"A picture is worth a thousand words" Title:
Summary: In a world where some of its inhabitants have special abilities, Alice is forced to relive the memories of Mary, a teenage girl she killed four years ago in order to save the man she loved.
Author(s): klutz82
Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or its characters.
Note: There is some violence in here. It's not much, but it's there, so I thought I'd give a warning. Thanks to quail1982 for being my beta.
Inspiration: onepictureequals1000words(dot)blogspot(dot)com/2010/08/blog-post_14(dot)html
To view other entries for this contest, please visit http:/www(dot)fanfiction(dot)net/u/2278443/
I giggled as I fell back onto the bed and covered my eyes for a moment in slight embarrassment. Feeling confidence from the man in front of me, I propped myself up on my elbows, my long black hair falling over my shoulders and onto the bed. My friend, my lover, my everything stood in front of me, amusement and lust running through his light blue eyes and thin but toned body before reaching me. He slowly pulled off his simple black t-shirt to expose the muscles I touched every day and quickly discarded it on the floor then stepped closer.
My eyes closed, soaking up the emotion of love and sending my impatience back to him. I smirked when I heard his deep, southern chuckle.
The bed moved as something heavier than my small form crawled onto it. My smirk turned into a full smile as soon as I felt his lips brush against my collar bone. They crawled up my neck and over my jaw. When the soft kisses stopped, I opened my grey eyes to look into his.
"Jasper," I breathed, reaching up to push some of his hair out of his face.
"I don't deserve you," he simply said.
"That's right you don't," I teased as my hand brushed over his cheek on its way down to rest over my abdomen.
He leaned down and placed a small peck on the top of my nose. "But I'll keep you."
"Good, because I'm not going to let you go," I whispered, closing the small gap between our lips and reveling in the passion of his.
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"Alice?"
"Yes," I answered, my eyes jumping from the black square in the carpet below my feet to the smiling woman in front of a large desk.
"Aro will see you now."
I smiled at the receptionist as I fixed the few strands of my short black hair I knew was out of place and stood up to walk toward the two big oak doors of the boss' extravagantly decorated office full of priceless art and comfortable high end furniture. The man simply known as Aro was CEO of ViaVolt Industries, a company which dealt with steel production and household products and everything in between. He was also the leader of the Volturi, a mob full of people who each had a special ability. His two paths intersected; they were interchangeable. If you were his corporate stooge, you were his lackey.
And I was no exception.
Brought in four years ago, my official title became secretary, but I moved up the corporate ladder to public relations because of my ability to see the future. All I needed to do was make one decision and look into the future to see how the other side was going to react to it. I never met a problem I couldn't solve in ViaVolt. I was their wonder girl. In the Volturi, my job was his seer, and I never purposefully steered Aro into a bad decision. The day I did that would be my last, not only in the company but on Earth.
"Mary, my dear girl," spoke Aro, standing up from behind his large wooden desk with open arms. He stepped around it quickly, coming to embrace me in what he considered a warm, fatherly hug. Each time, I kept up appearances with a large smile when his fatherly hug turned cold and creepy, his hands sliding lower and lower down my backside, and today was no different.
"It's Alice," I corrected, my fingers sliding past his long black hair on his back which was tied delicately in a pony tail at the back of his neck.
"Right, right," he said, dismissing me as he pulled away his thin body.
I looked away, hiding my memories of when Mary was still alive, of the time before I killed her and used her name in my sick affairs. "So what do you need me for?"
"Down to business as always, my little Alice." Aro walked back to his desk and pulled a brown file from it, handing it to me with the same expectant smile whenever there was an exciting job for me to do.
"This man, Carlisle Cullen, has a son I want, and I want you to," he paused to allow a smirk to slowly form on his face, "persuade him to come."
I paused, looking at the wall of windows behind Aro but not seeing the expanse of New York's skyscrapers past it. Instead, I saw the end of the mission being played out in short, moving clips. The person I was sent to retrieve was not with me and neither was the partner I knew I would get. Aro never trusted these jobs to just one person. There was just too much that could go wrong. Plus, he always sent someone to be the brawn to compliment my beauty, and it was usually the tall, olive skinned man with the dark brown, almost black, hair cut just above his shoulders and equally dark eyes.
Coming out of the vision, I said, "It won't work."
"Ah, but the future is ever changing."
I frowned, knowing he was right, and looked down at the folder for the first time. Inside, there was a picture of an older, blond haired gentleman with the name Carlisle Cullen printed at the bottom. Behind that was a sheet full of facts: how old he was: 52; the members of his family: 3 – his wife, Esme, 50, and their adopted child, Edward, 24; where they lived: Chicago, IL; what they did: he was a surgeon, she was homemaker, and the son was in school, following in his father's footsteps. The next sheet showed the target, Edward, with wild bronze hair, deep green eyes, and a strong jaw. I knew many women had already fawned over his classically handsome features; I quickly realized that was going be my angle.
I checked the future once again to see if my decision changed anything.
"It's still the same."
"It never hurts to try," Aro said in almost a sing-song voice.
"When is Demetri coming?" I asked, playing my odds.
As if on cue, the phone on his desk rang.
"Now," he smiled and picked up the phone.
Seconds later, Demetri pushed open the large door. "Ready to go?"
"Yeah," I sighed.
