Part 6 : The Other Brother

In their determination, Jasper and Alice felt something else that was very new: the feeling of being taken for idiots.  They left the cottage with the firm decision to shed some light on the night’s mystery.

Day was breaking, and the the two lovers forged ahead into the woods.  The rain had stopped and the first rays of the morning illuminated their path.

Jasper felt a shiver run down his back and reached for Alice’s hand.  He could feel it, someone was coming—someone filled with hate, frustration and doubt.  A huge cracking sound emanated from the top of the evergreens, and Jasper knew exactly who it was.

“Emmett’s coming,” he announced.

Instinctively, he looked up to the sky waiting to see his brother bounding through the trees.  As Emmett moved through the forest, the trees moaned and branches cracked, and he finally landed on a pile of wet, dead leaves in front of Alice and Jasper.  He could feel Emmett’s rage all the more strongly.

“Alright, where’s Rose?” he asked, cutting to the chase.  Alice shook her head, exasperated.

“No idea.”

“Well then get an idea.”

“You know as well as I do that it isn’t that simple.”

Emmett clenched his fists.

“Act like it is,” he advised his sister who, in front of him, seemed smaller than ever.  “Concentrate, you can even pretend you’re trying, and then you tell me where she is.”

“D****t, Emmett…”

“Those damn dogs are after her, they won’t touch her!  Not so long as I’m alive.”

“You’re forgetting Edward,” Alice murmured, lowering her eyes, sure that her other brother was the most terrifying of the group.  “He knows everything now, and we know how easily he can change sides… especially when he’s faced with betrayal.”

Emmett’s eyes became alight with fury.  Out of nowhere, his impatience took over.  He lunged toward Alice, ready to show her exactly what he thought of the whole situation the best way he knew how: with muscle.  Jasper didn’t even have to think: his hands wrapped vise-like around Emmett’s throat.  He didn’t care anymore for familial relations, he pushed Emmett violently against a willow that bent over under the shock.  Emmett would have none of it, sending his knee into Jasper’s stomach like a boulder.  Jasper roared from the sharp pain and tightened his grip around Emmett’s neck.

This wasn’t the first time the two vampires fought against each other, but it had always been a game before.  Presently, and inevitably, this fight was turning into an epic battle that could break them both.

“Stop!” Alice screamed, running to them against the broken willow tree.  “Stop!  Emmett, I’ll try.  I’m going to try, I said!!”

A quick glance toward Alice was all it took to stop their punching match.  The two brothers let go, lips still snarled angrily.  Jasper wrapped an arm around Alice’s waist and led her away from Emmett.  She let him lead her, turning to watch Emmett climb the closest, strongest tree to get away from Jasper.

“Are you alright?” she asked him quietly.

“Stay away from him and it will be,” he replied.

“So how’s that vision coming?”  Emmett shouted from his perch.

“If I see something, if I find where Rosalie and Renesmée are hiding, I want you to promise me that you will go back to Carlisle and not run off alone.”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because you don’t know how to think before you act,” Jasper responded, still full of resentment, “and because of this handicap, you always do things you regret later.  You’ll need Carlisle around to tell you how to use your brain.”

Emmett snapped a branch in his hand.

Alice decided to get to work instead of adding her two cents, Jasper had gotten her point across perfectly.  Turning her back on the two vampires to avoid any distraction, she focused on Rosalie… Where is Rosalie?  What is Rosalie doing?  What decision is she making right now?  Where is Renesmée?  What’s going to happen to her?  Alice asked herself these questions several times, trying to ignore the rabbit that was hopping about not far from her, its fur tinted pink with the light of morning.

The first vision grabbed her heart and maliciously teased her thirst: Alice saw Rosalie, her beautiful blonde hair blowing in the wind.  She had her teeth planted into the neck of an older human, paralyzed in the throes of death.

Just a few seconds passed and Alice was already analyzing what she had seen: Rosalie was drinking blood from a human… she had never drank blood from a human before…

The second vision started:  Rosalie escaping at great speed into the interior of a coastal town, the sea thrashing and heaving dangerously.  In the distance, an echo of Edward’s howling.

Jasper placed his hand on Alice’s shoulder.  Without looking at him, but looking instead at the beauty of the sunrise that was trying in vain to pierce through the gathering clouds, she recounted her visions:

“I saw a small town on the coast.  It was barely twilight, Rosalie was fleeing Edward…  I don’t know how he knows where she is hiding.”

“Any details that could tell us the name of this town?” Jasper inquired softly, perceiving her disappointment.

“At the port, I saw a huge blue ship, it was old and rusted.  It seemed to be abandoned.”

“Like a cargo ship?”

Alice nodded.

“Deep Bay, around six hours north of Forks.  There’s a ship there that sounds like the one you saw, it never lifts anchor.  It’s become a historical landmark.  Edward, Emmett, Carlisle and I hunted in the woods next to Deep Bay a few years ago.  No matter where you are in that town, you can see that ship.”

“Then it must be there,” Alice concluded.

Jasper looked over his shoulder.  The tree was empty; Emmett had already left.

“Let’s go see if he at least went to Carlisle first.  This time, no one gets separated.  If we find Renesmée, she’ll need to be reassured that everything is alright.  It would be best to bring Carlisle and Esme with us,” Jasper advised.

“And Jacob?  We didn’t get to question him.”

“If we find Rosalie before Edward does, she’ll answer our questions.  No more middlemen. Let’s go.”

“Jasper,” Alice stopped him, taking his arm.  She wanted to tell him about her other vision, the one with Rosalie drinking blood from a human being.

“Yes?”

“Nothing, let’s go,” she responded, rethinking her priorities. “We have to find Rosalie, and we have to find her fast’’.

She slid her hand into Jasper’s and they set course to the house, running like the wind.