Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Based on the characters created by Stephanie Meyer, in her Twilight Saga series of books

WARNING: This story will contains scenes of domestic violence, strong language and other forms of physical violence, up to, and including death.

Chapter 15

Time Passes

"Please Thane?" Alice ran after her benefactor, as he retreated down the hall to his room. "It'll be my tenth birthday present. Please?" She heard him grumble and growl, as he closed the door to shut her out. "It's the only thing I want. Something only you can give me." She was whispering at his door, leaning her cheek against the cold metal. "Please?"

When the door was suddenly jerked open, she nearly fell into him. She grabbed his arm to keep her balance, while he glared down at her. Once Alice was standing in front of him, smiling innocently, Thane tried, again, to make Alice understand.

"It is not a pleasant thing. Most assuredly not for a ten year old human child. And why would you even suggest it as a birthday gift?"

Alice huffed a heavy sigh and looked up at Thane.

"I hear you every night. You try not to hurt them. I know that if you would just go and kill someone, that you wouldn't have to feed for almost a week. But you only take a little from each one, so you have to feed every night. So no one dies. I just want to see how you do it. Please Thane. I want to understand."

"Dearest child." Thane reached down and pulled Alice into his arms. He talked to her as he carried her back to her cell. "The taking of blood-is a thing of nightmares. When I am at my least human. It is not the way I wish you to see me. I prefer you never have cause to fear me."

Alice wrapped her arms around Thane's neck and laid her head on his chest.

"I could never be afraid of you. You're my Thane. I know you're not human. Watching you feed could never frighten me. But Thane," Alice lifted her head and looked him in the eye, "one day you will change me. I've seen it. You don't want to, but you don't have a choice." She laid her head back against his cold chest. "But it's going to be alright. I'll want you to."

Thane laid Alice on the bed he had made her, for her sixth birthday, and tucked her in. He kissed her forehead, then cupped his hand around the crown of her head.

"We'll see," he told her, to stop the argument, for now.

Alice reached up and placed her small palm against Thane's cheek.

"It'll be alright, Thane. I love you." Then she yawned and rolled over and went to sleep.

Thane stood and looked down at the small child he was learning to raise. He knew that he had provided her sufficient nourishment, but she remained small for her kind. For her age. Knowing very little of her heritage (her father was of moderate height), this concerned him. He hoped that it was a maternal family trait, and not something he had done wrong. Every six months, someone from above would come for her. He knew when they had taken her. He could hear them, and she would still be sleeping when he came on shift. She would be groggy for the rest of the night, as she fought off the effects of the sedatives they would inject into her, to calm her, after placing her in a situation where several of the patients could touch her. He would read the updates in her file, smile at their ineptitude, then spend the night caring for her. Never did any of the updates suggest that she was malnourished, undersized, or ill-kept.

Thane often wondered what they thought she had been living off of, considering the only food she ate was what he took from the doctors' private larder. Or what she wore, since he provided her clothing from his own funds. In his mind, they had dropped her into a hole, and tried very hard to erase her existence. Since Alice had arrived in one of his cells, he had given a great deal of thought to both the concept, and reality, of monsters. He saw himself elevated above the level of murderous monster, as he wondered at the humanity of the inhuman, and the inhumanity of the human. He had his doubts for a world that allowed a monster, such as he, to provide the only solace in the life of a human child.

At the same time these thoughts drifted through his consciousness, he also worried about Alice's statement that he would turn her some day. Over the years, she had made several references to being turned. He never liked her thinking that way, but he also knew that her visions were real. Although they tended to be quite erratic, they were frequently quite accurate. She no longer feared touching him; her visions of him were seldom shocking to her. In fact, after the first few days, nothing seemed to shock his unusual child. Thane sighed, as he grasped the fact that he had accepted her as his child. She was not exclusively his charge, but she had come to encompass his existence, as a daughter would to any father. He huffed slightly to himself. Any father but her own.

"Fuck him." Thane growled lowly. He smiled, as he remembered the pleasure he had taken in killing that worthless bloodbag.

