Wow, sorry about the long time with no update! So here's the next installment of the original version of Dark Secrets.

Chapter 6: Margaret’s Story

“Go hunt,” Carlisle ordered quietly. “Meet us on the north side when you’re done.”

Edward and Emmett nodded, taking Jasper and Alice with them.

“Come, Margaret, was it?” Carlisle asked; she nodded. “I’ll take you with me to meet up with my wife and my other daughters.”

“You don’t look old enough to have children,” Margaret scorned.

Carlisle laughed. “True. The youngest of them, in human years, is six years younger than me. I’ve sort of unofficially adopted the lot of them,” he said with a smile. “It’s a strange family history, but it’s worked so far for us.”

“So if they’re your children, in a way, why did you let them go to Volterra?” Margaret asked.

Carlisle sighed. “Well, they may be my children, but they’re still adults. I don’t like pulling the ‘creator’ card. Besides, it wouldn’t have worked with Alice, anyway,” he added with a laugh. “I wasn’t the one who created her. Or Jasper, for that matter, but he didn’t have a lot of choice in the decision.”

Margaret flinched, a barely-perceptible action. “Is that his name?” she asked quietly. “The one who was in the catacombs with me?”

“Yes,” Carlisle replied. “Why?”

“My son’s name was Jasper as well,” Margaret said with a deep sigh. “It shouldn’t hurt so much, I suppose. The name was very popular at a time…”

“What happened to him?” Carlisle asked.

“He ran away, not long before Celia was killed and I was…” Margaret stopped.

“Carlisle?” came Esme’s frantic call as she, Rosalie and Bella rounded the corner.

Carlisle caught Esme in his arms as she came to him, murmuring into her hair, “They’re okay, they’re okay. Edward and Emmett just took them hunting.” He laughed slightly. “Everybody’s still got two arms, two legs, ten fingers and ten toes.”

“What was going on?” Rosalie asked anxiously.

“Nearest I can tell, Alice must’ve cracked and drank human blood,” Carlisle replied. “Jasper seems to think that was what made her lose control.”

“Lose control?” Bella asked faintly.

Carlisle sighed. “She was busy bringing down Volterra when we arrived – God, it was like Jekyll and Hyde. Felix and Demetri looked like they’d been through a few centuries in the South. And before he comes back and you start panicking, Rosalie, Emmett gained a few scars trying to contain Alice.”

“She’s not still…” Rosalie started to say, when Carlisle interrupted.

“No, she seems to have regained some control. She doesn’t think so herself, though, she was all but begging Emmett to keep her restrained.”

“And who’s this?” Bella asked, looking at Margaret.

Margaret smiled slightly, looking around at the three women gathered around Carlisle. “My name is Margaret.”

“Chelsea and Afton passed her to us before they left Volterra,” Carlisle explained dryly. “Apparently she’s been a prisoner of Aro’s for some time.”

“I’m told I managed to outwit him,” Margaret sighed. “I don’t remember having done it.”

“You know what you were supposed to have done?” Bella asked curiously.

Margaret laughed. “I’m told, at least, that my creator and I managed to completely mask my daughter’s transformation and location. She was supposedly turned with me, but I remember having watched Randall kill her…”

She stopped, a brief break in her voice.

Carlisle had to add an explanation, arms still wrapped around Esme. “Aro said that her creator had the ability to plant false memories –”

“And I can erase memories,” Margaret finished.

“That’s a pretty elaborate plan to throw together,” Bella commented.

Margaret laughed wryly. “You learn to be sneaky about the biggest things very quickly when your husband likes throwing heavy objects at you for the littlest things.”

There was a dry sniff of agreement from Esme, her head nestled comfortably beneath Carlisle’s chin. When Margaret looked at her in surprise, Esme said quietly, “Human husband. Never should’ve married him – he’s the real reason I threw myself off a cliff.”

Carlisle sighed and kissed the top of her head.

Margaret breathed in deeply, then sighed. “I wish I’d had the guts to throw myself off a cliff instead of marrying him. Would’ve saved me years of grief. But what else was I supposed to do?”

“What happened?” Rosalie asked tentatively.

Margaret gnawed at her lower lip. Finally, she replied, “I got pregnant. My father nearly killed David – he was a colleague of his – but then he realized that’d still leave him with an unmarried, pregnant daughter. So he forced David to marry me.”

“How old were you?” Carlisle asked.

“I turned fourteen not long after the wedding,” Margaret answered. “My family lived in Louisiana. David moved me back to Texas once we were married.” She sighed. “I was naïve. I thought things would be better when he had to take responsibility.”

She smiled at that point, saying, “All the other women in the area were jealous that Jasper – that was my son – was the cutest child in the county. And the most charming. Even the minister’s wife was taken with him, and Madeline Riddler was the most coldhearted, ill-tempered woman you have ever met. He had these bright hazel eyes – they were almost caramel. David’s eyes, but I’d never seen his eyes look so… warm. His were harder, colder. And he had these silky unruly blonde curls…” There was a distinct tone of pride and pleasure in her voice – evidently she’d taken great pains to make sure her child had made her the envy of every mother in the county, especially when her age couldn’t have helped their view of her. Then she sighed. “But beyond even that… he was such an even-tempered child, and very bright. The perfect little boy.” Another smile graced her expression.

“Where’s Jasper and Alice?” Esme asked worriedly, looking beyond her sons as Emmett and Edward rejoined the group.

“Still out hunting,” Edward replied. “Jasper’s back to full strength now, and he says Alice is fine, but she’s really freaked out over losing it like that. She still thinks that… well, her exact words were that ‘she’s still there’. She won’t come anywhere near any of us until she’s convinced that she’s in total control. She didn’t even want Jasper to stay, but he refused to leave.” He rolled his eyes. “Something tells me he’s not letting her out of his sight for the rest of eternity.”

“That was some serious Jekyll-and-Hyde activity she had going on,” Emmett admitted.

“Speaking of which, let me see your arms,” Rosalie ordered, pushing back the ripped sleeves of his shirt. “Oh, Emmett, look at you!” she breathed sharply, brushing a light finger over the deepest of the wounds. “She nearly bit your arm off…”

“Nah,” Emmett said dismissively. “Superficial. Didn’t let her sink her teeth in long enough to bite my arm off. So what were you guys talking about before we got here?” He ducked down and kissed the curve of her neck.

“Margaret here was telling us about her human life,” Esme said with a smile, “Which involves a charming blonde son with hazel eyes named Jasper.”