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Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
The alarm sounded, waking me up from a silly dream about garden gnomes. Beside me, I heard a long groan and then the rustling of cotton sheets before the loud beeping stopped. I blinked my eyes open and looked out at the one window in the one bedroom apartment Jasper and I rented. White drapes covered the window, making the blue light of the dawning sky filter the color into a grey over everything in the room.
I turned over to see Jasper's arm over his face in an attempt to grab a few more minutes of sleep before heading to the shower. Smiling, I kissed his cheek. He smiled back and lifted his arm enough to peak out at me.
"Thank you."
"For what?" he asked before his brain caught up.
"For the gift," I answered, pushing myself up onto my knees and letting the thin covers fall down the back of my white t-shirt. "But I don't want you wasting your money on Tiffany's again."
I turned, still on my knees, away from the head of the bed to start on my morning routine of breakfast while watching I Love Lucy and a long shower before getting dressed to run out of the door at the last possible second. My plan was thwarted when I felt a tug on the hair hanging messily down from the elastic band at the nape of my neck. I let myself fall back, pulling my legs out from under me to be comfortable.
"One of these days I'm going to cut it all off," I said as he rolled to hover his half naked body over me.
"You" – he kissed my forehead over my bangs – "wouldn't" – he kissed my left cheek – "do" – he kissed my right cheek – "that" – he kissed my lips – "to me."
"Maybe," I shrugged.
"But I only love you because of your hair. If that goes, I go," he said with a mock pout.
I rolled my eyes. "Right." I looked at the clock and added, "You better get going or you're going to be late."
He looked at the clock then sighed. "We'll finish this discussion tonight," he said as he climbed off the bed and walked into the bathroom.
"What if I already cut it before you come home?" I said, lazily moving after him and to the edge of the bed.
I heard him laugh then shut the door. I joined in as I stretched my arms above me. Before my arms made it back down, my smile started to fade and I knew my eyes were going into a blank stare. These were the visions I hated, the ones that came without me calling upon them. They usually signaled something bad. There was the vision of my removal from my home before it happened; there was the death of my best friend in the psychiatric hospital I called home after that. Though, like with everything else, there was an exception to this rule.
Jasper. I had many visions of him. They came to me when I was four and never let me go. A tall, lean but muscular, man with blond hair flowing past his ears and a lifeless look in his beautiful blue eyes called to me at least once a year. Over time, the eyes became full of life, the pain started to fade from his body as he started carrying himself without the shame of a past I didn't know about.
However, this time was the same as those that didn't have to do with Jasper. There were two men, both tall, but one was broad shouldered, making him feel larger than the other. Both had dark hair which complimented their Mediterranean skin and features. However, the smaller of the two had hair almost to his shoulders and the heavier one had a larger nose and lighter brown eyes. They looked at me, unflinchingly with a smile, and I knew they were coming for Jasper and me.
Sensing my happiness break, Jasper ran out of the bathroom in time for me to look upon his concerned face and dripping wet hair as he kneeled in front of me with a towel wrapped around his waist. The foreboding sensation running through my body wouldn't stop, and I just stared at him trying to understand who and when the two men would show up.
"Two men are coming," I said, unable to answer my questions, "but I don't understand why."
"It doesn't matter," he said as he pulled me off the bed for a wet embrace. "I won't let anything happen to you."
I wrapped my arms around his neck and pushed my body as close as I could. As the water quickly soaked into the front of my t-shirt and shorts, I spoke softly, "I know, but what if they're coming for you?"
"Don't worry about it," Jasper said. He was trying to act strong, but I could tell the slight shake of his voice as he considered what it would mean for the both of us if this encounter turned bad.
On that thought, I hugged him tighter, hating myself for falling in love so hard I didn't know how to live without him anymore.
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My eyes opened to watch the ground move swiftly underneath the plane as it stuck its landing and taxied up to the gate. The dying summer sun made everything glow in some shade of orange, making me long for the moment when we finally stepped away from the large windows of O'Hare and into the belly of the building. However, the light followed me with each step of my heels, chasing me until I found solace in the tinted windows of the back of the limo Aro was kind enough to get us.
"Why do you hate the light so much?" asked Demetri as the car moved toward the hotel that would be our home for the next couple of days.
"Because everyone can see me," I said. My words meant nothing, but he took them to mean everything and stayed silent. I briefly wondered how much he knew of my past before I made a decision to ask him solely to allow me to see the answer before any of the conversation took place.
Becoming very still, a tell tale sign about what I was going to do, I peered into the future. Demetri was answering my question with a smile. His lips mouthed 'everything,' telling me what I already expected to be true because to be a tracker meant to know everything about the one you were supposed to track.
"But no one knows we exist," he said as I came back to the here and now.
"Yet. Our loved ones knew. Aro found us. Don't you think it's only a matter of time before the general public knows what's going on?" I smiled. "You've seen X-Men; mankind isn't excited about those they don't understand."
He laughed. "But none of us are covered in blue hair."
"No," I said, my smile starting to fade, "but we are evil."
Demetri and I got to work as soon as we arrived at the hotel and settled into our adjoining rooms. Being a Friday evening, we took our chances and guessed our target would be going out for a night on the town or a date or, at the very least, going out to pick up some food. Knowing we were on track, the two of us broke apart to get ready to catch our man.
