Disclaimer: So yeah, I don't own Twilight. The song Danger! High Voltage is sung by Electric Six. I don't own that either.

A/N: As always, thank you for reading.

Chapter 6

I hate it when I dream. I'm not even sure if it's dreams I'm really having anymore. It's more like something or someone calling out to me, reaching out for me. It's like they want to help me but I'm stuck on one side of a tinted window and they're stuck on the other. I can't hear them. I can't touch them. I don't even know if they are really there or I'm just looking back at my own reflection.

And when I wake up? It's like I'm screaming, but I'm not making a sound. I jump awake and my body feels like it just lost another battle. All the pain I've ever felt is inside of me scratching to come out, but when I look down at my body nothing is broken. Nothing is bruised. Nothing is scarred. Everything has just faded away and only my memories are still around to prove that any of it existed at all.

"Were you having a nightmare?"

My eyes focus and I see Alice standing in front of me. Her presence should freak me out, but for some reason I think a part of me was expecting her to show up in that way she does: completely unannounced, uninvited, and unwanted.

I throw my covers off of my body. "Should I know what you're talking about?"

She doesn't answer because we both know that I know what she's talking about. There's just that little problem of me not wanting to divulge my secrets to her.

I keep my silence and she stares at me, waiting. I still keep my silence. She can't win every one of our stupid little battles. The law of averages says that I have to win at least once.

"Bella if you don't talk about it," she finally tells me though now I'm sure I don't want to hear what she's going to say, "how do you expect it to get better?"

"Get better?" I ask incredulously. "Do you honestly believe that any of this is going to get better?"

Her eyes meet mine and of course she doesn't back down. "Yes, why would I think anything else?"

I jump off of my bed ready to pounce on her and throw her out of my bedroom, but I stop myself before I reach her. I veer away and turn my back to her. "You should leave."

I can feel her step closer to me. "You need help, Bella. We can go see Carlisle. He's at the hospital tonight so you won't even have to deal with going to my place."

She sounds so damn genuine like she really wants to help. She always kind of sounded that way though even on that very first day. It seems like forever ago now, but it hasn't even been a week.

"I'll get dressed," I give in. There's nothing else to do, really. I'm up now. I've gotten my allotted amount of sleep for the night. Why not make a trip to the hospital? It might be more interesting than staring at the wall and wondering who it is I keep seeing in my dream and why I wake up in agony though by body shows no signs of injury.

"I'll wait outside," she tells me and then I feel her move away.

I shake my head, not at all sure that I'm doing the right thing, but of course I'm set on doing it anyway. I grab some clothes out of my closet and then jump out of my bedroom window. I stumble when I land, not yet able to get that perfect landing.

"Damn it," I curse as I try to gain my balance.

I feel a hand wrap around my arm, steadying me so that I don't fall onto my face. When I look over, Alice is holding me up with a smirk on her face. I know she wants to laugh at me, but she won't because she wants me to see her adopted father more than she wants to laugh at my clumsiness and make jokes.

"Let's go." I pull out of her grip, not wanting to risk my instinct going completely crazy again when it registers that Alice Cullen is touching me.

She nods and then takes off. I roll my eyes and then take off after her. There's no such thing as leisurely strolls with her, apparently. I do my best to keep up, using what control I have over my senses to guide me where it is I need to go. Within minutes, we're both standing outside of the hospital and this bad idea seems to have gotten exponentially worse.

I feel Alice's hand wrap around my arm again, this time restraining me instead of supporting me. "Don't even think about running, Bella."

"Why are you so sure he can even help me?" I never bothered to ask that before and right now I'm finding it to be a very important question. I've seen doctors about my little condition and they chose to fucking lock me up. They didn't understand me, didn't believe me so in order to keep their world safe they called me the crazy one. I'm not naïve enough to think that, that couldn't happen again. If Carlisle decides I'm a threat to vampires he might lock me up, and Alice might help him do it.

