Me without You
Chapter 2
~Jasper POV~
I stalked into the forest, cursing myself with every step that I took. Okay? Why the hell had I said okay? A few weeks? What was I thinking? I couldn't spend a few weeks away from Alice! Still...she had suggested that we take a break. She wanted this - how could I disagree?
My fist went through a tree trunk. How had this happened? I needed to go back and sort this out. I couldn't go a few weeks without her. I couldn't. I turned on myself and went back home, taking my time to try and figure out what I should say. The extra time didn't help at all. When I got back, she wasn't outside where I'd left her, so I assumed she must be in the house.
"Alice?" I called as I stepped inside. Esme appeared in the doorway.
"I thought she was with you?" She said
"She was." I said, "But I left and I thought...I think I did something stupid Esme."
Esme gave me a sympathetic look. She knew about all the arguing. All the Cullens did - how could they not when they had advanced hearing and we'd been shouting loud enough for humans in entirely different continents to hear?
"She'll come back when she's ready." Esme told me
"I'm going looking for her." I said, and I left before Esme could convince me otherwise. I raced through the forest, realising that I had no idea of where to start looking. Why did she have to leave? Why couldn't she have just stayed home so we could talk about this? Why did she have to overact to everything? God, I was getting angry just thinking about it. Maybe we really did need a break. This couldn't be healthy.
"You won't find her." A smooth lullaby voice said. I spun around to see a woman standing behind me. I hadn't heard or sensed her approach, and now...she smelt weird. Not vampire, not human, not werewolf...not anything I'd come across before. She had blonde curly hair and shining blue eyes, and she was wearing a blue-ish gray cloak. A faint glow surrounded her as she smiled sympathetically at me, "Alice isn't here."
"How do you know about Alice?" I growled
"Calm down, Jasper." The woman said softly, "Let me explain myself before you get angry." I waited, glaring at the woman. "I am Meredith. I'm a Tenshi - an Angel, as you will know me. It is my job to look after souls and relationships. I'm here to help you."
I narrowed my eyes at her, "An Angel?"
The woman - Meredith - rolled her eyes at the term. "Yes."
"Why are you here to help me?" I asked.
Meredith sighed, "You too?" I looked at her, confused, but she just carried on, "Alright, the relationship that you and Alice share is important - for you, and for many other people in the world. Without it - if you had never met - everything would be different."
"We can't be that significant." I argued
"Of course you are!" Meredith said, "You're Matchi - before you ask, that means that you were paired by angels in heaven and that it was fate that you end up together."
"If it's fate that we end up together, why do we need help?" I asked
"No one strong enough that they don't need help." Meredith told me, "But sometimes, two simple little words like 'help me' become the most difficult thing to say."
"So how can you help?" I asked after a moment's silence.
"I am going to show you what life would be like if you had never met Alice." Meredith told me. I stared at her.
"What?" I asked
"I'm going to show you what your life would be like now, if you and Alice had never found each other and fallen in love." Meredith said, and before I had time to protest, she had taken my hand and pulled me into the unknown. In an instant, we were somewhere else, but it was as if we hadn't moved at all. Meredith dropped my hand and looked around. "Hu, didn't expect to end up here."
"Where are we?" I asked
"Northern Mexico - right by the border, actually." Meredith said
"Mexico?" I stared at her.
"Yep." She said, "This is where you would be, had you never met Alice."
I looked around at my surroundings. It looked like we were outside a school. "Do I go to this school?"
Meredith nodded, "Come on, I'll show you!" She led me inside and down a corridor to a classroom, where she opened the door and walked straight into a lesson. She turned to me to explain, "They can't see or hear us - come inside! Check out the guy sat in the back corner."
I looked over and did a double take. The guy that sat there had honey blonde hair and a crooked smile, and his skin was littered with crescent shaped scars. It was me. I stared at his eyes, which were brown. Contacts, I realised. My eyes must be red.
"Without Alice, it never crossed your mind to become a vegetarian vampire." Meredith said from behind me. I hadn't realised that I'd begun walking towards the other me. "To this day, you're still drinking human blood." I stared at the boy in front of me. How could that be me? How could it? "It is you."
I turned to face Meredith again, "Why are you showing me this?"
"You need to understand how important your relationship is." She said
"I know how important it is! It's everything!" I protested
"Knowing isn't the same as understanding." Meredith said with a small sigh, "You need to live this life - this life without Alice - to really understand."
"Live it...what do you mean?" I asked
"I have to leave you here, to live as this person." Meredith said, "I'll be back, and I'll always be here to help, but you need to do this."
"Wait - if I never went vegetarian, how am I here - with all these humans?" I asked, the question suddenly occurring to me.
"An extra century allowed you to practice self control." Meredith said, "It's hard, but you make the day as long as you hunt before and after school. You thought it would be important to go to school and blend in. Is that all of your questions?"
"No - wait, I have loads!" I said. Meredith gave me a sympathetic look.
"I'm sorry, but I think you're going to have to figure those out for yourself." She took a golden hoop out from under her cloak. It looked almost like a halo. She looked down at a small section of the hoop that was black in colour. "I'm late. I'll come back, but I know you'll be fine. Good luck."
"But I-" I began, but then she was gone, and I was suddenly sat the other side of the room. I had become the other me, sat in the back corner pretending to listen to what the teacher was saying.
What the hell was I going to do now?
A/N: Heyy, sorry it was a bit short...the chapters will be longer from now on :) Did you like it?...let me know in a review :)
I'll update again soon :)