A half an hour later, I emerged from my room wearing my hair a bit more subdued and close to my head than the usual flared spikes, a few pieces of jewelry, and my little black dress. It wasn't much on my 4'10" frame, but it hugged the curves I did have and gave me the illusion of having long legs and great breasts. Walking down to the lobby, I got many appreciative stares which made me stand up a little higher on my elegant but simple black Jimmy Choo peep toe heels.
Demetri was already in the lobby wearing a buttoned down purple silk dress shirt and black slacks with an equally black sport coat. His hair was tied back, allowing his Greek heritage to shine which got him a few stares of his own. As soon as he spotted me, he grinned and held out his arm, much to the chagrin of a few women.
"You're getting quite the stares," I said, my voice low and soft.
"I know," he said hungrily, earning an eye roll from me. "You don't think I'm going to let you have all the fun tonight, do you?"
I slapped him with my small black clutch without much force as we stepped up to a cab. "Just remember, we're here to get Edward. And keep your thoughts to yourself. We don't need to botch this up."
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I was seeing him more frequently. Even my dreams were starting to showcase the blond haired, blue eyed All-American boy. I was seeing him so much I was starting to get sick of it all. At first, he was my protector, the one who was going to come to my house and shield me from parents who didn't understand me and a sister who was scared of me. Then he became my savior, the one who was going to run into the hospital, guns blaring a la Terminator 2 and save me from my own Nurse Ratched. At the age of sixteen, after I got out of the hospital and was placed in foster care because my parents finally stopped wasting their money on me, I turned on him. He was never a true vision but a figment of my imagination; I made him up because I believed in angels and angels always had blond hair and blue eyes.
With a huff, I pushed back the latest vision of him and walked into the only place that could make me even think about cracking a smile on my seventeenth birthday: the local ice cream shop. I had been there many times before, always being able to scrounge up a few dollars for my favorite snack, but, this time, I had a crisp ten dollar bill from my first paycheck from my first job.
I stepped into the building and heard the familiar jingle of the bell perched above it. Laughter hit me from my left, and I looked to see a group of seven kids no older than ten jump around a couple of tables full of ice cream and colorful balloons. My heart started beating faster. The scene was exactly like a vision I had two months ago.
I closed my eyes, half willing the blond man to be here and half wishing he wasn't. My will won out as all the emotions my visions of him gave me from the beginning – always happiness, comfort, acceptance, hope, love – ran through me. I almost resented them, hated even him for teasing me for so long, but, as much as I was confused at this feeling of completeness, I couldn't help but reach for it as if I was a recovering drug addict and that was my drug of choice.
My eyes opened slowly on the counter ahead of me. I knew where he was going to be and looked slightly to the right where the opening to the back of the store was. Two steps later, and I was next to a mural of kids and ice cream a local artist painted years ago. My heart jumped out of my chest. This was the moment.
As he stepped through the doorway, his head was looking down at his feet so it was the blond hair that greeted me, not his eyes. However, it was quickly covered up by a blue baseball cap with the company's logo of a cow sitting in a waffle cone. As if he had just remembered something he thought was long forgotten, his head snapped up. Those beautiful deep blue eyes locked onto my mine. Everything was there: the delicate bump toward the bridge of his nose, the slight darkness under his eyes, the strong jaw, and the small scar on his chin.
Smiling, I walked up to the counter, "So you are real."
"Yes, ma'am, I can assure you I am," he said, confused but intrigued.
I laughed at how his ma'am rolled of a southern tongue that wasn't from Mississippi. "When do you get off work?"
"Five."
"I'll see you then," I said and turned around, not caring about the ice cream anymore.
"Ma'am, your name?" he called to my back.
I glanced back over my shoulder but kept walking to the door. "Mary. Mary Brandon."
"Mine's Jasper Whitlock."
"I know."
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I motioned Demetri to walk into the restaurant and bar as I waited by a large floor to ceiling length window of a closed bank to take one last look at myself and give him enough time to stake out a spot to watch us. I kept my mind busy with thoughts of the mundane as I stepped away, knowing full well Edward would latch onto anything suspicious.
When I walked into the restaurant, I looked around the building for Demetri. When I found him, I headed to the bar I saw in the cab and the chair Edward was going to be sitting on. I thought about how good the man looked from behind, getting a slight turn of his head as if trying to pick up whispered words.
I smirked as I thought about my hand rubbing up against his back and my body close to his. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. I put on my best smile and leaned against the bar next to the free chair beside him.
"Gin and tonic," I told the bartender after I flagged him down. As he was busy making the simple drink, I looked at Edward out of the corner of my eye. I made sure to run through his features in my mind, each time focusing on what I would do them. It wasn't until a glass was set in front of me did I stop and laugh at how easy it was to make him uncomfortable.
"You already have a girlfriend, don't you," I said conversationally before taking a sip of my drink. "And she's meeting you here tonight. So, how much time do I have to convince you to come with me?"
He shook his head and took a hold of his glass with one hand and placed the other on the edge of the counter to push the chair away to leave. Before he could move any farther, I reached out and grabbed his arm, my faked cheerful mood changing as I wiped the smile from my face. He looked from my hand to my face, finally getting this wasn't quite a chance encounter.
I'd rather we talk before your girlfriend comes, I said, my mouth never moving.
"What do you want?" he asked through pursed lips.
