Gah! If you don't mind me saying so, I love this chapter! I cried the entire time I wrote it…poor Alice, poor Jasper…it can be really intense if you let it be. Anyway, what are you doing still here? Get reading! (One last thing- I promise I'm sticking with Alice's POV for awhile, no more confusing switches! K?)

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Chapter 3

Alice's POV

I laughed in spite of myself. Loud, sputtering laughs, that sounded more forced than real.
"Emmett," I said, "Didn't do anything!" I chuckled ruefully once more. Rosalie raised her eyebrows, looking at me oddly, then walked out in the hallway. I followed. The laughter had disappeared quickly, just as expected, really, how long could a laugh that only existed to keep you from bursting into tears last? Rosalie was walking slowly; she obviously hadn't realized how serious the situation was.

"Edward." One word and Rosalie's eyes grew wide. Her golden irises looked so odd with her blonde hair; it made her more beautiful than should possibly be allowed. Thank goodness nobody in school ever saw her when she was thirsty, her black eyes contrasted so much with that golden mane, every male in the school would be drooling. Rosalie knew it too.

"Edward…did he…?" I squeezed my eyes shut, blocking her face from my mind.

"Yes. He did. We have to go, Rosalie," I said, not wanting to discuss the subject more than was necessary. "Jasper's waiting for us. Hopefully he found Emmett by now."

As I had hoped, Jasper was walking past the stairs with Emmett in tow just as we were coming down them. Rosalie ran to him, then remembering we were there, stopped herself from planting a kiss on him, and settled for looping her arm through his. Emmett stroked her hair.

"Did you tell him?" I asked Jasper. He nodded.

"I still can't believe Edward would get himself into such a scrape," Emmett said. "It's just not like him."

"I can't either." I commented. "But that's not important now. We have to get to him. Now. I have no doubt he'll be quite irritated with us for keeping him waiting so long."

I took Jasper's hand, not caring if the others saw, knowing that the chance to might not last very long.

"Where was Emmett?" I leaned it to Jasper to whisper it into his ear.

"Out back. He was skipping." I nodded, knowing just how much Emmett despised sitting in classrooms doing nothing but taking notes and listening. Emmett was a very physical person. The only class he had never skipped, as was to be expected, was gym. He had shown up many young men in that class, I thought, remembering the day he did nearly one hundred pull-ups. Nobody had broken his record since. I looked over at Rosalie, draped over him, her arm around his, her hand flat on his chest. No wonder she loved him so much. She would be the one to fall for the tough, damsel saving, macho types. Not that I had anything against Emmett. He was...Emmett. No other way to say it.

Jasper was staring intently at me. His eyes were the lightest gold that was possible, his hair waved over one of his eyes. He was the most beautiful creature in this world and the next, as far as I was concerned. But I could tell something was wrong in his mind. He was…confused. But before I could figure out the puzzle, he spoke.

"Why didn't you tell me the second you had that vision?"

I started. This was the one question I didn't want to answer. Everybody in our family tried our hardest not to let Jasper know how much we tried to make his life easier for him. Jasper wasn't a newborn, far from it, but he had lived the majority of his life as a vampire feeding on humans. When we found him, his eyes were red, and it took all of our force to keep him from pouncing on every human he saw. He'd been doing better lately, but, it was still more difficult for him than any of us could ever understand.

"Jasper…" I looked straight into his eyes, pleading with him. "Does it matter?"

His eyes averted mine. He looked off into the distance, where the sky was blushing red, with one grey cloud floating off to our right. He sighed.

"I suppose it doesn't." He shook his head quickly, a smaller movement than anybody but myself could identify. I knew this wasn't the last time I would hear of it. I knew it wasn't fair to him, to hide him from the truth, but what choice did I have? I loved him too much to hurt him. Maybe I should love him differently. I sighed. I would tell him the truth. I would. It would have to be a different day thought. I made a mental promise to myself, to Jasper, that I would tell him the truth about him, about everything. Just another time.

Emmett tapped me on the shoulder.

"Shouldn't we be trying to get to Edward quickly instead of sitting here through a mini-soap opera?"

I rolled my eyes. Emmett always was the one to tease everybody, hated all of that romantic "crap", as he called it.

