CHAPTER 3: ONCE UPON A DREAM
Alice didn't know how long she'd been searching. Time was nothing to her, it was something that she could waste and neglect. She was immortal after all, apparently seeing as that she wasn't exactly sure on what she was and that she only guessed that she was an immortal vampire. What was a day? A month? A year? Years, even? She had been waiting a little over ten years, and one would think she should have just given up. Some, who she would tell of her stories, would tell her to just leave her search and get on with her life because she was never going to find the people she was looking for. They were all wrong, they had to be wrong. She couldn't let herself be submerged in their words. She couldn't nor would she ever give in to their pessimistic hopelessness. She kept on looking.
Jasper was constantly on the move, never staying anywhere for more than a few nights. He strayed away from Peter and Charlotte after a few years, becoming weary and depressed as time passed. Peter and Charlotte were happy and content. He had to live with all the warmth they possessed, somehow making his depression sink even deeper into his core. The emotions that were emanating from them both made him bitter and it made him feel alone, no matter what the two said to him. That he wasn't alone and that he had them. They were wrong, of course. Jasper felt alone and he knew that he was. He reveled in his lonesome, looking at all the people and feeling their emotions. How he hated them and their happiness. He was bitter beyond belief, wanting something he couldn't even explain. He thought he was going crazy.
It was only a matter of time that he wandered away from Peter and Charlotte. He couldn't bear their togetherness much longer. The depth and look in their eyes when they looked at each other was too much for him to take in. Jasper felt himself sink into deeper depression. He was more alone than he had ever been in his existence. Then again, being alone made him think. All the time that he was existing, he had no one and yet… he had everyone. He had everyone under his charismatic spell but he held no one as his own. He had spent his whole existence surrounded by others, and yet, in his lonesome, he discovered that he had spent his whole existence alone.
What was he doing and where he was going, he didn't know. He had no sense of purposefulness; he felt nothing holding him to the earth anymore. He was nothing and he knew it well.
Alice could see all of it, everywhere that he went and everywhere he thought about going to if he decided he wanted to go there, only to change his mind at the next minute. To see his blank eyes and the icy expression marked on his face was heartbreaking. She couldn't bear to see him like this, to have no clue on what he was to do. He had nothing to believe in. His depression only made her even more determined than ever to find him.
She went to every place that she saw him at. From Massachusetts, to Delaware, to California, and all the way to Houston, Texas. Nothing, still. But the mere fact that she knew he went there was enough. At every location, she caught of a peculiar scent. A scent so strange and alluring she knew it was his. It became stronger over time and it became very distinct. She was getting closer, she could feel it. The vision in her mind of them meeting was solidifying by the second. Each passing moment, she was getting closer.
It was when she got a vision of him entering a diner in Philadelphia. It was very clear and distinct; it was almost as solid as her first vision of him and the family she was supposed to find next. It made her optimistic. Maybe she was finally going to meet him, after all the years of waiting for him. She rushed off, stopping for nothing, all the way to Philadelphia. She was going to meet him, she told herself repeatedly, like she always did. She kept herself optimistic.
She reached the diner eventually, only to find out that there was no scent of him in there. He hadn't entered yet, he wasn't there yet, but he was going to be there. Alice found herself more hopeful than she had ever been before. She took a seat on the high stool, and just sat there, staring out at the door waiting for him to enter
"Anything for you, love?" asked the kind waitress.
Alice turned her head at the woman who was talking to her. She was young and she was pretty. Alice smiled at her and ordered a coffee out of courtesy. She was going to be waiting for a long time, a few days at the most. She marveled at that fact. Just a few more days and they would meet. What were a few days when she had been waiting for years? As she waited, she began to fantasize. What would she do? What would she say? Would he like her? Would he ask her to go away and leave him alone because she was annoying him? No, nothing like that. But still, it made Alice just a little worried. She started daydreaming on what he would say back, on what he might do, what he might say, the tone of his voice, what he smelled like, what his hair felt like, everything. It took up time as she just swirled her untouched coffee with a small spoon.
People went in and out of the diner and eventually, Alice left as well. Only because they were closing. When they were closed, she went out to see the neighborhood for the slim chance that she might bump into him. She explored the boutique windows, for even in the darkness, she could see the things that were displayed in the windows. It was only then that she realized that she had neglected her clothes back at the previous residence where she stayed at and she didn't bring them to Philadelphia. She didn't have any clothes, just the money that she kept in her pockets.
After her realization, she went looking for stores immediately. A few blocks from where the diner was, was a small neglected boutique that no one seemed to notice… even in broad daylight. The clothes on the racks were vintage, as though they were from the early 1900s. No one seemed to touch them because everyone was too caught up in what were the current fashions of the world. Alice thought they were just lovely. The little dresses, shirts, skirts and doll shoes. It called out to her but as she looked at the bills that she had, she only had enough for a few more coffees at the diner for a least a few days, two weeks at the most. There weren't a lot of rich folk in Philadelphia, not a lot of people who would mind missing a couple of bills or coins for they all seemed to cherish every piece of money that they had. And so she just went into the store without permission, one lonely night. No one seemed to want them anyway.
Alice broke into the store easily, having done it numerous times before. She played a little dress up inside the store and tried some things on until she saw that daybreak almost hit and the owner was almost there. She took some of the clothes and put them on, some of them she put into a bag that was also in the store. With some scissors and a small, do-it-yourself sewing kit nearby, she managed to make everything authentic and original. Bless her vampiric speed. She went out of the store undetected and supplied with a new stock of clothes.
