FORKS, WASHINGTON

THE CULLEN’S RESIDENCE

It was the middle of the night, but that didn’t matter much since they never slept – they never needed to. Sleeping was a human thing, and they were no longer humans – some longer than others.

Carlisle had changed everyone except Jasper and Alice who had just found them one day, not that unreasonable given her unexpected gift. Still, Carlisle was the first of them, having changed in the late 1660s.

Nobody knew the exact date since it was so long ago – still, not as long as certain vampires had existed. As the story was told and told again during the most tedious nights in the family – Carlisle was the son of a pastor who hunted vampires but somehow, always ended up prosecuting the wrong targets.

A symptom of the times they were in, but Carlisle as compassionate as he was, could not allow innocents to be burned alive, so he investigated and one day found the real deal, vampires hiding in the sewers.

The story went pretty much sideways from there – he was bitten, buried himself during the change, found a nice cave to starve himself, and found that he could survive on animal blood.

That was when Carlisle decided that becoming a monster was what he was, not who he was. As the story was told and told again, Edward came next – the influenza was the cause of his eternal, stone loneliness.

Carlisle had no choice but to change Edward at the behest of his dying mother. Rosalie was next, and her story was the most brutal. It didn’t take long for her to hate what she had become, but she was also the one who loved it the most in the beginning.

Emmett was next, mauled by a bear – as Rosalie told the tale, Emmett almost won that fight. Of course, Edward could see into their minds and it didn’t take long for him to find out that Emmett had lost that fight – rather thoroughly at that.

Alice and Jasper came next, settling into the family as if they had always been there. Alice brought a refreshing perspective to Edward since the family now consisted of two gifted – one able to see the future, and the other able to read thoughts.

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The Cullen’s residence was as it had always been since they bought it – a desolate house of glass in the middle of an unforgiving forest. But no animal dear thread too close to the home of the Cullen’s.

Alice somersaulted onto the branch outside her window, walking along the unsteady surface with inhuman-like coordination. Jasper smiled as Alice took each of her steps with her usual bubbling attitude.

Of course, unlike his mate, Jasper chose to take the normal way to the living room, exiting through the door as a normal person should since that’s exactly what they were trying to be – a normal family in the eyes of humans.

More than all the others, Jasper knew it was important for him to keep that mindset since he was the most unstable of them all. Jasper and Alice made it to the living room at the same time – one entering through the window while one came through the door.

Rosalie and Emmett were tightly embracing each other on the couch. Out of the entire family, they were the most sexually active and given vampires didn’t get tired, it was no surprise that sex made up the bulk of their relationship.

It probably had something to do with the ages that Carlisle changed them. Rosalie was frozen at eighteen years old – an age where a woman at the time was ready to start popping out their first children… so there was that.

Emmett was frozen at the ripe age of twenty years old – his testosterone was probably frozen with him, and it didn’t help that he was a bit more mature than his peers, two hundred plus pounds of muscles and all.

Carlisle and Esme entered the living room next.

Everyone sighed as they gazed at Carlisle and Esme since the duo always appeared more and more in love than the last time they were seen. That was the miracle of Carlisle and Esme, and it made Alice and the others a bit jealous.

There was love… then, there was Carlisle’s and Esme’s love. It made Alice and Rosalie’s romance feel pitiful in comparison. But it was just another testament that some people definitely belonged together – a human lifetime or not.

Carlisle and Esme shared a deep kiss – something they only did in the comfort of their home.

“Get a room,” Rosalie rolled her eyes and mocked, a bit of jealousy tinged in her voice. “We don’t need to see this every time.”

Carlisle and Esme chucked, already aware – by no small props to Edward – that Rosalie tended to get irritated if she was not the most attention-grabbing thing in the room. Even the long life of a Vampire couldn’t cure her vanity.

“Come on babe. Why don’t we leave pops be,” Emmett pulled Rosalie onto his lap, and she pouted a bit but secretly enjoyed being on the tallest seat in the room – she had been appeased.

Esme threw a thankful glance at Emmett, and he smiled back. Alice and Jasper smiled in turn – of course, Alice’s smile was the most brilliant while Jasper’s mouth barely twitched.

CREAK

They heard a creak on the stairs. It would be too low for a human to detect, but for them, it was as loud as rock music at a concert.

“The Prince of Loneliness comes.” Emmett joked.

A Royal-expectation-like feeling encompassed everyone in the room, and they all turned to Jasper and smiled a bit, knowing this was his way of making a joke. Jasper was usually reserved about manipulating the emotions of others, but his feud with Edward had become a sort of family joke.

