"It doesn't make any sense," Alice leaned over the desk, pouring over paperwork as she spoke into the phone. "Both of their entry interviews have everything initialled. So either Victoria is lying or who ever performed Skye's interview lied."

"There is a chance that it's just a genuine oversight." Jasper commented, his mind fast at work. Alice had called him immediately after her conversation with Corey. Her friend had responded in shock at the news that there was a chance Skye had never been informed of her 'alternative options' during her interviews, and had quickly dismissed the accusations.

"I know things were crazy back then," Corey had spoken, referring to last October's madness, "but our center was new. Is new. Everyone is so thoroughly trained here that I don't believe any of my people messed something that serious up. We don't cut corners here; I'm sure of it."

What was frustrating was that Alice believed him. But she also found herself leaning toward believing Victoria, too. And the more she looked at both Skye and Victoria's paperwork, side by side, the more she found herself feeling a bit foolish. Victoria was probably just trying to rile her up.

Why? She had no idea…

"It's not common," Jasper spoke up again in response to more silence from her, "but there are instances of containers getting into legal trouble because they'll leave certain parts out of their interviews that they deem time-consuming or not worthwhile. It's nothing malicious, but it is against policy. It's not typically a fireable offense but they do get suspended for it."

"Maybe Victoria's full of it…" Alice mumbled, flipping through the redhead's file. "It does say here that she's 'single' but she's not. She told me today that she's married."

There was a pause on the other end of the phone.

"Is she?"

"Not legally, no. But she's had a mate for 200-or-so years."

Jasper hummed. "That's probably why they didn't mark it."

"Yeah but he's not even mentioned once," Alice spoke as her eyes scanned over the transcripts of Victoria's first few interviews, "even during their interrogations; at one point they asked her if she had any family or anyone to contact and she says 'Not in centuries'. I don't understand."

"Her surrender and cooperation were enough for her to be exonerated," Jasper commented. "From what I remember during my more… lucid time, she was one of the ones heavily guarded. She wasn't allowed out of their sight. There's no way she was there willingly."

Alice frowned, happy that Jasper was too far away to feel her unhappiness as he spoke about his time as Maria's prisoner. "I know that."

"What does it say about her ability again?"

Alice flipped through a few more papers. There wasn't a section for comments on people's special talents due to the fact that it wasn't a well-known thing to the rest of the world (and for good reason) but if you knew where to look and how to decipher their coded language, you could figure it out.

"Evasion, I think. Nothing too descriptive written." Alice paused again, reading some more. "Yeah, she was pretty vague in her description, but at least she admitted she has an ability." That made Alice feel a little more secure in trusting the woman's earlier words. But still, something was odd.

"All this talk of overlooking talking points during interviews has distracted me." Jasper commented, "How did talking to Skye go?"

"Oh," Alice felt silly. She'd nearly forgotten about her talk with the girl. Instead she'd sent Jasper a 'call me' text and started ranting the moment she answered the phone. "It went okay. I think. She has a bit of a reputation here. Not for doing anything like… what she did to you." Alice shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "But she can zero in on people's fears pretty quickly and tries to use that to get people to leave her alone."

"And how did that go?" She could hear his grimace in his voice.

"Not terribly, actually. Sure, she absolutely zeroed in on mine and tried to frighten me off but," Alice sighed. "She doesn't know who she's messing with in terms of fear."

Thankfully, Jasper laughed. "No kidding." Alice smiled, hearing how amused he was. "She hadn't used her gift on anyone, has she?"

Alice shook her head as she spoke. "No, it's mentioned that it takes a toll on her apparently. She says it drains her of physical energy."

"I do remember that. In my earlier days before things got too fuzzy, she would need to be carried when I was out of my blackouts. I didn't understand what was going on with her until I realized she was in my head when she used it."

Alice held her breath as he spoke. They'd talked thoroughly before about his experience under Skye's influence, but every mention of it brought old aches to the surface.

Jasper described it scarily well. It had been a century in a half since he'd slept last, but he compared the sensation to that of dreaming. 'Nightmare induction' was what they'd referred to it at first before they understood the manipulation aspect behind her ability. When they realized she was at the helm of whatever manipulation was happening, it forced them to put her under strict instruction to refrain from using her gift.

Failure to follow those orders would result in 'punishment', according to the paperwork.

