Jasper picked up the scent, and decided it was time to leave. Lightly stroking Alenia's cheek, she gave him a squeeze and rose to her feet. For the first time, he was surprised by her speed. She giggled at his face, and kissed him with the sweetest smile on his lips. When they parted, he was overtaken by an urge to simply look at her. To just look, stare into the eyes he'd memorized, to appreciate their golden colour, as she stared back in his own. There was a bittersweetness that he couldn't ignore, no matter how much he tried, and sensed that she did, too. Again, she kissed him. But with an intensity and longing that told him she didn't want this to end.
They exited the field, hand in hand, chatting about anything that had happened at school. Idle, silence-filling, ignorant, but it was nice, just to have a sense of normality for once. Talking about what any couple did.
The cell phone buzzed in his pocket, and he answered the call with his other hand.
"Alice is out there," Carlisle's voice warned. Jasper's eyes widened.
"So is Rowan," he replied, suddenly feeling weak. He had no trust for either of them. Alenia's hand tightened, but he resisted looking at her expression. He felt it.
The line was silent for a long time, ended by 3 words.
"Get back. Now."
Some leaves crunched from behind as the line went dead. He crushed the phone in his hand, the individual pieces falling and losing themselves in the grass.
"Jas," Alenia whispered, ever so quietly, as he began to turn.
Rowan was standing, silent, that grin tugging at the corners of his mouth. Jasper noticed his eyes kept flitting to an area behind them, among the trees. They were isolated. But Jasper couldn't sense a thing. Suddenly, all sound was cut off.
...
A hand snatched her away too quickly for him to grab her back, and the next thing she felt was tree bark crash against her back, knocking the wind from her. Behind the tears, brimming thickly in her eyes, Alice was scowling with a murderous stare. Her bare hand wasn't cutting the air off completely, but she was pinned, powerless.
She was panicking, and watching Jasper broke her heart. He was stood in the clearing alone, staring blankly like a blind man, groping at the air she occupied a few seconds ago. Rowan's shoulders were jumping and shuddering with irrepressible laughter. The anger was boiling within her, heating her skin.
Then he launched at Jasper, and he seemed to wake up from a trance. All at once, they began throwing punches, throwing eachother around the clearing in a blur, too fast for Alenia to follow. But she couldn't tear her eyes away, and the tears fell into Alice's hand, still on her throat. Her profile was unreadable, as her eyes were turned away.
"How...he's...your brother..."
She ignored her words as though she hadn't heard them. Her eyes were focused on the fight like she was betting on them.
It only lasted a few more seconds, when the grunts suddenly became more audible and distinct from the wind rushing past their movements. When she looked, she screamed.
Jasper's arms were held out at either side of him, and Rowan kicked him in the back, forcing him to his knees. His booted foot pressed against his spine, his newborn strength having overpowered Jasper. Then a noise began to sound, like stone against stone. One she would never forget.
Rowan's face was contorted as he tugged at the arms. In one motion, he gave one last pull, and slammed his boot down. The sound was of glass smashing.
Something snapped within, and the pain surged through her, too intense and too fast for her to resister it.
She didn't want to.
She didn't want to feel a thing.
Her only image was the after image, the pieces of stone on the floor, once Jas...
It hurt to say the name.
She wanted to do one of 3 things once she closed her eyes. Stare into the blackness, kick and scream and scrape the face off the closest thing to her, and sink. Sink into a nothingness.
To feel nothing.
She felt a breeze on her throat, and she felt her knees buckle beneath her. Her eyes opened as the force of landing shot pain through her legs. They found on a sight she couldn't yet register.
Jasper was still standing, not seeing and not hearing. But not dead, either.
Nothing made sense, until her eyes landed on Alice's feet, turned away as she walked towards the grinning Rowan, his shoulders still shuddering.
It was a vision.
A short distance away, some other figures began appearing. Rose ran to her, and helped her up. She didn't realise the tear marks down her face. Her hands were watching Jasper's hand groping the air beside him. The pain crippling her was retreating.
