Well, another update for this! Tomorrow I hope to update Awfully Big Adventures and the next day will be Green Eyed Monster. But oh my goodness, I can't even explain how excited I am for you to read this chapter…and to be honest, I don't even want to give you a hint why. Just read!

Chapter 21 – Phone Call

When I woke up again I couldn't make myself move for fear of facing Jasper and Alice. They had been so kind to me and I had blatantly stormed away from Jasper and his handy bag of tricks and now all I could focus on was how ridiculous I had been. Maybe it was the lack of sleep, or the fact that I was switching days and nights, dreams and reality, my world was turning into some storybook that felt like it was leading to some terrible ending...

Alice and Jasper were talking outside of my room, which made it obvious that they were inviting me out in their own way. I knew they didn't need to speak loudly enough for me to hear, I knew they probably never did, but today they spoke louder than the television playing in the background and the sound was nice – I wouldn't have blamed them for giving me the silent treatment. It gave me just enough courage to pick myself up and walk out to meet them.

It was early in the morning, I could tell because of the terrible infomercials playing in the background. Neither Jasper and Alice looked at me when I walked out, which made me more nervous that I had misread their loud tones until I realized that both of them were hunched over Alice's drawing. She was now adding to it, or maybe she was drawing something new. I crept to Jasper's side to peak.

"Another vision?"

"Yes. Something brought him back to the room with the VCR, but it's light now."

I watched as Alice drew a square room with dark beams across its low ceiling. The walls were crisp and littered in posters and pictures, none of which she felt the need to draw. The floor was hardwood, but over it was laid a shaggy rug that had seen better days. There was a bay window against one wall, and doorway that had led to another room – through the doorway she drew you could see a bed. The door to the other room was the same style of door as a closet. There was a bookshelf between the connection door and closet, but one of the shelves was covered in awards instead of books. There were tons of awards. I couldn't help pointing in horror to the very side of the drawing.

"There's a bed there." Deadpan. It was the only way to explain how I must have sounded as I pointed to the side of Alice's drawing.

Both Alice and Jasper looked at me levelly.

"That's my sister's room." I pointed to the bed in the room it connected to. "That bed was mine."

I had never seen anyone, not even the vampires, move as quickly as Alice did then. Before I could comprehend she had moved Alice was across the room dialling the phone. Jasper slid beside me, I couldn't have told you when I sat down, but he lightly touched my shoulder which seemed to make his calming influence a lot more potent. The panic was there, but it was dulled, like I had been dunked in morphine. Alice's lips were trembling with the speed of her words, I wanted to know who she was speaking to.

"I'm sorry," it was the only thing I could think to say. It was the only thing that still made sense as the panic tried to fight against Jasper's calm compulsion.

"You don't need to be."

"I snapped at you, you didn't deserve it." I explained. "You don't have to do all this, but you are anyway."

"We already explained this, Vivienne," Jasper said firmly. "You are safe. We will ensure that you stay safe. You are more important than you know."

I nodded, though I didn't believe him. I couldn't help turning my head, looking to him in a haze – he must be trying really hard to dull my panic. It must be even worse than I know, because I was almost riding a high off of what he was feeding me.

"Jasper...am I going to die?"

"Liv," Alice said loudly, slapping the phone in her hand shut. I was startled by the finality of it and wondered if she was mad that I asked that question. I didn't mean to offend her – I had no doubts that they would keep me safe for as long as they could. I just didn't want them to have to do it forever.

"I'm sorry," I repeated. I don't know if either of us knew what exactly I was apologizing for when I said it to her.

"Liv," Alice had come to grip my shoulders, trying to focus me. It would not work. "Edward is coming to get you. He and Emmett and Carlisle are going to take you somewhere, to hide you for a while."

"Edward?" It was the only thing I caught.

"Yes, he's catching the first flight out of Seattle. We'll meet him at the airport, and you'll leave with him." I shook my head.

"Why is he in my sister's room, Alice?" I asked, not scared like I knew I should be – astonished.

"It's not going to matter. He's not going to be near you."

"It's my sister's room, Alice." The panic was getting worse; Jasper frowned as he realized that he was losing control over my emotions.

"Jasper and I will stay till she's safe. Until they are all safe."

