When I woke up I was confused. My thoughts were hazy, still twisted up in dreams and nightmares; it took me longer than it should have to realize where I was.
This room was impersonal but just interesting enough to not belong anywhere but in a hotel - no hospital in sight thankfully. I've awoken in them one too many times. The bedside lamps were bolted to the tables; if the room decorum wasn't a dead giveaway this was. Speaking of the decorum, the long drapes were made from the same fabric as the bedspread and the generic watercolor prints on the walls.
I tried to remember how I got here, but nothing came at first through my mind. I did remember the sleek black car, the glass in the windows darker than that on a limousine in movies. The engine was almost silent compared to my truck, though we'd raced across the black freeways at more than twice the legal speed.
And I remembered Alice sitting with me on the dark leather backseat. Somehow, during the long night, my head had ended up against her cold but the soothing neck. My closeness didn't seem to bother her at all, her breath was still steady and her body wasn't stiff as her fingers rubbed at my scalp. And her cool, hard skin was comforting to me. The front of her beautiful shirt was damp with my tears after fifteen minutes of a drive.
Sleep had begun to evade me; my aching eyes strained open even though the night finally ended and dawn broke over a low peak somewhere. I wasn't sure where we were exactly. The gray light, streaking across the cloudless sky, stung my eyes from the small crack in the curtains. But I couldn't close my eyes; when I did, the images that flashed all too vividly, like still slides behind my lids, were unbearable. Dad's broken expression - Edward's brutal snarl, teeth bared - Rosalie's resentful glare - the keen-eyed scrutiny of the tracker, James - the dead look in Edward's eyes after he kissed me the last time... I couldn't stand to see them. So I fought against my weariness and the sun rose higher as if realizing we were still going to rise.
I remembered beginning the loop around the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport... but not ending it. I suppose that must have been when I'd fallen asleep.
Though now that I'd chased the memories down, I did have a vague impression of leaving the car - the moon had made 3/4ths of its descent - my arm draped over Alice's shoulder and her arms firm around my waist, dragging me along as I stumbled through the rain, the humid air making my nose sniffle, my hair frizzier than normal too. I had no memory of this room though. Made me wonder if the receptionist thought Jasper and Alice had kidnapped me, dragging my body through the lobby as they had to have been when we got in.
I looked at the digital clock on the nightstand. The red numbers claimed it was five o'clock, I assumed in the morning. I stood, pushing the curtains back to see where I was. My room looked out onto the lawn of the hotel, the pristine green grass, and the road that led to the airport not four blocks away. The name of the hotel in a beautiful cursive on a very expensive looking board. I knew this hotel, it was in Seattle. Sam, Leah, and Seth had stayed here once to visit me. It was slightly comforting to be able to pinpoint time and place. I looked down at myself. I was still wearing Esme's clothes, and they didn't fit very well at all. I looked around the room, glad when I discovered my duffel bag on top of the low dresser.
I was on my way to find new clothes when a light tap on the door made me jump, still freshly awake and unused to my surroundings. It didn't feel like any of this was truly happening. Alice came prancing in through the door, taking my hand carefully and led me through into the living room of the hotel suite - unrelenting in her grip when I tugged the tiniest bit. It seemed I was staying in the ill-fitting clothing. I could hear a low buzz of voices coming from the TV. Jasper sat motionlessly at the desk in the corner, his eyes watching the news with no glimmer of interest.
"Thirsty?" she asks.
I smile. "Not really. Are you two doing alright?"
"Nothing we can't manage," Jasper replies, coming out of his trance just the tiniest bit.
Alice turned from her boyfriend (probably husband now that I think about it) to look at me. "I ordered some food for you, it's in the front room. Edward reminded me that you have to eat a lot more frequently than we do."
"Thank you," I replied. "That means a lot to me." Alice was gone for a second before reappearing, this time by the coffee table where she carefully sat the items. With a smile, I sat on the floor next to the table, where the delicious smelling food waited, and began picking at the freshly baked waffles, dipping them in a small glass that was purposefully crafted to pour over the food.
Alice perched on the arm of the sofa and stared blankly at the TV like Jasper was, unmoving. I ate slowly, watching her, turning now and then to glance quickly at Jasper. It began to dawn on me that they were too still. They never looked away from the screen, though commercials were playing now which unnerved me to a small degree; I quickly got over it. I pushed the tray away, my stomach abruptly uneasy at thinking to myself. Alice looked down at me.