I pulled my hand away and dug in my clutch for a business card. "I've come to recruit you," I said, handing it to him. "ViaVolt Industries is looking for someone of your caliber in our research and development section."
"I'm not in going into research," he said, looking at the card.
Look at the back, I said and watched him flip it over and read the name of the group he was really being recruited for and the number of a disposable cell phone to reach Aro. When he looked back up at me, I spoke, "I assure you, there is a position available for your expertise.
"We've been watching you. We know you're different from your peers." You can read minds. I saw his eyebrows flinch, but continued on my generic spiel. "Our CEO wants to show you how special you are and how you'll fit into our company."
"Sorry, but I'm not interested," he said, handing the card back to me.
I didn't move to grab it. The world has started to believe people like us are out there and they don't like it. What will happen when they decide to go after us? Aro can offer you protection and a life where you can be yourself.
"And this is you?"
"This is Alice," I said. The woman who can be herself without… I flashed through different scenes of my parent's horrified expressions when I told them about what I saw in each of my visions before I got smart about it.
"Not everyone grew up ostracized," he simply said.
"Then it'll be harder for you when they start to turn on us." I glanced at the business card. "So why not call the number on the back. That'll lead you to the CEO. I'll see…"
Edward's face faded. It was replaced by nothingness until the scene fully unfolded before me. He didn't disappear completely; he was only smaller and standing in the middle of an alley, his back to me. And he wasn't alone. A person, whom I could only assume was his girlfriend, stood beside him clutched onto his arm, her long brown hair bouncing each time she looked from her boyfriend to the small girl in front of them. The girl, Aro's favorite, Jane, smiled and in a split second, I saw Edward fall to his knees, his upper body contorting into strange positions as it shook with excruciating pain effectively pulling his girlfriend down next to him.
I gathered as much as I could about the alley, seeing a few characteristics, like a Cubs sticker on the side of a green dumpster to the left and the black fire escape next to it that would have blended into the darkness if it wasn't for the one light on the building across from it. I even saw a dark shadow of a shoe sticking out into the light. She wasn't alone.
"There's another team," I whispered, coming out of the vision.
"That's all well and good, but they've decided to run away," growled Demetri.
I shook my head to get rid of the fuzziness. "They?"
"Our target and his girl," he said, pulling me from the chair. "I know where they're going."
"I know where they're stopping." The two of us stepped out of the restaurant and Demetri immediately turned left, his gift pulling us in the right direction.
"It's Jane, Demetri. Why would he send Jane? Why would he send another team?" I asked almost frantically as I trotted beside him, trying my best to keep up.
"Because, you said it yourself, we were going to fail."
I growled in frustration. He was right. Periodically, I had been checking up on the outcome of the mission, and each time, I was sitting alone without Demetri, without our package. That was the future I couldn't seem to change. I foolishly didn't keep track on Aro during this mission as I had in previous ones. Somehow, and I didn't know how, Aro knew the outcome was never going to change.
That, or he was always going to send a second team, and I just now lifted my veil to see that.
I stopped moving. "Why are we chasing after them then?" I asked, voicing my thoughts.
"Why wouldn't we?" he asked, continuing on without a moment's hesitation.
"Because the other team will find them. That's what I saw," I yelled after him. "If we're still going to fail, then why are we running after them?"
He stopped and looked back at me. "So we're not going?"
Edward's contorted body flashed in my mind, and I hurried forward to close the gap. "We can't let Jane get there first or there might not be an Edward left."
"She'll have a partner to keep her in check."
"And her partner is standing in the shadows letting it happen," I said, throwing my arms out in exasperation.
"Why do you care, Alice?" he asked with an air of indifference.
"I – Be – He – I –" An answer wouldn't come because I didn't quite understand it myself as neither Edward nor his girlfriend meant anything to me. Giving up on an explanation, I turned on my heels in the direction we were heading. Through the sound of my Jimmy Choos, I heard Demetri's frustrated sigh then his footsteps coming after me.
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"He said we could come over anytime we wanted. Just give him a call," I said, shivering in the cold night air.
Jasper placed his arm around my shoulders and pulled me close to him. "That's awfully nice of him."
"What? Don't tell me you're jealous?" I asked, incredulously.
"Me? Never," he said with a smirk, trying to blow it off.
"Sure, I belie –"
Jasper stopped, dropping his arm to fall unceremoniously between us. Looking away from him, I turned my head to see two tall men. My smile fell off my face along with my good mood. They were the ones I saw six months before in the unwanted vision. Both had the olive skin associated with someone who lived around the Mediterranean. The broad shouldered man had a large nose and light brown eyes. The thinner man had longer hair and almost black eyes. He looked at me as if boring through me while the other one smirked as if he was eying a piece of meat.
"Mary Alice Brandon," said the bigger of the two with a slick voice.
"How do you know…?" I asked as my hand found Jasper's.
"We know a lot about you," he said as the other held out a business card, "and your boyfriend."
Jasper stepped up and pushed me behind him while keeping his hand securely around mine, making him my shield. As I peered around him, I watched his hand pull the card away from the silent one. "What do you want?" he demanded.
"We only want to talk about the many opportunities ViaVolt has to offer," he said, placing his hands neatly in front of him. The other man did the same and continued to stay silent and look as if he was already bored with the conversation.
