Chapter 19- Too Late
A/N: Hi! Long time no see. The reason I haven't updated in a while is because I was waiting for my beta to send me back the edited chapters (I finished this story a few months ago). Of course, I don't blame her- she's really busy, what with her published book and all. Since I want to finish this story as soon as possible, I'm going to post the unedited chapters up, and I'll switch them with the edited chapters when she sends them to me.
I was bent over the desk, gripping the edge. My knuckles were white and my teeth were clenched together.
The horrifying vision kept replaying in my mind, over and over again.
The sound of the door opening was rather loud.
"Alice?" Bella's voice seemed to be rather far away.
I knew that my body was swaying slightly and that my eyes were blank, emotionless. Would my appearance scare her?
She scrambled to my side.
"Alice!" Jasper's voice seemed like thunder to my ears. Bella recoiled, startled. Jasper hurried over and wrenched my hands from the table. "What is it?" he demanded.
I buried my head into his chest, thinking of how furious Edward would be. "Bella," I answered quietly.
The Bella in question thought that I was talking to her. "I'm right here," she squeaked.
I twisted my head around, locking my eyes on hers, feeling a little dazed.
Her eyes sparked with the realization that she was the answer to Jasper's question. "What did you see?" There was no question in her flat, uncaring voice. She obviously already had a good idea of what I had seen.
Jasper's head whipped around as he looked at her sharply.
I guessed that Bella's eyes were starting to look something like mine. Her expression was convincingly vacant.
Jasper's eyes darted swiftly between Bella's face and mine, feeling the chaos brewing.
He set a tranquil atmosphere around us. I welcomed it, and slowly recovered myself. "Nothing, really," I answered finally, straining to keep my voice calm. "Just the same room as before.
I had to get Jasper alone, and tell him that something had happened, that we would fail to protect Bella. I wanted Bella to sense that she should leave, but then I also didn't want her to know. Stuck in the dilemma, I tried to cleanse my mind of fear.
Slowly turning in Bella's direction, I kept my expression smooth. "Did you want breakfast?"
She definitely knew something was wrong, but her voice was as calm as mine was. "No, I'll eat at the airport." She stood up quietly and disappeared into the bedroom. A moment later, the sound of water pounded in my ears. Bella was taking a shower.
As soon as I heard the door close, I clenched my teeth in frustration. How was I going to say this?
"Alice?" His expression was filled with concern.
"Something's going to happen. Bella's not going to stay with us, but I have no idea why. She might… get hurt." My voice cracked. Jasper must have realized that I had refrained from saying the word 'die'.
I desperately needed to know what was running through Bella's mind at the moment. She was a smart girl, so she definitely knew what was going on.
Jasper and I stayed silent for a while, considering our options. The sound of the water disappeared. Now it was reduced to a quiet dripping. A warm breeze drifted through the air, tickling my nose as Bella opened the bathroom door. Without glancing at us, she then walked into the bedroom and closed the door quietly. The springs on the bed squeaked as she sat on it.
I broke the silence. "Just keep an eye on her. I've seen a few possible futures for Bella, and they're not pretty." I shot Jasper a meaningful look.
I glanced at my watch. Seven o'clock in the afternoon. I opened the back door of the car for Bella. She avoided my eyes as she stepped in. I closed the door with a little more force than necessary. Jasper waited for me to get settled in the front seat before starting the engine.
I put on my sunglasses, so she wouldn't notice I was watching her from the corner of my eye. I turned my face towards Jasper.
I was so engrossed in my own worries that I didn't even know that Bella was going to ask me a question, so her monotone voice caught me off guard.
"Alice?"
"Yes?" I asked warily, stretching out the word.
"How does it work? The things that you see?" I had a feeling that she was looking out the side window because she was trying to avoid my gaze.
She hesitated a moment before continuing. "Edward said it wasn't definite… that things change?" Her voice cracked when she said his name.
So Bella already knew that there was a possibility she would get killed, and she was worried. There wasn't anything wrong with that, but I had a weird feeling about her question.
"Yes, things change…" I murmured. I had a feeling that I was more hopeful than she was about her getting lucky. "Some things are more certain than others… like the weather. People are harder. I only see the course they're on while they're on it. Once they change their minds — make a new decision, no matter how small — the whole future shifts." Bella shifted in her seat. I could almost hear the gears in her brain turning as she concentrated on what I had told her.
Then she nodded. "So you couldn't see James in Phoenix until he decided to come here."
"Yes," I agreed, clenching my teeth. What was she thinking?
After thirty-one minutes of silence, we finally arrived at the airport. When someone so much as looked at us longer than a few seconds, my muscles would tense. Jasper kept shooting me waves of peace, to no avail.
Bella was nervous. I didn't need to be Jasper to know that. Perhaps it was because she would soon be seeing Edward, and it was just her nerves.
Bella led the way. We took an elevator down to level three, where the passengers unloaded. Jasper and I spent some time looking at the departing flights board, discussing the pros and cons of New York, Atlanta, Chicago, and some other places. We both were secretly taking peeks at Bella out of the corner of our eyes.
Bella, for some unknown reason, was impatient. Her toe was tapping the floor. I tore my gaze from the departing flights board and followed Bella to the long rows of chairs by the metal detectors. We sat down, and I pretended to peoplewatch. I was really watching Bella. She couldn't have seen me looking at her, but she could probably tell that I was.
Every inch she shifted out of her seat was followed with a quick glance out of the corner of my eyes. Bella's eyes were looking wild. Remind myself to tell Edward that she doesn't cope well under pressure.
