16289 years passed…
All the years have come and gone and so have all the changes in the world, all the progress, all the destruction, the good and the evil, all of the modern technology and Bella still hasn't found the one person she was looking for. How could this be? Almost a hundred years since turning and still there was no sign of Alice…anywhere. It was like she vanished off the face of the earth, or James was playing games with her head. She had the feeling he was intentionally driving her away from finding her, she might have been naïve, but eventually everyone had to realize when they were being made a fool of, right?
Bella was fed up with James and Victoria, she learned just how unbelievably cruel James could be to people, innocent humans. Victoria was not as bad, but she went along with whatever he said, and not doing anything about a terrible situation is almost as bad as doing it yourself. She was stuck with the two of them; they would not let her go. Of course she had tried escaping, she had tried running away to find Alice on her own, but he would always find her. James would track her down, because that's what he did best, track people. She wouldn't ever make it far before he came along, forced her to go with him and promise that soon they would find Alice; they just haven't found the right people to ask. They were somewhere out there; it just took time…yeah, almost a hundred years of waiting. James didn't want her to find Alice, she wasn't completely stupid, but what was she supposed to do when he would track her down every time she tried getting away? He would not let his eyes away from her.
She became his play toy over the years, she was the third person in a romantic relationship…not that she enjoyed it. Victoria was gentle, she showed love and care, but Bella knew that she was only doing it to please James. James had his way with Bella and Victoria, two girls at once, who could give up such a delight? Surely not James, he had it made. James was aggressive, violent and often times would want the girls after he murdered a few people, and was still covered in their blood. This was not how Bella imagined her first time; this was never how Bella ever imagined any of it. She was his prisoner. She went from one prison straight into another. She may have eternity, but what was it worth if she was stuck with James?
The only way to escape, the only chance of freedom would be to eliminate James. Take care of him for good, but James was wise to her ideas. He was very intuitive, and could usually tell what she was feeling just by looking at her. There was no way he would let his guard down around Bella, he found the threat and the hatred she felt toward him enjoyable, in fact, it turned him on all the more. Victoria wouldn't let her anywhere near James either, it would always be two against one and Bella would quickly be defeated if she tried anything. She knew this, and they knew it too.
So here she was, in a living hell once more. She had grown numb over the years, the ache she felt dulled mostly. There were times where it would surge when she thought about Alice too much, but most of the time, if she stayed busy, she managed to survive. To think of this girl she only knew for a few months out of her existence, and to go through all this time still impacted by her was quite stupid to Bella. Why did she have to have that effect on her? Why did someone who hurt her still have to be on her mind? It was stupid, especially after how long it's been. It was a lifetime ago.
Bella was sitting in the very forest she was changed in all those years ago, wondering about all the people that had come and gone in her life. Her parents died several years ago, her mother from old age and her father from lung cancer. She never once visited their graves, only learned of their deaths when she decided to look them up online one day. The internet was such a wonderful creation. Bella had the world at her fingertips. There, of course, was no sign of Alice or Peter, and James or Victoria was always there by her to make sure she wouldn't discover too much.
James promised that they could go back to the asylum, to search for answers on Alice's whereabouts, something he promised only to do to get her to settle down about the girl. Most of the time Bella didn't really seem to put up a fight, but every now and then, after a few years or so, she would start asking again, and James would try to do something to ease her mind. It was only a matter of time before she realized that she had been played as a fool this entire time, and what James thought of as a fun game all those years ago, regretted the day she would discover the truth. He knew he would lose her, and was thinking of all the consequences that would bring about.
Bella was surprised that the asylum was still open all these years later. Mental health facilities were much better nowadays, or so Bella read, but the ghosts of the past still haunted the place. She was sitting on the bank of the lake, which was much shallower now, but still existed. The dock she remembered her and Alice standing on no longer existed. It was in bad shape back then, surely it wouldn't have survived all those years. She remembered all the faces of the patients and the nurses in the asylum like it was yesterday. Time went by fast for Bella, she couldn't believe so much time had gone by already. Time on earth was short for humans.