Alice wondered if Skye knew about that…

"I'm starting to believe Victoria," Alice whispered after another handful of seconds of silence. "It says here she's been instructed not to use her gift, but even today she was using it slightly."

"It might be a passive aspect of it. Like my ability. If I was ordered to not sense emotion I wouldn't be able to do it. I could go without manipulating other's emotions, but I wouldn't be able to stop sensing them. Maybe the same goes for her. She can sense the fear and pinpoint it, but actively shutting down and browsing through your subconscious mind might be it's active use."

"That backs my theory up further," Alice spoke, her stomach rising up into her throat now. "If they had told her that using her active ability comes with consequence…"

Jasper swore over the line, following her train of thought. "Then she might have used it by now in order to be 'dealt with'."

"Corey says she's been very difficult. Impulsive, he describes, just like you said. Jasper," Alice lowered her voice, suddenly afraid of being overheard. She knew she wouldn't be, but it didn't stop her unease, "Skye would've absolutely used it if she knew. She doesn't know."

"Alice, I need you to listen to me," and suddenly Jasper was very serious. Lifting her other hand she held the phone against her ear with both, clinging to the device fiercely. "I don't want you to start going around pointing fingers and accusing anyone of anything. Even if it is true and they are hiding things from Skye to keep her around. If this is true, and it's been a purposeful oversight for some reason or another, you need to play dumb."

"But—"

"I know. I know you want to do things right and by the book. Especially since you're new at this and want to make a good impression." Alice bit her lip at that. Damnit, he knew her too well. "But one thing this war has taught us is that you can not trust everyone. Even the people that are supposedly on our side. You need to tread lightly, and move carefully."

"What do I do? Keep talking to Skye like everything is alright?"

"Yes. Do what you showed up to do, but take as many mental notes as you can. File all of this away and then next week when my probation officially ends I can fly in and look at everything with you."

"I might do more digging if I can get away with it." Alice slowly closed both Skye and Victoria's files, the words already committed to memory. "See if I can find anything else out."

"Be careful," he cautioned. "It might be nothing, but we can't be too sure now. I need you to just," he let out a long, frustrated breath, "just do what you showed up to do, Alice. Please."

"I'll be careful," she promised, so full of longing that suddenly her chest hurt. God, she missed him so much. "If things go well then I'll see you before next week," she informed him. "Then, we can come back together at some point."

"I don't like the idea of you there by yourself." He admitted quietly.

Alice allowed herself a small, fond smile. "No offense, but nothing bad has ever come from me being alone."

He sighed over the line, and Alice laughed because she was right. "You said talking to Skye went 'okay' though. Even though she tried to scare you off?"

"Let's just say it had the potential to go much, much worse." It was true. Even if it did feel like an understatement. "I'm going to talk to her again tomorrow, see if I can get her to open up, even just a little bit. My biggest hope is to have her gain some level of trust in me. Right now she thinks everything I say is a self-serving lie."

Jasper was silent for a few seconds. "Keep things casual," he advised, after a long moment. "Pay attention to everything going on, of course. But be careful; don't do any unnecessary digging."

"I'll be okay," she sighed into the phone as she heard his tone take on an intensity she knew he reserved for advice. "I'll try to keep things boring over here. For your sake." At the sound of Jasper's scoff, Alice smiled. "I'm serious. It'll be alright."

As she spoke, she eyed the paperwork in front of her. She wasn't lying to him, she thought as she slowly returned Skye and Victoria's forms into their respective folders. She was honest when she said she'd keep to herself and do what she came there to do.

It wasn't her fault that she could see that 'don't do any unnecessary digging' was a request that, even if she attempted to abide by, she'd be unable to do.

Alice knew that some things were better left uncovered, and she also knew that sometimes things came to the surface without much prodding.

And if she knew that there were things to discover that weren't what they appeared, well. That was her own business for the next few days.

Jasper would understand.

Attempting to bond with Skye was turning out to be a more difficult endeavor than Alice originally planned. Not that she'd had too concrete of a plan before leaving; the general idea being 'show her compassion, lend an ear, and hope for the best' was so far providing zero results.

On the second day in the center, Alice visited the girl twice. Their morning conversation… left something to be desired. The girl had been in a mood, as Corey had described it before letting Alice into the room.

Five minutes later, and after some choice words on Skye's behalf, Alice decided that she'd try again later in the afternoon. After mid-day feeding hour.

