30 Days of Night

Disclaimer:

I own absolutely nothing. Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer and 30 Days of Night belongs to Steve Niles.

Note: I didn't really want to do this, but the muses left me no choice. I am but a puppet to their will.

Chapter Twenty-Nine: In Which Alice's Visions Fail Again:

Alice POV

Sometimes, my visions would come at worst times, like when Edward and I were trying desperately to hold the door to the bedroom from an army of newborns, while Eben, Stella, and Beau were each fighting their own somewhat losing battles against the vampires that had burst in through the window. Just as I was about to sink my teeth into the neck of a vampire that had made the mistake of straying too close to my darting hands, I froze, my eyes glazed over, and images starting assaulting my brain at speeds that would put a computer to shame. I barely registered Edward shoving me out of the way, I think to protect me, though he might have done it out of irritation.

At first, I didn't realize that it was a vision because the images were so similar to what was already happening I couldn't distinguish the present reality from the transitory future. It was only until I felt that familiar loss of control, an out of body experience, that I realized I wasn't in the present anymore, but somewhere else. Even though I was proud of my ability, it sometimes terrified me. The visions weren't always negative; no, sometimes they were quite pleasant. I had seen many good things happen to my family, to me, to the people around me, but I has also seen many horrible things that might have come to pass and some that truly had. Most of those things I could push out of my mind, forget, but some I could never forget, some things, like that one flash of Edward holding a baby girl that I knew would now never happen.

The burden of seeing was something I didn't have to bear alone because Edward usually saw what I saw, just as it was happening, unless I blocked him. It was comforting to know that someone else could share my pain and I often wished that I could share Edward's. Hearing the minds of everyone around him had isolated him for so long. I knew that he suffered, but I don't think he quite knew how much I suffered, though perhaps Jasper did. He always looked so concerned after my visions, as though perhaps he felt how lost I would become. For those few moments when the vision choose to manifest itself, when I was but a puppet to the images careening across my brain, I truly stopped existing. I was no longer Alice, wife of Jasper, daughter to Carlisle and Esme, best friend to Bella Swan, sister to Rosalie, Emmett, and Edward. I became a vessel, an empty jar into which something higher than myself had decided to pour things no one should have ever been able to see.

The vision I had now was not pleasant, not at all. I was in the bedroom and the humans were standing behind us. The fire from the blow torches made the room seem hotter, something I could feel even though the flames weren't directed at Edward and I. I could smell the smoke, a dirty kind of smell that made me want to wrinkle my nose, and I could hear the chainsaw that Beau was wielding shredding into something, a vampire, who started keening loudly. It was a horrible sound, even though it meant that one of our enemies was dying, because I could image something similar issuing from Bella's throat, or Jasper's, somewhere else, in the woods, far away from where Edward or I could help. My eyes landed on the three humans and I realized what was about to happen even before I saw it in my vision. The vampire being shredded was thrashing wildly, desperately trying to grab Beau, but he couldn't reach him because he was trying to extract himself from the saw blade at the same time. However, the moment he made his decision, the moment I was now seeing, something brightened in his eyes and he stopped howling. Instead of struggling, he pulled himself forward, thrusting the blade even further into his body, until he saw standing only inches from Beau, face to face, their eyes gazing into each other's. Then he bit.

"No!" I screamed, the vision abruptly leaving, and I was suddenly back in my body again. I heard the keening howl and I knew it was too late. Just as my eyes found Beau, the vampire ripped into his neck. I was across the room in a second, pulling the vampire away, pushing him into the flame of the blow torch that Stella had directed toward him. Beau crumbled to the ground, holding his neck, his eyes wide, shock written all over his features. The chainsaw was lying next to him, roaring out of control until Eben dropped his blow torch and grabbed it, just before it was about to start eating into Beau's foot.

"Shit, shit shit," I murmured, moving over to Beau's side just as he started screaming. The venom was working through his system and he gritted his teeth to block the unnatural sounds issuing from his mouth, but he couldn't stop the little whimpers. "It's okay," I said, trying to hold him down to keep him from hurting himself. "Everything's going to be okay."

"I'm gonna be one of them, aren't I?" He growled out between his clenched teeth, sweat starting to dot his skin.

"No," I said firmly, looking into his panic-stricken eyes. "You're not going to be one of them. You're going to be one of us."

"Alice!" Edward shouted back at me. "I could use a little help here."

