The Kill
Owen inspected the "special object" in the MRAP's passenger seat one last time, then ensconced himself in the rear and gave Jane the go-ahead. The former Volturi guard leader put the truck in drive and headed for the Cullen residence.
Owen belted himself in next to Bella, with Lucy opposite him and Alice to Lucy's right. The MRAP's interior was cramped; Owen had no idea how soldiers wearing combat gear fit inside one of these things. Jane was the only one of their number who had dressed for battle, but as she had the body of a 13-year-old, this still left her with plenty of room to maneuver.
"Cram all your pieces into one section of the board," Lucy remarked, "and see what happens."
"That's right," Owen replied. He wished he could tell her about the special object – the extra piece he had decided to add to the game – but if she knew about it, the monster inside her would probably make her bolt. Not that she had any more decisions to make; this was Alice's mission now, for better or for worse. But Owen wanted Lucy there at the end.
"Edward's going to read your mind," Bella noted. "We'll know your secrets."
Owen nodded. "I'm counting on it," he replied. "And since we're going to the place where secrets die, we might as well get a jumpstart on the process. This is your final exam, Alice. Pass and the mission is yours. The Four Queens are yours."
"What's the test?" Alice asked.
"Figuring out what the test is is part of the test," Owen explained.
"Edward will know soon enough," Alice said.
"Yes, and he'll also know not to tell you."
This angered Bella. "He won't do what you want," she insisted.
Owen merely smiled.
"Are you going to kill the Cullens?" Lucy asked.
"I don't know," Owen replied, confident that Jane could hear him despite the noise of the truck's engine. "If Alice fails the test, maybe. If she passes, maybe then, too. When I say I don't know what I'm going to do, I really mean I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm a vampire hunter. Stick me in a clearing with ten vamps and maybe I'll just flip out and kill them all. Who knows? Let's get the pieces together first. Then we'll see what happens."
Alice chimed in: "I set incendiary charges in your headquarters," she announced. "This morning I activated them. The building is ashes."
"About time," Owen replied. He pulled out his phone and tapped the screen, then showed it to Alice. "That's the VDF in Langley," he explained. The video revealed the plate to be empty.
"Where are they?" Alice asked.
"I let them escape." That got Jane's attention. She whipped around and gave Owen a questioning look. "I let the ones in Wyoming escape, too."
"When?" Jane shouted.
"About the time my office burned down."
"Why would you do that?" Alice demanded.
Owen refused to reply. Jane returned her attention to the road. Lucy leaned forward and grasped Owen's hands.
"I love you," she said. "You know that, right?"
Owen winced. "I'm probably going to die today. You must know that."
"Don't go," Lucy insisted. "You don't have to be there. We can drop you off in Forks till it's over. Let vampires deal with vampires."
Owen shook his head. "I owe the gods a death," he said.
Lucy started crying. Owen reached across the narrow space, hugged her to himself, began stroking her hair. He didn't let go until they came to a halt in the Cullens' driveway.
Alice led the exodus from the MRAP. Jasper and the rest of her family stood in a semi-circle outside their home, Edward's brow knitted in concentration as he probed the mind of her erstwhile master. Alice ran to her husband and embraced him, explaining quickly that Owen expected something from her, though she had not yet figured out what. Jasper's eyes shot daggers of death at the lone human in the gathering. Owen seemed unperturbed.
"Tell me, Alice," Owen began, "what do you think it means to be undead?"
Alice realized the hunter was giving Edward the time he needed, decided to play along. "We have no blood. Our hearts don't beat. Our bodies can't change or bear children. Our lust for human blood is always threatening to overwhelm us. We endure the guilt of the lives we've taken."
"I see," Owen replied. "What do you think, Lucy?"
Lucy removed her sports bra, leaving only her running shorts in place. "To be undead means to have no hope," she said. "The future will never be better. It can't be better. Despair strangles every longing, every wish, every dream, and grinds them into ash. In the morning you wish it were evening. In the evening you wish it were morning. To be undead is worse than death, for the dead enjoy this much at least: they feel nothing."
"How about the word 'monster?'" Owen continued, "Anyone care to define that?"
"You're a monster," Bella spat, even as she kept her arms wound tightly about Edward's waist.
