Chapter Eighteen
Bloody Birthday
Alice

"Happy birthday." Edward smiled and kissed me sweetly the second my eyes opened the next morning on the Fourth of July.

"Thank you." I smiled and kissed him back. "I had a dream about you."

"Really?" He asked curious. "What happened?" Edward asked.

"It was just you." I smiled. "Laughing and smiling, with a little recap of last nights...events." I smirked.

"Sounds perfect." Edward smirked and kissed me again.

"It was." I sighed.

"You're not still worried about any danger or me leaving you, are you?" Edward asked, concern clear on his face.

"Not as much as I was." I admitted stretching out my sore muscles.

"Alice, how many times do I have to promise you?" Edward chuckled, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me towards him. "I am never leaving you."

"The future can always change." I smirked and he attacked my face and neck with kisses.

"Okay, you should get dressed and come downstairs before Emmett comes up here and kidnaps you. Everyone's very excited for your birthday." Edward chuckled.

"Why? It's not important to me or anything." I giggled.

"This is the first real birthday in this family since Emmett. Try to play along and be overly nice, we all need this more then you think." Edward smiled and kissed me before ushering me off into the bathroom.

I dressed in a black skirt and a light green t-shirt and I slipped into my ballet flats as I left Edwards room and danced downstairs.

"Happy birthday!" Everyone cheered as I entered the kitchen, the whole room decked out in streamers and banners.

"Aww!" I giggled. "This is so sweet!"

"We wanted to surprise you, did it work?" Carlisle asked hopefully.

"Definitely." I laughed.

"No we didn't, that's her lying laugh." Edward chuckled.

"Lying laugh?" I giggled. "What's a lying laugh?"

"That funny, off-sounding laugh you get when you're lying. I know it because you only use it when you're trying to spare someone's feelings." Edward laughed at me.

"I really do appreciate all of this, and trust me a surprise would be refreshing, but I really can't stop the visions from coming." I sighed.

"Don't worry sweetheart, when you're a vampire you're more likely to have a better control over it." Carlisle smiled.

"Really?" I asked hopefully.

"Yes, I've noticed that over time vampires adapt more and more to their gifts until they reach their peaks." Carlisle smiled happily at me.

"That sounds wonderful." I sighed wistfully.

"You know what also sounds nice?" Carlisle smirked. "You and Edward signing your marriage license." Carlisle laughed while he placed a pen and a large piece of thick paper on the counter.

"Now?" I asked.

"Well, you'll have to sign it now so I can get it processed before the weekend." Carlisle chuckled.

"So...does this mean that we'll be married, officially and everything?" I asked, my hand shaking slightly as I took the pen from Edward.

"You'll be married legally speaking, yes." Carlisle nodded and I put the pen to the paper, pausing as a vision suddenly hit me.

My eyes were blurry, a film had covered them after crying so much. As I stumbled downstairs, I wanted to cry and I wanted to scream, but I knew none of that would change what had happened. I heard whispering voices, some happy, some sad, and they were starting to drive me insane. My hand grasped my protruding stomach protectively, trying to shield it from the tormenting voices inside my head.

"Leave me alone!" I wailed, begging the voices to stop as the doorbell rang.

"Alice?" Edward asked as I came out of my vision. "Are you alright?"

"Fine, I'm just....I-" I stuttered and had to stop, my nerves suddenly overwhelming me.

Whatever had happened to me in that vision was life changing and devastating. Had Edward left? Had something bad happen to him? Or even worse...

Had my mental state finally snapped?

"What was your vision about?" Edward asked gently taking my hand in his.

"I don't really know." I answered truthfully. "Whatever happened was bad." I sighed.

"Alice, if you don't want to sign the papers, that's okay. It won't hurt anything to give you a little more time to come to terms with everything changing." Carlisle smiled.

Maybe...maybe whatever makes Edward leave is dependent on wether or not I sign these papers. He wouldn't leave his wife, he's too much of a gentlemen to do that, right? He loves me too much to see me suffer like that...I hope.

"I'm signing the papers." I spoke determined as I quickly signed on the dotted line.

"Congratulations, I'll get this taken care of." Carlisle smiled, shook Edwards hand, and kissed my head before heading out to his car.

"So how does it feel to be married?" Emmett wiggled his eyebrows at Edward and I.

"I don't feel any different." I giggled, still freaked out by my vision.

"You will once you're in your dress, that's how it was for me anyway." Rosalie smiled softly at me.

"In the mean time, we have your birthday to celebrate." Jasper chuckled.

"Oh man, you're going to be so surprised Alice!" Emmett cheered and I laughed.

"I bet I will." I giggled.

I spent the rest of the morning taking a long bath and getting ready for tonight's events. Trying desperately to calm down from my jarring vision.

Edward told me that for the late afternoon, we all were going to a nearby forest area for my first surprise. I dressed in a thermal dark green long sleeve shirt, dark jeans, and dark green converse.

"Is it supposed to be cold today?" Edward asked as I came out of the bathroom.

"Tonight it will be." I nodded.

"Oh no, you haven't already seen your surprise have you?" Edward groaned.

"Nope." I giggled. "I just know it will be cold."