His shift was over. It was time for him to retire to his room. The small room was a perk of working the night shift. The pay was small, but free room and board was included. Of course, his meals were not what was expected, but they never bothered to check, as to whether he had received a meal or not. And they almost never intruded into his domain. As long as there was a body to walk the dark corridors, no one cared what happened down here. He looked around his small room. The bed had been a waste of space, because he never slept. He had modified the frame, so Alice could have a decent sleeping space. It was hidden in the corner, along the same wall as her desk. The old mattress had been used on it for a while, but it was now under the bed frame. He had bought her a better mattress on her seventh birthday, along with new sheets and a new blanket.

Alice was always grateful for everything he gave her. She never took anything for granted. But her biggest love was clothing. She would immediately put on any dress he gave her, then dance around him to see how it fit. And she was not shy in the slightest. She would dress and undress in front of him, without thinking twice about it. This was beginning to concern Thane. She was getting too old for such free behavior. He was going to have to begin to teach her to become more modest about her body. But the idea seemed to bother him. It was a moment before he discovered the cause of the unease. It would mean that his little Alice was growing up, and Thane wasn't sure how he felt about that.

He shrugged his shoulders and moved to sit in his wing-backed chair. He picked up his book, and began to read. A part of his mind always listened to what was happening in the dark corridors of the cells. He heard the day-orderly maneuver quietly through the cells. He pulled in a large breath, through his nose. This male he recognized. He had only been working at this home for a short time, but Thane was sure this was not his first hospital job. He always brought Alice food, and usually something special. Thane would take the food, and place it in his cold storage, and reheat it for her later. The others he ladled out bowls of a disgusting thin porridge. This human would return two more times during the day, bringing meals to the imprisoned patients, and checking on their condition. Some whimpered as her inserted his key, others screamed and attacked, but he treated them all fairly, all except his Alice. Her, he gave special treatment to. Thane made a mental note to discover who this human was, and evaluate the threat level to his child.

#

"Mary Alice?"

Alice felt a warm hand shaking her awake.

"Mary Alice?"

The voice seemed vaguely familiar, like a reminder from another life. Alice fought the fog, and finally awoke.

"Hello, Mary Alice."

She rolled over and sat up in the edge of the bed. The human face she saw, seemed familiar as well.

"Do I know you?" Alice asked.

"It has been a few years, but we met at another hospital." He smiled, hoping she would remember. Finally, sighing, he introduced himself. "I'm Mark. Do you remember me now?"

Alice thought about it, then she remembered something.

"You have two girls and a wife." Alice grinned at him.

"Yes." His smile widened. He looked around the room. "Someone has been caring for you, I see." Alice became nervous. "Don't you worry about it." Mark reassured her. "I'm just glad to see it. They don't care about the people down here. I'm happy to see that someone has taken an interest in keeping you alive." He walked around the room, looking at her things, then returned to Alice. He looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, before he spoke again.

"I see someone has been teaching you. My daughters are several years older than you, and we have collected quite a few school books that you may be able to use. As long as I can get them in here, without anyone finding out, I'll bring them to you. They're old and used, but..."

"Oh, yes. Please do." Alice pleaded, bouncing on her bottom and clapping her hands. "I love to learn and Tha..." Alice abruptly closed her mouth and covered it with her hands.

"It's alright." Mark laughed, and leaned toward her. "I don't want to know who's helping you. Although, I have a good idea who it might be. I'm just very glad that someone is. I haven't met a compassionate person since I started here. There was only one or two at the other hospital, too."

Alice beamed at him, and Mark was thrilled to see her happy, and apparently well adjusted. He stood up straight and sighed.

"I'm sorry little one, but I have to take you upstairs today." Alice noticed that he seemed very upset by it. "I'll let you get dressed and be back for you in a few minutes." Then he turned and walked to the door, where he turned around again. "And Mary Alice, don't wear anything nice. This is not a social visit." Mark frowned as he closed the door behind him.

Alice understood what he could not say, and tried to prepare herself for the vision attack that was to come. She found an old dress, that was too small, and ran it across the floor, to dirty it up. When Mark returned to collect her, he smiled at her appearance.

"Perfect." He laughed when he saw her.

Alice took his hand, and saw him working with his girls at a table. She thought he might be helping them with homework. She smiled up at him, as they walked up the stairs for her six-month treatment.