"I'm a drill sergeant," Owen corrected. "Almost the same thing, I'll admit. But not quite. Do not begrudge me the miseries I put you through, Mrs. Cullen. The necessities of combat training are what they are. One day you may even respect me for them."
He waited to see if anyone else would speak up. "A monster," he finally elaborated, "is a human devoid of conscience, a person who never wonders whether an act is right or wrong, a sentient being who doesn't feel guilt or doubt or remorse."
Alice watched as Owen examined each vampire present: Carlisle, Esme, Emmett, Rosalie, Alice, Jasper, Edward, Bella, Jane, Lucy. It occurred to Alice that her master was very much outnumbered. Jane stood off to his right and Lucy to his left, but that was still eight on two. Count the laser cannon on the MRAP as another combatant. Owen had still put himself in a defenseless position. But that would be exactly what he wanted: to make it clear that the Cullens could easily overpower him, to tempt them with his weakness and helplessness. Self-control was their greatest power, but how strong was it? Could this human finally get them to give in?
Alice found herself longing for a vision. Lucy had backed off, and she was no longer making decisions. Alice and Edward were the real drivers here. Once Edward had read their minds long enough, he would start considering what to do. That, in turn, might activate Alice's power. But was that the way to pass the test?
"There is one vampire here," Owen said, "that I know for certain is neither undead nor a monster, and that is Carlisle Cullen. If there are others like him, now is the time to convince me."
Edward interrupted. "His attitude toward you hasn't changed, Bella," he explained to his wife. "He still thinks you're a monster."
Bella grew confused, then angry. "I thought you understood," she protested. "I thought you understood romance."
"It's all a test," Owen replied. "Haven't you figured that out, yet? Everything – and I mean everything – is a test. You insisted romance matters. I agreed. But what did you do with my agreement? How did you put it into action? I swear, it's like you refuse to learn. Feelings and words don't matter. I want deeds, Bella. Deeds.
"There are different roles in a romance. There are winners, so there have to be losers. When you say yes to one person, you're saying no to everyone else. That means some of us have to do romance if anyone else is going to feel it."
Owen began moving toward Bella, daring her or Edward to strike. "What's the one thing that can make a concentration camp even more horrific than it already is? A happy couple living just outside the fence, indifferent to what is going on inside. The vampire world is a horror story, Mrs. Cullen. You've tried to turn it into a romance. But all that does is make it even more horrific.
"The irony is that your impulse is correct. You want to make it romantic, which is a good desire, but you're going about it all wrong. There's only one way to make horror romantic, and it's not by ignoring the horror and pretending it isn't there. It's by taking the romance, and turning it into a horror story."
What is the test? Alice demanded of herself. How do I pass? It disturbed her that by now Edward must know the answer, and her need for that answer – yet he refused to tell Alice. So Owen had guessed right. But how could Owen have done that? He didn't know Edward at all.
I'm being tested. I'm being tested. How? Why? Why had Owen released the vampire prisoners? Didn't he realize they'd go on the rampage? Of course he realized it. That was why he had done it. But Owen's biggest priority was to keep vampires from eating humans. It made no sense.
Why had Owen brought them to Forks in the first place? He wanted to get Edward involved, but he could have done that in Virginia. Somehow the presence of her entire family must be an essential component of the test. But how?
It occurred to Alice that despite all the training the Four Queens had received over the last year and a half, an outside observer would never know it by looking at them. Lucy stood apart, a naked enigma. Jane stalked near the MRAP, playing with the targeting system in her helmet. The Cullen family was the one group here possessing genuine unity, but even Alice and Bella were not as tight as they used to be. Owen had shattered their world; Alice and Bella no longer inhabited the same piece.
Owen had trained the queens, but they were still just four individuals. There was no cohesion or commitment. They were not actually a team at all. When they had dismounted the MRAP the four of them had instantly, instinctively moved in different directions. It had never occurred to any of them to stand together, to present a united front. Alice wondered if that might be the test: knit the queens into a single entity. Bind them together as her family was bound.
Edward turned to Alice and nodded, granting her some precious confirmation. "He's been training the prisoners also, just in a different way. They'll want to attack humanity's technology now. Before they didn't even notice."
Alice pondered Owen with fresh appreciation. "I can see the future," she said. "But you took the future and shifted it into the present."
"Where I can deal with it," Owen agreed. "Or, I should say, where you can deal with it."
"We're not ready to fight a war," Alice objected.
