After my bath, I had returned to my bedroom. It had taken very little time for me to fall back asleep, and even less time for the nightmares to start again.
"El pertenece a mí, tú pequeño elfo. Me lo robaste y ahora reclamaré lo que es mío."
The mysterious voice echoed in the surrounding tree lines as the dark hooded figures watched in anticipation.
"¿Te asegurarás de que ella se olvide? ¿Los olvidará todos y estará con nosotros?" one of the hooded figures responded.
"Sí." The woman replied devilishly.
Another figure emerged from behind her. A small child. The child ran to me and fell at my feet.
"Wilhelmina!" I cried as she landed in the snow. I reached to pick her up and run from the clearing, but as she raised her head I was lost in her blazing red eyes. Everything went black then and remained so the rest of the night.
Early the next morning, I moved to the bathroom to inspect the damage. My cheeks were bright red and chapped from windburn, and I had dark circles to my chin. "Greaaatttt." I murmured to myself.
I implored the best makeup I had to no avail. I placed my hair into a messy bun and donned myself with leggings and a long tan sweater with flats. Today was not going to be about impressing anyone. I just hoped I could avoid Jasper looking like this.
As I exited the apartments, he was there waiting for me. Of course he was.
"How'd you know when my classes were?" I whined as I approached him.
"Charles may have mentioned it in passing last night." He chuckled.
I shook my head. "I will make sure to thank him for that." I sneered in between clenched teeth.
"Would you like me to go?" He assented worriedly.
"No, I'm sorry. I just had terrible dreams last night and I woke up looking dreadful." I placated.
He stopped in his tracks and turned to me, placing his hands on either side of my face. "Darlin'. You are by far the most magnificent and beautiful thing I have ever had the privilege of laying my eyes upon. And it is my honor to accompany such a beauty to her class. It would even more so be my honor if she would allow me to take her bag." He countered as he reached for my bag, not awaiting my rebuttal.
We continued in silence and the curiosity in me was growing.
"Jasper?" I started.
"Yes Darlin'?"
"Can I ask you something and you be entirely candid with me?"
He looked at me with a furrowed brow and concerned eyes but nodded.
"Why would Carlisle be drawing blood from me?"
He huffed. "I had hoped to discuss that with you before you saw it. Carlisle believes it to be the only way to determine the cause of your disappearance. An entirely optional process of course." He maintained.
"I'm just. I've never done anything like that before. I don't want to find out that something is wrong with me and not be able to fix it."
He laughed loudly this time, it echoed across the courtyard. "I can assure you that there is nothing wrong with you Darlin'. You have nothing to worry about. If you decided you would like to go through with it; Carlisle would collect a few viles, run various tests on each vile, and determine if your genetic composition is that of a human's or something else. There would be no negative outcomes, just information we could potentially not be aware of."
"Oh…I suppose I would like to know what happened. Say, did I by any chance know anyone named Wilhelmina?" I inquired casually, lowering my voice as we entered the academic hall.
"Yes, that was your sister's granddaughter. She disappeared when she was about six, but you had never met her. You watched her from afar and provided stipends to Cynthia, your sister, and her daughter anonymously. Why do you ask?" He gazed down at me with that same furrowed brow.
"Oh no reason. I just heard the name before in a vision. That makes sense for me to think about my…grandniece…I guess. I really had a sister?" I turned the conversation, not wanting to alarm him any.
He nodded. "She was one of the links we could establish to your human life. As I said, we did not know much, but we found her name on your father's will in Biloxi. That's where you were from, Mississippi."
"Oh…" This was all a lot to process. "Can we maybe avoid any conversation about my past life for a day? I'm still kind of trying to process the fact that everything is actually real and it's not going well."
He stopped abruptly and pulled me into a tight embrace. "Of course, Darlin'. I'm so sorry."
"No, no. It's not anything you did. I just need a human minute." I laughed, feeling funny for the saying, but it seemed accurate enough.
"I will inform the others of your decision, and we will go about this…as humanly as possible." He joked.
"Thank you. This is my class." I stated as we arrived at the door.
"Is it now?" he tittered.
"What?" I questioned confused.
"Well, did I happen to mention that I am also a Philosophy major…"
Just then we were interrupted by the Professor. "Jasper! Great to see you bonding with the students. Why don't you come in and observe the class, then I'll introduce you?" The professor inquired.
"…And I am sort of the temporary Peer Learning Associate for the class." Jasper finished before turning his attention to the professor. "Just something to pass the time, you know how junior spring semester can be." He said with a playful gruff and his famed crooked smile.
I could feel my jaw drop as he opened the door for the professor and I.
"After you Darlin'." He smirked wickedly.
I made my way to my seat and was grateful that the surrounding seats were already taken. But just then, Jasper approached the small boy to the left of me and glowered at him. The boy quickly packed his belongings and moved to a seat as far away from Jasper as he could manage.
"Seriously?" I questioned him in disbelief.
"What?" he toyed.
"I know you used your power on him." I whispered. "I thought I requested a human life for the time being."
He ducked his head and slightly raised a cocked face at me.
"Could you ever forgive me for wanting to sit next to the prettiest woman the world has yet to know? Besides, that would have been an utter waste of my particular talents. I'm known to be quite frightening you do understand?" He drew.
I smiled in incredulity shaking my head. I turned my full attention to the professor, but I could feel Jasper placing his full attention onto me. I shivered in my seat feeling that warm feeling flood my lower stomach yet again.