"What's wrong, Alice?" I asked.
"Nothing's wrong." Her eyes were wide, honest.
"What do we do now?"
"We wait for Carlisle to call."
"Should he have called by now?" I could see that I was near the mark on what she had been worried about. Alice's eyes flitted from mine to the phone on top of her leather bag and back. "What does that mean?" My voice quavered, and I fought to control it. "That he hasn't called yet?"
"It just means that they don't have anything to tell us." But her voice was too even, and the air was harder to breathe. "It's only been seven hours, we have plenty of time.
Jasper was suddenly beside Alice, closer to me than usual. Or ever before now that I think about it. He's always been on the other side of the room from me whenever speaking.
"Gwen," he said in a suspiciously soothing voice. "You have nothing to worry about. You are completely safe here."
"I know that."
"Then why are you frightened?" he asked, confused. He might feel the tenor of my emotions, but he couldn't read the reasons behind them.
"You heard what Laurent said." My voice was just a whisper, but I was sure they could hear me. "He said James was lethal. What if something goes wrong, and they get separated? If something happens to any of them, Carlisle, Emmett... Edward..." I gulped. "If that wild female hurts Esme or-or Rosalie..." My voice had grown higher, a note of hysteria beginning to rise in it. "How could I live with myself when it's my fault? None of you should be risking yourselves for me -"
"Gwen, Gwen, stop," he interrupted me, his words pouring out so quickly they were hard to understand. "You're worrying about all the wrong things. Trust me on this - none of us are in jeopardy. You are under too much strain as it is; don't add to it with wholly unnecessary worries. Listen to me!" he ordered, his large and cool hands coming up to my biceps, easily wrapping around them to shake me. I could feel my breath become erratic and tears sting my lids. "Our family is strong. Our only fear is losing you."
"But why should you -"
Alice interrupted this time, touching my cheek with her cold fingers. I could smell an almost sickly sweet perfume she naturally held to her skin and relished in it. The cold felt good on my skin, though Jasper began to let go of my arms, instead taking a single hand of mine in both of his. "It's been almost a century that Edward's been alone. Now he's found you. You can't see the changes that we see, we who have been with him for so long. Do you think any of us want to look into his eyes for the next hundred years if he loses you?"
My guilt slowly subsided as I looked into her dark eyes. I relished in the calm Jasper forced onto me, letting it come into waves.
It was a very long day after that.
We stayed in the room. Alice called down to the front desk and asked them to ignore our maid service for now. The windows stayed shut, the TV on, though no one watched it. At regular intervals, food was delivered to me. The silver phone resting on Alice's bag seemed to grow bigger as the hours passed. I had called Dad later that day, telling him I was fine and in a hotel. I told him I still didn't feel well, especially not enough to come home. But he agreed, saying he supports my decision no matter what I do, so long as I made my way back to him.
I promised him I would. But I don't know if I'd be able to keep it.
Alice and Jasper handled the suspense better than I did. As I fidgeted and paced, they simply grew more still, two statues whose eyes followed me imperceptibly as I moved; reminding me of the paintings where the eyes follow your every move. I occupied myself with memorizing the room; the patterns of the curtains - one in particular in the bedroom where it was swirled with green, blue, red, and purple that stood out against the earthy base tones. Sometimes I stared at the abstract prints, randomly finding pictures in the shapes like I'd found pictures in the clouds as a child. I traced a blue hand, a woman combing her hair, a brownish cat stretching its back, a ball of blue yarn not too far away from it. But when the pale red circle became a staring eye, I looked away. I was seeing things that weren't there.
As the afternoon wore on, I went back to bed, simply for something to do. I hoped that by myself in the dark, I could give in to the terrible fears that hovered on the edge of my consciousness, unable to break through under Jasper's careful supervision. But Alice followed me casually as if by some coincidence she had grown tired of the front room at the same time. I was beginning to wonder exactly what sort of instructions Edward had given her, if he gave any or if this was just Alice's character. I lay on the bed, and she sat, legs folded, next to me. I ignored her at first, suddenly tired enough to sleep. But after a few minutes, the panic that had held off in Jasper's presence began to make itself known. I gave up on the idea of sleep quickly then, curling up into a small ball, wrapping my arms around my legs.
"Alice?" I asked.
"Yes?"
I kept my voice very calm. "What do you think they're doing?"
