𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐞 / 𝐈.

19.

19 - the fuel

All through the dark, moonless night, we drove. Only stopping to fill the car and allow me to do as Jasper called them, "human activities". Despite the urge from Alice for me to sleep during the drive, and my own heavy eyes, I never found sleep. Always too anxious that when I began to drift I was frightened awake by the red eyes that were searching for me. Thankfully, my boyfriend's MP3 player and extensive music library helped take me off edge, he had all the songs I particularly loved to listen to when I'm in distress.

"We're here." Alice turns to look at me from shotgun. The sun is starting to peep out from the horizon, which means it's time for us to stop and wait for word from the others. "You can catch up on sleep now."

I climb out of the car and am shocked by the sudden heat that surrounds me. "Where are we?"

"Nevada. Right outside Vegas."

"Nevada?" I look around, I knew we had driven far but making it to Las Vegas in a night is impressive. Shedding my jacket, I take in the place we've stopped at, a shabby hotel. "We couldn't have gone to a Hilton? Or a Holiday Inn?"

"Don't complain, it's perfectly clean. And I'll get you lots of room service." Alice promises as Jasper comes back out with the room keys. The room is surface-level clean, the sheets aren't stained which I'm grateful for. But the place has an odd stench that Alice nor Jasper seem to notice.

"I'm going to shower," I announce, but the two don't give me any attention. Alice is too busy searching for visions and Jasper is still, watching her carefully.

Stepping into the hot water, I try to decompress, scrubbing any grime away from my skin. My mind hasn't fully processed what's happened, I'm still stuck on leaving Forks, scolding myself for not even saying goodbye to my mother. It's good that she's ignorant to the truth, blissfully thinking that I'm away enjoying live performances as a celebration of spring break and good grades.

Getting out of the shower, I jump out of my skin spotting an Elvis photo staring at me in my towel. Damn Vegas, damn hotel. Who in their right mind puts a picture of Elvis right above the toilet? Isn't that disrespectful to him? Changing into another pair of clothes packed for me, I try to avoid his creepy eyes, they seem to follow me as I move to the sink and mirror to brush my hair and wash my face.

"Are you okay? I thought I heard a scream." Alice asks as I exit the bathroom.

"Damn Elvis," I mutter.

"I ordered your breakfast. You like omelets, right?" I spot the tray of food, my stomach is grateful for something besides gas station jerky and granola bars.

"Omelettes are good." I nod, sitting down and plowing into my breakfast quickly. The TV is on to the shopping channel, I'm pretty sure they'd been flipping through the channels before getting distracted by my reappearance.

Jasper moves back to flipping the channels, never staying on one very long. I stare at the changing screen, chewing, wondering if my friends are at school yet. They'll definitely notice my sudden absence, are they going to worry about me? Will they get suspicious? My head feels like a knot from all the obsessive thinking, any relief I found in the steaming shower has evaporated. Now the anxiety has found its way back.

"Any updates?" I choke out, if there's news maybe it'll calm me down, even if they say no news is good news.

"No. I haven't seen anything and there's been no call." Alice replies, "You really should sleep, Heather. You look more like a corpse than I do."

"I'll try." The TV shuts off suddenly and the two vampires shuffle into the other part of our suite, leaving me to drift off in silence. But the silence doesn't help, instead, I stay staring up at the plaster ceiling for far too long. Eventually, in a desperate attempt to find solace, I pull back out Edward's MP3 and turn the music back on. Quickly I begin to drift...

  ─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

A cold touch jolts me out of darkness, my eyes snapping open and my mind confused as to why Alice's mouth isn't lining up with the voice in my ears. Remembering my earbuds, I pull them out to hear what Alice is telling me, whilst noticing that the room has been packed up.

"We're leaving again. James has changed his course, he picked up on the fake trail." She tells me as I force myself off the foam mattress.

"They didn't get him?" I ask rubbing my eyes.

"No." She lets me get my shoes back on before escorting me down to the lobby where Jasper is checking out.

"Where are we heading to now?" We all walk out, the sun setting against the desert scape. The warmth greeting me as we hurry to the car.

"Phoenix."

"Oh?"

"When we get there, you and Edward will be flying out. The rest of us will all search for James." Alice explains.

"Flying out?"

"Ireland."

"Ireland?!? I can't just fly to Ireland! I don't have my passport and I can't leave the country!" I exclaim in utter shock. How would I keep from my mother that I left the country, alone with my boyfriend? You can't exactly casually say 'Oh I went to Ireland for the week, no biggie'. At least I can't.

"Heather, James won't be easily able to follow you to Ireland. When you're safely out of the way, it'll be easier for us to find him." She says it so nonchalantly, acting as if this is such a casual thing. "And don't worry about your passport, they grabbed it before leaving Forks."

I slam my head into the headrest, wishing that the psycho would leave me alone. There cannot be anything appealing enough about me that he's hunting me all across the country. Doesn't he have anything better to do than chase a sixteen-year-old girl who smells fishy?

"It's for you." Alice hands her ringing phone back to me, Edward is the name of the contact.

"Edward?" I gasp, for the chase only going on for a day, it feels like an eternity since I left his house.

"How do you feel?"

"Like a hot mess. I slept for about ten hours earlier, but I'm exhausted." I admit, messaging my forehead wrinkles.

"I'm so sorry Heather, I hate doing this to you. But we're going to be okay, we'll deal with James." He promises.

"Well, you won't. You'll be with me, in Ireland." I humorlessly laugh. In other circumstances, a trip to Dublin would be rather romantic, but in the circumstance of running away from a stalker vampire, it's not.

"Yeah, I'll take you to the best bookstores, cafes, and music stores to make it up to you."

"I plan on holding you to that."

"We'll find him, even if he's doing a good job covering his tracks." Edward sighs in reassurance, but it feels more for himself than me.