twenty-three.
:: haunting ::

"I was as pure as the river.
but now I think I'm possessed."
—halsey

.•°* .•°* .•°* .•°*

"Althea!"

"Althea," The voice sounded so distant as it reached her ears.

The feeling of coldness fell onto her cheek before her eyes fluttered open. Becoming suddenly alert, she was quick to panic, rushing to try and push away whatever was near her. But it had a sturdy grip on her before her eyes fell onto the pale face of Edward Cullen. He wore a worried expression on his face as he tried to scan over the girl. The darkness of the woods still surrounded them.

"Edward?" Althea questioned, confused as to why he was there. But he too was just as lost as to why she had come all the way out into the woods.

He had heard the girl when he was in Bella's room, sitting at the girl's desk reading while she was asleep. The movement in Althea's room had put him a bit on high alert. He had known it wasn't Paul Lahote because the stench of him wasn't strong. It caused him to crack open Bella's door, watching Althea as she walked past and down the stairs in a daze. Edward had given Bella one look over before he followed after Althea. Leading him to where the two were right at that very moment. In the woods in the middle of the night.

Looking at her, she looked untouched. But what he had seen moments before she lost consciousness, Althea was in distress like she had witnessed something frightening. Something dark.

"Althea, what did you see?" Edward asked.

She looked at him in confusion, "I don't know what you're talking about?"

"You saw something which led you out here. What was it?" Edward questioned.

"I don't know. Everything is so hazy. How did I even get out here?" Althea looked around at the wooded area that surrounded them.

"We should get you back home," Edward began but the girl shook her head.

"Alice. I need to see Alice."

Edward hesitated before nodding his head. Agreeing, "Alright, let's get you to Alice."

🐺🐺🐺

"I left the note in your room for him. If he goes there and finds you missing then he will at least have an idea. Hopefully not blow up and break the treaty," Edward commented. Althea glared slightly at the vampire. He raised his arms up in slight defense before backing away, "I will be nearby. Take you back home when you're done."

Once Edward had left the room, Alice had turned towards Althea. Looking at her out of curiosity. The perky vampire was intrigued to what compelled Althea to talk to her instead of Carlisle or even Rosalie.

"Not that I don't love the company. I miss yours a lot, but what has brought you here, especially at this time of night?" Alice wondered.

Althea took a breath. Not really sure what initially caused her to decide to come here instead of waiting until the morning. But something inside of her yelled for her to not push it all aside even for a few hours.

"When did you start getting your visions?" Althea spoke up. Alice smiled at her and giggled.

"Well, for a long time it was very hazy. I went through a lot so I can't recall much of my past. But I do believe they started when I was still human. Which you can only imagine how that went in the early 1900s. The girl who was out of her mind. And then I suppose once I was turned, they just got stronger. My curse became my gift. Which helped me see that Jasper was coming along with Carlisle and the rest of my family," Alice tried to summarize things.

Althea looked down at her hands, "Did any of the visions ever end up being false alarms?"

"Usually they don't. Except for around the time your sister got into town. You had your future set pretty well in stone with Edward. Then when Bella came your future began to get fuzzy. I couldn't see you really anymore. It was like suddenly our gifts didn't work on you at all anymore. You were like an anomaly when it came to my gift," Alice explained, watching the girl's facial features, "But something tells me you've seen something that makes you wonder if it will become true."

"I'm nervous to talk about it in case it changes things once people know," Althea admitted. Alice rested her hand over Althea's.

"Chances are, I might have seen something similar. And from what I have experienced, even when I talk about what I see, it tends to still happen. Though if there's ever a change in decisions due to some actions, I become aware of those too."

"I saw Victoria. She said things to me. To fill me with doubt. But I listened to the voices that told me she was going to die. The ones that told me to protect. And then she got killed before she could touch me," Althea recalled.

Alice nodded her head, "Victoria has been good at evading my visions lately. But I can almost guarantee what you saw and experienced, was a premonition of what is to come. At moments like this, what you've seen is more set in stone than anything that I can see. It's different when it comes to the things I see in the future versus you seeing someone die. Like Carlisle had told you about his theories on the Morrigan. She can predict death and that means it's going to come sooner rather than later. Where at most I can see someone die but it could either be the next day or in 20 years."