"Carlisle wanted to lead the tracker as far north as possible, wait for him to get close, and then turn and ambush him. Esme and Rosalie were supposed to head west as long as they could keep the female behind them. If she turned around, they were to head back to Forks and keep an eye on your dad. So I imagine things are going well if they can't call. It means the tracker is close enough that they don't want him to overhear."
"Rosalie and Esme?"
"I think they must be back in Forks. She won't call if there's any chance the female will overhear. I expect they're all just being very careful."
"Do you think they're safe, really?"
"Gwen, how many times do we have to tell you that there's no danger to us?"
"Would you tell me the truth, though?"
"Yes. I will always tell you the truth." Her voice was earnest. I deliberated for a moment and decided she meant it.
"Alright," I nodded. "Can you tell me... how do you actually turn into a vampire?" I could feel Alice stiffen behind me and I immediately backtracked. "If you're comfortable with it. I don't want you to just tell me because you think you have too."
"Edward doesn't want me to tell you that," she said firmly, but I sensed she didn't agree, her hand began to stroke my hair, feeling it softly and cautiously. As if I would slap it away in disgust at a moments notice. I nestled into it, feeling her fingers scratch at my scalp.
"He told me a little bit about it," I tell her. "About it being excruciating and painful."
"I would like to tell you more, but I don't want to be on the end of his wrath." I nod; not saying anything more. But she just sighed, almost giddy to say something and I turned over to see her expression. "I'll tell you the mechanics of it," she said finally, fighting within herself. "but I don't remember it myself, and I've never done it or seen it done, so keep in mind that I can only tell you the theory."
I waited patiently, nodding once. "If it gets too uncomfortable to talk about it..."
"It's alright, Gwen," Alice smiled brightly before becoming a bit grim. "As predators, we have a glut of weapons in our physical arsenal - much, much more than really necessary. The strength, the speed, the acute senses, not to mention those of us like Edward, Jasper, and I, who have extra senses as well. And then, like a carnivorous flower, we are physically attractive to our prey."
I give the smallest of nods, in understanding. I could see why. I mean, look at all of Fork's High! Both Jessica and Lauren swooning over the Cullens, their looks and wealth making them crazy and unable to talk to anyone about anything but those in their family. Whether it be idle gossip or malicious rumors.
She smiled a wide, ominous smile. "We have another fairly superfluous weapon. We're also venomous," she said, her teeth glistening off the soft light from the lamp. "The venom doesn't kill - it's merely incapacitating. It works slowly, spreading through the bloodstream, so that, once bitten, our prey is in too much physical pain to escape us. Mostly superfluous, as I said. If we're that close, the prey doesn't escape. Of course, there are always exceptions. Carlisle, for example."
"And if the venom is left to spread... you turn?" I quietly asked.
"It takes a few days for the transformation to be complete, depending on how much venom is in the bloodstream, how close the venom enters the heart. As long as the heart keeps beating, the poison spreads, healing any wounds, changing the body as it moves through it. Eventually, the heart stops, and the conversion is finished. But all that time, every minute of it, the victim would be wishing for death." I give a heavy sigh. All the Cullens had to go through with that? The price for immortality, I assume. But still, to want to wish for death every second of the way made me think back to darker days. I imagined the days where my old physical trainer would force me to walk with inverted legs - how I had cried for hours only to be told to stop being a baby. I wanted to die then, to pull my own metaphorical plug. I was nine.
"Edward once told me that it's very hard to do, is there a reason for that?" My heart had finally softened and the racing pitter patter had slowed, forcing myself to calm down and think of better thoughts.
"We're also like sharks in a way. Once we taste the blood or even smell it for that matter, it becomes very hard to keep from feeding. Sometimes impossible. So you see, to actually bite someone, to taste the blood, it would begin the frenzy. It's difficult on both sides - the blood-lust on the one hand, the awful pain on the other."
"Alice... is there any reason why you can't remember your human life?" I was growing more and more tired, my voice made sure I knew it as well.
"I don't know. For everyone else, the pain of transformation is the sharpest memory they have of their human life. I remember nothing of being human." Her voice was wistful. We lay silently, wrapped in our individual meditations. I reached over, gripping her relaxed hand and intertwining our fingers, shuffling closer but still far enough to not make her uncomfortable. She took me by my waist with her other one and pulled me closer, our foreheads next to each other. "It's alright," she whispered, making me relish in the comfort.
