jasper answered automatically
"Nothing's wrong with us?" I asked incredulously, "Jasper, we've been together for almost a century and we've always forgiven each other and understood each other! We never fought over anything, and now all it takes is a broken plate to start a screaming match between us! What the hell happened? When did we get like this?"
"I don't know." Jasper admitted. We'd been fighting for months now, and it seemed like neither of us knew why. We argued about stuff that didn't even matter, like what to watch on tv or where to hunt. Half the time I knew it was a pointless argument, but I carried on anyway, and I had no idea why.
I sat down in defeat, slumping against a nearby tree and staring at the floor. Jasper came and sat next to me, staring at the same spot. I sighed, "Maybe we should take a break."
I regretted the words as soon as they were out of my mouth. I had no idea where they had come from - take a break? I didn't want to take a break! Jasper looked across at me, "Take a break from what?"
"Us." I said, my mouth taking control over my brain, which was screaming at me to stop. What the hell was I talking about? Why would I want to take a break from us? I loved us! I loved Jasper! Still, I carried on talking nonsense. "I mean, spend some time away from each other, clear our heads. Maybe we'll argue less."
I begged myself to take it back, but the best I could do was to press my lips firmly shut and stop talking. I waited for Jasper's response, for him to tell me to stop talking like a crazy person. "Okay."
"What?" I asked, staring at him.
"I think you're right." He said, "We'll spend a few weeks apart."
"A few weeks?" I squeaked. I hadn't been apart from Jasper for more than a couple of days in almost a century. How was I going to last a few weeks away from him?
"Bye, Alice." Jasper said. He kissed me lightly on the cheek before standing up and disappearing into the forest. I stared after him. A few weeks. Without Jasper. On a break.
Why the hell had I suggested this?
I stood up to go back to the house and suddenly realised that there was a woman stood in front of me. I hadn't heard or sensed her coming, and yet she was standing right in front of me. She wasn't a vampire...or a human...but I couldn't make out what she actually was. She had ash blonde hair that curled past her shoulders, and bright blue eyes. She was wearing a blue-ish gray robe with a hood that she wore up, and she was surrounded by a faint glow. She was smiling at me as I automatically took of a defensive stance.
"Hello Alice." She said in a smooth lullaby voice.
"Who are you?" I asked, my eyes going to the house and wondering why no one had come outside to see who the intruder was. Even if, like me, they hadn't sensed her arrive, they must be able to hear us now, surely?
"I am Meredith." The woman said. She didn't give me any more information than that and I just stared at her for a moment. How had she known my name?
"What are you?" I finally asked
"I am a Tenshi. We usually look after mortal souls and relationships, but immortal works too." She told me. My confusion must have shown on my face because she smiled, almost sympathetically, at me and explained, "Some call us Angels."
"You're a...an angel?" I asked, shocked. It crossed my mind that if vampires and werewolves existed...why not angels?"
"That's what we've come to be known as in your culture." Meredith told me, "But some of your kind knew us from the days when we made ourselves known to the people of Earth. The Tenshi used to live amongst the people here, but it became too dangerous. People became greedy for our powers, it was better that we kept ourselves hidden. We live now in Tengoku - in Heaven."
"But if you're supposed to be hidden, why are you here?" I asked
"I believe I told you we looked after souls and relationships?" Meredith asked
"I don't have a soul. And my relationship just walked into the forest..." I trailed off, "Oh."
"Exactly." Meredith said, stepping closer, "I am here to help you."
"Why?" I asked
"Angels are never too distant to hear you cry." Meredith told me
"I can't cry." I said simply
"You can cry in here." Meredith said, touching where my heart was. I was about to tell her that it stopped beating over a hundred years ago, but she shook her head, "It doesn't matter whether it beats or not."
"How did you know-" I began
"I know everything." Meredith told me, "It's one of the many gifts of the Tenshi."
"But...why are here to help me?" I asked, "There's got to be thousands of relationships falling apart all over the world. There can't be an angel to help every one of those!"
"The relationship you and Jasper share is not just one the thousands of other relationships in the world." Meredith said, "And not just because your love is stronger or because you've been together so long."
"So why?" I asked
"Your relationship has served good to the world." Meredith said, "You've done a lot of good without even knowing it. Saved a lot of lives, even. The world would be a very different place without it."
"What? You can't honestly be telling me that it would make a difference if Jasper and I had never met?" I asked
"Tenshi are never anything but honest." Meredith said
"So, you're trying to help me and Jasper because otherwise something bad is going to happen to the world, is that it?" I asked
"I'm trying to help you and Jasper because you deserve to be helped." Meredith told me, "Besides you're Matchi."