"You're to take her to treatment room four," a short, brown haired nurse told him. She had a clipboard and seemed to be crossing things off a list. "And hurry. The doctor is waiting."

Mark walked Alice down a hallway that was different from the other times she had been brought to the ground floor. When they had reached an empty hallway, Alice pulled on Mark's hand, forcing him to stop.

"I've never been here before." She told him, frightened.

"I don't know anything about the treatments here," he told her. "Maybe it's just a room where the doctor talks to you."

Alice followed him, as he approached a door with a black '4' painted on it. He knocked on the door, and waited for a response. In a matter of seconds, a nurse came to the door, and took Alice's hand from Mark. Alice immediately began to scream, as a vision of the woman's house burning, with her children in their beds, filled her mind.

"Wait here to take her back." She ordered him, then pulled Alice into the room.

Mark didn't like the way the nurse pulled on Alice, but there was nothing he could do about it, but let her go. He leaned against the wall, across from the door, and stared at the black '4' on the door. Alice's screams were muffled, but he could still hear them. He gritted his teeth, and closed his eyes, as he worried for the tiny child, knowing there was nothing he could do to help her.

#

Alice was dragged into the room, then picked up by an orderly with large hands that had strangled several women, and placed into an odd looking chair. Before she had passed through the current set of visions, the chair began to slam new visions into her mind. The room began to spin, in her mind, as the visions pelted her with fear and dizziness. The orderly pulled leather straps around her waist, and head. Then, he strapped down her tiny arms and legs. Alice's head was stabilized but her eyes continued to move back and forth, as it they wanted to circle around her head completely.

When she was securely strapped in, the chair began to spin. The spinning became severe, and Alice had to close her eyes. She wanted to scream, but she was afraid she might bite off her tongue, as she had seen in several of the visions associated with the chair. She clamped her teeth closed and began to cry, the tears flowing to the left side of her face, as the chair continued to spin in a clockwise rotation. She noticed the speed of the spin continued to increase, until she was unable to maintain consciousness. It was only then, that the chair finally came to a stop.

When the restraints were removed, Alice slid forward out of the chair, and vomited onto herself and the floor. When the orderly picked her up and carried her to the door, the nurse opened it and Alice was deposited into Mark's arms, as if she were a bag of trash to be disposed of.

"Return her to her cell," she ordered him.

"She's bleeding!" Mark saw blood running slowly, from Alice's nose and ears.

"It's normal after treatment," he was informed. "She'll be fine. Just take her back, and leave her."

Mark gave the nurse a foul look, but said nothing. He turned down the hallway, and almost ran to the basement, with his precious cargo. He laid her small frame out, on her bed, then ran to the sink and soaked a rag in cool water. Alice was trying to wake up, when he returned to her. He knelt at the side of her bed and began to wipe the blood from her nose and ears.

"Oh, baby girl. What did they do to you?" he whispered as he began to clean up the vomit on her face. He removed her dirty dress, and replaced it with the night dress she had been wearing when he woke her. He caressed her cheeks and held her hand, not sure how to comfort her, terrified as to what they had done to her.

Alice's eyes began to flutter open, as she regained consciousness. Mark continued to stroke her limp arm, encouraging her to wake and tell him that she was alright.

"Dizzy," Alice whispered, then she began to cry. "My head hurts," she sobbed. She rolled toward Mark, toward the comfort of his hands, then changed her mind. "I want Thane. Please, I need Thane."

Alice's sobs all but broke Mark's heart. Tears began to fall from his eyes, as he watched her curl into herself and whimper for 'her Thane.' Mark wasn't sure who Thane was, but he had a good idea. He just prayed he was right. He left Alice's cell at a near run, skidded at the door, and ran down the hall to the night attendant's room. He pounded on the door of the room and prayed that the attendant was in.

"Please..." Mark prayed as he beat on the door again. "Please help her." He began to weep for the child he wanted so much to save from the horrors of the place she could not escape.

#

Thane had heard the man talking to his Alice. He had listened as Alice prepared for her trip to the ground floor. He heard the happiness in her voice, at being reunited with an old friend. He heard her leave the cellar, and he waited impatiently for her to return.

