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BELIEF IN THE ABSENCE OF PROOF

CHAPTER 2: THE CHASE (November, 1920)

Alice thundered through the forest, testing her strength, her speed, her endurance. It seemed that she could do anything but stop. She had tried to sit and watch the sun rise on the first dawn of this new life, but soon discovered that stopping only led to thinking and that would do her no good. She was alone and there were gaping holes in her knowledge that left her feeling frustrated and out of control.

When she allowed herself to think, the burning in her throat increased and she sought out the scent that could turn everything else into background noise. She had killed 4 people on the first day of this life: the woman with the green hood, a man checking traps at dusk and an elderly couple sitting side by side on the porch of a small house. When the old woman lay dead at her feet, Alice had looked at her husband and realized that she didn't even want him. She was too full – the blood of three people still heavy in her stomach. It was enough.

When she had made the decision to leave the old man, she had a vision of hooded figures chasing her and a sickening pain hit her before the vision abruptly stopped. And so she realized that you can't leave them – humans who have seen you – behind. It was probably a mercy to kill him. He was pressed into the corner of the porch, keeled over and clutching his chest. In the end she snapped his neck and carried them both deep into the woods; the stench of urine and illness that clung to him was unappetizing and, compared to the first that she had taken, he was unappealing.

When the moon was at its highest she had made her way into the small town in which she may or may not have made her home before the burning. It barely covered one block, with homesteads set amongst the looming forests that surrounded it on all sides. Sated from the blood that she had consumed, she had been able to stroll through the town with minimal discomfort - with the snores and whispers of the towns inhabitants to keep her company. Somehow she knew that she had once been like these people, but they seemed so weak: sleeping in their beds as a predator ambled by their windows.

She had wandered to the edge of the town where a timber sign declared: Welcome to the Town of Forks: Population 365. Alice picked up a jagged stone from the ground and crossed out 365, engraving 361 below. She thought again and crossed out the second number, writing 360 alongside it. She stared at the sign for a moment, feeling the now familiar loss of control. Deciding that she didn't want to amend the sign again so soon and fearing the hooded figures from her visions, she headed west once again.

So here she was, running and jumping and tearing her dress. Alice wondered what she would do with the time that she had to kill – and who knew how much of it there would be – until she finally met those that filled her mind. Her thoughts wondered back to the one with the golden eyes and she wondered how she would ever be so still or so calm again. But she knew that she could be whatever he needed her to be.

Since the burning had stopped, a running vision had constantly occupied a tiny corner of her mind, providing her with a preview of her life a few seconds in advance. It suddenly ceased and she stilled as a stomach-churning scent hit her. She spun and counted 4 enormous wolves surrounding her, holding the majority of their weight on their hind legs ready to pounce. She crouched down instinctively as they circled her and she barred her teeth, snarling in response to their low growls.

The largest wolf flew at her and she leapt, spinning in the air and kicking out her foot to connect with its jaw. She landed on a branch above and watched the wolf as he lay writhing on the ground below her, his jaw sitting at an unnatural angle. The three remaining wolves circled below her tree, growling and pawing the ground.

Alice had already tested her strength, speed and endurance with pleasing results. But she had also thrown herself into rock faces, tried to cut her arms using a knife pilfered from the trapper's body and – once relatively convinced of her resilience – she had even thrown herself from a cliff into the churning water below. None of these things had injured her in the slightest, but instinct told her that the creatures that now circled her could put an end to her life.

For a full 5 minutes, nobody moved except for the injured wolf below. Alice watched in fascination as his body shimmered and changed and pulled back into itself. On the ground lay a man, and while Alice knew little of the world she didn't think that this was how it usually worked. This change seemed to spur on the remaining three wolves who leapt and snapped at her perch, forcing her into action. She did not want to fight these creatures and instead she danced through the trees, touching the ground only when it was absolutely necessary – with two of the wolves snapping at her heels at every turn.

She soon out-danced them and was able to double-back and climb to the top of a giant cedar, watching them circle below before they ran back in the direction of the injured…man. Alice wondered which direction to head in. North led to more of the disconcerting nothingness that had overtaken her before the wolf-men had surrounded her, as did east and west. Alice decided to travel south and a vision unfolded before her: a cabin in the sun.