Well, dedicated readers, here is the next chapter! Gahh, 4 months is way too long. I'm not going to put off the story for that long again. Thanks again for all your patience guys! Well, I'm not going to ramble or anything. On with the story.
NOTE: This procrastinating writer owns nothing, except the plotline. But even that not really, since it's basically like It's a Wonderful Life. But, you know what I mean.
(Where it left off) Carlisle was leaving, but he paused, his hand on the door knob. He sighed, and opened it, to go inside. Just before it closed behind him, I heard him say two words mutedly: "The Volturi."
I just stood there when the door was shut. I just stood and stood and stood, then tried knocking again. This time, no one answered. Carlisle had most likely told them to not to open it. Some insane part of my mind thought of scaling the house and getting in through a window, but that was ridiculous. And useless. I'd heard everything-ever single terrifying, heartbreaking word. Alice was gone. Half of me felt gone as well.
I didn't have anywhere to go, so I finally sat down on the stairs. I sat quietly, numbly, and wished desperately that this was a nightmare and I would wake up. I wanted the one person who was unavailable. Gone. Alice was, oddly enough, my savior. Without her I had no one.
Well. I had someone. The one person I really didn't wish to see, but had to. Feeling like an idiot, I hesitantly muttered, "Clarence…"
Nothing.
I groaned and stood up, saying louder, "Clarence?" The Cullens probably heard me, but what would they care? To them I was just some crazy guy who needed some kind of help. Like coffee. Or a doctor.
"Clarence, I'm sorry for running away!" I said at my loudest. "I just need you to come back!"
"Jasper, it's been forever, it seems." I jumped, and saw Clarence stroll into the clearing. "Where've you been? I demanded. "Would you just leave me to rot after all that's happened? I need you to take me to Alice. Where is she right now? You can transport me. I just need to get to her now." The urgency was clear in my words.
He sighed. "Jasper, why're you asking me?"
"You know everything apparently, little angel." I said angrily. "You got me into this!"
"Me?" He asked innocently. "But Jasper, I just granted you your wish…"
"This ISN'T my wish!" I was losing it. I gestured around to nothing in particular, furiously. "This is a nightmare! You screwed with everything…and- and I don't know how, but somehow everyone is thinking this is all real! No one knows me anymore! I'm NOTHING to everyone! I need to get back to reality! I can't stay in your little psycho world!" I was close to hollering.
"You don't get it yet, Jasper," he said, as if speaking to a child, "this is all real. This is very real. This is life if you'd never been born"
I was going to rip his head off. I really was. I had to resist that. Well, not that it made a difference. I was weak as a freakin KITTEN now! I let out a growl, and began to pace around the ground. There had to be something I could do. Some way to work my way out of this. I tried strategizing, but this wasn't like wars I had fought. This was something utterly different. I couldn't tell the police-they'd think I was crazy and probably lock me up in a psychiatric ward. My family had deserted me. They were really all I knew. What was left? My old friends Charlotte and Peter? I had no way of knowing where they were anyway. They probably wouldn't know me. And dragging them into the mess would be wrong. Why knows what crazy Clarence would do to them?
And what if I did find someone who knew me? So what? What could they do? I looked sideways at Clarence. He was rocking back and forth on his feet, humming something that sounded like a hymn I'd heard at church. He was behind all of this. Maybe I could scare him enough into making him tell me what to do to get out of this. If I got a vampire to help…
"Don't even think about it, Jasper." Clarence said cheerfully. "I'm an angel and you nor any vampire can do me no harm. Plus it won't look that good for you in front of God…" He looked skyward, almost apologetically.
Of course. He was a mind reader on top of everything else. Damn.
I stopped pacing. I was feeling something I hadn't felt in the longest time: defeat. Nothing. There was nothing left for me. I flopped down in front of a tree, feeling useless, and-dare I say it?-scared. If I couldn't find something…if I couldn't get everyone to think normally…
Suddenly, there was a huge bellow from inside the house, "I DON'T FREAKING GET THIS CRAP!"
Emmett? I stared, startled at this normalcy, and almost comforted by the fact some things were the same. Another range of emotion was anger-the fact that they were still living their lives.
The next voice was Rosalie's annoyed, exasperated one. "Emmett, it's only history! It's not that hard to remember!"
I waited for some more. There was nothing, but a vague shushing sound-most likely Esme.