"Neither are they," Owen replied. "Would you rather wait fifty years till your enemies are organized? They're a motley crew right now."
So are we, Alice thought. But that was the point, of course. If she could unite the Four Queens into a genuine team, they would dominate the earth. How could she do that, though? Alice had bought into Owen's mission, but she was the only one. If she could get them to care about the future, it would be so easy. But what if she couldn't get them to care? Could she bind Bella and Lucy and Jane anyway? Bind them so tight that the total became greater than the sum of the parts?
Alice had no Chelsea to enforce loyalty. Owen didn't want Alice creating that kind of loyalty, however, and neither did Alice. They had to choose to follow Alice.
What motivated each woman? Lucy was the easiest to figure out. The shadow-feeder just plain loved Owen. How any creature could love the man was beyond Alice, but it was what it was. If Alice could get Owen to fall in love with Lucy, the shadow-feeder would follow Alice anywhere.
Bella loved Edward. Was that the key to getting Bella on board? Yet Alice wondered if Bella really loved Edward, or if she was actually in love with the idea of Edward. Did Bella's heart swell with romantic love – or did it swell with a love of romance? Regardless, the key to getting Bella to join was to make the whole enterprise romantic.
Jane was the toughest nut to crack. What did Jane want? A sense of identity according to Owen, but Alice had no idea what that even meant. As far as Alice was concerned, Jane just wanted to kill people, Cullens most especially. Was that one reason Owen had brought them here? Was Jane also being tested?
Except that wasn't quite it. Perhaps part of the test was that Alice was supposed to put all four of them to the test. Pass the test to deserve bonding. Get bonded together by passing the test. Create a test. A test through which they would devote themselves to Alice out of their own free will.
Edward spoke up. "He doesn't want us to settle for being a family or a school or a even military unit. It's not a coven he wants, but a country. He wants us to found a nation." He turned toward his father. "With Carlisle as our leader."
"It is not in our nature to work together or live together," Bella objected.
"Because it's not in human nature," Owen agreed. "Isn't that what you said, Mrs. Cullen? That vampires are just humanity magnified? We have to force ourselves to work together. It's not easy, but we do it. Just because it'll be even harder for you doesn't mean you shouldn't learn to do it anyway. You covenant into a body politic for the common good, sacrificing some individual freedoms in the process because it's the right thing to do. Because you have to do it, not because you want to do it. It's part of being an adult, Mrs. Cullen. And you vampires so desperately need to grow up."
Alice knew Edward had done enough mind reading when the first vision hit her. She watched an artificial sun consume the eleven of them, but that wasn't the worst part. The escaped prisoners began to organize, plot, plan. Eventually they brought upon humanity the very war Owen was so desperate to prevent. The modern world was destroyed.
Edward could see Alice's vision, of course. Based upon his expression he found the future as sickening as she did. Whatever action he had been considering – killing Owen and Jane, most likely – he knew it was not an option.
A test for all four of us, Alice thought, willing Edward to listen, the passing of which will bind us, make these women follow me, knit us into a team capable of saving both humans and vampires from mutual destruction. That is our way out of this mess.
Romance for Bella. Love for Lucy. But what about Jane? What could Alice do to get Jane to commit? Jane had demonstrated the most enthusiasm for Owen's project, but a lot of that was simply because she enjoyed the training so much. Their master was the true anti-Aro, valuing Jane as a real person, treating her as a real person, accepting her for who she was. That was likely the path to Jane's loyalty: Alice had to become an anti-Aro.
The idea came to Alice then, so powerful and clear that Edward staggered backwards. Edward utterly rejected the notion, and started devising plans of his own. This resulted in wave upon clairvoyant wave pummeling Alice's mind. She gave her gift free reign, allowed Edward to see how every choice led to the same inexorable outcome: a hellish dark age devoid of science or technology, with mankind enslaved and reduced to fodder for an aristocracy of grinning, castle-bound monsters.
Edward shook his head, resisting the inevitable. Alice could tell he was close to losing it, that in his rage he might simply rip Owen apart. And really, it was all Owen's fault. Or at least it was his fault that they were being forced to deal with this issue now rather than in fifty years. But Owen had had his way. He had set such things in motion that there was no stopping them. Unless the Four Queens became the pantheon Owen demanded.
