A/N: So, I posted this story some time ago, but had to abandon it for a while. It's back and I've edited the first chapter– which is really all you guys saw anyways– and here is the preface to the story. It takes place around the time Alice should have been changed, but I've thrown in Bella. That's all you need to know for now.


Preface-

Devil's Accomplice

It was something I had heard frequently; a nickname of sorts that I had acquired over the years. Renee and Charlie had not been happy with my decision to befriend Mary Alice Brandon.

Despite the Brandon's attempts at hiding their daughter's strangeness, her occasional fits and penchant for blacking out for long periods of time proved to be too difficult to conceal. In the beginning, many thought her to be ill and the town's apothecary had spent days attempting to cure her. It wasn't until she began to speak of visions that true panic set in and the word spread like wildfire through the town that Mary Alice was the devil's child.

The people in Biloxi were very superstitious.

Parents warned their children not to associate with her and adults feared her presence. My mother had been more extreme in her storytelling, filling my head with nonsense about her deals with the devil and until the year I turned ten, I had believed them.

That was the year I had my first encounter with her, myself. I had had another argument with my self-proclaimed best friend Janice Farther. Our parents were good friends and our mothers had somehow gotten it into their heads that their daughters should be as well. I didn't have much say in the matter and Janice was not one to argue with her mother.

She was one, however, to argue with me.

I had left her house early that day and instead of heading straight home, like I should have, I strayed off of the normal path and headed towards Cook's Pond. Cook's Pond was a little park half a mile outside of Biloxi and one of the lesser-visited places in the small town. I did not know at the time, but the reason being that it was only a short distance away from the Brandon house and was rumored to be a frequent haunt of their eldest daughter.

The Biloxi Witch, the Devil's Child.

That day I had carried on in my ignorance, blinded by my fury at the little girl with the perfect blond curls who claimed my friendship and obedience, like I was some slave to her every whim. My feet had led me down that long, forgotten dirt pathway and the angry tears that had welled up in my eyes blurred my vision.

I had almost walked right past her. I should have walked right past her.

She was lying on the ground–motionless– her tiny form curled as she lay in the middle of the path. I remember stumbling over my own feet at the abruptness of her appearance and barely managing to keep upright. The girl was unfamiliar to me, as any stranger would have been, and yet I knew almost instantly that this was the one whom my mother had taught me to fear. Mary Alice Brandon. The Biloxi Witch.

The Devil's Child.

There wasn't anything extraordinary about her appearance. In my naivety I had thought up some frightening creature, with a permanent scowl, grey hair and warts covering her too large nose. The girl that lay before me, the supposed scourge of the town, this Devil's Child, was just that– a child.

She couldn't have been much older then myself, if any older at all.

I rushed forward, tripping slightly over my skirts as I made my way to her side.

Her eyes were blank and her gaze faraway, as she remained unmoving, her long ebony hair in disarray around her. I hesitated for a moment, before kneeling down beside her and placing a hand on her shoulder, shaking her slightly.

"Miss Brandon?"

Mary Alice flinched at the contact before letting out a shrill scream. Startled, I fell backwards and clamped my hands over my ears. Her body uncurled itself as she began to thrash violently about. Fear flooded my senses and I quickly scrambled to my feet and began to back away.

"No!" She had shouted, her voice hoarse and filled with an unknown agony. "Don't touch her!"

I remember wanting to run as I looked around frantically, unsure of what I should do. The thought was there, in the back of my mind. I could just leave her there, no one had known I was here; no one would have faulted me for trying to escape. But terror kept me in place. Terror and a sick curiosity kept me from leaving her by the road that day. Unable to run away, but unable to move any closer.

I'm not sure how long I had stood there, watching her small pale limbs flailing about as she continued her screaming until her voice was all but gone. Her silent shrieks were the ones that haunted me most though. Knowing that she was in such pain that she had screamed herself hoarse. It was with morbid fascination that I continued watching her.

And then she was still. The silence was an eerie relief when compared to the shrieking of the previous moments. Mary Alice's body went limp and for one brief second, I thought she had died.

Yet not an instant later her small form shot up as she began gasping desperately for air. Her hazy blank stare was gone– replaced with bright, hazel eyes that were spilling over with tears. She let out a small sob as one leaked from the corner of her eye and fell down her cheek, leaving a trail that was followed closely by others.

"Cynthia." She choked out before she buried her face into her hands, her long dark hair creating a curtain between us.

Maybe I should have left then. Perhaps if I had, things would have turned out differently. I could have gone back home and continued my life as it had been, forgetting the broken girl on the dirt path and her torturous cries for mercy. I might have grown up and married Chester Laurence, the boy who lived just down the road from me and we would have had a daughter of our own, who I would introduce to Janice Farther's daughter so that they might become best friends as well. Perhaps I may have been happy with a life like that. Proper, Expected, Safe.

But I didn't leave.

And the moment I reached forward and pulled her into my embrace, the moment she froze in surprise and lifted up her fearful, wet eyes to mine, that silent conversation, and the moment she wrapped her tiny arms around my waist and continued her sobbing, everything changed.

In that moment, my fate had been sealed.

Any future I might have had in Biloxi disappeared and a new door opened revealing to me a different dirt path, just wide enough for two, and an endless eternity.

All in a moment.

I know that now, but then– then I was just a little girl, on the side of the road, with the Devil's Child clinging to my waist.


Okay, so that was the preface. Anyone care to share what they thought? Any feedback would be welcome, I'm open to hearing anything.

Not sure how often I will be updating this one though, I guess it depends on who is interested in reading it.

Thanks for reading.

-Kaylee