"How?" Edward asked.

"The weather report on the news." I giggled.

"Really?" He chuckled and I nodded. "The weather report just seems a little too...normal...for you." He laughed.

"It does, doesn't it?" I laughed with him.

"Come on, let's head out to the field." Edward took my hand and threw me onto his back, quickly running out to the field where the rest of his family was. The sun was just setting as Edward set me on the ground carefully.

"What's going on?" I asked, giggling.

"We've planned a little game." Emmett smirked devilishly.

"A game?" I questioned him.

"Yep." Jasper smirked. "It's called you find your way back to the house while we all set up your surprise." He laughed and was suddenly gone from the field.

"What?" I asked concerned, knowing that it was going to pitch black soon.

I turned around to face the rest of the Cullen's to find that they had all disappeared, even Edward, leaving me stranded in the darkness.

"Are you kidding me?!" I screeched.

I quickly started making my way back to the house, holding onto the hope that I was going in the right direction. I had been walking for awhile in the dark when I heard a howl sound out in the forest behind me, sending the hair on the back of my neck standing up in alarm.

I relaxed, knowing it was probably just Thomas having heard me. Suddenly however, a huge wolf leapt in front of me, Tom, but he isn't what scared me.

What scared me was the three other wolves that had managed to surround me, all of them growling threateningly at me as they circled me.

"Tom? What are you doing?" I asked him and he cowered his head down before turning to one of the wolves and growing at them harshly.

He's...protecting me from them. The three foreign wolves want to hurt me, but he won't let them.

Suddenly, fireworks erupted in the direction of the Cullen house and by the looks of them, I wasn't too far away. I had a chance to make it by running.

I took off running then, Tom managed to block two of the three wolves from getting me, but the third wolf snapped its jaws and caught the side of my arm. I cried out in pain but quickly picked up my speed. Tom managed to circle around and block all three wolves from following me.

I couldn't see anything, just darkness, and tree limbs scratched at my face as I ran through the forest towards the house, panic bubbling in my veins. I could only hear the ringing in my ears as my breath became more and more labored. Suddenly, a bright light, a warm glow broke out against the dark of the night surrounding me, and I ran as fast as I could up the back porch of the Cullen house and threw myself inside the backdoor. A breathless and frantic mess.

"Happy birthday!" Edward, Carlisle, and Emmett yelled as I tried to catch my breath.

"You scared me half to death!" I cried and they all laughed at me.

"What's your birthday without a few surprises?" Edward smirked and kissed my cheek.

"I don't think that fireworks and werewolves go very well together." I grumbled.

"Werewolves?!" Edward exclaimed worriedly and I held up my still bleeding arm.

"What did you think did this?" I asked sternly.

"Oh my god." He practically crumbled as he and Carlisle both looked closely at my arm. "I thought the smell of blood was just from the cuts on your face." He sighed.

"It's okay, I'm fine, it didn't bite me too deep." I sighed as Carlisle started wrapping my arm up.

"I'm so sorry Alice, we didn't mean for you to get attacked, we just wanted to surprise you a bit." Carlisle sighed, sounding deeply guilty.

"It's alright." I promised him. "Let's just forget about it." I told him as he finished bandaging my arm.

"Well, come on!" Emmett cheered, pulling me into the kitchen with him excitedly.

The entire kitchen was decked out to the extreme with banners and streamers and balloons. Tons of candles were lit, casting a warm peaceful glow around the room. A huge cake sat proudly on the kitchen island, decorated with yellow sunflowers and white frosting.

"Happy birthday!" Everyone cheered, Rosalie and Jasper joining us now that I was bandaged.

"Wow, you actually surprised me!" I screamed in delight, jumping up in down in my excitement.

"Really?" Carlisle smiled brightly at me.

"Yes!" I exclaimed and hugged him tightly.

"Rosalie and I made the cake." Jasper said proudly.

"He baked while I decorated." Rosalie smiled.

"It's beautiful! And so big!" I laughed. "You guys don't even eat." I giggled.

"No, but we thought the bigger the better in this case." Emmett chuckled. "It's your last real birthday, why not go out with a bang?" He chuckled and pushed the button on a remote he was suddenly holding.

Fireworks suddenly went off outside and Emmett and Jasper dragged me out to watch the show excitedly.

Edward came and carefully put his arms around me, barely even touching me, almost like he was afraid to break me.

"Happy birthday Alice." He smiled happily down at me.

The only thing that gave his secret sadness away was the intense look of grief in his golden eyes. As I looked into them confusingly, my eyesight swirled and I went into another vision.

Tears were streaming down my face as Edward kissed the top of my head.

"This is the last time you will ever see me." He promised me, a coldness to his normally kind golden eyes.

The next second, he was gone, ripping my heart out painfully as he left me behind. My head spun as I fell to the floor, crying my eyes out and clutching my stomach, trying to cope with my sudden loss.

I looked into Edwards eyes with a guarded expression on my face as I came out of my vision. So he's already decided then.

He's going to leave me.

"You're going to regret this, you know." I told him, speaking completely in monotone, unfeelingly, staring directly into his eyes.

"I know." He sighed.