I see not only the present, but can glimpse the future; bright and content and hopeful.
And I know how happy it will make Edward. He knows that this girl is different. He is already intrigued. He has already lost his heart to her. Sometimes he stares off into space, and I am suddenly plagued by snippets of future events; he plans to talk to her, and then plans against it; plans to ask her to sit by him in lunch, plans against it; plans to offer to drive her home, plans against it. But these trivial matters are unimportant.
I already know the big picture.
I could see it, if not by day one, then at least by the time he saved her from a speeding truck. He had already decided on her. And as for her; her mind was made up long before.
As time slides by, the images grow stronger and stronger.
When I first saw her - Bella - Carlisle had just decided it was time for us to move on, to move to Forks, in fact. I didn't understand the vision at first; it was merely a flickering picture of a brown haired girl, standing by Edward. Nothing of true importance.
You see, it was difficult, back then, to imagine Edward in love. He was serious, almost to a fault. He had accepted the futility of his existence and believed whole-heartedly that to be a vampire was to be a sinner. Aside from Carlisle, he is without a doubt the most spiritually-minded of us all. The tedium of everyday life seemed to be some kind of penance for him; he never complained, was always the perfect gentleman to all, never slipped up in his stringent "vegetarianism".
But he was... cold. Cold and detached. He saw life as something that was barred to him as a vampire. At least, that's the way it seemed to me.
Before her, he had never truly daydreamed.
I saw her for the second time a few short weeks before she arrived here. The image this time was clearer, more defined. I saw them, side by side, his arm around her waist. Her paleness made me suspect that she was a vampire, at first, but then I saw the blush in her cheeks and her brown eyes.
This perplexed me. Things rarely perplex me, I admit, and this unnamed girl took over my thoughts for quite a while. Who is she? What will her connection to Edward be? And how will she be able to make Edward's face look happier than it had ever been before?
I only understood the day she arrived; timid, clumsy and shy. Preoccupied as I was with Jasper, I barely noticed until I was plagued with the sudden bloody visions Edward's bloodlust created. No, I told him. It will not be like that. You will go away. You will not kill her.
I knew the truth. I know the future. He would not kill her. He could not kill her.
Suddenly, it made sense. This girl; this fragile, human girl; would either be the making or the destruction of him. I could see the one sustainable future; him and her together, presumably forever; and the other choice. Her dead, him sick with self-disgust until he finally succumbed to the guilt, whereupon he would flee, or seek death.
But as the days rolled by, slipping silently on without a break, as they do in our sleepless world; as Edward returned; as his interest in her, and in life, increased; the images became clearer and more definite. When she nearly died, I was sure. As sure as I could possibly be. They would be together.
I told him then. I explained everything to him; my visions, my guesses. And though he listened, wanting to trust in my gift, he didn't really. He still held on to that unshakable belief that he was damned, cursed, unworthy of the love of another.
And yet I can see it. Now, as they sit together during lunch, I can see the future.
A vampire and a human girl, in a sunlit meadow. Facing each other, talking in low murmuring voices, professing their love. She reaches out and touches his face, tracing his jaw line, his cheekbones, before he stops her, and presses his head against her heart, listening to its fluttering beating. His eyes are warm, his face no longer that of a condemned man. He smiles a true smile, full of hope for the future and joy in the present, as he pulls them close together for the first time.
I see this future, and others, strung together by the present before me. Her beating heart and his silent one, forever entwined, long after hers grows still and cold.
(A/N: Well, I hope you enjoyed that, because Alice is surprisingly difficult to write. She sees too much. Present and Future are completely combined in her life, I think. And past, not so much, which was difficult, because I wanted her to look back on Edward. So it may be confusing, and if so, I apologise profusely. Again, please review. You have no idea what it does to me! It makes me all soft and squishy like a marshmallow!)