A/N: This chapter is pathetic, like half as long as my usual ones, but this is more of a filler chapter and the last chapter as Sera in her preteens. Then we're moving onto the teen years! (;

So, this chapter. I had an amazing amount of trouble writing this. I literally wrote three versions of this chapter. Originally, this was going to be a collection of one-shots, and then I was going to skip over this all together, but this was an important milestone, ahahahaha.

Sorry for all the guys reading this. This is awkward. I'm a guys' girl, so talking about girl stuff is awkward for me too. Maybe we can be awkward together? (:

Things are gonna start picking up from here, and definitely going into the M storyline. Before now, I've just drabbled in it a little bit, but now. NOW. I'm so excited. :D

P.S. Sorry I'm such a butt. Because I couldn't decide where to go with this chapter, it took me forever, longer than the rest. I'm not expecting a whole lot of reviews on this chapter since this is more of a bridge than anything and not the most interesting. Sorry guys, bear with me.

No chapter song this time.

Sera POV

The places my dreams take me! Just last night, I was wandering La Push with Seth, and tonight...here. Wherever "here" was.

"Here" happened to be in the form of a sprawling white world with huge marble pillars surrounding me, although the seemed to be supporting no building or anything in particular. The world had no substance or boundaries or anything, really. Sprawling of white, but it had an air of mystery to it. I walked up to one of the pillars and ran my fingers against it. It was probably the smoothest thing I had ever felt in my life, softer than a feather, although I could tell that this pillar was under a great deal of stress. I could feel the tension it suffered surrounding it like a blanket.

My touch left a gray mark on the perfect white pillar. I examined my hand. No, they were clean...were they not clean enough for this pillar?

"The pillars don't like you touching them," said a woman's voice from far away in the distance, although I heard it as clear as a bell. The voice sounded like honey and warmth and everything good.

"Who are you?" I asked, turning around and searching for wherever the voice came from until I spotted a figure in the far distance.

Her ravenous black hair floated around her as she glided towards me with her hand extended slightly. She was cloaked in white drapes from an era of time that I couldn't place, as hard as I tried. Roman? Even earlier? They looked ageless and ancient at the same time.

But here, I couldn't think much. I could only feel. And I could feel the strangest sense of familiarity and melancholy from this woman.

She looked tired. Her face itself was perfect – full lips, high cheekbones, oval face – but there was something very average looking too. I noticed the uneveness of the color of her pale skin, the small little freckles splashed along her nose. A few flaws here and there.

I realized now that she was human. Or as human as you could be here.

"Am I dead?" I asked again, suddenly terrified. Why was I here? My dreams meant that it would eventually become a reality – someway, somehow. They could be prevented, but this meant that there was a good chance that, if this was heaven, I was going to die.

"You're not dead, sweetie," she said gently, although she didn't seem quite convinced.

"Then where am I?" I asked.

"You're almost dead," she said with a sad undertone, "You're in-between."

"In...between? Between what?" I asked cautiously, wondering how I ever got to this state. Was this a vision?

She smiled, her eyes sparkling, completely erasing all "human" flaws. She looked marvelous, and I watched her in awe. "Between your world and whatever's next."

"What's next?" I asked again.

Her face broke into a wonderful full-toothed smile, and I felt like I had to cover my eyes from the brightness emitting from her. "That's up to you to find out, sweetie. You can leave this in-between with me, and I can take you to what's next, or you can stay here and fight to stay on Earth." She seemed a little saddened at the idea.

Fighting. Thinking. Why? I could stay here.

"This place seems nice," I said tenatively, looking around at the white pillars and the clouds floating around us. Everything was bright and amazingly white here, and I felt oddly at peace, although I had a nagging sense of guilt in the pit of my stomach.

She gave me an odd sort of smile. "Maybe now, but this place isn't safe. This place does not sift through the good and bad souls. Whether or not you're good or bad, if you come here, you're here until you decide what's next."

