Chapter 3

Aro

It was incredible—within seconds, there was a movie-like memory happing in the middle of my throne room. I figured these memories would not be very happy, and I was right.

Alexandra was sleeping, and a girl that looked about a year younger than her stood over her. They shared many of the same features, so I concluded that they were sisters. The girl shook the sleeping Alexandra, waking her up with a start.

"Lucy? Lucy, what's wrong?"Alexandra was suddenly wide awake. She got up and hugged her sister.

"Oh Lexi, something bad's gonna happen to Alec and Jane—I can feel it." Lucy started shaking, and tears were rolling down her face.

What? Alec and Jane? My Alec and Jane? Impossible? How would they know of them…

"Lucy, they're fine."

"No, they won't be—they won't be fine!"Lucy was near hysterics now.

"Shh… we don't want to wake Mother and Father up, Lu," Alexandra whispered.

The bedroom door opened "Too late, girls, why are you up so late?" There was a slight anger in their father's voice.

"Nothing Father," Alexandra said "Lucy just had a nightmare."

At that moment Lucy started screaming, a loud piercing scream that filled the whole house. When she stopped screaming, she burst out crying.

Alexandra turned to her sister "Lucy what is it?"

"Alec and Jane! Oh Lexi! They're—they're—they're gonna die! They're gonna be burned at the stake as witches!"

"What?" Alexandra turned sharply around and faced her parents. "Is this true?"

"Alexandra, they are witches and they deserve to die. And it was not right to befriend them," her father's steely eyes bored into hers.

Again Lucy screamed, and she pointed out the window. Alexandra rushed to the window and gasped. Going to Jane and Alec's house was a mob—a witch hunting mob. She turned to run out the door, but was stopped by her father and mother.

"Where do you think you're going young lady?" her father asked. "You and you're sister will stay here."

Alexandra looked her father in the eye and screamed at him "I won't let my friends die, and you can't stop me!"

She went to push him aside, but he grabbed her arm and slammed her against the wall—hard.

She turned around only to be hit across the back of the head with a wooden club he had brought into the room. She fell down, dazed, while her father tied her and her sister, still screaming, to chairs in their bedroom.

"What do we do with them now?" the mother asked. "I won't be publicly shamed by them burning at the stake."

Aro was horrified and felt angry at these mortal who abused these two young girls, clearly they had great gifts. He looked around and saw that many other members of the guard were watching the manipulated mist and air with a slight horror on their faces, as it was playing out memories from a different life.

"We'll burn them in the house, no one will know it was set—it will look like an accident. A flame from one of the touches set our house on fire. No one will be the wiser," the husband said to his wife. She nodded her head in agreement, and without another word or a turn back, she walked out of the house forever.

The fire started soon after. Lucy would not stop screaming, alternately calling out Jane and Alec's names. Alexandra had tears streaming down her face, but she would not cry out. Then suddenly Lucy let out her loudest scream yet. When she heard that scream, Alexandra even looked scared.

Then there was breaking glass. Into the room came two vampires. "Come with us children, everything will be okay," they said as the cut through their bindings and carried them away.

Alexandra stopped, and her head swept across the room. "There is just one more memory I will show everybody, then, if you really still feel the need, you may examine my mind a little more," she said to me. I nodded for her to continue. She once again focused her gaze on the space in front of her, and a different memory came to life.

Alexandra is now a vampire. An older vampire comes into the tent in which she lays.

"Who are you? Where is my sister?"she asked.

"Child," he said "I cannot tell you, for—"

But that was as far as he got. In seconds he was in the air, while fire that had come from the lamp in the tent went flying dangerously close to his face. He was struggling to get free, but it was not working.

"TELL ME!"Alexandra screamed.

"I do not know! You need to talk to the elders!"the vampire in the air said in a hysterical voice, "Let me down!"

Alexandra looked and dropped him. She stormed out of the tent. Whether it was the way she purposely walked throughout the camp, or the fact she was a talented newborn, the other vampires let her pass. When she arrived at an ornate tent, she flung open the tent flap and walked inside; much like she had when she walked into my throne room minutes ago. Two vampires looked up from a table when they heard her come in.

"Hello my dear girl, my name is Stefan, and this is Vladimir," Stefan said.