Moonlight Melody

Chapter 11: Future Prospects

"What I MEAN to ask you is whether you'd like to join our family…and be changed," Adrian prodded again when I failed to answer him. Maybe I hadn't heard the question the first time?

"Be one of us…with us."

Oh, I had definitely heard him. I had heard him so clearly the question was ringing in my head like an endless round of echoes. The question he'd so casually posed for me was so unbelievable and so wonderful at the same time.

Had he really just offered me an eternity free of sickness on a platter? My heart squeezed at the thought. What would it be like to never be sick anymore? I wondered clutching at the fabric that rested lightly over the core of my weakness.

To never have to worry about my heart having another fit. Maybe even my last fit.

To never feel like glass…to never be broken.

The thought was almost euphoric.

The thought made butterflies dance in the pit of my stomach.

By the look of contentment that had dawned on my face the vampires were now more surer than ever that I had understood their priceless offer.

"I think NOW she catches your meaning," Elliot muttered smugly from somewhere near the closet. The smug tones in his voice stopped. In mid-happy mode I stopped for a moment to consider that maybe there was another side to the question that I had failed to grasp in my barely contained enthusiasm.

My eyes flickered to every corner of the room frantically. It seemed too perfect a deal. There were many times that you had to remember something when almost everything seems to be going right.

If the day was going perfect and nothing seemed wrong, something bad was going to happen. If something was too good to be true…Chances were it was too good to be true.

"What on earth is she doing?" I vaguely heard someone croaked in disgust.

I needed time to think about this, I told myself sternly. I needed time to pull my eyes away from the prize.

Adrian sighed, "She does that when she gets nervous or antsy," he informed them. Then he pried my fingers out of my mouth. "Ally, take your hands away from there. Take it easy, now."

I growled in my throat and batted at his hands when he reached for my mouth where I was unconsciously hacking away at my nails. He held up his hands in surrender.

"You don't have to decide now," he grumbled grudgingly and blew air out of his nose in the way that he used to when we were kids and I'd been too stubborn to believe that mama wouldn't find the mud pie I'd hidden in the back of the pantry.

"You're such a—I don't?"

The woman (what was her name again?) Mary-Lynn spoke up for the first time, "Of course not. You didn't really think we'd expect you to give us an answer right now, did you?" she smirked as if the idea were stupid.

Well…yeah, I thought dryly. Actually I had.

"Mary-Lynn is right, Mary Alice," Elliot agreed. "What we ask of you is no easy question. This is something that will change your life for all eternity. You would be a fool to simply say, 'yes' immediately."

It let out a little sigh. Then it really was a little comforting that I wasn't a fool.

"IS that what you thought? Gee wiz, Ally, I wouldn't push you like that!" Adrian frowned in disappointment. "I mean I want you to say yes but I want you to wanna say yes because you miss me too."

So should I say yes?

"We'll wait for your answer, Ally," Adrian said gently.

No pressure though, right?

It was only eternity anyway. I mused dryly as the vampires flooded out of the room in a wave of porcelain, leaving me with so much more than one vampire to think about. Instead of another vampire, I saw myself in a mirror as the vampire. As something that might one day be me. If I were to reach out for it and make it happen.

Yet like the idea of immortality, the number of times that I thought about it seemed to never end either.

The following afternoon was one I devoted specifically to that purpose. Planning my death (if that was how it would happen). Boundless possibilities and questions spiraled through my head like aerials and I went through them each one by one.

There were so many reasons why I should agree to Adrian's wishes and become a vampire.

For one thing, I wouldn't have a weak heart anymore: Instead I'd be stronger, practically invincible. None of the nurses would be watching me to see if I would fall. I wouldn't have to be under there supervision anymore. I wouldn't have to stay in the hospital anymore. I'd be able to live the life of a normal teenager. Well, a teenager who drank blood of others, but still. Anything was better than being so weak, the kids would bet who could topple me first, right?

For another I could share Jasper's pain and ease it so greatly. If I wasn't human, with blood and life coursing through my veins then maybe Jasper didn't have to worry about losing control and stealing the life from me.

If I wasn't human, maybe Jasper could love me freely.

But there was also another side to the coin as well.

My life would never be the same ever again. I would never be able to see my friends in school ever again. In fact, I'd probably end up outliving them all in the end. The idea that my mother could cease to be a woman in my other life who died more than 100 years ago in the early 1900s brought tears to my eyes. All my friends…my school. The town I grew up in would change before my eyes as I stood watching, a timeless portrait of what used to be.

It was a sad thought.