"Would someone hurt me? I'm half-vampire," I said, looking down at the frothing white floor. I didn't feel like I was standing on something solid, but rather hovering. It felt like I was detatched from my body, which in a way, I was.

Whatever that meant.

She gently ran her fingers through my hair, and I closed my eyes at her touch. Familiar. "Here, you're Seraphina. Not the half-vampire, half-human, or the future-seer, or the imprint of Seth Clearwater. Here, you can be just Sera."

Just me? And what about Seth? His name brought the guilt I was feeling up to the front with a vengeance. I clutched at my stomach, feeling shaky, feeling the odd drapery I was wearing as well. It was soft as a feather and sharp as pine needles, warm like fresh laundry and cold as ice. The sweetest smell on Earth and the most repulsive.

It was everything good and bad in life.

"Seth will miss me," I whispered, feeling a tear drip from my face and onto the frothing floor, disappearing into the clouds.

"Seth will find his way to you, whether it be living or dead. He cannot be without you," she said with a voice like warm honey.

Her voice did the opposite to me though. It made me feel cold – cold, and very very scared. "Will he kill himself?" I squeaked.

She adopted the perfect poker face. "Perhaps," she said off-handedly.

Why was she acting like this? If I had been on Earth, or this had been real life, my palms would have been sweaty, my heart would have been racing, and I probably would have been crying. Seth...dying? Those two didn't connect in my head. Seth was the epitome of life.

"He can't! No, never! Please, whoever you are, can you show me him, wherever he is?" I begged, clutching at her odd robes. I felt her hand float through my hair again, although it didn't have the same comforting effect.

"If you wish to see him, you must fight, Seraphina," she said sadly, taking a step back from me.

"I'm sick of fighting. I don't want to fight! Please, one last time," I said, falling to my knees and pulling her in towards me. She was all I had in this strange world, and if she left, I wouldn't know what to do.

Where did that come from? Fighting? I had never fought in my life. But I wasn't speaking for me. I was having a vision, I was sure of it.

I felt her warm finger slide my chin up to her face. "Earthly woes cannot decide your fate here. You either give up what you have on Earth and live in peace with me, or you can continue your fight on Earth."

My choice. My choice. Why was it my choice? And why did I have to decide to stay or go when I couldn't see Seth or my family or even know why I was fighting in the first place? But I didn't speak for me here.

I pulled myself off of the ground, and stood up to face her. I wiped my tears away with the back of my hand, looking out into the endless distance. Everything was so nice here. Nice, but dangerous. How was it any different that Earth? On Earth, I was a half-vampire. And back on Earth, apparently there was a fight brewing. There was no fighting here. Only peace.

I made up my mind.

I looked back at her face. She was smiling ear to ear, glowing like an angel.

"Come on, sweetie," she said, and offered me her hand. I took it, and began walking with her into the light, envisioning only Seth, one last time. I really would miss him...

"Agh!" I flipped out of bed and landed gracefully onto my feet, pulling myself into a crouch, my heart racing. I growled quietly, my body preparing for a fight...

...that wasn't in my bedroom at the present moment.

What was I doing though? There wasn't a threat. It was a dream.

But I had never had a dream like that! My dreams always took on a wispy quality because nothing was set in stone, but in my dream...it's like it was supposed to be airy and wispy.

Did that mean that it was going to happen for sure?

I didn't know what scared me more – the fact that I was there, the fact that there might be nothing I could do to stop it, or the fact that I actually gave up the fight. I didn't know what I was fighting, but I knew that I couldn't just leave! Especially Seth. I couldn't leave him.

Oh Seth...

I hated my dreams sometimes.

I straightened up thinking about who I should tell without them freaking out. Who could I tell? Claire, maybe, but she would tell Quil and he would definitely would tell Seth. Not Mom or Dad. Uncle Edward might already know. Aunt Bella, maybe. Nessie would tell Jake, and Seth would see it in Jake's head the next time they phased.