"We're not interested," spat Jasper.
"Oh, we don't want you. Just Mary here."
Jasper tensed. "She's not interested."
"But we're a very persistent company."
Jasper turned his head and whispered, "Run."
He didn't need to tell me twice. I gave Jasper's hand one last squeeze and took off. Behind me, I could hear the same man say, "Running is useless."
My Converse clad feet kept pounding away until I thought I was far enough away but close enough for Jasper to easily find me once he got rid of them. Stopping near an abandoned brick building in order to catch my breath, I closed my eyes to search for something to tell me they were eventually going to leave me alone. What I saw didn't give me any reassurance. With a background cloaked in darkness, Jasper was standing no more than five feet across from me, and a gun was pointed to his head by the thinner of the two men. The broad shouldered one was closer, staring at me impatiently, waiting for something. Then Jasper was on a light colored ground, blood pooling underneath him.
I broke free from the disturbing vision to see Jasper alive and well but very frightened. His hands reached up to place them on either side of my face. His thumbs whipped at the phantom tears on my cheeks.
I opened up my mouth to speak, but nothing wanted to come out. All I could do was stare with wide eyes and will myself to change the vision that terrified me more than anything else ever had.
"I said I won't let anything happen to you," he said forcefully, taking all my negative emotions and reading them wrong.
I shook my head and squeaked out, "You."
Jasper's eyes widened. He got what I was saying instantly. Before I could take in another breath, Jasper was already forcing himself to relax the both of us. "Mary, the future is always changing."
Closing my eyes, I nodded, still unable to speak. I would have believed him any other time, but this time I knew he was dead wrong.
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"This way, Alice," said Demetri as he turned down what seemed like a random street. My feet were starting to ache a little, pleading for me to quit my fast pace, but I continued following him, moving toward what I felt was right rather than to what I felt my misplaced duty was.
He stopped abruptly, making me run into the back of him. I pushed myself off, stepping around his left side with slow, sure steps as I peeked up at his face. He was frowning as if in deep thought. I mirrored the frown, mine fueled with confusion until I saw a familiar green dumpster and the blue circle with red letters spelling 'Cubs' on a white background. We were here.
"Edward!"
A woman's voice rang in my ears and I knew I was too late.
"Stop!"
"Oh, why should I?" asked the child-like voice I knew was coming from Jane.
I looked back up at Demetri. He was still standing frozen to the spot, trying to figure something out. Shaking my head, I stepped to the top of the alley to see Jane's head tilted slightly to the side, a few strands of her short brown hair falling across her face lighted with a sick sort of half-grin. My body shuddered despite my attempts not to let it happen. Edward wasn't the only one in the alley who had tasted Jane's extraordinarily painful ability.
"Bella… Leave…" Edward growled, still writhing in pain on the pavement.
"I will not leave you," she said.
In a move I deemed stupidly heroic, Bella stood up and placed herself a few steps away from Edward and closer to Jane. Instantly, Edward stopped convulsing and Jane's face lost its amusement. She slid a foot forward, but before she could move any further, a different, heavier set of feet started walking. My eyes darted to the edge of the shadow even though I knew, without a doubt, the foot would not be there.
"Alice, we need to go," spoke Demetri from behind, startling me.
"Why?" I asked, my eyes going back to Jane.
"But don't you think she should be here for this?" Jane said, her good mood returning tenfold.
"Jane, hurry up so we can leave," said a sixth voice.
I didn't need to see the person; I would have been able to recognize that voice even in a crowd a million strong, even after all these years. It was so engrained in my psyche that I heard it in my sleep at least four times a week. The person behind the voice continued to walk out of the darkness to be seen by everyone in the alley.
The armor I placed around me the moment I told Aro I was his started crumbling and I began to hyperventilate. The man's name was on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn't get it out between the short breaths before my knees gave way under the pressure of all the pain from the feelings of abandonment, anger, confusion, and the breaking of my heart, my soul, all over again. Vaguely aware of Demetri's arms holding me up, I stared at the only object in my vision that was crystal clear.
Jasper.
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Standing in the middle of the living room in my apartment, I waited for the two strangers I met the night before. An hour after I pushed Jasper out the door, insisting I wanted things to return to normal even though the visions of his death were still showing up whenever I looked into his future, I received a phone call from them. I hung up on them. They called me back and I didn't have to leave the comfort of my own home. I told them to go to hell. Then they hung Jasper's life over my head, effectively sealing the deal.
I looked at my watch. It was five minutes before eleven, the time when they were supposed to show up. For the twentieth time that morning, I tried to see if Jasper would be sitting next to me on the couch that evening, but, each time, I was only handed a Jasper lying in his own blood. I wrapped my arms around me, suddenly feeling a freezing wind blow through to my bones.
As though providing a reason for the chill, three knocks burst through the silence. I walked to the door in a flash, opening it up and ushering them in as if it was suspicious for me to have visitors.
"You actually waited," said the greasy voice of the broader one as he walked in.
"Why wouldn't she, Felix? We threatened to hurt the one she loves," she said with a sort of perverse glee, her body coming out from behind Felix.
"Who," I breathed.
"She didn't realize we didn't mean it?" said Felix ignoring me.
"Can we get this over with?" the previously silent one said with a sigh as he stepped inside.
