Chapter 12

AUTHORS NOTE*Hello, all! I know it's been a hot minute since I updated but I've had a serious case of writer's block and I've been trying to work through it! I know this chapter is on the shorter side but trust me it's worth a read! Best wishes to all, enjoy!

Previously on 'Once Upon A Dream'

When Fauna said Morticia's name it was like a lightbulb went off inside her head as she stiffened. She was certain that was the voice that's been haunting her dreams

'Why the hell is Bella's cousin's voice in my dreams? Maybe I'm overthinking things, maybe it's just a coincidence. Loads of people have voices that sound similar.' She thought as she tried to rationalize the situation and give herself some hope that her dreams were just a weird figment of her imagination.

Her hope died, however, when Fauna turned to her with an intensely serious look on her face. "I've been waiting to meet you for ages! I think we'll have a lot in common, Morticia."

'um...what the fuck does that mean?' Morticia had a feeling that this 'simple' love story between a vampire and a human just got a whole lot more complicated.

(Morticia Pov)

Morticia quickly shook herself out of her shock when Fauna held out a hand to her. There was something in Fauna's eyes that made her pause before she shook it.

It was almost as if Fauna was testing her to see if she'd actually take her hand.

When their hands touched, Morticia immediately regretted it.

To describe what happened, She could only relate it to what Alice must feel when she has a vision. Morticia, however, did not possess years of training so her 'vision' was really just a bunch of blurred scenes and voices.

~~~~Vision~~~~~

The scene looked like something out of a period movie, the castle furnished in blood red and trimmed in black. She immediately recognized Aro and his brothers sitting on identical thrones in the middle of the room.

Aro spoke to a footman next to the steps. "Dear, Felix, tell us...What is the status of the mission I assigned you?"

Felix bowed his head, "The mission was successful, My king. They were all eliminated, no survivors left."

Aro gave a chilling laugh, "Perfect! Absolutely Marvelous!"

The scene changed to a forest. It was very dark, and it was clearly raining.

A girl who looked exactly like Fauna in period type clothing was running as fast as she could, her only light was a small lantern that she kept close.

The Fauna look-a-like kept glancing behind her every so often and then she looked down at her arms. For the first time, Morticia actually got a look at what Fauna was carrying with her...it was a baby, swaddled in a blanket.

"Hush now, little one. You're safe! No matter what Stephen or Flora says- I'll take care of you dear." She smiled fondly at the child and then hurried off in another direction as voices grew closer.

"I think she went this way," A voice called out and the next voice to respond was another one Morticia recognized.

"We have to find her- by any means necessary. If she teaches that child... we'll have worse than the Volturi to fear..."

"Stephen... what if...What if Fauna was right? What if that baby really was our salvation and not our destroyer?" A different voice called out.

The 'Stephen' person replied, "There's no child that looks like that and is called a savior...you saw those horns. You heard the prophecy. She's a demon, a plague upon our people. She deserved what she got." He all but spit the words and Morticia didn't need to see his face to know he was sneering at the others.

~~~End Vision~~~

Before he could say anything else, Morticia's vision shifted and suddenly she was back in the hall at Forks high with Bella looking at her worriedly.

"Morticia? Morticia? Are you ok? You kind of spaced out for a minute there, we uh, got worried."

Morticia shook herself quickly and gave Bella a quick smile. "Yeah, I'm totally fine. I just had a lot on my mind just then, sorry."

It was a total lie, she was most definitely not fine, but she wasn't about to show any weakness with Fauna standing so close.

Fauna was giving her a look of astonishment mixed with excitement. Had she meant to give her those visions? What was all of that?

Morticia cleared her throat slightly and made to excuse herself as politely as possible, even though in reality she wanted to run out of there like a bat out of hell.

"Uh, you know I totally remembered that I have an art assignment due soon and I haven't even started. Do you care if we put a raincheck on this conversation?" Bella gave her a tiny nod and Morticia had to tell herself to walk calmly down the hall instead of run.

Fauna called out to her as she walked away, "Wait, Morticia," but she didn't turn around. She remembered Alice saying that she had art this period, thank god, and after she rounded the corner, she bolted for the art room.

Not surprising to her, Alice was standing outside the art room with a very concerned Edward standing to her right.

