Alice was forced to cut the shopping trip short after six calls from my mother.
“Get home now!” she demanded. “You shouldn’t be out in your condition.”
I rolled my eyes.
“I’m fine, mother,” I replied. “I’m not over exerting myself. Alice is doing all the shopping. I’m just sitting on a bench.”
That wasn’t exactly a lie. Alice was doing all the shopping as she was paying for it. I wasn’t sitting on a bench because there were no benches in a department store. I was in fact holding a little black dress up against me while looking in the mirror with my cell phone tucked under my ear to talk to Sarah.
“So Alice is leaving you outside while she goes to shop?” Sarah was nearing hysterical as she thought of how Alice was neglecting me.
“No!” I half-shouted down the phone. “How stupid do you think she is? I’ll be home soon, okay? She’s just paying for stuff.”
I hung up before she could say anything and walking back to the rack to hang the dress up again I signalled Alice, who was looking through a rack of jeans. She said she wanted the perfect pair for me that looked not only glamorous but causal at the same time.
“We have to go,” I said, sighing. Seeing the wedding dress of my dreams had cheered me up considerably and it wasn’t too bad shopping with Alice. Maybe I should reconsider my thoughts on shopping with Alice.
“Yes,” she nodded, staring into space. “Your mother will be calling the hospital soon to have a word with Carlisle about me.” She looked at me. “Apparently I’m a bad influence.”
She shrugged and resumed her search for jeans.
“Umm...Alice?” I said, tapping her on the shoulder. “My mother will call MI6 or the CIA after Carlisle if I’m not home.”
Alice huffed and stalked out of the shop. I don’t think she likes my mother. Anyone who ruins Alice’s shopping trips isn’t in her good books. I smiled slightly and followed her out to the car. We had taken George. My poor car hadn’t been out in weeks. Alice had to drive George because I was ‘too ill’ to drive. We were nearly at Forks, just on a busy freeway when Alice suddenly let go of the steering wheel. Her face went completely blank and her eyes became unfocused. I stared at her for a few seconds, taken aback by her sudden vision. The car swerved dangerously and I gripped my seat, panicking before I realised that I should take over driving. I lunged across and grabbed the wheel, turning the car straight before it crashed.
“What are you doing?” Alice asked me politely, five minutes later.
“Driving,” I replied. I was almost sitting in her lap to drive the car.
“Oh,” she said, as if it was a normal thing to find your friend sitting in your lap driving while you have a vision. “I’ll drive now.”
She put her hands on the wheel and I slid back into my own seat.
“So,” I said, innocently playing with things on the dashboard. “Anything interesting?”
I looked at her and saw her face had gone completely blank. Her eyes slid slowly to look at me and when she saw me looking at her, her eyes turned quickly back to the road.
“Alice, what did you see?” I kept my voice reasonably calm.
“Nothing,” she said. “Just that it was going to rain.”
I could have predicted that.
She was hiding something. I did not like that. What could she be hiding? Was Charlie not coming home? Was he kidnapped? Had he not managed to kill Loren?
Then a thought popped into my head. I had been so busy with Alice I had forgotten all about him. I reached into Alice’s mind and there he was. Mitchell.
“Mitchell,” I said, softly watching Alice’s vision. “I’m so sorry.”
“Hey!” Alice said, indignantly. “It’s bad enough Edward can hear my thoughts.”
“Sorry but you wouldn’t tell me,” I said, looking at with my own puppy dog eyes. “I was worried it was something bad.”
She looked away but I could still the anger in her perfect features.
“It was something bad, Alice,” I said, trying to get her attention. “Why does no one tell me when something bad is going to happen?”
Alice didn’t respond, she kept her eyes on the road and her mind blank.
“You all think I’m too weak,” I said, getting angry. “So I get hurt a lot, yes, but I’m not indestructible like some people I know. People keep trying to kill me and almost succeeding but that’s an emphasis on almost. They never actually succeed. And just because I got kidnapped once and shot once-”
“Thrice.” Alice interceded.
“Ok, three times,” I amended. “But that does not mean I am weak. It just means people don’t like me very much.”
Alice snorted.
“You all forget that I am just as fast and strong as vampires. I am an Azdi. Granted I’m not a full Azdi as I’m not 21 yet but I still have these amazing abilities. I can read people’s minds, I can heal myself and I can move objects with my mind! Not forgetting the vampire venom in my bloodstream that only makes me stronger. Why doesn’t anyone see that?”
I was looking at Alice and I could see her face had softened. She understood. Maybe she could knock some sense into Edward.
“I see that you might possibly be having visions,” she said, smiling.
“Really?”
She nodded.
“I see you discussing it with Charlie,” she said, looking sheepish. “I wanted to find out whether you were having visions because of all the questions you were asking me about my vision. Plus Edward kind of let it slip.”
Damn that god-like vampire with the irresistible crooked smile.
“Alice,” I said, quietly. I was no longer looking at her but staring down at my hands that twisted nervously in my lap.
“Yes,” she replied just as quietly.