Corey had informed her the day prior that as Skye progressed with her resetting, they had begun to space her feedings out. It was standard procedure. Freshly turned newborns spent their first month fed three times a day. Then, the frequency was slowly lowered to once a day, and by the six month mark they were provided with a certain amount of blood every other day. Everything was calculated carefully and done to make it easier for vampires returning to (or making a debut in) the real world.

It had been three days since Skye had drank anything, and it showed.

To be polite, Alice visited with Victoria once more while she waited for the hours to pass and for Skye to be fed and, hopefully, calm down a bit. Victoria's amusement was gone when Alice entered the room, looking for nothing more than calm, friendly conversation.

The woman was as resistant to conversation as Skye was that day.

It was after the redhead made a remark about wanting to be able to enjoy a book without interruption that Alice got the hint and released her from her presence. Alice had only seen the woman out of common courtesy; after all, if she was going to visit one of Maria's acquitted captives, might as well visit both.

(And if there was anything else to learn, Alice knew she had to pay close and quiet attention to both women, equally.)

But the idea of either of them growing irritated over Alice 'playing favorites' was suddenly deemed silly and unnecessary. Victoria didn't want to be subjected to mindless conversation any more than Skye did; but Victoria knew why they were there, and knew that she wasn't the reason for Alice's visits.

As she waited for Skye to be brought back into their meeting room, having received confirmation that feeding hour was over, Alice resigned to only see Victoria once more, and that would be before she left. It would be a waste of time to continually request an audience with the her.

Alice was sure Victoria had told her all she'd wanted to the day prior, anyways.

Skye, to her credit, was far less combative during their second visit of the day.

"A little birdie told me you like card games," Alice commented, producing the deck of cards from her back pocket with a smile.

"There is nothing 'little' about Corey," Skye remarked, eyeing the blue playing cards as Alice set them on the table between them. "What? You want me to entertain you with a game of go-fish?"

"If you'll teach me," Alice shrugged.

The girl raised an eyebrow. "That was a joke." Then, a beat of silence. "You don't know how to play 'go-fish'?" She sounded like she didn't know whether to believe the statement or not.

"The only games I know how to play are blackjack and poker. And I only learned recently." Alice had wondered how often Renesmee got to teach anyone anything. The girl had been so excited to teach her 'Aunt Alice' how to properly gamble that she'd brushed aside Carlisle's 'no gambling' rule the instant he was out of earshot.

Skye shot her another incredulous look. "How old are you?"

"Nineteen," Alice reached forward and picked up the cards, beginning to shuffle them absentmindedly as she spoke, "Turned in '71."

"And you don't know what go-fish is?"

"I'm a late bloomer," Alice joked. "I got my first cell phone last year. And my license a few months ago."

"Were you living under a rock?"

"More like 'above a garment shop'."

Skye didn't nod, but she did take a moment to think to herself. For a few seconds the only noise in the room was the snapping sound of the cards as Alice shuffled them. "Is it true you lived with a human?"

Alice nodded. "For decades. She's like a mother to me."

"She was never afraid of you?"

Alice shielded her expression as she watched the younger girl stare intently at the cards she shuffled about. "Not that she ever let on, no."

"And she didn't know who you were before? Like, she really was a stranger?"

Alice smiled, "I take it you've done some reading up on me."

"More than I thought I'd be able to." She admitted. "I wanted to see what all the hype was about."

"Hype?" Alice raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I mean," she shifted in her chair, arms crossed over her chest. "I know you were an enigma to Maria. Which meant that by default, you were a threat. But I wasn't too sure on any details about you until they locked me up in this place. I don't have internet access but they'll let me read whatever I request, usually. And the TV doesn't have too many channels, but it's got enough."

"Enough to help you learn more about me." Skye didn't need to nod for Alice to know it was the truth. "Well, what else do you want to know?"

"How can you stand it?"

Alice stared at her, waiting for elaboration. After a few painfully long silent seconds, Alice was forced to reply. "Stand what?"

"Being around humans?" Skye wrinkled her nose. "Especially living with one."

Alice thought long and hard for a moment. She knew that she had to be truthful here; something told her that if she lied to the girl, she'd be able to tell somehow. "I had to deal with it." Placing the cards on the table between them, Alice looked back at the girl. "Josephine—my mother, for all intents and purposes—wanted to help me. I knew I would be a fool to turn away from her, even though being around her was a constant struggle for a couple of years. Thirst is," she inhaled and exhaled slowly, "a tricky thing to control."

