Prologue: Premonitions

They were lying, dead and broken on the floor. All of them. A sea of other bodies surrounded them, all as lifeless as the next. A group of pale-skinned, red-eyed men stood in one corner of the room, surveying the mess. One spoke, his voice muddy and indistinct. The world blurred, shifting to a new setting. A brightly lit room, dozens of the same beautiful, crimson eyed people standing in loose groups. An ancient man beckoning for me to come closer. Welcome to the Voltouri, dearest. The dead bodies facing me, bloodless skin dripping from angered corpses. Peyton. Oh, God, no, not Peyton. Please, please, no, no, no. Anyone but Peyton. Mommy and Daddy there too, oh God! dead, all of them. No, no, no. Walking toward me. How could this, Oh God! I was next wasn't I? God, God, God, take me, take me, oh but spare Peyton, anything to bring him back. No. Oh no. The paper-skinned man bending toward me. Peyton! No, oh, oh, oh, please, leave us be. Peyton standing next to me. Oh God, Peyton! Am I dead or you alive?? Oh, please no. Burning pain, surging through me, the man gripping me with his teeth of all things. Please, please, please just give Peyton his life back. My brother's hand on my shoulder, shaking me. Emmy, Emmy, no, wake up, please, what's wrong Emmy? Peyton? But you were dead! Oh Peyton! Floating away in the fire in my veins. Save Mommy and Daddy, will you? Emmy, what are you talking about? Oh, God, they're dead already, aren't they. No, no, no!
Emmy, please stop, what are you talking about? Drowning, falling through the black waters, Peyton disappearing from my view. Emmy! So far away now. Even the ice-black water cannot quench the flames. Oh, Dear God! Is this death? Just save Peyton, don't let him be dead too. Oh, oh, no. No, no, no, no. Fading now. Everything is so dark, all alone, floating away -

"Emmy!" His familiar voice broke through the waves of pain and ice surrounding me. My eyes flew open and I sat straight up, gasping. He held me close. "Oh, God, Emmy. You were scaring me. Oh, Em, oh, Em." he murmured, rocking me back and forth in his strong grip. The hotel room was dark, the bedclothes wrapped awkwardly around my body, making me uncomfortable. Peyton held me like that for a moment more, then pulled back, anxious eyes searching my face for answers I knew I didn't have. "Emmy, little Emmy, what were you seeing?" He didn't bother to ask me what I had dreamed anymore - he knew I wouldn't answer.

I buried my head in his shoulder, feeling pathetic as tears slipped out. "You and Mommy and Daddy were, were, were all d-d-dead. And tons of other people, too. And these men, they were just standing off to the side looking at it like, like, it was so, so, so routine! And then I was standing in a different room with them and some women too, and they all had red eyes, Peyton! Red eyes! And an old man was asking me to come closer and I, I, I thought you were dead, and then I was drowning and, and, and..." I broke down into sobs, unable to bring myself to say anything more. He held me tighter, his strong arms so reassuring against my fears. My brother and I sat there for what seemed like forever, just listening to the silence.

"How often have you seen this one?" Peyton was the only one who knew about my 'talent'.

"Lots. This was the clearest its been, though."

"So, when, do you think...? Soon?"

"Yeah. Too soon. We have to make Mommy and Daddy get out of here. If we don't...We're just not safe here anymore."

"You really believe this, don't you?"

"Peyton, don't you remember the car accident?"

"The one where you told Dad to stay home because you had a cold and one of his carpooling friends called from the hospital saying they had gotten in an accident?" He was silent for a moment, thinking. "You told me the day before that you had a daydream about it. Is this the same?" His tone questioned my sanity.

I pulled away from him. "Peyton, I don't care if you think I'm crazy! You just have to trust me about this, ok? We have to get out of here!"

My adoptive brother sighed, and stood up off the edge of my bed. He glanced at the clock. It read 4:59 a.m. "Come on, Em. I'll get you a glass of water and we can watch some T. V." Poor Peyton. He put up with so much from me, and I wasn't even really his sister.