"Morticia, What's going on, love? Alice told me that you had an issue with another student?" His eyes were full of worry and concern. Morticia sighed and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Can you give us some girl time, Loverboy? I really need to get Alice's opinion on this before I call the big 'family meeting' card."

Edward still looked unsure so she gave him a feather-light kiss on the lips this time and caressed his cheek lightly, "I promise, it'll only be a few minutes. you can flashback here as soon as we're done."

He leaned in and gave her forehead a tender kiss, gave Alice a pointed stare, and walked quickly down the hall.

Turning to Alice, she finally let her heavily guarded wall down and proceeded to freak out.

"Alice.. Have you had a chance to meet Bella's cousin? No, well let me fill you in. She's about 5 foot 4, long brown hair, pretty green eyes, and what else...oh yeah, she gave me a fucking vision!"

The vampire in front of her was shocked, "A-A vision? How? I didn't see Bella's cousin coming at all."

Morticia froze in her pacing.

"Wait, you can't see her...at all?"

Alice shook her head, eyes wide open.

"No, it's just like when you first arrived. I can't see anything. Just recently I've been able to see bits and pieces of possible futures that have you in them, but I really have to concentrate."

Morticia furrowed her brow, "What can that mean? She's just like me," she whispered.

Alice gave her a concerned look, "You don't think she's from your time, do you?"

Morticia turned to her and shrugged, "I have no idea. What I do know is this; In the original story, there is no character named Fauna- which means she's a wild card."

"What did you say about a vision?" Alice asked, her concern turning to confusion. "You haven't been getting visions all along, have you?"

Morticia thought back to all of her 'dreams'.

'Should I go ahead and tell her? I mean they haven't locked me up in an insane asylum yet.'

"Well, I wouldn't call them visions. I just assumed that I had an overactive cortex in my brain," She paused before continuing, "I've been dreaming about the person who I think maybe sent me here. I keep hearing a voice- Fauna's voice, and just now when I shook her hand I saw something else. This time I saw more clearly than before, it was like I was right there in the middle of everything. I saw Fauna fleeing with a baby, a baby named Morticia. Oh, and Aro was there ordering a guard for a status report. That was very odd, I've never dreamed about the Volturi before."

As she gave more details about her dreams, Alice's face became even more pale- if that was possible- and her face morphed into one of worry, mixed with slight horror.

"What? What is it?" She asked Alice after she noticed her expression.

Alice stared at her for a moment, "You had a vision about Aro? Morticia that is never a good sign. You of all people know what happens when the Volturi get involved! If they ever came here-"

Morticia cut off Alice's panic. "Woah, Woah! We don't know that they are coming here, Alice! Save your panic for later. Right now we need to worry about Fauna. Who the hell she is and why she's interested in me all of a sudden!"

Alice still looked worried but nodded slightly, "I can tell the others to keep an eye on her and see what they can find out. I'm not sure if Edward's power would be effective but Jasper's power seems to work on you so maybe he can sense her intentions?"

Nodding, Morticia resumed her pacing. "That sounds good and I'll get closer to Bella so I can see if I can find anything out about Fauna. Do you know all that jazz about keeping your friends close and your enemy closer? We might need to pull that card this time."

They were both silent for a moment before Morticia broke the silence, "Hey Alice? Do you care if we keep this whole vision business between us? I don't really want the others to panic over this if it all adds up to nothing."

Alice gave her an exasperated look, "Ugh, Morticia! You know Edward's going to try to read my mind to find out about this entire conversation! Do you know how annoying it is to play explicit pop songs to keep him out!"

The image made Morticia chuckle as she said, "I'm sure you can manage, but which is worse for me: Edward knowing Fauna may be a potential threat or Edward being grumpy that he can't see this conversation?"

The unimpressed stare Alice gave her was comical, to say the least.

"You owe me BIG time for this, Morticia."

She smiled at the psychic vampire, "yes I totally will, but right now I need to get Loverboy back in here. I can sense his frustration from here."

As if he had heard Morticia's statement, the familiar footsteps of his designer shoes echoing on the linoleum behind her.

She turned slightly and was greeted by her familiar vampire shadow.

"Well, there you are. And here I was just about to call you back. You surprised me, I bet Alice that you wouldn't last five minutes but it's been..." She dramatically looked at the wall clock and widened her eyes before finishing, "Wow, seven minutes on the dot. You're getting better, Loverboy."

Edward gave her a bemused look before he shifted on his feet.

