Alice's POV)

I was sitting at the computer trying to get more information about my past. I was desperate! Everyone else was so lucky, they remember their human lives! Jasper remembers the Civil War, Carlisle remembers London in the 1600s, Max remembers his life in the nineties... why can't I remember my human life?

I gave up after several Internet searches and only finding sites about old abandoned asylums. According to my research, there weren't even any mental institutions anywhere in Missouri!

I didn't hear Max come into the room, but I felt his presence. "Hey babe," he said, coming up behind me and planting at kiss on my cheek before asking, "What're you doing?"

"Research."

He nodded knowingly. "Still trying to figure out your human life?"

I nodded. "Apparently, there weren't even any asylums in Missouri!"

"Well, it makes sense. New York and most of the East Coast is where a lot of the asylums are..."

I turned to look at him. "How would you know that?"

He shrugged. "I was born in Boston, moved to Upstate New York when I was five, lived in Jersey for a few years, and then finally my parents decided to settle in California." (A/N: Haha. Story of my life, 'cept I only lived in Boston and Cali)

I thought about that information about asylums on the East Coast and typed in a new search. Still the same results.

Max asked me, "So, what exactly are you trying to remember? What it was like in the asylum?"

"Kinda. I know it was torturous, but I want to know what it was like in full detail. Everyone else has such vivid memories about everything in their human lives and I can't even remember what the worst years of my life were like."

Max thought for a minute, "Hey. Ever think that maybe visiting the site of an old asylum might jolt your memory?"

"Maybe."

"You up for a road trip?"

"Where?"

"Jersey. When I was thirteen, my friends and I used to try to get to the site of this old abandoned asylum, but we always got too scared... Well, they did. I didn't. So, you up for it?"

"Sounds like a plan."

Max and I came up with a plan, we'd drive there and get there within two to three days.

"Which car should we take?" He asked.

"Well, I don't know if yours can take the speed. Mine's too conspicuous... So are Rose and Emmett's... Um. Let me ask Jasper if I can borrow his car."

Jasper was there within moments. "You're asking if you can borrow my baby?"

I explained the situation to him and he finally caved. "Okay. But I get your car while you're gone. And if my baby gets even a scratch, I'm smashing yours into a tree."

Bella walked in just then and told him, "Be nice, Jazz."

He didn't answer her and just looked at me until I said, "Okay! Fine! You get my baby while we're gone!"

He smiled and held his hand out and I tossed him the keys. "Thanks," he said before grabbing Bella's hand and leaving with her. But before he left, he tossed his car keys to me, which I caught easily.

Max asked, "You ready?"

"Just let me pack."

We packed and loaded everything into the car within minutes, including a camera to see if we could find any ghosts and catch them on tape.

After we had everything, I slid into the driver's seat and Max got into the passenger side and started fiddling with the CD player as soon as I turned the car on.

"MxPx?" I asked.

"Yep," he replied, settling back in his seat. "I thought the song kinda fit."

It did. I realized it as soon as the singing started. Max started singing along. "Am I the one that's going crazy? I'm so tired of masquerading."

He held an invisible microphone in front of my face, making me sing the next line. I laughed. "Why pretend to be so well adjusted? Maybe it's just me and I'm disgusted."

Max and I sang the rest of the verse together. "I need a room in a mental penitentiary, so lock me up with maximum security. The doctors say that they don't know what's wrong with me, so strap me down it's time for my lobotomy! Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!"

Max laughed and took over the chorus. "The doctors say that I'll be getting out real soon. The doctors say that I've be making big breakthroughs!"

We finished the rest of the song together and ended it laughing our asses off.

"Bring back any memories?" Max asked.

"Nope."

"Well, hopefully this trip helps."

"I hope so too. I wanna be able to tell everyone that I remember my life, be able to tell stories."

"Well, I know for a fact that your stories will be more interesting than mine."

"Hey, maybe not. I mean, I'm not the spaz with heroin in his system." Funny story about that. See, Max is a total spaz and Carlisle suspects it has something to do with his former diet. After Max entered the real world again after years of seclusion, he didn't stick to the normal "non-vegetarian" diet. He drank the blood of mostly homeless people, who were usually strung out on heroin or cocaine. And Carlisle suspects that somehow the drugs got transferred to his system permanently. I know, it sounds sad, but it's really not. It hasn't affected his health at all. And without it, I wouldn't have my little spazzy Max.

Max just said to my comment, "Your face!"

I laughed and said, "I still love you Max."

"I love you too, babe. Even though you can be really mean sometimes."

I just stuck my tongue out at him, which made us both crack up laughing again.

We drove in silence for the next few songs, Max getting a faraway look in his eye every now and again.

"What're you thinking about?" I asked him.

"This song just reminds me of my old life." We were listening to "Kings of Hollywood."

