CHAPTER ELEVEN:
ONE DAY

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IT SEEMED THAT THE second the Volturi vacated Forks, so did the snow. Icy white dew-drops dripped from the tips of tree branches, of flower petals and strands of soft grass, as Ofelia Torres retraced her steps back to Jasper's family home with the boy in question at her side. He didn't notice her silence, too caught up in the elation of another victory as he laughed at something Alice was saying from the other side of him. The two friends were quick to catch up the second it was safe to do so, but Ofelia didn't miss the way that Alice's eyes lingered on the side of her face, like the girl was trying to figure out a complicated equation only Ofelia held the answers to.

She knew. Of course she did. Ofelia wasn't surprised.

The second they stepped out onto the freshly-mown lawn, she found herself drifting away from their side. Only then did Jasper notice the absence of a smile on her face, the cold feeling of emptiness as her hand slipped out of his and she crossed the yard to stand with Peter and Charlotte. The two Nomads had welcomed her with the same elation as Jasper. It was obvious they noticed her stand-offish behaviour, but neither of them said anything.

In the end, it was actually Alice who crossed that oh-so fragile bridge.

"Sorry to interrupt." Alice's sweet voice cut through a story Charlotte was busy telling. Immediately, the mousy-haired girl went quiet, sinking subconsciously into Peter's side despite Alice's soft, assuring smile.

"It's okay," Peter answered for the three of them, sparing a brief glance at Ofelia before adding, "Can we help you with something, Alice?"

"I was hoping to speak to Ofelia," she told them. "Alone, if that's okay with you?"

It took Ofelia a second to realise Alice was looking at her, expectant. "Oh. Sure, I guess."

Feeling the heavy weight of Peter and Charlotte's stares, Ofelia followed Alice off to the side of the Cullen home. She knew they'd be listening in, just in case she needed them to come over. In fact, any of the witnesses could've listened to them if they really wanted to, but Ofelia knew that none of them would be. They were too busy celebrating, after all. There was no reason to suspect that she wasn't also.

"I think you know what I'm going to ask you," Alice murmured, not hesitating to jump straight into it. If there was one thing she knew about Ofelia Torres, it was that she hated to wait, to linger in the suffocation of the unknown. "But I also think that deep down, you've already made your choice. Am I right?"

Ofelia sighed, defeated. "Yeah. You're right."

Alice nodded to herself, triumphant but also deep in thought. "Jasper will be okay," she promised her, to which a small almost unnoticeable piece of Ofelia's expression faltered. Alice's gaze keenly tracked the furrow of her brows, though she didn't point it out, not as Ofelia squared her taut shoulders and held her head up high. "It might hurt for a bit, but he'll understand."

The he always does was implied.

Quickly, before she could change her mind, Ofelia surged forward and threw her arms around the girl's neck. Alice gave a hum before smiling, her own arms circling Ofelia's waist and holding on tight. Contrary to how it sounded, the gasp wasn't one of surprise, but of pride. She'd seen it coming.

It was strange to think that a mere matter of months ago, Ofelia had almost killed Alice, having believed she was an intruder. And now? There they were. Hugging.

"Thank you," she murmured into the girl's throat, then hurriedly pulled away, face schooled into cool indifference as she and Alice watched Jasper's silent approach.

"I'll leave you to it," Alice said the second he reached their side.

Without another word, she was gone.

For a long moment, Ofelia and Jasper simply stood opposite each other, waiting. It was Jasper who spoke first, a mere breath of her name, when he could no longer stand it anymore. "Ofelia."

It prompted Ofelia back to her first night in Forks. Suddenly, it wasn't the woods that surrounded them, or the faint chatter of laughter in the background, but a sombre living room on the brink of imminent death. Edward's confused frown as he looked between her and Jasper, not yet reunited. Jasper's honey curls glistening like silk beneath the dim lights Esme had deliberately chosen to set a classy mood. The familiar scars on Jasper's arms, uncovered then, now covered by a thick black jacket that he didn't really need but found himself subconsciously wearing anyways.

Back then, Ofelia had felt jaded. If her memory was as good as she prided herself on, her exact words had been 'they were no longer one whole, rather two halves of the same soul, only jarred out of place by different desires.' As it turned out, she couldn't have been more wrong. No matter where life took them, no matter how far apart they were from the other, Ofelia Torres and Jasper Hale would never be split apart. They would always be one, sharing a soul; for in the end, life would always bring them back together.

Even if they had to leave for a while first.

"What can I do to change your mind?" he asked -- no, pleaded. Still, despite the begging, Ofelia could hear the resolution in his voice, the understanding that there was nothing he or anyone else could say to stop her. "What can I do to make you stay?"

"Jasper," she sighed, hanging her head. "You know why I'm doing this."

"You're right. I do," he agreed, voice sounding strained despite his best attempts to release the hold his emotions had on him. It was a useless game of back and forth. "But it doesn't make this easier. I don't want to lose you again. I only just got you back."

Much like with Alice, Ofelia surged forward to tug him close. The air between them felt like a mile, even when her lips pressed against his and her hands found the ends of his hair. For a moment, they stood like that, one body intertwined by two pairs of arms and legs. "I've got to go, Jasper." But then, of course, it was ruined again. "Please let me go."

If there was ever a chance of her staying for good, he had to do this. In all the ways that Jasper clung to her, Ofelia Torres still clung to her time with Maria. She could chase freedom as much as she wanted. But so long as Maria's voice whispered past ghosts into her ear, Ofelia would feel trapped. Both of them knew how that ended the last time.

