Dearest Readers~ Patience is appreciated and comments/reviews/criticisms are welcomed with open arms. -State0FMind ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 7
Alice stood on a tower in the farthest corner of the city. She knew she couldn't leave, they would just find her. She, unlike the mysterious vampire, left behind a scent so tracking her down would take moments. Besides, she couldn't leave Carlisle. She was stuck with Volturi with no way out.
Confused and angry, she sat and stared at the city. She could see a few humans walking around—walking home from the pub. The pub was open all night and certainly received business in the wee hours of the night. She watched as a man stumbled through the streets—clearly intoxicated. She sat there watching and wishing that she was him, at least he could get drunk and for a few hours escape the problems of the world. She couldn't do that, she couldn't drink alcohol or do drugs. She couldn't even ever escape this world, she was the eternally damned and stuck in this immortal existence forever.
Suddenly, Alice felt a presence watching her and turned around. Under normal circumstances she would have been excited to see the person before her but not now, not after what she just saw.
"You're upset. Why?"
Alice really wasn't in the mood to talk to Jane, firstly, and secondly, the fact that she was asking why Alice was upset was completely unbelievable. Did Jane really think that her actions in the chamber were okay? What was wrong with her? Alice turned away from her, fuming. She focused, instead, on the people down below her. She just wanted to be left alone.
Alice felt a hand on her shoulder and shrugged it off. She didn't bother to turn around. "Just leave me alone," Alice said and sat on the edge of the tower, cupped her knees in her hands and focused on the city below her. To her dismay, Jane didn't leave. Which was a bit ironic, Alice thought quietly, since yesterday she was wishing Jane wouldn't leave the room.
"I can't do that," Jane paused before she continued; "Aro has sent me to collect you."
Rage filled Alice and she turned around with such swiftness, without realizing Jane was standing right behind her, knocked her over with so much force that her small teenage body flew across the tower and crashed hard in to the wall. Her body lopsided to the floor faster than a blink of eye and Alice saw that she wasn't moving.
"JANE!" Alice yelled and crouched down to Jane, reaching out to help her when suddenly, her eyes flickered open and deep red eyes stared up in to Alice. Jane's eyebrow arched and she began laughing, partially from the seriousness in Alice's expression and partially at the fun she was having in it all.
Alice jumped back in both shock and anger—she had just had the shit scared out of her. She should have known better that nothing could hurt them but still, the moment she didn't move was a moment of eternity and she had thought something had happened.
"You should have seen your face," Jane said in between laughs. "You looked terrified."
Alice stood there, pissed off and to top it all off, the person who was laughing at her had been the cause of her upset feelings, her anger, and her frustration. The roller coaster of emotions that she had felt within the time in Volterra, that she was continuing to feel, were detrimental to Alice's existence and she just wanted, desperately, to get away from it all.
"Look, I'm sorry, but I just want to be left alone right now." Alice pleaded.
Jane ceased to laugh but held her position, perched on the ground looking up at Alice. Her eyebrow was still arched and she held a very curious expression, "Why?"
"What?" Alice wasn't sure if she had heard her right. Maybe Jane had said "Bye," but that would be wishful thinking since she hadn't moved from her position.
"Why are you upset over my punishing Demitri?" Jane asked.
The question was straight to the point that it took Alice several moments to actually absorb it. Now that the question was asked, however, Alice couldn't exactly pinpoint how to word her feelings and emotions. She supposed that she would start with morality—"Because it's wrong. It is wrong to hurt others…"
Jane cut her off quickly, "You hurt me just now."
Jane smirked up at Alice's gawking expression. "That's different," began Alice.
"How so?" Jane cut her off again; she was quick with her words.
"Because of my intentions—I didn't intend to hurt you. You were standing right next to me and I just, I turned around too quickly and didn't see you. But you on the other hand, you intended to hurt Demitri and what's more, you didn't even express remorse or regret. Like, you hurt him and you were fine with it…"
"I am merely a means to an end, dear Alice," Jane said in a lyrical fashion.
"What's that supposed to mean? That you're a tool for Aro? That anytime he wants to use you for torture, you oblige?" Alice was raging out against the injustice that she had witnessed in the chamber.
"It means that I, like all Volturi, do what is required of me." Jane added, this time with seriousness in her voice.
Alice couldn't believe she was having this conversation—she couldn't believe the lack of morals Jane held and she certainly couldn't believe the cruelty and injustice that existed within the Volturi.
"Does it not stop there? Do you kill the innocent for Aro, too?"
Jane's eyes glowed blood red and Alice's face contorted with anger. Of course she did, that's what they do.
"You were just like us, at one time," Jane taunted and half smiled. The statement shocked Alice and she stood there in recollection of her past…
"Yes," Alice breathed heavily, "But now I'm better than that."
"I wouldn't call it better. You're just different from us." Jane began as she took a step forward, "There's nothing wrong with different."
"There's right and there's wrong," Alice persisted, "and that was wrong."
"Morality is subjective," Jane said and took another step closer to Alice. The gap between them was shortening rather fast.
Philosophically, Jane had proven a very valid point. Morality appears to be subjective; that is, every person upholds their own morality. But naturally, free thinking beings objectify their morality. However, to Alice, there was an objective standard of morality—as in, an ultimate list of permissible actions and wrong actions and that meant that Jane was still wrong.
Alice looked to Jane—she was so close to her, too close. Her aura engulfed Alice's senses and she could feel her heart rhythm change from a beat of anger to one of excitement. Alice's breathing shifted, it seemed like she had to work extra hard to acquire the air in her lungs. Jane noticed and smiled.
"I know," Jane began a lighthearted laugh and looked up in to Alice's honey brown eyes, "I'm right."
Alice couldn't believe Jane's arrogance. "No, you're not, it's just…"
Jane's lips silenced her. She wasn't even done thinking thoughts on how to word her counter argument and she was silenced by the one thing she had wanted all along. Jane had been so close that it was all too easy to wrap her slender arms around Alice's head to pull her down for a kiss. It all happened too fast and Alice's heart exploded from excitement in her chest.
She was kissing Jane. Oh God, she was kissing Jane.
Alice allowed her tongue to slip in and begin its dance of love with Jane; such a natural gesture and yet it overwhelmingly reminded her of what it meant to exist, what the greater purpose of existence was: to love. Alice wrapped her arms around Jane's waist and allowed her hands to roam her slender figure as they kissed. All of the years of suppression, all of the years of denial and isolation from what she wanted, what she needed, had made her unbelievably thirsty for the embrace that she stood in at that moment. It was as if before this, she hadn't been existing and that this, kissing Jane under the glamorous moon, was life, the life she had been denied for circumstances beyond her control.
Jane pulled away from the kiss which allowed Alice to catch her breathe. The air in her lungs had new meaning—she was breathing as a living entity, not merely as a living corps. Alice looked at Jane, who merely smiled up at her. She had no idea how much Alice needed that; the touch of a woman, the feel of a woman.
Jane took a step back as if to leave but Alice, in one swift move, pulled Jane towards her and kissed her again—this time, with the intent to keep her there, she didn't want to be left alone anymore.
It was as if they were expressing their deepest passions through their gestures. Alice was being kissed in such a way that she felt her soul, something vampires believed to not exist within them, uplift. Jane had awakened her essence and she could feel a spiritual element entwined with their lovers embrace. Alice didn't dare stop kissing and holding Jane—she was in complete bliss.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
