Phoenix Chapter 21
A/N I haven't abandoned this story. I've just had a lot of stories on my brain and too little time to write them down. First I had the idea for a one shot called "Fate" and I posted it while I was breaking from this story. www dot fanfiction dot net/s/8079205/1/Fate
Then I started a Rosalie/Emmett story that I've been chewing on for a while. It's called North. (It's listed on my profile) Check that one out too please, I'd Love the feedback.
And I'm still working on this one too, getting my story to play out with all the intended details. Hopefully someone's still reading. Muah!
Disclaimer: As always Twilight is not mine.
Chapter 21
Alice POV
At first Alice hadn't really known where she would go. Then as she sat in a diner just off the highway she realized she knew what she wanted to do. She had been flipping through her notebook and she found the address of Jane Volturi's fire. That was it. She had to go see where Jane, and where she herself, had lived. It was a horrible thought but she needed some reconciliation.
As she pulled up in front of the mostly empty lot she took a deep breath. There was a bit of rubble left in the back corner where the debris must have been pushed after leveling the house. She started to walk over the lot slowly. She couldn't help repeating the stories from her blog to herself. She realized that since she didn't actually remember all those horrible things that had been done to her, she had to be grateful for that in the least. It didn't make her feel better about it all happening though, and as she walked over the rocky soil she saw bits and pieces of glass and walls. It didn't bring any thoughts of home or memories of torture.
She had been searching for some peace about it all but she didn't get it in the vacant lot.
As she climbed back into her truck Alice remembered the two children. The children she had wanted to protect, probably the children who occasionally cry out to her in her dreams. Ava and Alec.
They might be my clues. There's no way that 2 young children end up missing without someone noticing right?
She landed at the public library in a big comfy chair and tapped into their free wifi. She started searching and searching for missing siblings that would fit in age or with the same first names. A couple hours into her search she found a facebook fundraiser page called "Help keep Ava and Alec together" and when she read it she knew it was them. The page had been created a few years ago by members of a community a couple hours east of Jane's house. There was a brief explanation explaining that Ava and Alec were orphans after their parents died in a car accident. The community was trying to keep the two little children together but they were in danger of being separated into foster homes. The money raised would supposedly keep them together in the same children's home until a long term adoptive family could be found. Alice found a phone number of a woman called Betty Fronk who had apparently organized a lot of the fundraiser.
In spite of barely having an appetite Alice managed to drink a big milkshake while she was getting up the nerve to call Betty. Finally she stopped procrastinating and just did it.
"Hello?"
"Betty Fronk?" Alice's voice faltered a little.
"This is she." Betty sounded kind.
"Hi, I had a question about Ava and Alec that you hosted a fundraiser for a few years ago?"
"Well yes, of course I remember them." She cleared her throat. "What is it you were trying to find out dear?"
Alice decided it was safest to lie. "I had contributed to that fundraiser and I was wondering if they were still able to be together or if they had been adopted."
Betty went on to tell her that the twins had been placed at a group home at an address that sounded not far from the Volturi house. It had been a couple years since Betty had heard anything else about the twins but she had gathered that they had since been adopted by a well to-do family.
After getting off the phone Alice decided to do a little undercover work. She drove to the group home that Betty had told her about and parked down the street. She reached into her duffle bag and grabbed a ring with a diamond style stone, putting it on her left hand.
She walked into the group home with a plan. She had to see if she could understand how those kids ended up in Jane and Aro's care. She herself was obviously related to the Volturi family but how could anyone have placed the twins with such awful people?
The lady who answered the door smiled politely at her when she told her she was interested in adopting. Alice lied and said she was married and that they were eager to have children but that it wouldn't happen for them. She said that she was worried that the background checks would take forever before they could adopt. The owner of the home soon clarified that money talked more than background checks around there. Beating around the bush she basically suggested that Alice pay a good sum of money to the home in exchange of expedited and approved background checks and interviews. Alice gathered that meant that she could basically buy a child if she wished.
