"NILES!"
Alice woke with a jolt.
She woke gasping and that was irony in itself. She woke to roars and screams, crashes, and everything in between.
She sat up and Carlisle's office came into view; his desk, his chair, his books, and all of them damn diplomas were there...but why was she?
Another demeaning crash cut through her reverie and listening to all the crap going on outside, it was hard not to crave whatever she'd just woken up from...whatever had left her feeling like a bee frozen in honey...still alive mind you...just frozen, at peace.
"Give it back! Give me Niles!"
Alice heard this last bit and something shook inside of her like a 1920s church bell, so she raced for the door, and there below the steps was this scene unfolding before her eyes: people were sliding across the floor, things being thrown after them, and calls for a Niles being uttered like clockwork.
Then he came into view, shuffling forward all crouched like something heavy was weighting down his upper back—and what's more, He had Eleazar Denali at the end of his hand. Screaming at him if he'd taken it.
"Sieg!" This call cut through the air like lighting through the sky and with the effects too.
Everything stopped and that meant him too...oh he stopped at her voice, but his hand was still squeezing round Eleazar's neck so Alice descended the stairs fast as she could and came before him.
His eyes, once a calm grey had darkened all black: Pupil, sclera, and all. It should've terrified her, because what was this? What was he?
It should've triggered her fight or flight but her chest only warmed and for the first time in several decades, her eyes warmed too and a tear slipped out. A tear...
She gasped at that and watching another leave her eyes, so did he. Suddenly, his black eyes didn't seem as ferocious as it once was and she approached him.
"Please, they're my family—you have to stop." She pleaded with him and more tears came for that. "Let him go, Siegen please."
He didn't...but Alice saw the black receding so she touched at his hand, felt the force in his fingers and gave it a squeeze. He let go then and Eleazar hit the ground like a sack of potatoes.
"Wait," Rosalie was dusting herself off. "That's him? That's the runt you've been dreaming about day and night?"
Alice felt his hand on her waist and his voice over her head, she shivered for it and that scared her. "You dream about me, Chickadee?"
"Chickadee?"
Carlisle came forward, calling for everyone—including Sieg to be calm and civilized. Then he introduced himself and from his pocket, he pulled out the gold little number with the blood ruby at the center. "I simply wanted to examine it, you see? It looks extremely familiar."
"That's what they all say." Alice elbowed him when he said this and if he could say one thing of his Chickadee—oh she hadn't lost her strength...yet.
"Now that you've seen your little trinket, will you explain what you've been doing to her?" It was Rosalie again and Tanya agreed.
Sieg was confused, so he looked to her for answer. "What's the peanut gallery on about then?"
And she turned around and backed away into the hold of her family so that Sieg was left to see exactly how many people his mistakes had hurt. His father was right. But just like old times, just as he started thinking that horrible thing, her voice guided him back to the light.
"About three months ago, I started dreaming."
"Okay..."
"And sleeping."
"That's good."
"And getting tired— "
"What're you looking for, a lullaby?"
"Sieg I'm not supposed to sleep, not suppose to do none of that—they're human things and you know what I am. Then there's those dreams."
"About me right?"
"Shut up!"
Long story short, Alice had started exhibiting human signs: losing bits of her speed, getting hungry, hell she'd even stopped seeing visions—all she saw now when she closed her eyes was-
"Me, huh?" Sieg watched her there near Jasper, watched her all nestled between her family and that was enough for him. "Well Then, let me just get my stuff And I'll be outta your hair, alright?"
"Say what?"
"Well if that's what was happening with me afar, why on earth would you ever want me close, egghead?" He went around collecting his shoes that he'd thrown at Edward. Hopping from foot to foot to put them on.
Alice went after him, disbelief in her face. "You're not leaving."
"Watch me."
Then he walked right out of the house and through the gates. He must've walked a good five minutes before he realized what'd he'd left at that undead mansion.
"Niles." He breathed rushing back. "Goddamnit Niles."
But the gates were closed and remained so no matter how much he banged on it...he didn't have enough strength without Niles to jump that fence, nevertheless break it down at the seams. Then he saw her; Alice was walking out of the house with something held in the air...she stopped just a foot from the gate. "Looking for this?"
Niles.
"Give it." Sieg growled. "Now."
And she almost obeyed, there was a pull at her joints, her muscles twinged but she stood her ground. "If you want it, you're going to have to earn it."
"Earn my own property, Chickadee? Get serious."
"I am serious! You owe it to me to stay." She told him unblinkingly.
"I what?" He turned his ear to her for show. "You know chickadee, you've got moxie—I see Necrophilia hasn't killed your spark."
Defense mechanism...
She didn't exactly know how she knew this but Alice knew to disregard his insults, she knew that he did it whenever fear arose, when uncertainty reared its head, whenever hurt resurfaced. "I don't know what you did to me Siegen Westen, but I do know that you feel guilty for it. So now if my family is in danger, you owe it to me to stay and help. Please—you said it yourself, those things will be back. You're the only one who's dealt with them and lived."
He was quiet for a 'mo, then he turned and leaned against the wall for support. "Those things happen to be my kin—"
"So why are they hunting you?"
"Because," he looked at her and saw why. "I broke the rules, I deserve whatever they do to me."
But she didn't...
She didn't deserve that fate they were saving for her down there; so rubbing at his eyes, Sieg shrugged to the sky—what was one more malediction? "Fine."
"You'll stay and help?"
He nodded. "You've got yourself a deal, Chickadee."
His kind never made deals.
