The Forgotten Sister | Jasper Hale | Twilight | Book One

Chapter Twelve: The Lion & The Lamb

A/N: Kind of a longer chapter here, but I just had to get to this part. It is by far probably my favorite scene of the entire Twilight works.

    That Monday morning, Daniella didn't go to her classes. She sat in the truck, still overwhelmed with disbelief. When the bell rang and students left their classes, she got out of the car. She stood in the parking lot, waiting as kids rushed around her to leave.

    Across the lot, heading for their cars, Jasper could feel her. He stopped, along with his siblings, and he looked over to see her intense gaze locked on him. Her look screamed that they needed to talk. She walked toward them, her eyes meeting his momentarily as she continued past him walking into the dark forest near the school.

    Jasper watched her disappear into the lining of the forest. He took a step in her direction to follow after her, but Rosalie stepped in front on him quickly and Emmett grabbed his arm.

"Jasper, don't go." Emmett spoke, his voice thick with warning. However, Alice gently moves Emmett's hand from his arm.

"He's already there." Her soft voice told them as Jasper continued his walk into the forest to meet with Daniella.

~•~

    Daniella stood amongst the trees, waiting. Then she head the sounds of his footsteps as Japser appeared behind her. She was scared, but not of  him. Dani doesn't turn to face him.

"You...you're impossibly fast. And you're strong," her voice was soft, far from her usual way of acting around other people, "Your skin is pale-white and ice-cold. Your eyes change color...and sometimes you speak as if you're from a completely different time." She decided to turn to face him now. She saw the way he seemed to be fighting between his emotions, but she knew he was hearing every word she said. "You never eat, or drink, or come to school in the sunlight. You had said no to crashing the beach trip with me only after you heard where it was...because of the treaty." The last bit shocked him as he looked up to meet her gaze. He felt the emotions coming from her, but they were not what he was expecting.

Understanding

Confusion

Denial

but also...fright

    Jasper hated that he was making her feel like this. He never wanted to scare her. He cared for her more than he thought he should, but as she took a step closer to him he thought that maybe if she wasn't close to him she would have less of a chance of getting hurt because of him. So, he sent out fear. He had to push her away for her own safety.

    Dani felt immense amounts of fear as she looked up at the pale boy across from her. She wasn't afraid of him so why was she feeling this? Jasper. She creased her brows at him in question, but continued with the reason she'd brought him to the forest in the first place.

"How old are you?" She asked Jasper.

"Nineteen." Jasper's voice was stern, yet wavering.

"How long have you been nineteen..?" Dani asked her eyes shifting to the forest floor before going right back to Jasper's conflicted gaze. Jasper realizes that he can't hide himself from her anymore. Honesty has always been risky for him and he never believed that it helped when he was honest with anyone, but he has to risk it. For her.

"... A while." Jasper responded. A long silence is presents as Daniella tries to take in the sudden crash of her overwhelming epiphany that everything she was trying to deny, that she thought impossible, was true. She took a breath. As much as she was starting to believe it, it was still just as shocking as if she hadn't guessed.