Chapter 6 – Her

BPOV

I text back after 20 minutes of bewilderment - and a second text from Alice. She'd followed up with:

Bella? Please. I promise it's important.

I tell myself that it's probably about class, or a homework issue. Surely, it's not about her handsome MIA brother. I write to her: Hi Alice. ok… Where? When? And hit send.

I head back to my car and begin to warm up, waiting for her response. I think about what I know about this girl.

She stands out at school, as tiny as she is sprightful. I often hear her delightful laugh from tables away in the cafeteria, see her white wide smile and tinkling eyes. She's stunningly beautiful. I know from the girls that she's Edward's adopted sister. The youngest. She's with the blonde guy all the time, dancing and twirling in the hallways or climbing on his back after school as they head to their cars. But there's a depth to her that intrigues me, draws me in.

She texts back with an address and asks if I'm free in 30 mins. I check my current cliffside destination to the pin on the maps, and I can make it there in time. I text back: sure.

I put the directions into the phone and head back to the tree lined highway. I wonder again what she could possibly want to talk to me about.

I pull up to the small, local park that I somehow missed in my earlier drive-through town. It's off a side street, between a few houses. There are trees, a playground, and a few picnic tables and benches. Like so many things in this town, it has a sad, haunted sort of aura. I wonder what it's like here at night.

Spotting her shiny black hair and elaborate outfit for Forks is easy. I make my way over to her with a smile on my face.

"Oh hey!" I call out when I'm closer. "I'm glad it was actually you and not some elaborate Forks High initiation prank," I say as I join Alice on a park picnic table.

She looks at me bewildered. I notice for the first time that she's got dark purple bruising underneath her eyes, which only add to her beauty.

The seriousness of her face wipes away the smirky, joke approach I'd sat down with.

"Alice?" I ask softly.

"Bella. Hi." She gives me a small, tight smile. "It was brave of you to come." She pushes a second coffee cup towards me. "Here."

"Oh." I laugh, slightly awkward. "Thanks. It was no trouble. I was already out." I take a sip of the cup, it's warm and delicious. Heats me up instantly. I'm about to ask her why she wanted to meet, thinking that her bag might contain textbooks or a laptop.

"The cliffs?" she asks, catching me off guard.

"Wha-? Yeah… How'd—" I sort of choke.

"I just know some things," she peers at me deeply.

I feel a sudden stroke of trepidation. I glance around the park, seeing a few families with small children running around, playing.

"Alice," I laugh. "What could you possibly mean by that?"

She just smiles slyly, tapping her index finger against her temple, with no further explanation.

"Tell me about the water." She says with no further explanation.

"The water?" I ask, confused.

Her gaze is focused on me. Her honey brown eyes locked on mine. I feel drawn into her, a golden band of closeness wrapping around me that I've never quite felt before.

She nods once, slowly. Waiting.

In a sort of trance, I start. "Um, the tide was high? Really rough waves were hitting the rocks, splashing water up. It kept crashing right below me, really rhythmically?" I look up at her then, trying to see if this is what she wanted me to tell her.

She seems to be waiting for something. I'm not sure what, so I just keep speaking.

"I watched the tide slowly go back out, I guess I was there for a few hours. The water left behind so much on the beach. Driftwood, animals, dead, living… Hard to believe this happens every day, twice." I laugh to myself.

"I feel like I could watch it forever. It reminds me of these dreams I keep having – of water?" I stop myself, realizing that I'm entering sort of personal territory with a girl I've hardly met.

"Anyways." I shake my head, cutting myself off.

"Bella." She says, knowingly. "Tell me about the dreams."

"Alice, I really don't see—"

She reaches out and touches my hand with her gloved one.

"You're beautiful and fascinating," she says, "and I want to know more."

I blink at her, really unsure of what's happening.

"So are you." I whisper. I don't know why I'm saying that to her. But it's true. She is. This is the strangest, most interesting conversation I've had since I got here.

She smiles at me. "So, tell me."

"Uh." I'm not sure where to start. With mom? With the maze of forests?

"The dreams started before I moved here. I was trapped and couldn't get out. Probably some sort of metaphor." I laugh, trying to make light of what's been tormenting me for months. I keep going.

"I would run and run, get out of breath, fog would trap in my lungs. I'd wake up sweaty, coughing. You know, like typical dream stuff." I'm not sure why I'm brushing all this off, but it feels like the only way I can talk about this to another person.

"But then I started hearing it, the water. It was summoning me to a point. Like, calling me towards it and that sound – of falling, running water – would dominate all my other senses. All I knew was that I had to find it." I feel like I sound crazy.

"A river?" She asks.

"Rivers." I add, "And waterfalls. And then when I moved here, to Forks, I'd finally find it and we'd jump."

"We?" Shit.

I look at her then, realizing my slip up. I decide to not say anything, hoping that she won't ask for more. Let her assume what she wants.

I just shake my head.

"Is it—" she starts, then looks down. "Ah. I see."

I'm not sure what she sees. But when she looks back up at me, she's smiling.

"My brother is coming back to town today."

"Oh?" I feign disinterest. How could she know? "Which brother is that?"

She rolls her eyes at me. "It was because of you, you know."

"What?"

"But he's back now. And I don't see him leaving again – possibly ever."

"Alice, you know I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Good."

"Ok."

"I need you to do something for me."

"Ok."

"Let him come to you."

"What?"

"Can you do that?"

"Do what, Alice?"

She just looks at me.

"Ok." I whisper.

She nods.

APOV

We're in so much trouble. I knew as soon as the visions started coming. This girl is not a blip. Not a mistake. It's so much bigger than that, so much more powerful. She will alter our lives forever. She already has.

There's no stopping it, no redirecting. For the first time in my life as a vampire, I am unable to do anything about the visions of the future that are splashed across my mind. All I can do is watch it all unfold. I am incapacitated. She will enrapture us.

She already has.