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Alice Cullen

"I think my fascination with that very concept kind of comes through in Alice's visions of the future, where there are fourteen million of them. As characters make choices, they're narrowing down which visions can actually happen. Alice sees flashes of the future possibilities coming from the choices they've made. But if they make different choices, it becomes a whole new future."                                              ~Stephenie Meyer on her creation of Alice's power

Alice Cullen (born Mary Alice Brandon in 1901) is a clairvoyant vampire and member of the Olympic Coven. She is the soulmate of Jasper Hale, the adopted daughter of Carlisle and Esme Cullen, the adoptive sister of Emmett and Edward Cullen, and of Rosalie Hale. Alice is also the adoptive sister-in-law of Bella Swan and the adoptive aunt of Renesmee Cullen. She also had a younger biological sister, Cynthia Brandon, who remained human and passed away, and a niece, Cynthia's daughter, still living in Biloxi.

In 1920, after having been institutionalized by her family, an unknown vampire turned her to save her from the relentless tracker, James. Later, she was led to the love of her life, Jasper, after receiving a vision of him, and the pair subsequently joined the peaceful coven of the Cullen family. She is known for her sweet and loving nature.

"My name was Mary Alice Brandon. I had a little sister named Cynthia. Her daughter - my niece - is still alive in Biloxi... I went through all the old newspapers on microfiche. My family wasn't mentioned often; they weren't part of the social circle that made the papers. My parents' engagement was there, and Cynthia's. My birth was announced... and my death. I found my grave. I also filched my admissions sheets from the old asylum archives. The date on the admission and the date on my tombstone are the same."

―Alice, on the short notes of her human life.

Alice was born into a middle-class home in Biloxi, Mississippi, in 1901. Her father was a jeweler and a pearl trader. Alice's mother tended to their home because her father traveled often. Alice was prone to having premonitions of the future since she was a child, though they weren't always correct. Though she rarely spoke of her power, people in town talked a lot during her adolescent years. On two occasions, she tried to warn a friend and a cousin with her unfortunate predictions, but they refused to listen and when the predictions came true, she was blamed for cursing them, earning her the epithets of "witch" and "changeling" from the townsfolk.

Alice had a horrifying vision of her mother being murdered by a stranger and tried to warn her about it. Though she believed her, her father did not. After months of precautions with nothing serious happening, her mother put her guard down, and was eventually killed. While Alice saw it happen and tried to explained that it was murder, it was declared accidental and her father silenced her.

Within six months, her father remarried a blonde Yankee from Illinois whose father was a promising customer. Alice's stepmother treated her coldly while idolizing her sister. Alice suspected that the marriage and her mother's murder were all planned and carried out by her father, who raged at her for suggesting ill of his new wife.

Then, Alice had a vision of her father and her mother's killer planning to kill her, revealing the true face of her father. She tried to hide in her closest relatives' house, but they drove her away as they still blamed her for the death of their son. Alice then rushed to the town's marshal, but her father was already one step ahead of her. He told the townsfolk that his daughter had gone mad, and had her trapped in a mental asylum two counties away.

While in the asylum, her head was shaved during the threat of typhoid outbreak. She also endured electroshock therapy which rendered her with total amnesia, but it also restored her naturally cheerful and humorous self. A vampire who worked at the asylum befriended Alice and treated her like a daughter. He also frequently visited her with objects hidden in his hands to test her powers, and shielded her from other horrifying treatments as best as he was able.

One day, she had a vision of a powerful tracker named James coming after her, which occurred the moment he caught her faint scent. The vampire immediately bit her, took her away and went to distract James, sacrificing himself in the process. When James finally found her, her blood was already fully turned and he decided to let her live a savaged existence to see how she might turn out in the future. When she woke up, the pain of the venom erased all of her memories, just like the shocking treatments did. But her premonitions were also intensified and her first vision was of Jasper Whitlock becoming her mate and of a happy future with the Cullen family.