CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN:
The day passed slowly.
I was used to stress, ugly as that sounded, and I put into practice all the techniques I'd built up to help myself cope with it. I occupied myself for hours reading bits and pieces of the books I'd packed- Hogwarts: A History- Volume XVII, New Theory of Numerology, The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection, A Compendium of Common Curses and Their Counter-Actions, my Biology text-book and Wuthering Heights. I had a long shower. I wrote letters to Luna, Sue, Isobel and Ginny, letters that I tore up afterwards and soaked in water, so the vampires in the next room couldn't read them.
It was nearing the end of the day when I found myself gravitating back into the living room of the hotel suite, towards Alice and Jasper. "Are you feeling okay?" Alice asked, her voice sweet. I shrug.
"As okay as I can feel." She smiles.
"I guess that's the best we can ask for."
"What do you think they're doing?" I ask, settling down on the couch. Alice looks thoughtful.
"Carlisle wanted to lead the tracker as far North as possible, wait for him to get close, and then turn and ambush him," she thinks, outloud, "Esme and Rosalie were supposed to head west as long as they could keep the female behind them. If she turned around, they were to head back to Forks and keep an eye on your dad. Since they haven't called, I can guess that things are going well. It means the tracker is close enough that they don't want him to overhear."
"Makes sense," I sigh, "they could text though." Alice giggles softly.
"You're very good for us, Bella. We adapt the best we can to the changing world, but our interactions with humans are so limited, we never truly get a grasp on the new ways of thinking," she explains, a slightly bemused smile on her face, "it never even crossed my mind to text." I give a half smile.
"Welcome to the twenty first century." Alice smiles again.
"Can I ask you a question?" she asks.
"As long as it's not related to... what I'm going to tell Edward the next time I see him." I answer, carefully.
"Why have you never asked about the transformation?" she asks instantly, looking curious, "I thought you'd want to know all about it, how it works, how we were all Turned... I heard you talking to Esme in the field, you didn't know anything about her and the cliff. You hadn't asked anything about how we became vampires. I mean, that's why she mentioned it, she assumed you'd have asked Edward. Aren't you at all curious?"
Alice isn't the only one looking at me now, Jasper has turned around in his seat to look at me, obviously also interested in my answer. A normal person would be curious, I realize. A normal person in love with a vampire would want to become a vampire. They'd want to know everything about being Turned.
I decide to answer Alice with a half-truth. "I love Edward, and if he offered to Turn me, I'd want to say yes, I'd want to with every fiber of my being. But with what's going on in my life," in my world, "right now, I couldn't." I tell her, speaking as honestly as I can. She tilts her head.
"You're a very interesting girl, Bella Swan." She states. My lips curve into a sad smile.
"And that's my curse."
Alice looks like she's going to open her mouth, say something else, but then she moves to her feet, in a movement so swift I don't even see it happening, don't register it until she's already standing. My head jerked as I lift my head to stare at her, startled. "Something's changed." Her voice was urgent, and she wasn't talking to me anymore. Jasper was by her side in a second, his hands on her shoulders, gently pushing her back onto the chair.
"What do you see?" he asked her, intently, staring into her eyes. Her eyes were focused on something very far away. I leaned forwards, slightly, leaning in to catch her low, quick voice.
"I see a room. It's long, and there are mirrors everywhere. The floor is wooden. He's in the room, and he's waiting. There's gold... a gold stripe across the mirrors."
"Where is the room?" Jasper questions. Alice shakes her head.
"I don't know, something is missing -another decision hasn't been made yet."
"How much time?"
"It's soon. He'll be in the mirror room today, or maybe tomorrow. It all depends. He's waiting for something." She muttered, "he's sitting in the dark. He's watching TV... no, he's running a VCR." Jasper's voice was calm, methodical, as he questioned her in a practiced way.
"Can you see where he is?"
"No, it's too dark." Her voice is frustrated.
"And the mirror room, what else is in there?"
"Just the mirrors, and the gold. It's a band, around the room. And there's a black table with a big stereo, and a TV. He's touching the VCR there, but he doesn't watch the way he does in the dark room. This is the room where he waits." Her eyes drifted, then focused on Jasper's face.
"There's nothing else?" he asks, gently. She shakes her head.
"What does it mean?" I ask, quietly. Neither of them answer for a moment, then Jasper turns to me.
"It means the tracker's plans have changed. He's made a decision that will lead him to the mirror room, and the dark room."
"But we don't know where those rooms are?"
"No."