“You know I can hear what all of you are thinking,” Edward blurred down the last couple of stairs and scanned the room with his eyes, similarly scanning thoughts as he did. “I am neither a Prince nor too lonely.”

‘Butterflies, Peanut Butter, Butter Cups, Butter on Butter? Popcorn, Movies?’

Alice’s thoughts were a bit more scattered than usual, and Edward didn’t even bother to dig deeper into the mind that was a mess on normal days, much less today. Alice smiled as she knew she had won a small victory.

It wasn’t every day she could keep some thoughts hidden from Edward.

Of course, Alice had nothing in particular to hide, but she still wanted to practice in case the day ever came that she would need to hide something from Edward, whether for his own good or the good of the family.

“We need to decide the hunting schedule for next week,” Carlisle started the meeting as he always did. “It has been a while since we’ve been out hunting as a family. I think the experience will be good for us.”

There was no code of respect that the oldest Vampire had to speak first, but Alice, Edward, and the others always allowed Carlisle to initiate the family meetings because they simply respected him that much.

“Is it because of the situation in Mason?” Rosalie cut straight to the point of the meeting, not one to beat around the bush too much. “We have confirmed that those hunters were indeed attacked by a pack of wolves. Gosh, we can smell them from here. There is no need for us to intervene.”

“It wasn’t even hunting season,” Emmett shrugged his large shoulders and gave a goofy grin. “They weren’t supposed to be hunting anyway. The fact that the wolves did them in, is just the quickest example of karma I have ever seen.” – Like being mauled by a bear after stealing two of the neighbour’s chickens.

“It's not about karma or not,” Edward intervened, placing Emmett’s thoughts out of his mind. “Some families in Mason know some superstitions about us – largely based on rambling of old fools, but If they come down here, we would be forced to move away so it's best to clip this problem in the bud.”

Carlisle naturally agreed, proud of Edward’s analytical skills.

Emmett tended to think too little, Jasper was too quick to resort to violence, Alice left too many things to chance, Esme was too passive, and Rosalie preferred to avoid hard work as much as possible.

Edward was the only person in the family that saw things the same way Carlisle did.

“We can always choose to hunt a couple of more miles to the west,” Esme suggested, searching for the path that would present fewer risks. “This will blow away as it always has over the years.” -This way we can always be safe and together.

Esme’s thoughts always brought a smile to Edward’s face since she really did consider all of them – not exactly Jasper as yet – her children of sorts.

“Travelling that far west would require us passing over Quileute Lands,” Edward murmured. “There is still the treaty to consider.”

“I never understood why we didn’t get rid of that pack of werewolves.” Jasper let his thoughts be known for the first time since the conversation started – speaking of violence once again. “If anything, our presence here protects the Quileute tribe from discovery by the Volturi.”

“That is the point,” Carlisle interrupted, not liking the way the conversation was going. “The Quileute Tribe was understanding of us in a desperate time, so in turn, we must also be understanding. Our presence here protects them and places them in danger of discovery. We don’t know which it is until such a time comes.” He looked at Alice as he said those words.

Alice silently shook her head, indicating she could not see a possible future until major decisions were made, and right now, Carlisle was still being indecisive. But something in the depths of her guts told Alice that picking a war with the Quileute would be a bad idea – Besides, they’re not exactly werewolves.

“A war with the Quileute would be a hell of a fight though,” Emmett smiled goofily, and Jasper also let a bit of his excitement slip.

They were at odds on many things, especially considering Alice’s and Rosalie’s contrasting personalities, but when it came to picking fights, Emmett and Jasper were often on the same page.

“Then we have to go wolf hun-”

It hit Edward a split second after it hit Alice.

Sometimes, if they were in perfect synch and Edward was focused enough, it was as if he could witness the vision through Alice’s eyes, processing clues that she couldn’t make sense of herself.

Their abilities tended to complement each other in this way.

Carlisle, Emmett, Rosalie, Esme, and Jasper turned silent, awaiting the verdict that Alice’s vision would bring. Perhaps, they would have to move again or renew the treaty with the Quileute Tribe.

Alice’s vision had spared them dire trouble on several occasions, even avoiding an intervention from the Volturi at one point in time. That’s why The Cullen Family wasn’t panicking since this had happened hundreds of times by now.

Alice only tended to freeze up like this for the major visions that would affect the family the most, but something about her facial expression screamed complex personal vision.

