Alice's POV again, just so you don't get confused if you skim over the POV thinking it's Jasper's. I'm thinking of YOU.

Chapter 34: Here We Are

APOV

After thinking about it half the night, I decided that the only thing to do to get answers was to ask either Justin or Audrey about it. I had thought about stealing files on them when I was in my I'm-so-tired-anything's-a-plan stage of the night. One thing with that plan is that I would most likely get caught, and another thing is that would be way disrespectful of their privacy. Would I want someone to be snooping through my personal file? Heck no.

I was out of ideas, and those two might need some help. Just because this was my plan doesn't mean it's free of some major flaws. One of those flaws being that I had no idea who or where Audrey was. She might not even be at the asylum. There was also the high chance that they wouldn't believe me. Justin was so new here that he would probably write me off as just another crazy person. But this was my only shot, and I had to take it.

Once I was ready for the day, I left my room and went around the front desk to the hall parallel to mine. I walked slowly down the hall to look at all of the name plates beside the doors. Crap, I hadn't checked the time before I left; what if he was asleep? It was slim that he would believe me when he was fully conscious, but what if he was one of those guys who got angry at everything when they were tired? There were a few people in the common room when I passed, so maybe it wasn't too early in the morning.

When I got to the door marked Justin Taney, I swallowed nervously and knocked timidly on the door.

I heard a sigh from inside the door. "It's not like it's locked." He didn't say it sarcastically or harshly; he sounded too depressed for that. I guess he was tired, then. Hopefully, he had an opened mind.

"Okay then," I muttered before twisting the doorknob and letting myself in. Justin was sprawled on his bed with an arm under his head. His chocolate brown hair was a tangle on his head like he hadn't gotten up yet, but his eyes were clear as if he had been awake long enough to be alert.

His face crumpled a bit in confusion, but his dark brown eyes didn't seem to hold too much interest. "Who are you?"

I closed the door and stepped into the room further. "Uh, I'm Alice. Can I talk to you?"

He sighed again. "Why not?" He sat up on the bed and swung his legs over the side to lean over and rest his elbows on them. I think he looked thinner than in my vision. His skin was also more pale instead of fair like in the vision. But his eyes were the most different. They were dull and uncaring instead of dancing with light and happiness. Maybe I was meant to get this kid happier.

I stayed standing and quickly worked through a plan in my head. Maybe I shouldn't hit him with some crazy so early. "Do you know Audrey?"

"Audrey who?" A dim light of confusion came on in his eyes.

"I don't know, actually, but she has long, curly brownish-red hair, green eyes, some freckles, a couple inches shorter than you… Anything?"

Justin shook his head. "I haven't been here long. Why do you want to know if I know her?"

I bit my lip. "Okay… hear me out, alright? I know you probably won't believe me when I tell you this, but I can see the future."

Justin sighed yet again and ran a hand through his unruly hair. This kid sighed a lot. Did he sigh so much before he came here? Was he too stressed before this? "I haven't even been here one day and I'm already being mobbed by crazies. You're right, I don't believe you."

"I am telling the truth. There's proof of it, but I can't show it to you… I guess you would just have to ask people that I know. But it's the truth."

"The thing about the truth is that it gets lost in lies. It's happened too much to believe much of anything." He looked down at his plain shoes and frowned. I wanted to ask him about what he meant so I could understand, but that would be a bad idea.

"You don't have to believe me, but could you do something?" He looked up, but didn't answer. "Could you make an effort to get to know Audrey if you see her? It would be a good thing to do."

"Fine," he sighed. He sounded doubtful, like Audrey was a figment of my imagination and that he would never actually meet her.

"Okay. I'll leave you alone now." With an awkward wave, I turned and went quickly to the door. The door was halfway shut when I heard him say, "Alice?"

I poked my head back through the door. "Yeah?"

There was finally an emotion in his eyes: longing. For what, I didn't know. "If you are telling the truth… am I…" He looked at the floor and thought of the words. "Am I any different?" The longing burned brighter. He wanted good news, and I was happy that I could give him some. He looked like he needed it.

"You're happy."

"Happy," he echoed thoughtfully. "I hope you're right."

I smiled at him. "I hope so, too." I shut the door without another word.

Jasper was in the common room when I was there again. When he caught sight of me, he smiled and stood up from the couch. "There you are," he said when he was right in front of me. "I went to your room to see if you wanted breakfast, but you weren't there. Have you already eaten."

The talk of getting food made my stomach rumble. "No, not yet. Come on."

We walked side by side down the hall towards the cafeteria. "If you haven't eaten, then why were you over here?" He gestured to the hallway in general.

"I decided that I had to talk to Justin. He doesn't know who Audrey is yet, and he didn't believe me at first when I told him about me seeing the future, but I think he might have started to before I left."

"Have you talked to Audrey?" Jasper asked.

"I don't even know if she's here, but I'll check later." After a pause, I added, "You should have seen him, Jazz. In the vision, he was so happy and alive. He was nearly emotionless when I first got to his room today, and before I left, his eyes… they were so sad and full of some kind of need. Then he asked me how he was in the future if I was right, and I told him that he was happy. It sounded like he hadn't been happy in a long time. I hope Audrey can fix that."

"I hope so, too," Jasper murmured distractedly. I looked up at him to see that his eyes were far away. Sadness hit my heart. Was he lost in his own memories?

He noticed me staring and smiled. It didn't quite touch his eyes.

