*~~Consumed With Fire and Water~~*

*~~Jasper~~*

"Jasper...Where are you?"

I heard my best friend Anne call my name from back inside the pub, I refused to move from my spot near the back of the building and so retreating in the darkness, I leant against the wooden shed that we as employees hardly ever used and was smoking a much needed cigarette after a long shift from the usual drunken idiots that we get in here. I have never disliked my job. That much I shall disclose right now but there were moments and times in my life where I wished I could be something more, or at least be doing something more it sounds so strange but I believe that if I decided to move on with my life I would have no idea about where I would start.

How was that going to help, I come from a quiet family successful in their own ways and have lived in seclusion for so long both as a child and now as an adult that nothing seems to be exciting or unexpected anymore.

"What are you doing out here?" Snapping out of my daydream, I looked over to the fire exit door and saw Anne standing there with one hand against the wall.

"Smoke break" I answered holding up my cigarette.

"I thought you were going to give those up. You made a promise" Anne said as she walked over to stand next to me.

"Yeah...Well, sometimes things change...Come on you must need one after the night we've had" I exclaimed flipping open the lid of my cigarette box that was in my other hand and holding them out to her.

"I would never ask you for one. I would wait until you offered" Anne replied shooting a mischievous smile my way before taking a cigarette from the box in my hand and one of her own hands reaching down into her trouser pocket to pull out a lighter of her own.

"Has Carlisle gone home?" I asked her finding a conversation topic as she took the first drag of her cigarette, there was very little that could manage to annoy me in life but standing in silence being consumed in nothing but tension and awkwardness is not my cup of tea.

"Yes obviously Carlisle is one of those people who are lucky to the extent that they can fuck off whenever they choose and so leave the others below him to get with all the drama and the drunkenness that it is the locals." Anne replied her words reeking of sarcasm and I suppressed a laugh.

"So, the entire pub is waiting to be served seeing as we are both out here?" I asked her back, taking another long drag from my declining shape of a cigarette.

"No Seth is there along with Leah, the newbies don't you remember? Or has the tobacco erased all your memories from five minutes ago? They are able to run the place now and so...They are putting what they have learnt from you and I into practice"

"Ah all jokes aside though, Annie. Let's hope they do not end up like us."

"Speak for yourself Mr Hale...I happen to enjoy it here"

"Why the hell do you like this place? Is it because you get to work with me?" I teased.

"Unfortunately for your ego, no, Jasper just because you are my ex does not mean I still harbour feelings for you after all this time"

"Beat me while I am down, Annie"

"Sorry, you dug a hole and I wanted to make it a little bigger." She answered with another mischievous smile.

Anne Dormer is the only woman I have ever had real feelings for in my life. I fell in love with her when I met her on my first day here but it took a long time for the two of us to finally accept one another and commit to a relationship.

The relationship was great at least what we had to cope with, our work schedules were a continuous obstacle to our enjoyment of being together and the majority of our time spent together would be behind the bar.

My own life in all of its glory clouds around 'The Oak Leaf'. As a young man, before coming here I left home at the age of twenty one upon finishing my university degree in music. University was really a time for when I could express myself in the exact way that I wanted to and I got a huge learning curve having to fend for myself with very little money, the determination to survive with nothing at all. When I came out of University I made a decision to never be without money again, if my salary was never going to be in the average regions of a person my age, then I still wouldn't bring myself to care. A friend from my degree course recommended Oakton, which is the village where I am now currently residing. Nothing could have prepared me for the desertion of the village and the limited amount of people around. Oakton was a graveyard, not surrounded so much with coldness and death but in the beginning it was a place in which I felt very uncomfortable. I had always been a family-orientated bloke and because I had grown up on my parent's farm as a child, country living in particular was something that had always been around me and as a result prior to becoming a resident here I did not know any different. Quietness used to annoy the hell out of me but now it is a sort of a dose of relief and calmness. If given the choice to view my life and change one thing then the change would solely be about my job, my preference would be that I would be a musician doing gigs in 'The Oak Leaf' so yes my experiences as a musician would take place in the pub but I would not just be a 'barman' like I am now.