Gently pulling away from the arms holding her up, she joined the man, and locked her hand in his, just as it was becoming panicked. She watched for any signs of his senses coming back, for his blank eyes to come back to her.
"Rowan, lets kill them all at once. You know how," Alice's voice teased, and she hugged her arms around the man whose eyes were now only for her.
"Alenia? Are you ok?" Jasper gushed at once, and fresh tears began to free fall. It was the voice that, a few minutes ago, she didn't think she would hear again. The sound made her smile uncontrollably through her leaking eyes, blocking her voice. Instead of saying it, she allowed her relief and happiness to flow freely.
Behind, the family was watching the pair ahead, their daughter and sister seeming to have cheated them. Alenia and Jasper walked backwards to join them, and Alenia made contact with Edward's eyes. They were not guilty, but saddened and disconnected, like he was listening intently. His arms tightened on Bella's shoulders, as though to hold her in place. He went back to watching the couple ahead. Alice was allowing him to kiss her, her hand reaching into his jacket. She pulled out a small shiny object. Flipping it open, a flame jumped to life from her hand. It fell from the fingers, but Rowan was too distracted as the dry leaves fed the flames, licking higher.
Bella was screaming, as the reality was dawning on her. The sound was deafening. Edward was an image of pain, but his hands were secured on the shoulders tugging against his power. Esme, Emmett and Rose were crying tearless weeps, and Carlisle was struggling to keep his façade. Jasper just looked sick.
Rowan had realised now, but was failing to push his way out of Alice's grip. Her face was hidden in his chest, but her short stature was quickly consumed in fire anyway. The roaring sounded out Rowans desperate shouts.
Within a minute more of flames, cries and pleas, it began to dwindle, and they were each staring, silent, at the pile of rubble on the floor, mixed with both Alice and the newborn. Bella launched ahead, and began digging. Edward followed wearily, and wrapped his arms around her shoulders.
"Why didn't you stop it?!" She suddenly shouted in his face, followed by a terrified flock of bird fleeing above. "You wanted her dead!"
Edward pulled his struggling wife into his chest, but she punched against him. He resisted to let her go, until she gave up, and went limp.
"It was what she wanted," he whispered into her hair, perhaps only for her, but Alenia heard it. Just as she heard everything. Jasper pulled her into his chest, and she took in everything that was him. His voice as he whispered questions about her well being, the coolness of his body, calming her. The fact that he was moving, alive as only a vampire could be.
The Cullen's decided to bury what remains they could find of Alice while they were still asunder. The plan brought comfort to them, as they planned the ceremony, the location, just how she would have done it before. Jasper chose to leave it to them, and spent that night with Alenia, who had told him the reason behind the pain, still raw, that occupied the space at the back of her mind. At first, he was angry and livid beyond words. After all, he couldn't know the pain that both Alenia and Alice had experienced. Just talking about it hurt, and it probably always would. But she understood Alice's motives.
The following day, Saturday, seemed to have come round so fast. Jasper escaped through the window, and called at the front door when Alenia was dressed. His eyes were more tired than usual, and for a moment at the door, he simply looked like an extraordinarily handsome young boy, now coming to terms with the grief he felt for his sister's death instead of ignoring it.
In the living area, Michael and Scott were now on speaking terms, albeit a little awkward, and were discussing what he'd been doing in their new home. Wonderfully ignorant. With Carla at work, as usual, it seemed as though nothing had changed whatsoever, from an outsider's perspective.
"Is all well?" Scott asked in his best posh voice, and Alenia shared a look with Michael, who's eyes seemed to know everything. "Yes," she said. Part of it was a lie, but she knew that, soon enough, it would be.
"What's happening today?" She asked him as he drove, suspicious of that playful smile sneaking at his lips. "Ya'll see. No using that intuition, miss." For that once, she obeyed, but for all she knew it could be anything from hiking to dancing. In reality, she found it was totally to be expected.
"I guess it's long overdue," he excused guiltily, and tugged her hand into the old movie theatre.