Alice and Jasper waited until they were deep in the forest to begin talking. There was still a slight tension between them, but it was mostly on Jasper's part. Alice literally danced between the trees, spinning around in the mid-day sunlight that broke through the thick cover, making her skin sparkle. Jasper found that he was unable to take his eyes off her. She was just so beautiful, so perfect… and yet he couldn't completely agree with what she had done. He followed silently behind her until she skipped back to him to take his hand, both of them slowing down and walking together.
"You never said a word when we were talking with Tayla," she commented, her eyes flickering to his. Jasper sighed.
"Well, it was difficult to keep everyone's emotions under control," he explained, pausing before going on. "Alice, I'm not so sure bringing her here was the best idea."
A short moment of annoyance flashed through Alice's mind, detected by Jasper of course, but it quickly subsided into curiosity.
"I know what you were all thinking. Why did I bother going out to save her? Why is she so important?"
Jasper waited for Alice to answer her own questions, but she had fallen silent, her eyes half staring at something unseen.
"So why did you save her?" he finally asked, her silence and lack of emotion worrying him. She laughed quietly.
"I don't know for sure," she replied. "My visions don't always tell me everything, but they tell me what I need to know. It told me I needed to go after her, but I don't know why. I've been looking into her future, and ours, but she's… difficult."
Alice fell silent once again, annoyance breaking through her apathetic appearance. Neither of them said a word for several seconds until it became too much for Jasper.
"What do you mean she's difficult?" he asked, his eyes never leaving her face. She stared straight ahead, though he could see she wasn't entirely in the moment.
"It's hard to explain. You know how I can't see werewolves, and I can't see Renesmee? Well, it's not entirely like that, but a couple times when I've tried looking into Tayla's future, I can't see it. It's almost like she's keeping me out. I mean, I've been able to see a few things, but they were only short glimpses, like tonight she's going to try to sneak away."
"What?" hissed Jasper at the surprising news. "We have to stop her. She could be dangerous to the town."
"Already taken care of," Alice informed him. "She's scared and confused and she'll try to run when she thinks we're not looking. All we have to do is have someone guard the back door and she'll stop long enough to listen to us."
Jasper sighed in relief. A newborn on the loose would be a big problem for them, and they would need to get rid of her, one way or another, if it came to that. Even though it had been his job when he was with Maria, it didn't mean he liked it.
"For now, we just need to keep a close eye on her," continued Alice. "If we play this right, the Volturi don't need to know, and we can teach her to control herself around Renesmee."
"That's good to hear," Jasper said, detecting nervousness in her emotions. "So what exactly did happen while you were gone? I know you told everyone earlier, but I doubt you told them everything."
Alice laughed shortly without emotion, her mind wandering back to the past four days. She slowed down until they were both standing perfectly still save for the unnecessary breathing act they had adopted. When she spoke, her voice was faint.
"I traveled north until I came to the forest I saw in my vision," she began, staring at the ground. "When I arrived, I managed to pick up the scent of another vampire in the area. I followed the trail for about an hour until I found them. It was a boy, looking to be fifteen, our kind. He was feeding on Tayla, and I could see that she was nearly dead. That's when he saw me. He looked like he wanted to fight me, but something scared him, and he ran off.
"I tried to help her, but I could see it was too late. I had managed to get him off her before he drained all of her blood, but there was already venom in her veins. Within a few minutes she began to register the pain, and that's when she started screaming. I sat with her for two and a half days until the transformation was complete. When she was one of us, I told her what we were, and I told her that if she came back with me, we could keep her safe.
"We traveled back more slowly, avoiding all human contact. I showed her how to hunt, and she wasn't half bad at it. She didn't stray far from me the whole time- I think I made quite an impression on her during her transformation. Once, we did come across the scent of humans. They would have been far away, because the trail was old, but she managed to listen to me and think rationally about it instead of running after the scent.
"There's something about her. Even I can't quite wrap my head around it, but she's different from any vampire I've met before. As far as I know, she doesn't possess any abilities, but she's still young. You never know. I think she has something though. If she didn't, she wouldn't have been worth going after. There has to be a reason I saw her and had to go after her. It would have to be worth all the trouble we could get into."
She stopped talking after that, her eyes far away. Jasper had listened to the entire explanation in silence, and now one thing was burning especially hot in his mind. What was so special about her? Alice had said it herself, there had to be something that made her worth saving. Now they just had to figure out what.