James and Victoria stood in the background, watching Bella carefully. She turned around to look at them, wondering if they were going to follow her inside or not.
"I'm going inside." Bella commented.
"I'll come with you." Victoria said, before James had the chance to say anything.
Bella nodded, she preferred Victoria over James any day.
"Don't be too long, or I'll come looking for the two of you." James remarked and vanished back into the forest.
The girls walked together in silence along the bank of the lake. They were coming in through the side, cameras had been spotted on the corners of the building but neither one seemed to care that they were on them. "I wonder if anyone is still alive." Bella said more to herself than Victoria.
Victoria thought about it for a second and responded, "I doubt it. It's been so long, and I don't think many people will still be in the same facility after all this time. That would be such a terrible existence."
Bella nodded her head, and thought about what it would be like to have lived the rest of her life in this building. They would never get the chance to see the world, and all its magnificent wonders. Some lives were such a waste, what was the point of even existing? She had to admit, James and Victoria were able to show her the world. Bella had been to every continent, seen every magnificent structure ever constructed, and seen every ocean. Being immortal wouldn't be so terrible if she was actually free to do what she wanted. She didn't think being part of a coven was a prison sentence.
The girls approached the front entrance and Bella saw that the doors were open, leading into the reception area. It was remodeled drastically; there were so many improvements that the place didn't seem so bad now. The smell however, remained the same, after all this time. The scent of blood didn't seem to bother Bella as much anymore. She learned to curb her hunger, and stuck to eating animals instead of people. She could never kill an innocent person.
The woman at the front desk smiled, and greeted the girls in a thick southern accent and asked, "What can I do for y'all?"
"I'm looking for information on my relative who was a patient here back in the late teens. I was wondering if I could get her information, if there still even is any left. I know it was quite a long time ago, but anything would be helpful." Bella learned how to read people in a matter of seconds, and react the best way possible. She knew exactly what to say to get what she wanted. Humans were rather easy to read.
The woman smiled yet again, "What was her name? I'll see if she is in our system."
"Mary Brandon." Bella simply replied.
The woman turned to the computer to the side of her and typed in the name. Images of her records popped up in seconds, Bella tried to look at the files the best she could without being too obvious. "Ah yes, Mary Alice Brandon, admitted in 1919, deceased 1920?" The woman questioned.
Bella looked down at her gold plated nametag, which said Amy, and quickly looked back up to meet her eyes, "Yes, that's my great aunt. May I have access to the records? I'm working on a family tree and would really love to get any information about her if possible. My family doesn't know very much about her…"
"It's not our policy to just hand out records to just anyone ma'am. Do you have any ID on you? I can put in a request for the records and you can pick them up in a couple of days." She looked to Bella, and then to Victoria, who stared at her with blood red eyes. It scared her so much that she backed away from the desk just slightly.
"I think I have it somewhere in my bag…" Bella began to fiddle with her bag, knowing nothing was in there. That was Victoria's signal to cause a distraction. Bella noticed that there were a few chairs on the side of the room where the entrance to the women's ward used to be, and wandered over there, pretending to dig in her purse. Victoria went to go sit on the other side of the room, wondering what she could do that would cause a distraction, she wasn't planning on doing anything and nothing really came to her mind. That's when she noticed an elderly woman staring at Bella through one of the glass windows of the entrance to the women's ward.
Bella could feel a pair of eyes on her and when she looked up, she noticed Victoria was staring in her direction. Not exactly at her, but to the side of her. Bella followed the trail of Victoria's gaze, and that's when she saw the old woman, in a wheelchair, who had her face pressed against the glass, staring at her with wide eyes.