“Hey, you have one of those,” Edward laughed in reply. “Except yours is probably much older than hers.”

Margaret smiled very slightly. “He was just about 17 when I… died, for lack of better word. He’d been gone a few months by the time Randall turned me.”

“You can’t be old enough in human years to have had a 17-year-old son,” Emmett countered. “You don’t look any older than 30.”

“I’m 31,” Margaret replied, “and I was 14 when he was born.”

“I stand corrected,” Emmett conceded. “On both accounts.”

Margaret nodded slightly in acknowledgement. “Well, David finally had enough of married life after a while. I was expecting Celia when he left.” She sighed once more. “I’d never had to do anything… adult… in my life. My father spoiled me senseless in Louisiana, David handled everything in Texas. We’d had servants – well, I suppose they were slaves, really – to do the housework, the cooking, the fieldwork. Getting Jasper up and dressed and fed and off to school, all those things… I never did any of it. My sole purpose in life was to look pretty.

“By the time Celia was born, I was so overwhelmed with everything happening that I just… shut down,” she sighed. “I didn’t know how deal with any of it, so I just… didn’t.

“I woke up one day to find Jasper gone. Celia was crying her eyes out on his bed. She wouldn’t tell me where he’d gone, or when. Then, about a month after he’d left, Randall showed up on our doorstep. He said that he’d been sent by Jasper. And barely a month later…”

Okay, this is the original Chapter 5 (posted as A Family Visit).

Chapter 5: Dark Secrets Come to Light

Carlisle could hear her before he saw her. Screaming like the devil, pitching a fit, cursing like a sailor at the two guards as they dragged her out into the pavilion. No wonder Afton and Chelsea had said that she was ‘out of control’ – there simply weren’t words in the English language, or any other, to describe this.

Alice managed to sink her teeth in Demetri’s forearm before he closed it around her neck, and the tracker spat out a string of curses and insults. There were similar scars on both of his arms, along with Felix’s arms. Ironically, Carlisle thought he might now know where most of Jasper’s deepest scars had come from.

“Are you sure you still want her?” Aro asked dryly. “She’s been like this for some time. Very non-conducive to your coven’s way of life, isn’t it?”

“Demetri, Felix, bring her here,” Carlisle ordered quietly. The two young men looked at Aro.

“First we have some business to attend to, Carlisle,” Aro said briskly. “Santiago, bring me Margaret,” he called again, and this time his young Mexican guard (a whistleblower on one of the more devastating covens/armies in the early years of the vampire wars) emerged from the direction of the catacombs, dragging an older, blonde woman with him.

“Aro,” Carlisle said warningly.

“Margaret,” Aro continued, ignoring Carlisle. “I believe you’ve met Alice before. She was much more civilized then, I’m sure.”

The woman’s dark red eyes flickered to Alice, fighting tooth and nail against the two guards, as she folded her hands in front of her. “No. I’ve never seen that girl before in my life.”

“You’re certain?” Aro repeated, stepping forward. “What about Afton and Chelsea over there? I’m certain that they’ve come in contact with your formidable power.”

The woman shot a glance towards them. Then she shook her head again. “No.”

“I shall soon know if you’re lying, Margaret,” Aro said, placing his hand on her forehead. His face turned furious as he removed it, but his voice was calm. “I see you all did a very good job covering your tracks. Of course, I should have anticipated that – you’ve erased your own memories before, and on much more personal topics than the matter of my guards conspiring to break into the catacombs in my absence.”

He looked over at Carlisle. “Are you intrigued by this, Carlisle? We found her in one of the southern states over a century ago. We were there on a tip given to us that somebody had bitten a child – one still small enough that it required a personal visit to evaluate the situation. The young daughter of this woman, in fact. How old was your girl when your creator turned you both?” he asked the woman casually.

“He didn’t turn my daughter. He killed her,” the woman said softly. “She’s been dead since 1861.”

“And yet a number of nomads in the area recall seeing her in 1945,” Aro countered. “When we arrived at the estate they were inhabiting at the time,” he continued, looking back at Carlisle once more, “we discovered this woman and her creator. No child. The entire estate had been burnt to the ground – there was nothing left for Demetri to track.”

Edward and Emmett appeared behind Carlisle just then, carrying Jasper between them.

Aro sighed. “It is here that you see the genius of their plan. Her creator had the ability to plant false memories; Margaret here has the ability to erase memories.” He contemplated the scene for a moment. “They doubtlessly hid the child somewhere and burnt the estate to ensure that no trace of her was left for Demetri. Then her creator planted the memory of having killed the girl in both their minds, and she erased every memory beyond that point of the girl.” He paused. “It is my opinion that a similar situation has occurred here. I am sure that Chelsea and Afton conspired with Alice to sneak down to the catacombs when Jane, Alec and I were away from Volterra. Margaret then erased the memories of everybody involved in regards to that particular plot, and likely was busy erasing her own memories not long ago.”

“Aro, are you finished grandstanding?” Carlisle asked quietly. “Give me Alice.”

“Just one moment,” Aro said. “Margaret, if you would not mind finishing your furtive little task –”

Edward hissed from behind Carlisle. “He wants her to erase Jasper entirely,” he spat out in a low voice to Carlisle.

The woman cast a terrified glance at Aro, then at Carlisle, and back at Aro. Then she reached for Alice with a shaking hand.

“Aro!” Carlisle roared, flashing to Alice’s side and knocking Margaret’s hand out of the way. In a second, Emmett had left Edward to support Jasper’s dead weight and joined their adoptive father, throwing Felix and Demetri away from Alice and pulling her back towards Edward and Jasper.

“Holy crap, I didn’t know she had this kind of strength in her!” Emmett hissed, barely succeeding in wrapping his arms around her, pinning her arms against her sides. “Seriously, Alice, it’s me! Stop fighting!”

“I don’t know that she realizes it’s you, Emmett,” Edward said quietly, still watching Carlisle and Aro’s wordless stare-down. “Just… keep her arms pinned. Think of her as a newborn.”

“Edward, Emmett, get them out of here,” Carlisle ordered tersely. “Aro, so help me, if you ever step foot on the same continent as any member of my family ever again, I will kill you myself.”

*~*~*

“Wait, it’s still daylight,” Edward said as they reached the exit door. “We can’t leave yet. God, they weren’t kidding when they said she was out of control, was she?” he said in astonishment, watching Emmett fight to keep Alice contained. “We’re going to have to gag her,” he said reluctantly. “Somebody’s going to hear her screaming, otherwise.”

