Chapter 2

I didn't know why I was crying. I suppose I was scared. The room I was in had no windows. The walls were white and the bright florescent lights buzzing overhead were burning my eyes even though they were shut tightly and my head was tucked in my knees. I wanted so badly to turn them off or break them but I was too afraid to move out from my corner. Despite where I was, I was a little shocked at myself: I hadn't been afraid since before I come back from New York.

On top of my fear, I was also terribly hungry since I hadn't eaten for a few hours, even a normal person would be hungry by now. I didn't move a muscle until someone came in. I knew immediately that they were bringing food without looking up. I could smell the almost cold chicken and some bread and vegetables. This was NOT what I wanted, didn't they know that I only ate raw meat. Then I got a whiff of the human carrying the food: female, kind of chubby, delicious scent(not as yummy smelling as Delicious Kate though)the first word that crossed my mind was yummy. Fantasies of tearing into that warm, juicy, flesh filled my mind. I raised my head to peer up at her through my hair, running my tongue over the sharp edges of my teeth, my predatory senses kicking in, preparing me for attack.

There were two men behind her holding tranquilizer gun looking things. As I watched, they stepped closer, moving slower and more cautiously than before. Their heats were beating fast and I could smell fear mixed in. The woman was shaking slightly, the plastic food tray rattling so quietly that any normal person wouldn't have been able to hear it. As she began to lean over, I raised my head a little more and peered more closely at her, squinting in the light. She froze mid-motion as she saw the hunger in my eyes. I bared my teeth, revealing their sharp and pointed edges, and she shook harder.

Now the men were beginning to shake a bit too. They aimed their tranquilizers at me in warning but I paid them no mind and launched myself at the woman. Her shriek of terror turned into a scream of pain as my teeth came in contact with her neck, tearing into the soft, warm, flesh and muscle. Suddenly there was a sharp pain in my side and I howled, released the woman from my grasp and fell to the floor. One of the men's legs was close and I reached out to rake my claws down its length. He cried out in pain and dropped his tranquilizer to clutch his leg. By now I was getting drowsy, the tranquilizer's contents spreading throughout my body in icy tendrils, wrapping itself around my bones, snaking through my muscles, gripping my heart.

A foggy haze settled over me and the tendrils gripped me even tighter, numbing my body and mind. I tried to stand but collapsed back to the floor. I laid there, eyes shut tight, mouth open slightly, the woman's fresh blood and mashed up flesh dripping from my mouth onto the floor. The side of my face was pressed against the cold tile and it felt good. The world around me faded, I could hear the groans of pain coming from the two humans I had just injured. Finally I fell completely into unconsciousness.

When I woke my eyes fluttered open, but I immediately slammed them shut again. The overhead lights were shining, hideously bright, directly in my eyes. As I tried to sit up, I realized that I couldn't move my arms. Apparently, while I was unconscious, someone had stuffed me into a straight-jacket. After a few minutes of panicking and struggling to get free I heard a couple of stitches split. I guess they didn't know a few pieces of stitched together canvas wouldn't hold me, and now I knew. I wriggled and pulled and bit at whatever parts of the fabric my teeth could reach, and soon I was free(of the straight-jacket anyway).

I finally looked around the room and definitely didn't like what I saw. The room was padded and didn't have any windows and no bed. The door-which was padded as well-had a tiny window made of thick glass at about eye level like the one in the room I was in before. I walked toward it and peered out through squinted eyes. All I saw was a long, bright hallway and no people or anything else. I stood there for a second until a high-pitched screech broke the silence. It had come from the floor below me. It didn't faze me much though, I already knew I was in a psychiatric hospital(to put it lightly).

After a second I turned back to my furniture-less room and squinted around, as I did so I realized that I felt oddly sane, which kind of ironic seeing as I was currently locked up in the loony bin. I just did a little mental shrug and placed a hand over my eyes to block out the light. Peeking through my fingers and sighing, I walked to the wall opposite the door and punched my other fist straight through the padding. I tried not to yell as a shock of pain shot up my arm all the way to my shoulder as my hand connected with the wall. This confirmed my suspicion that it wasn't wood.