She looked at the elderly woman for a second, something was familiar about her. It clicked in her that she knew this woman. The skin and the body may have become frail over the years, but her eyes were the same. It was Janet…after all these years. How could she still be alive? She had to be well over a hundred, and to still be in this place after all this time? What a terrible life.
The woman began shouting through the glass at Bella, pointing a finger at her and screaming as loud as she could. She didn't know what to do, Janet recognized her after all this time.
"Ma'am step away from the glass please. She can be a little jumpy at times, I apologize." Amy walked toward the window with a set of keys; she fidgeted with the lock to the door which was next to the window, while Bella stood by her side and waited. That was when Victoria went to the computer and pressed print on the screen. All the images of Alice's records began to print while the receptionist went into the door to the women's ward to try and calm down the woman. She had a radio on her and called for backup. Alice's records were only a couple of pages so it didn't take long for the printer to spit them out. Once they were done, Victoria grabbed them and motioned for Bella to follow.
The two girls left the building in a hurry, leaving the receptionist to deal with the elderly woman. When Bella looked back she noticed that Janet was clutching her chest, she hoped that everything would be alright. As the girls made their way out of the building, she saw a row of pictures on the wall of all the old nurses over the last hundred years. She recognized some of the names and faces, and noticed their death dates were also listed. None of them were alive anymore. Had Janet been the only one to survive all this time?
"What were you doing to make that old woman so scared?" Victoria was curious. She handed the papers over to Bella, who tucked them into her pocket. She took the purse she was holding and threw it in the forest as they passed a few trees, there was nothing in there, and she had stolen it from some poor woman. She had no need for it anymore.
"I was only looking at her. I think she was one of the patients while I was here, and knew who I was." Bella tried to explain, wondering what the consequences would be. Did she just kill an innocent woman?
"How could anyone still be alive?" Victoria questioned as the girls passed the lake once more and entered the protection of the forest. They would be long gone by the time anyone came to see who these strangers were lurking in the forest. No one bothered, Amy was oblivious to everything that had just happened, and when she finally had Janet calmed down, the two women were gone. She figured they just left and would return at a later time.
James stood there waiting for them almost in the exact spot where he had left them. "Did you get what you needed?" He inquired, not in a mood to stay around the area more than necessary. He had his hands gripped around his arms; he was obviously hungry and wanted to hunt.
Bella nodded her head, scanning the pages as fast as she could as they stood there. It had Alice's old address listed on the admittance papers, and it was only a few miles away. Besides a little bit of information about her treatments, there wasn't much else visible to go by. A lot of the writing had been blacked out by someone. It was almost useless.
She had to go to Alice's old house and at least see what it looked like. Maybe there was something there, something more than would lead her in the right direction, and maybe there was nothing. She had to find out.
"Her old address is on here. I want to go see what her house looked like. There's nothing else to go by except that." Bella remarked.
James looked at her for a second, annoyed and wondering if that was such a good idea to do, but then he realized that the house she lived in was probably gone by now. It would cause more harm to say no, than to just let her go.
"Alright, where is it? We'll go there now, before the sun sets." James said, holding out his hand for the papers.
"I would like to go alone." She said, pulling back from James.
"Absolutely not."
"Please James; you've been around me constantly. Please, just let me have this moment to be alone with my thoughts. I need to see it; I need closure from this mess. Enough is enough, we're never going to find her, and I need to get over this feeling. This has gone on for far too long." Bella was fed up, she just wanted to forget and move on…enough time had already been wasted on waiting for nothing. Wherever Alice was, Bella didn't care anymore. If she was happy, then so be it.
"You obviously need to feed, and I don't want this to get in the way of that." Bella added.
"Victoria can go with you then. It's either that or nothing at all." James replied. He didn't want to let her out of his sight, and trusted Victoria to keep an eye on her. Maybe this would settle the issue once and for all and nothing further would come of it.
Bella looked at Victoria, and nodded her head. Maybe she could convince her to at least have a few minutes to herself.
