Deceit
Alice

I always liked him.

I didn't even know his name. At the asylum, anyone who weren't the doctors or the guards weren't allowed to interact with us. I always suspected it was because whoever was in charge feared we might harm them. After all, we were the mental patients.

I was far from crazy. I was unable to change the fact that I could see the future. And yet, here I am, on a thin blanket on the floor waiting for the clock to strike two so that he would come in. I didn't need to be a fortune-teller to know that. The regime here was very tight.

The clock tower chimed, and I could hear a key rattling in the lock.

He was different from the rest of the workers, I knew that much. Although he never spoke to me-he was prohibited from interaction-he always offered a small smile when he entered. That alone was enough to set him apart from the others. He made an effort to dress up the plain white walls with crayon drawings and wallpaper, and the food he gave me was never the horrible, overcooked sort. I appreciated him, possibly far more than he would ever realize.

Today was different.

My vision came just as he entered the room. I stared up at him, not understanding his future. He frowned at me and picked me up hastily. I shuddered at his coldness and was about to tell him to put me down when he spoke.

"Be quiet," he snarled at me.

I froze. He never spoke to me like that. He never spoke at all. Something must be wrong.

He ran out of the building that occupied the tiny cells we patients were housed in. I squinted at the sunlight. I hadn't seen it in months. It took me a moment to comprehend that I was free.

Free.

He seemed to be running rather fast and freely for someone was carrying a nineteen-year-old. True, I was tiny for my age, but something seemed off in his movements. It was as though he had delibarately appeared sluggish before. Why?

We ran, ran far out of the asylum grounds. A few moments later he put me down gently on a patch of grass and I gasped at the sharp blades of grass poking into my thighs. It was a pleasant sensation I hadn't had the pleasure of feeling for a very long time. He stood, towering above me for a few moments, his face appearing conflicted. I decided to put him out of his misery. "I won't blame you."

He hesitated and smiled at me. I knew he had made his decision then when a vision formed in my mind. Before I could scream at the horrible, horrible pain I saw in my immediate future, he swooped down and bit my neck cleanly and efficiently. I barely had time to widen my eyes at the sharp sting of his betrayal when my eyes shut of their own accord.

The last thing I saw and heard before slipping into unconsciousness was a flicker of yellow hair, bobbing in the far distance, and the voice I had loved for the past few months, maybe years, whispering a soft apology to me.

~x~

I blinked, my eyes fluttering as I shifted, feeling the rock beneath my back. I vividly recalled the few images that still danced behind my eyelids, giving me the few, meagre pieces of information I needed for my bare survival.

I need to find a man named Jasper Whitlock, for I will be the one to lead him to the golden-haired man. My name is Alice, and I remember nothing of my past.

A/N: So I needed to post this out. I actually wrote this the same time as I posted Esme's, but...yeah. You know the drill-review, follow me on Twitter, and so on. Plus, if you're an anonymous reviewer, do leave an email, because I'll be distributing my *new* account links. Like I said. Reviewers first, 'cause I heart you guys. For those who won't review (psh), the link will come before New Year, I hope.