"Yes, actually, we should." I said back to him, picking up my pace, but still not running, for fear of somebody seeing. If we ever had a day to fear, it was today. Everybody else matched my pace and soon we reached the Volvo. I took a deep breath, then opened the passenger seat door. Edward was sitting in the driver's seat, his hands gripping the wheel, his mouth set into a thin line. His eyes were blazing. Bella was in the back, her eyes wide, her arms crossed across her chest. She looked more like a spoiled child than terrified, like she should be. Edward clearly wasn't about to begin giving orders, so I took control.

"Edward, scoot over, I'm driving. Jasper, Emmett, get in the back. Rosalie, you'll have to sit with Emmett. There's no room."

That was fine with Rosalie. She flopped down into Emmett's lap, threw her hands around his neck. But her eyes were scared, she was holding onto him for protection.

Edward had obediently moved into the passenger's seat, and I turned the car on, driving out of the school lot at 80 miles an hour.

I hit the main road, inching onto 130 miles an hour. I really didn't like to speed as much as Edward does, but in a serious situation like this, we didn't have a choice. I pulled in front of our house, and everybody jumped out, except Bella. She had sat silently the entire trip; I had almost forgotten she was there. Edward was streaming toward the door, Emmett and Jasper were going after him, and Rosalie and I were standing by the open doors, staring after them. Bella's face was down, and I felt a shred of sympathy for her.

"Come on." I looked in at her. "We have to go inside." I paused. "I'm sorry." What I was sorry for, I still wasn't sure about, but I knew that I would have reason to be soon. I'd had a vision as soon as we pulled into the driveway, and I knew Edward's plan. I knew what he had to do, and I knew Bella had no idea what was going to happen to her. She probably had a general idea, but she didn't know what we were. For all she knew, she'd just been kidnapped by a bunch of mythological creatures that weren't even supposed to exist. And I suppose that's what we were. Rosalie stalked off toward the door, leaving me to deal with the human. I grabbed Bella and steered her toward the house. She didn't resist, but she pulled away, determined to walk of her own accord. I shrugged, walking warily. She could try to run away, and even though I knew I could catch her easily, she didn't need to have any more terror. She'd already watched sixteen people die; she didn't need any more traumas. The door was standing wide open, and I saw Bella hesitate. I looked at her, and she glared back, walking through it. Carlisle and Esme were nowhere to be seen, I could hear Edward smashing something in his room, Emmett and Rosalie were sitting on the couch across from me, and Jasper had disappeared. He was probably breaking the news to Carlisle and Esme, he being the one who could keep them the calmest. Then again, I could hardly see then losing their cool, being as caring as they were. Jasper walked out of Carlisle's office, followed by Carlisle and Esme. Esme studied Bella, her eyes filled with concern, while Carlisle watched me. Their eyes never wavered, even as they sat. Then they glanced at each other, and I knew they were wondering the same thing that all of us were. What was going to happen to us?

Edward came back from his room, breathing deeply. His eyes were back to gold, but he was far from calm. He began pacing the distance between the stairs and the couch. All of our eyes followed him, back and forth, like trying to read a book, and truly, we were trying to read him. Jasper was trying to calm everyone down, but for once, it wasn't working as well as it should have. The tension was too strong for us to calm down, even by paranormal measures.

I heard Edward muttering something, too low for even us to hear. Bella glanced up sharply, her eyes on fire.

"As far as I'm concerned," She said sharply, "I deserve some answers."

Every face turned rapidly her way, eyes boring holes in her face, all of us were thinking the same thing, when did she get a right to talk?

"I should be dead right now. But since I'm not, I think all of you ought to tell me what's going on." She was standing now, staring straight at Edward. She was obviously thinking she had nothing to lose; she might as well speak her mind. Edward was sitting now, his face in his hands. Bella was close to tears.

"You're going to kill me, aren't you?" A drop of water rolled down her cheek, and she wiped it away. "I suppose that's the way it has to be, isn't it? A human discovers the secret, and she has to be killed." It wasn't a question. She knew the answer. We all turned hesitantly toward Edward. It was his decision. Even Carlisle couldn't stop him from doing what he needed to at a time like this. We all held our breath.

"No." Edward's voice was too soft for anyone but us to hear. "NO!" He leaped up, running across the room. "I've killed enough today!" His voice became soft. "If I can save at least one life maybe that will count for something."

"Then what is to be done?" Esme's soft voice sounded out of place after Edward's outburst. Edward closed his eyes, composing himself.

