Author's Note: I originally wrote this snippet for the Fandoms4Floods compilation to help out with the devastating floods in Australia. It's now time to post it as the outtake it was meant to be. I hope you enjoy a glimpse into Alice's mind.

Thank you to Bella's Executioner who beta'd this for me, and to my husband who puts up with me when I hide in my woman cave. And many thanks to everyone who donated and got to read this story long before it is posted.

Twilight and its characters belong to Stephenie Meyer. No copyright infringement is intended.

Of The Future

It's not easy being me. I know what they call me.

Fortune Teller.

Psychic.

Cheater.

Annoying little pixie.

It's not that I mind. Sometimes I wish I didn't see what I see.

Over the last year and a half a lot of the things that pop up in my head have been about my brother and his soon-to-be wife.

Some things I see are horrifying and I wish there was a way to scrub them from my mind.

Edward, torn to pieces by the Volturi after showing himself to humans in the sunlight.

Bella in the ballet studio, tormented, bloodied, broken, with an inconsolable Edward holding her to his chest, sobbing his pain into the night.

An out of control van spinning towards her, crushing her between metal and glass, and Edward going insane at the scent of her blood spilling in front of him, unable to help himself, drinking from her open wounds and exposing us for what we are, and in the same flash, Edward catatonic and unresponsive after losing Bella before the Volturi show up to kill us all.

A vision of Bella, cradled protectively in Edward's arms, pale and lifeless with a wound on her neck while his face is lifted to the skies, his lips stained red from her blood, his agonized screaming echoing in the trees around him.

There were quite a few of those right after they met for the first time but they became fewer and fewer within weeks and then disappeared completely.

I can only imagine the strength it took to resist the temptation that Bella's blood presents to him. There is no doubt in my mind that were I to come across my singer I wouldn't think twice. I certainly wouldn't be able to stop myself.

Perhaps it helped in small ways that he loved her instantly, before he even spoke to her. Of course, stubborn as he is, he didn't realize it at first. It took two weeks, a near-death experience with an errant van and a little nudging from me for him to figure that he was irrevocably bound to her in all ways for the rest of his existence.

It's a funny thing, our mating. When we meet that one person we're meant to be with the attraction is instantaneous, irrevocable and involuntary. It's always mutual and there is no way it can be mistaken for anything else.

I guess Edward thought that with Bella being human her feelings for him did not fall under that rule – that she would forget him and move past him.

Fat chance of that happening but he would not listen to any of us.

My brother can be an insufferable know-it-all and when he has his mind made up there is no changing it.

Unless your name is Bella Swan.

In that case, you might stand a small chance that he will reconsider.

Some of my visions are truly wonderful, like the one that struck me out of the blue on Christmas Eve 1986. I couldn't help but watch in breathless wonder as a pretty girl in a white gown, with long brown hair flowing down her back below a gossamer veil, flowers clutched in one hand, walked on a man's arm toward my favorite brother, dressed in a dapper morning suit, whose expression was one of overflowing joy and sheer elation.

Edward was getting married.

And despite the fact that this was a human walking towards him, I couldn't help but feel excited by this vision. This girl would change my brother's life forever.

This girl was his mate, fated to be his companion for the rest of time.

I had no idea who she was, at least not at the time, though it dawned on me much, much later, after Bella had already found her way to Edward, that my first vision of her was on the day of her conception.

I could hardly wait to meet her, but it was difficult to ascertain where we were and what year this wedding would take place.

Needless to say, I kept that one hidden from Edward, somewhere deep in the back of mind.

Or the one where she is one of us, happily dancing around the yard outside, her red eyes twinkling with delight.

I loved that particular vision. Edward's violent reaction to it, on the other hand – not so much.

Foolish boy. He didn't realize that no matter what he decided to change to stop it from coming to pass, he was bound to fail.

I can still hear his outraged roar ringing in my ear when he plucked that thought out of my head the first time, though lately, he has started to react with more of a silent resignation and, when he thought I wasn't looking, a quiet longing for that day to arrive.

