21. Thrills and Terrors

I had expected the third degree again when I got home, but to my surprise the house was nearly empty with only Alice and Jasper left behind. I walked in to find them sitting on the couch in the front room watching a movie. Alice looked up at me with a huge grin as I walked through.

"Looked like you were having fun. Don't worry; I already laid out the itinerary for tomorrow for everyone. We're all set."

"So who got stuck with babysitting duty tomorrow night?"

"Stuck? Since when do Rose and I consider shopping a burden? Besides, you're on your own. We'll just be in close proximity just in case. If things go as well as they look you won't see us at all."

"Nice. So just you and Rose?"

"Oh no, actually we're all going with the exception of Carlisle and Esme."

"Ew, I have a feeling that the boys and Bella won't be too keen on shopping."

"Actually there's a car show three blocks away from your movie theater tomorrow night, so they're all going there and then Rose and I will join them when we're done shopping."

"Oh, well that's good. At least you won't all be bored! Where is everybody anyway? Hunting?"

"Yeah, We thought it was a good idea if we are going to be in such large crowds tomorrow. Jasper and I will go later tonight after everyone else returns home."

"Okay, well I'm really tired. I'm going to get some sleep."

Alice looked up at me frowning for a moment like she was confused and then looked up at me and smiled. "I have a feeling you won't be going to sleep for a little while yet."

"Oooookay, why not?"

"You can thank Nessie tomorrow." She replied with a crooked smile and wink.

I looked at her in confusion and then jumped as my phone began vibrating in my pocket as my text message alert ring tone began to sing. I reached and pulled out my phone flipping the top up to read the text message I had just received on the larger screen.

Was just talking to Nessie and she said she thought you were still awake. Sleepy or are you up for a phone call?

I stood there staring at the screen in disbelief…a phone call earlier and now a text. A large Cheshire Cat type smile spread across my lips as I turned from my siblings without another word and began walking up the stairs to my room as I texted back.

I'm pretty wired, so a phone call would be cool. I don't think I'll be going to sleep anytime soon.

Okay, so maybe 30 seconds ago that wasn't entirely true, but it was now. It took less than a whole minute for my phone to ring.

"Hey Sandy." Seth said cheerfully

"Hey…how did the rest of your night go? Your work call go okay?"

"Oh yeah, better than okay actually. I landed a massive contract to construct a website for a big blockbuster coming out next summer. That's part of the reason why I decided to see if you were awake enough to talk. I'm too psyched to sleep just yet."

"Wow…well now it's my turn to say congratulations! It seems we both had pretty good days!"

His laughed sounded a little nervous. I didn't know if it was because of the stress of the big contract or because he was talking to me. I knew he was the cause of my nervous little butterflies…maybe he had a few of his own.

"So, were you convincing enough for your friends tonight?"

"I think so. It was so much fun to see them find out their parts. I think it's going to be a fun six weeks."

"Think?"

"Well, I was getting some pretty dirty looks from two of the other girls that got other roles. I have a bad feeling that one if not both may be a bit of a thorn in our sides throughout this whole thing."

"Ugh…those kind of girls rule your school too? I think every school has a few."

I laughed lightly, "Yeah, I think it might be some kind of karmic rule or something."

He joined me in my laughter for a few seconds and then we trailed off into silence. I began to fidget not really knowing what to say next. Finally he spoke up again.

"So Jake was telling me that he, Ness, and the Cullens are all following you on your first date tomorrow night."

I was SO glad that this was a phone conversation as I felt my face burn with heat. Why did it embarrass me for Seth to know I had a date? The only future I might hope for with Seth is one of friendship, and yet I couldn't control the flood of emotion that rolled through my body in a massive wave. Maybe it wasn't the fact that he knew I had a date as much as that I was going to have eight babysitters tagging along just in case.

"Yeah, it's a triple date thing with a group of friends. The guy who asked me to go along is actually the one who plays Danny in the play. He seems like a pretty nice guy and Edward said that from what he's read of him that he's a decent guy. I really don't even know him all that well yet, but I am looking forward to going out. I'm extremely nervous though." Just like I am now and will probably ramble tomorrow night like this too.

"Oh…" he seemed like he was searching for the right thing to say. "Well just try to enjoy yourself. Dating is an important rite of passage for every teen. You should just go and have fun and be yourself. Everything else will just fall into place if you're just yourself. Trust me."

Strangely enough, I did. There was just something about Seth that inspired trust in people, even when they barely knew him. "Thanks." I said a bit awkwardly, not really knowing what else to say.

