Chapter 50 Chapter notes
Alice makes a friend in Alaska, a human woman named Bree. She delivers the mail.
The chapter title might be prophetic.
The chapter title belongs to Gary Davis
Chapter 50 Death Don't Have No Mercy Wednesday, November 1st
Alice sits on the porch of the new house in Alaska, holding onto what feels like the last day of her existence. She sees nothing past tomorrow. Keeping this information from her family feels wrong, but there isn't anything anyone can do about it, so she suffers in silence.
A mutinous feeling steals over her. She doesn't want to look at television. She doesn't want to watch Jasper mess around with his truck. And she really doesn't want to see Rosalie and Emmett fondle each other in the sunroom. A moron obviously named that room, she thinks uncharitably, because it never has any sun shining into it.
Rosalie and Em take advantage of that space when no one is home, but Alice can still see it. She's never had more sympathy for Edward, always privy to the thoughts around him. She'd decided she would try to be more vigilant about not including that part of the house when she looks forward, but now, can't see past today.
Feeling out of sorts, she decides to take another shower. She fiddles around with the handle for a moment, trying to turn off the hot water, but it's scalding. In seconds, steam fills the room and Alice sighs, turns off the tap and grabs for a towel. Thinking that something might be wrong with the water heater, she casually looks forward and sees it explode with the force of a well-designed bomb.
"Water heater!" she screams, as she yanks her robe on and runs downstairs. She gets two steps into the living room before the detonation rocks the house. Windows and mirrors shatter in every room, spreading shards of glass in all directions, while ornaments are toppled off of tables, pictures are flung off of walls and books are shaken from their shelves.
Emmett flings his video game controller down as Jasper dashes into the house from the garage. Rosalie appears beside them, her clothes oil-stained from her work on a boat that Emmett bought a few days ago.
Steaming water pours in from the room beside the kitchen. Or, what is left of the kitchen. It is totally unrecognizable.The new refrigerator is tipped over and the side of the room that had held the sink and cabinets is a smoking ruin. Debris rains down on them as water flows steadily into the house through a hole where the stove once sat. They look up to see a great cavity hollowed out of the ceiling.
Jasper, swearing fluently, picks his way through the rubble and ducks through the ragged hole in the wall. Alice sees that he's searching for the shut-off valve. He won't locate it.
In a moment he reappears. "No good, I'll need to turn off the water main." Jasper always finds these things before they move into a new house. He fetches a tool from the garage and disappears around the back of the house.
The rush of water slows to a trickle and Jasper returns, tracking snow and mud onto Esme's floors. He flips his phone open and calls the gas company, telling them about the explosion and that he'd clamped the line. They agree to come out right away to evaluate the situation.
Alice grabs a towel from the basket by the door and begins quickly wiping up the mess. Jasper snaps his phone shut and gives her an incredulous look. "The house is destroyed and you're wiping up puddles?"
Alice looks at the towel in her hand. It's a learned response, to wipe up water and mud off of Esme's floors. She sighs, and they all stand for a moment and take in the destruction.
What are we going to tell Esme?" Rosalie says.
"We're telling her that you blew up the house," Alice tells her. "She'll be home later today." Rosalie makes a face and Alice sticks out her tongue at her as she runs upstairs to get dressed.
"How old was that thing?" Emmett peers at what's left of the room that housed the appliance.
Jasper frowns. "It was old. Esme and I talked about it. I thought it needed to be replaced, but we arrived before the workmen could get here with a new one. It was on her list of improvements."
They hear Carlisle's car as Alice comes downstairs, hair still wet, dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt. She looks forward to see his reaction and gasps in panic as she also sees her friend, lying beside the house. "Oh, my god. Oh no! It's Bree!"
Alice flings the front door wide, her family right behind her. They bolt to the side of the house where Bree lies in a pile of wood, plaster and insulation. The letters from her mailbag lay scattered beside her, slowly absorbing the blood that seeps from a jagged wound in her side.
Carlisle springs into action, barking orders. "Emmett, give me your shirt. Then get Jasper away from here. Alice, the car." Emmett drops his shirt into Carlisle's outstretched hand and tugs a wide-eyed Jasper inside the house.
Emmett's shirt is pressed to the rent in Bree's side but it is soaked in seconds. Her pulse falters and Alice kneels beside her, mouth open in shock and dismay as she strokes her friend's face. "Bree," she whispers. "Honey, can you hear me?"
Bree opens her eyes and gazes up at Alice. "The…the mail," she whispers through trembling lips.
Alice caresses Bree's cold hand and murmurs to her, but her friend's eyes close and her head lolls to the side.