Bella pulled an unmarked envelope out of her pocket and set it on top of my bag. I looked at her.
"My letter," she said simply. I nodded, tucking it under the top flap. She looked somewhat relieved as I did that.
The minutes inched by and Edward's arrival grew closer. I gripped my phone. I knew it wouldn't ring, but I needed to take a hold of something. We were just waiting for a flight, but the pressure was thick in the air.
"Bella, are you sure you don't want to get breakfast?" I asked her for the second time.
"Nope," she said slowly, popping the 'p'. "Later."
The flight arriving from Seattle crept closer to the top of the board. An image flashed in my eyes. I smiled in relief. Edward's plane was going to be ten minutes early.
I noticed that something was a little off as I glanced at Bella. Instead of happiness, her face was plastered with a look of pure horror.
"I think I'll eat now," she said quickly. Could she be worried about Edward finding out she hadn't had breakfast yet?
Nah, that was silly.
I stood. "I'll come with you."
"Do you mind if Jasper comes instead?" she asked. "I'm feeling a little…" she trailed off.
She's just scared, she's just scared, she needs to calm down…I kept trying to convince myself that there wasn't anything wrong with Bella, that I was just seeing things.
I shook my head no. After all, the Jasper could fend off the tracker by himself.
"The tracker might be anywhere," I warned him.
Jasper stood up and followed her, his hand on her back. I watched them walk past the first few cafes.
Bella stopped. "Do you mind?" She gestured to something. "I'll just be a moment." The restroom?
"I'll be right here," he said.
Yes, that was it. The restroom.
For some reason, I felt a wave of uncertainty. Shaking it off, I concluded that there was nothing to worry about. After all, when she was done, Jasper would be waiting for her at the door.
What was I saying? Bella wouldn't run off by herself. And I didn't see the tracker in a ladies' restroom.
The door shut.
Jasper turned to look at me. The corner of his mouth turned up in a slight grin.
I smiled back at him.
We waited for about a minute. Then another minute. And another minute. After some time, I sensed that something was very, very wrong. I flitted over to Jasper's side.
"Do you hear her?" I asked.
"No," he said, confused. "All I heard was the door closing after she ran in. She didn't even lock the door. She must not have been feeling well."
I opened the door and walked in. "Bella?" All the doors were unlocked. I knocked at each one of them before I opened them. They were all empty. Another image flashed before my eyes.
Bella was hopping into a taxi.
"Oh, God…" I let out something between a whimper and a growl as I blinked. The restroom had two exits. That explained everything. Why Jasper didn't hear the door lock, why Jasper heard her run… The tracker was smart. He was luring her to him. I wondered what he used as bait.
The phone call!
Edward was going to kill me.
"Jasper!" I choked, barging out of the restroom. "She's gone. She got on a taxi, and-" I gulped as I saw Edward, Emmett, and Carlisle standing right next to Jasper. His eyes were black with fury. I took a few steps backward and ran back inside, following Bella's scent.
The elevator ride down was slow. I was sure that I could have just jumped down to level one, but I had to follow her scent. Edward was glaring at us, especially me. He was so angry, he was trembling.
I fumbled in my bag. "Here," I flung Bella's letter at him. Jasper and I ran out of the elevator, still following her scent.
I screeched to a stop as I reached the end of Bella's trail. A shuttle stop. Without thinking, we all piled in.
We arrived in front of the Hyatt. Finding Bella's smell, Edward took the lead. He suddenly stopped. "There's no trail."
"This is where she took a taxi." I said quietly.
Edward nearly ripped open the envelope and read the letter quickly. "The tracker has her mom. So she's going to find him. By herself."
"Where'd she go?" He asked me.
Surfing through my images, I tried to remember the one where Bella was getting into a taxi. My head was starting to hurt.
Bella jumped out of the shuttle and ran to the taxi. She slid into the back seat and told the cabbie an address. It was unclear in some parts, but I repeated most of it to Edward.
"That's probably her mother's address." Jasper said.
Some time later, all five of us were in a stolen car, driving faster than usual. Edward's hands were gripping the wheel so tightly that I worried he would crush it to shreds. Hearing my thoughts, he relaxed his grip slightly.
Instead of a twenty-minute drive, at this pace, we could make it in less than ten.
Bella was entering the room. The room that I so frequently had visions of.
I groaned. "Edward…"
Before I knew it, the car was parked. We were already in front of Bella's house. I got off, and followed Bella's scent inside. The lights were still on. Her scent led me to the phone. There were a few traces on the whiteboard.
The whiteboard had a ten-digit number written on it. I ran outside. "Edward! She's definitely been here. The tracker contacted her by phone."
That was all he needed to hear. We followed Bella's trail, running at full speed. I couldn't help but notice a few specks of Bella's blood on the pavement. She must have tripped quite a few times.
We neared a dance studio. Bella's scent was thick here. She must have paused for a while.
In my visions, I saw many things. I saw Bella's head smashing into a wall of glass, saw her bleeding on the floor, saw the tracker's wild eyes. I heard her scream in pain. Edward stiffened.
A few seconds later, we heard the shattering of glass and Bella's screams.
The sweetness of blood was lingering in the air. Jasper trembled, and Carlisle patted his back reassuringly. The rest of us practically flew inside.
But not before we heard a growl.
He lunged at Bella, who weakly held her hand up to her face in defense. The pool of blood was growing larger and larger.
Edward leapt with a growl so menacing even Emmett was shocked.