My Midnight Sun- Balancing- Part 3

I closed my eyes and focused my mind on the pictures in her head. The visions always started out a little skittish, uncertain. But then the images settled, images of bright light, crystalline reflections, and other things… things that made me suck in my breath in surprise and guarded alarm.


“See? Everything will be more than alright.”

“But how? How will I manage—“ I began.

“We’ll go hunting tomorrow.” And then the thought... I’ll go with you. I can see that no one else will join us, but what does it matter?

“And hunting will keep me safe enough… alone with her?”

“You saw what I saw,” she sang, but then abruptly changed her tone to forced severity. “Sometimes I don’t think you give yourself enough credit.”

If you only knew. You and Carlisle. “You give me too much credit. You don’t feel how I struggle. How easily I could go, the other way. Just… slip.”

“Well, whatever you decide to do, it works,” she announced. “Just remember that. Maybe even believing in yourself is the key to it all—your ace in the whole, as it were.” She smiled, rather proud of herself.

I hoped she was right. Placing my hands on her cheeks, I kissed the top of her spiky head, and said, “Thanks, Alice”.

I had some time left to me before Bella would be asleep, so I filled it by playing the small piano that occupied one corner of my room, content to avoid the baby grand downstairs… even if it would be heinously gratifying to annoy a certain person watching television.

I seated myself on the shiny black bench, closed my eyes, and took an instinctual breath in. Stroking my hands across the keys—feeling their pleasant smoothness—I let my mind take control, thought and emotion spilling over. Somewhere in between, muscles interpreted the movements that should be made, and my fingers began to work.

After a while Alice slipped in and joined me. I slid over, giving her the bottom hand while I took the top. She started in on Music Box Dancer, informing me of what it would be by a wispy little thought… not asking, but a slightly smug expectation. I smiled, shook my head very slightly, and let my fingers tread the familiar keys. That’s Alice for you.

When the song was over (with a few creative additions), we drifted into a game we often play, where she makes up the top hand and I—keeping up by mind-reading—supply the accompaniment.

We played until twilight gathered the last remnants of light. When the darkness was complete, I was off again; off to spend the night the way I liked best.