"So Victoria is going to die soon?" Althea questioned.

"If you've seen it happen. It's only a matter of time. But I guess things tend to be a little unpredictable at times. We just don't know how it will build up to her death and who might get hurt in the process. Vampires like her are ones who don't care about others. They seek vengeance and that's their only goal."

"I never asked for this," Althea said.

"I know. But unfortunately, she was smart when looking into ways to bring us to our knees. And Bella wasn't the strong enough choice. Althea, you're our weakness. We all care about you in this family and want to protect you. And because she blames Edward for losing James, she wants to make sure he hurts as much as she does. You are the answer. But I assume she was unaware of what potential you had. She only sees you as a roadblock, not someone who can predict her downfall. You have an advantage. And we won't let her near you or Bella," Alice assured the girl. Clapping her hands together, "Though we could probably talk more about all of this. I can sense you are still pretty tired so we should get you back home before your dog breaks his leash."

"Alice," Althea began, giving her a dark look.

"Sorry. I'm working on it," She sheepishly replied.

🐺🐺🐺

"I just wanted to thank you, I guess for being there in the woods. Though it was definitely weird to know you followed me," Althea told Edward while she glanced over at him while he drove her back in the direction of her home.

"At least it was me instead of someone or something else. I heard you moving around in your room and I was a little bit confused with why you were even up. So out of curiosity I followed you," Edward informed her.

"Could you do me a favor?" Althea wondered, Edward peered over at her.

"Anything."

"Can we not bring this up to Paul? I don't need him to keep me in a little bubble forever. I still don't know what's going on completely. And he already has his mind set on getting Victoria. And it already puts me on edge because I don't want him or any of the pack to get hurt because of her. I want to figure out what's going on with me before he gets thrown off by more of my possession or whatever it is," Althea said.

"Do you ever think about if you'll ever be satisfied?" Edward asked.

Althea looked at him, perplexed, "What?"

"I mean. You want to hide this from him? And you are worried about the pack of mutts getting hurt," Edward began. Althea let out a small scoff. "Don't you ever think about everything long term?"

"Yeah, I do think about things in the long term. And I'm worried because I care about all of them. I worry for people I care about and that's normal," Althea told him.

"But at what point do you think you'll be tired of it all? The constant worrying. I don't think you will ever be satisfied with your life if you're constantly worrying about others every step you take," Edward voiced his opinion.

"Bold of you to say when you constantly have to worry about Bella and what stupid thing she'll do next," Althea commented.

"And that's why you're like me."

"I'm nothing like you, Edward. And I never will be," She declared.

Edward's car pulled up to the house, slowing down. Once he put the vehicle in park, he turned towards her.

"Once upon a time it was supposed to be you and I. It all made sense," Edward said.

"Yeah, but I'm almost positive that part of the chapter is closed and over with. It deserves to be put to rest. Now thanks for the ride home," Althea went to grab for the handle but he stopped her.

"Althea, I will always care for you. My feelings for you will always be there."

"And if you truly cared for me, you would let me go and let me be happy," Althea told him. He sighed before she left the car and headed back into her house.

Before she returned back to sleep, she had opted to shower to clean the dirt off of herself. Althea took in that Paul was still not there even after how late it was so she felt a weight lift off her shoulders. Not having to explain herself. At least not yet. Though Paul had felt her strong emotions from when she was in the woods, he had strict orders from Sam and they were too far from the house to check on Althea.

Althea crumpled up her note that she had left for him just in case before heading into the bathroom. She started up the shower to warm up. Looking at herself in the mirror she felt like she was looking at a stranger. Unsure of who she was. She truly felt like she was possessed and she wished everything could go back to what it was before. When it all wasn't so overwhelming and complicated.

———

I figured I shouldn't sit on this chapter any longer.
It's definitely a filler that's supposed to help move the story along. So please bear with me.

Remember to interact with the chapter! :))

—Cait