"I don't know," Alice loosens her grip on me and the air between us shifts. My senses are reaching out and I feel her trying not to respond. "I trust him."

But do I trust her? And if I do then what reason do I have for trusting her? Is it the multiple times she's kicked my ass that wins me over or the fact that she suddenly appears in my bedroom like some stalker?

"I met a werewolf today." I want to pull away from her, but I force myself to stand still.

Her eyes widen, but she says nothing. She doesn't even drop her hand from the loose grip she has on my bicep.

"We didn't fight." I didn't kill him.

Still, she keeps her silence.

"I could go to him for help."

"If you wanted help from him then you would have asked him for it today." Her hand finally falls away. "You wouldn't have waited for me."

"You are so fucking arrogant." She is also so fucking right. I can't trust a person that isn't stronger than me, because I can't trust myself to not harm them.

She smiles. "Carlisle is inside." She opens the hospital door for me. I brush by her not wanting to look at her, because she makes me feel so transparent and so weak and if I meet her eyes I don't know what other secrets she might draw out of me.

Eventually, we end up inside one of the hospital rooms. Alice promises me that Carlisle is on his way and I can't stop myself from thinking just how hard it would be to get by her to freedom. I'm staring at her and she's staring right back at me. We both know I'm not going anywhere.

The door opens and in steps a man who feels like vampire. He smells like vampire and I know he's older than Alice. He's stronger and that little urge of mine to run is starting to make it feel like a pinball machine is going off in my head. I need to leave.

I look to Alice, and she must see the panic taking over my body. "He's not going to hurt you," she assures me. "He's harmless."

I think she meant to say that he's harmful. He may look benign but he feels malignant.

"Are you okay, Isabella?" He asks, not taking another step into the room. "Do you need a moment?"

I could have a thousand moments, but I don't think it would help with this. "Just do whatever you're going to do," I order. "Make it quick."

He nods and then slowly moves towards me like I'm a caged animal he's trying to comfort. I have to calm myself. There is no reason for me to be so afraid of him. I wasn't afraid of a pack of werewolves. I was just irritated. I can do this.

"Come on Indestructo Girl," Alice says from across the room, thoughtfully keeping her distance. "Get control."

Carlisle looks between the two of us, once again stalling his movement.

"Do it," I tell him again, feeling only marginally better.

He nods. "I'll need to ask some personal questions of you, Bella."

"It started when I was twelve," I tell him anticipating what it is he'll need to know. "No, actually it got a lot worse when I was twelve. I'd always sort of noticed things as a kid. Like, how I didn't ever really get sick, and even though I fell a lot I never got too hurt. I'd always known who to trust and who not to. But it's gotten worse."

"Alice has told me a bit about your reactions," he informs me. I guess Alice can't keep secrets. "Do you mind if I take a sample of your blood."

"Take whatever you need."

He prepares his things, and then takes those final steps to me. He can reach out to strangle me he's so close. "We don't have to do this tonight," Carlisle offers.

"I may never come back." I thrust out my arm. "So do it now."

He slowly places a band around my arm and then gets ready to stick me with a needle. I close my eyes so that I don't have to see him do it but force them open again when I hear him say, "That's odd."

I look down at my arm and see that the needle he tried to puncture me with is broken. My arm is free from any marks.

"It would appear as though your skin is quite tough."

"It wasn't before," Alice chimes in, moving closer to us. She slaps at my skin with her bare hand and we all watch as my arm turns red from the abuse.

"Hey," I growl at her. She hisses back but otherwise ignores me.

"Try it now," she tells her father.

Carlisle gives her a disapproving look, but pulls another needle out and pushes it into my arm. It goes in easily and within moments is taking out my blood. This time I watch in fascination as something as stupid as Alice hitting me made this work.

Carlisle clears his throat, but I don't turn my attention to him. I stay focused on the needle eventually realizing that it is beginning to shake because Carlisle's hand is beginning to shake.