“How are we supposed to get her back to normal, though?” Emmett asked through gritted teeth as Alice’s teeth cut into his skin. “Ow! Goddamn it, Alice!”

Jasper stirred at that point, his eyes opening the slightest bit and he said, voice raspy and slurred, “… hunt…”

Edward frowned as he turned to his brother. “What, Jasper?”

Jasper tried to speak a couple more times without success. Then he fell silent, and Edward listened to the thoughts he was evidently trying to broadcast.

“Are you sure?” Edward asked warily. Looking at Emmett, he said, “Jasper says to take her hunting. He thinks the animal blood subdues the endemoniado.”

“It’s worth a shot,” Emmett agreed. “I mean, that’s really the only thing that’s different between her and the ones in Mexico, isn’t it?”

Carlisle came striding up the hallway just then. “Still daylight?” he asked shortly, sliding down to the ground. Pulling out his phone, he flipped it open and sent a rapid text. “I’ve told the girls to meet up with us in Brazil. Jacob and Nessie are coming down to meet us from Oregon.”

“Is Jake still royally pissed we didn’t let him come?” Emmett asked with a slight smile, instinctively yanking Alice’s head up and closing her neck in a tight headlock as she sunk her teeth into his arm again. “God, I’m going to look like Jasper by the time we get her back to normal! Geez, Alice, get a hold on yourself!”

“Carlisle, do you think he’s all right?” Edward asked softly. “He can’t even talk. He can barely move.”

Carlisle looked over, switching places with Edward so he could take a closer look at Jasper. Finally, he said, “He’ll be fine after he feeds. Starvation does terrible things to our kind. I can barely even imagine going as long as he has – even when I was first turned, I’d only been starving myself a few months at most. Jasper, do you know long…”

“He doesn’t think he’s fed at all since they put him in the catacombs two years ago,” Edward said quietly. “He says that there’s blank spots, though, that he doesn’t remember.”

“Ally?” Emmett asked suddenly, as Alice abruptly stopped fighting and began to relax in his arms. “Ally, you back to normal now?”

“I don’t think so,” she said, her voice hoarse from screaming so long. “I can still feel her… beneath the surface…” She turned her eyes to Jasper and let out a small moan. “Is he okay?”

“He’ll be fine, Alice,” Carlisle assured her. “He’s just extremely thirsty.”

Edward frowned at Jasper. “Don’t start interrogating her.”

“Edward, what’d he ask?” Alice asked softly, her hand hovering uncertainly in midair, wavering back and forth between her lap and Jasper. Slowly, Emmett started to unwrap his arms from her, releasing her from her restraints. “No!” she cried out immediately. “Emmett, don’t, I don’t really have control, I’m not safe…”

“You’re telling me,” Emmett muttered, examining the fresh wounds on his arms.

“Don’t worry, Alice, there’s three of us and one of you,” Carlisle said. “We’ll catch you before you do anything.”

Whimpering, Alice wrapped her arms around herself instead, her entire body visibly tensed. “You won’t. She gets control so quickly…”

Edward frowned at Jasper again. “Yes, I’m ignoring you. I told you not to interrogate her. I will pass along the message, though. Emmett, restrain her if it makes her feel better. Jasper doesn’t like how anxious she is.”

“Are you going to bite me again if I do?” Emmett grumbled, wrapping his arms around Alice once more, though loosely. Alice relaxed slightly. Once again, her hand wavered uncertainly between her and Jasper, as if she wanted to take his hand, but she was scared of hurting him.

“Alice, Jasper says you can’t do anything to him that hasn’t already been done,” Edward said quietly.

Carlisle got to his feet and looked up through the skylight far above them. “I think it’s safe to go,” he murmured. “We’ll hunt first thing. As soon as we get outside of the city.”

Edward’s phone started ringing just then, in unison with Chelsea’s distant voice saying, “I can’t believe I’m doing this, I can’t believe I’m doing this…”

“Bella, what?” He paused a second. “Yeah, yeah, everybody’s fine. Tell Esme she can stop hyperventilating, I can hear her from here. No, we’re still in Volterra, the sun’s only just set.”

Chelsea, Afton and Margaret appeared at that moment. “Hey, do her a favour and take her with you,” Afton said quietly to Emmett, indicating Margaret. “All hell’s breaking loose in here, we’re getting out while we can.” With that, he tightened his arm around Chelsea, who was still reciting the same words over and over. “Think it’s safe to go?”

“I believe so,” Carlisle said.

“The girls are all waiting outside the north walls,” Edward reported as he hung up. “They’d just gotten here when you texted them. Jake and Nessie are on their way to Rio now.”

Chelsea looked at Margaret again for a moment and said quietly, “Your daughter is alive. I can see that much. I couldn’t tell you where, though.” Then she and Afton left swiftly, disappearing down the alley within seconds.

“All right, let’s go,” Carlisle said with a sigh.

This is the original chapter 4 of Dark Secrets (which was posted as Readjustments). Be warned that in this chapter, there's a little more violence and 'coarse' content than there is in the posted version. There's nothing above a T rating, which is what the story is considered, but it's a little more graphic.

Chapter 4: Too Far

Afton and Chelsea weren’t the only guards to come to him and Caius over the next week. Many were worried that Alice was out of control, that Volterra could not survive the furious rage of an endemoniado. Most were of the same opinion as Afton and Chelsea: send Alice back to Carlisle. Let him and his odd coven deal with her.

He explained his course of action to Caius and Athenodora, the moment that Afton and Chelsea had left for America. With his other brother and his wife behind him, the majority of the guard becoming dissatisfied with Aro’s leadership, Marcus had no doubts that Aro would not win this fight.

*~*~*

Bella sighed as she watched Rosalie work on maintaining Alice’s little yellow Porsche (she’d had a deep affection bordering on obsession for those ever since that 911 Turbo in Volterra way back when). “Do you think they’re ever coming back?” she asked wistfully.

Rosalie looked up at her. “You want the truth, or do you want me to lie?”

“Lie, please,” Bella replied.

“Yes, I think they’ll come back. Eventually the Volturi won’t be able to take Alice’s nonstop chatter and they’ll send them both back here,” Rosalie said with a slight smile. “Any minute now.”

“Thank you, Rose,” Bella said, just as they heard the sounds of somebody walking up the sidewalk. “Wait…”

“Seriously, am I good or what?” Rosalie laughed, and both sisters took off from the garage, reaching the living room just as Edward and Emmett joined them.

