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CHAPTER TWENTY ONE ᴇsᴄᴀᴘᴇ
"I think I missed out on my eternal patience when I became an immortal."
I felt Alice's shoulders shake with laughter from where my head was leaning back against her arm, my legs stretching across the rest of the settee. The sound of her soft chuckle filled the room, covering the sound of her scribbles against the smudged paper. Across the room, Jasper smiled slightly, eye sight never moving from where it was trained on the small gap in the blinds.
We were still pulling back around from Bella's outburst earlier that morning after Alice's last vision of a house, of which Bella'd recognised as her mother's. She'd been in tears, sobbing as she glared between us. Even for me, time seemed to tick by slowly. The image of her distraught, still stuck.
"I can't win, Alice. You can't guard everyone I know forever. Don't you see what he's doing? He's not tracking me at all. He'll find someone, he'll hurt some one I love. Alice, I can't- " she'd said.
Alice's voice pulled me back to the present. "How's that?"
"You've been sitting for hours drawing the same things and all the while I've done nothing but watch," I said, sighing and sitting up to look at the picture.
She wasn't the best artist, but it was clear enough what she'd drawn. It was the dance studio, just as Bella had said. There were now piles of the same charcoal images at the edge of the coffee table, each one having a minor detail added. Alice was obsessed, but at least I'd become more comfortable with them all.
The room has dimmed significantly, almost pitch black in the corners where the light of the lamp didn't reach. Even from beneath the blinds that Jasper peered through, little light could stretch. Neither of us had bothered to stand to switch the lights on when the sun had begun to hide from the night. There was something about the darkness of night that was comforting, even after a full day of nothing but gloominess thanks to the thick curtains.
"You've kept me company," Alice said, her shoulders shrugging.
I took the paper from her hands, smiling at the added swirls she'd drawn absentmindedly in the corners. "Well, I'm honoured to have the most important job."
I paused, eyebrows creasing. "Do you think it actually is Bella's old dance studio?"
"I couldn't imagine it being anything else."
I nodded, going back to gazing around the room, watching as Jasper stiffened, his eyes shooting our way. From beside me, Alice's stature became rigid, back straightening as she stared forward.