It seemed like I couldn't tell anyone. I didn't even know what that dream meant.

I flipped the covers back from my bed, planning on slipping back inside and sleeping for another hour or so.

Until I saw my bed, seeing only red cover my sheets, like something out of a horror movie.

I let out an ear-piercing scream.

Seth POV

It began like any normal day in the Cullen's house. Well, as normal as going to a coven of vampires to visit a supernatural girl who was two and looked twelve could get.

I got there bright and early, like eight in the morning, especially in the summer. Who gets up at 8 in the morning during the summer unless you have an imprint? I walked in without knocking, per usual, because I had long since exceeded my guest status, and found that Esme was cooking chocolate chip pancakes. She made the best ones, even better than my mom's, and that was saying something.

I walked into the dining room table and sat down next to Jake who was talking with Allegra, and Nessie who was talking to Embry. I thought it was nice that everything was okay between them now. Jake at least didn't have the bitter edge to his thoughts anymore. Hey, it was a step, right?

"Hello Seth," Esme said sweetly, walking over with a kitchen apron on and a spatula in hand. She ducked down to kiss my cheek. I smiled widely at her, feeling immediately at home.

"Hey Esme, smells great," I said, and she smiled. "Thank you Seth, they should be ready in a few minutes," she said, and flitted off to go flip the pancakes.

God I loved it here. This was the closest thing I had to home away from La Push. To me, this was home. Especially with Sera, because without her, no where was home.

I was thinking about her like I usually do. Where should I take her today? I know that all the Cullens got back from their trips about a week ago, but I couldn't get enough one-on-one Sera time. She had stopped acting really weird around me, and now, it was more like she blushed when I did certain things, but not much more. I had talked to Leah about it a few months back, and I had gotten my ass chewed out.

"Hello?" Leah said into the phone happily, and I heard Lucas on the other hand screaming "Lee, who dat, who dat!" I smiled. Leah sounded spectacular, like she always did nowadays. And Lucas sounded happy.

"It's the brother," I said, pulling out a wallet picture of Sera. She looked about six in the picture, sitting on my shoulders at La Push beach. She was grinning widely into the camera, her smile so bright she looked like the sun. I was staring up at her with complete adoration, the look that devout people give their gods. She had aged twice that since then. It had been a whole day since I saw her last, and it felt like I was being stabbed over and over again, I missed her so much. But what could I say around her? Ever since I caught her staring at me shirtless when we went fishing, things had been kinda...awkward.

"Hey little brother, what's going on?" she said, and I heard her shift the phone, probably so she could pick up Lucas.

"I need some advice," I said tenatively, chewing my lip.

"Bring it," she said immediately, hearing some more shifting on the other end.

"Lee, what are you doing?" I had to ask, since I didn't wanna call her on a bad time.

"Just – putting – Lucas in his high chair..." she said. And then I heard the phone drop onto the floor.

"Shi – shoot! That wasn't very nice, Lucas. You should know better than to hit phones out of people's hands!" she chastisized, and then I heard the phone being lifted off the floor. Lucas was giggling. "I swear, this kid will kill me. To think I wanted one," she joked, but I heard the love in her voice. I chuckled.

"You don't seem to be suffering," I reminded her, and she laughed.

"Guess not," she said, "Hey, I'm gonna put you down for a few seconds. Let me just get him something to eat."

I agreed, and leaned back into my chair. I heard her conversation with the newly two-year-old.

"Lucas, what do you want to eat?" she asked him, although it was more muffled since I wasn't part of the conversation.

"Circle toast!" he screamed. Circle toast?

"Circle toast for lunch? That's breakfast. How about a sandwich – "

"CIRCLE TOAST!" I winced and pulled the phone away from my ear. That boy had a set of lungs. Must've been genetic. Sam was loud too, except that his true mini-me was Aria with her voice and wicked temper. Mason took after his mother, while Lucas seemed like an even divide.