I looked around the door to see if any more of them would be joining me unexpectedly. The hallway was empty. I slowly shut the door and turned around to see the two men flanking the small female who looked no older than thirteen but whose voice sounded as though she had a lifetime of cruelty under her belt and enjoyed every minute of it.
"What, Demetri? Have a hot date tonight?" laughed Felix.
"Maybe I do," said Demetri with a smirk.
"I'll have to let Heidi know when we get back."
"I'd love to hear more of this conversation, I really do, but can we focus on our mark for just one more minute?" said the girl, looking darkly at the two men.
She turned her attention back to me. "Aro won't take no for an answer. I am sure you have seen that this is the only future for you? And I can assure you Felix is lying. We will hurt what you hold dear in order to get what we want."
"No you won't," I said defiantly.
The woman looked at me curiously. "They never told you what we are?" She paused, allowing me to answer, but I only narrowed my eyes, already wishing I had been more confident when they called to do what they expected – run. "The tall one," she continued when she realized I wasn't going to say a word, motioning to the one called Felix, "is just brawn, but this one," – she pointed to Demetri – "can track you down, so running is useless. And my specialty is…persuasion."
She shot a look at me and before I knew it, I was on the floor of my apartment, my body contorting under wave after wave of extreme pain. I had nothing to compare to this level of pain, but it was highly reminiscent of the time when I shocked myself on an exposed wire months before. With my eyes clenched shut, I was only able to hear a voice scream. It took me a few seconds to realize it was mine.
"Mary!"
As quickly as the pain came, it was gone. My long sleeved t-shirt was stuck to me thanks to the ample amount of sweat covering my body. Strong arms pulled me up to a sitting position. I couldn't feel the pain anywhere, but I was stiff and moved much like a ninety year old lady and not the eighteen year old I was.
"Mary?"
A hand accompanied the voice, pulling me from the immediate past to the present to look upon a relieved yet angry Jasper. I tried to smile but it only came out as a wince. The one person I wanted to protect was here. Now I knew there was nothing stopping my vision from coming true.
"See, she's fine," said the woman. "Demetri. Felix."
Jasper's fingernails scratched my cheek as he was violently pulled away from me. I forgot about my stiff muscles and leapt to my feet, pushing myself toward the woman as loud scuffling played out behind me, crashing a lamp and a couple of pictures off a side table.
"Stop," I yelled, taking a swing at the woman. She easily dodged my wild attempt and took her own swing at me. It made contact, and I staggered back, shocked at how easy that was for her. Rubbing the pain from her right hook away, I momentarily looked back at Jasper and the two he was battling with. He was far from winning, but he was unfolding himself and dashing forward for another attempt at taking down both Felix and Demetri at once.
"If I go, you won't hurt him, right?" I asked, returning my gaze back to the now smiling woman.
"Mary, stop!" Jasper yelled through gritted teeth.
"No, Jasper! You're not going to get hurt on my behalf!" I yelled back.
"Yes, I won't harm him if you willingly come with us," the woman calmly said.
The sound of the other lamp crashing brought my eyes back to my boyfriend. He had landed on the other side table, crushing the glass insert and the other lamp on top of it. While Jasper was getting up, Demetri held out an arm to stop Felix. His other arm moved away from his side to reveal a shiny silver gun. He pointed it at Jasper's head who finally freed himself from the table.
Seeing this scene become exactly like my vision was like a hardy blow to my stomach by Felix's giant hand. It meant nothing I did was going to change the outcome. This future was set in stone from the moment I first laid eyes on the future Jasper when I was a kid.
I no longer believed in an unplanned future. I no longer believed in happy endings.
I smiled at Jasper, pressing all the love I had for him into it. He pleaded to me in silence, and I willed myself not to cry. I hadn't shed one tear in years and I refused to give the other people in the room the satisfaction of seeing that happen. When I felt my resolve start to waiver, I turned around, catching a glimpse of Felix waiting for some kind of order.
"Fine. Tell me about ViaVolt."
The woman smiled and nodded her head then motioned me to come with her to the front door. I did as I was told and walked out of my apartment and away from him. When I made it halfway down the hallway, the gun went off.
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Jasper.
It was really him, but nothing about him was the same as I remembered. His body looked thinner than I remembered; his purple dress shirt and black pants looked a half a size too big. His hair seemed to have lost some of its shine, and the face I spent many moments running my fingers over and staring into was harder making the darkness under his eyes more prevalent. What was also different were the feelings I always felt coming off of him. The constant buzz of love and adoration and completeness never left his body when we were together, even when we were angry with one another. Now there was just emptiness.
I cried. Tears I hadn't seen since months after I was placed in the hospital ran down my face in waves. Through them, I thought I saw Jasper flinch, but I was sure it was only hopeful thinking; a man who rose from the dead as a shell of his former self didn't care if a woman from his past broke down in front of him.
"This is better than I could have hoped for," said the gleeful Jane.
As she laughed, something broke inside me. The loss of the person I was coupled with the return of Jasper pushed me over an edge I had been standing on for too long. I rubbed my eyes to get rid of the tears that destroyed my perfect vision then pushed myself away from Demetri but not before I reached into his open sport coat and pulled out the gun he always had with him. My feet stepped forward with determined purpose, and my hand flew up in front of me, the gun pointing straight at Jane.