"The car, Alice." There's an uncharacteristic edge to Carlisle's usually placid voice and as their eyes meet, he slumps, letting out a deep sigh. "When?"
"On the way." Alice's voice is small. She looks down at Bree again and slowly gets to her feet. The scent of blood almost overpowers her, but she concentrates on the memory of Bree's earnest face as she'd once explained her sacred duty to deliver the mail.
Carlisle calls the clinic and explains the accident. Alice drives and Carlisle sits in the back with Bree, who will be DOA. Two men stand in the parking lot with a stretcher and in seconds, Bree is whisked into the building. Carlisle walks behind, head down in the agony of losing a patient too badly injured for anyone to save, with the added devastation of being responsible, albeit indirectly, for her death.
Alice is almost relieved not to be able to see into the future anymore. Now, she's just like everybody else, able to go through life without the sure knowledge of consequences. Now, she can wake up without the ability to see her day spread out before her, like food on a buffet table.
She'd once thought that it would be nice to be surprised by the future. Although she usually had to make the conscious decision to look forward, it had become such a part of her that she didn't know how to divorce herself from its persuasive call. Now, she doesn't have to worry about it anymore.
Fighting off the urge to wash Bree's blood off in the salty brine that sloshes onto the rocky shore, Alice drives home in a vehicle that is saturated with human blood. She doesn't even notice. As she parks, she stares open-mouthed at the destruction, at the chunks of plaster that hit Bree, and at the blood, blood, blood, all over the frozen ground. She doesn't seem to be able to get out of the car.
Emmett eyes Alice as he continues piling rubble against the backdrop of the ragged hole in the house. He glances at Rosalie, who is spraying bleach onto the bloody soil, and walks over to her. "She didn't make it, then." It's a statement, not a question.
Alice shakes her head slowly. Just when it looks like the situation can't get any worse, they hear Esme's car pull up in front of the house. She runs up the slope and gasps when she sees the destruction and the clean-up in progress. Her gaze lingers on the frozen blood spatters. Emmett tells her about the water heater, and gently breaks the news about Bree's death.
"How could I have allowed this to happen?" Esme's soft voice is a mere whisper.
It's a question that none of them have an answer for. Esme gets back in her car and as it speeds away, Alice reluctantly looks forward. She sees a desperate young man pleading with Carlisle to save his wife, whose last breath was taken in the back of Carlisle's car, a demoralized clinic staff, some of whom grew up with Bree and her husband, and Esme, bursting through the clinic doors, a look of abject horror on her face as she sees the knot of people around a stretcher, its bloody sheet pulled up over the woman's face.
Emmett opens Alice's door and extends his hand. "C'mon," he says. She looks up to see a sad expression on his usually grinning face. She takes the hand and he pulls her out of the car.
He steps back from her and motions to Rosalie. "She can't go inside like this. I'm going to find a way to hose her off. Can you get some clean clothes?" Rosalie nods and heads inside.
Emmett takes Alice's small hand into his gigantic paw. "Let's get you cleaned up, okay?" Her lip trembles as he scans the area behind the houses on their street. "There," he points. He leads her a few houses down, where a disconnected water hose lays curled on the ground. After quickly screwing it into the tap, he hoses the blood from Alice's skin and hair. She stands perfectly still. When he's done, he gives her arm a gentle squeeze and walks away. Rosalie stands by with a bag of clothes.
Rosalie strips off Alice's wet clothes and towels her off. Alice doesn't do anything to help her. She walks them a few steps to the left so they're not standing in water, then helps her sister into jeans and a hoodie.
"Here, step into these." Rosalie points down and Alice slides her feet into some slippers. Rosalie bags up the ruined clothes and leads Alice back to the house, dropping the plastic bag in the outside trash.
Alice feels as helpless as a newborn and allows Rosalie to lead her into the house and up the stairs, where she finds Jasper, sitting on the edge of the bed, fists clenched and body rigid, in an obvious attempt at denying himself the blood.
She sits beside him, but when he asks her about Bree, about what happened once she'd gotten to the clinic, she can't speak. Rosalie quickly tells him about the events of the past ten minutes. How Alice seemed too distressed to do the tasks herself.
Jasper thanks Rosalie, who pats her sister and goes back downstairs with Emmett. Before Jasper can say anything to Alice, who seems to be in some kind of shock, her phone rings.
In a huff, he flips it open.
"Hello."
A deep male voice says, "Hello. Alice Cullen, please."
Wednesday, November 1st
"This is Jasper. Who is this?" Jasper wants to cut this short so he can talk to his wife.
"This is Chief Littlefoot. Is Alice available? It's quite important."