I heard Leah sigh. "Lucas, your momma's gonna kill me if I feed you waffles for lunch – "

"Lucas want CIRCLE TOAST! CIRCLE TOAST!" Well, that explained the mystery of the circle toast. Poor Leah. She was gonna cave for sure.

Leah sighed again. "Fine, but if I get in trouble, it's on you, kid," she grumbled. I heard more ruffling on the other end.

After a few more seconds, she picked the phone back up. "Sup," she said, although it wasn't as excited as before.

I chuckled. "Circle toast?" I said.

She snorted. "That's what he calls it for some reason, but now he's got us all saying it," she explained, "So what about the advice...?"

"Yeah," I said, my mind sicking back to Sera, "I need some advice with her. She's awkward around me now. She blushes whenever I do something and I catch her staring at me for extended periods of time – "

"You're seriously asking about this?" she snapped immediately. I felt myself pout. What did I do?

"Hey, I don't pretend to understand Sera! Why is she acting like this?" I wined, hitting my head against the wall. Was I that clueless? Was was I missing? I would pay the person who understood Sera. I don't even think Edward understood her, and he read her mind.

"Are you serious, Seth? You practically spelled it out!" She sounded exasperated. I still wasn't following.

"Spelled out what?" I said rather lamely.

I heard her growl on the other end. "Hold on Lucas honey, let me step out of the room for a second," she said with a sugar-sweet voice. I winced. This wasn't going well.

I heard a door open and close. "You're a dipshit," she growled.

"Why?" I complained.

"Oh my god. How did I get related to an idiot? Sera. Likes. You. Things are changing for her – "

"ALREADY?" I squeaked out. What the hell. Seriously? Leah had to be mistaken.

And of course, now that my sister spelled it out, now I saw it. The blushing. The jealousy. It was all there.

I really was a dipshit.

How did I ever pick up women when I wasn't imprinted? Seriously? I was clueless.

"Yeah, already. She's what, like physically ten? Despite popular opinion, most crushes happen during that time," she said in a rather bored voice, which made my lip jut out again.

"Stop talking down on me," I grumbled.

"Fine, whatever, dipshit. I can't believe you called for that. You literally spelled it out – "

"Got it, Leah," I mumbled, rubbing my forehead. I don't think this advice helped, even though I understood now.

"I gotta go back inside," she said, and I heard the door open and close again.

"Okay, love you, sis," I said, despite her namecalling. You had to understand Leah to know that that's how she showed affection.

She sighed. "Love you too. Don't be too much of an idiot. And if you are, tell Jacob that he's acting as my 'hurt-Seth-when-he's-acting-overly-dumb' unit."

"I'll tell him," I grumbled. For a happy person now, she still could be overly-sarcastic Leah.

She chuckled. "Bye, love you," she said, and hung up.

Oh, Leah.

So yeah. If that didn't confuse me more, than I didn't know what did.

It wasn't supposed to happen like that! It was supposed to be me that falls first and then her. But here she was, having a crush on me already, and just the thought of me having a crush on her made me feel like a pedophile.

Then again, there's never been a girl quite like Sera either.

I had been way too caught up thinking about Sera. I felt someone hit me on the back of my head.

"Huh?" I said intelligently, looking around the table and blinking back into reality.

"You were daydreaming!" Allegra said, grinning, sitting on Nessie's lap.

I looked over at Jacob, who had hit me. He was shaking his head. "I've never met someone so spacey in my life. Your pancakes have been sitting in front of you for the past 5 minutes, bro."

I looked down at my pancakes and realized that Jacob and Embry were already halfway done with their meal. I blushed a little bit.

"Um, thanks," I mumbled, grabbing the silverware and began cutting into my delicious-smelling meal.

"Thinking about Sera?" Embry said with a shit-eating grin. I rolled my eyes.

