Chapter 6

I Have Questions That Needs Answers

One Year. That's how long it had been since I, Alice Cullen, had last seen Bella Swan; and that was only in a vision. I hadn't seen her in person for a month before that. The last vision I saw Bella in was of her climbing into a wooden boat with a cloth sail; so primitive compared to motor boats… not to mention slower.

Shaking my head, I did my best to brush off my irritation with Bella's choice of sea fairing transportation as I zoomed across the foyer, organizing and straightening the house in a manic, obsessive pattern. My attempts to distract myself from my endless questions and imperfect visions weren't working as well as they usually did. Jasper, my one and only, always tried to keep me balanced with his gift, but even he was concerned that I hadn't seen anything.

That's right… I thought to myself, I can't see. Nine months of actively trying to find Bella's fate and I can't see where she is, what she's doing, or even a gravestone indicating her death… something that's always happened before when I tried to see humans who have passed away. Why can't I see anything?

It wasn't right…it wasn't natural. My visions had never failed me like this before. They always showed me something, even if what I saw was subject to change, but to see nothing at all? It had never happened before. It frustrated and worried me to no end.

A wave of calm washed over me and I forced my face into a scowl. Normally I appreciated my lover's efforts to keep me balanced. After all, how emotionally stressed would you become if you kept seeing things that might happen, but then again might not. All that second guessing the future could drive anyone insane and who could avoid trying to manipulate events they saw so that things worked out better for themselves? Not me, that was for sure, and playing such games with the future would stress anyone out… eventually.

"Jasper, I appreciate what your trying to do, but sometimes putting feelings off till later can make things worse, you know that better than anyone."

My lover's arms encircled me in a comforting gesture as his chin rested on top of my head. "I know Alice, but I can't stand it when you get so worked up over nothing."

If I could feel anything but calm reassurance it would have been something akin to annoyance. "Nine months of actively looking for Bella's future and coming up empty is not nothing, Jaz."

Jasper's arms tightened in surprise at my declaration. The calming influence he'd been exuding over the entire room vanished in an instant. In its place his shock was broadcasted to every corner of the house before he cut it off. I had chosen my words very carefully and deliberately trying to get him to leave me alone, but I had over done it and now I had to deal with my entire family. Really, I should have seen it coming, but then again I was overly focused on Bella's future as opposed to my own. I was grateful Edward wasn't here; if he had been, he might have taken my head off for my declaration. I slipped out of his grasp and started pacing around the room at high speed. I could see some of their questions even before they asked them so I decided to answer them preemptively.

"I know Edward and the rest of you have asked me time and time again not to look for Bella's future. But just because I'm not looking doesn't mean I don't see. A month after we left, I saw a vision of Bella getting on a wooden boat with a cloth sail in a strange, unnatural fog bank. I have no idea which beach she was on and I haven't seen a single vision regarding her future since. It's infuriating, especially since I started taking an active interest in her future for the last nine months."

My family stood in silence for a few minutes processing what I had said. I let them have their minute; after all it was a lot to take in. They knew how scarily accurate my visions were most of the time and being told that I wasn't having any at all was very disturbing for them. To no one's surprise Rosalie was the first one to speak up.

"Are you sure that Bella isn't just simply dead?" she asked in a dismissive attitude that almost made me snarl. Her attitude was just so cold when it came to Bella; like she was a nonentity, unimportant, less than worthless. Bella was one of the best friend's I'd ever had and thanks to my thick headed brother, Edward, I didn't even get to say goodbye to her.

Shaking off my anger I spoke my answer through gritted teeth. "She's not dead Rosalie. If she was I would see her dead body or a grave, but there would be something… Something isn't right."

"Of course there's something wrong," Rosalie agreed in a haughty tone. "You're worrying about a human. She's not our problem."

This time I couldn't hold back a hiss as I whirled around to face her. "Bella is not just some human!"

"Of course she is! She's just another weak, mortal human! We should never have gotten involved with her."

I didn't hold back this time. My snarl was so loud that a human would have heard it even if they had been outside the front door of our house. The whole family tensed as we glared at each other with barely repressed violence. Rosalie had always been a pain in the proverbial neck when it came to dealing with anything outside of her perfect little world. The only thing we really agreed on was fashion and fast cars. We had never really had any major disagreements before, but when it came to Bella we had more than just a disagreement, we were nearly at each other's throats and, as vampires, that was a very dangerous place to be.

Before a real fight broke out, Carlisle stepped between us. His expression alone made us back down. All of us respected our father figure. He was the one that made our way of life possible. He was the one who discovered that we could live on animal blood, that had brought us together like a true family; not just a gathering of allies. If he asked us to do something, then we did it. There might be some grumbles and complaints, but we did what he asked.

After making sure Rosalie wasn't going to say anything else, Carlisle turned to me and searched my eyes. I fidgeted as his frown deepened. "Alice, when was the last time you hunted?"