"You're seriously pointing that thing at me?"
With my own vicious laugh ringing in my ears, I pulled the trigger.
At the same time, a pain jolted through me, sending my small form crashing to the ground. My arm rose up in the air as I let go of the gun, and I knew, as the pain continued to course through my muscles, I had missed before I pulled on the warm metal of the trigger.
I thought I heard my name, but I couldn't make it out over my grinding teeth and my constant chant of 'Don't scream. Don't cry.' I barely heard metal scraping over pavement and the sound of scuffling only because they were so close.
Suddenly, the electricity stopped flowing. My eyes flew open to look around and gauge what was happening around me. The source of the scuffling was Edward and Demetri who were fighting over the gun. Both of their hands were locked onto the handle of the gun, the barrel pointing toward the dumpster free wall beside them as they pushed against each other. They were trying to turn the tide by placing their knees or feet in strategic places like stomachs or right behind the knee cap in an attempt to send the other one tumbling to the ground.
I looked at Edward's girlfriend next. She was looking at me with concern in her eyes but a straight line of determination on her lips.
Jasper, on the other hand, had Jane against the dumpster, his hands curling around her throat. Because she was considerably shorter than him, he was crouched down in front of her looking like some sort of bloodthirsty animal getting ready to make the kill.
The gun went off again, making me jump and turn my attention back to Edward and Demetri. Between the two of them, I hoped beyond all hope it was not Edward who had gotten hurt, but I still couldn't help wanting to see Demetri walk away unharmed as well. After all, I had worked with him off and on for four years. I ate many meals with him, even had a few laughs. I first saw blood, and I followed the drops up to the chest of its owner. It was Demetri.
His gasps for air reverberated throughout the alley as he staggered away from the shooter. Bella ran to Edward's side and started checking him for any hints of a bullet wound she knew wasn't there. I finally pulled myself from the ground and briefly looked at Jasper to see him say something to Jane as her head lolled onto her shoulder before turning my full attention back to Demetri. He dropped to his knees and into the blood that wouldn't stop draining from his chest. With one last pleading look at me, Demetri fell forward where he continued to gasp for life. No one rushed to his side, not even me, as he strained for one decent breath. This went on for what seemed like hours until the life drained from him and silence fell back onto the alley.
Feeling like the only one in shock, I stood on the spot, staring at the body of Demetri. In all my years with Aro, I did a lot of things I never would have considered. I watched as many atrocities were performed under my nose, and I turned the other cheek when times called for more persuasive action, but not once did I witness someone die before me. I flat out refused to take part in those, as Aro called it, missions for the greater good, and for some reason he had permitted it. For once in my life, I felt grateful toward my slimy boss.
"Mary?" spoke the southern accent I thought was only ever going to be a distant memory.
"So you're going to talk to me now?" I asked, unable to hide the bitterness in my voice. And then I felt it, the emotions I missed when I first saw him, the only feelings from the only person who could make me whole. I closed my eyes, and, despite where I was and what just happened, I smiled. It was short lived, however, as I couldn't completely push away the events for the selfish reason of receiving my miracle.
"It was all according to the plan," he said as if those few words explained it all.
"I suggest, before we delve too deep in explanations, that we leave the area," said a voice I only barely recalled as Edward's.
Opening my eyes, I nodded and let myself be led out of the alley by Bella, who let me walk in peace, while the men cleaned up the mess I made no more than a half an hour ago.
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"As soon as you left, I decided to offer my services for their cause. If I couldn't be near you, I wanted to watch you, protect you the best I could from afar," said Jasper as the four of us sat in a hotel room, Jasper in front of me in the other chair and Edward and Bella on one of the two beds whispering their own story.
"But I heard the gun. I wasn't even out of the building," I said, my head lowered, my eyes focusing on my lap where my perfectly still hands rested.
"He shot the wall behind me. Felix, after my proposal, persuaded Demetri to wait until they talked to Aro. A frustrated and angry Demetri wanted to pull the trigger on something, so he moved the barrel inches away from my head and shot at the wall."
"Why didn't I see that happen?" I asked.
"Mary, you know how your visions work. My decision was spur of the moment. I was always going to protect you, but I didn't decide to work for Aro until then. Your vision wouldn't have picked that up until you were in the hallway." His hand reached into my line of sight and his rough fingers lifted my chin to make me look at him. I noticed two new scars I failed to see when he first stepped out of the shadows. One was above his left eyebrow and the other came around onto his right cheek from his ear, marring his face. "I had hoped you saw, but it became clear in the subsequent year you didn't."
I shook my head. "I stopped being able to see you when I thought you were dead."
Jasper softly ran the back of his fingers across my cheek, and I leaned into his touch, the void in my soul trying to repair itself once again. "For three years, I protected you. I did the dirty jobs so you wouldn't have to. I stayed off your radar, deciding never to let you see me until I figured out a way to get us out. I –"
"Why? We could have run away," I said, cutting into his explanations.
He placed both his hands on top of mine and looked at me with his blue eyes filled with sadness. "We never would have made it, Mary. Aro would have sent Demetri after us, and, once he found us, wouldn't have hesitated to kill me to get you back to Aro.
"I needed a good plan that just wouldn't come. One didn't start forming until a year ago when I found, well, when Carlisle found me. I was doing a job in Seattle where he happened to be at the time for a medical conference. He knew me and you and what ViaVolt actually was. We started talking in secret, formulating plans to get you out.