I didn't always aspire to be a man who serves alcohol to people, I did have dreams of being a marine biologist up to the age of twelve because science had always been fascinating to me and I had the academic ability to climb high in that career choice if I had wanted to and my decision didn't change. Twelve was the age where I discovered music and particularly the 'rock genre'. I had an inkling about the electric guitar and so I told my dad one day that the only present that I could have ever wanted for my thirteenth birthday was an electric guitar of my very own. Now my parents made money between them at that time but not enough to buy my elder sister Bella and I things like that when we may have wanted them, I then took it upon myself to earn some more pocket money from my parents each month by helping out on the farm as a work hand. At the beginning it was dull and so amazingly boring that I would often spend my time staring out into the fields day dreaming about life on the stage as a solo artist or in a band, the sounds of the cheering crowds echoing through my ears. I had friends from University who were the most amazing musicians but I never kept in touch with them and I haven't spoken to them for a good five years. Of course now, I am regretful for it because they had always supported me in the times when situations got us all down and I needed something to pick me up from the reality that times were tough and due to financial difficulty, I couldn't do much of anything.

So, becoming independent and needing to make the life-changing decision to live on my own, I found a small house here in Oakton, I had a savings account which my grandparents had saved for me and for Bella and that money became the vice to pay for my own day to day life away from the farm. Bless them both in heaven, my Grandparents unfortunately died near to my twenty second birthday. I was given half of their inheritance as Bella received the other, Bella then chose to move to Australia and I remained here in England. The most fascinating thing about my mother, Sylvia in particular is that she never asked her own mother for money, My Grandmother was a retired author and near to the very end of her writing career she earned a considerable amount of money. Mum had always been pressured to go into writing or journalism by my Grandmother because she possessed all the needed contacts for my mother to benefit from if she ever wanted to gain a career in that field. Mum, however born all the pressure from her mother to become an author, too like a saint, she loved my father even though her parents had already wanted her to matched with someone more successful and so 'betraying' both her parents' trust in her, she stuck by my father and found herself contentment in being a farm worker for the rest of her life. I do not know whether she had always been completely happy in her marriage and her raising me and Bella as children and young adults, but if she hadn't been happy then she was an amazing actress at trying to hide it all and maintain the lie.

Once Oakton became my home, my mother and father stayed at the farm up in rural Yorkshire and probably never being happier. Dad is a natural country-born child like his children but mum was a city girl, a true Londoner and she has never let go of the fact that she wishes to see London again after all these years and I hoped for her sake that she would get round to it, someday with my father to join her.

Bella is the only other sibling I have, there are not many words in my heart to describe my sister but the ones I can definitely put to her name would be free-spirited, caring and incredibly loyal, however she also possessed a loving side which she made a habit to never show that side to anyone but her family.

Bella and I are not alike in any way when it comes to personality, Bella has always been into fashion and jewellery-making so when she went out to Australia, she had the determination to attempt and work incredibly hard to make that happen for her – I still to this day believe that she went to another country because she was fed up of the world we lived in, She dreamed for bigger things like me, however, she had the strength to take the risk and do it whereas I would rather stay comfortable than have everything I ever wanted to do fall down the drain once I had found my feet. Bella and I fought like cat and dog growing up together but once we got into our later teenage years of seventeen onwards we found a mutual ground and even though our relationship as brother and sister will never be doomed as perfect – there was an understanding and a bond between us. I also knew that Bella was one of the few people in my life I would go to if I needed the support from her and for that I was always going to be grateful.

Once I had invested in my small house which again is not the most beautiful house in the world but it is indeed mine, I went for the only job interview I could get in my small village and that was to fill the position of a barman at 'The Oak Leaf' a small local free house situated on the end of a street of closed shops and rundown warehouses. I wasn't holding out or expecting to get a job especially when it was my only experience in a job interview but I decided to be open-minded in the outcome and not to get my hopes up in case there was a need to change all plans to find a job in one of the bigger surrounding towns and villages.

