FIRST!!!! THIS CHAPTER WASN'T BETA'D. So if you find mistakes, just know that's my fault. I sent a copy of this off to be beta'd before i put it on FF but I wanted to get it out there before I had to leave [I can only write/upload on weekends]. So you can read this now and then go back onto FF and read the beta'd version if you want. There's the exact same, minus a mistake here or there. So don't eat me alive over spelling/grammatical errors!
Something I just thought about while writing this. If I were the reader instead of the writer, I would wonder “why the fuck aren’t they searching everywhere for Bella and Rosalie? They could be dying or already dead” Something along those lines. It may seem a little weird for Alice to be spending alot of time NOT looking for her friends. Not sure if this is a concern of readers or not because I don’t get many reviews but just to ease my own reader mind, I’ll go ahead and tell you this:
Jasper has been friends with James for a while (as he said earlier). It’s not written in there but he knows he wont kill the girls. Jasper knows something special about James and so he’s not pushing Alice to search day in and day out for Bella and Rosalie. It’s an unwritten part that whenever Alice gets antsy, Jasper calms her down. They DO look for them because neither Jasper nor Alice truly know where they are. All Jasper knows is something secret and he has an idea of what James is doing but he truly doesn’t know where James is. I don’t write the searching part because in all honesty, I’m not a good writer at those type of things.
Sorry for the long A/N but I just know if it were me, I’d wanna know WTF is going on too.
This first part is important so we gotta get inside Jazzy-poo’s head :)
JPOV
“God, Buddha, Tom Cruise, or Oprah...Whoever I need to talk to in order to make myself feel better, please don’t let Alice hate me.” I sat in my car for a few seconds before turning on the engine. I gripped the steering wheel tightly and rested my forehead on it. I felt like such a shit head right now but it was all I knew to do. Drugging Alice up was the only logical thing my mind could conjure up to help her. I felt bad for lying to her about what they were but I could not bring her with me and she surely would have fought me to come along. I sincerely hoped the muscle relaxers kept her asleep the whole time I was gone.
I backed out of the parking space in front of my apartment and pulled out on to the street, headed towards the highway. I knew it wouldn’t take long to get where I was going but I needed to get there to see for myself so I sped along the narrow city roads and merged onto the interstate.
I thought about turning on music but I needed to keep a clear mind. I had no idea what I would do once I got there, I just had to see. For Alice’s sake.
I knew what kind of person James was, if you could even call him a person, and I also knew he wouldn’t kill Rosalie and Bella. He’s got more self control that I ever thought could be possible for a guy like him. He also lives for the thrill of the hunt. It was his obsession. Why he wasn’t out here looking for what he wanted? I’m not sure. Then again, maybe he was and I didn’t know it. It was because of that thought that I have kept Alice locked up in my apartment since she first got there. I didn’t want her anywhere without me. I couldn’t explain the reason behind my feelings, but I just knew she was it. She was the one I’ve been waiting for. I almost have James to thank for that. If it weren’t for him, she wouldn’t have been at that wretched party and I wouldn’t have met her then.
Fate works in mysterious ways and I’m positive I would have found her eventually, but James made it easy. I’d have to thank him for that.
I saw the exit I needed at the last second and pulled off onto the street. I didn’t think it was possible to get any darker outside, but being in an area like this, I guess it IS possible. All the trees covering everything makes it creepy.
I drove slowly through the quiet town, trying not to draw attention to myself. In a little town like this, driving around at 10 o’clock at night was out of the question, but most people were safe at home by 9.
As soon as I found the road I needed, I turned and continued to drive slowly. It was killing me to have to drive THIS slow but it wasn’t exactly a wise idea to speed down the street where the Police Chief lives, no matter how late it is.
I turned off of that street and when I couldn’t see Chief’s house, I sped. I sped on the back roads leading me to the woods and I drove as fast as I could completely up the hill to the house hidden in the forest.
I pulled up in front of the door and got out. The lights were on which meant someone had been there because I had turned the light off when Alice and I came here a few days ago. I grabbed my flashlight from my console and shoved my phone in my pocket after turning it on silent, in case Alice called. She shouldn’t be awake for at least three more hours.
I turned on my flashlight and walked around the house towards the backyard. I found the little path I was looking for and headed towards where I hoped I would find what I came out here for. I kept the light on the path in front of me. Far enough ahead to where I could see before I tripped over something but close enough to me that somebody wouldn’t see me before I saw them. I made sure the light was on the low light setting for that reason also.
I counted my steps, as I had done so many times when James, Edward, Emmett and I had done when we were younger. It was 55 steps from the back porch to the edge of the woods. 137 steps from the edge of the woods to the fork in the path. 129 steps, going left, til you got to the creek. 382 steps, going right, til you get to the clearing.
“132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137,” I whispered. I shone my light on the paths in front of me. I knew which was way I had to go.
I turned right and started walking. I thought back to the time when the four of us had decided to start counting steps between everything. The house had been ours when we graduated high school. Our parents had all chipped in and bought it for us, we were that close. We were practically brothers. We decided that since we were two miles off the road, we needed to take precautions when running around. Emmett found the creek one day while playing baseball with us. He never found the baseball but he brought us back to show us the creek. The water was so clear and we used it to shower and drink when we lost electricity for 3 days.
James had found the clearing though. Never knew how, but he just lead us back there one day and told us he stumbled upon it. It was beautiful during the day. The trees formed a perfect circle around it and it was filled with purple and yellow flowers that seems to glitter in the sunlight.
I stopped and facepalmed for thinking that but those were the words I’d tell Alice when getting her to come back here. I desperately wanted to run home, lay next to her and never let her go but I was doing this for her. Mainly for her, anyways. I just wanted to make sure James didn’t get any more wild hairs up his butt.
I continued walking and went back to thinking about counting steps while trying not lose count of them myself.
After James found the clearing, he said that it was something we had to keep close and a secret. We were confused but he said contracting people would probably try to come and buy the land from us to use or do some other kind of shit. It made sense back then and we all agreed on not telling anybody about it or bringing anybody back there.
The counting steps came from playing hide and go seek in the dark. It was lame but we figured we could make it more interesting if we played in the dark. Stupid idea, I always thought, but I wasn’t about to be called a pussy for not wanting to play in the dark so of course I joined in and played.
After a few games, we all thought it was weird that none of us could ever find James. He always was the last to be found, if we ever COULD find him. Turns out, he was cheating. He wasn’t using a flashlight at all so we could never see him. There were times, he said, he would walk right behind one of us for a good five minutes and we never knew. He said it was because he counted the steps between everything. Said it was good to know in case you ever get chased or anything or cant see and need to head in these directions.
James was always a weird person like that. Paranoid of everything.
“381, 382,” I counted to myself. I turned my flashlight off and looked towards the clearing. The moon was always brightest out here, so I didn’t need a flashlight.
I looked around the circle of the clearing and saw exactly what I came to find.
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