I shifted awkwardly in place as I felt all their eyes lock onto me. Thanks to my gift I already knew how they would react to the truthful answer and an evasive answer. So I chose the best course of action and told them the full truth. "Two weeks… I know that's reckless but, my visions get stronger and come more often when I'm thirsty. I was hoping that it would help me see…

"You're starving yourself so that you can check up on a human?!" Rosalie hissed angrily. I glared at Rosalie again the burning thirst making it harder to control my temper.

"I told you before Rose, Bella is not just some human. She's my best friend! And I won't tolerate… "

My words cut off as a vision flooded my mind. It wasn't a vision of Bella as I'd hoped it would be, but one of Edward. I held up my hand for-stalling every question as I immersed myself into the possibilities of the future. The things I saw twisted and tore at my gut as I watched the events unfold. It was almost a foregone conclusion until I chose to step in and then the path changed.

I focused on what was necessary step by step and with each new choice I made, new information became available; dreadfully, horrifying, and unfathomable information that I just couldn't accept. None of it could be true, it just couldn't be, but it was there and I had to deal with it.

However, the information didn't make sense. From what I was learning, my last a vision of Bella shouldn't have been possible if half of this was true. At that point I decided to investigate to seek out answers. With that decision made, my vision blacked out. It was like the future had ceased to exist for me.

If I had done something that would have gotten me killed I would have seen my death. I had seen visions like that before and each time it was unnerving, but I had used my foreknowledge to escape my untimely demise. This blankness unnerved me even more than seeing my own death. Had I simply ceased to exist just like Bella? Or was it that my powers were beginning to wane.

I shook it off. I wouldn't be deterred by what they had seen and not seen. I still had to save my brother before I tried to figure out what had happened to my best friend.

"We need to get to Forks, now!" I declared my voice shaking.

Rosalie scoffed, "I've already told you. That human's fate isn't…"

"We need to get to forks before Edward kills himself!" I interrupted her with as much venom as I could muster before rushing up to my room to grab some essentials for the trip.

"So why is Edward killing himself," Emmett asked for the hundredth time.

"I don't know, I didn't see that part," I repeated my lie for the hundredth time. Privately I wished I was exaggerating about the number of times I had said this, but I had counted and I was quite certain it was the hundredth time I had answered Emmett's repetitive question.

My family and I stood in the departure area for Edward's flight ensuring that he couldn't do anything supernatural to escape us. He would have to walk out like a normal human because of all the witnesses and we would intercept him like a normal family gathering before he could slip away. From there it was a simple matter of holding him down until he cooperated. Even if he did read our minds he wouldn't be able to escape us. I wasn't about to let my brother die, even if he was a block headed idiot.

Even as I concluded my confident assessment passengers started filtering out of the plane. I waited patiently knowing that my brother might delay the inevitable as he tried to penetrate my mind and discover why he was intending to kill himself. Fortunately, I had finally come up with a way to keep him out of my mind despite his attempts. A small part of my mind was focused on the here and now while the rest of it was focused on translating every song I knew into every language I knew.

Edward wasn't getting anything from my mind. If he wanted his answers he have to come and talk to me thus allowing us the opportunity to restrain him. He must have realized this which was probably why he was delaying the inevitable.

Even as these smug thoughts faded from my mind, Edward hesitantly stepped out of the plane terminal.

"Edward," greeted the falsely enthusiastic Rosalie. Before he could so much as voice a single protest she had her arms locked around him in a friendly hug preventing his escape. Edward gave her his typical blank dead look that had become an almost permanent fixture on his face of the last few months. Without my permission, my mind thought back to all the worried conversations we had about Edward, about how he had been lost since he had left Bella.

I cringed as his gazed turned and focused on me. There was an accusation there as well as a demand. He wanted to know what I knew. But I wasn't going to give it to him without a fight. I stopped my mind right there preventing my thoughts from wandering as I redoubled my efforts to keep him out of my head.

I was grateful that the rest of my family were doing their best to keep him occupied as I braced myself for his interrogation.

"Alice," Edward finally spoke his dead voice rattling my mental focus, "What did you see?"

I smiled blandly at him hiding my frustration with him from the general public but not from the mind reader and empath. "Well, I've seen a lot of things, Edward. You're going to have to be a bit more specific."

Edward's face shifted enough from his dead mask so that we all saw a flicker of annoyance in his obsidian colored eyes. "I'm not in the mood for games, Alice. Why did I kill myself?"

I closed my eyes refocusing on translating every version of genesis from the bible that I ever read into every language I knew. Tilting my head and giving him my most adorable smile I asked, "I didn't realize that you were a ghost, Edward. How could I have ever missed that?"

A couple of the family chuckled at my joke, but Edward wasn't having any of it.

"Alice," he snapped.

