Alice Cullen had never met a person she couldn't See.
Since the moment she woke up in her new world as a vampire, the moment her memories started, her visions had been absolute. Whether they came out of the blue or she focused for a good long while, she was able to See the outcome of endless decisions, the futures of hundreds of people – that was how she protected her family.
Edward would scan the minds of the humans in town and check if any of them were suspicious or curious or had a theory that was too close to the truth, and she would Look into the future for decisions or events that would expose them. With the two of them working in tandem they were able to head off any accidents or tragedies before the even started.
Which was why, when Edward found a girl he couldn't read, Alice honed her power in on the small town of Forks and made sure no one would find out about them. She was sure she was right, after all, she hadn't Seen the news spreading or the Volturi being called down on their heads or even a new rumour circulating the halls of the high school. However, as the days went on, as she watched Loretta Swan and took note of just how jumpy she was around Alice and her coven-mates, there was a niggling tendril of doubt weaving into the vampire's brain.
So Alice looked again, focused on Loretta specifically, and was instantly intrigued. Loretta Swan was hazy – her future, that is. Like peering through a glass of milk, Alice could only make out the most rudimentary shapes in her visions of the girl. She had never met a person, human or vampire, that she couldn't See, and it was fascinating.
Loretta was a nice girl, a little sarcastic, reeked of anxiety most days, but nice, so it wasn't like it was a hardship to strike up a conversation. Alice gave herself some time, let herself acclimate to the girl's presence and scent and the feel of her, in hopes that familiarity would give way to clearer visions; it didn't.
Edward was right, though – Loretta didn't smell like any other human. She had the overlaying scents, the perfume, the soap, the pheromones, the emotions, but the cloying sweetness of blood wasn't even an undertone. Alice could hear her beating heart, see the flush in her cheeks, but thirst stayed far away in the background of their interactions.
After spending those few days talking to her, using her nicknames, telling her some highly edited family stories, Alice found herself getting attached. She shouldn't have, she should've known better, but it was such a novelty to meet someone who wasn't simpering or batting their eyelashes.
Loretta only appeared in visions unimpeded as the direct consequence of someone else's actions, like the argument Rosalie had started in the library – she Saw it happen, Saw Loretta, but only because Rosalie had been one hundred percent in control of the moment, and the second Loretta made choice, decided to say something, the vision whited out again. Jasper couldn't feel her either, couldn't catch a trace of the human's emotions no matter how hard he focused, and when that was discovered was when the whole family had a meeting.
Rosalie had been especially vocal, hissing and spitting and declaring that Alice and Edward had no self preservation and they had to stop being so friendly with the one human who could actually be a threat. After that, Alice, under Carlisle's admonishment, backed off.
It wasn't until weeks later, weeks of staying polite yet distant, that she Saw Loretta again – this time because of Edward. He was so frustrated with his inability to read her mind he'd broken into her room to see if her mental defences would go down as she slept; he was disappointed. Of course the whole family had found out, and then Rosalie was yelling again and Jasper needed to use his ability to calm down the room and Edward was looking contrite but not truly sorry.
It was a tense ride to school the next morning, Rosalie fuming the whole way and snarling when they passed Loretta in the student parking lot. It was made even worse when, as they all disembarked from the car, Alice got a third vision featuring Loretta Swan in the supporting role.
Blood, so much blood, she'd be pulverized by that car, cleaved nearly in half, and the red would spill out over the pavement and pool around her truck in crimson puddles. Edward read it from her mind, she saw the moment it dawned on him, but as the vision flickered in and out they both realized the impossible; her blood wouldn't mean anything. It wouldn't draw them, wouldn't call to them, wouldn't send Jasper into a frenzy, it would flow past them with as little attraction as cool water on a hot day.
If that were the case, why did Alice still want to save her?
Edward didn't make a move because, as strange, as odd, as impossible as it was, as much as he wanted to solve the mystery of this unreadable girl, saving her would draw too much attention. Alice stepped forward, about to intervene, when Rosalie grabbed her arm.
"What are you doing?" She snapped, lips barely moving, "We're going to stay away from her, remember?"