"So what are you guys doing for your date anyway?"

"The nearest bigger city is Clarksburg, so we're going there for dinner and a movie and then if it's open we're going to a little amusement park place with go carts, batting cages, miniature golf, and bumper boats. It's pretty low key, but will probably be pretty fun. It's pretty much the group that I hang out with at school all of the time, so that helps some. I think I'd probably be totally freaking out if it weren't a group thing."

"Sounds like fun."

"Yeah…I think it will be. Okay, I'm sick of talking about me. I want to hear more about this movie that you got the contract for. Have I heard of it?"

"Probably, but I'm not allowed to discuss it yet. I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement and everything."

"Wow, so that's pretty big! Promise you'll tell me more when you're allowed?" I said with a smile realizing that I was expecting this friendship, as tenuous as it was at the moment, to last a while.

I could hear a smile in his voice too as he answered. "You bet!"

I let out an involuntary yawn, which I heard mirrored a half second later on the other end of the line.

"Those are contagious," Seth joked, "But it really does sound like you're ready for bed."

"Oh Wow!" I exclaimed looking at the clock. "It's already almost 3am here! No wonder I'm yawning!"

We both laughed a little and said our goodbyes. I smiled as I got ready for bed. Seth was easy to talk to. Yeah, I was a little nervous because I'm the goofy teenage girl who can't help but get butterflies anytime I get attention from any cute boy, even if he's only a friend. I was half asleep when my head hit the pillow and I was out before I had a chance to think anymore, but my dreams were far from peaceful.

I walked out on the stage dressed in Sandy's initial sweet and innocent outfit for the show with my hair in a ponytail. The auditorium was completely dark with the exception of a single spotlight trained on the middle of the stage. I walk toward the light trying to see who, if anybody, were there. Raising my hand to shield my gaze I squinted into the darkness looking for signs of life. Suddenly the stage lights come up to find that I am completely surrounded by an army of hooded soldiers who held no weapons. They were all around me dressed in cloaks ranging from deep black to dark gray. My heart began to pound in my chest as though it were about to escape its cavity.

My entire life I had heard stories of this mythic army that might some day come for me as an excuse to attack my family. The Volturi, as they are known in vampire culture, are led by three ancient vampires who have "kept the order" of vampire life for over 2,000 years. I immediately recognized the faces of the three leaders who stood just a foot in front of me looking into the darkness of the auditorium holding hands as the highest ranking vampire Aro communicated with the other two in his special way that is similar to Edward's except far more thorough and limited by a need to have physical contact with the person who he reads. I had seen their faces many times on the portrait in my father's study that was made shortly after my father had been transformed over 300 years ago.

My family had encountered the Volturi several times before, the last nearly resulting in the decimation of the entire family and their friends. This group of supposedly judicious vampires was actually quite power hungry and often found excuses to squash covens that appeared to be particularly powerful in order to destroy any chance of overthrow and to also add to their collection of warriors with exceptional abilities. One of the laws that was of typical use to them was the very one that I was a violation of. Humans were never to know of the existence of vampires.

I started to shake as I began to realize that I had about a dozen of the hideous red eyes closest to my position trained on my face. From the descriptions I had heard I immediately recognized Felix and Demitri on either side of me, each with an ice-cold hand on one of my shoulders. Just in front of me the child sized Jane and her twin brother Alec looked at me with twisted pleasure. Jane looked forward to being allowed to torture my mind into writing pain. If I were lucky Aro would order Alec to enact his skill on me instead. Then at least I would be anesthetized to the pain of death, neither hearing, seeing, nor feeling my fate. Renata, Aro's servant who provided him with a shield from a physical attack fluttered nervously directly in front of me looking worriedly into the darkness of the seats that stretched out in front of us.

Suddenly I found myself wishing that I was a vampire too…all of the key players were within a foot or two of me in every direction, even Chelsea behind me who's ability mentally forged the devotion amongst the guard that held them bonded together…if I only had the strength, I could save my family forever from their hateful lust for power. My shaking turned from fear to anger as the realization hit me that I would never, even as a vampire, be strong enough to save my family. No vampire could go up against the guard solo and survive, even with Bella's shielding ability, it was impossible…much less me, a simple, helpless, fragile human.

