DISCLAIMER: This work of fiction is a non-profit, amateur effort and is not intended in anyway to infringe on the rights of Stephanie Meyer who created the wonderful Twilight Saga.

Okay, not sure how this one is going to be received! This isn't the sort of subject matter I've ever used before and I'm not sure why my story's gone down the route it has but it's kind of taken on a life of it's own. Oh and the language has cranked up just a little too. Please do review for me, let me know if you think this works. Thank you!

Stop The Merry-Go-Round

Chapter Eleven: Visions and Dreams

Jasper's Point of View

I nearly knocked Emmett over in my haste to get away from her, I needed fresh air, needed to clear my head. I had been way too good at my job not to know when someone was scared and I mean really, bone chillingly scared and she was. Right then I was battling against all those instincts that were screaming at me to go back there and protect her. Totally ridiculous. It wasn't gonna happen. I didn't know this woman and I didn't want to know what she had to be afraid of. I had enough complications in my screwed up life as it was without knowingly going looking for trouble. And I just sensed that this little bundle of scraps was trouble…Big Time. I pulled my fingers through my hair and slowed down. This was absurd. Emmett had brought me here tonight to meet Rose and have fun not to act like some neurotic action man on speed! As I turned to go and look for them I found they were right behind me wearing twin expressions of concern. I held my hands up in mock surrender

"Sorry, sorry! I'm fine. Just got a bit claustrophobic and needed to get out. I'm fine. Sorry."

I hated the lie and felt its bitterness on my tongue but Emmett knew how I could get in confined, enclosed spaces and I knew that he wouldn't question me further and I really couldn't deal with what had just happened. What had just happened?

"Look man I'm sorry to ruin your night but I'm gonna split. Don't worry about me, I'll walk back into town it's not far. You and Rose go…enjoy. Rosalie it was nice to meet you, hope to see you again soon."

It was a dismissal and they both knew it but Emmett was not quite ready to let me go,

"We'll drop you back Jazz…"

I stopped him mid-sentence with a swift shake of my head,

"Alright but if you need me, call me on my cell OK?"

I nodded and trudged away.

Not far from her tent I stopped. How the hell had I ended I back here? Wasn't my body listening to my brain? Apparently not. I gave a resigned shrug and sat down on the dewy grass, shielded from the glow of the fairground attractions I looked up into the branches of a young nurse tree. I had always loved the idea of the nurse tree, loved that within its shelter other plant and animal life could find sanctuary and the ability to flourish. Humankind would do well to learn from Mother Nature. I sighed and stretched my legs out in front of me, that wasn't fair. I knew there were good people out there I'd just become jaded, wearied from things that I had seen and that I'd done. At the age of twenty I felt old and so very tired. I let out a low whistle, alone time was never good for me, alone time in the dark was even worse. I had wanted to get up and walk away. I should have gotten up and walked away. If I'd hurried after Emmett, Rose and the others I would have been able to catch them and let their warm presence, filled with fun and laughter, keep the demons away but I hadn't. I had stayed. I lifted my arm to check the time on my watch and ground my teeth together when the faint glow from the LCD display made my scars stand out in stark relief against my skin. I just needed to see the girl once, to reassure myself that she was okay and then I could go home. I couldn't seem to make my recalcitrant limbs move to desert her, yet as the gloom encroached ever closer and the night-shining clouds hid the moon I knew that if she didn't leave that tent soon I was in real fucking trouble. I tried to stifle a yawn as I allowed my head to fall back against the rough bark of the tree, I could try and see the stars, count the tiny pinpricks of light but even as I tried to distract myself, my eyes drifted closed…

The darkness began creeping towards me, edging out the light. I watched as the shadows grew smoky, insubstantial tendrils and tried to draw my feet out of their reach. In the gloom fingers began to form grasping hungrily at my ankles, licking at them like tongues of fire licking at dry brush. In my dreams I knew what was coming.