But I tried to tell myself that as long as I had Jasper, then I was satisfied. Life would never be boring without him. Even having the blood lust would be worth it if we had each other, right?

In conclusion, although there were a lot of downsides to it all, the prospect of being with Jasper pretty much cancelled it all out. It paved the way for a life that I had only ever hoped of.

Maybe I would even get to take revenge on Edward for every time he naturally had the upper hand over me simply because he was what he was.

Yes, all seemed to be well. The only remaining wrinkle was that if I said yes to Adrian, I would be saying that I was becoming a vampire to be with him. I was assuming that when he asked me if I said yes to being changed into one of him, then I would be doing it for him. To be with him in a way that was more than brotherly. Basically it was a package deal.

I tossed over in my bed around three in the afternoon, my eyes trained on the tree outside my window.

It was while entertaining myself with these thoughts that I fell asleep and drifted away into the night. And then after so long, I was dreaming again…

"Ally! Ally come back here!" a young man with long black hair and brilliant green eyes chased after a little girl though a daisy field.

It was one of those days. The daisies had their faces turned up to the sky, illuminating the field like specs of golden sunshine. Butterflies danced around the flowers gaily tittering to the rhythm of the breeze. It was one of those perfectly clear and sunny day when it seemed like nothing could go wrong.

"Come'n get me!" Alice giggled and flung herself into a cluster of daisies, huddling down in the flowers for cover. She started to count:

1…2…3…

A flurry of red butterflies took flight as she settled down and suddenly the game included much more than just two people.

"Alice?"

"Mary-Alice!"

4…5..6...

"Ally, come back!"

Alice laughed softly to herself as Adrian cursed and peeked out from between the two white daisies before her at the people who were playing with her.

Adrian and James argued with each other over which end of the field that they would look in, while Carlisle and her mother were milling through cluster after cluster searching fruitlessly. Meanwhile, near the edge of the field, Edward was working to convince a girl that Alice didn't recognize to get down off the tree. She was a pretty girl with short brown hair and her skin was almost as light as Edward's The strange girl was busy trying to climb up to see the meadow from a bird's eye-view and her progress up the tree was sloth-like and clumsy. It seemed to frustrate Edward a little bit more with each inch she made up the tree.

Alice looked around at each person, waiting patiently for someone to find her.

Someone..anyone?

6…7…

Around her the dark red butterflies fluttered in the wind, clamoring around her as if urging her forward into motion.

8…9…

She jumped to her feet with the shriek of someone who had waited long enough and alerted the searchers to her location. Heads popped up all over the meadow, as if catching the scent of prey.

In a way it was true.

"Mary Alice!" her mother called after her, "You stop right there or I'll come an' get you myself!"

Alice took no heed of her mother's calls and streaked across the field. And as she ran, she grew older.

The farther away from her mother and friends she got, the farther away from childhood she went. With each step she grew taller and her arms and legs became less cherubic. More slender and lithe. Her hair went from being a little mane of hair to a long and gloriously untamed mass of hair. It was such a surprise that it didn't shorten as she had previously cut it. And she continued to ripen.

Until she reached the edge of the river with water as green as Adrian's own eyes, she was a young woman again.

"ALICE! NO!" Jasper cried out to her.

10…

Suddenly her screams pierced the air as someone seized her around the waist and covered her face to smother her cries.

She fell backwards into the icy depths of the river with hands covering her face colder than death itself.

"Alice…"

"Wanted to ask you if you wanted to join us…be one of us."

"I bet you Brandon won't last more than a DAY in school this time!"

"That poor dear…"

"Oh don't you go choosin' her now! Her heart's so weak you'll lose the game before it's started!"

"I don't like you in that manner, Alice."

"I can't give you anything more than friendship, Alice."

Alice's heart burst with grief as voices in her head repeated the words lying raw in her mind that had ever caused her some horrible pain. And while her heart sank, so did her body continue to sink deeper and deeper into the depths of misery.

"NO!" I screamed and bolted up straight in my bed, almost colliding with Adrian.

"GEEZE!" Adrian flew backwards away from me. "It's a good thing that you didn't hit me. I'd have cracked your head open. You okay? Your nightmares sound bad." An almost wistful expression crossed his face before he squelched it. "It's been a while since I had nightmares."

"You don't get no nightmares?" I asked, perplexed. The idea that someone who had gone through so much in life (getting sick, find out his family and friends were gone) had gone through it painlessly was a hard one to grasp.

He straightened up and backed away from the bed shaking his head sadly, "I don't sleep. None of us can anymore," he corrected me.

"Oh.."

Did becoming a vampire mean I'd have to give up my dreams too?