"Six months ago, Edward started being followed in order to gather information for Aro. We never would have found this out if the one stalking him hadn't slipped up. It was only for a few seconds, but it was the break we needed. I told them exactly what was going to happen, how you usually handled the packages.
"What I didn't expect was Aro wanting to send out another party. Edward apparently," he said with a small smile, "was a bigger deal than I thought. He called up Jane and Felix, but I was able to weasel my way into Felix's spot, telling Aro I was better at keeping my thoughts in check as well as Jane's than Felix ever could. I was lucky because I caught him at a time he was distracted. Otherwise, I am sure, he would have tried to see why I was so intent on taking this job. Or, maybe he thought I might have wanted to see you again and this was my chance. Like he was waiting for the entertainment to start.
"I immediately called Edward and Carlisle to let them know this time was going to be different. They knew how Jane operated. I knew how you operated and hoped the years apart weren't going to fail me."
"Nope, other than not being able to see you, my visions have been consistent," I said matter-of-factly.
He smiled softly and shook his head. "That's not what I meant. You never let someone win. Edward was supposed to run at some point in time and that time happened to be tonight. He texted me the location where he would let himself become trapped, and I made sure Jane and I magically showed up there. I knew you would be following them. You couldn't let Edward get the better of you."
I opened my mouth to let him know that wasn't the case this time, to tell him I didn't know why I had to follow Edward other than the fact I just felt the need to, but let it close again and gestured for him to go on.
"What I didn't expect was for you to go after Jane. As soon as I saw the gun in your hand, I knew this was going to turn out badly. I knew I was going to lose you."
"So this was always going to lead in their deaths?" I asked, trying not to sound as though I cared too deeply about a man who didn't care whether Jane killed me or a woman who wanted to see me writhe in pain until my heart gave out. Even though I didn't care about that woman, I did find Demetri somewhat enjoyable after I finally closed myself off from the fact that he was the one who shot and killed Jasper. It was amazing how much I could push past the unpleasant when I knew I was a prisoner in my own life.
"Mary…?"
I closed my eyes and shook my head for what seemed like the millionth time. "Call me Alice, please. Mary died four years ago with her Jasper."
"But I'm right here. I'm finally here."
"You're not the same," I said and let it sit out there while Jasper tried to show me without so much as a sound how much that wasn't true.
"We've got a flight for Seattle at five where we'll wait for Carlisle and Esme," Edward said, breaking into the emotion with his business-like tone. "Then we're heading to Alaska to meet with some of the others. We will all head to my apartment for a shower and a change of clothes. They won't be coming after us until this morning after you two fail to check in, am I right?"
"Yes," said Jasper, his voice full of the same tone. "We usually check in by nine. By then, Aro's lack of a seer means he will not be updated beforehand. And he won't know where we are going without his best tracker," he quickly added.
"Then let's go."
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For the past year, my days were littered with a few deaths, meetings with the Cullens and their friends who formed their own group to combat the Volturi's ideals, and constant checking of the future for Aro's decisions and Jasper's safety. They also had many moments of complete happiness, something I hadn't felt since the days before Aro's influence. While some of those moments were with a family I slowly became to consider as my own, most of them were the man I ashamedly gave up on twice.
I almost felt like Mary again, but she was still dead, and I was starting to get used to Alice's skin being constantly touched by Jasper's hands or emotions.
I had asked Jasper to repeat the story of how he weaseled around the Volturi, deceived Aro, and all the while kept me from getting my hands too dirty. After six months of retelling it, he officially stopped, telling me he would rather get to know Alice than relive the moments when he didn't have Mary.
Aro, on the other hand, didn't want to give up. After his initial attempts to grab onto Jasper and me again and to finally get his hands on Edward had failed, he backed down, only sending a party every now and then to try and get us off guard. I watched each decision being made and the Cullens were ready. No doubt livid at the situation, Aro agreed to a friendly meeting between him and Carlisle. Aro half-heartedly agreed not to go after us, but we couldn't get him to stop going after others with a special gift. Carlisle accepted the terms but only because we had our own way of finding talents, his friend Eleazar.
"What are you thinking about?" Jasper asked, his voice sounding deep in his chest. His fingers played with a few strands of my hair as he leaned against a counter of the huge kitchen in the house we, along with Carlisle's family, took up residence in near the Denali National Park in Alaska.
"The future," I said, leaning against him, my arms around his waist.
"Did you see anything different?"
I let a few of his breaths pass through his clear lungs as I remembered the vision I had days before which consisted of Carlisle running into Felix before I answered, "No, they're still going to meet. I think Carlisle wants it to happen."
"Why?"
Upon Carlisle's insistence, I didn't let Jasper know the whole story. Carlisle was planning on handing something to Felix. I didn't know what it was, but I could tell by the glint in his eyes it was something that was going to change the battle in our favor for a while.
"For us," I simply said, bringing the comfortable silence back between Jasper and me.
"I'm still not sure I like the short hair," Jasper said, breaking it.
"Too bad," I said, pushing away slightly to look up at his smiling face and smile back. "I like it this way."
"And if Alice likes it, Alice keeps it."
"Worked for you." I laughed and put my head back on his chest to hear his laughter buzz through me.