Jaspers pov
The things I've seen this creature do have traumatized me. Nothing could have prepared me for what happened after the vote.
I've begun thinking of her as two people. Mrs.Jekyll and Ms. Hyde. Or rather, Destina and Fate. The first is the woman in those journals, the troubled, kind, loving version. While the second?
Deranged! After Carlisle voted, time slowed to a halt. It's not the first time I've experienced her time control. In the past, it had been quite fun to play around with. However, I had never experienced it quite like this.
"What's the bag for?"
"I'm leaving. You should stay, Alice, well she's leaving too."
"Good. Get some time away, relax with each other."
"We're separating. She deserves better than a man that can't fully be hers."
"Excuse me? Jasper."
"You should stay, these are good people. Maybe they could be a good influence on you."
"What is wrong with you? You were madly in love with her just a week ago. Why are you throwing away your marriage?"
"Like you threw away ours? What's wrong with me is you! You are alive. I love you Destina."
Her hands were around my neck within seconds. Her small manicured fingers clenched around my throat in a vice so tightly I could hear my flesh cracking. She was going to kill me. I had no choice but to hit her.
We tumbled down the stairs. The fall broke her concentration, time resumed. She had been on top of me, my hands clawing at her face. Then suddenly, fate was ripped from my body. She flew into the tv, the screen broken and the wires now exposed.
It had been Alice. She had been the one to come to my rescue. She stood over me ready to kill her. I could see her from where I lay on the floor. Her eyes were now black as coal. Two sunken holes in her skull. What had I said to bring this level of rage out?
"I love you," I called out again to test a theory.
"You have never loved me, Louis!"
Her head snapped towards me, the lights flickered. A spell was on her lips before anything could get out. Alice did the one thing I could never do. She killed her! Well sort of, Alice snapped her neck.
The cracking sound was accompanied by a sputter of blood being gurgled in Fates throat. She collapsed to the floor, her body twitching and foaming at the mouth. This seemed to go on for minutes. She just wouldn't die. Edward burst into the house.
He came to her aid. He carefully touched her head with his hands. The snapping sound had been grotesquely loud. Once her head was back in place, she flipped over on her hands and knees to retch. Rotten meat and blood spilled from inside her. Pieces of heart spewed all over the cream carpet. After she finished, she looked up at Alice and laughed. It echoed throughout the room, mocking us all.
"Whose Louis you crazy bitch."
She spits out more pieces of heart before reaching into her bra and pulling out a vile of some kind. She downed the murky contents with a grimace.
"That hasn't happened in a while. Thank you, Edward. "
The members of my family watched the scene before them in shock. Bella was the first to snap out of it, she ran for the kitchen sink to blow chunks. Alice stood dumbly looking at her hands. Edward ran to Bella's side to hold her hair back.
Carlisle was attempting to clean up the mess she made on the carpet. He was placing samples in plastic baggies to study later. Rosalie pulled Alice away from Fate, while Emmet watched with fear in his eyes. Esme helped me up from the ground.
"Who is Louis?"
"Where did you hear that name?"
"What's wrong with you? Are you sick?"
"My magic is slowly killing me. It has been since..., my magic isn't compatible with vampirism. I heal rapidly, because of that the venom never took hold completely. My cells are in constant war, especially the ones in my brain. One day I will lose control and explode, probably killing anything else in sight too. Either that or I'll just never wake up."
"The sleeping. That's death isn't it?"
"Yes."
"Who is Louis? "
"My father."
The carpet and tv were suddenly fixed and she and her things were gone. I continued to stare at the space she had left. She's dying. The woman that can't be killed is dying!
"What just happened? Why? Jasper, she..."
I registered that Alice was speaking to me but couldn't respond. Edward called out from the kitchen.
"She was calling out to me. Screaming! She was locked in her body, I was able to feel everything she did. What happened?"
"He loves her. He told her that he loves her." Alice spoke gravely.
"I said loved."
"You said love, Jasper." Rosalie corrected.
"Is everyone ok?"
"I'm fine," Bella called out before another round of puke came up.
"Where did she go?" Esme asked concerned.
"I don't know. Excuse me." I picked up my bag, I began walking out the door when Alice called after me.
"Did you ever love me?"
"Yes."
"Do you love her more?"
I didn't have an answer. Why couldn't I say no? She just tried to kill me and yet I still can't say no. Before I could open my mouth to speak she was gone too. Her wedding ring was left on the coffee table. They both were gone. Bella sheepishly looked at me, I could feel the shame and guilt coming off her in waves.
"It wasn't your fault. It was inevitable. Excuse me."
"Son. You don't have to leave."
"I know. I have to find her. She's alone and will most likely get up to trouble. She's my responsibility."
"Is that a human heart?" Emmet was holding the bag of meat chunks and vomit samples.
"Yes. She ate Victoria's heart."
"Excuse me! How is that possible?"
Edward explained in graphic detail how Fate managed to steal the beating heart from a long-dead vampire.
"Bro, your girlfriend is sick!" Emmet received a smack on the back of the head from Rose. Sometimes I wonder if she's giving him brain damage.
"What are we going to do? Alice just ran off and you've invited the spawn of satan into our house."