"But we do know that he won't be in the mountains north of Washington, being hunted. He'll elude them." Alice's voice was bleak.
"Should we call?" I ask. They trade a serious look, undecided. And then the phone rang.
Alice was across the room before I could turn to look at it. "Carlisle," she breathed, her expression fierce in its concentration. She listens for a long minute, before describing her vision. I tune out slightly until I hear her mention the word plane. "Whatever made him get on that plane... it was leading him to those rooms," she paused, "Yes," and then she spoke to me. "Bella?"
She held out the phone to me, and I clutched onto it like a lifeline. "Edward?" I demanded.
"Bella," Edward sighed, his voice soft, relieved.
"Oh Merlin, I was so worried!" I breathed, and he lets out a groan of frustration.
"Bella! I told you not to worry about anything but yourself." He scolds me. I try not to smile. I don't succeed.
"You know I never do what you tell me to. And I love you too much not to worry."
"I do know," he sighs, before adding in a soft voice, "and I'll never get tired of hearing that."
"What, that I never do what you tell me?" I joke, and he laughs.
"Of hearing you say you love me."
"Mm, well if you tell me what's going on, I might just say it again." I bargain. He chuckles.
"We're outside Vancouver," he says, before his voice turns bleak, "Bella, I'm sorry- we lost him. He seems suspicious of us, and he's been so careful to stay just far enough away that I can't hear his thoughts. And he's gone now- it looks like he got on a plane. We think he's heading back to Forks to start over."
"I know, Alice saw that he got away." I told Edward.
"You don't have to worry, though. He won't find anything to lead him to you. You just have to stay there and stay safe until we find him again." Edward's voice is fierce.
"You be safe," I tell him, just as fiercely. "Promise me you'll be safe!" It's the same promise he tried to make me give him. The promise I purposefully never made.
"I will. I promise." He tells me.
"I love you." I murmur, blinking back the tears that are threatening to emerge.
"I'll come for you soon." He promises.
"I'll be waiting."
The phone turns dead, and I reach up to give it to Alice, only to realize she's not sitting in front of me anymore. I turn around and spot her across the room with Jasper, bent over the table, sketching on a piece of hotel stationery. I walk over to see what she was drawing.
It was a room: long, rectangular, with a thinner, square section at the back. Wooden planks made up the floor, and down the walls were lines denoting the breaks in the mirrors. And then, wrapping around the walls, waist high, a long band. The band Alice said was gold.
"It's a ballet studio," I said, suddenly, recognizing the familiar image. My stomach was beginning to sink. They both looked at me surprised.
"Do you know this room?" Jasper's voice sounded calm, but there was an undercurrent of something there, something that I couldn't identify. Alice bent her head to her work, her hand flying across the page now, the shape of an emergency exit taking shape against the back wall, the stereo and TV on a low table by the front right corner.
I think about lying for a few seconds, then decide against it. "It looks like a place I used to go for dance lessons- when I was eight or nine. It was shaped just the same."
"Do you think it's the same room?" Jasper asked, still calm.
"I don't know," I answered, honestly. But I could guess. A horrible thought suddenly hits me. "The studio I went to... it was just around the corner from my mom's house..." my voice trailed off, horror making my stomach curl as my thought became more and more like it could turn to reality. "Alice, is that phone safe?" I ask her, not bothering to hide the fear making its way into my voice.
"Yes," she assured me, "the number would just trace back to Washington."
"I need to call Renee," I explain, as I grab the phone off the table, "I need to make her leave for a few weeks..." I'm dialing before I've even finished my sentence, praying that she picks up, only to hear a beep and my mom's breezy voice telling me to leave a message.
"Ren-mom," I say after the beep, "it's Bella. Listen to me. I need you to leave the house until I tell you it's safe to go back. It's really important. It's to do with... with my school, and I know you want nothing to do with any of that, but your life is in danger, mom; you and Phil need to get out of there. You need to leave. Look, as soon as you get this, call me on this number," Alice was already at my side, writing the number for me on the bottom of her picture. I read it carefully, twice. "It doesn't matter what time you get this call, ring me."
I closed my eyes as I hung up, praying that she'd ring back any minute now, keeping the phone by my side as I made my way over to the sofa. I didn't touch the dinner Alice tried giving me, instead I just curled up, trying not to panic.
I must have fallen asleep on the couch, waiting for the phone to ring, because it was the sound of my screams that woke me, as images of my mom's lifeless, blood-drained body danced before my eyelids, joined by flashes of green light, skull-like masks and dark burgundy eyes.