But as the two figures sheathed in cloaks – one a dark charcoal grey, the other a lighter ash grey – became clearer through the fog outside, stepping up onto the front step, it became obvious that it wasn’t Jasper and Alice. The taller figure was about the right height, but he was too brawny. The smaller figure was about the right size, but she didn’t carry herself like Alice.

Bella moaned in disappointment and rested her head against Edward’s shoulder.

“Who is that?” Emmett asked Edward softly; his brother frowned, listening to the thoughts.

“It’s Chelsea and Afton,” Edward said slowly. “Something’s… something’s gone wrong in Volterra.”

“Oh, God…” Rosalie breathed, as Emmett wrapped her into his arms comfortingly. “Alice and Jasper?”

“I can’t… I can’t tell,” Edward said finally, letting out the breath he’d been holding in frustration. “Afton’s freaking out over Chelsea, and Chelsea’s panicking because Aro doesn’t know they’re here… But it must be. Why else would they be here?”

There was a hesitant knock at the door, and Esme flew out from one of the other rooms to answer it. Obviously she had been thinking the same thing as the rest of them.

She had barely opened the door before Chelsea had slipped inside, saying quietly, “I’m sorry. There’s no time for etiquette.”

*~*~*

“Where are Chelsea and Afton?” Aro demanded angrily as he stormed into Marcus’ chambers.

“I asked them to run an errand for Caius and myself,” Marcus replied calmly, looking up from his study of the ancient scrolls in front of him and Caius. “They do work for us as well as for you, Aro, as do all the guards.”

Growling in frustration, Aro said through clenched teeth, “When are you expecting them back?”

“Within a few days, I would expect,” Caius replied. “If they find what we requested without trouble.”

“Why?” Marcus asked. “Surely you do not have need of either of them at the moment. Or has your little experiment with Alice gotten out of control?”

Aro bit back a snarl. “Afton and Chelsea have been hiding things from us,” he spat out, slamming himself down into the empty chair. “What, I do not know. The other guards have no specific knowledge, just that something is off.”

“Well, you would know if they had been hiding something, would you not?” Caius asked smoothly. “You read their thoughts on a weekly basis, as you do with all the guard.”

Aro growled under his breath again, still thinking hard. Then he burst out, “Blank spots! Blank spots in their memories, why did I not see that…”

Caius and Marcus looked at each other.

“And always when I was away from Volterra with Alec and Jane!” Aro continued fuming. “It was so glaringly obvious! They have been sneaking Alice into the catacombs!” He shot to his feet. “ALEC! JANE!” he thundered angrily.

“Well, this promises to be interesting…” Caius murmured as he and Marcus stood up.

“I just hope that Carlisle arrives in time,” Marcus replied softly.

*~*~*

“What’s going on, Chelsea?” Carlisle asked quietly.

Afton spoke instead. “Master Marcus requests that you all come back to Volterra with us.”

“Why?” Edward spoke up warily.

“We do not have time for explanations!” Chelsea burst out suddenly. “It’s going to be a tight enough return as it stands right now, Afton, every second –”

“Chelsea, let me speak,” Afton interrupted her. “Master Aro has gone too far in trying to gain Alice’s obedience, and he underestimated the effect his actions would have,” he explained to the Cullens. “That’s all we have time to explain right now. Things are getting worse in Volterra even as we speak.”

“What about Jasper?” Emmett spoke up. “If anybody can calm Alice, it’s Jasper. Without him, nobody else stands a chance.”

“He’s been locked in the catacombs almost as long as they’ve been in Volterra,” Afton said, putting a hand over Chelsea’s mouth when she tried to protest again. “And believe me, he is in no condition to be doing any activity, let alone the amount that will be required to restrain Alice.”

“I told her…” Edward muttered under his breath, as Carlisle winced. “What’s going on with Alice? You said ‘restrain’.”

“She’s lost control of herself,” Afton replied simply.

*~*~*

“Santiago, get her out to the pavilion!” Aro’s furious voice echoed through the catacombs, his words cloudy and unclear to Jasper’s failing ears.

Faintly, Jasper could distinguish the sounds of what sounded like a vampire raging out of control upstairs. The sounds of Margaret being dragged to her feet from the catacombs’ pathway and up the stairs.

When Aro yanked him out of his solitary confinement by the hair, pressing his weathered hand against his forehead, he barely reacted. Even without Alec’s assistance, nothing worked properly anymore.

What was he looking for?, Jasper wondered as Aro growled in frustration and threw him back in. What was he trying to find that was making him so angry?

*~*~*

“Carlisle, we have to stop,” Rosalie begged as the family reached the airport. “I can’t…”

“Carlisle, she and Bella both haven’t hunted in weeks,” Esme said quietly, touching her husband’s sleeve.

“I won’t make twelve hours in an enclosed space with all those humans,” Rosalie continued pleadingly. “I know my limits.”

Carlisle hesitated a fraction of a second. “Rosalie, Bella, go hunt and meet us there. Quickly, though. Edward, Emmett, let’s go.”

*~*~*

“Oh, you have got to be effing kidding me!” Emmett groaned as the flight attendant looked at them sympathetically.

“I’m sorry, but I only have three seats left on the flight.”

“Shit, damn, crap…” Emmett muttered, as Edward ran his fingers through his hair. “This is not happening right now…”

“You boys go on ahead,” Esme said quietly. “I’ll stay back here and get the next flight with Rosalie and Bella. Go. Jasper and Alice need you there.”

Edward and Emmett had both shot down the walkway at her words, quickly followed by Carlisle after a swift kiss to his wife’s temple. “Thank you,” he murmured.

“Go.”

*~*~*

“Ow! Damn it, Demetri, keep a tighter hold on her!”

“I can’t hold her any tighter, Felix, she’s too strong!”

“Fighting won’t help you now, bitch!”

Aro’s voice boomed through the chambers just then, piercing Alice’s ears with its sheer volume. “Felix, Demetri, hold her still for a moment!”

He slammed a hand on her neck – the only place he was able to reach, with Demetri’s tight grasp. “Ugh! Useless!” he spat after a few seconds. “I can’t make sense out of that!”

Alice managed to free one of her arms from Demetri’s restraint and clawed at his arm desperately to try and get him to release her. “Let me go!” she snarled, as Felix pinned the arm back down on the bed, grabbing the other from Demetri as he released her, swearing himself blue.