"Alice," he says, after clearing his voice again. "You have been around Bella's blood before, correct?"

She nods.

He looks to her. "Then please, take care of this." He waits for her hand to take control of the needle before he steps away from us. "I must apologize, Bella but I find myself not to be unaffected by your blood. If you'll excuse me." He hurries out of the room and my brain is starting to catch on to what I've allowed to happen here.

My blood is vampire ambrosia apparently.

"Get this fucking needle out of my arm, Alice." I don't even bother to look at her because I know her eyes must be turning black. This is why I hate hospitals, because this kind of shit happens to me in them.

Alice quickly follows my demand. She has the vial of blood in her hand and is looking at it like she'd like to have a late night snack.

"Go ahead," I tell her. "It's just blood."

She jumps as if I've just walked in on her private little moment. She holds the vial away from her body, forcing herself not to look at it. "I'm not going to drink your blood."

"It's useless to him," I argue. "He can't be around it so he can't test it."

Her head slowly turns back to the vial. I can tell she's taking my words into consideration. She actually wants to drink my blood and this is the person I've chosen to trust.

Well, don't I have great judgment? People should win awards for my kind of judgment.

"Here!" She shoves the vial into my empty hand and then runs out of the room like there's something chasing her. I look down at my hand and then back to the door.

A part of me is a little disappointed that she resisted the urge. I kind of want her to give me a reason not to trust her. It'd make my life easier, wouldn't it? One less person to deal with. One less person to count on.

The door opens and someone who I don't know enters. "Dr. Cullen sent me in here for that." He points at the vial in my hand.

"Oh," I stupidly reply then stretch my arm out to him. "Here ya go."

He reaches out for it and then plucks it from me. "You can go now if you need to. Dr. Cullen said he didn't need anything else."

"Okay." I jump down from the hospital bed and then move towards the door.

"I hope you get to feeling better," he calls out to me before I leave.

I can't help the bark of laughter that escapes me; there's no curing my disease. "Thanks," I mutter.

When I step out into the hospital's hallway, I look around expecting something. Maybe I think Alice is hiding out or maybe Carlisle finally got his shit together and decided to walk me out, but both of them are gone. They couldn't handle me. I force my hands into my front pockets and then hurry out of the hospital. I walk with my head down so that I don't have to interact with anyone who wants to interfere with my solitary state of mind.

Self-pity is usually better when done alone.

"You should turn that frown upside..."

The voice surprises me and before I can tell my body what to do, it's already reaching out to pin someone's body to the hospital's brick wall.

"You must have been the bully on the playground." Damn fucking Alice Cullen.

"And you must have been the kid eating sand." I push into her one more time before I release her.

Suddenly this thoughtful look comes over her. "I don't think we had playgrounds when I was a kid."

Didn't have...oh yeah, right. Vampire. "How old are you?"

She shrugs. "Not sure."

"You really like vague-ing up your details, don't you?"

She rolls her eyes and sighs heavily. "I'm not being obtuse. I just don't remember."

"If only we all could be that lucky." There's a few bits and pieces of my life I'd like to forget, this whole hospital experience being one of them.

"I think you're a pretty remarkable person, Isabella Swan," Alice tells me, her voice full of compassion. She's looking at me like she wants to reach out and give my soul a nice long comforting hug and sing campfire songs with it.

I take a step away from her.

"You don't know me, Alice Cullen," I point out.

"And you don't want me to," she challenges. "You want to sit in a room with your nightmares and hide away from the world."

"You don't know what I want." I turn away from her. This conversation is over. I don't need a late night therapy session.

She follows me as I hurry away. "I do know what it's like to suddenly wake up one day completely different than the way you were just a day before."

"Yeah well," I continue walking, "do you happen to know how to go away?"

Her hand wraps around my forearm and she pulls me to a stop. "Do you want me to?"

