Chapter 24

A.N. This one gets pretty intense and is very different to anything I've ever written. If you find it too much, stop reading there and send me a message or review or something and I'll fill you in on the PG version before the next chapter.

Alice POV

The three weeks since Jasper and Bella had returned from Florida were mostly uneventful.

We managed to have quite the civil meeting with the Mutts about the whole situation and had worked out a patrol schedule that worked for us all with little trouble. Some of them were none too happy to be working with us, and the same boys were also rather livid we had allowed Victoria to cross onto our lands and attack an innocent human, but there was little we could do really. At the time we had assumed she was only targeting us and Bella. Which would be the course of action that would make sense, but as we came to realise, logic and sense were apparently unknown to the redheaded problem.

So anytime I wasn't in classes, as well as Tuesday and Friday afternoons and evenings when I was assigned to "Bellawatch', I was patrolling through the forests to the south of Forks while simultaneously trawling through everyone's futures that was able to see. I needed to know what was happening. I needed to be able to protect everyone. That was one of the few things I was the best at and somehow this redheaded problem had managed to best me at it.

School was my time to relax. Although nothing at school was very relaxing right now.

The entire town was mourning the sudden loss and presumed death of Austin Marks, and the energy of the school was lower than anything I had ever felt. But it was better than the disappointment everyone at home was dealing with. At least here I only had Edward and Jasper's moods to deal with, and Bella of course but hers was more self-directed.

Not that I could directly feel people's emotions as such, but Jasper and I had spent a very, very long time together and that bond left its mark and I was very god at picking up the slightest of projections from him.

It was a very rainy and windy Monday afternoon when Bella announced she could really do with a burger right about now and everything changed.

Being sucked into a vision was nothing new to me, I'd had more than I cared to count in the last century or so, but there was instantly a darker mood to this one. I knew this was going to be a painful one to watch.

I was in a city. From the license plates of a car parked alongside the dirty little diner I assumed it was Seattle. It was late. Or just really dark maybe. The diner seemed full enough that maybe it was early in the evening and the weather was terrible.

A slight movement down the alley alongside the diner caught my attention and I was instantly transfixed. Bree. Her long dark hair hung limply around her face and her clothes were at least two sizes too big for her and clearly unwashed.

I needed to get to her. I needed to run. I needed to save her. My hair felt like it was standing on end and I felt the need to sniff the air for threats as I ran to her. But I was glued to the spot. I couldn't help her. I couldn't even hear her. It was as if a thin pane of glass was separating us. But my supernatural strength couldn't even allow me to raise an arm or twist my head, and certainly not shatter the barrier between us.

She stumbled. Catching herself on the rough wall of the diner it was apparent she was both weak and hurt. My heart was aching in a way I'd never felt.

And then another movement caught my eye in the alley.

A beautiful man approached the tiny figure of Bree. He towered over her tiny body and everything about him screamed danger to me and my instincts.

But Bree was human and although I could tell she was terrified, she was falling victim to his powers. I could see she wasn't the first young girl he had targeted like this.

My vision began to fade to black as soon as I saw him place a large, impossibly pale hand on her shoulder.

My last glimpse of Bree in that alley, obviously hungry and exhausted, was her face set in grim determination.

What on Earth do you think you are getting yourself into? I thought as I drifted through the brief blackness that encapsulated my visions.

When the blackness faded once more I was in an unfamiliar room. I half expected to 'wake up' back in the cafeteria but it seemed whatever force governed by visions wanted me to see more before I could go back.

This time I was in the corner of a dodgy looking hotel room. The kind of place you can rent by the hour and my already broken heart was only shattering further. What on Earth was Bree doing to end up in a seedy hotel room with a vampire?

Of course I knew the answer to that was probably whatever it took to survive on the streets, and I really didn't want to think about how many times she had ended up in a similar situation that I hadn't seen. She was only fifteen and I felt dirty enough about that and I was technically only sixteen myself.

I focused on Bree as much as I could. But once again that ridiculous barrier was stoping me from seeing the entire scene properly. I had to piece together what was happening using only what I could see. My visions were always different, and I could rarely move around much in them, but at least I could almost always hear what was happening. This was excruciating.

I took a deep breath to settle myself. But it wasn't really a breath. It was all inside my head wasn't it? It was like a tailor-made nightmare especially for me. My own head was my prison and all I could do was observe the other half of my soul claw her way through hell.

If I could die, I'm sure what I witnessed next would have killed me right there.

