AN: here's the update! enjoy!!

What Alice Found There

"The next moment soldiers came running through the wood...in such crowds that they seemed to fill the whole forest. Alice got behind a tree, for fear of being run over..."

-Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass and what Alice found there

Chapter Six: Just a Thousand Miles or So

I was released from the vision with a frightening jolt, as if I had been shocked. And my body seemed to know the feeling too well.

Again, I had seen the five strange figures, golden eyes and pale faces, faces of the damned. But the scenery was different this time. They were surrounded by trees, woods in all directions. One of them, an exquisite blond girl, had coal black eyes. She ran through the dense forest until she came to an herd of deer. Quick as lightening, she killed three, and then proceeded to drink from them. When she was finished, her eyes were the light golden honey color they had been in my first vision of these beings.

She heard something, her head immediately snapping up in the direction of the sound. The big, muscle-banded one emerged from the trees.

"Hey, Rose!" he greeted, chuckling.

"What is it, Emmett?" the blond one, Rose, asked.

Emmett chuckled more at the irritation n his face. "You should've seen! Edward and I just finished taking down this huge grizzly!" he chortled.

Rose rolled her eyes. "And did Carlisle and Esme approve of this?" Her eyes narrowed into slits.

"Of course, Rosalie. Would I ever do anything without parental consent?" Emmett asked rhetorically.

Rosalie let out an exasperated sigh.

Another broke through the trees, a woman with soft caramel hair.

"What's seems to be the trouble here, you two?" she asked Rosalie and Emmett.

"Nothing, Esme," they answered in unison.

"Good," Esme resolved, a motherly sense ringing through her voice with every syllable.

A blur of white, brown, and bronze passed through the patch of grass with Esme, Rosalie, and Emmett, pushing Emmett over. A chuckle resounded from the blur.

Emmett caught hold of the blur the second time it came around, holding a laughing figure.

"Think you're sneaky, don't you, Edward?"

"Well it took you long enough to figure it out!" Edward chuckled louder.

One last figure came through the trees, orderly and calm. He gently ran his fingers through his short blond hair and went to stand by Esme, putting his arm around her.

"Finally, Carlisle. You probably should hunt more often," Esme said.

"You're right, I guess. But you know how I just hate to leave the hospital, especially now," Carlisle replied.

Esme sighed deeply.

"Well, now that we're all though, can we get back?" Emmett asked impatiently, feigning tiredness.

"Yes, let's."

That was where my vision ended.

I now knew the names of other damned beings...and how they had golden eyes.

The idea they had, the one of feeding on animals and not humans, seemed very ethical and reasonable to me. I even considered taking up that way of life.

I decided to try and see if it satisfied me. I didn't really like to kill humans, after what had happened with Hubert.

I did what I had seen Rosalie do: a found a bunch of deer and attacked. The blood was not as satisfying as human blood, but it was good enough.

Soon after, another vision entranced me. It was him again. My angel, my savior, my lover.

His name was Jasper Whitlock, and he was damned like me. He was born in 1843, in Texas. He enlisted in the Confederate army in 1860, at the start of the Civil War. He became a vampire when he was drafted into the vampire wars in Mexico by a woman named Maria. He later on left her and lived in the North with some close friends. He soon left them, too. Now he was living as a nomad.

I recited his life story in my head, knowing it by heart.

I watched him in the vision. He was in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I watched as he entered a little diner to escape the rain. He was thirsty; he tried to hide his black eyes under the brim of his hat.

The vision faded away then, leaving me wondering. I wanted to see him, to meet him. He was my other half, meant for me and no one else. And I was meant for him.

One thing, and one thing alone, was crystal clear to me: I had to go meet him, in that little diner, on that rainy day, in Philadelphia.

Where was Pennsylvania? I'd heard of the place, but I didn't know how to get there from here. I summoned up my visions to see what help they would bring me.

I saw a path, a very long path, twisting through the trees and, occasionally, passing through a town or small city. I turned round and round in place, searching for the way to start my long trek. It wouldn't be that long: just a thousand miles or so. If I stayed in the dense wood, there would be plenty of game to hunt.

I soon found the right starting point, a little brook in the path and, taking a deep, unneeded breath, I began to run, in search of my true love.

AN: hope you enjoyed! 45 reviews, please!

gotta go!! eclipsed heart