"Thank you, Alice." I began to doze off, falling into the vampire's small embrace. But, without any warning, Alice leaped from the bed, landing lightly on her feet. My head jerked up from my pillow as I stared at her, startled. "Something's changed." Her voice was urgent, and she wasn't talking to me anymore.
She reached the door at the same time Jasper did. He had obviously heard our conversation and her sudden exclamation. He put his hands on her shoulders and guided her back to the bed, sitting her on the edge. I sat up, scooting over to where she sat and begun to sit next to her. Her hand instinctively reached out for something, gripping my hand like a lifeline. But luckily not breaking it.
"What do you see?" he asked intently, staring into her eyes. Her eyes were focused on something very far away. I squeezed her hand, trying to let her know that I was here fo rher in some way or another.
"I see a room. It's long, and there are mirrors on one side, on the other is large windows, about a foot from the floor of the room, overlooking the city. There's some kind of equipment all over, I don't know what it is. It looks like two bars, ballet?"
"Where is the room?"
"I don't know. Something is missing - another decision hasn't been made yet."
"How much time?"
"It's soon. He'll be in the room today, or maybe tomorrow. It all depends. He's waiting for something. And he's in the dark now."
Jasper's voice was calm, methodical, as he questioned her in a practiced way. "What is he doing?" I scooted even closer, hoping I don't get in the way of Jasper's way. I rubbed her shoulderblade, coaxing her.
"He's watching TV... no, he's running a VCR, in the dark, in another place."
"Can you see where he is?"
"No, it's too dark."
"And the mirror room with the equipment, what else is there?"
"Just the mirrors, and windows, it's... its workout equipment. An elliptical, treadmill. And there's a black table with a big stereo and a TV. He's touching the VCR there, but he doesn't watch the way he does in the dark room. This is the room where he waits." Her eyes drifted, then focused on Jasper's face.
"There's nothing else?"
She shook her head. They looked at each other, motionless.
"So... something's changed," I ask a little baffled at how quick the whole moment past.
Neither of them answered for a moment, then Jasper turned to look at me with a nod.
"He's made a decision that will lead him to the mirror room, and the dark room," Jasper confirms for me.
"But we don't know where those rooms are?" I prod a bit, my eyebrows furrowing.
"No."
"But we do know that he won't be in the mountains, Mount Logan to be specific, being hunted by the others. He'll elude them." Alice's voice was bleak.
"Should we call them?" I asked. They traded a serious look, undecided. And then the phone rang. Alice was across the room before I could lift my head to look at it, her body still felt like it was in my grip. She pushed a button and held the phone to her ear, but she didn't speak first.
"Carlisle," she breathed. She didn't seem surprised or relieved, the way I felt.
"Yes," she said, glancing at me. She listened for a long moment. "I just saw him." She described again the vision she'd seen, trying to tell them as much as possible in a quick voice. "Whatever made him get on that plane... it was leading him to those rooms." She paused. "Yes," Alice said into the phone, and then she spoke to me. "Gwen?"
She held the phone out toward me. I stood up from the edge of the bed, walking over to her, tentatively taking it out of her hands. I still gripped the hand that gave it to me, giving it the hardest squeeze I could manage for reassurance. "Thank you," I tell her. Not really about the phone, but for everything in general. "Hello?" I spoke into the receiver.
"Gwen," Edward said.
"Edward," I took a deep breath. "Everyone alright? Is everyone okay?"
"Birdie," he sighed in frustration, "Can you just worry about yourself, for just a single moment." I snorted at the concept. "Everyone's alright right now. We just lost him, we think he's heading back to Forks to start over."
"Okay, where are you guys heading next?"
"We're outside of Whitehorse right now, we're going to take the first plane to you. Gwen, I am so sorry - we lost him. He seems suspicious of us - he's careful to stay just far enough away that I can't hear what he's thinking. But he's gone now - it looks like he got on a plane." I could hear Alice filling in Jasper behind me, her quick words blurring together into a humming noise to my human ears.
"I know. Alice just saw that he got away."
"You don't have to worry. He won't find anything to lead him to you. You just have to stay there and wait till we find him again."
"I'll be fine. How about Dad? He's alright, right?"
"Yes - the female has been in town. She went into the house, but while Charlie was at work. She hasn't gone near him, so don't be afraid. He's safe with Esme and Rosalie watching."