"It's not going to matter." The panic rose again. "None of this is going to matter – he's immortal, Alice! He is going to sit and he is going to wait and he is going to hurt my family until I hand myself over."

"We'll catch him, Liv," she assured me.

"What about you?" I asked, feeling frustrated. Possibly because Jasper was frustrated that I kept fighting him. "What if he attacks you?"

I caught the look that Alice threw Jasper easily – it was a look that said 'stop her now'. It didn't surprise me when I felt a wave of drowsiness wash over me. It was unbelievably strong, who knew how long I had already slept for and even though I had just woken up, there was no way to fight it. It was like I didn't even remember what it felt like to be awake – all I wanted now was sleep. All I could understand was sleep. All I could do was sleep.

I don't remember how I got back into my room, I don't remember being tucked in as if I were a toddler, but I did remember feeling slightly calm enough to want to thank Jasper for making me so tired, there would be no way I would remember any of my nightmares.

It was the phone ringing that woke me up from the comatose Jasper had placed me in. To be honest, the ringing was such a beautiful sound, a sound that almost screamed Edward, that I didn't mind feeling almost hung over from the overabundance of sleep.

I hit my knee, hard, on the bed frame as I left the room. It was more than enough warning for Alice – who was speaking as quickly as I'd ever heard her. It was five-thirty in the morning, so she could only be talking to one person.

"Is Edward coming?"

"They're just boarding the plane," Alice explained, hanging up the phone. At my horror-struck impression, she frowned. "It was Carlisle, Liv, not Edward. They'll land at nine-forty-five."

He was almost here. I could wait four hours, couldn't I? The weight in my chest, however, thought otherwise as it seemed to pull my entire demeanour downwards and in on itself.

"Where's Jasper?" His absence, embarrassingly not noticed before, was most definitely the reason for my slow, introverting spiral.

"He went to check out."

"You're coming with us too?" I hoped so. Knowing Edward we were going somewhere safer than a bomb shelter in a nuclear war, and it would be nice to know that his whole family would be safe with us.

"No, we're relocating closer to your mother's house." The hope drained fast.

"I'll never forgive you if you die again, Alice."

"I know," she grinned, her smile too large for the poor joke I had said.

The phone shrieked again, making me jump about a foot in the air. Even Alice looked at the phone with surprise, but after the initial scare I was more excited than startled – Edward was calling for me.

"Hello?" Alice had flipped open the phone, she looked a little more relaxed when she heard the voice on the other line. "No, she's right here."

She held the phone out for me. She mouthed that it was for me.

"Hello?" I couldn't keep the excitement from my voice.

"Where are you? This isn't funny. Answer me!" That was my sister's voice, panicked and annoyed and sounding about ready to tear my throat out…maybe those kinds of imaginings weren't too far off from what could happen to me if James gets his way.

I was surprised to hear her voice though. Katie was only nine and had more respect for me as any normal little sister should. I was surprised that she was calling me, not having tattle-tailed on me to Mom in her worry – which I knew because if she had, Mom would have been cursing my ear off by now. Katie must have been near other people too, because she was speaking in English, which meant she wanted her audience to know exactly what was happening without being confused like when we cussed each other out in French across the dinner table.

"Calm down, Kates," I told her carefully. "I need you to calm down and listen. I'm fine, nothing is wrong, but I need to talk to Mom, okay?"

But she didn't answer me. She didn't start to ramble about how she missed me or how I had ruined her time in New York while she was auditioning. She didn't even want to tell me how the audition had gone – which was strange for my nine-year-old protégée sister.

"Katie?"

"Be careful not to say anything until I tell you to." That was not the voice of my little sister. This voice was a man's voice, high and soothing, like something you heard during a yoga class or in a self-help audio book. It was charming and smooth, it didn't have hiccups or cracks, it was flawless – which was why it was so completely terrifying.

"Now, your sister is quite young and I do not feel want to harm her, so please do exactly as I say, and she'll be just fine." He paused to see if I was going to be able to listen to him and I didn't dare glance at Alice to see how closely she was listening – she could probably already hear the fear in my heartbeat. "That's very good," he was kind about his own cruelty. "Now repeat after me, and do try to sound natural. Please say, 'no, guys, you should stay in New York.'"