The moment that she saw the diner open, she darted off to go inside. She was greeted a warm hello and good morning by the friendly waitress. It was still as half empty as it was before. Some grown men in business coats, looking important with their briefcases and newspapers, talking about the economy, stocks, and lots of other unimportant things that Alice didn't care about. There were some teenagers who were grouped amongst themselves, talking about some high school dance that was coming up in a few days time. Just a few people. Alice didn't care about any of them.
Instead, she merely took another coffee and continued staring at the door, waiting for him to burst through it. It was sunny outside and it was going to be sunny for a few more days. Alice remembered that it was drizzling a bit in her vision when he enters the diner. But she couldn't make herself leave, with the possibility that she was going to see him there. That day, he didn't come. Alice left the diner again at closing time, not touching any of the food that she ordered but she paid for them full price. The waitress was beginning to eye her suspiciously. The second night, Alice took a look around the town.
It was a small little town with a few homes and families resided in them. There was a small shopping mall in the town, unlike all of the other towns that she went to. There was also a little motel nearby a local beach, which was also in the town. That was nice, the town was small but it was compact.
Alice found herself wandering around the beach at around midnight. It was empty and the waves were gentle as they touched the sand lightly. There was a small spot which was a little far from the town. It had lots of large rocks and the white sand was still visible what with the luminous moonlight shining down on it. Alice sat down at one of the largest rocks and looked out into the open sea. She contemplated on the future she knew that was going to happen. What would happen after she met him? She guessed that she would tell him about the family and that they were going to be with the family. She couldn't see anything else but she had a feeling that there was something more than just meeting him. There had to be.
The strange pull that the man who Alice had never met before. Why did she have to find him, after just one vision? Why the pull? What was so important about him that made Alice need to find him? These were the things that Alice thought about as she sat on the large rock. She couldn't make herself question or regret everything that she had done. She knew there was something far greater than just having to find the family and Jasper. But what? Maybe there was some connection between her and her past? She found it impossible. She would have remembered him, she just knew it.
The days went on like that. Alice spending all day in the diner, ordering food that she wouldn't touch then at night, she would go back to the same spot at the beach to look up at the sky to clear her mind and think. But one night, Alice had a vision that made her even more ecstatic than usual. It was going to rain the next day.
Alice arrived at the diner before it even opened, too excited to wait.
"Easy down, now sugar. What did you do? Sleep out here until it opened up the joint? Don't you have somewhere to be?" asked the waitress as she opened the doors to the diner.
"Not really." Alice said, smiling.
"Looks like rain today, let's get you inside."
Alice stayed at her now usual spot. The high stool. The waitress gave her the coffee that she knew Alice wouldn't touch and Alice just looked at the door again, waiting for him to arrive still.
"You know dear, you've been in this diner for days now. Should your parents be worried?" asked the waitress, seeing that the usual people weren't there yet.
"No. I'm just waiting for someone." Said Alice cheerfully, turning to the waitress. Her question did raise some curiosity in Alice, though. Parents. Did she have any of those? Were they worried about her? She set aside the thought, telling herself that she mustn't be distracted. She was making bacon, eggs and some pancakes.
"Is this someone a boy, dear?" asked the waitress.
"Yes." She said, although the word boy probably wasn't the right description for the man that Alice saw and has been seeing in her head.
"Well if you've been waiting this long, honey, I'm telling you now. He's not worth the wait. Pretty little thing like you shouldn't be stood up like this." Said the waitress, still cooking and not looking at Alice.
"I'm persistent. He'll come." Said Alice brightly, knowing that he had every reason to be late. He didn't even know she was waiting for him.
The waitress didn't talk to her again and just left her to her own devices. The people slowly started to come inside, the usual crowd again. Every time that she would hear the bell ring from the door, she would turn to it immediately to see if it was him, finally. She wasn't disappointed whenever she saw that it wasn't him. She thought of things optimistically. Each one of them that come in meant that he might be next. Alice held on to that thought very strongly.
The sky was looking gloomy and dark, not depicting Alice's mood. She was as bright and happy as usual. Each passing second, she grew even more hopeful. He would come, she told herself, and he would come.
The hours passed on and it actually started to drizzle. Alice amused herself by stirring her coffee like she actually cared about it. The aroma of it was good, freshly brewed and it was black, liquid velvet. All was quiet, except for the continuously rotating ceiling fan, the sizzling of the eggs and bacon, the soft tinkering sound that her spoon made as it touched the cup, all until the bell rang.
And there he was.
Alice couldn't help but grin. He was there, he was real, and she'd proven them all wrong. So many different emotions flooded through her, all synonymous to happiness and contentment. Her hope was not wasted. He was glorious. Her visions had not done him justice. It was as though perfection would be an insult to him. He was the epitome of perfection and everything good in the world. Alice's eyed widened her grin couldn't be wiped from her lips.
She walked up to him eagerly, smiling up at him. She couldn't believe her eyes. After years and years of searching and waiting, he was there. Alice was ecstatic, more ecstatic than she had ever been in her entire existence.
"You've kept me waiting a long time." She said happily, no anger or anything of that nature in her tone. She seemed to have surprised him.
"I'm sorry ma'am." He said while ducking his head like a good Southern gentleman with a matching southern accent that made Alice's insides swirl.
Alice held out her hand to him and he took it without stopping. She led him out, not knowing where to go and not caring of where she was going. All she knew was that he was there, with her, holding her hand. She felt complete.