I guess he figured out somewhere during the last three months that it will happen, no matter what.

As it should.

Bella has made her choice, though I'm not sure she ever had one.

Her fate was already decided.

Edward needs to accept it.

He also needs to understand that he deserves it. He deserves happiness, so much more so because he's been alone for so long.

When I opened my eyes to this life, disoriented and scared with an unfamiliar fiery burn in my throat, I saw Jasper's face in my mind. I didn't know who he was, didn't know when I would meet him or how but I knew that my life was inextricably bound to his and that I had to find him.

It took me nearly thirty years.

I don't remember anything from my human time, and the few pieces I've managed to find in my research last year are dismal at best. What James disclosed on the video tape while he tortured Bella was of very little assistance. From what I can gather, I had visions as a human and my family disposed of me shortly after my sixteenth birthday. I thankfully don't remember the time I spent in the mental institution though I can glean of the old reports that it likely wasn't pleasant and I only get occasional flashes of a pale man with red eyes and a white doctor's coat.

I presume he is my maker though I remember nothing of my change. What I know about the pain of the transformation is from what the others have told me and not from personal memory.

It was my vision of Jasper and our happiness together that kept me sane enough to not turn into a savage newborn, to be careful about finding my first kill and slake the thirst that burned my throat. Seeing his face, his love for me in my mind gave me the strength I needed to put myself on the path to him.

I have killed humans for sustenance and much like Edward, I still carry the guilt of that though mine is certainly not as debilitating as his. Unlike him, I don't brood over what I've done – there really is no point because I don't live in the past. What's done is done and there is no changing it. I'm not proud of it and I regret taking their lives but until I saw Carlisle and his family in my head, I didn't know any other way.

Once I realized that animals were a choice, it didn't take me very long to adjust to that diet.

By the time I found Jasper in that small diner in Philadelphia, waiting for him, knowing he would soon appear before me, I was proficient at denying my thirst around humans.

Since then it has been my mission to keep him on that same path and with a few exceptions I have succeeded.

Eventually, Jasper and I caught up with Carlisle and his family – I say family because that is what we are. Our choice in diet has given us the capacity to lead a more tranquil, peaceful life, one that both Jasper and I enjoy.

And in Edward, I've found a friend unlike anything I've ever imagined. Where Jasper and I are two halves of a whole, Edward is my twin. He is my confidante and my best friend.

Together, we are the first line of defense for our family – my visions and his mind-reading are a formidable advantage over any enemy.

Not that there are many outside of our own kind.

It can occasionally get tiresome to continuously scan the future like I do, seeing things and people and places that are sometimes hard to interpret and difficult to put into context.

Sometimes, I have to hide things from Edward. The first vision of his bride was one of them. Looking at the different possibilities I determined at the time that it was best if he did not see what the future held in store for him.

He would have run. He's rather good at that, as recent events have shown.

For nineteen long years I kept my silence, and until Aro pulled my every thought from me in that chamber of death in Italy, Edward did not know that I saw Bella as his mate from the day she was conceived.

When she made the decision to move to Forks, I saw more images of her, interacting with Edward, with the rest of us. I didn't tell him, wouldn't let myself think about it around him. And in hindsight I am glad I didn't know how violently Edward would react to her, since I had no idea that she was his singer.

He hasn't mentioned it to me and I suppose there is a tiny possibility that Aro's gift was too fast for Edward to capture everything. If he had, I assume he would have seen what happened to me in my human life and since he has not said anything about it at all, I cling to the hope that he also does not know just how long his path has been set.

My visions are subjective, this much is true, but sometimes the future is set in stone by something larger than us, the Fates if you will, and then it doesn't matter what we do – we will still see it come to pass.

My finding Jasper was one of those visions, as was the one I had of the Cullens.

Edward and Bella is another.

Even when he decided to leave her after her eighteenth birthday the images of their wedding day didn't actually change, per se, but Bella suddenly looked older. It seemed that Edward's decision only postponed the inevitable.

I blamed myself for not seeing Jasper lose control but how does one foresee an unintentional papercut?

