Notes: To the reviewer who said they would have a difficult time reading a story where Jasper's dead, I completely agree. Trust me; this is really hard to write. I love Jasper; I'm IN love with Jasper. :( And I don't like the idea of him being dead, but unfortunately it was necessary for this story.
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Chapter 3, When in Rome…
I was extremely aware of how little time I had left. If I was going to make it to Volterra before my family did and since they had access to planes they had the upper hand, I had to leave – and I had to leave now.
I escaped the room, grabbing my phone and snapping it in half and throwing it in the rubbish bin. I didn't bother to turn the light off. I threw the key in front of the lobby door. Thankfully it was pitch black with only one street light on, so nobody saw my incredible throw from thirty meters away.
I can't believe I'm doing this! I screamed at my subconscious. This is crazy! Why am I doing this? Edward's right… this will only cause my family more grief. I owe more to them. I owe them more than this.
At what expense? That other voice inside me yelled. Your happiness? Your sanity? You may owe them more but above all they owe you. And if this is something that's going to stop the pain finally, and allow you be to be with Jasper, then what kind of family are they for trying to keep you in this pain?
They care about me enough not to want me dead. I thought desolately. I came back from my thoughts and realized once more than I was driving. To the nearest airport. I looked at signs as I drove and I discovered that I was in Canada, and the closest airport was in Halifax, Nova Scotia which was 70 miles away. I smiled to myself. I could make it.
If I ditched my car somewhere safe where Edward would probably find it later and took a plane from Halifax to Paris, then from there I could arrive in Rome by plane once more, steal a car and drive to Volterra.
I made the calculations in my head. Getting to Halifax would take me a maximum of maybe 20 minutes, maybe less. The plane ride from Halifax to Paris would be around 15 hours. And from Paris to Rome would only be around 2-3 hours, 4 at the very most, and then from Rome upwards to Volterra would take me, by car, only an hour.
In all, at the very most it would take me 20 hours and 20 minutes to get to Volterra.
Now my family…
They would immediately take a plane from Seattle – it would take them half an hour to get to Seattle from Forks. I closed my eyes and had a vision to foil their plan. They would go from Seattle to Charlotte in North Carolina, which is cross country so approximately twelve hours. Across the North Atlantic Ocean to France also, and then to Italy. I calculated all this in my head, and finally I had an exact estimate.
I had an hour and thirty five minutes more than they did.
I sighed. That was probably enough time for them to learn that I was dead and it was too late, and that they'll return to Forks and get on with their lives.
Finally, as I expected, 20 minutes later I was in Halifax. I pulled over to a place in the woods, quite deep in and hid the car in shrubbery. From the glove box, I pulled out a note pad and a black ink pen and I wrote a message for my family.
Edward I wrote on the outside.
I love you.
Please forgive me.
Alice. Xox
It was a poor excuse for a goodbye, but it was the best I could do with what little time I had. I pressed a kiss to the note, leaving a lipstick mark and I placed it underneath the seat. Getting out of the car, admittedly I had a hard time leaving the car. It just meant so much to me. I pat the bonnet of the car and turned my back to it, running as fast as I possibly could in the direction of the airport.
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I got to the airport in less than five minutes, and thankfully the flight they had going to Paris still had empty seats on it. The woman who supplied me with a ticket obviously thought it was odd that I wanted to travel such a long distance, paid in cash and no luggage to speak of.
But she didn't question it. She just handed me the ticket and gave me a sugary "Have a nice flight!"
I made myself sit as still as inhumanely possible, and people who passed noticed my stillness. But I didn't really care. Instead I kept my focus on my family, and whether or not they found any shortcuts that would put them ahead of me.
They hadn't. They were still taking the way I had predicted them too. I fought the urge to sigh, and I was irritated with the small part of me that was hoping they would intercede in time. What if I was making a huge mistake? Jasper wouldn't want this. This was stupid.
