My story, at least I think it's my story
I wake up with a killer headache. There is a pounding in my head that I am not used to. This is not the type of headache I get when my visions are blocked. That pain happens in the middle of my head. This pain radiates all over my head and bleeds down into the back of my eyes as well. I feel like this is the kind of headache a human would have after a night of too much partying where they wake up hung over and feeling like shit afterwards. Well, I feel like that description which I have heard from the years of high school fits me perfectly right now.
My hair is a mess as I reach up to touch it. I can feel that it is sticking up in every direction. My entire body feels unnaturally sore. I feel like I ran into a wall of bricks. But I cannot remember why I feel like this. My memory of recent events is fuzzy at the moment. I look down to see my clothes are wrinkled and I am sitting on a golden-laid, four- post bed with sheets that has a very intricate design in crimson red. Two mahogany dressers are on either side of the bed with ornate Venetian glass vases on them. There is a huge Turkish carpet which a design in vivid reds on the floor. The bathroom has a huge tub and the floor of the bathroom has a red based mosaic pattern. I step into the closet which is half the size of the room. It has the most ornate dresses and prestigious jewelry in it. I see a purple suitcase open in the corner. The suitcase looks familiar but I do not know how it got in the closet. I actually do not remember how I got into this room either for that matter. I pass a full length mirror as I leave the closet and examine my disheveled appearance. I look disgusting and decide a shower is a good idea while I wait to see if any memories come back to me.
I walk in the bathroom, strip out of my clothes and step into the shower. I allow the warm water to cascade over my body but it does not help to relieve the soreness I feel in my muscles. I wash the grime out of my hair and off of my body. I step out of the shower and wrap myself in a large white towel. I look around the bathroom until I find a blow dryer which I use to try to bring some style back into my short locks. I walk into the closet and towards the suitcases since they seem the most familiar. I grab a pair of dark wash jeans, a light gray tank top, a back cardigan, a grey bra and panties and ballet flats. I change quickly and put the towel back in the bathroom. As I walk out of the bathroom, I see a family crest hanging above the bed. My memories come back to me slowly. I was kidnapped by the Volturi in the clearing while trying to save Renesmee. I am in Volterra and a prisoner of the Volturi.
I wonder how Jasper is taking this and how he is doing. I hope he is not following me here. I do not want him to die trying to save me. I would never forgive myself if I get to live and he did not. Oh what am I thinking that overprotective fool is probably on his way now and hell bent on killing anyone in his way of getting me back. I wonder how Esme and Carlisle are and the rest of my family. What happened after the world went black around me? Were they able to save Renesmee or was all of this for nothing? I wonder how long I have been here. Days, weeks, maybe months even. Who knows what the combination of Jane and Kate's gifts did to me.
All these questions and thoughts fill my head as I go to sit down on the bed. I try to look into the future and come up blank. I cannot see anything and this scares me. What happened to my gift? The pain in my head worsens the harder I try to use my gift. I give up as I hear Aro walk into the room. A truly wicked smile spreads across his face when he sees me awake.
"Ah, Alice you are finally awake. For moment there, we all thought you had passed on, the way you laid still for so long was quite scary. "Aro informs me.
"How long has it been?" I ask him curious as to how long I have been here.
"Just under eight days." Aro replies.
Eight days! I have been in whatever that state was for eight days! I wonder how my family is reacting to this whole situation. I hope they are all okay. Jasper be falling apart inside not knowing what is happening to me. He barely survived the three days I went to get Bella to come to Volterra to bring Edward back. I hope he is okay, I hope he is staying strong for everyone. If he breaks everyone else will as well especially with his gift. My Jasper; never in my existence have we been apart for this long. He must be dying inside; I was asleep for these past eight days, I do not feel a fraction of the despair he is probably feeling right now. I hope Esme is taking care of my Jazz for me. Aro stares intently at me and sees the worry spread across my face.
"Do not worry, young one, your family is fine." He places a reassuring hand on my shoulder then gasps.
"What?" I ask him curiously.
"That is odd, your condition, whatever it may be, has reawaked your human thoughts. Or at least, now I am able to see them. How peculiar. Then again you condition is very abnormal. Never has a vampire passed out for lack of a better term then awakened days later. Once one loses consciousness, they are dead. But then again you always were special, Alice." Aro says.