Before I could answer him, another vision burst into my brain, a constellation of stars illuminating an otherwise black night, and my words came out in a startled gasp. I saw them coming, my family, to rescue us. "Thirty seconds," I murmured when the vision faded.

"What?" Edward asked in confusion, his words tinged with pain. One of the vampires had bit into his arm.

"Thirty more seconds and they'll be here," I said, counting down in my mind. "We will win this battle."

"Who's coming?" Edward asked.

"The cavalry," Emmett said, jumping in through the window, a wide grin on his face, his eyes sparkling. He cracked his knuckles. "Who should I kill first?" He asked and I had never been happier to see his dimpled face. Carlisle and Esme appeared right behind him, Rosalie struggling through the window after. Despite her weakened condition, she looked fierce, though I wondered how much good she would do in the fight.

Carlisle immediately came to my side and we turned our attention back to Beau. Dimly, I was aware of the others fighting around me, of the piercing screams of the vampires being torn apart, of the sickly sweet smell of burning, but I didn't care much about that anymore. We would prevail, that much I knew for certain, after all, I had seen it. "How is he?" I murmured over to Carlisle.

"He's started making the transition," Carlisle replied, his hand on Beau's wrist, timing his pulse. "Beau," he said, turning his attention to the man writhing next to him. "The venom is spreading through your body. There is only one way to stop it now, it's moving too quickly. I would have to kill you to prevent the transformation. You have a choice to make."

Beau groaned as a fresh wave of pain shot through him. "If Bella can do this, so can I. I don't want to die," he said, his voice ringing with conviction.

"We'll need to remove him from Forks," Carlisle said thoughtfully, turning back to me.

"You should take him to Denali," I said, "while we wrap up loose ends here."

"I agree," Carlisle replied. "Esme and I can take him. I think Bella will want to remain behind until Charlie wakes up. I assume you will want to stay with her?" He asked, looking sideways over at me.

"I'm never leaving her again," I said solemnly, nodding. "Once she's ready to say good-bye to Forks, we'll join you."

"That's settled then," Carlisle replied. "The transition should take three days," he added, turning back to Beau. "You will be in immense pain until the very end. I'm afraid there's nothing I can do about that. Once you awaken as a vampire, you will be extremely thirsty. However, I'm confident that you will be able to adapt to our way of life."

I noticed that Eben and Stella were standing over Beau now, their weapons discarded on the ground, both looking anxious. It was then that I realized I couldn't hear anymore fighting. Glancing around, I saw my family throwing body parts out of the window. Emmett had made a fire outside and he was burning the remains of our attackers. Esme quickly moved over to us, her eyes locked on Carlisle, waiting for instruction, while Rosalie lingered against the wall, her hands on her knees, fighting the exhaustion that threatened to overwhelm her.

"Well?" Esme asked.

"He has decided to become a part of our family," Carlisle said. "We are going to remove him to Denali until he has adjusted to our way of life."

"You should leave now," I said to Carlisle as Stella and Eben both knelt down next to him.

"It's okay," Beau murmured when Stella took his hand.

"Don't worry," she replied, furtively wiping away a tear. "The Cullens will take good care of you. You're gonna be a scary vampire, Beau," she added, laughing a rather sad laugh.

"Hang in there, buddy," Eben chimed in, clapping him on the shoulder, but quickly removing his hand when Beau winced in pain. "Sorry," he murmured. "We'll see you again soon." Carlisle easily lifted Beau from the ground, despite his size, and jumped from the broken window, Esme quickly embracing me before following after him. I could hear the car roar to life and the crunch of the tires as it shot down the driveway.

"Well, that's done," Emmett said, leaping back through the window and brushing off his hands on his pants.

"Alice," Edward said, turning back to me with dark eyes. "What about Bella and Jasper?"

"Go," Rosalie said. "Alice and I can take care of the humans. You and Emmett go." They didn't need to be told twice, both men darting off into the night without so much as a reply. As much as I wanted to run to Jasper, I knew that Emmett needed to go instead. He had vowed to protect Bella, just as Edward had, and neither man wanted to break his promise. I still couldn't see what would happen to Bella and Jasper, a black void mocking me silently from within my own mind, but I chose not to dwell on that and busied myself instead to tending to Rosalie, Eben, and Stella, half of me talking with them, half of me running through the night toward something I couldn't see.