Max sang along quietly with the chorus. "The sun was coming up when we were laying down. We felt like kings and we loved that town. The sun was coming up when we were laying low. We felt like kings... were living our dream."

He was quiet after that, deep in thought. So I said, "You know, you've never told me much about your human life, Max."

He let out a puff of air before saying, "Well, you know I lived in the Bay Area in California, Oakland specifically. I worked at a record store in downtown Berkley, went to lots of shows at Gilman... I'd been in several bands, but none of them ever lasted. I was trying to get a band together when I was changed... I was the outcast at school, my parents moved us to upscale Suburbia. I hated it, hated being different. That's why I worked in Berkley, I felt like I belonged. There's way more punks in downtown than in Suburbia."

"What's your natural hair color?" It was a weird question, but I wanted to know. He dyed it a different color every week or so.

"Blond... I first dyed it when I was in ninth grade, haven't stopped damaging it since." He cracked a smile.

I asked another question. "Do you miss any of it?"

"Of course I miss it. I miss the shows, miss the culture of it all, I miss the music, the sounds... Gilman, the bands that played there. I miss it all." He looked at me. "But I'm glad I was changed 'cause I probably wouldn't have met you otherwise."

I smiled and knew I would be blushing if I were human.

He laughed. "Aww. You're so cute."

I changed the subject. "So, you think we're gonna see any ghosts there?"

He shrugged. "Never know."

I'd never really thought much about the existence of ghosts. I would think they didn't exist, but then again, most people think vampires are a work of fiction.

We made it to the asylum by nightfall of the next day. It was a really creepy one in northern New Jersey.

I parked the car behind a bush about fifty yards away. There was a full moon, which made it easier to see as we got out of the car and got our gear. I wasn't expecting anything big to happen.

Max took my hand in his. "Ready?"

I took a deep breath and nodded. "Yeah, ready."

He led me towards one of the old buildings, one of about fifty, spread out over several acres. Max whispered, "There's a series of tunnels underneath the buildings, it's how the doctors and nurses got from building to building. Wanna check 'em out."

"I guess." I was starting to get just a bit freaked out.

The front door was locked, but Max picked it easily, and before I knew it, we were in.

It smelled like asbestos and mold, not that we had to worry about that, and the walls were covered in graffiti, including the word "Death" with an arrow pointing to the left.

I took a moment to take it all in, willing myself to remember just a sliver of what had happened to me within walls just like these.

"Anything?" Max asked.

I shook my head. "Nothing."

"Okay, let's start exploring."

He led me down the hallway the death arrow pointed to. I snorted inwardly at the irony of the living dead following the death trail.

There were series of arrows with the word death, all pointing towards one destination, a set of rusty, creaky old stairs that led deep underground, to the series of tunnels underneath the mass of buildings.

We passed by several doors, which I assumed were old patient rooms.

One of them was open, and I peaked inside.

I gasped in horror at the sight of the rusted old bed, stripped of it's mattress and sheets, with a moldy, old yellowed straitjacket thrown haphazardly on it.

I squeezed Max's hand, "C-can we get out of this room?"

"Sure. Can I see if I can get some EVPs first though?" EVPs were Electronic Voice Phenomenon. If you take a tape recorder and ask a series of questions, there's a possibility of getting a voice from beyond the grave when you play it back. Voices unable to be heard otherwise, for humans or vampires.

"Um... I guess," I stuttered.

"I'll be fast."

I watched anxiously as he turned on the tape recorder and asked a series of questions, such as "Is there anybody here with me?"

"Okay, I'm done," he said finally, letting go of my hand and wrapping his arm around me. He knew I was scared, but I also knew he wouldn't let me bail unless I became hysterical. This was too important to me.

We continued down the hall towards the stairs, where a sign stood, warning of the risk of breathing in asbestos and mold.

The stench was so great here that I found myself holding my breath as we descended the stairs and found ourselves underground.

The ground was sticky, and it was pitch black down here, though we could see perfectly.

Max stopped every now and then to ask questions to potential ghosts and take pictures as we moved through the tunnels, occasionally coming across more rusty beds and abandoned electroshock machines, and other torture devices.

It made me sad, to imagine just how much hell these patients went through, fighting their own inner demons. To think that I suffered through this too sent chills up my spine.

Max tightened his grip around me. "You okay, babe?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking."

"Any recognition?"

"Nope, still nothing..."

We visited several other buildings, most of which were filled with old patient rooms, but one held the most eerie spot of the whole place- the morgue.

I stopped in my tracks as we passed by it. Some of the metal slabs that once held dead bodies were slid out, other shut and locked.

"Oh my God," I muttered. I was getting more freaked out by the minute.

"C'mon, Alice, let's go."

