THE PREFACE PLOT

[Amanda Lange]

"We ought to think that we are one of the
leaves of a tree, and the tree is all
humanity. We cannot live without
the others, without the tree."
- Pablo Casals

01.22.09

Five years have passed since the Volturi encounter in the clearing. Our lives went on as usual, though nothing and yet everything has changed. My mother and father's lives have been...well, pure bliss.
Of course I realize now, nothing lasts forever. I say this because I seem to be the "only one" who's noticed that mom's been acting odd. She seems stressed out and no matter how many times I ask, she won't tell me the problem. Not that she hasn't denied there being a problem in the first place. It must not be too bad, otherwise dad would be a lot worse.
He tends to be borderline paranoid at times. Aunt Rose is starting to annoy me, I swear she hovers more than anyone I know. Wait- that's not true. Jacob is the most over-protective person I know, he can be the definition of an annoyance at times.

Carlisle has been searching for evidence of any type of shape-shifter in history, as well as the 'children of the moon'. Esme redecorated the cottage yet again. My room alone in the past several months has gone through hundreds of "new looks"! As for Alice and Jazz, Alice has been trying to coax me into wasting more money on expensive clothes I'll grow out of in the next month, while Jazz just tries to keep everyone calm and in check. Emmett won't let up on his semi-grudge against my mom because of those idiotic arm-wrestling matches. Rosalie - like I said, she hovers.

Lately mom and dad have been talking a lot with Alice, from what I can tell, something is wrong, I'm positive of that.
Typically they try to keep me here with the family, where as now, they've been urging me to spend more time at La Push with Jacob and the packs. The only thing that could have them so stressed out is the inevitable . . . the Volturi.

I've shown Jacob my theories and now I think I've given him a heavy amount of anxiety. The Volturi has been very cruel from what I've over-heard. While in the Amazon, Zafrina said the Volturi had tracked Nahuel's father, Joham, down leaving Jane and Alec to handle his execution. Soon after, his oldest daughter (that we know of), was found, then burnt to ashes. The Romanians are pressing other covens to prepare themselves for a drag out war. . .
Will our problems ever end?
Though it's what Jacob told me that somehow has me far more concerned. A full moon occurred the other night, which was normally is something to gaze at. Only this time there was an unrecognizable howl coming from deep in the forest, near the Olympic mountains. It wasn't another shifter, that much he could tell, but it very loud and hard to tell where exactly it came from. By the time they reached the area to investigate, whatever it was, was long gone. The scent was all that lingered, and it was more wolf than anything else. What had worried him was the fact it wasn't an isolated scent...great, it has friends.
Real children of the moon - a pack of them. You would think our lives couldn't get any worse right? Just this morning Alice warned us of incoming visitors. Not the Volturi (thank goodness), but the woman who turned Jasper into a vampire - Maria. She's to arrive with her 'new family' so she says, none he recognizes and Jazz is obviously skeptical. He'd told her never to contact him again, but there must be a reason why she'd come up to Forks.

Everything is changing. If Vladimir and Stefan are right, and a war is coming, along with these unexpected people finding their way here...which obstacle can we take on first?

As if I didn't have my own problems. . .