Calamity || Jasper Hale [2]

chapter seven

unsteady
word count: 1,059

"never trust a survivor until you find out what they did to stay alive."

Allie was screaming, her leg inflamed with burning pain as her hands shook violently, unable to steady. The chalk white bone was coated in blood and poking through her skin and yet they merely tossed her into her cell and left her to deal with it.

Her entire body was racked with sobs as she touched the bone gingerly, another scream leaving her lips. Vidar was shouting to her, trying to calm her down but she couldn't focus, she couldn't stop shaking.

"Allie! You didn't make it this far for nothing! Focus!" Vidar ordered but his words had minimal effect on her as she pressed her fists into her temples. She was trying to relieve the pain, she needed to. It was consuming her and leaking into every crevice of her being.

Carlisle would know what to do. He'd be focused, cool, calculated and he'd get the job done. But she couldn't, the pain was so much along with the blood pooling around her and the sight of her own bone.

She'd seen worse, done worse, but never to herself. She'd never seen it before on herself and been so utterly alone to deal with it.

"You have to push the bone back in!" Vidar shouted over her pained screaming.

"I can't!" Allie cried, heaving heavily.

"You have to." Vidar barked, all business. "If you don't do it now you'll heal and it will be that much worse."

She flattened her palm, screwing her eyes shut and pushing the bone back in. Allie screamed again, banging her head so hard against the cement to distract herself that her vision went blurry and her ears rang painfully.

"Is it in?" Vidar repeated, although she hadn't heard him the first time over the ringing in her ears.

Allie didn't respond, instead leaning over in the small bucket they gave her for toilet use and emptied the little food they had given her.

"Is it in?" Vidar asked for the third time and Allie barely had the voice to respond, the acid from her stomach burning her throat.

"Yes! Yes." Allie gasped finally and Vidar sighed in relief.

"The worst is over. Make sure the bone is in the right position." Vidar advised and Allie felt her fingers run over her leg to ensure it was in the correct spot. It was and it had already begun healing but still ached so fiercely she bent over and threw up once more, this time it was all stomach acid. "You can relax now."

Her sobs quieted and she pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes. "I can't do this."

"Yes you can, we can. We're going to think of a plan and get out of here, okay. You can do this because you're strong, the Volturi wanted you for a reason and you'll get out for the same reason." Vidar reassured her and she screamed, punching the cement wall so hard it chipped and her knuckles began to bleed.

"No I can't! I can't! I want to die! I can't take this anymore, I'm going insane. I want to die. I can't stand being here. I can't. It's been almost a year and I'm just a kid. I'm just a kid. I'm eighteen, I should be spending time with friends not suffering, not imprisoned. My family shouldn't be dead because of me!" Allie screamed before breaking into sobs. She was going insane.

She didn't want to say yes. She didn't want to stay there but there was no way of escaping, she already tried and nothing was working. It felt hopeless, holding on, trying to make a difference. Dying sounded easier, more peaceful. Then she'd be able to see her family.

"I understand, Allie. I do. While time does seem to pass faster for me I understand. You're pretty close to human and you're probably going insane but it's okay. We're going to survive this and you're going to see Jasper again. Jasper and Bella and Bree and the Cullens and your shifter friends. You'll see them all again and we'll be okay. We'll be okay." Vidar reassured her and Allie sniffled. She was aching for human contact that wasn't hostile.

Alec came around an hour later and if he noticed she was crying her mentioned nothing.

"We're leaving in five months." Alec said simply, his eyes concerned. "When it begins snowing. He'll stop pushing so hard to make you say yes because he knows it'll take longer to make you willing to fight your family. It might never happen and he knows this. The Volturi will leave guards to keep you in place, thirty maybe. Everyone else comes with us." Alec explained mournfally and Allie reached through the bars, her hands still trembling.

"If it comes to it will you fight with me?" She had to ask the boy, he risked his life for her every time he visted her and relayed information. She didn't want to kill him, she didn't want him to die.

"I'll fight with you. Not your family. If you aren't there," he trailed off, his voice shaky and unsure but she knew what he meant. If she wasn't on that field and it came to a fight he'd fight with the Volturi. "I've been trying to persuade Jane. She's my sister and I love her, but she loves Aro dearly. Possibly even more than me. I don't know if I could ever fight her." He said and Allie nodded.

Having people look to her calmed her down because it made her realize she wasn't just fighting for herself, there were other lives on her shoulders and a breakdown could be saved for another day.

"You're an honorable boy, Alec. When the time comes I'll be honored to have you on my side." Allie said as strongly as she could manage. Her fight had returned, not for herself but for Alec, just a young boy risking everything to try to do right. "If you can, persuade them to bring extra food, I'll need my strength."

Alec nodded and his hand slipped from hers as he stalked out, head held high like a prince.

"So you have a plan?" Vidar questioned as Allie returned to sit on the ratty pile of thin blankets they had given her in place of a bed.

"Something like that."