"What?" I asked, confused again.
"Matchi - it's a word we use. It means that you were chosen in Heaven to be matched together." Meredith explained, "So it's fate that you end up together."
"Wait, so what you're saying is that me and Jasper are literally a match made in Heaven?" I asked. Meredith paused.
"Yes, I guess so." She said. I laughed, but Meredith looked deadly serious, "I don't think you understand how important your relationship is."
"Of course I do!" I said, "I love Jasper with everything I have - he's my whole world!"
"That's not the same thing as understanding the importance of your relationship." Meredith told me
"Well maybe if he understood a little more instead of just agreeing to take a break and then walking off!" I said before I could stop myself. I sounded like a stroppy four year old, and I knew it.
Meredith sighed and rolled her eyes, "Alright, this is harder than I thought it would be. Come on."
She grabbed my hand and before I knew what was happening we weren't outside my house anymore. I didn't recognise the place we were in, but it looked like we were outside some kind of school.
"What the hell did you just do to me?" I asked, jumping away from Meredith. That hadn't been like running superfast between places. That had been like we'd disappeared from one place and just appeared in the other. It had been like magic.
"Terepotation." Meredith said, "It's how we travel from place to place. Kind of like a teleport."
"But...where are we?" I asked
"Southern California. I want to show you what life would be like if you'd never met Jasper." She told me
"If...what are you talking about?" I asked
"Follow me." Meredith said, and she began walking towards the building in front of us. I saw no choice but to do as she said and follow her. She led me past a crowd of people who paid no attention to us and into what looked like a gym. She led me round the bleachers and stood right in front of where everyone was sat. No one seemed to care that she was blocking their view. In fact...they seemed to carry on watching...through her. Meredith saw my bewildered expression and explained, "They can't see or hear us. We can't interact with them at all, we're just observing."
"Oh." Was all I managed to say as I came to stand next to her. I turned to see for the first time what everyone was watching. It looked like cheerleading.
"Check out the girl on top of the pyramid." Meredith told me. I lifted my gaze to the top of the high human pyramid and stared for a second. The girl was short - though it was hard to tell as she was so high up - and had ebony hair. My enhanced eyesight allowed me to see her golden coloured eyes and the faint scar on her neck. Her hair was long and tied back into a ponytail, but it was unmistakably me. "You got hair extensions to try and 'fit in' more." Meredith put air quotes around the words 'fit in'. "I guess it was Jasper who told you that you looked good with short hair."
Actually, it was.
"I became a cheerleader?" I asked, staring at the girl. The cheerleading outfit consisted of a blue and white pleated mini skirt, with blue shorts underneath, and a blue and white crop top, showing a bare midriff. It didn't look like something I would wear.
"It made sense. You can jump really high and move quickly and do all the tricks, even if you keep if to a level that humans wouldn't find suspicious." Meredith said.
"I suppose." I said, "I just...never pictured myself as a cheerleader."
"A lot of things are different in your life without Jasper." Meredith said, watching as this other me flipped off of the pyramid and landed neatly on the floor in front. She clapped a long with the rest of the crowd, even thought the only person who could see or hear it was me. She took something out of her robe that looked like a golden hoop. The first thing my mind went to was a halo, which made me laugh. A tiny section of the hoop was black, and Meredith was looking at this section. She put the hoop back into her robe and turned to me, "Look, sorry to drop you in at the deep end, but I'm running behind schedule. I'll check up on you soon, but I know you'll be fine. Good luck!"
"Wait, what?" I asked
"Oh, did I forget to say?" Meredith asked, putting her palm to her forehead, "I always do that. You need to become this person and live her life - that way you will truly understand what it would be like without Jasper in your life."
"What?" I said again
"When I leave, you will become that Alice." Meredith gestured to the cheerleader, "You will live her life, as if you had never met Jasper. Obviously, you'll still have your own thoughts and memories, but you will be able to see what the world would be like if you had never fallen in love."
"No, wait! You can't do that!" I argued, "You can't just leave me here!"
"I'll be back." Meredith promised, "I'll be here to help you, but I really am late."
"But-" I began, but Meredith had disappeared. A strange sensation came over me, and then I found myself across the room. I looked down at myself...wearing a blue and white cheerleaders uniform.
Crap.
A/N: Alright, let me know what you thought :)
By the way, all the 'Angel words' like Tenshi, Tengoku, and Matchi, are in Japanese...so they literally mean 'Angel', 'Heaven', and 'Matched', but in Japanese. I'm not sure why I chose Japanese, I thought it was pretty :) Anyways...The next chapter will be about Jasper...I'll probably update it later today... :)