I almost told my brother that he was only delaying what would come to pass but the second I decided on that course of action that eighteen year old vision disappeared completely. Frantically, I searched the future but saw no other option so with a heavy heart I gave in to his demands that we leave town.

I knew that eventually, we'd be back though at the time I didn't know when or how. I've lived long enough, however, to learn a lot of patience.

Alright, alright.

I have very little patience.

Fine.

Almost none.

As Edward once described it, I live in the future most of the time and since I usually know the outcome of almost any situation, it seems easier to just get to the end. No need to spend a lot of time on stuff that just won't be important in the long run.

I'm a little excitable, I fully admit that, but I'm also mostly happy with my lot in life, and thus I want to see the people in my family happy as well.

And yet, I know when it is best to sit back and let the events unfold – my visions tell me so.

So I've let these two muddle through the last year and a half without putting in my two cents and only subtly nudging them along.

Until Bella disappeared completely in my mind. One minute, she was standing on a cliff, the next she was throwing herself to the waves.

And then she was gone.

I found out two days later that she had been pulled from the waters by her friend, the mutt.

Going after Edward gave me the fright of a lifetime, his rapidly changing decisions and consequent results flickering through my mind before he settled on what he was going to do to force the Volturi's hands. His future became fuzzy, as did mine and Bella's and it wasn't until she jumped at him in the middle of Volterra to stop him from his suicide mission, that the wedding was back on.

Crisis averted.

The roadblock of the pup was something I did not foresee, since I can't actually see him. Whenever he is near my visions go dark and there is nothing but blank space. I only had Edward's reaction to go on when Bella ran off to see that dog and until he was ready to confront her about the damage she was inflicting on their relationship I could only help him get through the time she was away.

I've been itching to say something. It pained me to no end to see my beloved brother and his mate put each other through so much misery but I've managed to keep my mouth shut and my thoughts to myself and stay content to not interfere between them.

Since the wedding was on again, I knew that eventually everything would turn out the way it was supposed to and I would wait for them to figure it out on their own, though if a vampire were able to develop headaches, I would have been the first.

Each time, Bella spent time with the dog, the vision I had held onto for so long would disappear only to pop back up as soon as she left his vicinity. I knew she struggled with her decision but I also knew that should would have no choice but to pick Edward.

And yet, despite what she was doing, the vision from so long ago never really wavered. It became hazy occasionally, and I suppose those were the times when Bella doubted her choice, but it never fully disappeared again.

And still I stayed silent, hiding my thoughts from my brother as best as I could.

Until this latest fiasco. Edward's decision to run off after making yet another unilateral decision was the final straw that broke the proverbial camel's back. Enough is enough. I let Edward have it before he left town, and when Bella came over with Charlie, her face red and her nose snotty, I let her see the havoc her actions had wrought.

I guess that woke her up because not only did she beg me to help her catch up with Edward but with a little gentle persuasion she also agreed to buy that car he's been wanting for her to replace that ugly beast she calls a vehicle.

The wedding is on, the vision more firm than ever before.

The picture has changed only slightly.

It's late summer, and we are at the house in Forks. Bella is wearing the dress I ordered when we first came back from Italy. Charlie is walking her down the aisle.

And Edward is beaming from one ear to the other as he is waiting for her by the altar.

I'm not sure whether I should let him see what I saw all those years ago. Sure, he's seen the wedding in my head a few times now. After he announced their engagement, it was rather unavoidable.

It doesn't seem though that he knows how long I've known this particular future.

And that's alright.

They're back on the right path, and I am fairly certain that they've figured out by now what needs to be done for both of them to make amends and heal the wounds they've inflicted on each other.

Time will tell.

I'm rather optimistic.

We left them at his childhood home just an hour ago and I'm now seeing things I never expected to see from Edward. It seems my prude little brother is finally relaxing those rigid rules he put in place for himself and Bella.

About damn time.

I close my eyes and snuggle into my husband.

The future is looking bright, indeed.

Endnote: Thank you for reading. If you donated to the Flood compilation, may God bless you for your generosity.

Until next time.