Bella showed Victoria the address, and together both of the girls set off to the address. She was familiar with the area, still after all these years, she knew Mississippi like the back of her hand. She hadn't been to this area of the state before, but knew where to find it. Hopefully there was something there, anything at all that would give her some sort of answer.
They were quiet on the way there for most of the time, focusing on running and getting there as fast as they could. The sun was setting, leaving a cast of Orange and Purple streaks across the sky. It was October, so the leaves on the trees were either falling off or already gone. As the girls passed by the trees through the forest, Bella noticed they helped pull off quite a few leaves. They were approaching the site faster than they expected, and the forest was running out. They would have to start walking soon, just in case people were around to see them.
Bella stopped running and looked at Victoria curiously, almost afraid to ask her.
"Can I do this alone?" Bella asked quietly.
Victoria stared at her for a second, sympathetic to what she wanted, but she didn't want to disobey James and get in trouble. "You know James won't allow it."
"Why do you always have to listen to him? He isn't your owner, you know? It's not like I'm going to run off into the forest, I don't really have anywhere to go. You can watch me from the tree line; the house is literally right over this hill. If you see anything, you can follow me, okay?" Bella was so tired of playing this game. They weren't James' pets. They could do as they pleased.
Victoria looked up at the hill, and motioned for Bella to follow her. She was considering it. "Why do you care about this girl so much? I never understood it. After all these years and you're still looking for her. Why, if all she did was hurt you and use you?" Victoria knew she wasn't telling the truth, but she thought Bella would have forgotten about this woman a long time ago.
Bella wasn't really sure how to respond. She didn't know the answer herself, "I just want closure. To know that she is out there somewhere, existing just the same as I am, drives me insane. I want to confront to, to tell her how much she hurt me, to wish the same pain on her…but at the same time, I still love her. Isn't that fucked up?"
Victoria shook her head, "No, I think it's called being in love."
The girls reached the top of the hill and noticed a few farming houses in the distance. Most of them looked abandoned, but they noticed smoke coming out of some chimneys. Bella looked in the distance, and could see which one used to belong to Alice's family. She pointed it out to Victoria; it was the second one closest to them.
"Look, there's smoke coming out of that one. Someone must still live there." Bella said, almost disappointed that she wouldn't be able to explore Alice's home fully. She would have to knock on the door and see if the owners would let her look around, which was an inconvenience, but not impossible. Bella hated socializing with people.
"Well, go on then. Be quick about it, or I'll come looking for you." Victoria said, touching Bella's shoulder and looking directly in her eyes. Gold eyes met red eyes as Bella silently thanked Victoria, and started walking in the direction of the house.
She turned around and watched as Victoria sunk back below the hill, but she knew she was watching her. This was the first time she was alone in quite a while, even if Victoria was just over the hill, it felt like a relief off her shoulders. Finally, she was alone. She took her time walking to the house, noticing all the other houses in the area. Most of the plots had overgrown grass, houses with missing pieces of wood and windows. This was the perfect place for creatures to live.
As she approached her destination, she noticed something odd about the house. It wasn't remodeled, it was just as crappy and abandoned as the rest, yet there was still smoke coming out of the chimney. Bella was put immediately on guard, maybe some bums took over the house, or some teenagers were hanging out in there.
Still she approached the house, and walked past the wooden fence with rusty barbed wire around it, which must have been there for years. Maybe Alice's dad was the one that put it up. She was cautious, but was drawn closer to the house, almost like a moth to a flame. She couldn't resist the pull, something inside of her was telling her it was okay, to come closer, and see who was there.
Did Victoria see what she was seeing? Was she going to show up and ruin everything by telling her to not go inside?
Bella took a few steps towards one of the windows that were knocked out, and looked inside. She saw that the fire that was going was just put out, and all that remained were embers. Maybe the people who were inside left. It was dark in the house, there was no electricity, and the sun continued going down. The purple cast sky did not offer much light. Bella walked around the back of the house, and saw the back door was slightly open, inviting her inside. This felt like it was a set up, but still, Bella continued inside like nothing was wrong or odd about the situation.
