-Rory!
There's a girl standing on a branch. Her long golden brown hair sticks in all directions as the wind tousles it. Her mischievous blue eyes settled upon him. His fingers ache as he tries to climb the tree.
-You lied to me! Father asked you to bring the goats in, not me!
A chuckle was his answer. He growled before stepping back and crossing his arms over his chest. Huffing when the wind tousled his hair and he had to brush it away from his eyes.
The girl laughed before reaching for an apple. Once she had it between her hands she jumped off the branch and landed right at his side.
-Here, a peace offerin', please don't be mad anymore, yes?- She requested offering the apple. He frowned at it for a moment before taking it.
-Fine, but you'll have to take me to town with you next time. Promise?
-Pinkie promise.- She assured, hooking their pinkies together as she said so.- Come now my little prince, the moon will rise soon and father will need our help.
-Yes ma'am.
~~~~~~~~
Jasper woke up staring at the ceiling. Vision blurred and a sense of emptiness in his chest. Those odd dreams had become quite recurrent after that damned nightmare.
Memories.
At least that's what Carlisle said. Repressed memories... bad. Good. The trauma must have been such he may have completely forgotten about everything before the "incident".
But who had been that girl? He hasn't seen her in his other dreams nor was she in the nightmare. She couldn't have been older than 11. He didn't remember knowing such a girl in his childhood either so she had to be from before the Whitlocks.
Also.
Father? Had she been his sister? If so. That would make the fourth sibling so far, how many siblings had he had? Had they all been killed that night or had anyone been able to escape?
Or was he the only survivor?
He wiped at his face before sitting up, thinking about that would lead nowhere, he had gathered that much these past few days.
He couldn't feel a single emotional signature in the house aside from Carlisle's which wasn't surprising. These past days the Cullens and the wolves had done nothing but spend most of the time searching the entirety of Canada, those searches had increased after that day.
And the wolves had taken to avoid him. His gift seemed to have rattled them quite a lot. Much like it had rattled the Cullens, apparently everyone had been underestimating his gift all these years.
Still.
He could feel their frustration growing. Alice would hug him for hours and there was that look that all the Cullens gave to him... He hated it. He didn't want to be the cause of their pain. Of them feeling so frustrated and impotent.
But it wasn't as if he could stop them either.
He sighed and rubbed at his side. The gash hadn't healed much. In fact. He seemed to have grown so much weaker. And he was exhausted half of the time. He felt cold sometimes. Or too hot. At times he couldn't even smell a thing.
His hair had acquired even more highlights but not enough to disappear his original hair color. Emmett liked to call him old man. It was his way of lightening the situation.
He sighed once again before leaving the bed. He didn't want to sit here and do nothing. He was starting to feel claustrophobic.
Thus he hunted Carlisle down. He found the man in the living room.
-Morning-
The fact that Carlisle's words cut off left Jasper know that something was amiss. There was confusion and even a bit of fascination in the man's emotions.
-What?- He couldn't help but ask as the man got up.
-Your eyes. They are hazel?
Jasper frowned and glanced at the small mirror Esme had hanging near the TV. He knew that eye color, it had been his human eye color.
But at the same it wasn't quite the same. It had an unnatural golden hue to it.
He wondered if he was gonna come close to a human state before it all went to shit. He couldn't still see how could this even be possible.
A werewolf turned vampire.
He had been a werewolf. Not human. Never human.
-Can I go out?- He asked as he turned to look at Carlisle. Hoping against hope that the man would agree.
He wasn't surprised when Carlisle sighed.
-You know that your aren't in the best of conditions to be exposing yourself to this weather.
Jasper scowled at that.
-And I'm sick of sittin' back and doing nothin'. You can lemme go or I'll sneak out and we both know I can do so and no one would be the wiser.
Carlisle sighed and rubbed at his face. Jasper could be quite stubborn when he wanted to.
-Fine. We will go for a drive to the mountains.- Carlisle conceded in defeat. Jasper smirked.
And a drive to the mountains it was.
Carlisle despite all didn't want to keep him up locked in the house. But what else was he suppose to do? Jasper's current state seemed to be too frail for him to be outside and after what happened three days ago... He wasn't physically nor mentally fit to be roaming around.
But he couldn't let him sneak out. He didn't want to lose sight of him were he to do something reckless. Edward had told him about Jasper's desire to hunt the Volturi down and while he had changed his mind Carlisle couldn't help but fear that he would disappear on them if he didn't watch him.
He couldn't allow another son to go and put his life at risk in Volterra. He refused to let his son get himself killed. He had had enough stress and despair with Edward's reckless decision. He didn't need another similar situation. Much less now.
Jasper for his side took it to stick his head out of the window. The cold breeze felt nice after being coped up in the house for so long. He took in a deep breath and brought his arms to hang outside. He stared at the woods. Sniffing the air and reaching with his gift as far as he could.
But there was nothing. Not a single trace. Who could even assure these wolves existed? How could a pack live in this place and leave no trace whatsoever behind? It made no sense.
It didn't exist.
He would die soon.
In Canada.
How poetic that he would die in the same place where his second chance at a better life began.
At least he wouldn't die in the South. Nor alone.
-Who's Rory?- Carlisle's sudden question caught his attention and he slipped back inside the car. Confusion taking hold of him.- You said that name earlier.
-... I'm not sure.- Jasper conceded without looking up. Hand pressing against his side. The gash had begun throbbing. It felt hot and it was making his stomach feel as if it was being turned upside down. Something writhing beneath his skin making fire blaze inside. He tightened his jaw.
He was starting to feel too sick and uncomfortable and wrong for comfort.
But that wasn't new.