Shrieking angrily as she felt Felix tear apart the dress that they found for her, Alice tried to wrench herself out from beneath him. When she was free, she was going to rip him to shreds. She wasn’t even going to wait for Jasper to exact his own vengeance. Nobody had the right to use her like this, nobody.

“Tell Heidi to find another one for her,” Felix ordered roughly.

*~*~*

“Edward, you know where the catacombs are?” Carlisle asked rapidly as he, Emmett and Edward jumped down after Chelsea and Afton.

“Yeah,” Edward replied.

“You and Emmett go get Jasper,” Carlisle ordered. “Chelsea and Afton and I will go get Alice.”

The two brothers ran down the corridor. “Ed, what the hell’s the catacombs?” Emmett asked.

“The catacombs are like the Volturi prison,” Edward explained, stopping in front of the door. “Alec and Jane run them.”

“Say no more,” Emmett muttered as they yanked open the door and went down into the darkness. “God, is it seriously this dark in here?” he asked, pulling one of the torches from the corridor out of its holder. “Jasper?”

“I don’t hear him…” Edward murmured. “But there’s definitely someone in here. Jasper, it’s us!”

“Wait, there,” Emmett pointed out, gesturing to an unmoving figure far down the catacombs.

“That can’t be Jasper, Em, that person doesn’t even look alive.”

“Aren’t we all technically dead?” Emmett asked with a grin.

*~*~*

“Get her dressed again, Felix, Master wants her out in the pavilion.”

Alice struggled to free herself once more from Felix’s grip. By this point, all she wanted was for the world to go dead. If she could ever regain control of herself, she’d admit defeat. She couldn’t fight anymore. But it was like there was an entire different Alice inside of her – one that lain quietly for 128 years, and who had every intention making sure that she was the one in control for the next 128.

“God, look at her, she’s still got fight in her,” Demetri’s astonished voice echoed in the room again, reverberating in her head with the volume of a cannon going off.

“No wonder Master wanted them all exterminated. They’d take over and destroy the world.”

*~*~*

“Chelsea, Afton, welcome back,” Aro’s terse voice echoed down the hallway from the main pavilion. “Would you mind coming in here for a moment?” He stopped as he saw Carlisle enter with the couple. “Carlisle. How… pleasant to see you return to Volterra.”

“Release my daughter from the guard,” Carlisle said simply, forcefully. “You have overstepped your boundaries.”

Aro turned to Chelsea instead, a pained look in his eyes. “Is this how you repay me, Chelsea, for saving you from that monster who called herself your mother? For giving you a safe place to stay, the life you wanted? For letting you keep your ragged, drowned-rat Scotsman when you dragged him in here in 1912?”

“Don’t speak to her like that,” Afton growled, wrapping her into his arms as Chelsea whimpered.

“Aro,” Carlisle repeated. “Give me Alice.”

Aro paused. “Demetri, Felix!” he called lightly. “Bring me Alice, please.”

All right, so here’s the deal. No matter how hard I try, I cannot make Jasper’s birthday, his age or turning date (in 1843, 20 years old and 1863 respectively, according to the Twilight Lexicon) work with the details we know about the time Maria turned him. The following is my reasoning, using the Texas in the American Civil War article on Wikipedia and Eclipse chapter 13. Hey, I’m Canadian! Ask me about the voyageurs, I can tell you all about the voyageurs. Not the American Civil War.

“I was almost seventeen years old when I joined the Confederate Army in 1861.” (p. 292) – Therefore, this means that Jasper’s birthday HAS to be between March and December of 1844, because an 1843 birthdate would make him almost 18, not 17. I’m leaning towards the March-June area, because Jasper then mentions that “the Confederate Army was new and scrambling to organize itself…” (p. 292), which says to me that he joined in the early days of Texas’ involvement (Texas joined the Confederate States of America on March 1, 1861; the Confederate draft wasn’t sent out until 1862, though I assume they would’ve still accepted volunteer enlisters in 1861).

As for when Maria turned him, I’m wondering if somebody (I’m suspecting whoever was in charge of creating the timeline at Twilight Lexicon – because I’ve noticed some glaring errors especially when it comes to Jasper’s timeline) forgot that there were two battles in Galveston in a relative short timeframe during the CW. Jasper mentions specifically that, “by the first battle of Galveston – well, it was more of a skirmish, really – I was the youngest major in Texas, not even acknowledging my real age.” (p. 292) – The first battle of Galveston took place on October 4, 1862, so if Maria turned him at that point, Jasper would need a birthdate prior to October 7, 1842 (when he would’ve awoken from his transformation) to fit the age of 20. (On this note, LOL, I just noticed that they mention an unnamed Confederate major was the officer to negotiate a four-day truce in order to evacuate the women, children and aliens from the city – Major Jasper Whitlock, anybody? :D)

There was a second battle of Galveston on January 1, 1863. However, the details that Jasper provides in Eclipse on the circumstances – “…when the Union’s mortar boats reached the harbor…” (p. 292) leads me to believe that he’s still talking about the first battle. The Union Army controlled Galveston by the time the second battle came around – the boats, therefore, would’ve already been there had it been the second battle.

So this is my decision (I’m going with the book’s description, and I’m going to assume that Stephenie Meyer just forgot some details when she gave us Jasper’s age – honestly, who can keep track of all that information in their head? – I had to sit down, write and calculate all of this!): June 1844 birthdate (in keeping with the one specific date he provides – that he was almost 17 in early 1861), October 1862 creation date (in keeping with the one specific battle he mentions – the first battle of Galveston). Jasper would’ve, in fact, have been 18 when he was turned.

Yes, I am this anal about my fanfiction.

Hey, so I'm writing out chapter 10 of Dark Secrets as we... well, write. And I suddenly realized that the original storyline of Dark Secrets sort of... went away. And then I thought - "Hey, why don't I post the original version on LiveJournal for people to read?"

All right, so, like, nobody reads this thing any way, but at least it's out there for you to see if you actually come and read it.

So, here's the first entry. This was the original Chapter 3 (Negotiation) and was originally intended to be called "Breaking Spirit". Up until then, the prologue to Chapter 2 are all as originally written. Then I thought I'd lost my USB drive with my stories on it, and had to restart from scratch at the point I'd left off at. And then I found my drive, and I decided I liked the second version better... etc., etc., etc.

As you might notice, there are a few similarities between it and a couple of different things that DID make it into the final version. There are some inconsistencies (mostly with time, because I kept changing my mind on how long I was going to keep Alice and Jasper in Volterra).