"Tell them thank you for me when you get the chance," I breathed out. "Do you know what the female's trying to do?"
"Probably trying to pick up the trail. She's been all through the town during the night. Rosalie traced her through the private airport, all the roads around town, the school... she's digging, Gwen, but there's nothing to find."
"Alright, alright." I took a deep breath. "Okay."
"If the tracker gets anywhere near Forks, we'll have him."
"I miss you," I whispered, sounding like a lovesick girl. And maybe I am, oh gosh... I swore to myself a lifetime ago I would never become this kind of person after reading those horrible romance serials. Now, look at me. Well, in my defense, I didn't think vampires would show up either.
"I know, Birdie. Believe me, I know. It's like you've taken half my self away with you."
"You're just going to have to get it back then," I joke with him, feeling the tears well up just the tiniest bit.
"Soon, as soon as I possibly can. I will make you safe first." His voice was hard.
"I love you."
"Could you believe that, despite everything I've put you through, I love you, too?"
"Ah yes, because you decided to have the tracker on my tail." My comedic relief works and he gives a slight chuckle, though it sounds as forced as they come. "But yes, undoubtedly yes. I love you so much."
"I'll come for you soon."
"I'll be waiting."
I turned to give the phone back to Alice and found her and Jasper bent over the table, where Alice was sketching on a piece of hotel stationery. I leaned on the back of the couch, looking over her shoulder.
She drew a room: long, rectangular, with a thinner, square section at the back. The wooden planks that made up the floor stretched lengthwise across the room. On one side was glass, mirrors that reflected and on the opposite was windows, though unlike what the Cullens had, they were framed. And then, the equipment, place precariously by the staff.
"That's a physical therapy room," I said, suddenly recognizing the familiar shapes. It felt like years since I had seen those mirrors.
They looked at me, surprised.
"Do you know this room?" Jasper's voice sounded calm, but there was an undercurrent of something I couldn't identify. Alice bent her head to her work, her hand flying across the page now, the shape of an emergency exit taking shape against the back wall, the stereo and TV on a low table by the front right corner.
"It looks nearly identical to the one at Virginia Mason Medical Center." I touched the page where the square section jutted out, narrowing the back part of the room. "That's where the bathrooms were. This is for cardio, and here's some breathing equipment. Here, is the sauna. But the stereo was here" - I pointed to the left corner - "it was older, and there wasn't a TV, not that I remember. All of the equipment had been moved, the treadmill was over here -" I pointed to the side, near the windows " - and there was a 'yoga class' here. They never picked up the mats. Oh! There was a window in the private room here - so relatives could watch your progress without feeling like they were intruding on you - and you would see the room from this perspective if you looked through it, I believe. I'm not a hundred percent sure."
Alice and Jasper were staring at me. "Are you sure it's the same room?" Jasper asked, still calm.
"Like I said, I'm not one-hundred percent sure, most therapy rooms look the same to me, but I've only been to three. But if I had to guess, I'd say yeah, it is." I traced my finger along the bar that ran against the mirror. I touched the door, set in exactly the same place as the one I remembered.
"Would you have any reason to go there now?" Alice asked, breaking my reverie.
"No, I haven't needed to go to a physical therapy session for a little over a month now."
"So there's no way it could be connected with you?" Alice asked intently.
"I mean, if it is the same one, then yeah, Scott works there full-time. I might say hi. But not now, especially with the tracker around."
"So, it's here in Seattle?" Jasper questioned.
"Yeah," I answered, noticing the looks they gave to one another.
I settled into the sofa, nibbling on a plate of leftover fruit, anticipating a long evening. Immortality must grant endless patience. Neither Jasper nor Alice seemed to feel the need to do anything at all. For a while, Alice sketched the vague outline of the darkroom from her vision, as much as she could see in the light from the TV. But when she was done, she simply sat, looking at the blank walls with her timeless eyes. Jasper, too, seemed to have no urge to pace or peek through the curtains to make sure there was no boogeyman. Technically, I guess he could be considered the boogeyman. A vampire that could happen to be under my bed this entire time.
I must have fallen asleep on the couch, waiting for the phone to ring again. The touch of Alice's cold hands woke me briefly as she carried me to the bed, but I was unconscious again before my head hit the pillow.