"Yes, but-" Alice started and was cut off.
"But nothing! Whatever it is, it doesn't matter; I don't care, you shouldn't care," Rosalie impressed, grip tightening, "Leave the human alone."
But it did matter, it mattered because, as she started to take that step, she got another vision. Loretta was in this one too, but so were Rosalie and Edward, and Etta had her head thrown back in laughter, and Rosalie was smiling, and Edward was content, and there was a fourth person. An arm wrapped around Etta's waist, a kiss pressed to the girl's temple, a soft smile illuminated golden eyes.
Alice knew this future was directly connected to the action she had been about to take, would never come to pass if she didn't keep moving, and there was a Toyota swerving out of control around the corner and she was running out of time to choose. It was that smile that spurred her on, not Etta's, but the one pressed gently against her honey-dark hair, the happiest smile she'd ever seen on that face.
She wrenched herself from Rosalie's grip, ignored the angered shout that escaped sharp from behind the other vampire's teeth, and ran. There weren't enough people in the lot for her speed to matter, the ones that did see would just explain it away as adrenaline or a trick of their eyes, and those scattered visions of typical human complacency urged her onward. She reached Loretta just as the car was about to plow into her legs and threw the girl to the ground out of the way, throwing herself on her knees next to her, and the Toyota crashed into the orange Ford not two feet behind them.
There was blood, not a lot, but enough that, if Alice's vision hadn't been correct, it would've been a problem.
"Etta?" Alice cried, brows drawn up in concern, "Etta, can you hear me? Are you alright?"
She could hear the girl's heartbeat speed and stutter, smell the salt of her skin and the slush on the road, but the rivulets of blood running down Etta's head and arm smelled like nothing at all – perhaps a hint of iron, but it was so faint. It was hard to believe her mouth wasn't filling with venom, her eyes weren't going black with thirst, that this human blood meant so little to her.
Alice watched as Etta shakily sat up, watched as the human's eyes hazed in and out of focus, as she reached for her head wound and hissed in pain. She just watched for a moment, then, "Etta? Etta you need to say something." No response.
Perhaps it wasn't the smartest thing, but Alice waved her hand slowly in front of Etta's face to catch the girl's attention. She was bound to have a concussion, would probably need stitches for both her scalp and her arm, and Alice was worried for a moment she'd used too much strength and damaged the girl irreparably.
Reacting to the hand in her face, Etta jerked back. She turned, hazy brown eyes meeting clear gold, and Alice was about to reach out to steady her when Etta scrambled backwards on her hands. Her face was contorted in fear as she fled, her pupils uneven pinpricks lost in the whites of her eyes, her voice coming out in a slurred whisper barely audible to Alice's acute hearing. "No, no, four, no, five," Etta was still crawling away, her limbs flailing erratically as she fought to control them, "Blood, blood, black, black eyes, blood."
Alice still had a beating heart it would've stopped in her chest. What was the girl saying? Why was she so scared? Black eyes? No, Alice wasn't even thirsty, she'd fed only two day ago and Etta's blood had no draw whatsoever, there was no way her eyes were black.
If they weren't black, though, what was Etta talking about? How would she know?
Obviously, in the vision, someone had told her, but how did she know now?
The petite vampire just watched, unnaturally still, as Etta struggled to her feet and managed half a step before collapsing into a heap of unconsciousness. Alice didn't catch her, didn't make another move towards her, because she was too stuck on those rambled words.
The teenagers in the parking lot were letting out screams, whimpering, whispering to each other in horror; Alice was able to catch every word, from the authoritative yelling of Mr. Varner, who had come running out of Building Five after the crash, to the angry muttering of Rosalie back where she stood next to Edward's Volvo.
"Has somebody called 911!?"
"Oh my god, do you think they're okay?"
"Who the fuck was driving that thing!?"
"She's so lucky Alice was there."
"Is that Greg? Greg! Greg, oh my god, somebody help!"
"Alice, I cannot believe you, what did I just say? Carlisle is going to hear about this, I swear."
Black eyes, she'd said something about black eyes. Had Rosalie been right? Had Loretta been a threat the entire time, brushed over because of their own curiosity? Had that been the confused muttering of a concussed human or the terrified begging of someone who knew?