She took a few steps inside, not noticing how noisy she was. She was in what used to be the kitchen, but the room was empty except for a broken down table and a bunch of trash. Her eyes roamed the room for anything out of the ordinary, and continued further inside. She entered the hallway, which led to what she assumed were bedrooms and the living room. She walked down the hall and saw the same room she saw through the window, but no one was in there. She walked into the living room and looked around only to see nothing, but she heard something. Some kind of movement, so quiet that the average person wouldn't be able to hear it. She stopped in her tracks and heard it again. It was coming from the hallway she was just in. Bella turned on her heel, and now cautiously walked back into the hallway. She was trying to be quiet about it, but knew that most likely the person had already heard her coming in.
Bella walked down the hallway, opening doors, along the way, checking to see if anyone was there, only to see nothing. There was one door remaining, at the very end of the hall. Whoever it was, was in that room. She approached the door, and placed her hand on the door knob. She felt her hand turning the knob and pushed open the door only to be met with a sight she never would have imagined.
There she was, Alice. She sat on the remains of what used to be a bed, and stared up at Bella with wide, golden eyes. She looked like an innocent puppy, waiting for their master to come home to them.
If Bella could breathe, she would have her breath taken away. She stared, shocked into motionlessness, and had no words for this girl, who was sitting here like nothing had ever happened after all these years. Still the same as the last day she saw her, Bella could remember seeing her being taken away with Peter, yelling for her. That was the last memory of Alice she had.
Alice stood up swiftly, and Bella jolted back into life, moving back quickly. Alice was innocent enough about her movements, but Bella was terrified of her. She didn't know what to do. So many feelings came flooding to her in that moment, and there was nothing more she wanted to do in that moment than to kiss those beautiful lips of her. She ached for this girl, even still.
Bella backed up into the hallway as Alice approached her. She was curious, neither one of them still speaking a word to the other. What was Alice trying to do? Was she going to kill her? Was she going to tell her how wonderful her life had been since they dumped her in the asylum all those years ago? Speaking of which, where was Peter? He would be coming out soon, ready to attack her. She had to be ready for it, ready to strike. She hoped Victoria would come to her rescue soon.
Bella hit the back of the wall of the hallway and was stuck. Her eyes were glued to Alice as she continued to approach her, neither one of them looking away. Bella was trapped, waiting for Alice to strike. Surely it was coming at any moment now; she was waiting for it, expecting it. This was how she was going to die, wasn't it? Just like that. All these years waiting and it was finally over.
Alice smiled a shy little smile, and stuck her hand out, which made Bella flinch, cracking the wall of the hallway. She closed her eyes then, waiting for the moment of death to come, hoping it would be quick. She fell right into this trap, how could she be so stupid?
"Hi, I'm Alice Cullen." Alice's voice interrupted Bella's thoughts.
What…she thought to herself.
Bella opened her eyes, truly confused at what was happening. She stared at the girl she met all those years ago. What was going on?
She looked at Bella with that same smile still on her face, even after all these years; it was still the same beautiful smile.
"Who might you be?" She asked Bella, acting as this was something innocent, as if nothing was wrong.
Bella opened her mouth to respond, not really knowing anything else to say and too confused to think of anything proper, she responded, "Uh…I'm Bella Swan." How smooth.
"Nice to meet you Ms. Swan. I've been expecting you for quite some time now. I'm not planning on hurting you, so I do wish you would come away from that wall." Alice said with a small laugh, showing her bright white smile off to Bella, which made her melt even after all this time.
Just what was going on? Bella's thoughts had totally been turned upside down in the course of the last few minutes. Why was Alice acting this was? Like she had no idea who she was…
Author's Note
"If two people are meant to be together, eventually they'll find their way back."
-Chuck Bass