Chapter 3: Breaking Spirit

Alice clenched her jaw and gritted her teeth as she overheard Felix and Aro debating something hotly down the corridor, proving true her vision just a few minutes earlier.

Her temper was on a short fuse the thirstier she got, and Aro had decided, after nearly three years of allowing her to continue her ‘vegetarian’ diet, that she was no longer permitted to do so. It was irritating that she hadn’t foreseen that, in all her distraction with Jasper’s pain, because if she’d have known, she might’ve thought to stock some animal blood away in her chambers for times like this, when she got desperate.

“Master, she may as well not have one at all…” Felix had a certain tone of plea in his voice, his imposing size making Aro look like a wizen old man. “Surely you could find a way…”

“Felix, she is here only as long as I keep the Southerner alive. I gave her my word as a Volturi brother that the exchange was his life for her service. If one forfeits, so does the other. And as long as the Southerner lives, you can rest assured that she will not agree to anything of the sort…”

“If Chelsea –”

“If you can talk Chelsea into attempting such a difficult task, you may have whatever you please, Felix. Chelsea has experience with the bonds in Carlisle’s strange coven – she has told me herself that she doesn’t believe that it’s possible to break them, even outside the bond of mates.” Aro’s eyes flickered down the hallway, and Alice kept moving, listening to them through visions punctuated by Jasper’s upcoming torture.

“She’s getting weaker, Master. Soon she won’t be able to resist the humans we bring, and then perhaps… Chelsea mentioned that she can break –”

“You forget, Felix, that Chelsea has a soft spot for Alice. Even reverting to our own diet, her bond with the Southerner weakened by time and lack of interaction, I doubt Chelsea would do it, and certainly not for you.”

“Master, if we may offer a suggestion?” Jane’s angelic voice echoed down the hall.

“Of course, my precious ones,” Aro replied.

“Master, you know we still have the other Southerner imprisoned in the catacombs. We have all seen the strength of her powers… Perhaps she would be of assistance to Felix.” Alec’s voice was light, smug.

“Yes, yes, Margaret… she is an intriguing possibility…”

*~*~*

Alice stared at the crack in her chamber ceiling. She could smell the humans as they were led down the hallway, and her mouth immediately welled with venom.

Maybe if she just took Chelsea and Afton up on their offer… maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if she let them do the actual killing… Maybe then her throat would stop burning. Maybe if she complied a little with the customs of Volterra, Aro would let her have Jasper again… God, without him, she was going crazy…

Carlisle wouldn’t know. Carlisle hadn’t been to Volterra in centuries. He would never know if she turned back on their lifestyle. Nobody would know, nobody would care… and it would maybe let her have Jasper again.

It was a small price to pay…

*~*~*

“Alice, my dear, how nice to see you join us,” Aro greeted, looking away from the gruesome scene before him. “What can I do for you? All usual restrictions in place, of course.”

And as she watched the other guards continue their slaughter, she lost her nerve. She’d spent too many years cultivating her lifestyle to throw it all away. Carlisle’s parting words to her echoed in her head. “Don’t forget who you are. It’s easy to lose humanity in Volterra…”

“Nothing,” she replied quietly, steeling herself against the burning in her throat as she turned to leave again. She’d find another way to get Jasper back. She wasn’t ready to go quite so far, to murder innocent people in hopes of getting her husband back.

“Really?” Aro asked, cutting off her exit quickly. “You came here for no reason? I find that hard to believe.”

And even though she knew her thoughts weren’t safe, she couldn’t stop the next one from surfacing: if she got thirsty enough, got desperate enough, maybe the demon-like disposition that lay dormant would resurface. She would be a liability, a risk. Aro would have no choice but to release Jasper in order to control her. Or to kill her, in which case he would find it pointless to keep Jasper alive and they could figure out what the hell happens to a vampire after they’re killed together.

Jasper’s voice whispered in her mind, recalling a soft conversation breathed back and forth on the plane trip over from Oregon: “My best guess is that maybe the animal blood subdues the endemoniado tendencies. I’m not sure. But I’ve noticed that it’s always worse when you’re overly thirsty. When you’re scared or angry…”

Alice frowned. Aro would’ve heard that conversation. He would know that it would be a risk, forcing her to consume human blood or remain dangerously thirsty. Why was he doing it, then? Was he trying to cause that side of her to surface, she wondered as a vision struck her.

It was distant, she could tell that. It was in Volterra, she knew that much. Jasper, so weak with thirst he couldn’t even stand, being supported by Emmett and Edward. Felix and Demetri, struggling to contain her, her eyes wild and glowing bright red. Aro, with Jane and Alec flanking him on either side, holding the arm of another woman – blonde, with the dark crimson eyes of the thirsty – as she reached out to Alice.

What was going on in that vision? Was their family coming to check on them – but why only Edward and Emmett? Who was the blonde woman, who looked so faintly familiar?

“Alice,” Aro repeated enticingly. “Tell me what you’re seeing,” he cajoled, touching her cheek for a second. His face crumbled into a dark frown. “Well, that is interesting. When will it happen?”

“I don’t know,” Alice hissed at him. “It gets hard to concentrate on things when I’m thirsty. Surely you know that. And I know that you know the limitations of my visions.”

“We certainly can’t have that, can we?” Aro said smoothly, still blocking her way out. “Felix, Demetri, take Alice and get her some nourishment.”

“Master?” Demetri asked warily, he and Felix standing up to join them.

“I believe Ricardo is sufficiently trained, don’t you?” Aro replied vaguely, waving them away. “We have no more need of Elisa.”

*~*~*

“No, no, please…” the young woman begged in Italian as Demetri yanked her into one of the secluded chambers. “I have a brother, a small brother who counts on me…”

“Silence,” Demetri growled at her, yanking her head to the side roughly in order to expose her neck, arteries throbbing painfully close to the surface.

“No,” Alice said, backing away. “No, I won’t.”

Felix grabbed her arms, snarling, “Quit being so high and almighty.” He pulled her within inches of the terrified Italian woman, one of his large, muscled arms wrapping tightly around her arms and waist as the other held her face a hairsbreadth away from the sweet, cloying scent of human blood.

“Let me go,” Alice growled, still trying to turn away.

“Demetri, break the skin,” Felix ordered roughly; it took Demetri only a second to bite into her flesh, pulling himself away reluctantly as Felix forced Alice’s mouth down on the wound, holding her head down.