I cradled my injured hand to my chest and rubbed it gently, trying to ease the pain, it only worked a little. Ignoring it, I used my other hand to tear off a bunch of the padding around the hole. As it got bigger, I saw that the backing of the padding was a fairly thick layer of plywood. It had cracked as my fist had connected with it. I smirked a little, wood was exactly what I needed.

I dug my long, steel-hard fingernails into the crack, picking at the splinters until there was a hole in the wood that revealed the actual concrete wall. I worked on the wood a bit more and when I was finished I was able to pull off a nice chunk of it. I stepped back and squinted up at the overhead lights, I weighted the wood in my hands and hurled it at my target. I dived into the corner as pieces of white honey-combed plastic shield and shards of glass from the lightbulb rained down from the ceiling. The light in that square flickered once and went out. It was a lot less bright now but not quite dark enough so I picked up the wood and repeated that with the one other square of light in the room.

Once the only light in the room was coming from the tiny beam of light filtering in through the window in the door I was finally able to open my eyes completely. I turned and walked over to the hole I had made in the padding and smiled widely, proud of the damage I had inflicted. Now that I could think without the blinding lights shining in my face, a plan began to form in my mind. I was going to get out of that place, no matter what it took.

With a new found confidence I stalked over to the door and crouched beside it on the side that would open. I breathed in deeply as I pressed my ear against the crack between the door and its frame and listened for any infinitesimal sound that reached it. I held my breath as I listened(I had recently discovered that I could hold it for about fifteen minutes, twenty if I strained myself)the only sounds I heard were my heart thumping-unusually fast for me being so calm-in my chest and the blood rushing in my ears. These things were easy to ignore though so they weren't a distraction.

After a little over thirty minutes I finally heard soft footsteps echoing quietly down the hall. My muscles tensed and I listened harder. As they got closer, I could identify two sets of feet. They were speaking but the words weren't clear enough for me to decipher through the thick wall. Suddenly, the two sounds stopped short. Apparently they had just noticed the light-less window of my room.

I smiled, knowing they'd be opening the door soon to find out what had happened. I heard their footsteps start up again, sounding rushed. I listened as one set of footsteps raced in one direction as the other continued down the hall toward my door.

The light was blocked a little as his face pressed against the glass window, trying to see inside and assess the situation and probably to find me as well. I pressed myself closer to the wall so he couldn't see me, still listening hard. I heard a bunch of running footsteps and someone shouted something. Before everyone stopped outside my door, I was able to approximate that there were five sets of feet. I heard a series of odd clicking noises and then the doorknob jiggled as it was unlocked.

My muscles tensed even more, my animalistic senses kicking in, readying me for a fight. I resumed my crouched position, getting ready to spring through the door the moment it was opened enough. It was barely opened two inches when what looked like a barrel of a gun(probably a tranquilizer)stuck through. It was about to touch my face when my right hand flashed up like lightening and grabbed hold of it, yanking it out of the grasp of whomever was holding it. With my left hand I pulled the door opened farther and dashed out, in one fluent motion I swung the gun around(I should probably add that it looked like a mini rifle)and wacked one of the people who still had a gun in the face with the butt of it. I felt a pair of strong hands grab my arm and swung the gun around again, smacking him in the face as well and pulled free. I used my other hand to grab someone else's gun and pulled it out of their hands. Now I had two guns and two of the people were unconscious and one was gun-less.

Someone grabbed me from behind and held me tightly, but I was too strong and hurled him right over my shoulder, lifting him completely off his feet. He landed on someone in front of me, which ended with them both on the floor. I spun around and faced the person standing directly in front of me. Before he could do anything I knocked the gun out of his hands and punched him in the face.

