Rosalie took Jessica to the kitchen and made her drink water as Esme cleaned the rug. Jessica still felt nauseous and rested her head on the cool marble of the island countertop. For some reason, Rosalie Hale was the only person she felt safe with in that entire house. The blonde didn't talk about Jessica like she wasn't there or that her input didn't matter in the conversation.

Rosalie saw how uncomfortable she was and acted as a shield. Jessica had always thought of Rosalie as vain and snobbish but maybe there was more to her than that. She reminded Jessica of Lauren who was tough on the outside but fiercely protective of those she cared about. They had the same glossy armor.

Jasper was in the next room and the distance gave Jessica some clarity from the mind-numbing calmness he had forced on her. Jessica held unto her will and tried to think of an escape plan. She needed to get herself and Bella out of there but she had seen how fast and strong vampires could be. She needed some kind of weapon.

"Do you want a knife?" Rosalie asked as if she could read Jessica's mind. "It won't work on us but it might make you feel more secure."

Jessica turned her to look at Rosalie's stupidly perfect face. No one should be that aesthetically pleasing. Her features were too perfect. She looked like they made her in the Sims.

"How do I know you're not lying?"

Rosalie gave a mocking little smile. She stood up and reached for a knife in a rack. She looked Jessica in the eye as she ran the sharp edge of the blade over her forearm. There wasn't even a scratch on her.

"Vampires have skin harder than diamonds," Rosalie explained. "Guns wouldn't work either except piss us off."

Jessica's heart began beating faster despite the obtrusive calmness. She couldn't run and she couldn't fight back with a weapon. How was she going to escape? She needed to call for help.

If she could just get to a phone and call Charlie…

Jessica patted the pockets of her jeans and realized she had dropped her phone when she had tried to run from the house. It could be anywhere. She looked around the kitchen and saw a cordless phone. Before Jessica could make a run for it, Alice was suddenly there appearing out of nowhere.

The other girl grabbed the cordless phone and crumbled it in her hands like it was a piece of paper.

"Sorry," Alice chirped. "We can't have you involving the police. It's too dangerous."

"For you or them?" Jessica retorted.

"Both."

Jessica glared at her, unable to shout or swear at her because of whatever Jedi mind trick she was still under. Jasper Hale was a monster. She was going to kill him. She didn't know how but she would find a way.

"Please forgive him," Alice said as if she could read her mind. "And no, I can't read your mind. That's not my wheelhouse."

Rosalie had put away the knife and added, "Alice can see the future. And they're all in a tizzy because for some reason, she wants you to become a vampire." She gave Alice a pointed look. "I do not agree with this at all. She's clearly terrified of us."

Alice gave her a serene smile. "It's what's best for all of us. You'll see."

"Stop talking about me like I'm not here," Jessica said with no real heat. She wanted to be angry but she couldn't. "I don't want to be a vampire."

Rosalie gave Alice a smug look. "See? This one has sense unlike the other one who is obsessed with Edward for some unfathomable reason."

"Bella is lovely. And in a different future, I would've loved to have her as my sister," Alice replied. Then she glanced over to Jessica and continued, "But Jessica is the better option."

"Why?" Jessica pushed the word out, wanting to cry but not being able to.

Fuck Jasper Hale.

Alice leaned against the island and offered her pale hand to Jessica. "May I show you? I can see the future."

"I thought you couldn't show us your visions," Rosalie pointed out.

"Jessica is an amplifier. She brings new depths to my abilities."

"An amplifier?"

"Jessica makes us stronger." Alice gave that unsettling serene smile to Jessica. She reached forward slightly to take Jessica's hand. "Let me show you what you can do."

As soon as Alice's cold touch made contact, Jessica felt herself being pulled into a different space.

Jessica recognized that they were in the middle of town and the world was on fire. Flames rose to the heavens. She could feel the heat from the burning buildings like she was actually there. Then she saw the bodies.

There were bodies littering the streets like discarded marionettes. Their throats had been ripped out. Jessica looked over the horrified faces and recognized them - Angela, Lauren, Mike, Tyler, Eric…

She turned and saw Charlie, her Mom, and Bella. The three of them propped together like a mockery of a family. Jessica felt her knees give out and she reached for her Mom's hand. It was ice cold.

"We missed one," an unfamiliar voice said.

Jessica turned and saw a little girl who couldn't be older than twelve. She was wearing a black cloak. There were men with her all dressed in cloaks. They were deathly pale and had terrifying blood red eyes.

A large, hulking mass of man walked over to her. He was bigger than Emmett at seven feet tall. His red eyes held no pity as he reached for her. Jessica opened her mouth to let out a scream-

She felt a hand grab her from behind and pull her backwards.

"Sorry!" Alice chirruped. "I didn't mean to show you that one."

Jessica stepped away from Alice, her heart beating frantically in her chest. Panic and fear made Jessica look around for an escape and found they were in a white, empty nothingness. There was nothing to be seen for miles.

"Where are we?" Jessica asked.

"It's a liminal space before decisions are made and events occur," Alice answered. "My abilities aren't infallible. The future is always subject to change so there are always millions of futures happening at once before the definite one gets chosen."

"Like the multiverse theory?"

