6. Waiting

"I'm sorry, Esme, but I can't go back." Rosalie stopped mid-run, her perfect body almost glowing in the remnants of light.

"Rose?" asked Emmett, frowning.

I frowned, too. What was Rosalie up to? And why hadn't I seen this? Then I remembered, and grimaced: werewolves.

"I can't go back to the house and just sit there," said Rose, hands on hips. "I can't do nothing."

"What do you suggest we do?" Jasper was clearly not pleased with what would be the fifth sudden departure of a Cullen today.

I could see that Rose really was leaving, but she wasn't going anywhere far away. I didn't understand why she was insisting on not going back home, when she wouldn't even be leaving the state. In fact, she wouldn't be leaving Forks at all. She would hang out in the woods, for no apparent reason. I had a hard time believing it was because she couldn't stand being at home without Carlisle.

"I don't know what to do, but I'm going to do something. I'll go hunting." With that, she tossed her hair over one shoulder and sailed away, leaving us to stare at each other in mystification.

"Uh, well," Emmett ran a hand through his hair, "bye, Esme. See you later, Jasper, Alice." And he was gone too.

"Huh," said Jasper, his deep eyes perplexed. "I wonder...Well, let's carry on."

"They'll be back soon, won't they, Alice?" asked Esme, staring at me in near panic.

"Yes, Esme. They aren't going far."

I felt a pang of sadness; poor Esme. As we ran for home I tried not to think about how I could have prevented the pain she was experiencing. Even though I knew I couldn't have stopped Carlisle from leaving, I could have warned Esme. I could have warned all of us, if only I had seen something. But I hadn't, obviously, and the results had been staggering.

It had never occurred to me, really, to keep tabs on Carlisle. Of all the Cullens, our leader was the least likely--so I'd thought-- to make a rash move. I'd watched Edward, mostly, Jasper constantly, sometimes Rose or Emmett, but not Carlisle. Of course, I just thought it had been a rash move to leave us, but what if Carlisle had been planning this disappearance for weeks, months? Could that much preparation have escaped my sight? The idea made me shiver.

"So is Bella coming back to the house with Edward?" asked Jasper.

"I think so, that's what they said when they left." I flicked aside visions of my brother and Bella. I knew where they were headed, thank goodness. I didn't need more images crowding my head.

Maybe I should have told Jasper about the strange visions flickering in and out of sight, like the shadows a candle's flame leaves on a wall. Lightning-fast, it was hard for me to see them properly, they were so short. These weren't the same kind of visions I had seen when Carlisle first went missing, the little spurts of decisions he was purposefully changing to confuse me. These were odd: the visions were bright, infused with light, with dark spots in between the scenes. There were about six every ten seconds, all of them recurring.

I saw a pair of brilliant red eyes, the eyes of a vampire drenched in human blood. The eyes were replaying repeatedly, every thirty frames or so. An almost sepia-tone vision followed, a man leaping over a rustic fence and striding into some woods. Then there was the face of a vampire I assumed to be Volturi, one I somewhat recognized, maybe a guard or something. There were many others, like a violent clip that lasted less than a second, of someone being ripped to pieces. Throughout the clips, I got the impression that none of these visions were positive; they all had a morbid, foreboding tinge to them.

The vision after the death of an unknown vampire was, not surprisingly, of Bella and-- but, that wasn't Edward. Who was it? And why was Bella in his arms? With a shock I realized it was Jasper, only he wasn't holding Bella in his arms like Edward would. He was actually restraining Bella, gripping her arms in his hands and keeping her secured firmly against his body. And Bella was screaming, loud, horrible screams, her eyes fixed on something out of my vision. I suppressed the cold feeling on my skin and tried to ignore the next vision, since it disturbed me more than Bella and Jasper.

This vision was hazy like most of the others, with faded colors and odd lighting. A man with indistinguishable features was kneeling in the center of a field, his arms held out wide. After a brief moment a shape appeared on the egde of the vision, and then flew at the man in the field. I could never tell if its intentions were good or bad, but it gave me the vampire equivalent of goosebumps, whatever was happening.

I could only assume these visions had to do with Carlisle and why he'd left us, otherwise I couldn't begin to understand why these weird glimpses of time would be running through my mind. And yet what could these eery, unfamiliar visions have to do with any of us? For vampires, we led fairly normal, human lives, and we certainly didn't go around ripping people to shreds or leaping over fences. Well, yes, we had, in fact, sometime in our lives, done both of those things, but not on a regular basis. I couldn't figure it out.

So I pretended nothing was going on upstairs, staring out at the forest as it rushed by. Jasper was looking at me in concern. I couldn't tell if he sensed my confusion and unease, but I reached over and gave his hand a firm squeeze, flashing him a reassuring smile. There wasn't any sense in Jasper being troubled by my visions, too, not until they made themselves more recognizable. We all had too much on our minds right now-- the rest of my family didn't need to share my anxiety over indistinct premonitions.

In no time we reached the house, swinging onto the back porch and through the doors easily. Esme came last, turning around to scan the area behind our home as if hoping someone--Carlisle--would come out of the grass. Stretching, Jasper moved his shoulder, realigning himself after his run-in with the silver mongrel. I vowed to personally pull some hairs out of that bushy silver tail and shove them down that werewolf's throat. Or better yet, take off some of his claws, and shove those down his throat. However I was going to do it, he was going to pay, and pay good, for attacking the love of my life.

"Alice," asked Esme, "when are Edward and Bella coming home?"

I looked at her beautiful, earnest face, so full stress. I smiled. "They will be home in thirty seconds."