An ambulance pulled into the parking lot with its siren going, coming to a stop five feet from the blonde girl's limp form, and three paramedics piled out. Two brought a gurney down from the back of the ambulance and the third came over to crouch in front of Alice.
"Are you okay, miss?" The paramedic asked, soft but forceful, "Were you involved in the crash? Are you injured?"
Alice snapped back, her mind swimming with half formed visions, and finally remembered to breathe like she was supposed to. "I just pushed her out of the way but... but she hit her head," she faked a stammer, made sure to tremble as she stood, "I didn't mean for her to get hurt, is she going to be alright?"
A second ambulance appeared, siren also blaring, as the paramedic said, "We're going to take her to the hospital and she'll get all checked out, I'm sure she'll be fine. Hey, you're one of Dr. Cullen's kids, right?"
"Yes."
"Your father is in the ER today, he'll patch her right up. Now, you're sure you're okay?"
Alice nodded, gaze fixed on where the other two men were wheeling Loretta up into the back of the ambulance. Rosalie was right, this was dangerous. She'd have to tell Carlisle what she heard, what she saw, Loretta's rambling about blood and black eyes. With one last look, the paramedic left Alice's side and climbed up beside the gurney on which Loretta lay.
Snowflakes were still falling as the ambulance tore out of the parking lot and sped up the road, siren yelping, lights flashing, leaving the smell of antiseptic and saline wafting on the air. The second crew were helping the driver of the Toyota, Gregory James, into their own ambulance.
Part of Alice was incensed, her fist curled dangerously at her side - how dare he be up and walking while her... (friend? acquaintance? human?) was lost to the world, unable to support herself? But that was Alice's fault, too. If she had only reigned in her strength, been more gentle, then Loretta wouldn't have gotten her head bashed against the ground like that.
She remembered to breathe again, to put on her human facade, and then Edward was at her side with an inscrutable look.
I had to, she thought at him, you saw what I saw, you saw who she was with.
Edward's eyes narrowed.
Alice shot back, Did anyone even think anything of me, of my speed? Do they suspect anything at all?
His gaze moved over the crowd, most of whom hadn't been there when she'd pushed Loretta from the path of the car, and jerked his head once to the left.
Is that a no or a maybe? She asked sarcastically, already having Seen there would be no danger from outsiders.
"No," Edward said, too quietly for human ears, "No one thinks anything's off, they all explained it away."
Alice's mouth moved into a contented smile, See, I knew what I was doing!
"What about what she said?"
Nothing, it was nothing, she feigned indifference, she had to tell Carlisle but Edward didn't have to pry until then, she's concussed, she didn't know what she was-
"Alice. Cullen." Rosalie was on her other side, growling, "What. Was. That?"
I woke up in a sharp jerk, all at once, every muscle contracting and jackknifing me where I lay. Lay? I was lying down? I opened my bleary eyes and found myself staring up at the inside of a van, with cupboards and an IV line and the face of a strange man hovering over me.
An ambulance? The man wore a blue uniform, but my sight wouldn't focus to read the patch on his sleeve; I was unsure.
Everything was dry and tasted like plastic, and that's when I noticed the mask over my mouth and nose. I reached for it, but the paramedic(?) stopped my grab with a gentle hand and shook his head. His mouth was moving, he was talking, but my ears were plugged like I was underwater. What the fuck was he saying? He turned away towards a cupboard and I tried to follow his movement, but something stopped my neck from even twitching. My hand made it to its destination that time and, as I felt around the device strapped onto me, I realized it was a neck brace.
Why was I in an ambulance? Why did I have a neck brace? Why the mask? Why couldn't I hear? Sound filtered in through the cotton, garbled like the adults on Charlie Brown, cutting in and out, and then the paramedic was leaning over me again. "Can you understand me, Loretta?"
I tried to nod and was stopped by the brace. I rasped out a weak, "Yeah," instead.
"Good, that's good," he said, and affixed a blood pressure cuff to my upper arm, "My name is Paul, do you remember what happened?"
