Disclaimer: Okay, can I just quote the previous chapter's disclaimer? Phew, alright. Stephanie Meyer: Everything except my plot twisters and 'The Girl'(who's name has yet to be revealed.)

Alice's POV

"Jasper!" I called out. He and Emmett had gone farther into the forest around the house, trying to figure out where that girl had come from. It was strange. I frowned. None of us had heard anything from outside until the window broke.

"We're over here, Alice," I heard, from several feet to my left. I ran to the area they were in, a small clearing the size of a small baseball diamond, and stopped short.

I could almost feel my eyes darkening further. The ground was covered in blood. At the edge of the clearing was a small wooden bowl, covered with runes like those on the girl's knife. There was no body, or- I winced at the word-corpse to be seen anywhere. I looked to Emmett, who had bent low to the ground. He stuck a hand in the crimson-darkened dirt, and brought it to his nose.

"Animal," he said slowly. "It's not human, probably omnivore, or even a carnivore. Or something…." He took another smell, and looked up at me. "Other."

Jasper had run to my side and thrown his arm around me when I got into the clearing, so I turned to face him.

"What do you think happened?" I asked quietly. I couldn't have spoken louder if I'd tried. Too shocked.

"I don't know," he said, frustrated. "All we could find was the girl's trial. It's like she flew, or was knocked, into our window from here. It doesn't make sense… There's not even anything traceable!"

"Well," I said, voice shaky. I tried to smile. "At least it's not human blood, so whatever out there can't be that dangerous…"

I trailed off as the boys shot a look at each other. "What?" I asked, frantic. "What is it?" I was about ready to jump out of my skin.

"I wouldn't say that," Jasper said carefully, sliding his arms from my waist. "I'm still not sure that it isn't human blood. It's just a guess. Whatever it is," he looked down towards Emmett and frowned again. "It's definitely bad news."

I nodded thoughtfully. "What if it… what if it's her?" I asked. They both looked up startled.

"Why do you say that?" asked Emmett. I walked over stiffly to the wooden bowl and held it up in evidence.

"Look at the runes on it," I ordered, glaring at them myself. "They're the exact same ones as were on that knife she was carrying."

They looked at me blankly. "A big one," I elaborated. " It looked as if it could be ceremonial or something. It was edged in silver," I continued, gazing into the forest now, as if I could see it there, "The tip was too, but I'm not sure what the rest was. Some sort of dark, beaten metal that looked almost like burnished wood… But it wasn't. It glinted in the light. And the hilt was a rusty amber color." I finished there, at a loss for words. It was strange- Jazz and I had been playing checkers, and I had wished for something, anything interesting to happen. It had- but now I was wishing I had just been content with beating him three times in a row.

"Let's take this back," Emmett said, taking the bowl from my hands. I nodded mutely, and grabbed onto Jasper's arm.

He slid his arm down and his hand into mine as we began to run back home. I did a quick calculation. 361 feet, from the center of the clearing through the window she had flown through. No ground trail showing she had been there. Which meant- my hand tightened reflexively in Jasper's and he looked down, concerned- which meant it had been in the air. I gasped. The girl had been fighting someone in the air; that was why no one had heard her or seen her before she had crashed. But… how?

We slowed to a stop right behind the door. Edward and Carlisle were asking her questions. We stopped to listen.

"How old are you?" That was Edward.

"I don't know." The girl's voice was jovial enough.

"Well, when's your birthday?" Carlisle asked kindly. He probably thought she had amnesia, or something.

"Tuesday," she said seriously.

"This Tuesday?"

"Every Tuesday," she said solemnly. I could just imagine Edward grinding his teeth. I stifled a laugh.

"Your door is laughing," she pointed out gravely. "You might want to fix that."

"Alice," Edward said, voice strained. I pushed open the door as we filed in.

"Hi," I said, darting over to the side of the couch. I wondered when they had moved her from the dining table.

"Hello," she said, blinking only when I had spoken. I wondered why my speed hadn't startled her. Who was this girl?

I leaned in close, and felt her stiffen, though her eyes remained trained on me. "You were in the air," I breathed. "Weren't you?"

She shrugged, and then winced, holding onto her bandaged shoulder. The fuchsia shirt with a beaded collar was undamaged. I wondered how she had managed that.

"I was fighting, and then I was on the floor, covered in glass. What do you think?" She blinked honestly. "I'm sure you have it all figured out by now… Alice."

I was on the other side of the room by the time my name was halfway out of her mouth. I saw the others drop into an almost simultaneous crouch and a growl broke free of Jasper's lips.

The girl didn't react.

She looked at us and snorted. "Oh, please. Ooh-" She twiddled her fingers in the air-"Scary vampires!" She widened her eyes for the effect and grinned maniacally, then dropped the façade.

"Sorry," she said. It sounded sincere. "But I have a lot more important things to worry about. And a lot of a lot of more important things to worry about. But-"

She jumped down off the couch and into a standing position, where she teetered for a moment, then righted herself. "Don't let me keep you. Really." She was backing towards the door now. "Fight amongst yourselves. Go find some rogue antelope. Whatever it is that you do." She gestured widely with her hands. "Thank you, and good night."

Suddenly, she leapt toward the window. It was a vampire leap. As fast and as far as we could go in one bound. For one instant I felt like smirking. It sounded like superhero garbage. But then I remembered. Not the superheroes, the bad guys.

Just some very good bad guys.