"Look at me," Edward said to Bella. "I've got to do something now. Something dangerous. It's a risk I have to take, though. For our future."
Alice began moving toward them. Bella was too fixed on Edward's agony to notice.
"Whatever it is, don't do it," Bella protested. "We can find another way. We always find another way."
"I think this will work," Edward pressed. "But if it doesn't, this may be the last time I hold you. So please do it, Bella. Hold me."
Edward and Bella embraced. Alice slid into position.
"I love you, Bella," Edward affirmed.
"I love…" Bella began, but never finished. Alice sank her teeth in Bella's neck, ripped her sister's head off, and let it fall with a heavy thud in the dirt.
Up to this point Jane had remained thoroughly distracted by the "special object's" detonation codes. Owen really had given her the ability to ruin everything. Jane had never imagined being entrusted with such power, and the reality of it had quite gone to her head.
But when Bella's was torn from her torso, Jane's focus returned in a hurry. The Cullens cried out in confusion and anger, of course, even as Edward lowered his wife's body gently to the ground. Jane had to admit, however, that she had never been so impressed by the Cullens' self-control. They turned aggressive and hostile toward Alice, but they didn't attack her. Despite the certainty that Edward had known what Alice was about to do, and that he had even assisted in doing it, every other coven on earth would have instantly ripped Alice to pieces.
"It was the only way," Edward kept saying, over and over again. "It was the only way." He rose from the ground and disappeared inside the house.
"We could have talked it over," Carlisle protested. "We should have talked it over."
"No," Alice insisted. "Bella couldn't know it was coming."
"But if she knew this was really necessary for saving her family, Bella would have agreed to it," Carlisle maintained.
"Exactly," Alice continued, "but it's killing her without her knowledge or assent that turns the romance into horror."
Jane wasn't sure what to think. She rejoiced that Bella was dead, yet it infuriated her that she had not made the kill herself. She also had absolutely no idea why Alice would do such a thing.
Jane's confusion only grew worse when Edward stomped back outside with a silver platter, which he proceeded to throw at Alice's feet. Alice placed Bella's head on the platter, lifted it gently, and began walking toward Jane.
It took Jane several moments to realize that the head of Isabella Swan was actually being offered to her. For me, Jane thought. Alice killed her for me! Jane received the precious present slowly, carefully, indifferent to the weeping that surrounded her. Bella's head. It's mine!
Possibilities rushed through Jane's mind. She shouldn't burn it right away. Kick it and throw it for a few weeks first, then mount it on a pike. That was the way to go. Jane grabbed Bella's hair and discarded the platter. She didn't think she'd ever been so happy.
How long she stood like that, gazing into Bella's lifeless eyes, Jane didn't know. Eventually she became aware of the fact that everyone remained motionless, staring, waiting.
"Why?" Jane asked.
Alice said nothing. Edward said nothing. Jane looked to Owen, but he remained impassive. Jane glanced from face to face again, realized she was supposed to figure it out for herself.
Why would Alice kill her sister? Why would Edward help? Their gifts had to have something to do with it, of course. Alice had seen a vision, Edward had read her mind. For some reason ripping Bella's head off had become their only option. But how could that be? What future benefit could possibly accrue from the insufferable girl's death?
The answer hit Jane like a punch in the stomach. "You've got to be kidding me," she swore. "No way. No way."
Alice took a few steps in her direction. "It's up to you, Jane. All of it. Everything. The future of vampires. The future of the human race. It's not Bella you're holding. It's the world. It's life. It's everything."
Jane considered the special object tucked away on the MRAP. So much power to kill. That was who Jane was: a killer. There was nothing new about holding the lives of others in her hands. But the power to save? To protect? How could they trust her with so much? Why had they put their fate in her hands?
Jane studied the dead head and, despite herself, smiled. Alice loves me, she thought. No, that wasn't it. Something better than love. Alice respects me.
She raised the head in front of her and shoved it in their faces. "I'm still a sadist," she declared. "You can't change that. I won't change that."
"I know," Alice said. "I'm not asking you to change what you are. I'm just asking you to change what you do."
Jane walked over to Bella's body, hunched down beside her. "Blood," she demanded.
Owen approached, pulled a knife from his pocket, cut his thumb. Blood began dripping on the ground, making Jane's mouth fill with venom. She began licking the base of Bella's neck, coating the torn surface. Then she pressed the head into place.