I opened my eyes, looked into his own, and really took them in for the first time in months. They were heartbroken, lost and desperate. I had never seen him look so broken. Could he already suspect that Bella was…

A quick snap vision flooded my mind and I reacted to it before anyone could consider the consequences. At full vampire speed I grasped Edward's wrists preventing him from slipping out of Rosalie's hug. Edward began struggling for all his worth. The anguish on his face was so heart rending that I couldn't stop myself even though I knew it wouldn't help. "Edward, stop! She's not dead! I'm sure she's not dead!"

"What does it matter if she's dead or alive? You left her behind! She isn't your problem anymore." Rosalie snapped angrily. Edward turned his angry obsidian eyes on her as he tried to escape our grasp.

"Edward, please," I begged desperately. This was going badly. He wasn't listening.

He knew that we wouldn't let him go now or ever leave him alone so that he could end his own existence. I wasn't sure what I could do to change his mind about this. He just wouldn't listen, wouldn't believe that she was still alive even if I did show him my memories. Edward turned his gaze back to me as the rest of the family put a protective circle around us.

"Listen to her Edward," Carlisle begged. Edward shook his head violently still struggling in our grasp.

"At least hear her out," advised Jasper carefully influencing all of our emotions so that we were in a more reasonable state of mind.

"Come on bro, chill. Let Jasper work his magic and we can talk this out." Emmett encouraged.

Edward loosened up a little, but I wasn't fooled I still saw him trying to run away so I hung on waiting patiently for him to surrender fully. He looked back at me. His blank mask was back in place save for the complete and utter devastation in his eyes.

"If you stop fighting and hear me out I'll tell you everything." I promised. His eyes narrowed and the tension between its built despite Jasper trying to smother it. Finally Edward nodded but again I wasn't fooled. "Edward, you have to mean it or I won't tell you anything."

Edward shoulders finally slumped as he gave in properly. A vision flooded my mind of me explaining everything to him. In my vision I explained how I'd been searching for months from Bella's future but hadn't found anything and what that meant. I explained my first vision of her a few months ago waking up from in a hospital and heading to her father's house and gathering things. I explained that I'd cut off the vision at that point respecting his idiotic wish for me not to go looking for her future. I explained that I had had one last a vision of her the following night. I explained that I'd seen her standing on a beach waiting for a boat with a white sail and that she had boarded this boat in the middle of them very thick fog bank.

After that my vision changed a little. It showed me explaining to him what I'd seen when he went to Forks. That he had met Charlie. That Charlie had tried to kill him with a shotgun screaming how Bella had committed suicide to escape the pain that he had put her in. Charlie had further scream that he couldn't even bury his daughter properly because her body had never been recovered.

At this point my vision ended because a new vision erupted when Edward decided to try to escape us again. I narrowed my eyes at him and he stared flatly back.

"You didn't even let me finish." I snarled

"What else is there to say," Edward demanded. "She's dead and gone and it's time for me to join her."

"You always assume the worst don't you?" I asked rhetorically before anyone else in the family could butt in. "Well, let me remind you. I saw her boarding a boat with a cloth sail. Charlie was going to tell you that she killed herself by driving off a cliff. Those two stories don't match up. We need to figure out if she really is dead."

"And if she is?"

I winced knowing where this was going. Edward didn't let up. He stared me down with everything he had. I look back at him knowing what he wanted and I privately begged with him. I didn't want him to die, none of us did. How could he hurt us like this knowing that?

His eyes accused me before looking at Jasper. The look had said it all; would I want to live if Jasper died? Would I care what anyone else wanted if my other half was missing from this world? I fought with the truth and my conviction wavered.

Finally I bowed my head in defeat. 'I won't stand in your wave she's really dead. But you have to promise me, until we find a body, you won't try to kill yourself.'

Edward nodded discreetly once, and only once, and I knew that he had agreed to my terms. Reluctantly, I let go of his wrists and nodded to Rosalie let her know that it was safe to let him go, but she didn't budge.

She glared at Edward and demanded, "Are you going to try this ever again?"

When Edward didn't respond to her Carlisle stepped forward, "Edward?"

Again Edward didn't answer the question. He looked away from us and said, "Let's get to Forks and get to the bottom of this."

The rest of the family looked at me doing their best to hide their worry. I sighed and told them a half truth. "He won't leave it alone until we find out what happened to Bella, and for that matter, neither will I."

The family looked at each other having their own privet conference while Edward and I waited for their verdict. Carlisle and Esme looked terribly worried about Edward, but I could tell that they were also fretting over Bella's disappearance. Jasper and Emmitt appeared ready to storm Voltaire if that's what it took to get Edward to calm down and go back to normal. Rosalie, however, looked opposed to the whole thing, but resigned to seeing this thing trough. Carlisle nodded at them before turning to us.

"Where do we start?" He asked.

"La Push," I answered.