He had pierced a major artery, and warm, gushing blood was filling her mouth. She had had barely two seconds to realize that Jasper had been right – as he usually was – about why the endemoniado wasn’t active in her. It was the blood.

And she lost control.

*~*~*

As if he wasn’t already too weak to move, somehow Alec felt the need to sit there and remove his muscles’ remaining abilities, to make him deaf. He could see the faint outline of the young vampire, sitting cross-legged on his usual platform. Even if he couldn’t see his face, Jasper knew that he was looking right at him.

And then it hit him like a speeding train. Alice. Her emotions were ten times more powerful to him than to any other person he had ever met – they always had been. So while he couldn’t sense the majority of Volterra’s occupants down here in the catacombs, he could always sense at least a vague tenor of Alice.

Right now, Alice was terrified.

Snarling, Jasper fought desperately to free himself of Alec’s hold. “Release me, Alec!” He saw the shadowed figure shake its head slowly.

What were they doing to her that was so awful they didn’t want to risk him escaping?

*~*~*

She was completely out of control, and she knew it. But the thirst still burned. It burned a thousand times worse than it had before, and she felt like she would be going up in flames if she didn’t get more blood, and soon.

“Demetri, grab her!”

The voices were so loud, too loud… It was like every single one of her nerves, each of her senses had intensified until the slightest sound was painful to hear, the slightest touch blistering, the smallest bit of light terrible to endure, to say nothing of the movements circling around her at lightning speed. And her brain was insisting on prioritizing all of it. It was all bombarding her until she couldn’t stand it anymore.

Rough arms managed to grab her, throw her back against the wall. “I’ve got her, lock the door!”

Vaguely Alice could remember the only other time she’d felt even close to this: Montana. 2001. She’d killed a group of boys who were trying to attack her, and Carlisle, Edward and Jasper had come to save her from herself. But it hadn’t been anywhere near as terrible as this – maybe because she knew that unlike those teenage human boys, most of them over-drunk, Felix and Demetri were capable of doing real damage to her.

Maybe because she knew that this time, Jasper wouldn’t be there to save her.

“Get off me!” she heard herself snarl as Felix tightened his grip on her arms, pinning her against the wall and close his mouth against hers, trying to force her lips apart. But it was pointless to try – those lips didn’t open for any kiss but Jasper’s.

“Fine,” he growled, throwing her to the bed. “Do it the hard way. Demetri, hold her down. Remember what the Mexican said – don’t let her have a chance to get defensive.”

*~*~*

Marcus looked up from his study of Didyme’s portrait when the doors to his chambers opened. He could sense the bond of mates between the two parties, and he said quietly, “What brings you to me, Chelsea? Afton?”

Turning around, he saw the two guards hesitate. It would take a lot for Chelsea to go against the absolute loyalty that Aro demanded of the guards, and the fact she was even here instead of in Aro’s chambers told him it was serious. Chelsea, like most of the younger guard, had been rescued from a less-than-ideal life by Aro – and as a result, the vast majority of her loyalty was to him. They merely respected Caius and Marcus as equals to Aro.

He’d always gotten the impression that Afton merely went along with Chelsea, that his true loyalties in Volterra were elsewhere rather than with Aro. Perhaps it had been his idea to come here.

“Master Marcus,” Chelsea began softly, Afton’s hand closing around hers. “It’s Alice.”

Marcus nodded slowly. In the two years since her mate’s re-incarceration in the catacombs, Marcus had rarely seen Alice, and never out of the company of at least one of the permanent guards, her eyes black with thirst every time. Aro had gleefully revealed to him and Caius that he’d ceased to permit Alice her quaint animal blood diet, never realizing that with every measure he took to try and gain her loyalty, he got further and further from his goal.

And, it seemed, he lost more and more of other guards’ loyalties.

“What has Aro done now?” he asked quietly. “He will break her if he goes much further.”

“I believe that’s his intention, Master Marcus,” Afton replied. “I think he’s trying to break her, and in breaking her, gain her obedience if not her loyalty.”

“What has he done?” Marcus sighed.

Chelsea hesitated. It was taking a lot for her to betray Aro like this. “He gave her to Felix and Demetri,” she said.

Immediately, Marcus understood. The two biggest, most brutal guards with the most voracious appetites – both for blood and for… less noble pursuits. Hissing at the thought, he growled, “When?”

“Last week,” Chelsea whispered, Afton’s arms tightening around her. “He told them to force feed her Elisa. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but when we found her today…”

At this point she stopped, burying her face into Afton’s chest as he finished grimly, “Their scent is all over her. Felix was making no attempts to hide what they’d done.”

“Master Marcus, she needs to go back to Carlisle, at the very least,” Chelsea begged. “She’s out of control when she has human blood. She will bring down Volterra if Master continues to force it on her. Even Felix and Demetri are having trouble restraining her. Alec is occupied with keeping her mate subdued – he knows something’s wrong, he’s been fighting Alec – and she only gets worse when Jane tries to control her…”

Marcus nodded. “He has finally gone too far,” he murmured. “Afton, Chelsea, if I request something of you, will you do it?”

“Of course, Master Marcus,” Afton said. Chelsea merely nodded.

“And Chelsea, will you do it without telling Aro or any of the other guard?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Then this is what I want you to do,” Marcus said quickly. “Close the doors behind you, please, Afton.”

All right, so I totally have a newfound respect for fanfiction authors posting in a language other than their own.

Here's the story: I'm currently in a folk tale / short story creative writing course at my university (my excuse for slow updates to my stories currently running on ff.n, BTW - have to focus on my coursework for the next three months, and my creative juices are being shanghai-ed), and our first major assignment is to create a folk tale with a moral or didactic base. I have the idea and everything and it wouldn't be an issue...If I could write it in English.

Yeah. I'm a little Anglo girl taking my bachelors degree at a francophone university. Herein lies my problem.

My creative juices are being hampered by fussy language rules. I can't concentrate on developing the spirit world's wildly-complicated hierarchy when I have to think about stupid things like whether 'esprit' is masculine or feminine and what the HELL 'cinders' translates to.

Okay, so I couldn't resist when I saw this on an author's profile. What can I say? I <3 Quizzes.

List twelve of your favorite characters from Twilight, in no particular order. Then answer the questions about them.
1. Jasper
2. Alice
3. Emmett
4. Rosalie
5. Kate
6. Garrett
7. Tanya
8. Irina
9. Leah
10. Seth
11. Angela
12. Jessica

1. Have you ever read a Six/Eleven fic? Do you want to?
Garrett and Angela???? They don't even meet in the books... That'd be interesting, though.