A flash of golden light descended from the skies.

There was an explosion.

Radios were glitching but certain stations were talking about an incident at NASA - a meeting of world leaders and all.

The golden light flashed across the skies, landing somewhere beyond Mason, probably further than that.

Then, Alice’s vision abruptly switched to something much more frightening.

Alice was staring at the sunset, and someone placed their hand atop her own.

It was almost as if his palm was glowing with golden light – the mystery man.

They turned and faced each other, and she leaned it, eagerly meeting the lips of the mystery person.

A feeling of completeness washed over the version of Alice in the vision, echoing into the current Alice as if ripples in a very limited pond.

Alice squeaked a bit as she snapped out of the vision, sucking a large gulp of air into her lungs even though she had no need to breathe. Alice was already a clumsy person so it was no surprise when she fell onto her butt.

It was a secret joke between the family that Alice had the greatest stumbling rate of any vampire in history, which was surprising given their abnormally heightened sense of balance.

Edward simply frowned; his reaction not nearly as extreme as Alice’s.

Then again, he was not the subject of the vision – this was a vision that should be very personal to Alice. Edward felt a bit guilty for intruding this time, but it wasn’t like there was an off-button for his type of power.

“What’s the matter?” Carlisle inquired gently, but really, he was only asking a simple question – should the family be worried?

Edward shook his head. “It is not a family matter.”

Rosalie frowned and wanted to inquire more, but she knew it was not her place – Alice looks a bit prettier than me today, I know I should have worn the designer dress from Loui.

The vain nature of Rosalie’s thoughts always grounded Edward’s straying thoughts since it was as if her thoughts were a manual stating this is not what you don’t want to become in a hundred years.

Still, Rosalie’s thoughts only managed to distract Edward for a couple of seconds before he was back to analyzing what Alice had just seen.

Many of Alice’s visions were private matters, and nobody wished to force Alice to reveal more than was absolutely necessary for them to know. It had become a sort of family rule since the trust between them was so strong, but sometimes, curiosity was curiosity.

“Still, you look as if you’ve seen a ghost, Alice.” Emmett had to be the one to point out the obvious. “And we don’t tend to get much paler after we are changed.” – Unless you see the relationship Rosalie has with makeup.

Edward chuckled.

Esme strutted forward with graceful steps and embraced Alice - arguably her favourite daughter - into her motherly arms, rousing the pixie-like girl out of her stunned state.

Jasper, on the other hand, was still processing the surge of emotions he had detected from Alice earlier. Emotions could tell as much as seeing the vision itself, but he couldn’t make heads or tails from the emotional rollercoaster presented.

“Are you okay?” Esme brushed her fingers through Alice’s hair. “You can come to talk to me later if anything is bothering you.”

“I am fine,” Alice struggled to form a smile, sliding out of Esme’s arms to regain her usual bubbling personality. “I was just a bit surprised. I didn’t see much of anything concrete but… it was a very peculiar vision.” – Did you see anything that can tell me what that was?

Edward subtly shook his head when Alice’s thoughts reached him.

She nodded in response.

This had long since become their unique way of communication – Alice would communicate via her thoughts and Edward would make subtle gestures back, providing her with the responses she needed.

“Then, if nothing changes, and I hope it won’t,” Carlisle sank back into his seat, skipping over the matter to give Alice time to process. “We chase the wolves away from Mason territory tomorrow nigh-”

A strange ringing noise echoed throughout the room… throughout Forks… no, throughout the night sky. It was a strangely soothing sound that seemed to be announcing the arrival of something.

It was not unlike the sound the smoother Government fighter jets would make, but the Government had no business in Forks. In a world that was constantly expanding, The Cullens always had to move from areas that were quickly being transformed into resorts and the like.

Everyone made their way onto the balcony just in time to witness a golden light piercing through the night skies, disappearing beyond the horizon. Edward and Alice shared a look, and Rosalie also saw the secret gestures but chose not to say anything.

“Should we-”

Alice shook her head before Carlisle could suggest they check it out.

Of course, with their speed, they would probably be the first at the site depending on where it landed, but something told Alice that heading to the site would pull the vision she had of the mystery man that much closer.

And she didn’t want that.

Jasper was her mate, and regardless of what she had to do, he would stay her mate for as long as she lived. Edward didn’t like the dark twinge that sometimes overcame Alice’s bright thoughts, but he was understanding of her plight.

It was much too rare for a Vampire to change mates, and it only tended to happen if you were as old as the Volturi, itself.