Red Room ₪ Breaking Dawn Fanfiction

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐈𝐬 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐔𝐬 𝐆𝐢𝐫𝐥𝐬

Chapter Thirteen — 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐈𝐬 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐔𝐬 𝐆𝐢𝐫𝐥𝐬

I, with a deeper instinct, choose a man who compels my strength, who makes enormous demands on me, who does not doubt my courage or my toughness, who does not believe me naïve or innocent, who has the courage to treat me like a woman.
—Anaïs Nin

"She did what?" Althea asked as Eleazar grabbed her to calm her down.

"Jasper, a little help please." Eleazar said as Althea started shaking.

"She decided to go to them," Alice said. "Irina decided to go to the Volturi. And then they will decide.... It's as if they're waiting for her. Like their decision was already made, and just waiting on her. . . ."

It was silent again as they digested this. What would Irina tell the Volturi that would result in Alice's appalling vision?

"Can we stop her?" Jasper asked.

"There's no way. She's almost there." Alice answered.

"What is she doing?" Carlisle was asking, but Althea wasn't paying attention to the discussion now.

"All of this over the boys killing her stupid boyfriend for trying to suck my cousin's blood." Althea said.

No one spoke for a long time.

"Aro's seen Irina's proof in her thoughts. They come to destroy, not to be reasoned with." Edward said.

"What can we do?" Althea demanded.

It was Emmett who answered Althea's rhetorical question.

"We fight," he said calmly.

"We can't win," Jasper growled.

"Well, we can't run. Not with Demetri around." Emmett made a disgusted noise, he was not upset by the idea of the Volturi's tracker but by the idea of running away.

"And I don't know that we can't win," he said. "There are a few options to consider. We don't have to fight alone." He said.

Althea's head snapped up at that.

"We don't have to sentence the Quileutes to death, either, Emmett!" Althea said.

"Chill, Althea." He said as his expression was no different from when he was contemplating fighting anacondas.

Even the threat of annihilation couldn't change Emmett's perspective, his ability to thrill to a challenge.

"I didn't mean the pack. Be realistic, though—do you think Jacob or Sam is going to ignore an invasion? Even if it wasn't about Bella? Not to mention that, thanks to Irina, Aro knows about our alliance with the pack now, too. But I was thinking of our other friends." He said.

Carlisle echoed me in a whisper. "Other friends we don't have to sentence to death."

"Hey, we'll let them decide," Emmett said in a placating tone. "I'm not saying they have to fight with us. If they'd just stand beside us, just long enough to make the Volturi hesitate. If we could force them to stop and listen. Though that might take away any reason for a fight. . . ." He said.

There was a hint of a smile on Emmett's face now. Althea was surprised no one had hit him yet. She wanted to.

"Yes," Esme said eagerly. "That makes sense, Emmett. All we need is for the Volturi to pause for one moment. Just long enough to listen." She added.

"We'd need quite a show of witnesses," Rosalie said harshly, her voice brittle as glass.

Esme nodded in agreement, as if she hadn't heard the sarcasm in Rosalie's tone. "We can ask that much of our friends. Just to witness." She said.

"We'd do it for them," Emmett said.

"We'll have to ask them just right," Alice murmured. I looked to see her eyes were a dark void again. "They'll have to be shown very carefully." She said.

"Shown?" Jasper asked.

Alice's eyes glazed over.

"Siobhan's coven. Amun's. Some of the nomads—Garrett and Mary for certain. Maybe Alistair." Alice said.

"What about Peter and Charlotte?" Jasper asked half fearfully, as if he hoped the answer was no, and his old brother could be spared from the coming carnage.

"Maybe." Alice said.

"The Amazons?" Carlisle asked. "Kachiri, Zafrina, and Senna?"

Alice seemed too deep into her vision to answer at first; finally she shuddered, and her eyes flickered back to the present. She met Carlisle's gaze for the tiniest part of a second, and then looked down.

"I can't see."

"What was that?" Edward asked, his whisper a demand.

"That part in the jungle. Are we going to look for them?"

"I can't see," Alice repeated, not meeting his eyes.

A flash of confusion crossed Edward's face. "We'll have to split up and hurry—before the snow sticks to the ground. We have to round up whomever we can and get them here to show them." She zoned again.

The silence was ominous for another long moment while Alice was in her trance.

She blinked slowly when it was over, her eyes peculiarly opaque despite the fact that she was clearly in the present.

"There is so much. We have to hurry," she whispered.

"Alice?" Edward asked. "That was too fast—I didn't understand.

"I have to talk to the pack about this." Althea said.

"Althea are you going to fight in your condition?" Carmen asked.

"Yes, I am. I am an elder, there's no way I'm letting the pack face the Volturi by themselves no offense to you all." Althea said.

"Althea, I don't think that's a wise decision." Carlisle said.

Althea glared at him.

"I'm not taking any advice from the man who allowed his vampire adoptive son to be with a human when he knew that it would only create trouble for him and his family. I'm sure you've been told that Bella has no desires to be a vampire anymore and you all will respect her decision because of the Volturi does not kill you all. . . I will." Althea said, staring down each one of the Cullens before walking out of the house.

"I wouldn't get on her bad side, Althea is very capable of doing anything that she sets her mind on." Kate said.