Jasper thinks for a moment, but he knows that Alice has absorbed as much as possible for one day. "Um, no." He gently pushes Alice to lie down, and she falls onto the pillows.
"Okay, I won't keep you, but I have something important to ask. Has Alice seen Edward in her visions, or has he come home to your family?"
"No. She hasn't seen him and he isn't here." Jasper glances at Alice and walks downstairs.
"I told Alice before that he might be here on the reservation. Since Sunday, we've had two deaths that can be attributed to a cold one, a hiker on a trail outside of Forks and a young Quileute here on the reservation. We think that Edward may have injured the Wolf that was tracking him, and as soon as we find that Wolf and get the whole story, we are sending out the full Pack."
Jasper lets his head fall into his hand. This is not happening. He takes a deep breath and almost growls, "You've got it wrong. Nothing could induce Edward to kill one human, let alone two. And he would never kill a Quileute. Look. I'll come and sort it out. Tell the Wolves to wait until I get there."
The Chief's normally slow, even voice turns sharp. "Neither you nor your family are allowed onto the reservation. I think the Council made clear that your family are banished."
"Son of a bitch," Jasper mutters, too low for the Chief to hear.
"I will let you know when we catch up to your brother, Jasper, and I am sorry that it ended in this way."
Jasper is still holding the phone when the line goes dead. Emmett and Rosalie walk back into the house from the back patio. Emmett slumps onto the couch but Rosalie goes back upstairs to sit with her sister. Jasper tells Emmett about the call from Chief Littlefoot.
Emmett laces his speech with many swearwords, in various colorful languages. English serves for this, though, and he calls the Quileute every name in the book. "Can't be Edward. They're wrong." Emmett looks at his brother. "Alice?"
"Unresponsive. Maybe Rosalie can get her to open up." They sit in silence. A few minutes later they hear Esme's car pull up and watch their parents trudge solemnly up the drive. They don't make eye contact with anyone but walk straight through the ruined house to the kitchen. Esme gasps at the total destruction, then hesitantly peeks through the hole in the wall, where the outbuilding housing the water heater used to be.
Carlisle leads her out but she will not be consoled. They watch her stumble her way to the patio, where she sits on a hard chair, staring out to the snowy wilderness. Carlisle stands in front of the fireplace, staring past them, an expression of stoic fatalism on his face.
Emmett glances at Jasper, immersed in his worry over Alice, and then to Carlisle. "So, Bree never had a chance?"
Carlisle chews his lip for a moment and slowly shakes his head. "Lacerated hepatic vein." His eyes lose focus as he recalls Bree's husband, fresh off of a fishing boat, throwing open the clinic door and seeing the stretcher, his wife's bloody corpse lying white and still. "Her husband was hysterical. It turns out that neither one of them knew she was pregnant. I didn't know if I should have told him or not."
"Alice saw a baby, but not the sex." Jasper's eyes train upward to their bedroom.
"How is she?" Carlisle's expression is tender. Like everybody else, he has a soft spot for Alice.
Jasper shakes his head. "I don't know. She hasn't said a word since she got home."
"I'll look in on her later. She and Bree were friends, after all. She's certainly reacting to the loss of that friendship."
"When she drove up, she wouldn't get out of the car," Emmett says. "I had to open up the door and pull her out."
Carlisle nods. He walks to his chair and falls heavily, cradling his head in his hands. "Esme and I spoke to Bree's husband and told him we hold ourselves financially responsible for any and all costs incurred." There's silence for a few minutes, and he reluctantly sits up.
"Jasper, call Jenks. Tell him what happened and to draw up a generous settlement for Bree's husband." Jasper nods, already dialing the number. Carlisle hears the start of the conversation as Jasper walks away from the house, and thankfully, away from Esme.
Jasper returns minutes later, snapping his phone shut. "Jenks says he'll file the papers in the morning. He'd like to speak to Bree's husband to offer his condolences, and to tell him the Cullens will pay for the final arrangements."
"Thanks. The police will be here soon to get statements. I want to get that over with and take Esme away from here, but no one should stay here tonight. It's not 'safe'." Carlisle glances out the patio doors to see his wife, still slumped on the bench.
When the doorbell rings, Alice appears on the stairs, followed by Rosalie. She has that wide-eyed look that Carlisle associates with incipient hysteria, and he wants them to take her statement first.
Carlisle answers the door and gestures the police officers in. They stand for a moment, taking in the destruction. Haltingly, Alice relates her version of the accident, and after Jasper confirms the story, he takes her out. They simply walk away, down the road and away from the house, away from the blood, and away from the tragedy.