My condition? What is my condition? What happened to me? I have only been out for eight days. I could not have become the Volturi's science experiment in this short amount of time. It is silent between us for a while. Aro and I both keeping to our own thoughts. Aro's eyes are closed but his hand remains on my shoulder. I watch as his eyes move back and forth under his eyelids like he is watching something. Aro stays like this for a few more moments but then Aro begins to speak again.
"You were born on December 21, 1905 in the small town of Biloxi, Mississippi. Your parents Donald and Carol Brandon were so happy to welcome a little girl into the world. You were a healthy young girl with big and bright brown eyes and dark brown hair. Everyone said you were the perfect mix of your mother and father. Your father was a jewler and your mother stayed home to take care of you. Your father was very fond of you and spoiled you when he could as your family was not wealthy but could live comfortably with what they had. Your mother loved to dress you up. You were eight when your little sister Cynthia was born.
"At first your visions started out as dreams where you would see things that would come true. But as you grew older your premonitions grew more frequent and could happen at any time. You saw a vision of your mother being murdered which you tried to warn her about but she did not take it seriously. She died soon after and your father remarried. Your step mother, who was always vying to be apart of the upper class, was trying to get you to marry a rich bachelor who every girl in town was fawning after. But your mom didn't like your so called episodes as she called them. Whenever your family wasn't in public, she would lock you in your room and call you a freak. She did not want you to ruin their perfect façade of a family. At age of nineteen, your mother couldn't take it anymore. You had a vision of your step mother and father hiring the same person who murdered your mother to murder you. You tried to hide with your relatives but they all turned away from you. You tried to tell the local police in your town but your father was one step ahead of you. He convinced the local police that you had gone insane and they sent you to a mental asylum.
"Your family moved far enough away to start over without the shadow of their crazy daughter hanging over them. Your sister married wealthy just like your step mother had hoped and had six children. The youngest, your niece, is still alive. Everyone had a happy ending, except for you.
"At the asylum, your hair was shaved off during a typhoid outbreak. You endured intense electroshock therapy to try to cure you of your visions which in turn gave you total amnesia. There was one guy who worked at the asylum who you thought was odd. You thought his beauty was profound, but he always kept to himself. He never ate with everyone else, he had strange bright red eyes, and he never went out in the sunlight and had very cold pale skin. You befriended him and he treated you like his daughter. He visited you frequently trying to test the limits of your power and also tried his best to shield you from the other treatments at the asylum.
"I believe you have no recollection of your human past because of the shock therapy patients in asylums went through. But you should be glad you don't remember that part, from what I have heard it was excoriating, much like what young Jane has the ability to do.
"One day you had a vision of a vampire who was a tracker named James coming after you. You told your friend this and every situation he thought of to keep you safe ended with James finding you anyway. Finally, he decided to change you. He bit you and took you away then went to distract James to keep you safe. When James finally found you as you know you had already been turned and he left you to live this existence. The rest you of course remember. I will leave you to your thoughts as I know I have left you with a great burden, young Alice." With that he leaves the room.
I fall back onto the bed trying to comprehend what he said. The conversation keeps replaying in my head. I am excited to finally know details about my human life. But Aro went into so much detail that I regret my curiosity. My mother was murdered and I almost shared the same fate. I had a crazy step mother who hated me. It was a lot to process and I was not prepared to hear any of what he just told me. About twenty minutes later, the hallway outside of the room I am in becomes noisy and breaks me from my reverie.
I walk outside to find out what is causing all this commotion. I open my door and walk down the hall. I see Carlisle talking to Aro twenty steps down from the room I was in and I am so happy! My family came to save me and I would be going home with Jazz. I see Jasper behind Carlisle looking around desperately. His eyes finally find mine and I see the relief wash over his features as he sees that I am fine. I am about to run past Carlisle and Aro to envelope myself in Jasper's arms when the pain hits me again. I did not even see Jane anywhere in the hallway. I see the shock spread across Jasper's face when he realizes what is happening to me.
"Alice!" Jasper shouts.
Then the darkness came over me again.