Nessie's Life

Chapter 9

Dad wasn't talking.

Mom started to say, "Maybe you heard someone else and thought it was Alice..."

"No. I'm positive that it's Alice's mind, and she's loyal to Aro." He went silent again.

Suddenly I heard the slightest movement in the woods 100 yards away, and all of our heads snapped in that direction.

We started running, and dad explained, "It's Carlisle, Esme, and Alice. Aro is in the woods farther away, but we won't see him."

We found Carlisle and Esme standing side by side. Alice was behind them, a few meters back.

My first instinct was to run up to her and give her huge hug, but she stared at me with a nervous expression.

Carlisle turned to dad. "As you can see, Alice is back. However, it seems that her priorities have changed."

Dad said, "I know. Carlisle, I wish you could just get a taste of her thoughts. They are completely centered around Aro."

I gasped when I heard Alice's tinkling voice. "You can stop talking about me as if I'm not here." We all looked at her. She kept going. "I'm sorry that I don't seem to remember things the way you all do. All I know is that I was living with you for a while and you forced me to drink animal blood." She shivered. "When Aro kindly offered me a position in his guard, I was overjoyed and I have loved living with the Volturi since then."

Carlisle shook his head. "Alice, sweetie, they've tampered with your memory. Can't you see how much we love you? Don't you remember how deeply close you were to Jasper, Bella, even Renesmee?"

Now it was Alice who was shaking her head. "No. You're lying. I never felt personal bonds to any of you. How could they tamper with my memory? I'm a vampire! I have a perfectly clear understanding of the past, present, and future. I..." Her eyes went blank. She was having a vision.

After a minute, dad spoke softly to her. "Don't you see? You will learn to see the truth again if you just try to listen to what we're telling you." He paused, frowning. "Aro wants Alice to leave us."

Within a second of him saying this, she was gone.

Everyone looked so confused.

Carlisle said, "I have never seen nor heard of the Volturi doing anything like this. It's as if they are constantly feeding thoughts into her head."

Dad cut in. "I agree. The only time I heard the true Alice was during her vision. She saw herself holding Jasper's hand, with all of us gathered around, and we were welcoming her back into our family. Apparently they can't control her visions."

Suddenly I heard the school bell ringing in the distance. I had missed study hall, but I really wanted to go to dance.

I started to move. No one but Esme seemed to notice.

She said, "If Aro is nearby and he wants to see Renesmee interact with humans, shouldn't she return to the school?"

"Yes, you're right," agreed mom. She put her arm around me and we started walking back.

On the way I could hear my family talking about calling Eleazar. Out of everyone we knew, he was the most knowledgable about the Volturi. Maybe this was some rare form of persuasion that they only used once every thousand years.

We had come farther into the forest than I'd realized when we were running at full speed. I was preparing to enter the real world and forget about our impossible situation, when I saw someone standing at the edge of the woods.

It was Shelley. So she had seen us. She had noticed. She was just curious, but her curiosity could be our downfall.

What if she noticed too much while Aro was still here? He would think that we are unable to keep the secret. And I don't even want to think about what would happen after that.

Shelley opened her mouth to speak, but I beat her to it. "We'll talk at dance, ok? Come on, we're going to be late!" I started walking towards the fine arts building.

I had about one minute to make up a cover story before she started asking questions. I was walking on thin ice.