At first it seemed like nothing was happening, but Jane knew what she was doing and remained motionless. Eventually she felt movement: tissues and bones reconnecting, venom stirring, lips twitching. Bella's eyes shot open, and the first thing she saw was Jane hovering over her.
The restored vampire sprang from the ground, enraged, thirsty, murderous. Jasper and Emmett restrained her. Alice got in her face.
"I was the one who killed you," Alice insisted. "Look at me. I did it, Bella. I bit your head off. I bit your head off, and I gave it to Jane on a platter, just like she wanted. And she chose to bring you back. She did bring you back."
Bella glanced about, confused, uncertain, thoroughly pissed. For a long time she stared at Jane in wonder, trying to process the impossible: the former captain of the Volturi guard had just saved her life. "Thank you," Bella said.
Her brothers released her, and Bella ran into Edward's arms. She remained there for several minutes, comforting and being comforted. Then without warning she leaped away from her husband, bowled Owen over, and bit him in the throat.
Postscript
The Four Queens (Part 1 of The Harrowing) is finished. The novel is now on official hiatus. Since it is unlikely I will be able to write more of it for some time, I'm labeling the story complete. The impending heroics of the Four Queens I must leave to your imagination, at least for now.
Chapter 11 title "The Killer in Me" is based on the song Disarm by The Smashing Pumpkins. Chapter 12 title "The Kill" is based on a song of the same name by 30 Seconds to Mars. The lyrics of both songs are quite meaningful, and relate well to the themes of the final two chapters.
Critics of the Twilight series commonly label Bella a cipher.
Cipher (cypher) – a person or thing of no value or importance; a non-entity.
What critics are asserting is that Bella (along with the story's other main characters) is so superficial that she isn't even really a character at all. She's just a stuffed shirt, a placeholder, an empty shell into which the reader can substitute herself. And the reason the reader can replace Bella with herself so easily is because there's nothing "there" for the reader to displace – Bella has no substance of her own to get in the way.
I do not believe the critics are correct. Bella and Edward may not be the deepest fictional characters of our generation, but it is too much to call them ciphers. Even if Bella does start out as something of a Mary Sue, her choices repeatedly drive the plot in book after book. Plus she displays a dark attraction to the vampire world, combined with a curious indifference to the feeding activities of her vampire "friends." Perhaps this makes Bella callous. It hardly makes her shallow.
The irony, however, is that many Twilight fans try to turn Bella into a cipher. I think this is where a lot of criticism of the series actually comes from. It's not criticism of the characters, per se, so much as criticism of what fans do with the characters. In fanfic after fanfic, whatever depth does exist in Bella and Edward gets stripped out or ignored, replaced with ditzy, grunting bodies interested in nothing but phones, fashion, and fornication. If anything, then, Twilight must submit to this criticism: the characters aren't ciphers, but they are shallow enough that fans can turn them into ciphers. If this gutting/emptying/hollowing/vacuuming of Bella and Edward upsets Meyer, she is smart enough to keep her displeasure to herself.
The Twilight characters possess some depth. A fanfic author can go in more than one direction with this. She can eliminate what substance is there, and remake the whole Twilight world into a mindless, meaningless pulp romance. The fanfic author can also go in the opposite direction. She can seize upon what deep places do exist in the characters, and see how deep those places go. If one discovers the worst – that a character has no real depth – is that character at least capable of becoming deep? Can she change, grow, expand, something? Such change is what a great story is all about.
In searching for deep places in Jane and Alice (and Bella, too), what I'm really doing is searching for deep places in the Twilight fan base. I think there's more to Twilight fans than their critics give them credit for, and I'm giving them a chance to prove it.
The literary snobs would call it a fool's errand, of course, and I get that: I teach classical literature, after all. But what the elitists fail to acknowledge is that Stephanie Meyer has accomplished what few others have: she has inspired hundreds of thousands of people to write. This is a remarkable achievement, one that every committed English teacher would love to duplicate. Think about it. No one is forcing fanfic authors to write. These aren't assignments due by the end of the week. Meyer's fans are writing because she has awakened within them a yearning to write.
The critics can say what they like. As far as I'm concerned, no one is shallow who feels that longing, that urge, that need to tell a story – and then uses her own free time to act upon it.
Lee Kyle
March 27, 2013