I dropped the other gun and darted down the hall. As I ran, I dodged and pushed over anyone who got in my way, not noticing nor caring who it was. I jumped down a whole flight of stairs and kept running until I saw the exit. I was so close to freedom when I felt something stab me in the neck. The first thing I thought was not again as I fell to the floor. I was so angry that I growled and snarled until I black out completely.

I woke up extremely pissed off about the fact that I kept getting caught. Now I was in a room-lying on my back on something like a bed-with ugly, faded white walls and again no windows. I could feel something hard with thick, soft padding on it wrapped around each of my wrists and ankles and around my stomach. I could smell that the hard part was metal, which meant that there was no chance I would be getting out of it anytime soon.

I growled in frustration and turned my head to the side, pinching my eyes shut tighter, trying to protect them from the lights glaring down at me from the ceiling. The light was making the beast inside me squirm. I felt my momentary sanity slipping away and struggles to grab hold of it again. I needed it in case someone came in so I could get them to turn off the lights. If I didn't have even a little bit of sanity, I would barely be able to think.

I lay there waiting for a long while before someone came in. I kept my eyes shut and held my breath so I wouldn't catch the scent and cause the thing inside me to go crazy. I couldn't hear anything, no breathing, no footsteps, no heartbeat no rushing blood except my own. Before I could do anything, felt something cold touch my cheek gently. At first I was shocked and jerked my head away, but then I decided that I liked it so I moved my head back to where it was but there was nothing there.

I opened my eyes slowly but I flinched and closed them again. The light seemed to have gotten brighter than it had been. Then I heard the most amazing voice I had ever heard(at that point in time anyway).

"Would you like me to turn the light off?" it asked gently, quietly, trying not to frighten me. I nodded, awestruck by her voice. Almost immediately after I heard the light being switched off. I felt my self relax a little, as well as the beast inside me. I was, however, unnerved by the fact that sound seemed to be completely absent from this woman.

Opening my eyes slowly, cautiously, I saw her. She looked like some kind of angel with the light from the little window on the door filtering in behind her(I guess all those rooms had that window). She was petit, elegant, her hair was short and black and flipped out in all directions. Her eyes were gold and she was extremely pale, not ghostly pale like me, but a soft, glowing pale. I couldn't help but stare as a small smile played across her perfect lips.

I breathed in deeply, feeling a strong need to know what she smelled like and the most wonderful scent filled my nostrils.

"I'm Alice," she said suddenly.

I blinked at her in surprise. Well, she most certainly wasn't afraid of me like everyone else always seemed to be. I pulled at my restraints a little, trying to convey without words that I wanted to get out. Alice looked at me sadly for a moment before responding.

"I'm sorry," she said, "I'm not authorized to let you out, though I absolutely would if I could."

She stood there for a few minutes, chewing her bottom lip, thinking hard about something. I laid there watching her, waiting for her to do something.

"Can you speak?" Alice asked in the same gentle tone as before. I nodded.

"Do you not want to?"

I nodded.

"You do want to?" she asked, sounding mildly confused.

I nodded again.

"But, you can't?" she guessed.

I shook my head "no."

"What's stopping you?"

I thought for a second, trying to figure out how to communicate without words. When Alice guessed my dilemma, I nodded in confirmation of her suspicions.

"Hmph," she said. Then she got an expression like a lightbulb had just gone on over her head. "Hang tight for a minute," Alice said as she patted my shoulder lightly. "I've got an idea." She pulled a cell phone out of her pocket as she stepped out of the room, smiling brightly at me before closing the door behind her.

I waited for a few minutes, wondering what she was up to until she came back in.

"I think I know how I can find out what's going on with you without you having to speak at all," Alice said, "all you have to do is remember everything that's happened since the beginning of all this craziness. Not yet though, we'll have to wait a while before Edward gets here."

yay chaper 2, and the cullens...well alice anyway has been introduced!!!!