2. Do you think Four is hot? How hot?

Rosalie??? Ick, no. I am perfectly and happily straight.

3. What would happen if Twelve got Eight pregnant?

Ummm... Jessica gets Irina pregnant? Impossible in so many different ways.

4. Can you recall any fics about Nine?
Leah - Yep, a really good Leah/Nahuel fic called "You Have Got to be Kidding Me" on fanfiction.net. Hasn't updated in forever, though. I'm sad about that. :( It left off at a really good/bad cliffhanger.

5. Would Two and Six make a good couple?
Alice and Garrett - the thought is entertaining, but I'm far too canon for that. Team Jalice all the way!

6. Five/Nine or Five/Ten? Why?
Kate/Leah or Kate/Seth? Wow, Vodkas all around... (Get it, LOL? Clearwater, Russia?) Interesting idea. I'm happily straight, though, I don't really like slash pairings, so I'm going to have to go with Kate/Seth.

7. What would happen if Seven walked in on Two and Twelve having sex?
Tanya walking in on Alice and Jessica? Ugh. *shudder* No comment.

8. Make up a summary for a Three/Ten fic.
(Emmett and Seth - not a slash pairing in this case for me) Seth always wanted an older brother. It was a shame that when he finally got one, he was his mortal enemy.

9. Is there any such thing as One/Eight fluff?
Jasper and Irina? I suppose you could probably find a fluff SOMEWHERE...

10. Suggest a title for a Seven/Twelve hurt/comfort fic

(Tanya and Jessica) The Man I Never Got

11. Does anyone on your friends list read Three het?
Emmett het pairing? In terms of friends list, I don't really have any. I have a best friend who will happily read anything I shove under her nose, though, so she's read a couple of my Emmett-Rosalie stories.

12. Does anyone on your friends list write or draw Eleven?
Again, nobody really - Angela's been sort of abandoned to the wayside for the moment in my writing phases. I had one where she finds out about the vampire world, though.

13. Would anyone on your friends list write Two/Four/Five?
Ick, threesomes. I'm a pretty traditional person. And Alice, Rosalie and Kate???? Ugh!

14. If you wrote a Song-fic about Eight, what song would you choose?
(Irina) Hmmm... Interesting, because I'm in the middle of creating the story of the Denali sisters, and I want to put song lyrics at the beginning of every chapter. I think... *consults her iTunes library* BarlowGirl's Porcelain Heart, maybe.

15. If you wrote a One/Six/Twelve fic, what would the warning be?
(Jasper-Garrett-Jessica) Read at Your Own Risk.

16. When was the last time you read a fic about Five?
(Kate) Oh, it's, umm... God, what was the name of the fic? Follow You Anywhere, a Kate-Garrett fic surrounding Breaking Dawn.

17. "(1) and (7) are in a happy relationship until (9) runs off with (7). (1), brokenhearted, has a hot one-night stand with (11) and a brief unhappy affair with (12), then follows the wise advice of (5) and finds true love with (3).
"Jasper and Tanya are in a happy relationship until Leah runs off with Tanya. Jasper, brokenhearted, has a hot one-night stand with Angela and a brief unhappy affair with Jessica, then follows the wise advice of Kate and finds true love with Emmett."

Oh, God. I'm not even going to think about this anymore...

What title would you give this fic?
Umm... I wouldn't write this fic for so many different reasons (let's see... one femme-slash pairing, one slash pairing, Alice is nowhere to be seen...), so there's no point in giving it a title.

 

I laughed, I cried, I grieved because it turned out SO weird...

So I'm sitting at the desk at work, utterly bored out of my mind. Yes, I'm the sucker who got to work Christmas morning - not a huge deal, because we don't do much of anything Christmas morning at home any way (may as well go to work for eight hours and get paid stat pay + time-and-a-half).

But there's, like, NOBODY here. It's me and the maintenance guy and a half-dozen guests who are all doing their own thing. Well, Chef is here, but he's cooking turkeys like there's no tomorrow for the Christmas dinner in the restaurant tonight.

*sigh*

My big thing to do is put out the sandwiches on the guest refreshment table at lunch, and refill the jugs as they empty. So I take my laptop, I tell people they needed to have had a reservation for dinner tonight, I tell people that the children from one or two rooms ended up emptying the scant number of breakfast pastries I had for guests' brekkie. I load gift cards (at least the guy had the decency to admit he was ridiculously late on finishing his Christmas shopping - I told him it wasn't ridiculous until he buys it Boxing Day). I got a rundown on the history of the Phillipines from the maintenance guy. This was the first three and a half hours of my day.

I've still got until 3:30 to go. I could work on fics, I suppose - finish up chapter 8 of Dark Secrets as a Christmas bonus. I could work on my Faculty of Education application essays. I could read the semi-trashy Charlaine Harris novel I have sitting next to me (Living Dead in Dallas). I could answer the phone that rings every so often (LOL, don't worry, I actually am answering the phone - gotta do something to earn my pay!)

I do wish people wouldn't just assume that the restaurant is open on Christmas Day. Then they come in, they get all mad because it isn't open and then get all huffy at me, as if it were my personal fault that the restaurant managers decided to let their servers have Christmas Day with their families (the rest of us in the hotel don't necessarily have that extravagance - somebody's got to be at this desk 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Housekeeping got the day off, though. Lucky girls.)

*sigh*

Well, Merry Christmas everybody. I go home to a lovely cross-cultural Christmas dinner this afternoon (we got dibs on the North American cuisine, then there's a couple of Columbian dishes coming, an Indonesian dish, and possibly a Korean dish). YUMS!

So obviously, my brain is already fried from exams. I spent most of last night dreaming that my exams were nullified and I got 0s on all of them because I forgot to pay late fees at the university library - which is ridiculous because A - I don't hand in books late, and B - I don't even have any books out and C - even if I did have some out late, and they were late, the library would've told me.

I woke up today, though, and I had to check my library account first thing to see if I had any fees, and I was freaking out because I was so sure that dream was real...

Nothing. Just like I knew there would be.

Yuck. Can I just say that I'm totally depressed, because now I'm not going to be properly warm until May - April if we're lucky?...I'm so living in the wrong province and the wrong country. I think I might have to move to Florida. Or Mexico. Or anywhere where snow and negative temperatures are the stuff of myths and a sure sign of the apocalypse.

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