Sorry that this is so late! I ran into more difficulties and I went camping over the weekend. But it's out now, so enjoy and I'd like at least 4 reviews this time! Thanks a tons!
A great huge thank you to Suki-Alanna, my amazing beta who doesn't know how much it means to me that she takes up so much time to search through each of the chapters and find the many many flaws(: Thanks a ton!
Disclaimer: I do not in any way own the Twilight Saga, SM does.
Chapter two: Surprise?
It was day one on finding our 'Rose' spirit.
I was currently sprawled out on my motel room's floor, surrounded by newspapers and printed website clippings. They included anything having to do with murderers and suspected killers in Rochester in 1934. Angela was propped up on pillows on my dark wood framed double bed. Her lap was full of more papers.
Ben went to go pick up dinner at the Chinese restaurant down the street. He gave me specific instructions to call him if Angela started feeling bad. Therefore, I had my cell phone resting on the cream carpet next to my folded arms.
"Have you found anything Alice?" Angela asked from her resting spot, glancing over at me.
I shook my head and looked up at her. "How do you feel?"
She huffed and rolled her eyes. "Why do people always ask me that every two seconds?"
"Because as a pregnant woman, people are concerned about you," I replied, giving her a pointed look.
She sighed and looked down at the newspaper clipping in her hand. "Ali, what was this girl's full name?"
"Um, Rosalie Lillian Hale, I believe."
"I have her birth announcement in my hands. 'Rosalie Lillian Hale was born on July 24, 1915, daughter of Jonathan and Margaret Hale.' It says their parents welcomed their new child with open arms. So it couldn't be that she was neglected," Angela observed.
I simply nodded and turned back to look over the various clippings and slips of paper. As I stared at the blurry words and titles, things started changing. Bold headlines stood out from browning slips of curled papers as if I was wearing 3-D glasses and small words danced off the pages in complex movements around my head.
"Alice?" Angela asked, concerned for my alarmed expression. "What's wrong?"
"The words, they're moving. Grab a pad of paper and write down what I tell you." I heard rustling on the bed and suspected that Angela reached for a blank pad of white paper.
"Okay, tell me what you see," she commanded.
"Fiancée, King, wedding, beautiful, blood, nightfall is the suspected hour, raped by an unnamed group, and children," I quickly named off the words as I saw them, some of them repeated many times.
"Well I think someone or something is trying to help us solve this case," Angela mumbled, sounding breathless.
I looked up at her. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, the baby kicked. She moves a lot, I bet she'll be just like her father when she's older."
I smiled. "Well, kicking is common during the seventh month."
She nodded and looked over at the door just as it opened. "I smell food!"
I laughed at her expression; I wouldn't be surprised if there was drool dripping down her chin. Angela was a devoted lover of food, her pregnancy demanding four or five meals a day, instead of the regular three.
Ben walked in, his brown eyes widening as his hungry wife hopped off the bed and nearly tackled him to the floor. I had a pretty hard time keeping hold on my laughter; I do not need a hormonal pregnant woman screaming at me. Do you know how amusing it is to see a grade school teacher launch herself at a bag of Chinese food?
As a hormonal pregnant lady, Angela also had a lot of mood swings. One moment she's worshiping the delicious smelling food and the next she's pushed up against her husband, a frustrated look on her face as the first button to his shirt wouldn't come undone.
I sighed and looked away, immediately uncomfortable with their close position. "I think it's a good time for you to take your pregnant wife to your own room and do whatever the heck you want to. I'll reread what we found today." I waved them away and caught sight of Ben's apologetic smile as he dragged his annoyed wife out of my room.
I shook my head, burying the jealous feelings and turned back to our research. I would find love when I was ready too; I just needed to trust Fate.
~Paranormal:Fate~
Ring. Ring. Ring.
I groaned and rolled over, reaching a hand out to find my phone among the papers and random stuff piled atop the side table. Finding it, I clicked answer and held the annoying device up to my ear. "Hello?"
"Ali! Get your lazy ass out of bed and meet us for coffee in the café down the hall!" I rolled my eyes at Jessica's loud voice and huffed. "Hurry up! I have a surprise for everyone!"
"Alright, alright, give me fifteen minutes to have a shower and stuff." I ended the call and threw my legs over the side of my bed.
