I feel my right arm move as if there is an electrical current sparking all the way to my heart. My fingers twinge and twitch as if they are seeking an invisible cloth. I feel my eyelids open and my vision is sleep blurred I am facing my old tapestry of an unicorn in a corral. I feel my lips turn up into a small smile before a deep realization dawns on me like a candle being snuffed out in a dark room. I turn around and see…a monster.

I must of let out a gasp of some sort because yellow citrine eyes turn to look at me. Eyes that are alight with mischief and light. I feel myself enter the comforting world of darkness my external cavern, I close my eyes in mortification.

"What is it? Are you in pain?" Alice's lyrical voice whispers to me. It sounds like bird song to my ears. I want to puke.

I shake my head. I can taste my own rancid breath and my stomach is in knots as if my sex serpent is tangled up inside of me. Maybe I am the dead one.

The deathly pale creature beside me is more alive then I will ever be…come on Hazel be better then that I tell myself.

I feel myself scramble over the smooth covers, how my bed covers stayed smooth I will never know.

I go to the bathroom on the opposite side of the hall and I look at myself in the mirror. I look at my sleep tousled blond hair and my burgundy eyes that look bruised with exhaustion. The stabbing pain is just a mere ache. I have no idea of time or day. 'That is something Alice will know,' my inner demon chimes.

I close my eyes in mortification and fear "Go away, go away, go away," I murmur.

"Hazel are you alright?" my mother's warm voice asks.

My eyes remain closed the warm darkness is replaced by burning comfort and warmth as if I have just entered into a new room.

My mother envelopes me in her brown shawl that reminds me of wings. "I was worried," she whispers to me.

I want to say I am sorry but I am not. I will not apologize for my existence, not today and not ever. "What time is it?" I ask in a small voice.

"It is twilight. I made dinner if you are hungry," my mother softly tells me as she runs her long graceful fingers through my electrified hair.

"What did you make?" I ask with exhausted curiosity.

"Beef Wellington stew."

"I will have some."

"Good," my mother says with a toothy grin. I feel my head tilt with intrigue what did she do to the stew?

I feel my right knee buckle with exhaustion. "Time to enter the monster's lair," I sigh with mortification.

I enter my plain bedroom and see Alice looking out the window she looks like a backwards portrait. My hand wants to caress her straight back and awaken her inner serpent to awaken the dead nerves under my fingers. To feel her writhe and stop…stop…stop…this is too much these thoughts are too much. These feelings, they are not mine they are not Alice's either. They are mine but from an older me did I just experience a universal glitch? As if my consciousness time travelled! Is that even possible? Three years, three years, three years my mind begs. Why three? I don't know, I don't know anything I am being flooded by knowing and caring and I just want it all to stop!

"Why are you here?" I ask the vampire that looks to be made of out marble that is standing in front of me.

"I came to help you," Alice says as she turns around.

"Well you did, I was not dying, you can go now," I internally wince at the hurt that flashes through her dead gaze. I ignore the very alive feelings writhing in me at the dead creature in front of me.

She is dead, I can't love something dead, not in the way my body wants to I am four… "I am glad that you are feeling better."

I feel my tired look at her, "Me too," I say sincerely feeling a small smile spreading on my face. What is wrong with me, get a grip Hazel you loopy freak.

"May I ask what happened?" Alice asks in the most gentle voice I have ever heard.

I want to shout out a no and stomp out of the room but instead I find myself walking to my bed and Alice stays standing there rooted in front of the window overlooking the meadow and forest. I feel myself smile at the irony.

"I am allergic to the sun. It is as if my body knows that it is sunny before I do and it inflames with pain. I don't have to stand in the harsh light I can feel its primal energy and heat from inside. It hurts me Alice. Sometimes it catches my by surprise when I go outside and my skin gets itchy and red and when it is particularly bad I break out in boils. It is like my skin burns from the inside out. It hurts at first until it erupts before it scabs over and leaves a scar then it is just a nuisance. My mother says it is because of my bloodline and creature genes. The joint pain though, the joint pain is the worse," I tell her with a wince as I remember that searing pain that I woke up to. I feel my brows furrow with confusion as a thought that I have not thought of before enters my mind.

"How did you come here?"

"I drove," she answers with an angelic smirk.

"What? You were just driving around a remote part of town and thought that you would visit and say good morning?" I ask sarcastically.

She shifts on her feet and says, "I saw you…"