Chapter 28: Where the Heart Truly Lies

"She was special."

A strong gust of wind slammed into Jasper. It would have chilled any ordinary man to the bone or knocked the wind out of their lungs, but Jasper was no ordinary man. In fact he couldn't even call himself a man. He felt nothing. Ice and wind could not penetrate his already cold and hardened body. As if nothing had happened, he continued picking up the chopped up pieces of firewood for his small cabin. Not for warmth of course, but for light. Besides, he had to something with his time which he had a lot of now even more so than before. It didn't mean that he was having second thoughts about living in the wilderness all by himself. He had been adamant about that when he told Irina his plans.

"I will not live with you," he had spoken plainly and although he had expected the sisters to take offense, they had instead meekly obeyed his wishes. He still wondered if they were doing it merely out of pity.

Now Irina, Kate and Tanya were not exactly living with humans themselves but rather stayed in the very outskirts of the only town for miles. Jasper however, wanted to be completely cut off from everyone – human, vampire, and everything else in between. The only way to communicate with him was by taking the hour's drive from the sister's home, cutting across some dense woodland and then into a small clearing. An old, very rundown looking cabin stood somewhat at the center of this and Jasper from then on called it home. He rarely saw the three sisters and if it at all it was just Irina. Many months went by without hearing any news and he told himself that this was what life for him was going to be like now – cold and bleak.


"Dr. Cullen…Mrs. Cullen…I…" Harrie stammered in surprise, her tongue felt numb. But seeing them here face to face, she finally put two and two together. 'This art exhibit…damn it, Jasper had mentioned that his parents were organizing one. Why didn't I remember that? I wouldn't have come if…' She was about to say something but before she could get anything else out, a hand latched onto her wrist and tugged her away. She stared back at her date, left awkwardly in the presence of the two elder Cullens.

A bewildered looking Russ could only stare straight at her and all she could do was mouth a quick apology before she was blocked from his view by a crowd of people admiring a popular exhibit piece. Harrie's captor (or rather rescuer – she wasn't sure which yet) came to a sudden halt as they merged out into the street. They huddled in a darkened part of the building where Rosalie – yes, Harrie by this time had figured that little face out – pulled out a light and a cigarette. Harrie's eyes widened in obvious surprise.

In the low light, Rosalie watched as she took another puff from her cig. It was something of a bad habit she had carried over from her former life. She had began somewhere just after her sixteenth birthday. Rosalie still had a vague memory of herself hiding in an alley similar to where she was in now with Harrie but back then she was with her friends, laughing and passing around a cigarette. She remembered she had been genuinely happy then but the memory felt cold as if it wasn't her memory at all.

Coming out of her thoughts, Rosalie noticed Harrie staring at her. "You want one?" she said, taking out a cigarette box from her purse and offering it to Harrie. Harrie shook her head and she shrugged, saying, "Suit yourself," before tucking the box away again.

"I didn't realize you um, you smoked."

Rosalie cocked a delicate eyebrow and smirked at the naive little brunette. "It's been awhile," she answered.

"But your dad...he's a doctor...doesn't he...?"

"Disapprove? I suppose he would if knew." Rosalie watched with silent satisfaction as the emotions played across Harrie's face. "I'd learned the art of deception quite early on, Harrie."

Harrie sighed before deciding to stray towards another topic. She had another question she needed answering. "How come you saved me?"

She waited for Rosalie's response and she began to grow increasingly flustered when none came right away. It was dark in the alleyway and only the soft yellow glow from Rosalie's cigarette provided any light. The embers burned and flickered, making it hard for Harrie to really see Rosalie's face.

Then just before Harrie was about to turn around and leave, the blonde spoke up. "Saved you? Is that what you call it?"

Rosalie could see Harrie's cheeks grow redder. They were already tinged from the cold night air but now they were red hot from her embarrassment. Rosalie secretly admitted that she did like seeing the girl squirm.

"I wouldn't get ahead of myself if I were you, Harrie. I wanted to talk to you in private that's all."

Harrie's heart raced. What in the world would Rosalie want to talk about? But then she realized. "You want to talk about Jasper, don't you?" she said quietly.

"Wow, smart girl but do you know why?"

Harrie hesitated. "I don't know…"

Rosalie began to say something but suddenly felt unsure. All those nights tossing and turning in bed finally came to this moment and she had nothing? She took a step back into the shadows as if stunned, dropping her cigarette in the process. How was she supposed to tell this human, this teenage girl that the love of her life was a monster? Why did she even want to tell her at all?

Harrie watched silently but albeit very curious as Rosalie battled with herself. She could see that the blonde wanted to tell her something but the usually confident girl looked hesitant. As she was waiting for Rosalie to say something, Harrie felt phone vibrate in her clutch. She fumbled for it and it was a text message from Hen: Get home now. Please.

"Let's get out of here." Rosalie seemed to instantly know what was going on (that or she could read the text message all the way from where she was standing) and grabbed Harrie by the arm. Harrie belated realized how cold Rosalie's hand was – icy cold, just like Jasper's hands been when they had touched her skin but she could only think about the text message and feeling nausea flooding her body. Something was really wrong. Really, really wrong.

Before Harrie knew it, she was in the passenger seat of Rosalie's car, her hair whipping all around her as they raced to her home.


A/n: OMG. I am so sorry at how long this chapter took to write down. Honestly though? I think I've lost the inspiration to write for this anymore. But I did promise myself that I'd see this through and finish it even if it takes me heck of a long time. I'm pretty sure many of those who've started this way back when I was still regularly updating, have left so the only thing that's keeping me at it is the feeling that I'll be able to finish something. I don't really care if nobody reads this anymore although I'm not saying I'm not grateful for the reviews and readers that I have and might still get (if ever) in the future. Thing is, if anyone reading this right now and is expecting for regular updates again, I'm sorry, that's not happening. I want to write and I'll try to write whenever I can but my life can't revolve around this anymore. I'll keep writing and updating when I can. The only promise that I can offer now is that I will finish this…in due time.

Thank you to everyone who's come along, read, and reviewed this story. It means the world to me. It really does. I can't thank you guys enough. If this was Tumblr, gifs expressing my gratitude still wouldn't suffice. :P I love you all!