The interview was the day where I met my ever-so supportive boss Carlisle Cullen. Carlisle was a businessman and a born one from the impression he gave me in a short amount of time and even now when I have spent five years in the same job that impression had never changed. Anne often remarks nothing but negativity on Carlisle's choices of spending his days even though he did own the pub Anne and I worked in and paid our salaries. Carlisle never really made himself known to either us or his new colleagues, now, because he still had the privilege of having Anne and I under his employment and our duties were to train 'newbies' and put them into the same stead as us in the village which took the duty away from him, that is what he used to do because he had trained me. Carlisle never said much to me, personally but when he did, he speaks with the sincerest manner and real intelligence and wisdom. His family from what I have heard of them are certainly lucky to have a role model like Carlisle in their lives.

I flicked my now unlit dog end onto the wet grass as Anne looked over at me.

"You know it's nearly closing time, you can go home and I will finish up here" Anne offered at her words, I smiled in appreciation at her.

"Leave you here with the newbies, no way?" I replied. Anne rolled her eyes and flicked her finished cigarette on the ground too. As she turned on her heel, I followed her in pursuit back into the pub.

The place had emptied by a large amount from the time I went out for my tobacco fix and as I walked back in. There were now only around ten people all scattered around in the various seats. I walked past Anne and made my way over to Leah and Seth who were chatting together in the confined spaces of the bar shielded from the other world that was the customer side of the bar.

"Are you two okay, sorry I left you for too long?" Admittedly, I was feeling a little guilty that they both had been left on their own by Annie and myself, Annie wasn't supposed to come out on a break but the usual story was that wherever I went she followed these days. Seth and Leah looked pretty worn out and I desired to hit something in that moment.

"That's okay Jasper. We know how hard you work here, you're entitled to a break" Seth replied. Bless this kid! I had much of a higher regard for Seth than I did for Leah because Seth was more the team player and the peacemaker of the four of us so far. I do not see myself as a leader and I do not wish to be, I would rather be known as a person's trainer, mentor or friend rather than a higher figure that could kick their arses. Leah was a natural at socialising but she never seemed to say much to me.

The last thing I wanted was to make people feel intimidated, and Leah did worry me in the sense that she seemed somewhat cautious about approaching me in the short time she had been on trial here. I would have to speak to her at some time to see if there was a chance to clear the air if it was needed.

"I am here to say thank you to the both of you, you have worked extremely well tonight and you should be proud of yourselves. I will speak to Carlisle and demand that he put the two of you on our rota permanently. That is if you still want to take the jobs?"

"Yes, sure I am. Thanks Jasper!" Seth exclaimed with a beaming smile, that kind of smile after giving someone a dose of good news was always priceless. After he had answered me to benefit my confidence in his personality I then glanced over at Leah who gave me a little smile.

"Thank you" she said meekly and I nodded back at her. Leah's smile was not out of force or something that she had done to indicate sarcasm and for that I was relieved, our work relationship may not be much of anything right now but there is always an opportunity to change that and the fact that she had thanked me helped me breath inwardly in relief.

"It is almost closing time, the two of you should be getting home. Do you have a way of getting back?" I asked them.

"Yes, funnily enough Leah lives down the same road as me so I give her a lift back" Seth replied.

"Good. Off you go then, I will see you both on Monday" I said as they both walked together around the other side of the bar to the cloakroom where all our stuff was held. Once they had disappeared, I exhaled and turned around to see Anne staring at me.

"What?" I asked her.

"You do realise that you may have made Leah's day" she said. I burrowed my eyes in confusion.

"What?"

"Oh come on, Jazz, I was a young girl once if you can believe it and I know a crush when I see one" she replied raising her eyebrow.

"Annie. Come on, you have said many things in your life but this is just ridiculous!" I exclaimed freeing my mind of the sudden images of Leah's face. Why did I have to be a guy sometimes and not have the faintest clue about women and their body language?

"Is it? Leah looks at you now the same way that I once looked at you. Or have you forgotten about us?"

"I have never forgotten what we had, Annie. It is still to me one of the best times in my life, forgetting all that, if Leah does like me in that way then it will not be considered acceptable behaviour. At least not in the eyes of Mr Carlisle Cullen. How can we work together when there will be tension between us both?"

"Who gives a damn about what he thinks, He is never here anyway."

"So?"

"So...Aren't you the least bit flattered that you are liked in that way again...I mean come on Jazz talking as friends here, when was the last time you had sex?"