Max pulled me away from the horror of that room and we continued on our journey.

In another building, we came across another open door, but this was no patient room.

I noticed several filing cabinets along the wall and decided to take a peek. I silently stepped toward the cabinets and opened the top drawer, which squeaked loudly.

There were hundreds, if not thousands, of files and papers and notes on various former patients, yellowed and faded with age.

My eye caught the Bs and despite the unlikelihood of me finding anything, I searched through the files while Max stood behind me, wondering what I was doing.

And that's when I found it, the file I was looking for.

I pulled it out. "Max! Look!"

"What?" He moved next to me to read what the file said. "Is that-"

"It's me!" I breathed. Scrawled on the line that read "Patient's Name" were three names: Mary Alice Brandon...

And then the memories invaded my mind. Every last detail of my past life came flooding back. I remembered everything, and the impact caused me to fall to my knees, clutching my head and willing them to go away. I changed my mind! I don't want to know!!!

"Alice?" Max was kneeling beside me as I shook my head violently. "What's wrong?"

"NO!" I screamed. "No! No no no no!!!" I was sobbing by now. My mind flashed back to the old straitjacket and I remembered being tied up in it after a particularly violent vision.

I remembered the rusty electroshock machine and screamed again as I remembered the pain those bastards that called themselves doctors had put me through.

Max had picked me up by now, but I barely registered it, as the memories still rushed through my head.

My life played before my very eyes in little short clips, almost as if I were having vision after vision, except they weren't of the future, but the past.

I saw my parents exchanging that look as they watched their daughter writhing on the ground, screaming and yelling about something that hadn't happened yet.

My mind played a clip of me being forced onto the train, screaming to my parents not to let them take me away! My mother cried, while my father just looked away, refusing to acknowledge me. They were sending me as far away as they possibly could, so they wouldn't have to face the embarrassment of being associated with the crazy daughter.

And then my mind showed me clip after clip after clip of the various methods of torture I'd gone through, electroshock, being soaked in cold water for hours, being locked up in my room for days and never seeing the sun... I remembered it all.

The most vivid memory of all though, was my transformation. The burning pain, the doctor who changed me... He took me from my room late one night, he was the only one who was ever nice to me. I was scared, but then he bit me, and I blacked out. I know I screamed, but no one questioned it, there were screams all the time in the place. I remember thinking, amongst all the pain, that even this, the most intense pain imaginable, was better than everything I had endured throughout my years at the mental penitentiary...

When I snapped out of it, I was in the backseat of the car, on Max's lap.

My breathing was ragged, and if I had a beating heart it would have been thudding out of my chest.

"Alice? You okay?" Max asked cautiously.

I nodded shakily, still in shock after what just happened.

"What happened?" He asked.

"I-" I struggled to find words to describe what I had just endured. "I remember everything. My mind just exploded! My life was flashing before my eyes..."

I forced myself to breath deeply and rested my head on Max's shoulder. "It was horrible. Absolutely horrible. I remember seeing all those patients who didn't survive the electroshock or committed suicide being carted off to the morgue. I was in the room right across from it..." I trailed off, letting the sobs take over.

Max held me close and rubbed my back. "Shhh. It's okay now. You're safe. Nothing's gonna hurt you again. I'm here..."

It took several long minutes before I calmed down. Neither of us said anything though. We were silent for another minute before he asked, "Wanna go home now?"

I nodded.

"Okay, I'll drive."

I got off his lap and scrambled into the front passenger seat while he slid into the driver's seat and took the keys from me.

As we sped off towards home, I grabbed his hand and said, "Thanks."

"I don't really think you should be thanking me. This was a bad idea." He looked defeated, and I knew he blamed himself for my bad experience.

I squeezed his hand and insisted, "This wasn't a bad idea. I came for the experience, and I got my memories back. That's more than I imagined would happen, I know who I am now. I have stories. So, thank you."

He turned his head to smile at me. "You're welcome, Alice."

I leaned over and kissed his cheek. "I love you."

"And I love you."

A/N: Hello my faithful readers! =] I'm soooooo sorry for the lack of an update, but I was suffering from some major writer's block. I came up with the idea for this chapter awhile ago, wrote half, and then got stuck. But then I was watching an episode of "Ghost Adventures" and they were at this old adandoned asylum in Northern New Jersey. So, this place actually exists, I just don't know the name 'cause they couldn't say it on the show. But anyhoo, so the episode really helped me with this because that's where I got a lot of the imagery... So, what do you think???

1st song was "Well Adjusted" by MxPx, because it just fit soooooo perfectly! ^_^ And the second one is also by MxPx and it's called "Kings of Hollywood." Both songs are flippin' amazing! So check 'em out!!!

Disclaimer: I own nothing, not even the asylum. Well, I own Max, but that's about it. lol.