Morticia could tell that he was having a hard time restraining himself from attempting some serious PDA, especially since he was nearly strangling his jacket that he only carried around for decorative purposes.

"Laugh all you want at my expense, but can you at least tell me what it is that you were discussing with my sister?" He asked her, his eyes pleading with her.

His amber orbs made her insides warm and she took his hand in hers. Rising his knuckles to her lips, she gave them a feather-light kiss before meeting his gaze.

"It was just your basic girl gossip, nothing to worry about at all. Apparently Bella's cousin decided to join her in Forks and Alice didn't see her arrive."

Edward's brows rose and he gave her a shocked look.

"Bella's cousin? That wasn't in the original story."

Morticia gave him a tight smile, "Yeah, there are a lot of things that are changing in this narrative."

'I just hope they're changing for the better and not for worse,' she thought grimly as Edward threaded their fingers together.

"I couldn't care less what's changed from Stephanie's original draft, as long as you're alright." He gave her a worried look that made butterflies erupt in her stomach.

'Wow, if only they'd have shown this aspect of Edward in the movies. A loving, attentive boyfriend instead of a possessive man child.' She mused as she took a deep breath.

"I am better than I have been in a very long time, trust me- I'm fine."

Although he didn't look convinced, Alice interrupted their little moment to remind them to come back to the real world.

"Not to be a bother to you two, but we do still have a few periods left. So, unless you want to be counted tardy..." Alice's voice was teasing as she glanced between the couple.

Morticia laughed as she bumped Edward's shoulder lightly and moved to head down the hallway.

"You heard her, Loverboy, get moving- we can worry about future stuff later. For now let's just focus on day to day, alright?"

Although the conversation had ended, the events of the past hour swirled in her mind.

'Just who was Fauna Swan and what did she have to do with Morticia's dreams.'

She made it her first priority to become close friends with Bella and hopefully find some fucking answers to those questions.

'Seriously, why couldn't this have followed the damn novel that Stephenie wrote? Why did anything have to change?'

Luckily for her, Morticia found out that Bella was in her English class. The class was somewhat of a joke to her at this point but since it would be a prime opportunity, she decided to pay attention for once.

The lesson for the day happened to be an analysis of the brother's Grimm fairytales and the teacher announced that they would be able to have partners. After hearing this, Morticia immediately perked up and turned to Bella with a charming smile that would make Voldemort jealous.

'What a perfect opportunity to get some answers'

"Hey, Bella...Wanna be partners?"

Bella seemed shocked that she asked her and the gaggle of boys itching to ask her were highly disappointed that Morticia had been faster.

"Uh, uh...yeah. Yeah, that'd be great." The brunette girl stumbled over her words as Morticia made her way over to her table.

"Fabulous. So, any ideas on what you want to write this analysis about?" She asked once she settled in her seat.

Bella turned to her and blushed slightly before speaking in almost a whisper, "Well, I-uh, thought we could do Sleeping Beauty."

'Sleeping Beauty, what the hell? Although, she does have a cousin named Fauna, so maybe it runs in the family.'

Morticia gave her an encouraging smile, "What a coincidence! That's my favorite one of theirs! It's so much darker than the Disney version! Wait, let me guess- is that where your cousin got her name?"

Bella seemed to become less nervous as she voiced her enthusiasm and relaxed slightly.

"Yeah, my mom's sister- Fauna's mom was obsessed with the movie! I was always terrified of it though, especially Maleficent..."

The name made Morticia pause, she turned to Bella and raised her eyebrow.

"Tell me, was it the horns or the green skin that made your fear spike?"

Bella seemed to close up again, slightly, and awkwardly rubbed her arms.

"Well, it wasn't just the superficial things- but her horns are scary. I think it was just the idea that somebody could be that hateful and curse an innocent baby- all because she wasn't invited to a christening."

Morticia's spine straightened at the statement as if insulted- but she didn't know why. Yeah, Maleficent had been somewhat of an icon for her growing up. She had never really been expected and neither had the dark fae, so it was easy for her to sympathize with the villain.

"Do you really believe that people are solely evil?" Morticia asked calmly and slowly, to try to ease some of Bella's nerves.

"Well, no. Not really." The Brunette woman murmured slightly.

"Then why should we assume that Maleficent had no reason to become the villain in the story. Instead, maybe we should ask why she chose to curse Aurora and what pushed her down that dark path."

