Blue

Summary: Alice and Jasper have been childhood friends since as far back as they can remember. They've played in the mud together, climbed trees and heights, and they've fallen in love together. But the one defining part of their relationship is their religion. Set in the 1930s; when Alice is taken as a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp, and Jasper is forced to become a guard of that camp to defend his own family's religion, what extremes will they go to, just to stick by their religion? And is it true, that love will overpower everything? Even if that one you love has such a callous detachment from reality, that they are willing to see men and women, regardless of their age, slaughtered for their beliefs...

Inspiration: The true depth of Alice and Jasper's relationship.

Preface

"Run!" he screamed, his voice burning through the very core of me as his blue eyes, scorching with a fire bright enough to light a match, fixed desperately on mine. His hands were clung too tightly to my arms, his fingers digging too deep into my skin. But pain meant little to us now. "Please Alice," he whispered, his eyes welling with the tears he'd always been too proud to shed.

The noise was everywhere; the gunfire, the screaming, the impact of each explosion. I could barely see three feet in front of me, my vision clouded by a blanket of dark, twisting smoke.

You could smell death in the air.

"Alice!"

A bullet flew past my left ear, narrowly missing my side as my eyes darted up towards his, searching for them amidst the chaos of everything around us. I could smell the burning flames, the gas and the vile stench of charred bones rising up from the death pit. I could smell the fear dripping from each and every life as they clambered over the barbed wires and the lifeless corpses, their eyes still wide open and staring. I wished I could have said that they looked at peace. But all I could feel was Jasper.

The ground exploded beneath our feet, pushing us apart as his hands were ripped away from me and I screamed, stumbling back onto the cold body of a young girl. She looked younger than twenty. Her hair was blonde, and fell in waves around her shoulder. Her eyes were closed.

I heard him call my name, even over the guttural roar of the tanks and the deafening sirens of the camp. Stumbling once more to my feet, I pushed my hair away from my eyes, my gaze triumphant as I ran towards him and fell desperately into his arms. He clutched me to his chest as my fingers gripped the sides of his shirt, yearning for a closeness we'd been denied for far too long. His hands wrapped around my back, holding me to him.

And that was where I would stay, in his arms. Forever.

Chapter 1

Forever

The colour of beauty, sadness, despair, and darkness.

"'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all," - Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem In Memoriam:27, 1850

"Tag!" I screamed in delight as my arm caught the back of his jacket, only just brushing against the thick leather material. He spun around to face me, an impish warm smile splashed across his face. Then, he took a slow, calculated step towards me, the sunlight illuminating the mischievous sparkling in his blue eyes. I knew that look all too well.

"Guess that means it's my turn to catch you," he raised his eyebrows daringly and took another step towards me.

Don't you dare do what I think you're going to do.

Before I could even think, he flung himself towards me, his hands reaching out to grab my waist, pulling me onto the grass with him. He laughed warmly, and almost instinctively, his arms tightened around me at the sound. "Now you can never escape," he murmured teasingly as he hovered over me, his lips barely inches away from mine.

I stuck my tongue out towards him. "What made you think I wanted to?"

His lips curled upwards into a grin at my question, and I reached out towards him, my small hands clasping around the lapel of his shirt. At the gesture, he leaned in to kiss me gently, before lying beside me on the grass, his hand slipping all too naturally into mine. "I love you Ali," he promised softly.

"Love you more Jazz." As I said it out loud, I could almost picture him rolling his eyes.

"You're ridiculous."

I shot him an innocent grin, before squeezing his hand as his eyes narrowed at me.

"Alice!" my sister screamed loudly from the front porch, her voice breaking our eye contact instantly. As I propped myself up, she beckoned for us to come over. "Mom says dinner's ready." And with that, she darted back inside as I saw a boy with bronze coloured hair chase after her. You didn't have to be a rocket scientist to guess who that was.

"Come on Jazz," I muttered as I turned to him, my voice regretful. The sun was shining, and his chest happened to be a rather comfortable pillow. To say I didn't want to move would have been an understatement. But before I could even think about moving, the wicked grin that flashed across his face stopped me. I started to stand up, not wanting to be caught in the goodbye none of us wanted to say or the decision we wouldn't settle on. But before I'd even got to my feet, he grabbed me by the knees and pulled me back onto the grass with him again.