Walking out she took a deep breath. The whole idea disgusted her. Obviously Jane and Aro had purchased themselves two small children with the intent of torturing them. It was enough to make her stomach turn and she leaned against her truck dry heaving.
When she had pulled herself together she realized that she needed to get a hotel room. Her first instinct was to find a hotel near WSU so that was where she headed. The only vacancy was at a motel with an external entrances to the rooms, which Charlie had always cautioned against. It was clean though, and had both a chain lock and a dead bolt. She unpacked her stuff and then went for a walk around the campus since she was right across the street. Now that she knew her parents had been killed in a car accident, and she had been tortured and murdered, she really wanted to know how she had ended up on campus after the fire. In her dreams she was had seen several evidences that she had been hiding there in that auditorium.
As she wandered across the quad she sipped a coffee and looked around. There wasn't much that looked familiar about the campus but there was something that felt it. It permeated her senses. A part of her wondered if it was because of the night air but she could almost feel herself running across campus in a panic. The sensation didn't scare her but it did leave her wondering.
She walked toward the auditorium that she had been in the day she took the tour. It was that room that had triggered so many questions in her mind and had made her so sure that what she had seen in her dream was real. She tried the doors of the building and found them unlocked. As she walked down the dimly lit hallways she heard people talking in various rooms and then music. The auditorium doors were open so she went in quietly and walked to the stage. The big room wasn't completely dark as there was a row of lights on either far end that was turned on. Standing on the stage she looked around. She imagined herself crouched down in the corner, cowering in fear. It wasn't hard to picture. The dream had been so real.
On that side of the stage there were curtains to hide behind, as well as other things in the shadows. She couldn't bring herself to go sit in the darkness there. It just was too much. Instead she stood in the lit area and closed her eyes, breathing in the musty smells and trying so hard to remember.
Suddenly she had a funny feeling that she wasn't alone and her eyes burst open. There wasn't anyone in sight but she had seen enough for one night. There was no need for her to push herself beyond comfort and she trusted her gut feelings. She left via the nearest door and headed back to her hotel.
Hoping some hot water therapy would help her clear her head she took a long shower, letting the water wash over her and running her fingers through her hair, massaging her scalp. She felt strangely at peace with being alone. Her hurts were very real, but at least she knew now that there were legitimate reasons for her eccentricities. She was damaged.
Her fingers ran over her scars on her back, the ones that she had never known the cause of. She touched herself, everywhere, and wondered how her body could feel so normal now, after what it had been through. She bent her arm back and forth, trying to see if there was physical evidence of being broken. One did have less range of motion than the other and never completely straightened out. Now she knew why. She found comfort in knowing about her pains.
What she didn't take comfort in was the knowledge that Jasper had deceived her. That was too much. Her blog had told such horrible truths. He had known. He had tried to help her, and then he gave up? When he found her again he simply lied about knowing her? None of it made sense. There must have been more to it, something she was missing. She was going to have to wait until her anger subsided so that she could understand his part more. It was just something she needed. She needed to know the details of his involvement but her anger was too fresh.
Jasper. Jasper who made the world stop turning. Jasper who could touch her and either stop her heart or start it again depending on the circumstances. He had been everything to her. It's no wonder he had felt so familiar. She had known him, of course she would have felt a connection to him. She had thought that she loved him. Now she realized that she could have just unconsciously connected with him from her former life. It could have just been fake, every little flutter, every little staggered breath that she took when she looked into those pained eyes of his...
Those were the thoughts that she fell asleep with.
She woke in the morning and she was surprised by how well she had slept. She decided that she wanted to visit her parents' grave. She packed up her bag and checked out at the front office. Jumping in her truck she had to put her sunglasses on to keep her from being blinded by the morning sun, a rarity in Washington.
As she was buckling her seatbelt she jumped when she heard the passenger door open. An older man calmly got in and shut the door saying "Hello Alice. I'd suggest you drive now. I'll tell you where we're going once we're on the road." Alice was nearly paralyzed with fear but something about the voice made her do exactly what he said.
A/N I promise not to wait so long before updating again!