"What else would I think about?" I murmured, taking a bite. I almost moaned. Esme was amazing, truly.

Embry and Jake snickered.

"You know, guys – " Nessie began, but she never finished it.

Because I heard a deafening scream from upstairs.

You lnow those moments in life where it takes you almost zero time to react, but in your mind those moments seem to take forever to play out? I heard every window in my life shatter with that scream, from a voice and a person I knew all too well and cared about more than life itself. I felt my soul tear apart inside me like a savage animal had gotten to it, like it had been fed to a hungry tiger or a bear.

I don't think you know what it's like for an imprinted wolf to hear a scream like that coming from their very reason of existance. Torture. I would drag myself across a dozen sharp knives, light myself on fire, get hit by four buses, and dip myself in acid long before I would ever want to hear that scream ever escape my imprint's lips.

I shot out of my chair, flinging it toward the opposite wall and splintering it to nothing. I shot upstairs at a speed that would rival a vampire's, feeling some vampires close on my tail.

I burst through the door not five seconds after the scream. The door fell uselessly to the ground, the sound it made sounding closer to a gunshot than anything.

The first thing I saw was Sera, staring wide-eyed at her bed. Standing. That was good. Standing was good. It meant that she wasn't physically hurt.

I almost begged to differ when I saw all the blood.

There was blood, everywhere. All over her sheets, her white nightgown, covering her entire lower half. It was a sea of red, so bad I thought she got stabbed.

I was never religious, but I sent a prayer up to God as I ran over to my imprint and lifted her into my arms. God, if you're listening, make her be okay. Make Sera be perfect like she usually is...

She clutched at her stomach. "Agh, it hurts," she muttered, her forehead falling to my chest. My heart sprinted into double time.

I saw Jacob and Nessie and Embry and Allegra standing at the foot of the stairs. When they saw her, they all let out a collective gasp. Allegra whimpered.

"Carlisle, Edward, someone," I choked out as Sera let out another whimper.

"Give her to me," said a ringing voice behind Nessie.

Rosalie flitted to my side and automatically took Sera into her arms. "You have a medical degree?" I asked, feeling unsure. My imprint was covered with blood, after all.

"Yes," she responded, and took her into Carlisle's office, and I followed close behind. That is, until Nessie stopped me with her hand.

"What are you doing?" I asked, shocked.

"Rose is gonna be examining her lower half, Seth," Nessie explained, raising her eyebrow at me.

"So? She could be dying," I choked out, my heart stuttering and my stomach dropping somewhere at my feet. I didn't register anything Renesmee was saying to me.

Nessie patted my shoulder. "I have a sneaking suspicion I know what it is," she told me, sighing.

I was about to ask her what she knew when she stepped away from me and into Carlisle's office and shut the door.

I stared at the barrier between me and my imprint, my mouth hanging open, just like how Nessie had left me hanging. I had no idea what was wrong with Sera, or if she would be okay. All I had to do was wait.

Easier said than done.

Sera POV

"It hurts," I moaned, my head baging on the examining table. It felt like that one time when Emmett tackled me during football, his shoulder going straight into my gut. It hurt, a lot. My dad almost ripped off Uncle Emmett's arm, and when Daddy told Seth what happened, he glared at Emmett for three days after that, and whenever Emmett tried ot speak to Seth, it came it in short, clipped, angry tones, tones I had never even known Seth was possible of making.

This kinda felt like that, Uncle Emmett's shoulder in my gut. Except with blood.

I was scared. I had never seen this much blood in my life, and this was coming from someone who lived with vampires. I was glad I wasn't appealing to them.

"Sera, I'm going to lift your dress, sweetie," Aunt Rose said, patting my shoulder. I nodded in consent. She used to bathe me, after all. I didn't care, especially if I had an open gash from my stomach.

She carefully lifted my dress, looked for a second, and pulled it back down. I furrowed my eyebrows. That was it?