This is brutal. Its day two of operation, solve case 'Rose' and I was already expected to get out of bed? I checked the time on my phone and my eyes nearly bugged out of my head. Dammit, it was seven in the morning! With the actions of a sloth, I made it into the tiny motel bathroom. A shower will hopefully do the much needed trick.
~Paranormal:Fate~
I shuffled into the café, the shower only helping me partly. My nightmares made another appearance last night. They were so bad that I was actually dressed in the same sweats I had on yesterday.
"Alice, what the hell are you wearing?" Jessica exclaimed, her hazel eyes wide.
"Jess, watch the language, the baby doesn't need to know those words yet," Angela scolded her. Motherhood is natural to her.
"Sorry, but if I knew she was going to come dressing like that I would have told her the surprise."
That was when my abnormally slow brain noticed the unfamiliar but strangely recognizable face of a very tall man standing near the table, watching me.
"Alice, this is Jasper Whitlock the fourth. He moved to Forks a year before you did and graduated in 2005. You might recognize him; he's a year older so you may not. But he has a gift that could come in handy." Jessica's mouth was flying an hour a minute; I struggled to keep up with her.
"I can sense the emotions of the dead," informed a deep and strongly accented voice of the very attractive blonde man leaning against the wall next to Ben and Mike.
"Wouldn't that be helpful? I called him before we left Seattle and he agreed on helping us."
I finally registered the tan out stretched hand of Jasper and I lifted my own hand, giving his a firm shake. "I'm Alice Brandon."
"It's a pleasure, Ma'am," he drawled, smiling.
I blinked, slightly baffled at his gentlemanly actions. To be truthfully honest, I was also pulled into how deep his emerald green eyes were. I might have seemed a little hypnotized because Jessica pinched my arm.
"Ow!" I frowned and nudged her, finally letting go of Jasper's hand. His pulsing presence was making me self-conscious of my current state of dress.
"Oh, just a heads up! You'll be sharing a motel room with him in order to save money. There are two beds in there so it won't be too uncomfortable, right?" Jessica again shoved more information at me that my sluggish brain could not process too fast.
"Uh okay," I mumbled and nodded.
"Great! That's all, now go get changed into proper clothes and help Jasper settle in his new room. We're all meeting at the Rochester Public Market, I asked the motel manager about any strange activity nearby and he told me about a diner, not far from the market that seems to be getting strange sightings and unexplainable happenings," Jessica quickly explained the plan and pushed me towards the café door, Jasper following behind me with his couple bags.
I sighed and guided him through the hallways, until I reached my room, now his too. "Make yourself comfortable," I murmured and pushed open the door, letting him in.
He looked around quickly before walking in and setting his stuff on the uninhabited bed. "Thank you," he mumbled and started unpacking.
I nodded and walked over to my own unmade bed, sitting down on the end. "So, you have a connection with the veil of the dead too, eh?"
He nodded mutely and walked over to the empty wooden dresser next to the motel bed he picked.
"Do you ever, uh, get nightmares?" I glanced up at him, watching his reaction but his back was too me, his hands were still. "Sorry, I don't mean to pry. I just wanted to know if anyone goes through what I do."
His posture shifted and he continued folding clothes into the pulled out drawers. "Sometimes I get them."
I nodded and wrapped my arms around my stomach. "How bad are they?"
"I watch my parents and baby sister crash into a tree, reachin' for me with bloody hands. No one comes though and I'm of no help. They bleed to death and I have to watch their faces slowly die, a look of agony in each of their dimmin' eyes."
I sucked in a sharp breath and watch his tense back. "I-I'm sorry…"
He sighed. "It's not your fault."
I look back down at my slipper covered feet and frown. "I have to watch my best friend get beaten to death by a man I introduced her to. Every time he punches her, she stares over his shoulder, right at me. Her eyes look helpless as she clutches her stomach. I can never understand how she could still be protective of something created by the monster beating her but I guess since I've never experienced something such as motherhood, I wouldn't really get it. And now they've gotten worse. One of our cases is for Isabella Swan, my best friend and the girl who accuses me of her death, I'm at fault."
I struggle against the wash of salty water threatening to pore over as I lift my head and am met with the face of concerned and sympathetic Jasper.
"It isn't your fault, ya' must know that," he murmured.
I shook my head and blink back the tears already slipping down my cheeks. He gently lifts his hands and brushes the water off my cheeks with the pads of his thumbs. "It is not your fault."
And for one inexplicable moment, I believed him.
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