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Chapter Four:
"Carlisle, people are noticing. And Rosalie isn't making it easier for any of us," Edward said, exasperated. He had his arms crossed and he was looking at the sitting man, who was paying a lot of attention to the papers on his desk.
"Edward, we've been here two years, we've stayed in other places longer," Carlisle replied, not taking his focus off his papers.
"We have, but we haven't started out so old. They've been thinking about coming to ask us if we have that new aging disease," he said, obviously worried.
"I was thinking we could go to Harrisburg next… "I heard Jasper say.
"… don't be ridiculous. But if it truly makes you comfortable, I will tell Esme and Rosalie and Emmett and we can move," Carlisle said, finally looking at Edward. They didn't say where they were going or even where they were.
"Thank you. You know I'm just thinking of what is best for this family, right?" Edward said, finally letting his hard, stubborn exterior down. Carlisle smiled and nodded.
"One would think it would be the other way around, me thinking of all of you instead of you thinking of all of us," he said, chuckled lightly. He had perfect teeth.
"You have other things to think about, it's perfectly acceptable," Edward said, relaxed. His arms uncrossed and he went to walk out of the door. I got a good view of the room; it was covered with books on two walls. On one there were pictures, and a large cross, that was behind the man sitting at the desk. There was one wall that was made completely of glass.
On the desk I finally realized that there were files of some sort. I wish I could have seen what they were about. I followed Edward in my vision. He walked through halls of an exquisite house, this coven was extremely wealthy. He continued to another room, similar to the one he was just in, only these walls were covered with different things. There was one wall of books, and one wall of glass. On the other walls were various things I had never familiarized myself with. I wouldn't be able to venture a guess as to what they were.
He laid himself down on the couch, and closed his eyes. He was thinking.
"Alice, are you alright?" I heard Jasper's voice call out to me. I looked at Edward, with his eyes closed, one last time and returned to Jasper. I looked at him questioningly.
"I'm fine, just a vision," I said absentmindedly. "What were you saying?" I asked him. I had heard him say something before, but I hadn't caught it, he might have said something about our next location.
"I was thinking we could go to Harrisburg. It's a fairly large city, and it's near by," he said, looking away from me, thinking of our next destination.
"How long would we be able to stay there?" I asked. My mind was lingering on the vision I had just received. Usually these visions told me of things that would happen, but it seemed as if I were getting these as they happened. It wasn't worrisome, just different. I shrugged it off, not thinking much of it, and focused on Jasper.
"A couple of months if we keep outside the city," he replied. I nodded, obviously distracted. "Alice, I know you had a vision. Would you mind sharing it?" he asked kindly. I couldn't keep anything from him, but I liked it that way.
I told him of my vision, and he only nodded. When I finished, he had something to say about it.
"I've changed my standing on this. I say we go with our original plan, go to Harrisburg, then after that we make our way to Washington. I have been in the warm humidity far too long. It makes one feel dirty. And while we are on our travels, we should be on constant look out for these Cullen's," he said. I was just staring at him. I understood everything beautifully, but the authority in his voice took me off guard. We would have to work on that. I nodded, and he took my hand, and led me in the right direction.
Harrisburg wasn't too far from Philadelphia as it turns out, and it only took us a couple of days to get there. I usually didn't keep track of the year it didn't matter to me so much, so I was surprised to learn that it was 1942. It kept me occupied, thinking about what I had been doing the past… however many years it had been. Apparently I hadn't done much. Just move from place to place, keeping to myself. I never really talked to anyone, and I was so surprised that I had been able to keep so cheery.
As Jasper had predicted we were able to stay in Harrisburg for a good three and a half months. We kept to the outskirts. We fed once a week, and throughout the three months, I had received no more visions of the Cullen's. Nor did Jasper and I talk about them. Instead we just got to know each other, although many times we just sat close to each other silently. I always expected to feel his power working on me, it just seemed like he wouldn't have complete control over it, and yet I never got any feelings other than my own. I appreciated it, but it did seem a little unfair. He always knew what I was feeling, but I never knew what he was feeling. I'm sure he didn't always have that smile on his face when I wasn't looking.
But Jasper did have many influences. Currently it was June of 1942. I had never known the date before, and now I knew every time the month changed. He also made me more aware of my appearance. Before I would shower whenever I was in a hotel or inn, which was very rare, and now I found myself cleaning up every two times I fed. We did as I had suggested, stayed to the North, and by September, we had made it to Washington. There were a few large cities so we stayed near those. The few small towns we passed through without incident. That is, until an extremely small one by the name of Forks.
The smell of our kind was extremely strong, but no matter where we were in the woods we couldn't find them. The scent was too strong for them to have left, so they were still there. We kept searching until we stumbled across a house in the middle of a small forest.
"Carlisle, someone's here, they've been looking for us, it seems," I heard Edward's familiar voice say in my vision.
"Carlisle, someone's here, they've been looking for us, it seems," I heard again. I looked at Jasper with wide eyes.
"Jasper, we should leave," I said quickly, taking his hand in mine and tried pulling him away. He was staring at the house as well, and he wouldn't move.
"Jasper, please?" I pushed. I was still trying to tug him away, but he still wouldn't budge. I felt his hand grasp mine, finally, but he didn't follow me. Instead he pulled me to his side. He looked at me with a small smile on his face. It was beautiful, but I couldn't be distracted by him right now.
"Do they mean us any harm?" I heard the older man say. I could see Edward shake his head. "Well, perhaps we shouldn't confront them. If they mean us no harm, why should we worry?"
I was in a different part of the forest by the time I came out of this vision. How had Edward known that we didn't mean them any harm, or that we were looking for them. Well, not them in particular. Surely he couldn't read minds, could he?
If he could, how long would he be intruding on ours? Would we be utterly defenseless if they decided to attack us? I didn't doubt that Jasper would be alright, he spent most of his life killing our kind, but I had never fought any other vampire physically in my however many years I had been a vampire.
"Alice, it's going to be alright. I don't think they're going to do anything, please calm down," Jasper calming voice said. This was the first time he had ever used his power on me, and he was right, I was aware of it instantly. My body relaxed and I could see more clearly, be more aware of my surroundings. Everything was back to normal soon.
"I'm sorry Jasper. I didn't know, I never thought about it, there were no clues that pointed to that," I said in a calm voice I never would have been able to get on my own.
"Didn't know what?" he asked.
"That Edward boy, he can read minds. I don't know how far it reaches, but he knew we were looking for him," I explained. His power was more amazing than I had ever realized it to be. I was also thankful that he never used it on me unless he absolutely had to. He could incapacitate people with that, which he probably did while killing those newborns in the south. Perhaps that was the reason why he didn't like to use it too often, he knew it could make you unaware, but in this case, it made me more aware, of what was going on.
"I see. I don't think we have anything to be worried of Alice. The fact that they did not attack strangers who were standing outside their house is proof enough that these people are level headed and non violent," he said. I understood his words perfectly, and knew from them that if it came to a fight he would do his best to help me.
I'm proud of this story, and it's on like, five people's alert lists, and I get quite a few hits, but I only have three reviews to show for it? Come on people, you all can do better than that! Thank you to my reviewers for the first chapter and third, I do believe. But I won't stop updating this every Friday, but, given that, if I don't get reviews, it makes me think my work isn't good. I don't even know if I can improve anything, and that's depressing. My point in this note? REVIEW! Please? I'm sure all you writers out there know how dis encouraging it is to not get reviews, so please please please review. I will worship you for a very very long time. (Which is about a week, then next week you can be worshiped again). I think it's a good plan. So please review. :)