"No, guys, you should stay in New York." I couldn't even fool myself.

"I can see this is going to be difficult." But he didn't sound angry, in fact, he sounded quite pleased with himself. "Why don't you walk into another room now so your face doesn't ruin everything? There's no reason for your sister to suffer. As you're walking, please say, 'no, please listen to me.' Say it now."

"No, please listen to me," I was pleading with him not to harm her and it was the first time that I had ever made a lie sound convincing. I would have been proud of myself if I wasn't so terrified that the lie meant that I was separating myself from the only protection anyone I cared about had. But still, I walked quickly to the bedroom, knowing Alice was watching me like a hawk.

"There now, are you alone? Just answer yes or no."

"Yes."

"But they can still hear you, I'm sure."

"Yes." How could I lie to him when I was already having trouble lying to the people around me, the people who could keep me safe and yet I had to lie to so I could make sure my sister stayed alive? If I couldn't lie to them, there was no reason to even try lying to this monster.

"All right, then," the agreeable voice continued, "say, 'you have to trust me.'"

"You have to trust me."

"This worked out rather better than I expected. I was prepared to wait, but your family arrived ahead of schedule. It's easier this way, isn't it? Less suspense, less anxiety for you."

"Where is everyone?"

"Do not deviate from what I tell you to say, Vivienne," I was disgusted by the fact he said my name as I always adored the Cullens saying it. "Your family is safe, I just have your little brother and sister here – your parents don't get spring break off like they do."

That was true. It was also nauseating. I held my breath to avoid from begging for their lives, which seemed to please him.

"Better. Now I want you to listen very carefully. I'm going to need you to get away from your friends; do you think you can do that? Answer yes or no."

"No." And I could not tell if I was happy or sad about that – they were providing me protection, but it was no longer me that needed it. Katie and Shawn, Shawn hadn't even made it his full first year of Kindergarten…

"I'm sorry to hear that, I was hoping you would be a little more creative than that. Do you think you could get away from them if your siblings lives depended on it? Answer yes or no."

"Yes." Not that I knew how, but there had to be a way. There had to be a way that I could escape the watchful eyes of Alice and Jasper if I did it on instinct, before Alice's visions could keep up to me. And I had to do it for my siblings, I would have no guarantees from his end, but maybe I could distract him for long enough that Katie could grab Shawn and run.

"That's better. I'm sure it won't be easy, but if I get the slightest hint that you have any company, well, that would be very bad for the little ones," it was a promise that I would not risk proving. Why couldn't Alice have seen this phone call happening when he decided it? Why couldn't she hear his voice through the receiver with her super-hearing? How could he have been this clever? "You must know enough about us by now to realize how quickly I would know if you tried to bring someone along with you. And how little time I would need to deal with these two if that was the case. Do you understand? Yes or no."

"Yes." I couldn't help but be angry about it – he was threatening my family.

"Very good, Vivienne. Now, this is what you have to do. I want you to go to your home here in Phoenix. Next to the phone in your room will be a number. Call it, and I'll tell you where to go from there." There was no point in wondering where I would be lead, back to the Hell that was school and then down to Hell for making a deal like this with the devil. "Can you do that? Answer yes or no."

"Yes."

"Before noon, please, Vivienne. I haven't got all day," he was smiling, I could tell.

"I'm sorry for being such a burden, then." It slipped out, just like in the meadow. I heard him laugh slightly into the phone, a bitter sound that marred the soothing voice he had.

"Ah, be careful now, Vivienne. What did I say earlier?"

"Yeah, I remember."

"You're killing your siblings, Vivienne."

I sucked in a breath, knowing that I was playing with fire and right there I had added too much flint. He waited to see if I was going to disobey his orders again before he seemed to smile back into his words.

"It's important, now, that you don't make your friends suspicious when you go back to them. Tell them that your mother and sister called, and that you talked them out of coming home for the time being. Now repeat after me, 'thank you, mom.' Say it now."

"Thank you, Mom." My heart was skipping beats, it didn't know how to make sense of everything that was going on – the rage, the disgust, the fear.

"Say, 'I love you, Mom, I'll see you soon.' Say it now."

"I love you, Mom," it sounded fake because I never used those words. It sounded unnatural. I heard him scoff slightly, as if he was amazed how defiant I was with such a simple thing to say. "I'll see you soon."