-There was a girl in my dream... She was my sister. But I'm not sure. Countin' her... I think I'd four siblings. Two sisters and two brothers... But I'm not sure... I can't remember a thing aside from those dreams.
-It's normal for you to not remember, the older a vampire gets the more they begin to lose their memories from their human life, it can't be helped when we live for as long as we do.- Carlisle told gently, some vampires were glad to get to forget their human lives, others? Not so much.
Emmett for instance would at times get stressed and quite upset whenever he realized he couldn't remember something from his human life. In fact. He had written bits of what had been most important to him about his human life in a journal. Things he didn't want to forget.
Much like Edward and Esme. And he knew Rosalie had also done it. And so had Carlisle himself.
-We should stop searchin'.- Jasper's sudden words caught his attention and he glanced at him.- You've searched practically everywhere, nothin' has come up yet, there are no traces, no local legends to attract tourists, no scents, nothin'. Maybe it was just a worthless rumor after all.
-We still have a week left, we can still-
-I don't care.- Jasper cut off briskly, he was tired of it all, all he wanted was to spend his last days with Alice.
-You don't care?- Carlisle repeated.
-I don't.- Jasper snapped feeling heat rise in his chest at the frustration in the man's emotional signature. He knew he was frustrated, hell everyone was, he didn't need him oozing it all over the place. It was making his skin feel as if it would rip open.
-Jasper, you can't just expect us to-
-I damn well expect it! Stop chasin' after stupid rumors an' clingin' ta useless hopes! 'm gonna die an' there's nothin' ya can do 'bout it!- Jasper explode as something clawed inside him and threatened to rip his lungs open in quite the literal aspect. It was writhing. Twisting. Almost as if attempting to break out from a too small cage.
Carlisle's surprise didn't deter his growing anger nor it did the car coming to a stop. Red flashing in his vision as heat obliterated his senses.
-Jas-
He didn't let Carlisle finish as he threw the door open in order to throw up. Searing lava burning his throat to ashes in the act. It felt almost as if something was tearing his insides and not for the first time attempting to break out up his esophagus.
It failed.
And it made him see white as an explosive ringing obliterated his ears. Someone was talking and there was a hand rubbing soft circles around his back. It felt odd but it made his insides stop burning and the strange feeling stop twisting and threatening to break him from the inside out.
Even the ringing subsided. His head resting against someone's stomach. Carlisle's. The motion on his back didn't stop but he found it too soothing to mind it. The emotions in the air were brisk. Concern. Worry. Confusion. Frustration. Impotence.
Ugh.
Drowsiness was coming back full force. It made his vision blur as the weight of exhaustion settled upon his shoulders.
-Jasper.
Carlisle's voice was distant, so distant, or it could be the drowsiness he was feeling.
The motion on his back stopped and soon hands were pushing him back gently, just enough for him to meet Carlisle's eyes. He looked worried.
That seemed to be his default emotion these days.
-We will get you home.
Carlisle's words were distorted and the fog in his head wasn't cooperating much. Thus all he did was nod.
Carlisle helped him sit back on the seat before closing the door. Jasper didn't paid him much mind after that as his head rested against the door. Darkness taking hold of him.
And before he knew it he was no more aware of his surroundings.
~~~~~~~~~~
Carlisle had to admit that Jasper snapping at him was as off putting as it was surprising. But he also could see there was something highly wrong with him, the way he was clutching his side along with how much his shoulders had begun shaking was proof of it. His eyes were back to that unnatural yellow.
-Jas-
Before Carlisle could even finish Jasper was throwing the door of the car open. For a moment he thought his son would just run off and disappear into the woods.
He didn't.
In fact.
He threw up.
Carlisle was out of the car in a flash.
-Hey, it's alright, you are alright.- Carlisle was quick to say, his hand coming to rub soft circles around his back, hoping to bring him some comfort.
He winced as he swore he heard a bone snap. Probably a rib, that had become quite the recurrent trait, for some odd reason his bones would fracture without apparent reason.
Leah had said that since the next full moon was nearing his body was starting to react, werewolves' bones did break when transforming, their transformation was so much more gruesome and painful than a shapeshifter's.
It frustrated Carlisle to no end to have to watch his son suffer and be unable to do a thing about it.
-You are alright.- He assured softly.- You are going to be alright.- He knew there was a high chance that Jasper wasn't even listening to him. Pain would do that to the mind, he knew that better than anyone, but he wasn't a doctor for nothing.
He kept rubbing his back. Because right now all he cared about was stopping the pain he knew his son had to be in. He felt this one's head lean against his stomach and soon his shoulders were growing lax as he stopped shaking.
He needed to take him back home.
-Jasper.- He called. His voice as soft as possible.
Carlisle removed his hand from his back before grabbing Jasper's shoulders and pushing him back just enough to meet his eyes. Glazed bright yellow stared back at him.
-We will get you home.- He told softly.
A short nod was his answer.
After Carlisle made sure he was safe in the car he was quick to get to the drive seat.
~~~~~~~~~~
Carlisle had called Alice and had asked her to come back. Right now she needed to be with Jasper.
Alice spent most of the day on the bed with Jasper who drifted back and forth between sleep and consciousness. Mumbling nonsenses at times.
There was a week left and there was still nothing, they were running out of time.
Her fingers traced the scars littering his neck for a moment before pressing a soft kiss on the corner of his lips. Her head resting on his shoulder and her arm drapped over his torso.
She was going to lose him and there was nothing she could do about it.
He would die.
And she had never felt more lost. This was so damn unfair. He didn't deserve this kind of ending.
He didn't.
But there was nothing to be done. That pack could as well not exist.
And if that was the case she refused to keep up wasting her time with a fruitless search instead of spending her time with him while she still could.