"It's all in Italian, though!" I complained.

"That's what makes it funny." He smiled, offering me his hand.

I was in the kitchen - Peyton was still in the other room trying to find a program in English - washing out my glass when the knock on the door came. I called to Peyton, "I'll get it!" I wanted to do something nice for him for once, rather than him being the one caring for me.

As I walked to the door, a warning went off in my head. I ignored it. The knocking came again, louder this time. "I'm coming!" I yelled. Sheesh! These stupid Italians! They were all so impatient!

"Hello? Who's out there?" I called through the whitewashed door.

"Polize." A gruff man's voice, heavily accented, replied.

Oh shit! What could the want? I opened the door, and came face to face with two pale, red eyed men in police uniforms. I froze.

"We would like to speak to your parents. Are they in?" The one who had spoken before asked.

"Uh." I said, scared out of my mind.

"We would really like to speak with them." The man said again.

I concentrated as hard as I could, pulling together what bravery I still had. "Yeah, hold on, let me go get them. They're still asleep." I whispered. The men both nodded.

I ran into one of the back rooms of our suite. Mommy and Daddy were asleep under the covers of their bed. "Daddy! Daddy!" I called, startling them both awake. "Daddy, the police are here and they said they want to talk to you and Mommy. They didn't tell me what they want. I don't think you should go talk to them."

"Don't be silly, Emily!" Mommy said groggily. "I'm sure they're fine."

"No, you don't understand! I, I don't think they're actually cops! I think they want to kill you!" I whispered, feeling ridiculous.

Daddy got out of bed and put a firm hand on my shoulder. He got down on his knees to look me in the eyes. "Now, Emily, honey, your mother and I understand that you went through some very serious trauma as a little girl before we adopted you, but these men are here to help us. You have to try to get past your fears, Em."

"Daddy, please! Something is very wrong with them!"

"Emily! That's enough! Now we're going to go talk with them and you'll see that everything is just fine!" He and Mommy stood and started for the hotel room's front door, walking past me without even glancing in my direction. Like they were in a trance.

I ran out of the room, sobbing. Peyton caught me as I flew into the living room. "Emmy! What's wrong?!"

"My-my d-d-dream is coming true again! The people that just came to the door are going to kill them and you and probably me too, but Daddy won't listen!"

"Em, calm down! I'm sure everything is fine. It was only a dream after all."

I flung myself down on the couch, near hysterics. "You're all going to DIE because you just won't listen to me!" Peyton pulled me into another hug, but I refused to listen to him, wallowing in my fear and pain.

Minutes or hours later, I didn't know, I heard Daddy call out. "Peyton, come here, they would like to talk to you, too." Peyton rose, his eyes slightly glazed over, pushing me roughly aside. I fought to hold on to him.

"Peyton, no, please don't go! Please listen to me!" He pushed me off without a word and strode out of the room. I collapsed on the floor, my tears rolling silently down my cheeks, burning like fire as they went. Sometime later the two men walked in. They faced me.

"Come with us." The gruff man who had spoken to me first said. I shook my head vehemently.

The second man spoke for the first time, his voice musical and beautiful. I felt calm spreading over me. I fought it. "Dearest, please come with us."

"I will not!" I cried.

"Aro will not be pleased with her." Man number one said. Dimly, I realized that he was speaking in English. That was odd. Shouldn't Italian police speak in Italian.

"Quite to the contrary, I think. He will want to change her."

"You're probably right."

"I know I'm right."

"I'm NOT GOING WITH YOU!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. I had no idea what he ment by 'change her' but I didn't want to find out. The men laughed and walked over to me. Then the world went black.

AN: Yay! this is by far my favorite fanfiction that I've written so far. It gets better, so please keep reading and reviewing! And yes, the begining is really OOC, but I promise, it will get more Twilight-y later on. Oh, and I don't own any of the character's that appear in the twilight series. Just in case you wanted to know. XD

-BMTW