I caught a flash of red from the corner of the room and found Mary-Lynn was watching me closely from behind Adrian's back very similarly in the way that a cat watches a mouse.

Right before it was eaten.

I pulled the blanket up to my chin. There was no way she was eating me, I told myself sternly She was dressed in the thick green coat that I'd first seen her in the night before. A bulky, menacing, woolen bundle of forest green.

"What's she doing here," I asked, indicating her with a nod of my head. He looked behind him at Mary-Lynn who only blinked her big red eyes innocently.

Yeah, right.

"Oh, she's with me! I was kinda hoping she might be able to persuade you to join us," he admitted somewhat sheepishly.

Unfortunately, if he said that Mary-Lynn could persuade me to join the Vampire Republic, then chances were she probably could. He'd always had good intuition like I did. So what was it about Mary-Lynn that was so special? The thought of Edward being able to hear voices in his head crossed my train of thought and I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand at attention.

Did Mary-Lynn have some sort of gift as well?

"Oh really?" I squeaked.

Mary-Lynn took that opportunity to answer for herself.

"Yes," she drawled. "Really…"

I stared at her as she glided forth from behind him towards me. She made sure that as she walked she swayed her bell-like hips from side to side. The woman was beautiful. Her beauty was ethereal. Her red hair flowed over her shoulders in gentle red waves. Her curved lips were wide, full, and very red…red like her eyes. She was voluptuous and curvy in the way that would make any woman weak with envy.

And she knew it.

"Mary Alice, I really hope that you'll consider becoming one of us. You' d never regret it, I can promise you that."

"What makes you so sure of yourself?" I asked.

"Because I've never regretted the life I now live for one second in all my existence." I was ready to counter her when she went on. "Do you know how long I've lived Alice?"

I shrugged. She looked no more than 30 years old.

"I've walked this earth for more than 352 years. 352 years a goddess. More powerful than any locomotive or force on the face of the planet," she purred. "We do not age, do not get sick, we do not get injured.

"We do not die Mary Alice."

She took a step towards me.

"We.." she whispered, "are forever."

I shook my head hard, "Yeah, but is it really worth it to lose my humanity so that I'll always drink blood?"

Mary-Lynn's lips parted and revealed a row of dazzling teeth that would make a dentist faint with pleasure.

I felt ready to faint, but not from pleasure.

The smile was almost Cheshire-like. It was utterly horrifying.

"It's a way of life, my sweet," she crooned. "You kill cattle and pig to eat don't you?" She shook her head in mock disapproval, sending cascades of red tumbling down around her face and framing it dramatically.

"Those were once living, breathing, thinking, feeling animals too, yknow. But you slaughter them to eat for dinner. You only do what you must to survive.

"As do we. It is our nature. Our only means of survival and there is nothing we can do about it but live with it," she finished, her eyes flashing red at me again.

I trembled and shook my head, backing away. There was a part of me that screamed. A fear inside me that made my instincts ring with alarm.

That Mary-Lynn was not someone to be trusted.

Adrian saw clearly that Mary-Lynn was not convincing me, but was upsetting me and came by my side, immediately seizing me around the waist and pulling me out of my bed and into his embrace like he used to when I had problems at home. And like those times, my arms went around his waist, my face burrowing deep into his chest. He was suddenly my big brother again.

My protector.

"It's okay Ally," he assured me, rubbing soothing circles on my back. "Don't be afraid. Mary-Lynn is only concerned. She cares. She really does mean well."

Mary-Lynn smiled at me warmly form behind Adrian's back, yet it was a lukewarm assurance that she gave. My lips still trembled at the coldness that I found in her eyes.

Such fierce coldness.

"Shhh," he was saying as he continued to rub my back.

"I'm here…Just calm down…"

As he whispered sweet words to me, I felt the knots of tension in various parts of my body unlock and soften of their own accord. I let out a sigh, finally able to relax and laid my head on his firm chest. The same chest of the boy...no young man, who had always been there watching over me.

Always…

Always…I realized.

My hands came out from behind his back and around his waist.

Maybe I'd been too quick…I thought drowsily. Far too quick to say no..Or think that I'd ever be without him if I had a choice.

I carefully slid my hand up his body.

Up from his hips, over the muscles in his stomach, and over the smooth contours of his chest. I let my arms snake up so as to come to rest around his neck.

Torrents of warmth radiated from my body. I felt nothing but the dregs of desire to finish.

The desire to do as I lifted up my face to his and wanted… so much to close what little distance that there was between us.

His eyes were startlingly hot. He was all that I could see.

Adrian's face tilted and started to descend with agonizing slowness upon mine, his lips parted.