Want? I haven't thought about what I want in a while. I've just focused on keeping secrets and telling lies. "I want you to remove your hand from my body before I can't control myself anymore and I decide to attack you."

We both look down to her hand touching my bare skin.

Danger! Danger! High Voltage!

Her hand doesn't move.

"Control it," she orders.

"I don't know how," I admit.

Danger! Danger! High Voltage! When we touch.

"You have to."

My eyes travel the length of my arm until I'm looking into Alice's eyes. "I don't even know what it is I'm supposed to be controlling."

"It doesn't matter." She tightens her grip. "You control it or it controls you."

I take a breath, hoping that it'll help.

It doesn't. So, I take another.

It doesn't help either.

Oh well, Rome wasn't built in a day.

My free arm whips around and I end up punching Alice. She goes flying away and this time I know not to sit around and wait for her to recover. I follow her trek across the sky and am there when she lands. She kicks up at me but I easily pivot away.

She lashes out at me, and this time her punches don't connect. My instinct is learning. It's getting stronger. She's teaching it to be better, but it still doesn't know enough because eventually one of her punches land and it's my turn to fly through the air with no control.

I land and quickly orient myself. Alice is in front of me, once again I'm about to lose a fight. She pins me against a tree, one of her hands restraining my arms and the other restraining my body.

I growl out my frustration.

"Control it," she whispers.

"You control it!" My body doesn't want to run. It's tired of running. It needs...more.

"I'm trying to." Her voice is still controlled, but I know she's trying to clamp down on her little inner freak just like I am. Her eyes are black and she's panting even though her body doesn't need a single breath of fresh air to survive.

I try to free myself from her hold, but I'm not going anywhere.

"Let me go!" I push against her hold again.

"Calm down!" She growls at me.

This situation is quickly escalating way beyond either one of our control limits. Her hands push against me and I'm surprised I don't crack from the pressure she's putting on me. She looks like she's going to collapse, and I know that the only thing holding either one of us up right now is the tree I'm pressed against.

"What are you?" She asks, her voice shaking.

I stop struggling against her and our eyes lock.

"Fuck," I whisper right before she leans in and I'm not quite sure whether she's looking to eat me again or...

Her grip on my arms eases up and my instinct uses the opportunity to break free and shove her away from me. She falls to the ground and within moments, I'm on top of her growling.

She growls back and while I have every intention of pulling away from her and running as far away as I can get, my lack of control has me leaning down pressing into Alice's body.

The world around me goes black. I can't sense the trees. I can't sense any of the little furry creatures hanging out around us. All I can feel is Alice beneath me and this desire to devour her in the only way my body seems to communicate right now.

Alice pushes against me and suddenly I'm not the one on top anymore. She growls again and I growl back. We've both gone stupid.

The beasts inside of us have taken over.

Everything happens so quickly that my brain isn't even keeping up with my body's own actions. When the world finally starts to fade back in, I realize that my clothes are ripped mostly off, there are bite marks on my neck and I can't fill in any of the blanks.

I look over at Alice who looks to be pretty much in the same condition as I am.

"That was..." I trail off not really having any words.

She looks over at me. "Fucked up," she fills in the blank for me. Then, she sits up suddenly her hands going to one of the bite marks layering my skin. "I bit you!"

"Maybe." I shrug. It's not like I remember a whole lot about what just happened.

"Fuck!" She yells out. "You're infected."

"Infected?" I'm confused. "With what?"

"The virus," she tells me taking a closer look at my arm.

I can feel all of my toes and all of my fingers. My body feels...well it hurts but it feels kind of relaxed. I feel like taking a nap, but I don't feel infected. "What?"

She looks over my body. "You're not infected?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," I tell her. "But I don't feel sick. I never get sick. I'm immune to everything."

"You're immune?" She whispers.

"You know, I still don't know what you're talking about." I pull away from her, my body growing cold from her lack of presence. That is kind of odd. I take a closer look at her seeing that she's got a little bit of color in her cheeks.

