premonitions were amusing. ?Alice is always right,? they would say when the five-year-old dressed herself in a slicker even though the sky was blue; later, of course, the rain would begin. ?Grandma will be here soon,? she would announce. They would laugh and put out an extra plate.
?Alice was a character who just popped into existence fully formed — so easily. It was like if Edward existed, then he must have a sister named Alice, and she would be this person. And she was one of the things that was sad for me with the book, because I wantedher to be real so much. Oh, I would love to have a friend like that. There must be someonejust like her somewhere, because it seemed so obvious that s he must exist.? —Stephenie As Alice grew older, she became more hesitant to share her predictions. She hated looking ridiculous when her premonitions turned out to be wrong. (Weather was the easiest for her to predict correctly, because it didn‘t involve people and their tendencies to change their minds.) By age ten, she rarely voiced her predictions at all, but those she did give came true often enough that people started to talk. ?That uncanny child of the Brandons? was seldom asked to other children‘s birthday parties. Alice‘s mother loved her deeply and counseled her to keep quiet about her premonitions.
By the time Alice turned eighteen, she‘d learned to ignore her gift, for the most part, but occasionally she felt compelled to speak.
People started to use the words
By the time Alice turned eighteen, she‘d learned to ignore her gift, for the most part, but occasionally she felt compelled to speak. When she did, it sometimes turned out badly, such as when Alice warned a friend not to marry a certain man; the friend ignored her, and it was revealed that the man‘s family had a history of insanity. Rather than blame herself or her husband, the friend whispered to others that Alice had put a curse on her. On another occasion, one of Alice‘s favorite cousins planned to go west to seek his fortune, and Alice begged him not to. The cousin died in an accident on the road, and his parents — Alice‘s aunt and uncle — blamed Alice for jinxing his trip. People started to use the words
Then Alice had her most terrifying vision. She saw her mother being murdered by a stranger in the woods on her way into town. She told her mother what she had seen, and her mother listened to her. Alice‘s mother kept her daughters in the house with the doors locked and a pistol loaded. Mr. Brandon returned home from a trip two days later to a dirty house full of terrified women and empty of food. On Mrs. Brandon‘s insistence, he searched the woods near the road but found nothing. He was angry with Alice‘s ?damned stories? and ordered Alice not to put everyone in a panic again.
Alice began to be haunted by flashes of the stranger, still stalking her mother. When she told her parents what she‘d seen, her father was furious with Alice‘s hysteria. He insisted that the family go about their usual routine. But he was often gone, and when he was, Alice‘s mother followed Alice‘s desperate warnings as much as possible. Still, she had to shop for supplies and tend her orchard. When a month passed and no one had seen the man, Mrs. Brandon grew less wary. She began returning her friends‘ visits and attending sewing circles. She took the pistol with her every time she left the house — at first. After two months, she started to forget.
One night Alice had a perfectly clear vision of the man in a Model T running her mother‘s buggy off the road just outside of town, where there was a steep drop. Alice‘s mother had already left home in the buggy. Alice ran after her, seeing in her mind the stranger watching the crashed buggy to be sure there was no movement inside. Next she had a vision of the man driving away from the scene of the accident. Alice knew she was too late, but she kept running.
The death of Alice‘s mother was declared accidental, and Alice‘s protestations to the contrary were met with disdain and suspicion. Alice‘s father ordered her to be silent.
Mr. Brandon remarried within six months of his wife‘s death. The woman was a blond Yankee from Illinois who was only ten years older than Alice; Mr. Brandon had frequently sold pearls to her jeweler father in the past. The new Mrs. Brandon was quite cold to Alice, though she made a pet of the younger Cynthia.
Even unguided by visions, Alice was bright. Careless, offhand comments by her new stepmother and evidence of longer preparations for this marriage than should have been possible made Alice suspicious. She took her suspicions to her father, who raged at her for suggesting ill of his new wife.
The night after her confrontation with her father, Alice had a vision of him and the stranger who had killed her mother. Her father was giving the man money. Then Alice had a vision of the man standing over her with a knife. Too late, she realized that she‘d confided in exactly the wrong person. Alice rushed out into the night and ran five miles to the home of her aunt and uncle, her only living relatives. Alice beat on the door until they answered, then gasped out her story: Her father had arranged to have her mother murdered and was sending the killer after her next. The aunt — who still blamed Alice for her son‘s death — shoved Alice off the porch and told her husband to get the dogs and drive Alice away.
Both her aunt and her father were already there, and the marshal had been informed that Alice had gone mad.
Alice hurried ten more miles back to town and arrived at the town marshal‘s house to find it lit and busy. Both her aunt and her father were already there, and the marshal had been informed that Alice had gone mad. Alice accused her father of his crimes and her stepmother of complicity, but no one listened. Most people already thought Alice was crazy — or possessed by the devil. The marshal was paid well to have Alice put quietly into an asylum two counties away.
Few people knew what had actually happened, and everyone who did know the truth was very understanding about the Brandons‘ desire to pretend that Alice had died.
In the mental asylum, Alice‘s head was shaved during the threat of a typhoid outbreak.
She also endured electroshock therapy. The treatment caused her to lose her memory, but it also allowed her naturally cheerful and humorous disposition to return, since she no longer remembered the sadness and horror of her recent life.
Unknown to Alice, a vampire was working as a grounds-keeper at the asylum where she was incarcerated. This vampire, who was taking advantage of this pool of humans who could die without much notice being taken, formed an attachment to Alice. He kept her from the shock treatments and other horrors whenever he could. He learned of Alice‘s abilities; she always knew when he was coming to visit her. He would bring hidden objects with him, to see if she could guess what he had. She always got it right.
Then Alice had a vision of James.
Then Alice had a vision of James. It occurred the moment he caught her scent, old and faded, in her hometown two counties away. She saw James find her. She told her only friend, the vampire, and he knew that what she was seeing was fact. He planned to escape with her, but Alice saw James catching up to her anyway. He offered other options, but every choice ended with James. Then the groundskeeper decided to change her. Alice saw that this would be very close. There might not be time for her blood to transform sufficiently for James to gain nothing in killing her. The vampire had heard enough. He bit Alice immediately and took her away to hide her.