I could feel it was too early again when I woke, and I knew I was getting the schedule of my days and nights slowly reversed like any other teen would. I lay in my bed and listened to the quiet voices of Alice and Jasper in the other room. That they were loud enough for me to hear at all was strange. I rolled until my feet touched the floor and then staggered to the living room. The clock on the TV said it was just after two in the morning. Alice and Jasper were sitting together on the sofa, Alice sketching again while Jasper looked over her shoulder. They didn't look up when I entered, too engrossed in Alice's work.
I crept to Jasper's side to peek.
"Did she see something more?" I asked him quietly.
"Yes. Something's brought him back to the room with the VCR, but it's light now."
I watched as Alice drew a square room with dark beams across its low ceiling. The walls were paneled in wood, a little too dark, out of date from the eighties. The floor had a dark carpet with a pattern in it, to the side was a dark stain, that deep scrubbing and bleach couldn't get out. There was a large window against the south wall, and an opening through the west wall led to the living room. One side of that entrance was stone - a large tan stone fireplace that was open to both rooms. The focus of the room from this perspective, the TV, and VCR, balanced on a too-small wooden stand, were in the southwest corner of the room. An aged sectional sofa curved around in front of the TV, a round coffee table in front of it.
"The phone goes there," I whispered, pointing.
Two pairs of eternal eyes stared at me.
"That's my old house. It's supposed to be bulldozed, I thought it already was," I told them. "It's on the Rez, it was my mom's - Lori's. She had inherited it from my grandparents when she turned eighteen, they died shortly after she turned twenty-two."
Alice was already off the couch, phone in hand, dialing. I stared at the precise rendering of Lori's family room. Uncharacteristically, Jasper slid closer to me. He lightly touched his hand to my shoulder, and the physical contact seemed to make his calming influence stronger like it had earlier. The panic stayed dull, unfocused. If they were on the Rez... What about Billy? Or Jacob? Or Quil? Or... anyone?!
Alice's lips were trembling with the speed of her words, the low buzzing impossible to decipher. I couldn't concentrate.
"Gwen," Alice said. I looked at her numbly.
"Gwen, Edward is coming to get you. He and Emmett and Carlisle are going to take you somewhere, to hide you for a while."
"Alright." I take a large breath, to calm my nerves. "Alright, he'll be here soon?"
"Yes, he's catching the first flight to Seattle. We'll meet him at the airport, and you'll leave with him."
"But, my family... he was on the Rez, Alice!" Despite Jasper, the hysteria bubbled up in my voice without my consent.
"Jasper and I will stay, we'll talk to the council, tell them what's going on."
"I can't win, Alice. You can't guard everyone I know forever. Don't you see what he's doing? He's not tracking me at all. He'll find someone, he'll hurt someone I love... Alice, I can't -"
"We'll catch him, Gwen," she assured me.
"And what if you get hurt, Alice? Do you think that's okay with me? Do you think it's only my human family he can hurt me with? If any of you guys get hurt, any one of you. I'll never be able to live with myself."
Alice looked meaningfully at Jasper. A deep, heavy fog of lethargy washed over me, and my eyes closed without my permission. My mind struggled against the fog, realizing what was happening.
"That's not fair," I mumble, trying to get away from him. I eventually got off, Jasper's hand falling from my came in and apologized, holding me, because I needed someone. Soon enough, the phone went off again. The alarm clock told me it had been just over three and a half hours. I hadn't realized I fell asleep.
I felt like a child all over again. Crying, feeling bad, bad things happening that I had no say in. If there is a god, why would he do this? Just for his amusement?
Alice was talking as rapidly as ever, but what caught my attention was that, for the first time, Jasper was not in the room. I looked at the clock - it was five-thirty in the morning.
"They're just boarding their plane," Alice told me. "They'll land at nine-forty-five." Just a few more hours to keep breathing till he was here... what am I going to tell Dad?
"Where's Jasper?"
"He went to check out." I nodded moving to my excess stuff to pack up so I'd be ready to go.
But the phone rang again, distracting me. She looked surprised, but I was already walking forward, reaching hopefully for the phone. But it wasn't hers. It was mine.
"Hello?" Alice asked. "No, she's right here." She held the phone out to me. Your father, she mouthed.
"Hello?"
"Gwen? Gwen, where are you?" Dad's punishing voice came through the line. I took a deep breath.
"Dad, I'm right where I told you. I'm still in Seattle, I'm just trying to calm myself down here." No interruptions. If Dad was truly worried he would have said something by now. "Dad? Dad, you alright? You there?"
