Do You Dare Me Jasper Hale?

Grace soon found civilisation as she followed Jasper’s directions, at first she didn’t quite believe him, but after another half an hour of mindless walking, she decided to take Jasper’s help. As she looked around, everything looked just as she last saw it.

The red car was still parked on the wrong side of the road, and the newspaper was still outside number 17. No one knew that a vampire had just been a couple of yards away with a human teenage girl, it was like it never happened, never existed.

With all but $10 to her name Grace managed to find her way back, but she wouldn’t call it home, just a place where she could stay. As Grace opened the door it creaked a little to show her late arrival, yet no sound was made in return, but Grace didn’t expect it.

As Grace walked in to the tired sitting room, the faded mint green walls with the dusty picture frames and beaten old couches greeted her in return, Grandma Georgina sat by the window, the last rays of sunlight hitting her face softy.

Silence filled the air as the old woman continued to sit peacefully watching as day turned to night, she made no greeting to Grace. But it was to be expected as Georgina was blind and deaf. Her younger days now a thing of the past, she did not know that her Granddaughter was standing nothing but a foot away from her, she only knew her presence by Grace’s gentle touch to her hand.

It hurt Grace that she could not even turn to her only relative left, she could only show Georgina that she was there and was helping her, and anything else just wasn’t possible anymore. As Grace sunk slowly to the floor, her hand still in enclosed in Georgina’s she cursed herself. If only she could had spent a bit more time with her only relative left, maybe left that party on Friday night, or changed a shopping date to visit her Grandma.

However Grace knew it wasn’t petty things like that, that kept her from seeing Georgina, instead maybe Grace could have changed her ways, stopping her drugs and smoking. Tried, but it didn’t happen, as her Grandma slowly faded away Grace was out meeting with her drug dealer and then going onwards to meet with her friends to smoke weed as to so she could high, just for that one night.

Nothing could change the past.

And when the sun disappeared ending another day, Grace let go of Georgina’s hand and made her way slowly upstairs and in to the bathroom, now remembering just what her body looked like.

When the hot water eased away another night of pain Grace had inflicted on her body, she wasn’t aware of the vampire downstairs. As Grace soaped up her body, she wasn’t aware that the vampire was now making his way over to Georgina, and when Grace closed her eyes in relaxation, she wasn’t aware that the vampire stood next to Georgina.

Jasper stood next to Georgina calmly enjoying the calm and gentle vibe Georgina gave him, he reached his hand down to touch hers carefully, curiously wanting to feel an old woman’s hand. And when Georgina felt the cold hand touch hers briefly she gasped, her sightless blue eyes widening.

“Grace why are you so cold?” Georgina croaked, her blue eyes wondering uselessly.
As the water stopped upstairs Jasper turned to the stairs, leaving the old woman helpless and worried.

Grace stepped out the shower and out of the bathroom in to the small bedroom she now owned. As she searched for clothes, Jasper headed up the stairs his footsteps soundless as he listened to Grace’s gentle humming.

After roughly drying her hair with the towel, Grace slipped in to bed as she heard the front door opening, signalling that Linda was here to help Georgina. Jasper’s hand briefly touched the door handle as it opened soundlessly showing a sleeping Grace under the moonlight.

Jasper couldn’t help but be amazed at the sleeping figure before him. As he looked Grace over, he now remembered her as the little girl he had left behind that night. The way her mouth parted as she slept, how her hand curved as if she was holding an apple near her face, and how a light blush spread lightly over her cheeks.

He could feel the calmness almost radiating off of her, yet the thing that surprised him the most was the warmth that he could feel. He almost envied her as she slept, he sat on the floor at the foot of her bed, just watching. He began to feel guilty and a bitter sadness as to what he had done to her, leaving her like that, like he had finished playing with her.

The moon glowed softy as she rolled on to her back and breathed in deeply. As he continued to watch her, he realised that he could no longer stay, she hated him, loathed him. He almost smiled at her strong will and stubbornness to fight him, but it soon turned in to a frown as her words echoed in his head.

“I hate you Jasper Hale, and nothing you can do will change that”

He got up and turned to leave, not willing himself to look back at the sleeping girl behind him. As the hallway light touched his feet, a small sigh reached out to him. A human would not have heard something so faint and small, but a vampire could hear it, and it was then that Jasper Hale turned back towards her.

“Jasper”

He kneeled before her, warmth and love coursing through him at an unbelievable rate. She didn’t sigh his name again that night, nor did she say anything else, but it did not matter.

It was there in that room, under the moonlight, and before Grace, that Jasper vowed. He vowed that he would never leave Grace again and to get Grace back, to make her love him again, to see the old Grace back in her eyes.

“No Grace, I win” Jasper whispered to her sleeping figure.