THE SEPARATION

"Oh God, I wish you were not on this earth, but entirely within me, or rather that I were not on this earth, but entirely within you; I feel there is one too many of us; the separation into two people is unbearable."

—Franz Kafka, Letters to Felice

—

DECEMBER 5TH 2039

12:35 PM MST

NEDERLAND, COLORADO

When Mariah Carey's Christmas album looped for a third time, the noise blasting throughout the entire house, Jasper watched with amusement as Alice sighed and sank down onto the floor. Then, she pushed away from the front of the couch to lie flat against the carpet and stare up at the ceiling.

"I'm not a grinch," she lifted a finger and pointed toward where Emmett sat. "If you imply anything of the sort I'll rip the Xbox in two."

"Good thing I didn't say anything then," Emmett laughed and kept his eyes on the giant screen of the TV, the video game controller in his grasp.

Jasper smiled in spite of himself, and let his eyes flicker down to where Alice now had her magazine propped open on her chest. She was ignoring her reading material to glare toward where Renesmee was upstairs with Bella. He turned his attention back toward the TV and tried to focus on the game he was supposed to be playing with Emmett.

Alice's surface level frustration was only a front for the creeping unease she'd been plagued with for days. He'd asked her, earlier that morning, if everything was alright. She'd been swift in waving his concern away with a complaint about 'annoying' visions and claiming that the more pressing matter was the clashing aesthetics the house would be sporting soon.

Jasper sent a soothing aura forth as he focused on trying to blow Emmett's character to smithereens.

They'd been slowly decorating the house for days now. The instant the clock struck midnight on the first of December half of the family sprang into action. Jasper always enjoyed the holidays; the silly human traditions put everyone in good spirits and kept the mood of the house cheerful and excitable in the wintertime.

Each year the participating members of the family took turns with decorating the inside or outside of the house. Last year Rosalie had dictated the theme—white garlands and gold-accented decorations had kept the house brighter than usual. The year before Carlisle had chosen a more traditional route, keeping the trinkets and lights to a minimum but going all out with the massive tree they'd decorated.

This year was Alice's turn.

Or, it was supposed to have been. When Alice passed the job off to Renesmee that had made everyone look at her like she'd been replaced by a clone. Alice had rolled her eyes at them while Ness thanked her a thousand times over the course of the weekend.

Everyone knew why she'd done it, of course. This was their first Christmas without Jacob since Ness was born. Alice may not have been able to see Ness' future, but if she had given away her turn then it only meant that whatever she had seen had been bad.

No one really questioned the decision after that thought occurred to them. Except for Jasper, of course.

His eyebrow twitched as Emmett managed to kill him in the video game, and as he waited for his character to re-spawn he looked back down at Alice. She was still glaring upward and sighed as Silent Night played not-so-silently through the stereo system that linked the loft and the main level to the same speakers. Jasper knew it wasn't the music that was bothering her. Her emotions flickered and buzzed, over and over, and her persistent annoyance was still strong.

Three days ago this bizarre mood of hers had begun.

Jasper watched Edward closely when he was in the room with them, but either Edward's poker face had improved too much over the years to give anything away or there truly was nothing in Alice's thoughts and visions worth noting or reacting to.

He'd try to talk to her about it again at some point this week, but wasn't sure when the best time to approach the subject was. With everyone around—and with a dusting of snow set to fall over the area later in the day—it was hard to find privacy unless you wandered out into the mountains.

Maybe he'd take her on a hunt tonight or tomorrow night. Alice had always loved the snow.

Esme was currently in town on an errand, raiding the nearest plant nursery to provide the house with some festive flowers. Edward had already warned everyone about the excessive amount of poinsettias about to invade the house.

Jasper thought the warning was a bit redundant. Esme was always excessive with her decorating. One year she'd short-circuited the entire house while stringing up lights in the front yard. Emmett had taken the blame for that one, as he'd been the one physically hanging them up at the time, but they all knew it had been Esme's idea.

Eventually, Alice picked the magazine back up and began reading again.

Jasper died twice more before he clicked his tongue and tossed the controller across the room. Rosalie caught it with an unamused glance in his direction.

"I don't want to play."

"Babe, restock quick, before you re-spawn!"

Rosalie clicked her tongue and put her phone down, turning toward the TV to pick up where Jasper had left off. She muttered something that sounded like "jackass" but was quickly playing alongside her husband.

Jasper just grinned. She was better at these games than he was anyway. It didn't take long before she started playing dirty and moved across the room to sit in Emmett's lap while he pointedly tried to ignore her so he could win the game.

Alice grinned up at her magazine after the buzz of a vision fizzed across Jasper's awareness and he looked back down toward her. She turned the page, still smiling, and Jasper just knew that she'd seen that Rosalie would win.

He lifted his head up as the light sound of feet bounding down the stairs echoed through the house. "Has anyone checked the mail yet today?" Ness asked, her voice reaching them before she skipped into the room.

"Nope," Alice spoke, not looking up. "The mailman dropped it off barely an hour ago." Then, "And it isn't supposed to start snowing for about six hours," she added in reply to an unasked question.

Ness smiled brightly, her copper curls bouncing as she shuffled from foot to foot. Jacob had promised a Christmas card and Ness was damn determined to be the one to receive and open it.

It would've been sweet if Jasper didn't know how sad she was about the situation.

"What about Es—"

"Esme will head home by three-twenty," Alice cut her off. "If you want her to pick up extra lights you have time."

Ness turned and headed toward the front door, skipping the whole way, "Thank you!"

A minute after she left through the front door, Edward walked into the room, his hair still damp from a shower. "Is she about to come back disappointed?"

Alice turned another page and Jasper felt her emotions fluctuate. A buzz was followed by acute confusion. Edward stopped in his tracks as Alice frowned up at the page.