"I can understand how hard this must be for the two of you," he said finally. Alice looked up at him, and he allowed a smile onto his face. "I can understand better than most others can. But don't worry about a thing. We're all going to make sure she's fine. And I'll make extra sure that you are."
Alice smiled in amusement, and laughed when Jasper picked her up into his arms and spun her around as he had wanted to the second he got her back. Right now, it didn't matter how much trouble they would be in. All that mattered was that he had her back, and that she was here to stay.
Tayla didn't know much of what was going on, but she did know one thing: she wasn't sticking around long enough to find out. It was all too weird and too scary and too different for her liking. Alice had been nice to her, but she was very scared. Vampire. The word echoed in her mind, amplifying a thousand times louder and stronger until she felt like screaming. Impossible. Vampires were in the books she read at school, and in the movies on TV that she was too young to watch. Vampires were not nice people who sparkled in the sunlight and could survive on animals alone. Vampires were supposed to be monsters.
Tayla did not want to be a monster.
Alice told her that they would protect her, but she barely knew her enough to trust her. Maybe she had saved her life, but she remembered the pain. It was… indescribable. Imagine the worst pain you've ever felt in your entire life. Now imagine that spread throughout your entire body. Now imagine it a millions times worse, and imagine you're also on fire. Not even close. That doesn't even come close to what had had endured for what Alice said had been over two days. She had been screaming for Alice to kill her, so why didn't she listen? Even now she wished she were dead. This was all too much for a ten year old girl to go through. Tayla didn't want this. She didn't want to live forever by drinking blood and hiding from humans. And her eyes… they were the brightest red. They scared her. She wanted her old green eyes back.
She was also too beautiful. Before, she had been just another cute ten year-old, but now she was breathtaking. Not a flaw in her skin, or a fault anywhere on her perfect body. It was wrong. Unnatural. Every girl wanted to be pretty, but Tayla had never wanted to be so beautiful that it was terrifying to look in the mirror. Alice told her that her eyes would turn a golden-brown like hers if she survived off animals. That wouldn't be as bad as red, but they still wouldn't be hers. There wasn't anything she could think of that she wanted more than her old life back, no matter how terrible it had been, and no matter how much it hurt to-
"I think this will fit you," Esme said, pulling her from her deep thoughts. Tayla looked up from where she was sitting on a large and unnecessary bed to see the woman holding up a dress that looked just her size. It was dark green, with no sleeves, and a black ribbon tying it off at the waist.
"It's one of Renesmee's," Esme explained, and Tayla flinched.
"Don't worry, she hasn't worn it yet," assured Esme, making the young girl feel a little better. She slowly stood up from where she sat, feeling even more anxious that Alice wasn't there with her. Regardless of how much she wished she had listened to Tayla in her death pleads, she trusted Alice a heck of a lot more than the others.
"Thanks," she mumbled, wincing slightly at how her voice sounded. It was so wrong. Her voice wasn't normally that high, or that melodic. Of course, she would have to get used to a whole new normal after her unfortunate encounter with the fascinating boy in the woods who ended up trying to kill her.
She took the dress from Esme, who smiled and left the room to give her some privacy. Tayla swiftly changed into the new dress, admiring herself in the mirror. She had to admit, the dress was beautiful, while she avoided looking at her face, but even her skin was wrong. It was white, pale white, and it shimmered in the light. She laughed bitterly. Weren't vampires also supposed to not show up in mirrors? Then again, when she thought about it, the real type of vampires were a lot more appealing than what little knowledge she thought she possessed before.
Tayla sighed, and as she turned away, her eyes unwillingly flicked up to her face in the mirror before she could look away. She felt like crying, if she could. What had she done wrong? What had she done to deserve being damned for all eternity? Yes, she knew that word. She heard it enough back home. Never in her life had she done something so terrible that she would be given such a punishment.
But it didn't matter. She was going to find a way to solve it, and she was gaining nothing by staying with the Cullen's. She was going to get out of there.
Tonight, she thought, forcing her gaze away from the mirror. I'll leave tonight.
Yes, this chapter was2 a bit shorter than the last one. Well, not including the authors note, it was just over 2000 words, so I'm satisfied. Oh, by the way, I'm going to see Breaking Dawn part 1 in theaters again today! :D Can't wait! OMG I can't wait for part 2! I am dying a little inside at having to wait a year… what does this have to do with my story? Absolutely nothing. Bye!