In that same moment that my mind fantasized of taking out the Volturi for my family the house lights rose revealing that what had held the Volturi's interest in the dark expanse beyond had been my waiting family. I looked out to see my parents and siblings, Jake's russet wolf incarnation, Nessie standing next to him with her fingers intertwined in his thick coat, and many other vampires some of which I did know and others I didn't. Tears finally crested over the ridges of my eyelids as I saw the terror in the eyes of my family members, every one of their eyes trained on mine. I was horrified to see that their most powerful defensive weapon, my sister Bella, was not among the faces of my loved ones.

I wanted to scream as I realized that after they were finished with me, my family would be next, and there would be nothing to protect them from the powers of Jane and Alec that will incapacitate them and leave them as defenseless lambs for slaughter. Then I saw more and more people appear, the entire pack was there along with their terrified wives and children. I saw Sam's Emily holding her children against her chest as tears of defeat rolled down her face, all the others were the same, as if they all were aware that they were next, the Volturi would leave no one behind this time. The last eyes I saw were those of Seth, still for some reason in his human form with a small boy with dark hair and light eyes and a small baby dressed in pink in his arms.

Suddenly I was filled with total rage. I hated the Volturi and I wanted to save my family and friends even if I didn't know how, I hated myself for being the excuse for the Volturi to rain down destruction on all those I loved and cared for. Once again I was the curse bringing pain and destruction on them all. Suddenly I was no longer sweet innocent Sandy. I was now dressed as a tougher version of Sandy in the final scene of the play. My hair was down and shorter and over the traditional Sandy costume I wore a leather jacket and studded bracelets on my wrists. My boots were strong and I could feel the heavy presence of steel toes. They weren't going to just take me down without a fight, and they certainly weren't going to take out my family and all of these innocent loved ones of the pack members without me at least trying to help. My back tensed and I prepared to act, as useless as it would be. I looked back at the crowd taking in the faces of my loved ones and friends one last time and whispered "I'll love you always and I'm sorry."

I sat up in my bed screaming hysterically pulling my knees up to my chest. In an instant my parents, Rose, Emmett, and Bella were all standing in my room looking as hysterical as I felt. I couldn't stop screaming as I stared at them with frantic eyes as I looked into the faces that held almost exactly the expressions on their faces as in my dream. My mother ran to my side and held me in her arms as I sat there frozen in a tight ball on my bed. I'm not sure when I stopped screaming, but I found that instead of screaming I was shaking my head back and forth and mumbling under my breath. "No, not my family, not because of me, not because of me." They tried to calm me down, to coax out of me what was wrong, but I couldn't say it, I couldn't say anything more than my barely audible mantra. It was a couple of minutes before Edward was sitting in front of me on the bed with my face cradled between his hands.

He paled as he read the visions of my own personal hell repeating over and over in my mind. "Lina…Lina, It was just a dream sweetheart. It wasn't real. The Volturi aren't here. We're all safe. Come on, Lina, come on look at me."

My eyes finally focused and found his eyes as my mumbling stopped as a calm swept over me like a soft blanket, swaddling me in peace and love. I was so lost in my world of terror, I hadn't even realized that Alice and Jasper had come home too. Tears began to roll down my face in relief as I laid my head down on my mother's shoulder and placed my hands on top of Edward's, relieved that the scene in front of my eyes now was real and tangible.

Now satisfied that I was okay my father spoke up, "What's wrong? What happened?"

I can't Edward, I can't talk about it. Please tell them…and tell them I'm sorry.

He took his hands away from my face, turning them over so that they held mine and kissed the back of my hands softly. "You have nothing to apologize for. She had a dream that the Volturi were here and were about to kill her and we were next and Bella wasn't there to protect us. We weren't alone either. They were going to use her as an excuse to wipe out the pack and their families too." He explained, his eyes never leaving my face and looking more deeply concerned as I cringed at his abbreviated retelling of my nightmare.

A low collective hiss escaped the lips of my family as my mother held me tighter in her arms humming softly into my hair. I didn't hear any more discussion, but there was a sudden bustle about me as my family members fanned out on different tasks given by my father. Bella was quickly back at my side sitting a warm cup of chamomile tea on my bedside table and asking Edward to trade places with her. She cupped my cheek in her hand and then gently stroked my hair.

"It wasn't all that long ago that I was the human constantly worried that my existence would risk this family. The memories are dim, but they are still there. I don't believe it will come to that though. Please don't worry Lina." She crooned as she reached forward and kissed me on my forehead.

It took ten minutes for me to finally relax and settled back in my bed, the worst of my terror behind me. I couldn't forget my dream completely though, I kept thinking of my burning desire to do something, ANYTHING to help my family. I didn't know how, but I was determined that someday I was going to find a way to not be a silent victim.