Chapter 21

Six months have passed since my father died. Life had slowed to a slow lull for a while after his death, but as time went on, I began to heal. I started going to school regularly again and spending every waking moment with Alice that I could. I didn't like to be at home much because it was depressing as hell. My mother, unfortunately and understandably, is still coping with the loss of Charlie at a much deeper level. She doesn't come out of her room much, which really concerns me. Heidi and I take turns bringing her food and lying next to her in that huge bed meant for two. At night, when I am cuddled up with Alice, trying to sink into sleep, I can sometimes hear my mother's sobs—supersonic hearing advantages at their finest. I struggle with the desire to go and comfort my mother in these moments, but there isn't anything that I can do for her. If I were in her shoes and I lost Alice, I'd probably off myself, to be brutally honest. She is my entire world; I don't remember what it was like before her anymore.

Of course I remember Angela, and how badly I hurt her. I will always care about her. However, with Alice, my love is completely different. How did I exist without Alice in my life before? She is there when I wake up, when I am happy, depressed, or whenever I want her to be. Alice's gift to see the future enables her to show up at exactly the right moments. I'm completely jealous of this fact. I can't surprise Alice; it isn't possible at all. She has my future on constant vigilance in her mind, so whenever I make a decision, she knows what is coming next for me. Dammit, I just love her: her face, her eyes, the way the corners of her mouth look when she smiles, her body, how she smells, how she tastes, how silky her hair feels, the way she walks. I cannot and will never have enough of Alice Cullen.

That's the thing, though, and I struggle with this thought all the time. I want nothing more than to marry this girl. Unfortunately, after I had graduated from high school four months ago, Alice started to bombard me with large application packets for colleges. I giggled to myself as I grabbed the stack off of my bedside table and started to flip through some of the colleges Alice believed that I could attend. I didn't really need to read through them again because I had already memorized every word after reading them only once. Sighing audibly, I tossed the materials back onto the table and flopped back down into my bed. Suddenly, one of the windows in my room opened and my gorgeous girlfriend stampeded through.

"Bella Marie Swan!" Alice said in a whisper yell. She knew that she had to be quiet because my mother and sister were still sleeping and it was only 4am. I turned to face her and smiled at her appearance. She was as disheveled as I had ever seen her. Her hair was messy and she had mud on her pants. And if my eyesight is as good as I think, there were a few splotches of blood on the front of her shirt. My guess is that she was out hunting.

"Yes, my love," I replied in a quiet voice, as cutely as I possibly could, sensing that she was pissed at me for something. Alice continued to stare at me for a few seconds. I raised my hand and motioned for the window to close itself after her.

"Bella, what in the hell did I just have a vision of you turning your back on college and leaving Forks with a bunch of people that I don't recognize?" Alice asked me in a frantic voice, momentarily forgetting that she is supposed to be quiet. I sat up in bed and turned on the lamp next to me.

"Alice, come here, what are you talking about?"

"Bella, I had a vision of you leaving me and going with these people that I can only imagine are the people that your biological mother warned you about before her death," Alice replied, shaking her head and running one of her beautiful hands through her jet black hair. I shrugged my shoulders, unconcerned and knowing that this vision must be some sort of mistake because I would never, ever leave Alice behind for the Masters of my Race. I'm not a complete idiot.

"Alice, please, come here. Change out of those clothes first though because… ugh… you're a little dirty," I said with a wink. Alice started to pace back in forth in my room mumbling a whole bunch of things at me that I wish I couldn't hear. Alice was kind of a hot-head. She may be really small and adorable, but she gets kind of scary when she's pissed. I decided that I better do something before Alice tore my house down or something. "Alice, honey, stop please," I pleaded with her while walking toward her. Alice stopped abruptly, eyeing me up and down before shaking her head and continuing to pace. I walked quickly over to where she was in my room and put my hands on her shoulders, trying to still her movements. She was facing away from me.

"Bella, I-"

"Alice, stop, okay? Listen to me right now. I will never leave you. You need to stop freaking out. I told you that I would think about college, but you absolutely do not have to worry about me going with those people and leaving you behind," I had to use all of my strength to turn her body to face me, thankfully she allowed it. I put both of my hands on either side of her face and looked into her beautiful topaz eyes while I spoke. I made sure to flash my blue eyes to show my emotion. When I was done speaking, Alice closed her eyes and began to sob. She sank down to the floor and leaned into my chest as I followed her to the floor. I wrapped my arms around her and squeezed as tightly as I could; which would have crushed any human being, but merely comforted Alice as she cried. I stroked her hair for a while, cooing into her ear.

"Don't leave me, Bella, don't leave me," she kept saying that, over and over again under her breath. I continued to hold her, not knowing what to do. I had never witnessed Alice fall apart like this—usually, it was her holding me as I cried. We stayed like that for a long time. My concern grew more and more while the time ticked on. Why was Alice this worried? Was something going to happen that would actually pull me away from her? There's no fucking way!

About an hour or so later, Alice just detached herself from me and flew out my window, without a word. I stood up slowly as my stomach sank. Where on Earth was she going? Shouldn't we talk about this? Quickly I got dressed, trying to build a wall around my mind in efforts to block my future from Alice. We had been practicing this a lot lately, not so I could hide things from her, but just to see how far my powers could go. I could already block Edward from reading my mind; however, I was still powerless against Jasper's ability to control emotions. As soon as I was dressed, I ran into the bathroom to run a brush through my hair and to gurgle some mouthwash. When I passed by Heidi's door, I could hear her breathing deeply, signaling that she was still awake. Fortunately, my mother was still sleeping as well. I ran down the stairs and out of the house, heading toward my garage.