"Carlisle, Esme…" If Edward could have cried, I'm sure he would've. "Take the Mercedes with Rosalie and head for Seattle. Now!" Rosalie lurched when she thought of leaving Emmett, but she knew now wasn't the time to argue, when Edward was like this. She pecked Emmett's cheek, then left with Carlisle and Esme. A few seconds later, we heard the Mercedes roaring out of the driveway. There was no time for questions. As to what the threesome would do when they reached Seattle was unknown, but we could trust them to make the right decisions.

"Alice, I need you to drive the Volvo. We should be able to reach Juneau by sundown tomorrow."

At the mention of Alaska's capitol, Bella began to look agitated. Then she jumped up. She glared at Edward. "You can't take me to Alaska!" Edward only glanced at her, then went back to his speech.

"We'll have to hide there until the danger is past. We have no choice."

Bella began to struggle, to try to run, to hide, whatever she could do. Edward only looked at Emmett and Jasper, and they picked her up, under the arms and carried her out the door effortlessly. I looked at Edward imploringly.

"Was that really necessary?"

He returned my stare.

"It was and you know it was. Now let's get going, shall we?" He held out his arm toward the door like a chauffeur. I shook my head as I walked out the door.

Edward was outside in a flash. Bella was standing between Emmett and Jasper, and they looked for all the world like two bodyguards, just there to protect the girl in between them. Irony had a habit of showing up in the strangest places.

"Edward…" I began, "Do we really have to do this?" I gestured toward Bella. "She didn't do anything, and she has family…"

At this reminder, Bella began flailing wildly.

"Charlie! I can't leave him! He'll have no…" Emmett put his hand over her mouth. She had been screaming, and the last thing we needed was some kind of kidnapping investigation. I looked at Edward imploringly.

"She has a point. Who knows how her father will react when she doesn't come home tonight?"

Edward began pacing again. He had an awful habit of doing that under stress. We had tried to break him of it many times, but we had no success. He threw his hands up in the air. "Great. Another complication. Life would be much easier if you kept your mouth shut, Alice."

The insult hit me like a ton of bricks. Edward teased me recklessly, for what reason, I had no idea, but he was serious this time. He wasn't just saying that to tell me to stop giving advice, he was implying so much more. Even if he hadn't mean it, to me, he was saying that I needed to back down, shut off my visions, and keep myself in that low-status stage that so many thought females belonged in. I could feel my eyes turning black with anger.

"Edward!"

Jasper was at my side in a second, holding me around the waist, firmly, but tenderly. I let myself fall back into his cold embrace, let his cool body relax and calm me. When I opened my eyes, Edward wasn't looking in my direction. He clearly had no intention of apologizing to me today. That was fine with me. I hated when any of us argued, and apologies seemed to make everything more awkward, so it was best just to ignore it. There had been a time about 10 years back when Emmett had said something (none of us knew what it was) that made Rosalie madder than a hornet. It took three of us to keep her from ripping Emmett's head off, and after that, she completely ignored him for the next four years. She said nothing to him, didn't acknowledge his presence in any place and none of us knew what to do. I shuddered, remembering. When you live eternally, you sure can hold a grudge. I had no intentions of holding a simple statement against Edward like that. I breathed in deeply, then exhaled, completely calmed down. In times like this it was so easy to say something you don't mean, then to completely overreact to it. Stress did that to us all. Vampires seem to react to it more than humans do; it's really an odd thing.

"Let's go." Edward was sliding into the passenger seat, and I was about to take hold of the steering wheel when something stopped me. Something wasn't right, something in the air. I raised my head skyward, trying to decipher the strange scent, repulsive. Emmett had sensed it too and was stalking around the yard.

"What is it?" Jasper asked, coming around the front of the car. Edward was still in the car, but I could tell that he knew about it too. I hadn't smelled something like this in a long time, the memory of it was buried somewhere in the deep recesses of my mind, but I couldn't pull it out. It was disgusting. Bella looked awfully confused, which was really no wonder since vampires are much more sensitive to smells than humans are. Edward yanked the door open, leaving it swinging on its hinges. His eyes were black again.

"What?" I asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.

He turned his head toward the woods to his left.

"Dog."

A huge grey wolf leaped into the clearing, forcing Emmett to the ground.

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There it is-the long chapter I promised AND a cliffhanger! YAY! I'll get the next one as fast as I can. Review?