"I'll see you again one day," she continued once he stepped away, jaw clenched. Not out of anger, never at her, but hurt nonetheless. "You know I love you."

He didn't say it back, but she didn't need him to.

Before he could try and change her mind, she turned her back on him, returning to where she knew Peter and Charlotte would be waiting. This time, they were joined by two other Cullens; Carlisle and Edward. She knew they'd been listening in, for Edward's face was rightly sheepish while the others refused to fully meet her gaze. She rolled her eyes and nudged her way into Charlotte's side, waiting for one of them to break the silence.

"I believe you have her number, Ofelia?" Carlisle said at long last.

Ofelia nodded, only vaguely amused by the way the patriarch of the infamous Cullen Coven got flustered by emotion. "I do. I can't thank you enough for this, Carlisle, truly."

Before the previous night, when the Cullens and the witnesses were to venture out and wait for the rise of dawn, Edward had approached Ofelia with an offer. Carlisle knew someone -- an old friend was what Edward had called her, but from the sounds of it, she was anything but -- who could help Ofelia truly delve into the endless chasms in her brain that Maria had filled with so much contempt. A vampire who specialised in therapy, both for vampires and humans, though Ofelia had no clue how she did it.

She was skeptical at first, to say the least, fully prepared to tell Edward to butt the hell out of her life. But then she just stopped. Only for a second. However, it was enough for Jasper's face to infiltrate her mind, so she found herself hesitating. Edward had jumped at the chance, reminding her of what Ofelia knew deep down.

So she agreed. As long as they made it through the next day, she'd do it.

And now, they were here.

Alive and through.

And Ofelia had a promise to keep.

"I'll see you soon, Ofelia," Edward smiled as Carlisle exchanged his final words and went to join Esme.

Ofelia smiled at Edward's confidence. "Soon," she echoed.

Then, he too, was gone.

Slowly, Ofelia turned to face Peter and Charlotte. She knew it was time, but with Jasper's stare on her back, she felt torn in two, rooted in the place between what her heart longed for and what her head knew needed to happen. Without a word, she held out a hand to Peter.

He let out a sigh. "The things I do for you, Torres."

But Ofelia knew he didn't mind.

With one last scan of the clearing, of the Cullens and the life they'd cultivated for themselves from the ground up, the life Ofelia Torres so desperately wanted for herself, she turned and ran for what she hoped would be the very last time. Each kilometre she travelled away from Jasper was like a stab wound to the chest, but the second the knife entered, she healed. A strange sense of relief filled her as they crossed Forks' border into the neighbouring town.

It was then that Peter broke the silence, his voice easy and curious on the wind.

"Are you actually going to come back?" he asked, catching Charlotte's attention on his other side. She swatted his arm in warning, to which he hissed and raised his hands in surrender. "What? It's just a question..."

But despite Charlotte's worries, Ofelia wasn't offended by Peter's question.

In every woman, there was a singular flame burning bright. Roaring to escape its confines of skin and bone, watching and waiting before it burned through flesh and eradicated the world. If the man was the structure of the eternal home, the woman was the foundations it stood upon, strong and sturdy with the power of a hundred men combined. Just one tiny gust of wind, one chink in the armour of stone, and the fire would catch and the house would crumble. A rude awakening, for even the untouchable eternal home was vulnerable to attacks. Nothing so internally fragile could ever be permanent, only the foundations that stayed battered and bruised but strong in the aftermath of their own flames, unyielding in their tenacity, in otherworldly glory.

Ofelia Torres had the flames of a thousand women burning away in her ribcage. Torres women had hearts of lions and minds of steel. Her mother had always taught her that silence was far more dangerous than furious uncalculated words, even when the flames were yearning to burst free. To phase the patriarchy, to destroy the structure, the foundation needed the perfect time to strike, to seemingly crumble so the rest could follow. And in the new dawn, the sun would rise and they would walk free, dancing around in the wreckage to a tune of their own making.

But while Ofelia Torres was the fire, Jasper Hale was the rain. Two seemingly opposing forces fighting for power yet existing in harmony against all odds. When the fire caught and spread too far, threatening to swallow humanity whole, the rain swept through in a drizzle and put out the unneeded spot-fires. A whirlwind of power uniting against one enemy, the wolf dressed in sheep's clothing, for the aforementioned freedom only tasted so sweet when the shackles were broken.

Ofelia never thought she'd see her raincloud again. Where the fire chased the horizon the raincloud sat upon, it never quite managed to reach its destination. But then Alice Cullen, the hurricane contained in a tiny body, swept on through with omens of death sitting on her shoulders, and the fire and rain collided at last.

Ofelia didn't want to lose that, not another time. Like magnets pulling towards each other, she and Jasper were stuck in an endless loop of what ifs. Ofelia wanted to break the cycle, to be the one to stay.

So she would.

And everyone was going to know it.

"I am," she told Peter, with so much confidence that the boy grinned widely.

"You willing to bet on it?"

"Whatever you want," she was quick to retort. "I know I'll win."

With Peter's laughter lingering on the wind, they kept on running.

Ofelia Torres knew that one day, she'd be running back the way she came. But today was not that day. Soon.

And Jasper Hale would be waiting.

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A/N: Okay, who else caught the mention of the vampire counsellor? Because I may or may not have a Carlisle and Esme story coming (potentially) and it may or may not be connected to Ofelia's fic. What do you guys think? Is that something you'd be interested in seeing from me? Let me know!