Agh, another punching-feeling in my stomach. I clutched it uselessly, like it would help.

"What's wrong with me?" I choked out. A particularly bad one hit me, and I curled my legs into my body. I didn't even notice Nessie was here until she said something.

"They're bad for hybrids, I would know," she said beside me, rubbing my shoulder. My jaw dropped a little bit.

"What's wrong with me?" I demanded.

Nessie rolled her eyes. "Chill, Sera. You're not dying."

Dying sent a chill reminder of my dream earlier. I shuddered.

"Sera, it's our fault for not explaining it to you," Rosalie explained, patting my head. I raised my eyebrow just as Grandma, Bella, and Mom walked in.

"Oh honey, we're sorry," Mom said, racing over to hug me. I hugged her back tenatively since I didn't know why she was apologizing. Why would she be apologizing?

"I think she's confused," Bella whispered to Grandma. I nodded in agreement.

"I am. Why am I bleeding everywhere?" I asked. Another punching feeling. I had to bite back my groan.

"Sweetie, I think it's time we give you 'the talk,'" Grandma said sympathetically. The talk? Talk about what?

"What you're having is a period," Nessie explained a little bluntly.

My mouth dropped again. And then I blushed. And then I furrowed my eyebrows.

Well, at least I wasn't dying. At least I understood.

"Why don't you take a shower, and then we'll talk?" Bella suggested, "A nice ol' long one. It'll help."

I nodded woodenly. So I wasn't stabbed, beaten, or had an organ punctured. I was normal. This was normal.

Well, maybe not to this extent, but it was normal.

Maybe? Kinda.

I slid off the table slowly, even by human standards. I had five pairs of arms rush over to help me, but I waved them away. "Thanks, you guys. I got this."

"We'll talk when you get back," Mom promised, giving me a hug with one arm. Another punching feeling. Ouch.

I winced around my pain. "Okay, I'll return in a few minutes," I said, and walked slowly to the bathroom.

I had barely opened the door when Seth almost fell face-first inside, much to my embarrassment. I was still covered with blood. "Sera!" he said with relief.

"I'm okay," I muttered, trying to look anywhere but at his face. I could feel my eyebrows winding together and my face turning crimson. Greaaaaaaat.

"Honey, what's wrong? Oh god, please tell me. Why are you covered in blood? Was it someone else's?" he added with a lower voice. My jaw dropped with shock. Was he serious?

"Wha – no! No Seth, I did not get covered in someone else's blood," I scoffed. Did he really think so lowly of me?

"Okay, okay," he said, backing up and throwing his hands up in surrender. I shook my head at him.

"I'm going to the bathroom," I said as a way of goodbye. As much as I loved and adored Seth, this was too awkward.

"Wait Sera, hold on," he said, grabbing my shoulder, "What happened?"

My face probably looked like a tomato. Oh body, why? "Seth..." I muttered.

"What?" he begged, giving me that face, the puppy-dog face I couldn't resist. Darn it all!

"Think about it," I muttered, looking down at my ankles. Ground, if you're listening, this would be a perfect time to open your great mouth and eat me whole. I would go willingly. "I'm physically around twelve now. Don't you remember Leah growing up? What do girls this age get in order to transcend into 'womanhood'?" I air-quoted. This was so embarrassing.

His eyes widened in shock, and then he blushed deeply. Guess he got it. "I – uh, oh. That, uh, makes sense. Okay, um – I'm just gonna...go..." he muttered, jerking his thumb in the direction he was going. I nodded, although it probably seemed more like a head jerk.

So embarrassing.

"Yep," I said, and I practically ran to the bathroom.

The girls could come in here to talk to me. I wasn't ready to go out and face Seth, possibly ever. That probably was the most embarrassing moment of my very short life.

The joys of being a hybrid.

A/N: After this, onto the teen years!

This chapter was short, but it has meaning.

I'll see you next time. ;)

-Chels.