"If you recall Rosalie, I warned all of you. I told you she's not normal."
"Fuck not normal. She's a damn demon. Jasper what the fuck Is wrong with you?! Why would you willingly invite that type of insanity?"
"I don't know! Okay? I told all of you and no one listened to me. All of you were too stuck trying to meet your ends. What about mine, huh? Now she's gone. She's gone, what have I done?" I fell to my knees and stared at the wedding ring. My Alice.
"Come on." Esme coaxed me to stand. She helped me upstairs and into my office. I was tucked under my blankets and she sat at the end of my bed humming. Tearless cries shook my body.
"I saw it the first day we met her. Your love for her. The guilt you both hold. What happened?"
"I left her. I watched her die and I just left."
"No, I mean before that. When did the love turn sour?"
"It never did. She grew hateful, but I never stopped loving her. "
"You don't know, do you? What hurt her so badly."
"No. I have a lead though. Her father, it has something to do with him."
"I'll say. Try and rest, give Alice some space. She will reach out."
"She won't. She's done. I should have listened to her. Made Fate leave! I didn't fight for her."
"I think you did. Just the wrong one. Jasper, you need to decide. Fate, or Alice."
"It's not like it will change anything."
"She loves you, Jasper. They both do."
"I know. Believe me, I've read all about it. She can't stand that she loves me, I'm her weakness."
Esme didn't say anything else, just wore a sad smile and then left me alone. I closed my eyes and pretended to sleep. The darkness behind my eyelids wasn't enough to rid my mind of her.
She's dying. Fate... Destina is dying. Alice is gone and I'm laying in bed emotionally numb from it all. I could hear them talk, I tried to cover my ears and muffle the sound but it was of no use.
"What are you going to do with those Carlisle?" Esme tried to speak softly. They were in his office. I could hear each machine turn on to analyze the bile.
"She's the key. She's the key to a cure. I just feel it in my bones."
"You heard what Edward said. Victoria began to die immediately. That's not a cure, that's suicide."
"But maybe..., it wouldn't hurt to try. At the very least I may be able to understand the differences between us. Or cure her. Jasper won't survive without her."
"What have I done Edward? I never meant to hurt Alice." Further downstairs Bella and Edward talked openly.
"Why did Alice do that to her?"
"They fought. Fate and Jasper were fighting. Alice was just protecting her mate." Rosalie joined in on their conversation.
"Is she his mate? I mean can one have to mates?" Emmet questioned.
"He told me he didn't know if Fate was his mate." Bella chimed in.
"He told Alice that she was." Rosalie exposed the truth.
"Why would he lie to me?"
"He was lying to himself. Jasper has been deeply concerned and confused since Fate's arrival. He believed her to be a mirage, an illusion of the mind. He had them before when he first started drinking animal blood." Edward explained.
"The detox, I remember that. He could barely stand, Jasper had gorged himself on bags from a blood bank. ..., Wait! You don't think that. There's no way she could have poisoned him right?" Rosalie pondered and accused.
"She did just try and kill him. Arguably this seems to be the most stable she's ever been from what I've read in Jaspers mind."
"Why would she poison him? The entire time she was here she did her best to avoid him. She was here for months, if she wanted him dead she had ample time to do so." Emmet surprised them all with his assessment. Sometimes I wonder if he fakes being that dumb.
"She seems to genuinely hate him. She refused to believe he loves her when it's quite obvious our brother has a masochistic streak. Just pick a reason. Her past with him and leaving her to die. Their lives before being bitten! I mean she called him by her fathers' name for a reason. How do we protect our family, when members keep inviting threats?"
"Thanks, Rose." Edward followed after Bella.
"What? It's true!"
"Let's go, babe. All this excitement has me famished." She and Emmet leave to go hunt. The only ones in the house were Carlisle and Esme. I rose from my futon and moped to the room I shared with my Alice.
Our room was spotless, the bed made with hospital corners. Not a speck of dust or a wrinkle in sight. This was Alice. Calm, collected, creative but in control. Once I saw the closet I knew. There wasn't anything I could have done to fix my marriage. Every shoe, piece of clothing, and accessory was gone. A letter lay open-faced with a kiss mark at the bottom.
- I've given you every possible chance to redeem yourself. You lied to my face Jasper. You have never lied to me before. I prayed that the newborn drug her down with it. But you saved her! That's when I knew it was time for me to go.
I wished for death on another. That same woman protected my family today. She tried saving a girl she didn't even know. Yet I still hated her. The sheer thrill I felt snapping her neck. I felt every muscle ripple in my hands... yet she just kept fighting.
After, I felt terrified. Terrified that I would do it again. You've made your choices and now I must make mine. Goodbye! Don't come after me. -
I burst out the window, it had been left open by her. I tried searching for her scent but couldn't find it. She was truly gone. The next place I visited was the decrepit home Fate had been holed up in. But it was gone. The house had seemingly vanished. No traces of it having ever existed. Knowing her it might not have. I collapsed in the dirt and screamed into the barren land left behind.
It was hours before a sound could be heard. My voice grew horse long ago, I couldn't protest as arms wrapped around me and threw me over large shoulders. The scent was familiar and yet unfamiliar. It became clear who held me captive.
Peter!