I sat huddled on the floor of the basement, my knees drawn up tight against my scrawny body as I tried to make myself as small as possible, to become invisible under the rickety wooden staircase. My chest hurt as I wheezed in a breath and tried not to cry out when my skinny fingers pressed against the bruises already forming along my ribs. The room smelled stale and unused and the dust motes tickled my throat, I so badly wanted to cough or sneeze or both, but I didn't dare. I cringed against the brickwork that pressed uncomfortably into my back as I heard the door creak open,

"I know you're down there Jasper. Don't make me come find you."I squeezed my legs together, tighter and tighter as the voice continued, high and whiney,

Baby. C'mon. Maria needs her boy…"

I could hear Nettie and Lucy crying somewhere upstairs, I had practically thrown them in the closet bellowing at them not to come out no matter what they heard and I prayed they listened to me. I didn't want my sisters anywhere near Maria, she could kill them. I touched my hand to my neck where she had bitten me and it came away sticky with the blood she had tried to lick with her tongue. Fighting back I sob I shook my head, I didn't understand. She had called me to her room, said she was lonely since my dad had died and asked me to sit with her, tell her about my day. I was flattered by the attention and sad that we had both lost the man we loved. She was, had been, my dads new wife and I was the envy of all the boys in my class when she brought me to school. I basked in the her reflected glory when they cast sneaky looks at her long legs and tight tops. She pulled me close and held me against her ample chest. She smelled delicious, like strawberries and cream and as I rested my head I saw her nipples harden as my breath blew across them unintentionally. I didn't move, didn't say a word as her hands suddenly went down the front of my pants. I had grown instantly hard under her urgent fingers and her lips sought my neck and she began kissing and nipping at me with her teeth. Not nipping now, biting. My young body shook with yearning but I knew this was wrong and started to squirm in an effort to get free of her hold,

"Tell Maria how much you need her baby. Tell Maria how much you want her."

She was panting, her eyes hooded as she pulled on me grinding her hips against my side.

"NO!"

She tore her face away from me at my bleak cry and I saw the blood on her lips, on her teeth and felt the acute pain in my neck,

"No?"

She put her head on one side and looked at me quizzically leaning forward to flick her tongue over the grizzly wound she had made and I cried out.

"No?"

This time her voice was bitter, cruel and angry and I didn't even see the hand that collided with my face. As she moved I tumbled from the loveseat and hit the floor with a resounding thud and suddenly there was pain everywhere as she kicked and punched me in a blind fury. I never, not once, thought to hit her back. She was a woman and a man never, ever laid his hand on a woman and I had to think of my sisters. I had to protect them. What if she went after them? I had to keep her attention focused on me. Somehow I got free from Maria's ranting long enough to find the girls and bundle them into the closet. Then I ran, trying to find a hiding place far enough from them that they would be safe. The basement.

I began rocking myself back and forth as I heard the top step groan even under her slight weight,

"Jasper, ready or not here I come…"

She giggled as though it were some innocent childhood game we were playing but as she slowly descended the stairs I knew this was anything but. I felt the panic settle like an icy boulder in the pit of my stomach at the same time shame burned my face, scalding my cheeks and bringing the sting of tears to my eyes. The warmth running down between my legs and pooling on the floor under me was the cause of my humiliation as fear caused me to pee myself.

I jolted awake choking back a scream. My t-shirt was damp with sweat and I was visibly shaking. Sure that I must have called out in my sleep I looked cautiously around but it was still deserted this far from the main thoroughfare and I relaxed slightly. Only a dream. Just another goddamn dream. Breathe Jasper. Chill the fuck out.

An old lady walked slowly from behind the elaborate screen positioned at the entrance to the tent leaning heavily on the girls arm. Her face was lined with age and her hair was wispy and grey yet her eyes sparkled with an awareness that belied her obvious age as she grasped at the wizened hand of the old man waiting for her. Unable to stop myself getting up and moving forward as soon as I saw her, I heard the old woman whisper hoarsely

"She can't see Jake. Alice said she had a vision and knew about the cancer and that she saw me in hospital but that I was still asleep after the operation. She said it was too early for her to tell me anything for sure but that she had a feeling it was going to be okay."

They hugged one another fiercely and I caught the old man's strangled sob

"Thank God Nessie and thank Alice too."

As they walked away, holding on to one another tightly for support I used my anger to shake off the remnants of my dream. I was beyond furious. How dare she? What the hell gave her the right to give people that sort of hope? A bit of harmless fun at the fair was one thing but this, this was something entirely different. My hands were balled into tight fists as I thrust them in to the pockets of my jeans and then I faltered, I heard her call my name…again.