"Ah, poor Emmett." Clarence said almost sadly. "All these years, and he's still having trouble with his history work. I believe he's on the Civil War generals, and battles." He shot me a look.
"You just love to torture me." I said flatly. "There's no way Emmett could fail history or even struggle with it."
"Oh, why do you think that?"
"Because I FOUGHT in the Civil War! I was there! I tutored him! I taught him everything!" I yelled, heart pounding. It was one of my earliest memories in the Cullen house, after Alice and I had met them. Alice…
I inwardly crumpled. "I just need Alice." I said, pathetically, running a hand through my blond hair, tiredly. "Alice will make everything better." If I couldn't help Alice help me (if that made sense), I thought grimly, then that was it. Really it. Alice had always been there-a light in my otherwise dark life. Nothing would change that to me. Even this highly weird, random situation, I thought, smiling dryly to myself.
Clarence tapped his foot, watching me thoughtfully. "You do seem very dependent on Alice, Jasper. You do know how much things have changed…"
Oh jeez. Here we go again. "Look, I get that. You've pulled off a lot with you angel powers, or hypnosis whatever. You can get me to Alice; I don't care what's changed. I just need this. I'm going to bring her back. If I can't be with her…I at least want to make sure she's back safely, with the Cullens."
Clarence actually looked touched. "Okay then. I'll take you to her, just don't blame me for your problems and whatever happens." He motioned at me to follow him back into the woods, away from the house.
I was regretful. I couldn't help glancing backwards at the house when we were almost out of eyesight. I thought I saw someone looking out the upstairs window-Edward's window-but I couldn't be sure. Damn weak human eyes. Goodbye, I thought, just wait a little bit, and I'll have this fixed.
I hoped. But as everything spiraled out of vision, I wasn't so sure.
Cold air hit my face. I blinked open my eyes, momentarily stunned at how cold it was-apart from Forks. I hadn't felt the cold in so long. Goosebumps rose along my arms.
"Volterra," Clarence said matter of factly. I shuddered a little, folding my arms tightly around me. I had always had a sort of respect for the Volturi and how they had controlled the newborns. Now, I just hated them. They had taken my Alice. I could never look at them the same way again.
I finally looked around at my surroundings. It was pretty dark out, except for the moon shining above. There were many large looming buildings, looking ominous in the dark. As far as I could tell, no one was out. I didn't blame them. Now, I just had to find the Volturi.
I narrowed my eyes, trying to adjust more to the dark. I had never actually been to the Volturi's house. Alice had explained to me there journey though, so I had some ideas. I had to find a specific alleyway by the big clock.
"You might want to head this way," Clarence said, gesturing down the left of the cobblestone street. I shot him a look. "I know that." "Sure you did, Jasper," He said, to be annoying, probably. I didn't have time for him. I brushed it off, biting back a retort.
"Just keep quiet," I muttered. He mimed zipping his lips and tossing the key over his shoulder. Then he followed obediently down the dark rugged street.
All the houses and building looked the same. I felt like I had been walking forever, when it was probably just a few minutes. I gnashed my teeth in frustration, as we walked by a fountain. I had quickened my pace several times, but it didn't seem to be doing any good to me. This task, I had to remind myself, wasn't impossible. I just couldn't stop-
A suddenly loud bass chiming rang out. It was a clock. A huge clock. The deafening bongs went on for a bit then stopped. It was enough though. My ears still ringing, I looked up at the tower.
"Palazzo dei Priori," Clarence said, breaking his vow of silence. Now I didn't care so much. "Palazzo dei Priori," I murmured, "the clock tower." The alleyway was by the clock tower. I spotted it-the narrow strip between buildings and, my heart racing, I hurried over, against the wind.
I didn't have super hyped up senses, but I had a conscious. It was telling me to get the hell away from there. I was human. If I came up with a vampire, I was dead. My heart had very different ideas, and my feet followed, leading me into the alley.
"Hello?" I said, a little too loudly. I felt like I had broken something, my voice cutting through the silence.
Clarence stood by the entrance. "No one will answer you there, Jasper. They aren't here. And they, ah, already ate," He added, after somehow reading my thoughts of being a "meal to lure them in.
"Shoot," I muttered, darkly, kicking my foot at a trashcan. "That ruined my plans."
"Just keep walking," Clarence said. Not knowing what else to do, I listened, walking, and stumbling over the slanted ground. I couldn't see that great in the dark. If I shifted my eyes and blinked a lot, I could see the outlines of different shapes. I could also feel the ground was moving downward. I kept walking. I couldn't hear Clarence behind me, it was so quiet. I figured he was anyway. I was just walking aimlessly, praying for something.
