Alice's POV

"Do you believe in magic?" It was an ordinary morning - my husband, Jasper, and I, were snuggled together upon the window seat in our bedroom, watching the sunrise, when he asked me that question. It came as a bit of a surprise to me, as we scarcely ever spoke in these private moments, preferring merely to enjoy each others' presence, and the beauty of the world outside the window.

That question made me think - did I believe in magic? It was something I had never thought about, in all the years that I'd been alive, at leat that I could remember. As a little girl, back in my human days, I probably had thought about it, just like every child. But I remembered nothing of those days, and I wasn't a little girl anymore: so much had changed, but at the same time, things were still very much the same...

Back then, I had been an innocent child condemned to a life of darkness - the life of one who is thought to be insane by all, that much I knew. But were things really so different now? I was no longer a child, or innocent, by any stretch of the imagination, but in the opinion of my brother, I was still destined for, not only a life, but an eternity, of darkness: not only insane, but a monster. And truly, at times, I had wondered - would it not have been better to remain human, so at least I would have the option of death when life became unbearable?

As a young girl, I'd been considered a freak, even by my own family - why else would my parents have left me at the asylum, condemning me to die in a too-small, too-dark cell? As a vampire, I didn't even exist, as far as anybody outside our family and Bella knew. To humans, vampires were fiction, freaks left in novels and graphic movies, not living things with feelings, wants and needs.

Though our hearts had stopped beating decades ago, that didn't mean that we couldn't feel, that we didn't take offense at the cruel vampire jokes that teenagers slung around in casual conversation. To humans, we were freaks. And to a certain extent, even to our own kind, my family is abnormal. Normal vampires kill, and drink the blood of mortals. We merely hunt animals.

Another similarity...Born a freak, but I will never die a freak. Indeed, I will never die at all.

Back then, I doubt I believed in magic, actually. How could it exist, and yet I was still slowly dying, being told I was crazy daily for what I couldn't control, fading away into the blackness? Surely, if magic were real, there would be some spell to help a defenseless child

But what about now? Maybe I was a monster, maybe I was damned to eternal darkness, and maybe I was still a freak, but one significant thing had changed since I had last probably thought of magic: I was loved - I had a family who cared, and didn't think me a freak.

And I had a husband, who I loved more than anything in the world, and who loved me in return. I had no human memories, but I had eternity to make more memories, not of darkness or pain. How could I have gone from a wretched young girl wasting away to possibly the happiest vampire that existed? Magic.

In response to Jasper's question, all I could do was look into his eyes, the ones that I loved so much and whisper, "I do believe in magic - how else could we have found each other?" He didn't have a chance to answer my rhetorical inquiry, because just then, our lips met, then again. And again, and again.

I had Jasper - he was mine, and I his, and we had eternity to spend together. If that isn't magic, then what is?