Happened? Something? Wait, it was coming back, a tidal wave of fragmented memory and migraine pain. The parking lot! Something... the Cullens! No, wait, a Cullen pushed me out of the way. Fuck, fuck, the car! The car, it was the car scene – after seventeen years of choices I still got the goddamn car scene. Shit, the guy, Paul, was still waiting for my answer.
"Car," I said, "Car almost hit me."
He nodded, "That's right, and you hit your head, do you remember how that happened?"
Who pushed me? It felt like the car actually hit me, so it had to be a vampire. Who? It was coming back, twinges of the panic I felt, and then... Alice, Alice's face, Alice kneeling next to me. She'd saved me. Why? To stop my blood from spilling? Had she run at super speeds just to keep me alive?
My throat was dry, I wanted water or ice chips or something, "Alice pushed me."
"That's right," he held his hand in front of my face, pointer finger up, "Now, I want you to follow my finger with your eyes, can you do that for me?"
He moved his hand left to right and I followed it, my gaze only trailing a little, my head only aching a little, but when he put his hand down I noticed his lips were drawn in a tight line. Did I fuck up that badly?
Paul, I suppose I should call him that, rummaged in one of the cupboards again, checked the IV line running into my arm, then pumped the pressure cuff to the point of pain. I sucked in a sharp breath, the sensation of the cuff nearly overloading my throbbing brain.
"We're en route to Forks Hospital, Loretta, we'll be there in a few minutes."
I heard a yelp from outside I recognized as a siren. The ambulance siren, from the ambulance I was riding in. Everything shook as we went over a bump or a pothole or something, and I watched Paul brace himself on the side of my gurney. Was he supposed to do that? What if he jostled me? Not that I was in any delicate condition or anything, but what if I was a major trauma patient and he did that? God, no, not going to even bother with that shit. I was tired.
My eyes drifted shut for a moment, not even a second, then-
"Loretta!" Paul, fucking Paul, barked my name, "You can't fall asleep yet, I'm sorry, we have to get you into the hospital before you can rest, okay?"
Why hadn't Alice drained me dry? I had to have bled all over the place, I could feel it matting in my hair and on my coat sleeve. Were they just that good? Did they just have better control than Meyer said? What about Jasper? What about being Edward's singer? Was I even Edward's singer? He didn't glare at me...
"Loretta!"
I groaned, my eyes fluttering back open, "Whaya want, Paul?"
His eyebrows went up to his hairline, then quickly back down, "You can't close your eyes, Loretta, you most likely have a concussion, you can't go to sleep."
"Wasn't sleepin'," I muttered with a pout, "Was thinkin'."
I swear Paul rolled his eyes, I swear to god he did, but from my angle and the way the brace forced my neck straight it wasn't easy to see. Were paramedics supposed to be so flippant?
There was another jolt, the ambulance making a sharp turn, and then another shock as the vehicle pulled to a halt. Paul stood up, checked the safety rail on my gurney, and opened the big doors at the back. I could hear someone else out there, their feet splashing in the watery slush, but I couldn't move my head to look at them.
My gurney was moving, Paul was at my head, pushing me towards the open doors, and I felt the second person grab the other end and extend the wheels. I stared up at Paul's face as I was rolled into the hospital; it wasn't a flattering angle. He was an average looking guy, fit, tanned with bit of stubble over his jaw, but I was faced with an impressive number of nose hairs and couldn't help but try to count them. I got to number two before I realized it was boring, it was weird, and my eyes weren't good enough to discern a hundred little hairs in some guy's nose.
They wheeled me through the ER to a little area blocked off with a curtain they pushed away to reveal what looked to be a hospital bed and a heart monitor to my peripheral vision. God, were they going to hook me up to that thing? Was I going to have to hear the beeping for hours and hours?
"We're going to move you to the bed, alright Loretta?" Paul told me, looking down – he had grey eyes. Weird, I had grey eyes – well, bluey grey, wait, wait no, they were brown. There was a crease between Paul's eyebrows, "Loretta?"
"Yeah, yes," I said, "Yeah, move me. High ho Silver, away, et cetera."
I finally stopped staring at Paul-the-paramedic's statistically average face and braced myself.