"I am not going to discuss that with you" I replied walking out from behind the bar. As I did so all of the remaining customers got up from the chair and wobbled out of the door at their own turtle-like pace. I opened both doors for them as they stepped out in turn, some looking like complete and utter fools and others managing to retain some dignity from a good night out and a dent in their wallets.

"Four months?" I heard Anne ask me from the bar.

"No" I replied

"Six months?"

"No!"

"A year, it can't be no more than a year?"

"Anne!" I growled really getting angry at her nosiness, I may not have the most impressive track record with the opposite sex but that doesn't mean that I am desperate. Besides, Annie is my ex and what good would my disclosing that I haven't been with anyone else since her do to me? Anne had moved on and so had I, just not in the usual way that people move on in this day and age.

"It is, it is more than a year?" I slammed the door closed as every regular consumer of our stock had stumbled out into the chilly night air and locked it behind them. When finished, I swung my head around to face Anne who was still looking my way from the bar.

"The last time I had sex was when we were together" I replied in a stern tone. I watched her face drop and her bottom lip bury into her mouth, her teeth clamp down on the skin. "Is that what you wanted to hear?"Not wanting to have an answer to that rhetorical question, I stormed out of the bar area and descended down the stairs into the cellar. I turned off all of the pumps and sorted out the spills on the larger and beer barrels before making a head start on mopping the floor from any spillages.

I went into thought mode as I mopped the sticky stone surface. Was it so bad not having sex in nearly two years? I only ever had sex with Anne and I really loved her so it seemed like sex was the only time when you and the person you loved at that time to have the chance to be in a close proximity. A proximity of pure trust and intimacy. I took sex as an act that was only meant to be done out of love however Anne had made it sound like I just declared war by not doing that act in a while.

Was Anne my last ever opportunity to have a real commitment to a woman? I am a non-believer in fate and I am in no way religious but hypothetically if there were a higher force neither in the form of a God or various spirits, was it possible to fall in love twice? Or was once your limit?

I had loved being in love. I felt the same freedom as I had done when I was a music student. Freedom to be myself without anyone telling me that I was acting wrongly or out of character, Anne was a sensual lover like me and we enjoyed the new experiences and would often have deep discussions about where we wanted our relationship to go. I am no longer in love with her now, even though it had taken me a long time to get over her. Work stopped us from being together and it was the only force to pull us apart. The decision was mutual and regret was something that had never been a factor in my life and so I never regretted Anne and I not being together, anymore, because as I look back on the whole thing now as amazing as it was it would never have worked out in the long run.

I turned off the light to the cellar and walked back into the bar area. Anne was wiping down the sides but her back was to me. I opened the till and took all of the money that we had taken in tonight and put it into a paper envelope, this was a usual procedure at the end of every night. Only the money in notes were put into the envelope and the envelope was to be put into the pub's safe for Carlisle to collect the next morning. I licked the envelope, closed it down and turned back and went to the cloakroom to put the envelope into the safe. I closed it hard and twisted the combination lock. I grabbed my rucksack which was hanging up next to Anne's bright red handbag and flung it over my shoulder, in my free hand, I held Anne's bag and walked out locking the cloakroom behind me.

Anne was now on the other side of the bar leaning her arms on the bar and pressing various buttons on her phone. I held the bag out to her and she flipped her phone lid down and gave me an apologetic smile.

"So, are you going to insist on never talking to me again?" she asked taking her bag from my hold.

"No? Well, not now I have gone and answered my own question. Look I didn't mean to make your sex life sound like a sham, believe me, Jasper, I always loved having sex with you and I am not ashamed to admit that. If things were different then we may still be together but for now..."

I put a hand up to stop her trailing off. Babbling was Annie's usual sign to show she was nervous or had just put her foot in a hole and was using the one chance to dig herself out. "It's okay, Annie, It has been a long time to not be with someone. I know that, but I am not looking for a relationship right now."

"It took me a long time to get over us as well you know?" Anne said. I took one of her hands in mine and kissed the top of it tenderly.

"I will see you tomorrow" I said as she smiled. I released her hand and opened the lock and walked out of the front door, Annie would go out the back but lock the front door after me. We always took it in turns to do that. It was Annie's turn tonight.