"What was that?"

They all looked toward Alice.

"I don't know," she half-shrugged, indifferent. "You know I can't see her reactions."

Nobody replied to that. They all knew she should be able to see whether a card from Jacob would join the decorations on the kitchen island, propped up for all to see like a treasure of its own.

Another buzz and Jasper felt Edward's curiosity ebb, disappointment taking root. Alice sighed. "I don't think it's coming today," she admitted. "Sorry."

"Did he even send it?" Rosalie asked from Emmett's lap. She was currently playing one-handed; her other hand rubbed circles on Emmett's knee. The screen flashed red as her character killed his. Jasper shook his head and averted his eyes. She was shameless.

"He said he did," Edward muttered. He watched the screen for a few seconds before he walked in front of it. Emmett yelled "Hey—hey, move!" half of a second before he got killed, again. Edward was heading toward the small library at the edge of the house, which was one of the more secluded areas they had. "He'll probably send multiple."

The conversation came to a natural end as everyone continued on with their tasks. Emmett and Rosalie were starting to get a little ridiculous with their game, and Jasper was considering fleeing upstairs to escape the rising emotions that he was starting to feel from them.

Shameless, he repeated the word in his head. Edward's amusement from across the house brought him a sense of camaraderie.

As he moved to stand Alice stayed prone, still staring the pages of V intently. She was thoughtful, and Jasper wondered what ideas were swimming in her mind. No doubt she was looking for some sort of inspiration within the glossy pages for everyone's winter outfits for next year.

He left the room without a word. The sound of the front door opened, indicating that Ness had already made the long run down their massive driveway and back. Her excitement was pulsing through her as Jasper passed through the living room toward the side stairs.

"Jasper," she called out, having heard his retreat to the second level, "you've got something."

The sound of a package hitting the bench in the foyer piqued his curiosity. He'd recently ordered Ness more film for the polaroid camera that Alice had bought for her for her birthday. The same camera that Alice had purchased, wrapped neatly, and signed 'Love, Uncle Jasper' on it. Ness had laughed before she opened it and shot him a knowing grin. They all knew Alice's handwriting when they saw it.

Later, after the festivities, he'd told her to use his card to order extra film when she needed it. She must've already run out and used a random account of his to order more. Jasper was amused that Ness hadn't already torn into the box; she knew that he was one of the members of the house that didn't typically care.

Jasper walked toward the door; Ness's enthusiasm felt nice from where it trickled in at the front of the house. Before he was close enough to peek over the banister and watch her excitedly tear into the box—the ripping of cardboard and tape was loud—it struck him.

Fear always worked quicker than most emotions. It cracked across the brain before physical awareness and rational sense could catch up. It was sharp, stinging, and it caused Jasper to move before he even knew why.

His feet landed hard against the wooden floors of the foyer—the walls shook with the impact, rattling the delicate wreath pinned to the front door, and causing the small windows that framed the door to shudder—just as Ness gathered the breath to scream.

He reached for her quickly and, with what he hoped wasn't excessive force for her half-human body, yanked her back away from the box. The front door cracked under the impact his back made with it, bells jingling and glass shattering, and in an instant he'd pulled her behind him and stepped forward.

Edward was there first, the sound of splintering wood accompanying his entrance as he reached out toward his daughter.

The entire house was in the foyer the instant Ness let out a blood-curdling scream.

"Hey, I've got you," Bella shushed her as she wrapped her arms around her. She quickly backed the both of them up until they were standing in the center of the family room located off to the side of the stairs. She was checking her over quickly. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

Emmett was growling. He pushed passed the front door Jasper had cleaved in two with wide eyes and clenched fists. It wasn't until Jasper inhaled to speak that he froze, the scent of fresh venom sharp in the air.

Someone who wasn't Ness let out a horrid, dreadful sound—Rosalie, maybe—and Jasper watched as Edward frowned down toward the opened box, dread and fear mixing in a heavy, suffocating cloud. Edward's eyes met his and Jasper felt himself moving forward before he could decipher the look he was on the receiving end of.

The contents of the box spun his awareness into chaos.

Jasper didn't know what Edward was saying but he could hear—no, not hear, he could feel the words vibrating through the air, hitting his eardrums, and falling flat and noiselessly out of existence.

The box wasn't large. A small square, hardly a foot across. Brown, unsuspecting, postmarked correctly. It looked exactly like he thought a box with some polaroid film was supposed to look. Someone had taken a thick black marker and wrote something across the shipping label. The only letters he had seen were 'TI' above a 'TO'.

These were passing details he'd noted the instant he'd yanked Ness back. Information already burned into his brain. Information that he could finally roll over in his mind as he struggled to come to terms with what he was looking at.

Because inside of the box were two severed hands.

Vampire hands with fingers frozen in the positions they were in when they were torn off sat prone. Venom had leaked out of the detached appendages and was eating away at the bottom of the box. One hand was large and scarred, and the other much smaller, a plethora of rings decorating each finger.

Jasper knew whose hands these were.

He didn't realize he'd reached inside and was holding one of them, his fingers running across a jagged scar that traced in a curve around the left thumb, until he felt hands on his back and hands on his wrists as someone removed the severed hand from his grasp.

Jasper knew that scar because he had left it there, over a hundred-and-twenty years ago. This was a warning. A threat.

He lifted his head, still not understanding what he was hearing. Emmett put the hand back in the box and closed it, Edward put himself in Jasper's line of sight, Rosalie tugged at his elbow.

He looked around the room and did not see Alice.

Jasper felt his world tip sideways.

A/N: Happy early chapter! Today was my birthday, and as a little tradition (when I can) I love to share fic on it, as a treat for all!