"On three," the second person said, and I felt hands grab at the corners of the sheet I was lying on.
"One, two," Paul counted, I imagined I could feel them tensing up, ready to lift, "three."
I was in the air, my stomach was swaying, and I was on the hospital bed before I could even process my own nausea. I heard the rough crinkly sound of the pillow cover and gripped the corner of the sheet still stuck underneath me, it was grounding even though my head was hardly spinning anymore. I watched from the corner of my eye as Paul and nameless-second-paramedic transferred my IV bag to the pole next to the bed and put the safety rail on the gurney down. It was starting to bother me, not being able to move my head.
Paul turned to me, "A doctor will be with you shortly, Loretta, will you be alright until then?"
My first reaction was, again, to nod, but that didn't work out. Fucking annoying automatic reactions. I licked my dry lips and instead said, "Yeppers."
Nameless-second-paramedic huffed a chuckle, Paul shot him a look, and then the two of them were wheeling the empty gurney back down the hall out of sight. Would I ever see Paul again? Maybe, probably, I mean, Forks was a small town. I could see him at the grocery store next week, pass him on the road on a trip to Port Angeles, whatever. It didn't matter that much, but sometimes, when I met people Meyer had never described, I felt a bit more free – I felt like I wasn't confined in some poorly written teen novel, I felt like I was actually living a life.
I wanted to rip the neck brace off, sit up, and take a better look around, but the slow throbbing of my brain persuaded me that doing so would be sort of Not Good. I still sat up, though, and twisted my entire upper body to scope out the rest of the ER. It was basically empty, a couple nurses scuttled about with purpose, their heads bowed towards clipboards and papers, but no-one came immediately to my side.
I waited. I settled back down in the bed since staying upright was aggravating my head, laid my hands over my stomach, stared at the peachy-pink privacy curtain that wasn't drawn around my little alcove, and waited.
It was a couple of long, boring minutes before I heard footsteps coming in my direction. At first I thought it was another nurse, but when a shape obscured the light and cast my feet into shadow I took a look. I took a look and I was stunned.
No matter how many vampires I met, I didn't get used to it – they were all ethereal. This one, angular, blonde, in a white doctor's coat, could be nobody other than Carlisle Cullen. He was tall, over six feet, and looked as similar to his vaguely-remembered movie counterpart the rest of the Cullens – that is to say, not at all. Not as beautiful as Rosalie, nor as charming as Alice, but definitely more captivating than Emmett or Edward or Jasper.
"Hello, I'm Dr. Cullen," he said, marking something down on my chart and hanging it back off the foot board, "If you could just sit up for me, I'll run a couple tests and you'll be out of here before you know it."
I would've nodded if not for the goddamn motherfucking neck brace, and fuck was I saying that a lot. I didn't nod, because I couldn't, so I was about to make some sort of noise of affirmation when I noticed the perfect man in front of me go still. Not human still, obviously not, but statue still, freeze-frame still, still like a sculpture or a painting or a photograph, not moving an inch.
I watched his face, his eyes, making sure they stayed gold instead of shifting to ravenous black. Then, no more than a split second after, he continued his motion like he never stopped. Had I imagined it? Had he stalled like bad video game graphics? What the fuck was that?
He looked up, his eyes a deep caramel that seemed to be one of the inbetweens they had; from feeding to feeding the eyes of the Cullens' at school would cycle through myriad golden shades until hitting black. There was a serene smile on his face, a Customer Service smile that somehow looked genuine, and he had the trademark dark circles of every vampire I'd met so far.
Carlisle acted like he hadn't glitched like a shoddy connection only moments before and gave me an expectant look. Oh, right, sitting up. I did that. He pulled out a blood pressure cuff and took my readings – the second time someone had done that to me in the past hour. After came the flash of a penlight in my eyes, sending sharp bursts of pain into my retinas.
"Your pupils are dilating irregularly," he told me, lips pursed in a concerned line, "We'll have a couple nurses come wheel you over to Radiology and take a few x-rays, just to make sure everything's okay up there. It shouldn't take too long. I'll come back to check on you once I've looked over your results, alright?"