The coldness of the air washed over me. I crossed the street from the pub and made my way into the nearby woods. Five years of living here and I still get a little spooked about these woods because there never seemed to be anyone walking around in them either during the day or at night and the wind in the trees would often cause rustling and because the only things under your feet were leaves and twigs when you walked through the darkened shelter of the trees above your head – it does sound as if there was someone following you or at least some re-enactment of a typical suspense horror film before a victim gets hacked with a chainsaw by a serial killer waiting for them in woods.

The forest route was the easiest way to get to my house, actually in complete honesty...I did not know of any other way to where I lived, and, seeing as my house was surrounded by the silent woods then it made sense for me to always take this route because they ended right on my doorstep. The walk through the woods was as easy as A,B,C when I was walking to work during daylight, however walking back was a different story, entirely.

The forest route back to my house was only approximately half an hour long. That doesn't seem like much to a human ear who did not live in close radius of the same woods but it seemed like forever when you were constantly on edge and the hairs on the back of your neck insisted on staying upward in preparation for being attacked unexpectedly. I managed to get into the middle of the forest letting the sound of my breathing be a small comfort because it was the only sound for what seemed like miles. I was about ten minutes away from my house when something ahead of me caught my eye.

It looked like a large trunk of a tree from a considerable distance. My eyesight may just be effected by the long shift and tiredness was already beginning to take me under, the darkness also didn't help me squint. I halted my movements and took my rucksack off my shoulders. Bringing it round to the side to open up the flap and untie the inside halves. Crouching down, letting the rucksack rest on the muddy ground underneath my feet, I fumbled for my torch and once I had it in my hand I stood back up and hauled the rucksack back over my shoulder. Making the choice of not closing it properly because there was not much in there anyway and the things that were valuable like my phone and my keys were in my trouser pockets.

I flipped the switch in an upward motion on the torch and shone the small circle of light down to my of shining the light directly at the obstacle in front of me, I kept it onto the floor and my gaze was also on the light as well.I would wait to see what was in front of me when my feet got there.

I gasped when a few steps later, I saw that a human arm with a pale skin tone appeared under the light and I knelt down onto the mud to follow the light up the arm to a torso and then trailed up to a was a woman, a woman who had small but bloody injuries on her face and her skin which wasn't scarred with scratches was also an unnatural shade of white. The paleness must have been because of the cold.I let go of the torch and tugged her arm pulling it to bring her up to seating. I wouldn't be able to see anything in this darkness. I needed to have a look at her properly, I wrapped my arms around the back of her lifeless knees flinching a little at the frozen state of her skin and the temperature contrast to hers and mine. I lifted her up into my arms as securely as I could, being careful not to cock my attempts to get her to safety up, I held her close to me in one arm when I reached for the flashlight turning it off and picking myself up so that I was standing. The woman weighed nothing and I was surprised that I was able to hold her with only one arm. I placed the torch into one of my trouser pockets and when my hand was free again I placed it with my other one underneath the woman's legs finally succeeding to bring her up into a baby carry.

I got to my house a little slower than I usually would have done but seeing as the attention should now no longer be on myself but the woman in my arms, I brushed away all thought of how much longer I spent in the woods and how much I had disliked it. I was thankful walking up to my front door that I did not have any neighbours because I am sure if I had the unfortunate truth of having any they would have a hell of a lot to say about my current position. I took one hand away from underneath the coldness of the woman's legs and reached into my right pocket and pulled out my keys. I opened the door and kicked it open fully with one of my feet and turned on the light switch just inside with my index finger. Taking the same action, I kicked the door closed behind me and hobbled with the woman still laying limp in my arms over to my sofa. I laid down the woman gently and took a step back to look at her properly.

The woman had to be no older than me, give or take a year, maximum. She was very pretty with her short brown hair with slight bronze colouring in the ends that shone under the light on my ceiling. Her clothing was something that alarmed me, she was in only a sweatshirt that covered one of her shoulders fully but was cropped down on the other shoulder to just above her chest area. The sweatshirt was white that is all I could tell as there was mud over the majority of it. There was nothing covering her legs and the only other item of clothing she had on were a once-white pair of knickers. Not the skimpy kind but it made me wonder how cold her legs must have been as she stood alone in those woods. Her feet were bare and she had no jewellery or any other type of accessory on. The woman was thin, too thin from this distance her stomach was extremely flat over the top of her underwear and her arms were also alarmingly thin along with her legs.