"Be very careful not to say anything until I tell you to." The voice I heard now was as unfamiliar as it was unexpected. It was a man's tenor voice, a very pleasant, generic voice - the kind of voice that you heard in the background of luxury car commercials that you would easily get tired of after it played three times. He spoke very quickly. I looked up at Alice who seemed just as surprised as me, but she refused to move. Standing like a statue. "Now, I don't need to hurt your dear ole' daddy, so please do exactly as I say, and he'll be fine." He paused for a minute while I listened in mute horror. "That's very good," he congratulated. "Now repeat after me, and do try to sound natural. Please say, 'No, Dad, I'll be fine, stay where you are.'"
"No, Dad, I'll be fine, stay where you are." My voice was barely more than a whisper. Alice began to run over the room, picking things up. She had the phone in her hand less than a second, ringing up and talking at unimaginable speed to someone on the other line, her lips merely a vibration to my eyes while she spoke on the other line.
"I can see this is going to be difficult." The voice was amused, still light and friendly. "Why don't you walk into another room now so your face doesn't ruin everything? There's no reason for your sweet father to suffer. As you're walking, please say, 'Dad, please listen to me.' Say it now."
"Dad, please listen to me," my voice pleaded. I walked very slowly to the bedroom, feeling Alice's worried stare on my back. I went to shut the door behind me, trying to think clearly through the terror that gripped my brain. Alice slipped through at the last second putting a finger to her lips. I nodded.
"There now, are you alone? Just answer yes or no."
"Yes," I lied. I almost convinced myself with my tone.
James took it in stride, overly-confident in himself and his ability to pressure someone. "But they can still hear you, I'm sure."
"Yes." Alice flitted around the room, quiet as a mouse, picking certain things up and holding them in her arms. Till she stopped at a standstill. Her eyes glazed over, looking through the wall opposite of her.
"All right, then," the agreeable voice continued, "say, 'Dad, trust me.'"
"Dad, trust me."
"This worked out rather better than I expected. I was prepared to wait, but your father isn't the brightest one in the bunch. For a police officer, he's pretty bad at realizing he's in danger. But it's easier this way, isn't it? Less suspense, less anxiety for you."
I waited, trembling. Alice finally shook herself from her daze and looked to me as if she wanted to comfort my shaking form, but I shook my head. I needed to make this seem real, I can't be calmed right now.
"Now I want you to listen very carefully. I'm going to need you to get away from your friends; do you think you can do that? Answer yes or no." Alice shook her head, telling me my answer.
"No."
"I'm sorry to hear that. I was hoping you would be a little more creative than that. Do you think you could get away from them if your father's life depended on it? Answer yes or no."
I walked over to a piece of paper, Alice's eyes following my every move. I picked up a pencil and nearly start to write. But I wasn't sure if he would hear it on his end.
"Yes."
"That's better!" he cheered with mock-enthusiasm. Or maybe he was extremely energetic at this prospect. Alice came to stand next to me, her eyes wide and questioning. I turned my head from the pencil, where it scratched on paper, hoping he wouldn't be able to hear it. Where's Dad?
"But, Gwendolyn, if I get even the slightest hint that you have any company, well, that would be very bad for your father," the friendly voice promised. "You must know enough about us by now to realize how quickly I would know if you tried to bring anyone along with you. And how little time I would need to deal with your pops if that was the case. Do you understand? Answer yes or no."
"Yep!" I said, sarcastically, tears bottoming at my lids.
"I'll accept the ad-lib, if only to make it sound believable to the others. Now, I want you to go to Virginia Mason Medical center, you know where that is right? Answer yes or no."
"Yes."
"Of course you do, sweet little fragile human. Well, I want you to go there and head for the little physical therapy room. You know which one, your dad was all too glad to tell me. Now, I want you to say, 'I love you, Dad. I'll see you soon.' "
"I love you Dad," I told him, becoming more confident. "I'll see you soon."
"I will see you soon, Gwendolyn." And the phone hung up.
"Charlie isn't with James," Alice tells me. "He's still at home, Esme is watching him from the shadows. She's extremely good at hiding. I don't think he or the woman knows that."
I nod and drop my phone, letting it clatter to the ground. I sat on the bed putting my head in my hands. "That was the single most terrifying thing I have ever done," I confessed.