When I opened the door, I grabbed the key ring to my Mercedes from its respective hook and got in my car. My garage door was barely open before my car was speeding out. I knew I had to act fast. I didn't have much time. Alice would figure out what I was doing soon enough because she would know that I was blocking her and come looking for me and shake the answer out of me. Literally, if she had to.

I pulled up to the jewelry store and practically ran into the store. When I walked in there was a man in a suit that looked at me with a scared look on his face. He probably thought that I was coming in to rob the place or something.

"Can I help you, ma'am?" the man said, his voice guarded. I laughed to calm his nerves and nodded my head.

"I need an engagement ring, fast. What do you have?" I asked him, tapping my fingers impatiently on the glass counter. He nodded and motioned for me to follow him to another glass case full of sparkling diamonds.

"Right this way, I have quite the collection. Here are some of them," he gestured to the rings with one arm. I shook my head at the case. All the rings were small and really cheap looking. I could never propose to Alice with some cheap, janky ring. She would probably still say yes, but it would kill her every day to wear a ring that looked like it was bought out of a vending machine. The guy probably thought that I didn't enough money. I pulled out my wallet and pulled out my shiny black credit card and tossed in on the counter.

"Oh, I am sorry, ma'am. I just thought-" he stammered, sensing my unhappiness.

"I need much bigger," I said, cutting him off. He nodded his head vigorously, grabbing my credit card.

"Of course, right this way. What were you looking to spend, today?" he asked.

"Whatever it costs," I replied, nonchalantly, starting to survey the ring collection that he had led me to. One in particular caught my eye immediately. I was a silver ring set with a large square-cut sapphire that was accompanied by clusters of diamonds on either side. The band itself wasn't too thick, but looked sturdy. I pointed at the ring and the man quickly pulled it out of the case and handed it to me to look at. It was the perfect size for Alice, which really excited me. I didn't have time to get it sized. If I was going to surprise her, it had to be quickly.

"How much?" I asked, not really caring about the price. The man cleared his throat before responding.

"That one there is one of our most expensive rings. That one runs about $15,000"

"I'll take it," I replied with a smile. The man nodded and held out his hand for the ring, which I handed back to him. He put it in a sleek black ring box with the store's emblem on the top of it. After that, the man punched a few keys on the register and swiped my credit card. I signed the receipt with a flick of my wrist, took the box from the man, thanked him, and practically ran out of the store. I unlocked my car and hopped in, still trying to keep the wall up against Alice. It was fading fast so I knew I needed to hurry. I pulled out my phone and texted her to meet her at our spot in the woods—the spot where I had received my powers. I peeled out of the parking lot, fast approaching my destination. My phone dinged.

Alice: Bella, I'm sort of busy right now. What is it? And why are you blocking your future from me? Did our conversation this morning have any effect on you?

Me: Please, Alice. Just meet me there. This is important.

A few seconds later and my phone dinged again. Alice replied with "fine". I sighed, wondering why she was acting so…bitchy. This behavior was completely unlike her. I arrived at the spot on the road where I had to park my car. I jumped out of the driver's seat and began to run as fast as I could, hoping that Alice wouldn't beat me there. I could run supernaturally fast, but Alice was still faster than I was.

After running for a few minutes, barely out of breath, I arrived at my destination. However, something just didn't feel right about it. I looked around, surveying the meadow to see if anything looked unusual. Suddenly, I felt a surge of power course through me. I let out a window shattering scream as pain took me to the ground. As I lay there, wondering why I couldn't move, I heard loud laughter from across the meadow followed by a man's voice.

"Really, Jane? Was that really necessary?"

"Probably not, sir, but we can't afford to have her running away, now can we? Do you think Aro would let us live another day if we came back without his daughter?"

"Ugh, whatever, let's just get on with this" replied the first voice again. I struggled to get up, fighting through the pain that was still flowing through my body like aftershocks. I locked eyes with the man that I assumed had spoken first and saw a short blood woman following after him. They were both looking at me with their heads tilted. I could see their bright blue eyes shining. I mentally called out to Alice, hoping that some way my consciousness could connect with hers. I knew exactly who these people were, and they were here to collect me. Even though my birth mother had assured me that all I had to do was say her name and they would leave me alone, after setting eyes on them, I wasn't so sure. They both moved with purpose, unwavering in their mission. They were wearing black robes with hoods. I was finally able to move again, so I quickly stood up and began backing away from the people that were fast approaching me.

"I wouldn't suggest that you move any further…unless of course you want to feel that pain again?" threatened the woman, and as soon as she looked at me, I could feel ripples of pain on the edges of my skin. I immediately stopped moving and stood there in terror.

"She won't go running off, now will you, Bella?" the man asked me, saying my name with a heavy Italian accent. I shook my head, hating the fact that I was so afraid. Alice! I yelled again in my mind, fighting to keep myself together while fear gripped my entire being. What did these people want from me? Where were they going to take me?

Come, now child, you must come with us. We are here on orders from your father, Aro. He wants us to collect you and bring you to him in Italy. Unfortunately, you do not have a choice in the matter," the man said in a calm voice, while the terrifying woman stood next to him, nodding her head in agreement. I opened my mouth to say something, but all that came out was a scream.

"ALICE!" I screamed as loud as I could, but suddenly something dark was thrown over my head and strong arms restrained me. I tried to kick at the person holding on to me, but I couldn't move at all. Even my powers did nothing to help me. I lashed out telepathically, but still, nothing happened to my captors.

"Let's go, Caius, I can sense a vampire coming towards us. It's now or never," the man said. I let go of the box in my hand, hoping that Alice would find it as a sign that I had been taken, and then everything went black…