But every time I tried to talk myself out of doing what I was attempting to do, that snapping voice inside my head came back, and always out argued me. After that, I decided to just sit in silence and not try anymore. It didn't do me any good to argue. It would only emotionally drain me, and I needed as much of my influence as possible if I was going to convince the Volturi to kill me.
Thankfully, a little while later, a voice came over the PA and announced the flight to Paris, France. I was the first one up and in the plane.
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I looked longingly out the plane windows at all the lights of Paris. I remembered the time Jasper and I were in Paris. It wasn't long after we first met up in Philadelphia, and he was still learning how to feed from animals instead of humans.
I smiled as I recalled how frustrated he had been. But he was willing to make the effort – it was hard for him, but he tried. And I had been so proud of him.
The grief came back, and I leaned back against the seat. Would thinking about Jasper ever get easier? Or would thinking about him always feel like I've just shot a ten inch nail into my heart?
I waited for the pilot to announce we were descending into Paris, before I concentrated once more on what my family was up to. Turns out, everyone was going to Volterra to try and stop me – I was rather shocked at that. Bella was left behind, however. I assumed it was because Edward wouldn't want her anywhere near the Volturi…
Not when she was supposed to be immortal around now. That was just asking for death.
Kinda like I was…
But besides Bella, everyone was going. Edward, Carlisle, Esme, Rosalie and Emmett. They'd also called up Tanya, Kate, Irina, Carmen and Eleazar and asked them to try and make it to Volterra as well.
Great. I thought sourly. Now I have to outrun both of my families.
Currently Carlisle and everyone were on a plane also, but they were a few hours behind me. They had a while to go before they got to Paris. I would be there in less than four minutes.
Sighing, I bowed my head and tried to absorb everything about being alive before it was all over.
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I stayed on the plane with only a handful of people who were going to Rome. It seemed to take forever for the other passengers to board and I was getting quite anxious for a while there, considering my family weren't too far behind. I sighed loudly in relief when people stared to board.
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It took three hours to get to Rome.
I got off the plane and tried to keep a steady pace. I was in Italy. Volterra was only an hour away, at the rate I drove. It was so close. I felt that lump in my throat again. And if it were possible, I wanted to be sick.
But I kept reminding myself that I wouldn't feel a thing, and that I would be with Jasper. It was worth it, in the end, wasn't it?
The terminal was positively busy. It was sunset, and everyone was scattering, either to board flights or find their loved ones in the swarm. I brushed past people, trying to keep to myself as much as possible.
And then I smelt the scent of a vampire, and I panicked.
Should I run? I wasn't close enough to tell if it was one of my families or not. How could they have gotten here so quickly? How was I going to outrun all of them? In a alarm I tried to push myself further through the crowds, for the front door.
It wasn't until I bumped into somebody hard enough that it would've shattered every bone in that person's rib cage… if they had been human, did I realize that I was actually heading in the direction of the scent.
I had bumped into them!
I was doomed.
All that effort, for nothing.
Now I was going to have to stay alive… and live with this pain.
I wanted to scream in fury and anguish. My knees threatened to give way.
And then I finally found out that the scent didn't belong to a member of my family. But it was a scent I recognized from a while ago.
In shock, I realized I was face-to-face with one of the Volturi members themselves – Demetri. The tracker. His expression was irritated, but it was wiped clean off his face when he saw exactly who it was that he bumped into.
"Alice Cullen?" he hissed, his burgundy eyes staring into my honey ones. My eyes widened in disbelief, and soon we found ourselves just looking at each other, not noticing the busy crowd that fumbled around us.
Neither of us knew what to think of this act of serendipity. Well, I thought of it that way. Fate. I was meant to do this. Of course he had no idea what I was doing, so he just thought it was coincidence…
Of all the luck, I thought bleakly.
"Hello, Demetri." I said with a pleasant smile.
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*cheeky grin* told you he was gonna appear in this chapter. Seriously, is anyone else just awed at the hotness of the actor who's gonna play Demetri? It's amazing. Seriously. Okay I'm gonna stop babbling now. Please review, and thanks for reading! Xo BTW, if there are any spelling errors, I apologize. This was written while I was rather tired. :D