Chapter Four
I spent the next few days trying to persuade Alice to tell me what she knew. At first I tried to be discreet so that nobody, even Alice quite knew what I was doing. Then, after that didn't work, I tried to corner Alice on her own. So far that had only happened once and Alice had refused to tell me, pretending that I was being paranoid, but she didn't get angry. She seemed guilty actually, which meant I was right- there was something she wasn't sharing. I wondered if Edward knew. Alice had had plenty of practises hiding her thoughts from him, but she would have to do it all the time and Edward would guess something was up. Unless he was in on this secret too...
Eventually I decided if the next time I cornered Alice and she didn't give in, I would ask Edward. Just as I decided this, Alice walked in the empty kitchen. We each stared at each other. We never used the kitchen, of course. The only time the Cullens had used it was when I was still human. Ages ago. Well, it seemed that way. I was in here because I was trying to think clearly. The kitchen was a place I thought I would never be interrupted. However, it seemed that Alice had had the same idea as me.
"What are you doing here?" we each blurted out at the same time. "Nothing" we added together.
"Come on, Bella, what were you doing?" demanded Alice. "You must have been doing something."
"I could ask you exactly the same thing" I said coolly. "Alice-"But Alice must've had taken one look at my face and guessed what I was about to say from the last time I cornered her. She stopped me by holding up her hands.
"Please, Bella, trust me" she pleaded. "I can't tell you."
"Why not?" I demanded. "Does anyone else know?" Alice shook her head.
"I haven't told anyone" she said.
"Jasper?" I pressed, feeling she might not be quite truthful. "Edward?" Alice shook her head again.
"I'm really good at keeping my thoughts under control around Edward by now" she said, smiling in spite of herself. "Jasper would just make me tell somebody- or he'll let it slip around Edward. I wish I could tell somebody though...take the weight off my shoulders..."
"You could tell me" I whispered, but Alice, looking like she would be crying if she could, shook her head for the third time in three minutes.
"You would make me tell someone- like Jasper" she said, sounding strange. "I really shouldn't tell anybody. You'd all freak out."
"So is that why you won't tell anybody?" I asked determinedly. "Because we'll freak. Try me."
"Bella, you're the last person I would ask to be my guinea pig" Alice laughed. "If you did fly off the handle, you'd be much harder to get under control."
"You could ask Jasper to come in here too and tell both of us" I suggested. "Jasper could help me."
"Really" Alice insisted. "I'm not gonna tell you. Pull the other one."
"You know I won't give up until you tell me" I threatened. "You'll have me asking you at least ten times every day."
"You'll give up eventually though" said Alice, but she didn't sound like her usual, sure self, so I thought she hadn't seen me giving up. She was just trying to kid herself.
"Please Al-" I began, but my pleading was cut off when both Alice and I gasped, my gasp like an echo of Alice's. She was on her knees on the floor, swaying. I bent down and quickly and pulled her to her feet. The vision seemed to have gone away. Alice straightened herself out. Then she froze. I grabbed her arm again, but she didn't fall, or even sway.
"Oh no" she groaned "oh no, no, no."
"Alice" I said, shaking her. When she didn't respond I pressed her more urgently. "Alice. ALICE!" Alice didn't respond, but before I could say anything, Edward and Jasper came in.
"What did you see Alice?" asked Jasper urgently, shoving pen and paper into her hand, but she shook her head, passing them back to him.
"Edward! What did she see?"
"It didn't make any sense to me" said Edward. "Like you've seen something before this. Have you?"
"Alice!" said Jasper, forcing the pen and paper back into her hands. Sighing, excepting defeat, Alice began drawing.
"It doesn't make much sense to me either" she said. "I saw somebody- a vampire- giving a command to come here because we defied the Volturi."
"Well, so the Volturi are coming?" gasped Jasper. "Why is that so hard to understand?"
"It wasn't... wasn't..." Alice seemed in a state of shock from what she had seen. "It wasn't the Volturi" she said. "It wasn't anyone I recognised." OK, now I understood why Alice didn't get it.
"Fantastic" I said. "We've got another enemy now. Someone who's using our Volturi encounter to their benefit. Anyone have any ideas?" Of course no one didn't. Typical.