A distant part of myself screamed shrilly over…and over again.

Stop stop stop stop stop stop!

And then broke out into the night air.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN HERE?!"

I felt the warmth in me melt away into nothingness and found Jasper was standing in my doorway with a set of trash bags near his feet, long forgotten.

A fire illuminated my face.

What was I doing wrapped around Adrian? I wondered. I pulled myself away from him and quickly danced away on shaky legs. It was a scenario in which I was the kid caught with my hand in the cookie jar. But what it felt like was waking up from a bad nightmare and finding out the monster was still there.

"Jasper!" I gasped. "This isn't—I mean, I don't know why I…This isn't what it looks like!" I waved my hands quickly in a flurry of motions in my own sort of feeble attempt to explain why he'd caught me hanging off a boy, when I'd told him I loved him.

"See…Adrian, he's a good friend of mine…knew him since we were kids and I was really confused an—an depressed so he was just trying to comfort me and then—"

A snarl so inhumane I jumped rippled from his throat, "Shut the hell up," Jasper growled at me. His head snapped towards Adrian, "What do you want with Alice?"

Adrian opened his mouth to shoot back a retort. Instead another voice cut off his protest.

"Jasper Whitlock, why I never!"

Jasper froze, his eyes wide with shock.

The beautiful redhead slinked forth from the shadows. The sway of her hips was more pronounced than ever.

I looked from Jasper to Mary-Lynn and then back again.

What was happening?

"Maria…?" Jasper croaked in disbelief.

Mary-Lynn's lips curved into a sultry smile.

"So you do remember me," she sounded genuinely pleased.

I frowned.

Something wasn't right.

Mary-Lynn wasn't Mary-Lynn.

Mary-Lynn was…Maria?


I got a couple of reviews from some people urging me on…I feel further urged to finish sooner. Work was really starting to pull me out to sea and you guys sorta pulled me right back in to my writing. So thanks for that!

This chapter was sort of a thinking chapter. I mean the way that Alice first sees things when they ask her to become a vampire is a happy one. Ykno, she'll finally be strong. From the beginning of the story one of things that pisses and saddens Alice the most is that everyone knows that she's weak, physically (we all know it's another matter emotionally, right?) because she's the girl in the hospital with the bad heart. Of course her conscience warns her that there's a bad side to everything. "If something is too good to be true, chances are it usually is," is the sort of thing a girl you'd think after being disappointed most of your life. Wouldn't you be disappointed if just when it seems like when everything (think 'heart' here) is getting better and better things jus go to the shits? Kinna makes your hope dim. But seeing as Jasper has come into her life, she's kind of hoping that this will all end. She can finally be strong enough for him. She won't have any blood for him to thirst after. And when the man you're pretty sure you're in love with can be with you you pretty much don't care what else may happen. As long as you're with him you can really be happy. Now…if only Adrian weren't in the way, huh? Well, we'll see what will happen with him soon.

Maria…ahhhh Maria Mariahhh…she's an interesting character too. I see it as she's pretty damn old, but old in an impressive way. She's the epitome of seductive sexiness. She's dark and beautiful, in a 'im-pretty-but-i'll-rip-out-your-heart' sorta dark, if you know what I mean XD sadly, her beauty is so otherworldly and droolworthy, she makes Alice look like a little girl. (ouch)

Lastly I was sorta agonizing over a few things when it came to the ending of this story and then I came to a realization that Jasper and Alice's story is almost over! (gasp!) lol Yeah, it was only supposed to be a few chapters long, do you believe that? I'm always writing these long stories and I always go on this long hiatus and when I come back I've already lost my feel for the story. But as I was looking at the plot and what it had developed into I realized that the end was nearer than I'd planned. Maybe about two chapters or so left to go. Chapter 11 and 12 will probably be the last. 13..I don't know if there will be a 13 but I'm standing firm in saying, 13 is my limit. This chapter was the turning point. The next chapter (which has been, by the way, in the editing stage for a while in prep for the closing chapter) is an interesting one of mine, I think XD. And seeing as it's already being edited I cant tell you all that it will be out within the next few weeks, tops.

Then please take a look and maybe even leave a comment on my blog ( I've added some stuff in there about 10 minutes ago). Yeah, I've changed it so that everyone can comment on the posts. I mean you'll show up as Anonymous (grumbles about that a bit) but hell..just leave me your name/signname at the end of the comment so I can figure out who you are and all that. The comment link is that little yellow pencil at the bottom of the page.

The next chapter only needs a little tweaking and adding to it. It's mostly finshed so not too long til posting, i swear!! hang in there:)