User blog:Scarly/Puzzle Pieces: Chapter 1

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 Chapter One

A Strange Occurrence

In the tall marble throne room, of the Volturi, the three leaders Aro, Cauis and Marcus sat on their thrones, watching a crowd of, in their opinion, pitiful humans beg for their lives, as their guards drained them of their life blood. A crowd of 20, had been reduced to 0, as the last bloodless body was released from Jane's grasp. Aro looked at them with disappointment. He wished for some to live, but of course, the lust for blood was too strong. He couldn't blame them for that. If he were offered a feast, and were asked to let one live, he wouldn't be able to find the strength to let them go. Jane, Alec and Felix stood before them, as they regained their composure.

"I'm sorry, Lord Aro, we have failed," Alec said, not allowing him to look up into the eyes of Aro.

"Do not trouble yourself with those thoughts," Aro said, waving his hand as if to dismiss the words themselves. "We will try again tomorrow, of course." Aro dismissed them, with a smile that lasted until they had left the room.

"It is quite troubling," Marcus said, once the sound of the three's footsteps had died down. "If we are to extract proper revenge, we need some of the food to live." Marcus stood up, walking past the pile of bloodless corpses.

"Do not fret, we will get our revenge, one way or another," Aro replied.

* * *

A rare occurrence happened at the Cullen household, and it wasn't Renesmee admitting she draws too much attention to herself, it was that the family actually received not one letter but two. Normally the mailman didn't come this way, or even know where exactly they lived. As Carlisle took them from the mailman, he turned over the envelopes, noticing that one envelope looked like parchment, but the other was ordinary paper. The latter was addressed to the whole family, but the former to Carlisle.

"Who was that at the door?" Esme called from the living room, with her gentle voice.

"A very strange visitor, the mailman," Carlisle said, in a rather cheery tone.

"Oh, that is very strange indeed," Esme replied, wondering if he was actually joking or not.

As Carlisle sat beside her on the sofa, he gave her the envelope made of regular paper. Both Carlisle and Esme opened the envelope in their respective hands, and read them in silence.

"Oh, dear," they both said, at the same time. Both of their voices filled with concern.

The golden eyes of Carlisle met the gaze of the golden eyes of Esme. Both could tell, that the other had not read good news.

"You first," Carlisle said, being the gentleman he was. He would much rather Esme speak first, than him have to tell her what he had just read right away.

"This," Esme said, returning her gaze to the letter in her hand. "Is a wedding invitation."

"That doesn't seem so bad," Carlisle said, his lips curving up at the edge. But, he knew that his wife wouldn't sound nearly as concerned, if it was just a simple wedding invitation.

"Jacob has sent us an invitation to his wedding, to Leah," Esme replied, while showing him the letter.

Carlisle's smile soon vanished. He knew, that if Renesmee heard of this, she would be more intolerable to live with than she is already. Esme returned the invitation to the envelope, deciding that they they will discuss this with everyone else, once their attention seeking granddaughter was asleep. As much as they cared for her, they had to admit that she was a very selfish little girl.

With a graceful pirouette, Alice twirled into the room, with her usual carefree smile, followed by her long suffering husband Jasper, whom had never quite learned to resist human blood. Agile Alice came to a stop before them.

"I had a vision, I thought you both should know about it," Alice told them.

"It will have to wait a little while longer, because we have important news," Carlisle replied. "Jasper, could you fetch the others?"

No sooner had Jasper left, did Renesmee walk into the room, with an expression that any spoilt child would have, if they were denied something they had demanded. Her arms were folded across her chest, and she refused to listen to any thing that anyone had to say. Alice chose to ignore her while she was like this, since giving her attention was what she wanted.

"Nessie, why don't you go outside to play?" Esme said, with her kind loving tone.

"I don't want to," Renesmee snapped. She wouldn't even look at Esme either.

"Nessie, do as your told," Edward told his daughter. He was followed into the room by Bella.

Renesmee telepathically told him to go do something, that he didn't feel like sharing with everyone else in the room.

"Do it, or your dinner will be steamed vegetables," Edward threatened.

Renesmee looked to her mother to come to her rescue, since Renesmee pretty much had Bella wrapped around her little finger anyway.

Bella shook her head. "For once, I agree with your father, now go outside and play," Bella said.

Renesmee glared at all of them, then stormed outside. Not long after, Jasper returned with Emmett and Rosalie - judging by how messy Rosalie's hair was, they weren't studying in their room. Knowing that it was all important, or they sensed as much, everyone sat down. In a unified, yet segregated way. Bella and Edward sat beside each other on a two seater sofa, Alice sat cross legged on the futon like footstool with Jasper sat beside her, Rosalie sat on an armchair, while Emmett perched his backside on the arm, Carlisle and Esme remained in their current seats.

"Firstly, the reason I asked Nessie to go outside and play, is because I don't think she would want to hear what I have to tell you," Esme said, while retrieving the invitation from the envelope once more. "Jacob has invited us to his and Leah's wedding." Esme handed the invitation to Bella.

It was passed around to everyone, so they could all read it. Some were surprised, no more so than Alice. Her first reaction, was how she possibly couldn't have foreseen this, but then she remembered that her visions didn't show anything to do with werewolves.

"Is that all you called us down for?" Rosalie asked, when the invitation was handed to her.

Emmett was looking over her shoulder, to read the invitation. "Yeah, doesn't seem that urgent to me."

"That wasn't the only letter we received," Carlisle cut in. "The Volturi has sent me a letter. They wish to visit us, to discuss a matter of importance."

"Just like my vision!" Alice interrupted. "The one I was going to tell you about. I foresaw all of us - minus Nessie because I can never see her in my visions, all on the porch, waiting as Jane, Alec and Felix approached the house."

"Well, it seems that your vision may be correct, Alice, since they are coming the day after tomorrow," Carlisle replied.

"They're not going to try to pick a fight with us again, are they?" Jasper asked. "Because two days isn't enough time to prepare."

"I don't foresee a fight," Alice said, answering his question. "But, that might be because they haven't made a decision yet, or they'll possibly see how we react to their arrival."

"That could be it," Edward said. He was distracted by listening to everyone else's thoughts. "They know of your foresight, Alice. So, making a cast iron decision would be very risky for them. That would give us a chance to prepare. If they wish to attack, they know that the element of surprise would be the best strategy."

The eight of them discussed this further, talking about all possible motives that the Volturi could have, ranging from the likely revenge for their false accusation of Renesmee being an immortal child, to the unlikely that they are stopping by for a regular visit. None of them could agree on what it could possibly be. When Renesmee stormed in, demanding attention, they decided that it would be best to just wait for them to arrive with an open mind. Rash decisions wouldn't do them anything but harm, after all.

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