"Can't ever escape... remember?"

"Right," I replied sarcastically as I held my hands out for him to chain. "I must have forgotten."

He smirked, leaning so close to me that his eyelashes brushed across my cheek. "You're not a very good prisoner," he whispered in my ear, his breath trailing down my neck.

I pushed away from him, standing up so suddenly that he didn't have time to try and pull me back down. "You're not a very good guard either." I raised my eyebrows teasingly towards him as he rolled onto his hands and knees, his eyes just as playful, and then onto his feet.

"You better run Alice," he warned, his eyes completely serious. Ever so slowly, he took a step towards me. "Ready?"

I swallowed nervously, taking my own step away from him as his eyes continued to bore unwaveringly into mine. Then, when he was barely inches away from me, he reached out to touch my jacket. "Tag!" he shouted, his laughter booming across the field as he sprinted back towards the house.

There were days when I wished I didn't love him as much as I did... because he would never have gotten away with that.

"Walk with me?" he asked gently, his hand outstretched towards me as he waited for me to accept. Bella had already run off with Edward after dinner, refusing to waste any of the time they had left together. No matter how much I teased her, I honestly didn't blame her.

"Of course." Without hesitation, I linked my hands with his, following him down the beaten track behind the house. The sun was fading slowly behind the rooftops, the street lamps flickering on as the darkness returned. It was peaceful; a kind of tranquility we rarely ever saw at home when the chance of being interrupted was far too high. We walked for another few moments along the path, never thinking to fill the gap of silence between us.

I could feel his hand on mine, his fingers entwined with mine; and somehow, that was all I needed.

"I was talking to my father last night," he said gently, his voice quiet and musing.

Without Jasper having to say a word more, I already knew what he was talking about. "He still wants you to go to war." Saying the words out loud made my toes curl in revulsion and my face pale. Jasper tried to comfort me, time and time again, promising that it would never happen, and most days I allowed myself to be soothed by his words - refusing to even contemplate the possibilities if he did leave. But the conviction of his father wasn't something you could easily ignore.

"He's already got me conscription papers," his voice became harsher, and instinctively, his hand tightened around mine.

"You're leaving?" I asked in a small voice, not wanting to hear the answer.

"No." With his words, he stopped abruptly and tugged on my hand as he forced me to look at him. "You are the most important thing to me in my life Ali, and that's what my father's afraid of. But nothing can ever keep me away from you. Please remember that."

"I will."

He smiled at my words, his face softening as the bitterness disappeared from his eyes. Then, he let go of my hand and fished around in his pocket, before bringing out a box between his fingers. He pressed the sides together and flicked the latch open, before putting it onto my open palms. "It was my mother's," he explained quietly. "I want it to be yours now."

On a silver chain was a small heart, with a vine encircling the opening, and as I brought it closer to my eyes, I could see four words engraved into the soft metal.

Mein Herz ist Ihrig. My heart is yours.

I looked up towards him, my eyes glistening as a wide smile beamed across my face. "Thank you." I reached out to touch his face gently, the tips of my fingers gliding across his jaw.

"Thank you, Ali," he whispered. "For everything."

"What have I given you?"

"Love... life... reason..." he shrugged casually, brushing it off as though it meant nothing. But the smirk was back on his face, playing around the corners of his lips. I smiled back to him once more as I held the fragile chain up towards him.

"Will you put it on me?"

"You'll wear it?"

"Of course." I said with a quiet laugh. His question was absurd.

He moved my long brown hair out the way, sweeping it over my shoulders as his hands drifted over my bare neck. He pressed a kiss to my shoulder blade before linking the chain of the necklace, his fingers lingering on the clasp. I touched the necklace against my neck softly before turning to him. "Forever?"

He smiled brightly, all traces of teasing gone. He slipped his arms around my waist as he pulled me closer towards him, his blue eyes burning into mine. "Forever."

AN - Love to know what you think of this story, and if you're willing to read something that isn't based around Bella/Edward.

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