"Goodbye, Vivienne. I look forward to seeing you again."

Then he was gone.

I stayed in my room for so long that I couldn't tell if a day had passed, though I'm sure that my mind was just racing – like my heart was. My sister's voice was playing over and over in my head, like it was on repeat, like I was rewinding the misery and adding terrifying images to it – scenes in the woods or in the garage. I'd heard her use that voice in all her horror movies, when she would be walking into some murderer's trap. Just like I was. And she would always say it, always walk in on the danger so annoyed, 'so ready to die' as she used to say. Which was suddenly very appropriate. It was just like one of her movies, she even sounded like she was…

Wait.

Wait…

Wait.

No.

I had heard those words before. I had heard those words over and over, take after take, in the fringe of the nearest parks while she would weave between trees, ducking under the bushes and pretending to go looking after a snapping twig.

'Where are you?' she would yell, knowing that the twig snapping had come from her left. Then her head would snap to the right and she would say 'this isn't funny!' and then, just as the stupid music we dubbed in later would start to squeal, she would yell for them to answer her – right before there was a lot of fake blood and gurgling noises she had taken weeks to master.

And Alice, Alice had seen him with a VCR, hadn't she? Hadn't she seen him in a dark room, looking through videos? What if he had been watching them – her horror movies? Her tries to get on America's Funniest Home Videos? Her collection of monologues she would do over and over, then re-watch over and over, to make sure that her facial expressions were perfect?

What if he didn't have Katie or Shawn at all?

I was moving before I realized I was moving, my body lurching over the bed and throwing the door open, unable to register the pain of running it over my foot. I fell against the couch when I reached it, my breathing fast and my chest heaving. Alice looked at me like I was possessed.

"Liv, are you okay?" Her eyebrows were furrowed, her eyes confused to my panic. "You sounded very concerned on the phone. You barely sounded like yourself."

"Alice, do you love me?"

"You don't use the word love." Of course Edward had informed her of that – maybe that's why she hadn't trusted the phone call where he had told me to tell my mother that I loved her. I never said that to her, not ever.

"Alice," I looked at her with as much seriousness and genuine sternness as I could muster. "Do you trust me?"

"Of course I do, Liv." Her eyebrows were still furrowed. "What's this about? What did your mother say to you?"

This was it – this was the chance I was taking against my brother and sister and for my instinct. My raw instinct that screamed to me that though it was wrong, I was right to say what burst from my mouth.

"That wasn't my mother, Alice." I said evenly.

"Vivienne…" she seemed to know what I was saying, but she couldn't bring herself to believe it. I didn't blame her, I was still catching up to my own thought process.

"That was James. And he didn't want me to tell you this." I took a deep breath. "But he says he has my brother and sister–"

"What?"

Jasper had returned when I was on the phone, and I had not realized until his voice floated over my explanation. I looked from him to her before I nodded, trying to convince them – though they both looked very convinced – that I was telling the truth.

"He says he has my brother and sister," I repeated. "And I think he might be lying."

WOW! And I bet you all thought I would stay consistent to the book the whole way through…well, this must be quite a shock! Man, I have been waiting to do that since I started this story and I am SO glad that the serious deviations can begin! To my fantastic reviewers:

grapejuice101: I'm glad you enjoyed the last update, hopefully this one got your adrenaline pumping! Thanks for the review!

Ariella Jones: Wow, thank you so much, that is an amazing compliment! I'm glad that you like Vivienne so much, hopefully this chapter really drove that home, and I'm glad that you feel that this is better–I'm honoured! Thank you very, very much for the review!

Angel of the Night Watchers: Yay, you're back! I thought about getting this one through you first, but I thought you deserved to be a little surprised and not have to get straight back into editing after your honeymoon. It sounded amazing! What was nicer, the wedding or the honeymoon?

Well, now that you've seen I'm not afraid to mess with SM's original plot – does anyone else think they might want to see a New Moon rewrite? I do have a lot of not-very-Steph-Meyer ideas for it, but I won't write it if it is an unpopular vote. Please let me know and REVIEW!

-Egypt

Sorry if you just got another message about this. This chapter was changed by a hacker and has been rebooted as it was.