Thane heard the man return with his Alice. He smelled her blood and vomit, and his anger began to rise. He heard the whispered words of comfort this man offered his child, and heard him curse those that had hurt her, as he worked at the sink. He heard his Alice call for him, but could not race to her as he wished to. If he was to continue to help her, keep her, he had to maintain his cover, and pretend to be asleep. He had to pretend to be oblivious to the whimpered pleas of his child.

Then the man beat on his door.

Thane counted out three minutes, to feign sleep, then threw his door open to the weeping man.

"Please," Mark stood before him, tall and unafraid except for his concern for Alice. "Are you Thane?"

"Yes," he replied calmly.

"Please help Mary Alice." Mark began to lead the way back to her cell. "They did some sort of treatment on her. They didn't even wait to see what the result was." Mark stopped as they reached her cell door. "She was bleeding from her ears and nose, and she vomited. She says she's still dizzy." Mark stepped aside and allowed Thane to enter first.

Thane walked as quickly as he could, and still appear human, to Alice's bed. He sat next to her and began rubbing her back in gentle circles. The instant his cold hand touched her back, Alice reacted. Still whimpering, she crawled onto Thane's lap and tried to burrow into his chest.

"It's alright Alice," he cooed to her. "I'm here. I'll always be here."

Mark came to stand near them. He took another look around the room, then back down at Thane and Alice.

"She loves you," Mark stated softly. "And you've done a lot for her."

Thane looked up at Mark, anger blazing in his red eyes. Mark saw the red, and thought it was from waking him up so soon after the end of his shift, and dismissed it. The anger, he did not dismiss, but he did understand.

"I don't know what they did to her." Mark tried to explain. "But I will try to keep it from happening again."

Alice reached out to Mark. She grabbed his hand and tried to thank him, still keeping her eyes closed.

"This is my friend, Mark." she told Thane.

The fact that she was able to touch Mark, was not lost on Thane. He realized that this man must be a truly good human, or his Alice would not have reached for him. Some of the anger dissipated as he watched the way Alice held the human man's hand.

"She needs to be protected." Mark told Thane. "It looks like you've been doing a really good job of it." He took a deep breath and stooped down to balance on the balls of his feet, as he tried to get eye level with Alice. "Hey, little one," he tried to coax Alice into looking at him. "I have to go back upstairs, or they'll begin to miss me. I'll try to bring you something for the dizziness, as soon as I can." He stood then and addressed Thane. "I'll try to find out what they did to her, and for as long as I work here, I'll try to keep this from happening again."

Thane gave Mark a curt nod, as the orderly turned to leave the tiny cell, but he stopped at the door and turned back for a moment.

"Let her know I'll be bringing the school books as soon as I can." then he turned and left the cellar.

"School books." Alice's voice was thin and shaky. "Mark's going to bring me school books." She smiled as she shivered and snuggled closer to Thane.

"Yes, my child. School books." He continued to rub circles on her back, as he held her on his lap. "And you will learn about the world. And you will read great literature."

"Can I learn fashions from around the world?"

Thane chuckled. "You can learn anything you want, my child. Anything."

"Can I watch you feed, for my birthday?"

Thane sighed and pulled Alice closer to his chest.

"Perhaps, my child. We shall see."

"Thank you, Thane."

Thane held Alice, for over an hour, after she had fallen asleep. Finally, he laid her in her bed, and tucked her in tightly. He stood over her for another hour, long after Mark had brought her something to help settle her stomach for after she woke. When he finally returned to his room, he continued to listen for any sounds of distress from her, but her sleep was undisturbed. Thane noticed that Mark was as good as his word, and Alice's file had been slipped under his door, later in the afternoon. Thane examined the file and discovered that Alice had been subjected to something called the Cox chair.

Later that night, as the hospital slept, Thane made his way soundlessly, to the hospital offices, and researched the treatment that Alice had received. Then, her found the offending chair, and disabled it. It took all of his control to keep from ripping the repulsive object from the floor, and throwing it through a wall. But, he did refrain from the use of violence, and settled for preventing the chair from functioning. He smiled at his nights work, and returned to his cellar to care for Alice. He knew that they would eventually repair the chair, that spun it's victims with centrifugal force. But for now, no one would be hurt by it. For now, his Alice was safe.

Happy Thanksgiving!