Alice grinned. "Exactly! It's so nice to have someone understand. Most people just call it 'magic' and try not to think about it."

Jessica reached for the grounding comfort of science. She needed it to survive the insanity of this day. She had an appreciation for Physics even if it wasn't going to be her chosen specialty in the future. Her heart was set on Biochemistry for college.

"This is a possible future then," Jessica remarked. "And this will come from what decision?"

"This will happen if you tell Charlie or any of the other humans in Forks about the existence of vampires. Those people in the black robes are the Volturi. Their our version of a government and they're deadly strict about humans knowing of us."

Jessica swallowed, feeling lightheaded again. She tried to push on and held herself steady.

"If I don't tell any of the other humans about vampires, what's the next possible future?"

Alice cocked her head to the side as a gesture for Jessica to follow her. From the white nothingness came a new scene, a forest wedding behind the Cullens' glass house. There were Christmas lights strewn about the trees. And there was Angela's Dad Pastor Weber officiating the wedding.

The multiple guests seated were from Forks and there were also a handful of very pale people that had to be vampires. Jessica froze when she saw who was getting married. It was Edward Cullen in a tux. And he was marrying Jessica in a gown she recognized from the multiple bridal magazines she had leafed through for her Mom's wedding.

"What the fuck?" Jessica exclaimed.

"Oh, I love a wedding!" Alice cooed. "And you look so beautiful, Jessica. I'm going to make that gown for you."

Jessica had to turn away from the horrific image of her pledging her life to a damn vampire to glare at another equally unhinged vampire. "Alice, no."

Alice giggled like Jessica was being silly. "I'll change your mind. And oh look, it's the best part!"

Jessica looked back and watched herself kiss Edward Cullen for an uncomfortably long time. Her Mom was in the crowd watching. Her grandparents were watching. Did future Jessica have no shame at all?

The kiss from hell finally ended. Edward Cullen was smiling. He looked happy. She didn't think his face was capable of that emotion.

Future Jessica and Edward stood there as their friends and families cheered them on. Jessica stared at her future self and realized she didn't look like a vampire. She looked older but the same. Her eyes were still blue and her skin was still pink from being alive.

Did she marry Edward as a human? Was she not only shameless but insane too?

"I don't like this future," Jessica declared, grimacing. "I thought this would be Bella's dream future, not mine."

Alice frowned. "I can't see her future."

"Why not?'

"I honestly don't know. Anytime I try to look at her future, I just see the liminal space," Alice replied, her eyebrows furrowing in thought. "It might be the same reason Edward can't read her mind. Jasper can't manipulate her emotions either."

That was worrying.

"Does that mean Bella doesn't have a future?"

With how enamored Bella seemed to be with death, her succeeding in the future wasn't that far off. She was making it very difficult for Jessica to keep her alive.

"I don't think that's it," Alice told her. "There are certain individuals whose future I can't see as well. Like the wolves for example."

"Wolves?"

"They're 'skin-walkers' to be more precise. They're from La Push. The more colloquial term is 'werewolf'."

Jessica tried not to panic. First, vampires were real and now werewolves too. What was next? Fucking dragons?

Jessica covered her face in her hands and tried not to start weeping. It was a long, hard day and she just wanted to go home.

But alas, she was stuck in whatever hell dimension she and Alice were in.

"What if I don't want to marry your brother?" Jessica asked. "What will be the future then?"

Alice pointed to the white nothingness. Jessica sighed and followed Alice towards it and they found a new path to another scene. They seemed to be in some sort of laboratory. Jessica looked out the window and saw miles and miles of snow.

Jessica looked back to the scene and saw herself in a white laboratory coat. She was deathly pale with golden eyes. She sat down at a table to look into a microscope. There were test tubes of a pearly white liquid on the table.

The door opened and it was Edward Cullen…again. He was wearing a beige sweater that made Jessica bristle with how handsome he was. God, she hated him.

He moved to future Jessica and kissed her on the top of her head. Jessica didn't look up from the microscope, too focused on what she was doing.

"Any progress?" he asked.

"Same as yesterday," Future Jessica replied. "It's a good thing I'm immortal because I would die from how long this is taking."

"You said yourself that a cure would take several lifetimes to create."

"I just forgot I had to live through those lifetimes." Future Jessica looked up and looked exasperated and pondered, "What if I just quit?"

Edward gave her a soft smile that felt too intimate for Jessica to witness. "Stanleys aren't quitters. Now if you finally married me and became a Cullen officially, maybe you could quit."

Future Jessica scoffed and went back to the microscope. "You can ask again in the next century."

Jessica didn't know whether to weep or start laughing hysterically. In the three possible futures she saw, one of them ended in fire and brimstone. The other two were of her ending up in a committed relationship with a vampire who didn't even like her. Why did her roads all lead to Edward fucking Cullen?

Alice turned to Jessica with the happiest smile. "You two make a cute couple."

Jessica looked her dead in the eye and said with no question, "I would like to go home now."


It's me. Hi.

1. I took some liberties with Bella's powers in this story because Stephanie Meyer is so inconsistent with them in the books that I just decided that nobody's powers work on Bella.

2. Jessica has the opposite of Bella's powers. She makes somebody's powers stronger and they're able to do things they wouldn't be able to normally do.