LISTLESS

"After all, we do belong together, there seems to be no doubt about that, but equally there is no doubt that we are immensely different, that you are healthy in every sense of the word, and as a result calm in your innermost being; whereas I am ill, perhaps not so much in the generally accepted sense, but consequently in the worst possible sense of the world, hence I am restive, absentminded, and listless."

—Franz Kafka, Letters to Felice

DECEMBER 5TH 2039

12:52PM MST

NEDERLAND, COLORADO


One, two, three, four, five. He slowed, turned, walked. One, two, three, four, five.

"Yeah, I know but—" Bella paused, and they could all hear Esme's rattled voice on the other end of the line. "I know. Pull the car around the back of the strip mall and park there if you have to. But don't go anywhere." The low buzz of mumbled conversation. "They'll be there as fast as they can. In fact, go wait back inside the store." Bella was up in the loft, and Jasper could hear Ness' occasional hiccup as she worked to keep herself calm. Jasper would've helped if he hadn't been so busy trying to think.

One, two, three, four, five. Turn. One, two, three, four, five.

"I promise. Alice is watching them closely now. Edward already called Carlisle."

Jasper didn't know whether Edward had plucked this idea from his head or come up with it on his own, but either way, it was a smart first step. They needed everyone home and together as soon as possible.

Alice sat on one of the barstools in the kitchen with her legs crossed and her hands on her knees. Her eyes were closed and she hadn't taken a breath since she'd started watching. Nor had she moved since she'd spoken last.

"I can only see Peter."

One, two, three, four, five.

"Alice?" Edward spoke. She didn't reply, verbally at least, but Jasper could feel the buzzing of her emotions stutter and then resume. Meaning: she'd stepped out of her visions, replied to an unspoken question of Edward's, and then resumed watching. Edward clicked his tongue. "I need to call Carlisle again."

"Let me," Bella was back in the kitchen with them now, texting one handed on her phone. Without looking, she held her hand out and Edward handed her his cell phone. "What's he trying to do now?"

"He's about to argue with Emmett to let him stay for another hour. Scheduled surgery."

"Unless he's already wrist deep in someone's chest cavity, he better not argue," Bella muttered as she walked across the house, still staring down at one phone, texting. The other phone was already ringing on the other end, pressed against her ear.

One, two, three, four, five.

Jasper wanted to leave. He wanted to leave so badly in that moment. Whoever had done this was obviously sending him a message. He still hadn't ruled Maria out—he'd be a fool to think their willingness to leave each other alone was anything more than what it was—but the number of people who could have done this was…

It was too many. A shameful amount of people would likely jump at the opportunity to terrorize Jasper. That was fine. It wouldn't be anything he didn't deserve.

But his family absolutely did not fucking deserve this.

The buzzing stuttered to another halt and irritation, annoyance, and fear slinked across the room from where Alice sat.

Jasper did not pause in his pacing but he glanced up at her and met her eyes. He wasn't actually going to leave. He wanted to (and he supposed on some subconscious level he had been planning to—if not, Alice wouldn't have even seen a flicker of that possibility) but he knew he couldn't. At this rate, whoever was doing this was going to hurt more than just Peter and Charlotte.

Anger tore through him. Despite his desire to express his rage he held it in, shaking his head as if he could shake his thoughts back into proper working order. As if he could shake himself free from his anger. He had to keep a level head. He couldn't afford to get distracted by his own pain. He also couldn't afford to affect anyone else's emotions with his own, either.

One, two, three, four, five.

His eyes drifted to the note on the table. Despite Alice's insistence that it was no use, he'd still opened the box and reached in. He'd ignored the way it felt to push past Charlotte and Peter's hands, still and ossifying. He had both of their venom on his hands and that reality was as dizzying as it was sickening. If Ness hadn't brought the package in when she did, the venom would've eaten all the way through the words on the paper and they never would have known what it said. It was clear that the note had been shoved haphazardly to the bottom of the box just before it had been jammed into their mailbox.

Even now, the paper continued to slowly disintegrate on the table, the venom seeping through it and eating away at the varnish on the hard wooden surface. Rosalie had taken a couple of pictures so that they could show Carlisle and Esme on the drive home. The urge to run toward the edge of the driveway and follow the scent trail from the mailbox—the trail that Jasper was certain still existed—was tempting to the point of pain.

He shook his head again. He couldn't. It would just be a trap. Or, if whoever was responsible for this were smart, they had sent one of their weaker newborns to deliver the message. Someone disposable that they were willing to sacrifice.

One, two, three, four, five.

Jasper repeated it again, visualizing the note in his mind with perfect clarity. The quick, curved letters were unfamiliar in hand but legible, scrawled onto the back of a thin flyleaf torn from a book. He repeated it again. And again and again and again.

Ten before two a fire blooms

Two before ten it lights again

Follow the light bend the height

Love for the land costs a hand

Jasper felt Alice's approach without hearing it. He didn't stop moving until she stepped to his side and slid her palm against his. Alice clasped their fingers together, squeezing firmly. Then, she pulled lightly, trying to remove him from the room.

No, he needed to figure out what they'd do once everyone else got home. He needed to force his mind to settle on the two options that sat before him. He did not believe that Charlotte was dead. He did not buy it.

He had to come up with a plan. He had to save them both.

Alice sighed. "I know what we need to do."

When she spoke, her words weren't just for him. They were loud and clear, and they pulled everyone's attention back toward the kitchen. Judging by Alice's expression and Edward's responding emotions, Jasper did not want to hear what she was about to say.

Jasper pulled his hand back and started pacing again. He had to come up with a plan. He had to save them both.

This was his worst nightmare come true.

He continued to pace. One, two, three, four, five.


A/N: Things'll really pick up (action-wise) after November. But brace yourself for some shorter chapters interspersed throughout the next couple of months. The Act 1 word count average was ~2.5k per chapter. Act 2 average is 1.6k words per chapter and we jump back up for Act 3 with a ~2.9k average. (The average word count per chapter just goes up from there with each subsequent act—and there are 6 total including epilogue lmfao)

Hope you guys are enjoying yourselves so far.