I stopped gawking at her, taking myself away from the studying. I couldn't keep gazing at her her when she must have been suffering from hypothermia. Taking initiative, finally thankful to have something to think about rather than how beautiful the unconscious woman on my sofa was, I grabbed a blanket from the cupboard underneath my stairs and stopped for a moment and then took out another once in case she really needed a second. I then undid the folds in the blanket once I got back to my original place in front of her lying form and lay the blanket over the sleeping beauty on my sofa, wrapping the blanket underneath her legs, arms and on the side closest to me. Once she was cocooned I placed the other folded blanket on the arm of the sofa and left her to walk away and step into my kitchen.

I had no clue about how to cure hypothermia but I always kept antiseptic cream in the house, the simplest solution was to clean her face up but with the chill, I decided that warming her up naturally is the best shot I have. I picked up the tube from my medicine cupboard and then browsed for a bowl, filled it up with luke-warm water and poured some salt into the liquid allowing it to dissolve in the slight heat. I walked back with the bowl and the tube of cream in my hands and put them down on my living room rug. I stood up and went to my bathroom which was handy being downstairs and not up and took out a box of tissues from the cabinet above my sink.

I knelt down, exhaling a breath at managing to get everything I needed. I was inches away from Beauty's face. I took out four tissues from the box and dipped them into the water, clenching the tissue ball up in my fist and began to wipe away the blood marks on her face, she was lucky she wasn't awake as these injuries would have stung quite badly when the salt water had made impact with the skin. The cuts were not deep but I assumed that they must still be painful in some way. I moved to all the areas on her face with had held cuts or left traces of dry or fresh blood. I put the tissue back in the water which had now turned the liquid a slightly toned shade of red from the blood. I stood back up with the bowl and put it into my sink. I then washed my hands thoroughly with my antibacterial foam wash and sat back down by Beauty's head. I needed a name for her because I can't keep acknowledging her as' the woman'. I opened up the lid to the tube of cream and poured some onto my finger. I trailed around all of the small cuts and rubbed the cream in so that it wasn't visible from a distance. Beauty remained motionless underneath my fingers.

I wiped my hands with a tissue and screwed the lid back on the cream wiping away any excess that had poured from the seal and opened the medicine cabinet for the last time and putting the tube on one of the shelves. I leant on the door frame of my kitchen and looked at beauty from another angle. Who was she? How had she got here? Why was she only in her underwear and a skimpy sweatshirt?

I had so many questions that I would have to ask but the only one who could answer them was her. I walked over to the end table next to the sofa and switched on the little lamp. It was not bright at all it was enough to sleep under that's for sure. I turned off the main lights above mine and beauty's heads and walked up the stairs to my room. I threw my rucksack which was still on my back across the room and changed into my pyjama bottoms. I didn't bother with a top at night because I always ran on a toasty temperature even if the weather in England was always disgusting. I was about to pull my duvet back when something stopped me.

Beauty was not going to wake up tonight. At least I guessed she wasn't going to and it wouldn't be fair to leave her on her own as she is cold and will probably be frightened when she does wake eventually. I threw on an old top and closed my room door and walked down the stairs. Beauty was still there and hadn't moved. I lifted her legs and put them down on the floor, her torso was still on the sofa. I took the other blanket now at my side on the arm of the sofa and opened it up leaving it open against the floor. I sat down upright on the empty half of the sofa and pulled up beauty's legs from the floor and put them onto my lap.I then reached down again to get the blanket and I put it over myself and over her legs. I tilted my head a little and closed my eyes.

You know how I have said that things in my life never seemed to be exciting and there were never any new things to happen?

I think now it seems I might have to be proven wrong.

All I knew was that I was going to have a million questions to ask when Beauty woke up.

What the hell was I going to do about work tomorrow?

I cannot leave her in my house alone what if she woke up when I was away?

Anne.

I will ring Anne in the morning.

Anne was my only option to get the day off of work, I was due two weeks holiday anyway and I reckon now would be the time to use it.

I was officially worried.