The beautiful man walked, no, slinked, up to Bree. The poor girl didn't even really do anything about it. She took a breath, squared her shoulders, and stood taller. She must have been terrified but I realised that this very possibly wasn't the first time something like this had happened to her.

She barely even flinched as his hand lightly trailed down her tiny arm. She looked even smaller than me in that moment. She looked like a child.

She closed her eyes and I could tell she was shutting down. It was all too much for her. She was going on autopilot. That was not something one did without learning how through experience.

In a movement so quick you could blink and miss it the beautiful man had his hand around Bree's throat and then had her pinned to the wall directly opposite me.

She didn't even get a chance to scream before his teeth tore into her delicate little neck.

But I screamed. I was screaming so loud. But I was silent.

I needed to help her. I needed to tell her it was okay. Bree needed to know I was there. I was meant to be there with her through this!

She was just a child she shouldn't have to go through this with just this reckless, monstrous, hideous, beautiful man there with his teeth buried in her neck.

I watched her crumple to the floor with a massive weeping wound on her neck as it once again faded to black.

I needed to get out of this. I needed to be back in the real world. Another vision like this was going to finally tip me over the edge. I was going to end up as crazy and damaged as I was as a human. I was about to break.

But this stupid force that governed my god damn visions still wasn't fucking done with me.

When the blackness faded again I found myself in the most disgusting room I had ever seen.

Clearly it had once been an abandoned house with a musty couch and peeling walls, but now it was so packed with obviously newborn vampires that it was in immediate danger of collapsing. And in the centre of the room was Bree.

She must have woken from the transformation only seconds before I spotted her amongst the rubble of the house.

She was gasping for breath, taking in her surroundings and wearing an expression of utter confusion.

My vision went black again.

We were in a street in a city. I still couldn't hear a thing, all I could do was watch as a dozen vampires began scaling the walls of the buildings surrounding us.

And then it was empty of there than Bree and the beautiful monster again, his hand clamped firmly around her upper arm, dragging her down the alley.

More blackness.

And we were alongside a dock on the harbour. Still silent, still separated by the 'glass'.

I could only watch with horror as the beautiful monster released Bree and she stalked along the water's edge to a fisherman packing up his equipment, ready to take the days catch home. Maybe he had a family, maybe he was a good person, and maybe he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He never saw Bree appear next to him, and he certainly never saw as she violently tore at his neck.

No one's first kill was pretty. But Bree, with her lack of instruction and the delay between waking and hunting, made a horror seen of the man on the dock. And all I could do was watch. I was sure I was screaming again. Screaming at her to try and help. Screaming for the innocent man. Screaming at the monster who was just standing back and watching. I was still silent though. You couldn't really scream inside your own head.

It felt like hours.

I stood there and had to watch as she dropped the fisherman and then stalked off to find her next victim. I couldn't do anything.

But the worst was when I saw her realise what she had done.

She straightened out of her hunting crouch after dropping the second man, just a few yards from the first. Maybe they knew each other? Maybe two families would be missing a member after tonight? And just a moment after she stood up, she crumpled to the floor again.

The beautiful man who caused this monstrosity approached her and roughly pulled her up.

She crumpled under her own weight again.

He struck her as my vision once again faded to black.

I was finally back in the cafeteria.

Everyone around me was laughing at something someone had said. None of the humans had even noticed I wasn't entirely there.

I locked eyes with Edward. He had seen it all to.

I somehow made my mouth work and made an excuse for the humans on the table.

I had to go.

I needed to get out of here.

I needed to hunt and then I needed to hunt down that beautiful monster who was causing my Bree so much pain.

It was too late to save her from those visions. I knew it. Even if I got to Seattle by nightfall it would take hours to track her down and it would be too late to stop them meeting in the alleyway, but I needed to act to ensure she didn't meet the fate she surely would as a pawn in some madman's game. No. In Victoria's game.

I didn't even stop to explain to anyone what was happening.

Edward caught Jasper and Bella outside the cafeteria doors. I heard that much.

But I needed to hunt something very large in a rather violent way before I could formulate my plan. And by the time I was home I was sure everyone would know what was happening and I would like to see any of them try and keep me from fixing this evil that was happening to my Bree.

A.N. I am so sorry for the long wait but some massive stuff happened in my life in the last couple months. I came out, I had two relationships that I really thought were something good fail, one much more spectacularly than the other, and my best friend lost a baby that would have been my godchild. So sorry, but I'm not even that sorry you had to wait for this, I had a lot going on. But I'm okay now and that's all that matters, I hope you liked this change of perspective, and I hope you all enjoy the darker path.