CH 18

Time passed painfully slow as we waited in the room, hoping for any news from the others. Alice spent her time soothing the frantic Bella, while Jasper would just blankly stare at the nonsense in TV for hours at a time.

Suddenly, we heard a commotion from Alice and Bella from inside the room. Jasper was inside there with Alice by the time I could get up.

"Something has changed," Alice said, her eyes seemingly fixed something far in the distance that no one else could see. Jasper put his hands on Alice's shoulders and carefully guided her back to the bed.

"What do you see?" Jasper asked.

"A room. Its long. There are mirrors… large mirrors. Wooden floor. He's … waiting … for something. There's a … gold stripe across the mirrors." Alice muttered in the trance.

"Where is this room?" Jasper asked.

"I don't know. Something is missing - another decision that has to be made."

"How soon will it be?"

"I am not sure. But it wont be too long before this would take place. He is in the dark. He is watching something in this room. Is that a TV? No … Its a VCR. He is watching something recorded."

"Tell me more about the mirror room."

"There is just mirrors, and that gold band like thing around the room. A black table with stereo and the VCR. No … there are two rooms. He watched the VCR in that dark room … in this mirror room he has the VCR but he is not watching… just waiting."

"Is there nothing else?"

"No … wait … I hear barks.. very loud barks … how can a dog bark so loud ….. ah .. I see something furry pass by in the room.. but its too large and too fast.."

Alice finally came out of the trance. It seems her vision had finally ended and she was now trying to make a sense of it all.

"What does this all mean then?" Bella asked.

"It means that the tracker changed his plans." Jasper said grimly. Almost immediately, Alice's mobile phone rung and she picked it up instantly.

It seems that Carlisle and Edward had called in to update. James had escaped them in Vancouver and had got in on a plane. They were guessing that he might be going back to Forks. The woman with him, Victoria, had also been doing her own investigating, mostly going through everything that was connected to Bella.

As Edward and Bella talked about other stuff, Alice had begun sketching out the stuff in her vision. As soon as Bella saw it, she recognized it as a Ballet Studio and started telling about the time she used to take Ballet lessons.

Alarm bell started going through my head. I noticed that the same expression was on Jasper and Alice's face as they coaxed more details out of Bella. My expression became even paler as Bella told that her Ballet Studio was right here in Phoenix.

My mind raced at incredible speed, as if I was in mortal danger and everything was slowing down. All the details I heard about James and Victoria, their actions, Bella's situation, and Alice's vision, everything swirled inside my head like a maelstrom.

It felt as if I was missing just one piece of the puzzle, one very small but very crucial piece that would make the whole picture clear as day.

As she finished describing about the studio, it seemed Bella too got worried about her mother. She asked for the encrypted phone Alice had and left a message for her mum on their house's phone.

Time passed as we used our personal routine to endure the painful wait. Bella fretted and slept, Alice and Jasper used her visions to get as many details as possible, and I continued my training.

Sometime after Bella fell asleep again, I was feeling extremely bored and stifled in the room. I decided to go out and get some fresh air.

"Alice, Jasper, I am going to go out a bit." I said as I put on my jacket and tied my shoelaces.

"Where?" Jasper asked.

"Nowhere far. Just will roam around a bit in the airport, maybe get some junk food to eat and calm my nerves." I replied.

"Fine. Don't go far. And come back immediately if you feel anything close to the feeling that someone is watching or you are in danger." Jasper said with a nod as he tossed me the room's key card.

I jogged down the stairs of the motel and briskly walked up to the airport. The were a lot of cafe's and junk food stalls near the airport, so I just picked a hot dog stall at random and sat there as I watched the throngs of people pass by in their daily life.

Right then, a young girl in her late teens jogged up to the stall with her dog leading the way. It was a big German Shepherd, extremely healthy looking with energetic actions and a glassy fur coat.

"Hey Henry," the girl addressed the brown haired middle aged man who was the stall owner.

"I will have my usual, with a few raw ones for Tyke." she said as she ruffled the dog's head.

"Coming up." the man said with a smile as he got busy. Coincidentally, the girl came and sat across me, as it was the only free seat. She smiled and nodded to me before going back to fussing over her dog.

As I looked at the dog, my mind went to the third application of my power. So far I had tested transforming with solid material, and even non-solid material like water. But I had not tried transforming into a living being.

'What if I try it on this dog as an experiment?' I thought as I fixed my eyes on the dog. Deciding to try it out, I started chatting with the girl about her dog.

It turned out that it was pretty easy to cozy up to dog owners if you just praised their dogs a little. Soon she had agreed to let me pat her dog, even told me a few spots that her dog, Tyke, really preferred.

As I was scratching the big furry fellow behind his ears, I cast my senses out just like I did with any other material. However, this time I encountered something more than just the essence I usually found. There was a consciousness here that was sentient.

The dog's consciousness seemed to recognize what I needed instinctively as it shared its essence with me. While it was doing that, I could feel the dog beginning to feel great positive feelings towards me.

Soon the process was over and the girl too had to leave. Tyke whined a few times and licked my hands before allowing his owner to lead him away. I watched the dog until it was out of my sight before I stood up and prepared to leave.

When I got back to the room, I saw that Alice was the only one in the hall, looking at Bella's bedroom tensely. The bedroom door was shut and I could barely hear the faintest hints of Bella's voice from it.

"What happened?" I asked.

"I had more visions." Alice said "One of them revealed that the dark room James was watching the VCR in was Bella's mom's house. We discussed about Bella going into hiding with Edward, while Jasper and me stay here to protect Bella's mom. Bella panicked and shut herself in the room after that."

"While Jasper went to check us out and find a location closer to her mother's home, Bella came out and was chatting with me. Right then her mom called on my phone and Bella is now in her room talking to her. She sounds tense." Alice said as she focused her attention back to Bella's room.

My sense of emergency and crisis seemed to peak. There was something very wrong here but I could not point out what. Frustrated by this haze in my thoughts, I decided to go into my room and pack my stuff. I didn't have much except my emergency stuff like a few changes of clothes, toothbrush etc. But I needed something to do to distract myself.

As I came out, I saw Alice leaning over a desk and grabbing it rigidly, her expression somewhere between horror and panic. Her eyes were again in that trance like state so I guessed she was having a vision again. Just as Bella and I rushed towards Alice, Jasper seemed to emerged suddenly beside her and gently guided Alice to a couch.

"What happened Alice?" Jasper asked as I felt a powerful wave of calmness come over me. It seemed Jasper was using his powers at maximum to calm Alice down.

"Bella.."Alice seemed to breathe as she buried her face in Jasper's chest.

I noticed that Alice seemed to want to talk to Jasper so I distracted Bella by saying that we should pack up and led her to her room. I noticed that Alice immediately seemed to say something in Jasper's ears at very high speed that made it seemed like she was making a buzzing noise.

I let them make their plans as I made sure Bella was not panicking. However, I was surprised to see that despite Alice having a vision, Bella seemed almost a bit too calm, especially considering how panicked she had been during previous times.

'What is up with her?' I wondered.