We entered the cafeteria and got our breakfasts. "So the next plan is to see if Audrey's here, I guess," I summed up as we sat down. "I can't do much more after that."

"If they're both happy because of just being introduced, then you're doing more than you think," Jasper replied. "Trust me." He stared right into my eyes. He was thinking of us, then, and our situation.

Without looking away, I said, "I think they're meant to heal each other. Like us."

He smiled. "I agree."

After we ate, we went back down the hall. "I think I'll just go walk up the hall and see if Audrey's here," I told Jasper.

"Do you want me to come with you?" he asked.

"Hmm… sure." We were so alike Justin and Audrey that maybe her seeing us together and how happy we are will help her believe me and trust me.

We went up the hallway with me checking the left doors and Jasper checking the right. A little after halfway down the hall, Jasper called me over to a room that belonged to Audrey Winston. I knocked on the door. I heard the bed mattress move as someone got off of it, then footsteps. A girl only an inch or so taller than me with short white-blonde hair and blue eyes opened the door. "Hi," she greeted cheerfully. "Can I help you?"

"Audrey?"

"That's me," she answered.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I guess we have the wrong person. I'm so sorry for bothering you."

"Nah," she waved off with her hand, "it's fine. Which Audrey are ya lookin' for?"

"Well, I don't know her last name."

"Okay, well can you describe her? I might know who you're talking about."

"Alright, she's got green eyes, curly brownish-red hair that's long, some freckles, and she's about fourteen or fifteen…"

"Ooooooh…" Audrey Winston nodded. "Yeah, Audrey McAuley. I know who you're talking about." Her voice was lower and tinged with pity. "Go past the therapists' hall and down the next one you come to. Go to the right; that's the girls' hall. You'll find her there. But be careful. I haven't talked to her before, but as far as I know, her feelings could be… fragile."

I exchanged a curious glance with Jasper. "Fragile?" Jasper asked.

She leaned forward a little and whispered, "I'm friends with one of the workers here who knows just about everything, and she's quite a talker. Audrey came in a few weeks ago. My friend said that she had tried to kill herself before coming here. Where you'll find her is a safer ward." She shook her head. "It's really sad. But anyway, I wouldn't pressure her or anything, in case she—you know… snaps."

I nodded my head. "I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for the help."

"No prob." Audrey waved at us before shutting the door.

"Are we still going, or have you changed your mind?" Jasper asked.

I sighed and looked up at him. "I don't want to pressure her, but she just looked so happy in the vision. I have to help her, Jazz."

He smiled down at me. "I know you do. Let's go, then. I'll be with you every step of the way."

I grinned at him. "I know you will."

I knocked on the door marked Audrey McAuley. It looked the same from the outside as any other room in the building.

A groan and a rustling of blankets could be heard. After waiting a second to listen for footsteps and hearing none, I knocked again. This time, a groan preceded the sound of footsteps. Jasper and I stepped back from the door.

The Audrey from my vision answered the door, but in a way it wasn't the same girl. She, too, looked so different from her happy self. Her pretty, curly dark hair was tangled in a careless heap on her head; either she moved a lot when she slept or she hadn't brushed it in awhile. She was skinnier, too, like Justin was. Her eyes had the same dullness as Justin's had, but her eyes were green. They would have been really pretty if there was some light in them.

Not even a spark of curiosity lit her eyes as she took in Jasper and I. "Who are you?" she asked in an uncaring voice. It was like it was practiced etiquette to ask someone who they are more than she actually cared about who the people actually were.

"I'm Jasper, and she's Alice," Jasper took over for me in a soft and smooth voice when I didn't answer her question immediately. I sent him a thankful glance, which he caught quickly before continuing. "Alice would like to speak with you, if you would let her."

"Sure." Without a word or change in her eyes, she went back to her bed and sat against the headboard. Dark circles were under her eyes, I noticed.

Jasper and I entered the room and stood in front of the bed. She didn't offer us a seat. She just stared up at us with her big, blank eyes and waited.

"Okay," I began, "I have to tell you something that you may or may not believe. But will you hear me out?"

A shrug was my answer. I didn't expect much else, but it left my question unanswered.

"Alright, then. I can see the future." I waited for something – anything – to flare up in her expression, but it stayed as easy to read as a book written in invisible ink.

"In my vision," I continued, "I saw you and a guy named Justin Taney. You were both happy. Much happier than you are now. I'm telling you this so maybe you can make an effort of getting to know each other and… I don't know, getting better in some way?"

I hoped for at least a bit of anger, but her face stayed blank. "I won't get better," she said in a dead voice. "It doesn't matter if I'm happy if I'll never leave here. It doesn't even matter if I do leave here."

"But you do leave," I countered. "My vision said you do."

She shrugged. "People misinterpret things all the time. Sometimes they're tricked. Either you misinterpreted something, or your mind tricked you. It's not true no matter which way it goes." She crawled into her bed and burrowed under the covers to close the conversation. Jasper touched my arm to go, but I wasn't ready yet.

"If you see Justin Taney," I said to her white form, "will you at least listen to him if he talks to you? Make some kind of effort if he does the same for you?"

"Sure," she mumbled.

With another second of staring at her, I turned and walked out of the room with Jasper following me. "Let's hope Justin makes that effort," I muttered.

"You did good," Jasper said encouragingly. "You can't fix everything for them. You just have to give them that push so they can fix themselves."

I looked up at him. "But what if they don't want to be fixed?"

He looked back down at me and put an arm around my shoulders. "They do," he said quietly with that same wistfulness as before. "I know they do."

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