Both officers are young and respectful, but there's an air of stark finality about the interview that is upsetting in a way that Carlisle has never experienced. Since his indoctrination over three hundred years ago, he has never tasted human blood, other than when he'd bitten his family to change them, and has never, by action or inaction, caused the death of one.
Until now. The Cullens own this. This tragedy is their responsibility and the weight is crushing. Esme is horrified, in shock that she allowed this to happen. Alice looks on the edge of a nervous breakdown, if that were possible. Emmett is more carefree, but Carlisle knows even he has been affected. Jasper is concerned only for Alice, and Rosalie is extending herself for her sister. Carlisle, as usual, shoulders the burden for the entire family.
The officers depart an hour later. Everyone is on edge and depressed, and just as the full moon rises, Jasper brings a silent, staring Alice back home. He glances in alarm at Carlisle, who rises and follows him up the stairs.
Carlisle looks around at the mess. Pictures litter the carpet and a fine layer of glass glitters on every surface. The stairs have a crack up the middle, and the wall between the living room and kitchen sags. Esme told him that the foundation had been compromised. They've decided to bulldoze the structure when they leave.
Alice doesn't acknowledge either Jasper or Carlisle and goes straight to her bed. She falls onto the quilt and turns away from them. Carlisle sits next to her but she closes her eyes at his gentle questions. Finally, he pats her arm and departs, gesturing to Jasper to follow him.
Knowing Alice can hear them no matter where they are in the house, Carlisle says, "Have you tried to influence her mood?"
"Of course I have." Jasper looks at Carlisle indignantly. "I don't know where she is, but she's too deep for it to affect her. I've never tried to sway someone and had it fail me. Never." He is extremely troubled.
Carlisle sighs. "Well, stay with her. In the middle of all this we still need a place to live. The whole family needs to be in on that decision, but if by tomorrow Alice is still not responsive, we'll have to do it without her. I'm sure she'll understand. In the meantime, I'll make some calls. Maybe some other immortals have dealt with similar reactions to grief and can tell us something about the process."
Carlisle turns to go down the stairs and Jasper touches his arm. "I need to talk to you. Maybe Rosalie could come back up for a minute."
Rosalie appears at the bottom of the stairs and smiles sadly as she passes them on their way down. Once they're back in the living room, Carlisle sees that Esme hasn't moved from her perch on the patio bench and Emmett is still sitting in the dark, staring at the fire.
Jasper tells Carlisle about Chief Littlefoot's call. "He said two people had been killed by a 'cold one', a hiker on a trail near Forks and a young Quileute. They're convinced it's Edward. They have absolute faith in Alice's visions and know that her foresight doesn't work on the reservation. The Chief said that one of the Wolves smelled Edward, but that has to be a mistake."
"We don't know where Edward is, but I think we can all agree that we know where he isn't," Carlisle says. "Why Alice can't see him is a mystery, but there's an explanation. Maybe the Quileute are reacting to another Immortal. Victoria or Laurent perhaps?"
As Emmett and Jasper consider this, Carlisle says, "The Quileute surprise me. They take their mythology and Alice's gift of foresight too seriously. There's not a how-to guide for any of this, and every assumption we both make can only be based on past events."
"There's more," Jasper says. "Alice just now told me that her visions have been getting spotty. She thought it might have had something to do with Edward possibly being on the reservation. She said she had a premonition about the events of today, right before they occurred, but nothing after today."
Emmett sits up. "Nothing? For anybody?"
Jasper shakes his head. "Nothing. She's afraid the world is going to end, or that she is facing destruction herself. I wish she'd shared it with me."
"When did these lapses begin? After we realized she had no sight in the presence of the Quileute, they returned in full, correct? And why didn't she tell us?" Carlisle, the last person in the family to feel stress, is definitely feeling stress right now.
"She wasn't specific. And she said she didn't want to worry us. It's an imperfect gift at the best of times."
Esme begins to pace the patio. Carlisle glances at her hunched form and realizes that he's been away from her far too long. She needs him every bit as much as Alice needs Jasper. He leans forward and says confidentially, "I'm worried about both Esme and Alice. Esme is extremely distraught by this incident and Alice is working through some internal grief. Let's focus our energies on healing the two women who need us."
They follow Carlisle's glance to Esme, pacing quickly back and forth, back and forth, on the narrow width of cement. "I'm taking her into the woods tonight. You two, take your women away from here. We'll meet back in the morning. Don't move any debris in the house. The insurance rep will be here at noon tomorrow, and he or she will want to see exactly what happened."
Carlisle leads Esme into the trees behind the house. She grips his hand but doesn't speak. When they come to the cover of the trees, they drop hands and begin to run, finally stopping when they're miles and miles away from blasted houses, ruined water heaters and frozen blood, splattered on the icy ground.