“Are things going to be okay from now on?” I looked up then, my eyes pleading with her. “Nothing bad is going to happen now? Can you tell me that?”
Alice was quiet for a moment and now I noticed we were in Forks and almost at my house.
“I can’t tell you that for definite, Kayla,” she said, apologetically. “I can only tell you Loren won’t bother you anymore. I don’t see you getting kidnapped in the near future.” She tried to joke. “My visions are subjective-”
“Based on what people decide,” I finished.
“Exactly. I won’t see any obstacles in your future unless someone decides to put them there.”
She stopped the car and I knew I was home. I opened the car door and stepped out.
“Bye,” I said, waving.
“I’m coming in,” she said, stepping out gracefully. “What would your mother think of me if I didn’t escort you inside?”
I laughed slightly and let her lead me to my front door. She opened it for me and called out to my mother as we walked through to the living-room. We had just sat on the sofa when I heard footsteps running down the stairs and my mother burst into the living-room.
“You’re ok!” she panted. “I thought the worse, I did.”
Alice smiled sweetly up at her.
“Kayla’s was in no harm with me, Mrs Swan,” she said, her voice like honey. “I wouldn’t have let anything happen to her.”
Sarah blinked, looking confused.
“I know that, sweetie,” my mother said, smiling back at Alice. “It was very good of you to take her out. She needed to get out after what she’s been through.”
Only an hour before she said that Alice shouldn’t have taken me out, that I wasn’t in the right condition. I see that Edward isn’t the only person that can be influential.
“What were you doing upstairs, Mum?” I asked her.
“Just preparing your bedroom,” she said, smiling widely. “Darren re-painted it for you and we got you new stuff. You’ll love it.”
My room? A horrid flashback of Loren staring at me with his evil eyes and the gun in his hand pulling the trigger. And then the bullets slamming into my chest, all the blood staining everything crimson. And the voice in my head telling me I would die, there was nothing anyone could do...
“Honey, are you okay?” my mother’s anxious voice brought me back. “You’ve gone pale, sweetheart. Talk to me, Michaela!”
I blinked several times, just like my mother had done when Alice dazzled her.
“I-I’m fine,” I stuttered out. “I-I w-was just....day-dreaming.”
“Are you sure?” Sarah placed a gentle hand on my arm and looked right into my face. I noticed Alice zoning out. “You’re not feeling any pain or dizziness or illness?”
I shook my head slowly, keeping her attention on me while I waited for Alice to zone back in.
“Michaela, you don’t look so good.” Sarah’s forehead creased and she chewed on her bottom lip. Her eyes scrutinised my face. “I’m going to call Dr. Cullen. Alice, will he still be working?”
“No, he’s off shift now.”
“Do you have his number?” My mother’s eyes never left my face. Her hand moved from my arm and she felt my forehead, checking my temperature.
“Yes,” Alice stood up and pulled her cell phone. She pressed a button and then another and held the phone out to my mother. She took it and walked into the kitchen.
“Hello, Dr Cullen, it’s Michaela’s mum-” I heard her say before the kitchen door blocked off the rest of the conversation.
Alice sat back down next to me and put her hand in my pocket, swiftly pulling out my cell phone. I didn’t really care what she was doing; I was more concerned about how Loren was still in my mind. It was like he was burned onto the front of my skull, forever to remain there, haunting me. I heard Alice muttering and caught my name and Edward’s so I figured out she was talking about me to Edward. Again, I didn’t really care.
How could I go into my room? All I would see is Loren’s leering face. It hadn’t bothered me in the hospital as I hadn’t been faced with the prospect of going to sleep in my room because I would be sleeping in a hospital bed. But now...
“Hey, Kayla,” Alice said happily, replacing the phone back in my pocket. “Edward’s coming round in about three minutes.”
I nodded.
“Aren’t you happy?” she asked me, tilting her head to the side.
I nodded again.
“Are you going to say anything?”
I nodded.
“Well, say something.” She encouraged me.
I was quiet for a few moments before I uttered,
“I need Charlie.”
I needed him here as proof that Loren wasn’t going to come back and hurt me. I needed him to walk through that door and just scoop me up into a bear hug that bears would be jealous of!
I needed my dad.
“I was going to make it a surprise but...” Alice’s eyes were gleaming with excitement and happiness.
“What?” I asked. Surprises from Alice weren’t always good surprises in my book.
“Charlie’s coming home now!”
My jaw dropped.
“He’s walking through the forest now, Kayla! I saw him just then before your mom asked for Carlisle’s number. He’ll be here in five minutes!”
I shot out the door as fast as lightening, grazing Edward on my way. I felt the twigs and leaves crunch under my feet as I sprinted through the trees. I wasn’t going to stop until I found Charlie. Never. But then I had to stop. I tripped over something on the forest floor. Something big that cried out in pain when I fell over them.
















I know that it has been like forever since I last posted and I am terribly sorry but I just had to take a break from everything and now I am prepared to write....and write....and write...and write.... plus I'm getting a guinea pig WOO!