The brick wall came out of nowhere. "Shit," I muttered, after running into it. It wasn't very pleasant. The bricks scratched my face and hands. Pain was an odd feeling, mused the smallest part of my brain that wasn't focused on finding Alice. I mean, this pain was nothing like the many vampire bites I'd acquired over the years. This was a more subtle, tingling sensation. So human.
Snap out of it!
"Jasper," Clarence said. I jumped, having momentarily forgotten about him. I turned, and saw him gesturing at something on the ground a few feet away. "It's what you're looking for."
I looked closely in the dark patch, and gingerly reached my hand to it…to find nothing. "It's a hole," I said, confused. "A drain." It was a drain big enough for a body to drop through. I shuddered slightly. "So it's-"
"-an entrance," Clarence finished. I nodded, crouching closer by it. I peered in, trying to determine how deep it was. I didn't have anything to drop in as a tester, and I couldn't see…
"Flashlight?" Clarence asked, pulling one out of nowhere (it was probably some of his angel magic or whatever because that was no coincidence) and offering it to me.
I ignored the fact that I was crazy enough to be use to something like this, and took it. I pressed the on button. Light shown out of the clear glass-a light so bright in the dark, I had to squint. I held it above the human sized hold.
It was deep. The drop itself was probably 20 feet or so. "And the chances of me breaking something increase rapidly," I said to myself, wearily. I forced myself to think of Alice (which was not too hard, honestly), and dangled my legs in, preparing to drop.
Clarence gripped my shoulder. "Jasper, are you SURE about this?"
"Well, about the drop, no. That is, I'm hoping I don't kill myself. But what can you do?" I said, sarcastically.
"No. I mean what is IN there. Are you ready to face it?" There was no humor in his face now.
I sighed, and looked upward for a minute. I couldn't answer that. I just knew I had to go. It was now or never. I clicked the flashlight off. Then I closed my eyes, saw Alice's smiling face in my head, looking encouraging, and then I fell into the darkness with God-knows-what I would find.
I hit the ground faster than I thought, with my knees bent, and my hands balancing my fall. It hurt a little bit, but it was surprisingly okay. I stayed frozen for a minute, waiting for someone to come out of the shadows. I didn't see or hear anything.
Clarence would be coming soon, so I stood up and slowly moved with my hands in front of me, until I found a wall. I leaned against it for stability. The flashlight was miraculously okay. I turned it on.
I was in an empty, enclosed tunnel. It was made of stone, and felt slightly damp, with a pungent odor. I tried not to breathe as much. The only other person there was Clarence, standing a few feet away, peering around. I was use to his bizarre habits of appearing and disappearing silently now.
I angled the flashlight down the tunnel. It was short. Already I could see the end of it. I nodded in the direction. Clarence understood and followed me.
Jeez, it was dark. The only light was from the flashlight and a sliver of moon light coming through the hole we'd come through, shining pale lines across the gray floor.
When we reached the end, shortly, the exit was easy to spot. There was a rusty metal grate and a small wooden door. When I entered it, I would be another step closer to finding Alice.
I already knew what awaited me on the other side, no questions asked. I was no genius, but I just felt it strongly. The foreboding door loomed in front of me, testing me.
I glanced at Clarence. His face was eerie in the dim light, and passive. Almost too quietly to make out, he said, "It's your choice. It always is."
Well, it's now or never, I thought, replaying my earlier thoughts in my head. I placed my hand on the cold, rough handle, and yanked it back, moving though.
Inside, the vampires waited for me.
The two males in cloaks stared at me, blatantly musing, and curious. And cold. So cold.
"So," Demetri mused, "it appears that Alice was right about him coming."
"Well," Felix grinned like the demented Cheshire cat, "she's not ever wrong about these things is she?"
My only real sane thought was of Alice. Of course Alice knew I was coming. Alice, after all, knew everything.
(to be continued)
Cliffy-ish! Ahh. Well that was that for ya. I love nice reviews. *wink wink* Constructive criticism is always appreciated too you know (flames…not so much)! I want to know what I can do to improve my work. (Our creative writing class at school isn't too great-I need help from other writers.) I also apologize if some of it seems completely weird. I'm dead tired and out of it. I just had to finish typing it up.