"But you did it. Without self-control training."

Alice nodded. "The threat of death kept me in line."

"And that's another area where we're different," Skye spoke bluntly as she reached forward and picked up the cards. "That's why I think I need to take myself out of the equation here. Because that doesn't sound like too bad of a deal to me. If I can't control myself, clearly I have no business living out amongst humans or participating in society or whatever. I'm already not a big fan of the idea. But telling me 'do it or you'll die' isn't a big motivator for me. You know. Since I'm already trying to die and all."

"You don't think you can do it?"

"I think I've been set up for failure with all this shit. I don't want to have to murder more humans. Contrary to popular belief I'm not too fucking stoked about the amount of people I've killed already. That has me fucked in the head enough to want to end it all by default. But it's not like I can help it when you've become a creature designed to crave human blood."

A scowl fell over her features before Alice saw her impulsive decision. So when Skye threw the cards against the wall, causing them to flutter to the ground around them, Alice shielded her expression; she was sure it looked like she hadn't reacted at all to the movement.

"I don't want to do this," and suddenly Skye's typically unreadable face was wrought with pain. "I don't want to. From one prison to the next one to the next. I'm tired of this shit."

"You're not a prisoner," Alice's voice was sad. "We're here to help you."

"And so was Maria." Skye's eyes trailed toward the playing cards, scattered across the floor, "And so were the doctors at Hillside Heights. It's all bullshit."

Alice paused at that mention. Thinking back to Skye's paperwork, she knew that it was the hospital that Skye had gone missing from back in 2015. She'd vanished without a trace, leaving behind a family pleading on the news for her to come home. Alice had seen the tapes. She knew that Skye had a mother and a step-father who had been wishing for her safe return. She also had a few siblings, too. An older sister, and two younger brothers if Alice was remembering correctly.

"What was Hillside like?" Alice asked, sympathetic to the girl's misery.

"A nightmare. The nurses treated us like shit and the mental health workers didn't care."

That was news to her. Alice leaned back in her seat, fixing Skye with a strange look. "Mental health workers?"

"Hillside is a psych hospital," Skye spoke as if it were common knowledge. "That's where Maria's people snatched me up. They made it look like an escape. Like I was just another delinquent running away. Made it easier for them to get away with it."

But as Skye spoke, Alice's mind was a million miles away. This was a revelation that had stunned her into complete and baffled silence. There was nothing on any paperwork to indicate that the hospital Skye Ortiz had gone missing from had been a mental health facility. That would have brought up a flag on page one; there was an entirely separate section of paperwork completed on newborns with known mental illnesses.

Since being mentally ill could (and would) disqualify a human from the change process, whenever vampires were changed illegally, their status as a victim usually overrode any detail that would cause a stop in their interviews. But it was still documented, and those vampires were still watched quite carefully in their first years afterward…

Another red flag waved desperately around in Alice's mind. She would have to find out who performed Skye's first interviews and interrogations as quietly as possible. Something wasn't quite right.

But beyond that alarming thought, Alice found her chest heavy at the revelation. Skye's abduction from the mental hospital was not only terrifying, but struck Alice far too close to home.

"You said Maria's people kidnapped you from the hospital?"

"Claimed they were doing me a favor." Skye was still staring at the mess of cards on the floor. "At first, I thought they had." Slowly, she lifted her eyes, meeting Alice's with a blank look. "And then I met Maria. That's when I knew hope was lost."

"You knew who she was then?"

"Everyone knows who Maria is."

Alice hadn't, but she let that little detail slide.

"How did she discover your ability?"

"I used it on her." Skye's expression morphed as she pulled her eyes away from Alice's. "It was the first and almost the last time I ever used it."

"What—"

"I don't think I want to play cards today," the muttered quietly. "Maybe tomorrow."

Alice paused, swallowing the lump in her throat before nodding. She pushed away from the table and moved to gather the playing cards.

"Don't—I… I'll do it." Skye spoke quietly, frowning as Alice reached down to pick up a couple of cards. "I'll," she paused again, "I can show you how to play some stuff tomorrow."