"Okay," I replied. I wondered where Charlie-Dad was, if he knew what had happened, if he'd been called. I wondered if anyone else had come to the hospital out of curiosity like they had when Bella was almost flattened. I hoped not, I didn't want to deal with all the staring and the confusion and the glances of pity.
Two different paramedics came in, then, wheeling another gurney. On it lay Gregory James, and the entire side of his face was drenched in blood that seeped into his shirt. It was dark, too, and there was this sheen to the centre of the wound that made it look lumpy and black, like arterial blood over brain. He was pushed through the ER more quickly than I was, and his gurney disappeared through another door. I couldn't see the sign above it because, again, the neck brace restrained me.
Carlisle – perhaps I should just call him Dr. Cullen, to be safe, so I didn't slip up – Dr. Cullen excused himself then and went off after the gurney just as a page came over the speakers calling him away.
I blinked. I waited. Was Gregory James gonna be okay? Was he gonna die cause he smashed into my truck? Would Paige be pissed that my truck killed her boyfriend?
Two nurses came from down opposite hall, then, to take me through the maze of hospital corridors to get my x-rays. They introduced themselves, maybe, I don't really remember, and as such I definitely didn't remember their names. Of course, as I was being pushed out of the ER, the same door that gave way to Greg's entrance gave way a second time.
"Etta! Loretta, are you in here? Are you okay?" Charlie-Dad sounded frantic, his voice raised higher than I'd heard it in seventeen years.
The nurses stopped and one of them, a redhead, spoke up, "Chief Swan, she's over here."
He ran over, "Good God, Etta, honey, how are you feeling?"
"Um, a little achey, to be honest," I said sheepishly.
"Don't be so flippant," he huffed, and then one of his hands was clasping my own, "Where are they taking you?"
Redhead-nurse piped up, "X-rays, just to see how her head's doing. After that Dr. Cullen will take a look at the images and come see her."
Charlie-Dad tensed, "X-rays?" It was then he seemed to notice the dried blood crusted onto me and he went a few shades paler. "Hell, honey, you're bleeding, how bad was it, how bad was the crash?"
"The car didn't even hit me Dad, it looks much worse than it actually is."
His face softened, "If you didn't get hit, why are you all bloody?"
I snorted, "I hit my head on the road when Alice pushed me out of the way."
"Alice? Alice Cullen?"
"Yeah," I said, still wrapping my head around it, "If it weren't for her I'd be in a lot worse shape, like, flat like a pancake kinda shape."
A distressed noise made it past his teeth. He looked to the nurses, a V drawn between his brows, "Can I go with her to get the x-rays done?"
Apparently he could, they told him as much. Which was how I ended up being wheeled through the hospital, my left hand gripped tight in my dad's hold, listening to him mutter about how the kid who did this would definitely be getting his license suspended, would definitely not be getting out of this one, how dare someone be so reckless, how could they be so irresponsible, et cetera.
I thought back to the viscera decorating Gregory James' face and thought, privately, that he was probably paying for his mistake enough.
AN: I know, this story is slow. But hey, it's getting there. I don't want to simply summarize what happened in the book, I kind of want to make it feel like Loretta is actually experiencing it. Hopefully it's working out. Any theories as to who Alice saw Etta with in her vision? I'd love to hear any thoughts! Speaking of thoughts, I've gotten some reviews talking about how annoying Etta's anxious rambling is, and I agree, it's meant to be a character flaw, that she overthinks, that she tries to control things, and hopefully I'll be able to show her growing out of that as the story goes on. If you can stick with me that long, that is. Even so, I appreciate you guys telling me about your opinions, even if they're annoyed opinions.
Thank you to Sheridan111000, Kay Starlight, Bekbek(Guest), MozzarellaMermaid, Aye-Sir, May(Guest), emagirl20041(Guest), melin-hope, Lilisni(Guest), serenaonthestar, GraceEllingson, marlastiano, orchidluv, Littlevbigdreams, NuncaNiem, Aladine98, and silentmayhem for taking the time to review the last chapter. And thank you to everyone who has favourited and followed! It means a lot, you don't even know.