"You're immune." She says again.

I roll my eyes. "Yeah well, you're not pale."

She blinks a couple of times. "W-what?"

"Your skin," I point to her face. "You've got color and I think your body is producing warmth."

She looks down at herself. Her eyes widening as she realizes I'm not trying to sale her a bridge to nowhere.

"This is amazing," she whispers right before she collapses.

I rush over to her calling out her name, but she doesn't respond. She's passed out. I try waking her, but there's nothing I can do.

"Your parents would be so proud," A voice says from behind me.

I turn to see who it is since I didn't feel anyone come into my field of instinctual vision. My eyes find a woman standing five feet behind me. She's wearing white leather pants and a white leather vest that contrasts vividly against her dark skin.

"Let me guess," I snort. "You're the villain."

She smirks. "Have we met before?"

I so shouldn't have left my bedroom tonight. My dreams were foreshadow and now I'm stuck living out this fucked up reality. I look back down at Alice, hoping that she gains consciousness so that we can run away.

"She'll be fine," the woman tells me. "She didn't take enough blood from you to kill her."

"Kill her?"

She nods and then closes the distance between us. She kneels so that she can look down at the vampire I'm holding in my arms. My dumb human self wants to push her away, but some part of me knows that picking a battle with her isn't one I'd ever win.

"I misspoke." She stands back up. "I think she's already technically dead. She's an abomination."

"No," I correct. "She's a vampire."

She raises her brow. "She feeds off of the blood of the living to continue her own existence. She's not human. She's a parasite, an abomination."

"Then what am I?"

"One of us, dear girl." She reaches out and brushes my hair behind my ear. I force my body not to move.

"One of us?" My voice isn't as steady as I'd like it to be, but I'm sort of in a bad situation here.

"We don't have time for proper introductions, I'm afraid." She looks around. "They do so want you to go with them."

"You're really kind of freaking me out," I say knowing that the 'they' she speaks of are probably people that are like her and I don't want to be around anymore of 'them'.

She smiles. "I'm good at that."

"W-what's going on?" Alice finally wakes up. Her face as pale as ever and her body as cold as ice.

"Ah, see I told you," the woman says. "She's as good as...dead?"

Alice jumps up out of my arms. "Who are you?" She asks our visitor.

The woman tilts her head. "I'm not sure I like you," she tells Alice. "But I am admittedly prejudiced. I generally don't like human abominations."

Alice opens her mouth to yell out or ask something else, but the other woman raises her hand and shushes us. Her eyes close and she looks like she's listening for something no one else can hear or see.

"One step ahead but not far enough ahead," she whispers. Her eyes open and she turns to face Alice and me. "You must run now and you must trust me to find you again."

"W-what? I'm not going anywhere," I say.

"Willful. Stubborn." She sighs. "We must be related." She takes another look around and then focuses her attention on me. "I will explain everything to you later, I promise. But for right now just know that I am not your villain, okay. So please take your pet vampire and get out of here."

My instinct finally gets a kick-start. I don't want to flee from her. I don't want to fight her, and I don't want to fuck her. She's like me and I guess that's enough for my instinct to trust her. "Fine."

"What do you mean, 'fine'?" Alice chimes in.

"We have to go," I grab onto Alice's hand to drag her unwillingly with me.

I know I'm crazy, but I also seem to be pretty good at running. I tighten my grip on Alice and then take off, forcing her to follow me. We run as long as we can until we are forced to stop. I don't even know where we are when we do finally slow down and the blur of shadows that have been passing us by turn into solid objects.

I look around us panting. My body is exhausted and I think my brain is just now absorbing tonight's events.

"Are you okay?" Alice asks me.

My vision is a little blurry, but otherwise I feel fine. Tired, though. Really tired.

"Bella?" Alice steps towards me. I open my mouth to respond, but don't get a chance to. My body collapses and with it my consciousness. My body can't take anymore. I can't take anymore.