'Why am I getting so defensive over a Disney villain? I know morality is a big concept but hell, I usually don't get on a soapbox about movie characters.'

Bella seemed shocked at her suggestion but then looked pensive as if she were truly thinking it over.

"Maybe... Maybe, that is what we should write out analysis on. What caused the Grimm version's 'Dark fairy godmother and Disney's Maleficent to become evil? I think it would be a great topic- especially the Maleficent angle."

Morticia gave a weak smile but internally she was still confused. It was as if that name struck some kind of chord with her that had never happened before.

The rest of the class they worked diligently on their assignment, occasionally making small conversation here and there before Bella finally brought up the obvious elephant in the room

"So, uh... you and Edward make a cute couple." She stated meekly keeping her eyes trained on the papers before them.

Morticia knew that the girl obviously had a crush on Edward, that was obvious, and her attempts at subtlety were as unnoticeable as her monster of a truck.

"Thank you. I'd like to say that it was all my idea, but that award goes to my Loverboy. After my accident, he made it clear how unhappy he was with me and after some heated words he finally asked me out."

Morticia smiled at the memory as she reorganized their notes before the bell rang. Suddenly she got an interesting idea.

'Maybe...'

Turning to Bella, she grabbed her wrist gently and said with a grin, "However, just because I snatched up the last available Cullen doesn't mean that I can't find you your own loverboy..." Noticing the brunette's shocked look she amended, "or girl if you prefer. Alice is known to be an amazing matchmaker, but I think with my input we could find you someone really special."

Bella's blush deepened to nearly purple and she stuttered, "uh-um, Y-yeah, n-o. Look I don't-"

Morticia laughed at her gently, "I'm only teasing, Bella. It's what I do with my new friends, just ask the Cullens- I make their lives a living hell, but for some reason, they keep me around."

Bella calmed instantly and played with her hair nervously as the bell rang.

As Morticia grabbed her bag and headed for the door, she turned back to Bella.

"Oh, but I wasn't kidding about helping you in the romance department. There are some smoking hot guys down there on the Quileute reservation- maybe next time you can join me when I visit? Who knows, you may just go home with a soulmate," She winked and twirled gracefully before exiting the classroom, not waiting for Bella's response.

'Wouldn't that be crazy if she were to be someone's imprint? Nah, that's way too obvious of a plot change.'

Morticia noticed as she made her way down the hall that it seemed more deserted than usual. It surprised her that Edward hadn't immediately shown up outside the classroom door to greet her, that was kind of his thing.

Looking around, Morticia was shocked to find that there was seemingly no one else in the building. She looking in every other classroom that she encountered but came up empty on each one.

'Where the hell is everyone? Did I fall into a black hole or something?'

She almost panicked when a familiar form exited a classroom and came to a halt in front of her.

"Hello, Morticia. I think it's time we had a little chat- just us girls, don't you?" Fauna asked her with a smile.

Morticia gaped at the small brunette girl and took a step back in preparation to run.

Fauna seemed to guess where her thoughts were headed as she waved her hand, "I wouldn't think of running if I were you, I've taken us away from your Vampires for the time being and only I can take you back."

That didn't ease her nerves at all but noticing her tensed shoulders, Fauna continued, "Oh, don't be so tense, dear. I won't harm you. I've been protecting you for years- if I wanted you dead, I would've done it by now."

Morticia finally found her voice then, "Protecting me? You're the voice that's been haunting my dreams?"

Fauna smiled at her gently, "Oh dear, I 've done more than just haunt your dreams. I sent you here, to this world."

Morticia's brow furrowed, "Why would you do that? I sure as hell didn't wish on a fucking star to be sent into the twilight saga?"

Fauna gave her a sad look, "Oh my sweet Morticia, there's so much to explain and I'm so sorry about everything that's been kept from you."

"What's been kept from me?! What the hell is going on?! Just over a month ago, I was a normal human girl going through life without a care in the fucking world and suddenly I get dropped into a goddamn vampire-romance novel?! What else could there be that could top all of that madness I've already seen?!"

Walking closer to her, Fauna gave her a serious look that made Morticia's blood run cold.

"That would be all fine and dandy, dear, except for just...one...thing..."

She finally came close enough to Morticia's side to lean in and whisper in her ear.

"You aren't human."