Alice straightened up, a genuine smile falling on her face. "I'd like that," she stared at the girl, but Skye refused to meet her gaze again, instead staring back to the mess of cards. "I'll see you tomorrow then."

Closing the door behind her, Alice leaned her back against it, letting her head smack against the metal door with a dull thud. The more she spoke to the girl the more uncertain she found herself over why she was even there. But the more she forced her presence on the girl, and the more she forced herself to open up, the more Alice discovered.

And so far, none of it had been good.

Opening her phone, Alice sent Jasper a quick text.

Hillside Heights is a mental hospital. She typed and sent the message, knowing Jasper would put two and two together quicker than she did.

Even as she pushed off the wall and began to walk away, she couldn't let the revelation stun her into inaction. Despite the fact that she was done talking to Skye for the day her work was far from over.

But with every step that carried her farther and farther away from Skye, the heavier the reality of their situation became, until suddenly Alice wasn't sure she wanted to find out anything else.

The idea that Skye's experience wasn't an isolated event scared her. And for the first time in a while, Alice didn't think she wanted to know any more.

A/N: And a happy ten-day-long vacation from me, to you!

Been back on the east coast for over a week now. Excited to get back to LA on Friday night but I'm gonna miss the shit out of my friends and family here. Either way, it's been a fantastic week to rest, recharge, and write some fic ; ) This update is a teeeeensy bit early, but I have a work call later and a busy day tomorrow before my flight, so you get it now instead of late tonight.

This is also the last short chapter. Every other one is VERY long. (Next chapter is twice as long, and the one after that, three times as long.)

Happy gemini season! Enjoy your curiosity! Interact with the world around you! Go places, meet people! (But remember: wear a mask.)

REVIEW REPLIES:

ZileRacer: I do allude to Esme's power here and there. Usually it's pretty obvious since she only does it during serious scenes and more critical moments.
Plenty of sketchy happenings going on... hmm... I wonder what that's all about...
And Rosalie's IG presence is something I fucking loved writing. Bella doesn't post shit, but if she did it would absolutely just be some out of context absolute NONSENSE. A picture of Rosalie, mid-makeup. Emmett covered in dirt. Carlisle doing laundry.

ohsugarhoney: Alice is in fact a busy, busy bee! Comes with the territory when you're the protagonist.

motelydemon: WOW! Thank you thank you THANK you! I'm so happy you loved Call of the Night! And the fact that you made an account to leave a review makes me so emotional I don't... know how to properly reply? One of my reviewers once made a tumblr page just to post memes about CotN back in 2018 and now she's one of my best friends. So fanfic can certainly bring people together!
"Not now I have a headache" LMAO QUITE LITERALLY. And oh yes, Jasper absolutely loathes having to (via Rosalie, of course) make a new statement every decade or so about how the confederacy was bad and white supremacy is awful etc etc. He's starting to run out of ways to make it sound new and relevant to the times. (Let Jasper Eat Nazi's Challenge)
Also, yes. It's one thing to show people hesitant about vampires or just a bit unnerved around them, but I wanted to show the true end of the spectrum here. There are people who would do anything to become a vampire, just like there are people who would rather die. But there are also people who would rather vampires be burned out of existence, and all the sort.
Again, I'm so happy you're enjoying the fic I've written, and that you were even able to track down my bonus material on Tumblr! I do have an AO3 where I do have a few more fanfictions there than I do here, so if you want to check me out there, it's under the same name (flowerslut). I hope you enjoy this chapter, and the next ones. And thank you so so so so much for your reviews!

Koharuboshi: OMG! So happy that Call of the Night was a fun post-exams adventure for you to go on. Happy you liked it!
Victoria is certainly a player now, as evidenced by the last couple of chapters. Whether or not you'll see James? Hm, I wonder...
Thank you for your kind words about my world-building. It's my absolute goddamn favorite thing to do, even if I do go a bit too in depth sometimes (according to my friends) but hey! I'm glad some people like to see a whole new world, just like I do! As for your infrastructure question, buildings and architecture are built now with vampire needs in mind. There are easier exits for them to escape from a room if needed (for self-control/safety purposes) and the sound-proofing that. Has become standard nowadays in their world is a huge plus and major talking point in this current era for my vampires. There are little things here and there that I insert, but I'm glad your brain is thinking about it all. I'll have to make sure to add an infrastructure section when I finally finish the damn guide I've been working on LMAO. Thanks again for the reviews!