Author's Note: Yes, I have finally updated this story! It did not get quite the response that I had hoped for which was why it took me so long to update - my muse kind of got crushed:-( But I am back again with another installment and I would love to hear your thoughts on it. Seriously, your reviews literally inspire me to write more whilst lack of them.....kind of kills inspiration. As the writers among you may know. So I hope you enjoy this little chapter (yes, it is short) and I would love to hear your thoughts on it!
Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight nor am I making any money out of this, much to my Dad's disappointment!
Part Two: In which Alice Learns Much Of Great Importance
For days it seemed , she ran ceaselessly, tirelessly. This new body of hers was unendingly strong and fit and she could run for miles without needing to draw breath or pause for rest. But whilst this new energy was certainly rewarding, it had its downside too. For just as her limbs never tired, neither did her brain, constantly flashing through the events of a few weeks ago – the last time she had....fed. She couldn't shake the memory from her mind, nor the terrible guilt that accompanied it. She had murdered someone. What kind of a creature was she?
In fact, who was she? The only clue to her identity that she had managed to uncover was a dirty label on the inside of her grey, nondescript clothes. A label which read Mary Alice. Nothing more, nothing less. That must be her name. But it didn't fit somehow. Mary? Vaguely, as from a past life (which she supposed it was), she recalled praying to someone called Mary, lips moving silently and desperately, fingers running blindly over a string of beads. Mary was good. Mary was in heaven. Mary did not understand the hell through which the pale girl who once prayed to her in the dark of night was going. No, she could not identify with Mary.
But what about Alice? Once again, a blurred, foggy memory came to her, as through a dirty window. A woman's voice reading her a story. The woman's voice was kind and warm and the story....the story was about a girl called Alice. The girl was lost and alone in a strange country. She had no friends and her body kept on changing inexplicably. Alice. Yes. That's what she would call herself. Alice.
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More weeks passed and Alice found that she was getting hungry again. When she caught a reflection of herself in a still pool, she noticed that her eyes, once a vivid red, were now dark, black as a starless night. She had never seen anything quite so scary as her eyes in that pool – for whilst they were dark and depthless, they burned with a hungry fire, the eyes of a predator. And the flames that were in her eyes also wrapped around her throat, burning her from within.
And yet, she could not bring herself to go where there were people, where she might encounter that mouth-watering scent again and satisfy the ever-increasing fire in her throat. But as the days went by she was getting weaker until soon she was nothing but the fire, and it was consuming her, and she felt as though she would combust from within but she couldn't because stone does not burn and she was not just stone but cold stone.
And it was about this time that she had another vision. But this time it was not of a foreign face or a strange voice speaking to her. This time she had a vision of herself. And in it she was weak and she was hungry and her eyes were black with dark fire, and then she saw herself pounce and grab something. Something small and white and furry. And then she was drinking and whilst it did not completely put the fire out, it was so good and the scorching agony was soothed as with a honey balm, until it was a dull ache.
And with a start, she blinked and once again she could see the greenness and the trees around her and the pain was back. Out of the corner of her eye she saw something small and white and without a second thought, with the vision still burning into her retinas, she pounced. And as she sank her teeth blissfully into the velvety softness and inhaled the hot liquid with all the desperation of a drowning man, something clicked in her mind. Her vision. It wasn't a random flashback or a day dream or a stray invention of a fevered imagination. She had seen what would happen. She had seen.....the future.
And as she realised this, another picture came into her mind. Once again, she saw the dark blond man with the scars and the haunted red eyes, but this time she saw a place as well. An old bar somewhere on a country road, with a wooden sign swinging above the door, green paint peeling off in ragged strips. However, despite the faded writing, she could still make out the name of the bar: The Horse and Rider.
To be continued.....
A/N: Review!!
