Friend Of The Dead

Method To Madness

"I'm ruining this vintage Versace dress because you're clearly going through something," Alice said evenly.

"What makes you think that?" It was rhetorical, but she answered nonetheless.

"The fact that you brutally dismembered the woman who turned you into a vampire, Jasper hasn't clocked a single emotion from you in sixteen hours, and you agreed to meet with the man whom you're in love with, who is human and does not remember you and is clearly going through something himself, and you're not panicking about any of these things."

The psychic was making too much sense. "And now I'm watching the stars fade and the clouds appear."

"No, you're in shock and you're failing to cope with it." She turned to face me. "Sophie, you're laying down in a pile of elks you killed and avoiding realization. Do you realize that you're meeting Dorian in five hours?"

"Where am I meeting him?"

"At a bus stop outside of town - that's not important - why aren't you freaking out?"

"I think you answered that yourself, Alice."

"Do you know what he wants?"

"I don't even know why he came to the house, Alice; I don't think he knows either."

Alice gave me an inquisitive look. "Then why did you agree to meet him, Sophie?"

The answer was so incredibly obvious. "Because how could I refuse him anything?"

Her eyes washed over my blank face, a frown pricking at her lips. "Well it's probably going to be cloudy all day, you're in luck. But we don't have blue contact lenses so you're going to have to deal with those eyes."

I finally looked at her. "You're not going to stop me?"

She smiled softly. "Every outcome I've seen based on someone stopping you today ends with Dorian finding another way to talk to you, he's incredibly persistent, besides," she sat up. "We've all sort of expected this."

I sat up as well. "Who is 'we'?"

"Me, Jazz, Edward, we all know that he's going to find his way to you one way or another."

My fingers dug into the earth, dirt and mud sticking underneath my fingernails. "And you're not worried for him?" I questioned monotonously. "I'm a newborn, I could kill him. I should want to kill him."

She reached for a strand of hair stuck to my face and crusted because of blood, tucking it behind my ear with a knowing look on her face.

"I don't think you can hurt him even if you wanted to. There's something about him, it makes you incapable of harm. I see many visions of you two together, but strangely, I never see you hurting him. There's always something holding you back."

I stared at her silently for a few seconds, taking in her wide and expressive eyes. "Help me, Alice." It was all I could get out, all the words my tongue would form. She stood up and held out her hand, but my aversion to contact travelled with me into my immortal life, despite now having control of my abilities. I stood up without her help and looked despondently down at the mess around me.

"You're not going to see him looking like that. Honestly, you have blood all over you, hasn't Jazz taught you how to hunt more cleanly?" Alice scolded as she stared at my clothes. No, Jasper failed to teach me that. I was much too wild when I was hunting for blood to care about cleanliness.

Alice helped me bury the carcasses and then we ran back to the house. Along the way, Alice chattered excitedly about the wedding, but there was little about it I cared about. The house was only occupied by Jasper and Esme. Rosalie and Emmett had gone hunting, Carlisle gone to check up on Jacob, and Edward with my sister. Jasper followed Alice and me upstairs as she dragged me into their room.