𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍;
HAPPILY NEVER AFTER

— IF REESE LOGAN HAD been told three months — or even three days — ago that she would be sitting in an empty classroom watching Emmett Cullen struggle to reveal that he was a vampire, she would have laughed in your face. But, there she was, tapping her fingers in a rhythmic pattern on the desk top waiting for him to get the words out. He paced in front of her, running a hand through his dark, curly hair letting out a deep sigh every once in a while.

"So," he finally began, setting himself in the chair opposite her. "We need to talk."

"About what exactly?" Reese played dumb, raising an eyebrow at his assumption.

"You saw something when you touched my hand," he frowned in thought. "I don't know what you saw, but it was enough to scare you. You looked like you were staring death in the face."

"Was I?" Reese said without missing a beat.

Emmett didn't talk for a moment, letting her words bounce around his head before continuing. "Yes."

Reese swallowed thickly, forcing herself to remain calm and collected not wanting him to know just how scared she really was. So what she was a first born witch with powers that could split the Earth in half and raise the dead, Reese Logan was still afraid of monsters. Especially monsters who looked as nice as Emmett Cullen did. Then again, she thought, that was probably part of it; if he wore his fangs on his sleeve then how would he be able to integrate himself into a community. People trusted people who looked liked them, and if his kind stood out it would probably be harder to find a meal — the idea alone that she could be considered food caused a shudder to run down the length of her spine. 

"I did see something when you grabbed me,"Reese dropped her gaze down to her fingers, pretending to be enamored by the chipping paint. "I saw things, memories. Your memories."

Emmett paled — if that was possible, given his current lack of vitamin d. "What exactly did you see?"

Reese pulled the memories that didn't belong to her to the front of the mind, rubbing her temples as images flashed behind her closed eyelids. "I saw a bear and a woman with blonde hair. I felt fire and a body trying to heal itself. I saw golden eyes and pale skin. I saw speed and strength unmatched by any human. I saw years pass and only clothes change," she opened her eyes, looking directly into his. "I saw you" 

"So you know?"

"I need to hear you say it," Reese whispered. "If you don't come right out and say it then I will continue to play into this allusion. Emmett, what are you?"

"A vampire," he mumbled, not meeting her eyes when he heard the shaky intake of her breath. "I'm so sorry, Reese, I didn't want it to be like this."

She laughed humorlessly. "Like what? You just thought that I wouldn't eventually find out, thought I wouldn't notice something off about you? I'm not stupid, Emmett—"

"I'm not saying you are," he was quick to try and defuse her anger, but her heart was beating quickly and she could feel the magic rushing through her veins, heightened by her emotions. "I just hoped you wouldn't."

"So," Reese clenched her fists. "You were going to ignore telling me that you drink blood in your spare time, and hope that you wouldn't have to tell me?"

"Not people," Emmett denied. "We don't do that. We only hunt animals, call us vegetarians if you'd like."

"Wow, that makes me feel so much better," her words were sharp and her ears were starting to ring. "It's like swimming with sharks, their main prey is fish but you know what, that leg is starting to look really tasty."

Emmett glared at her. "Stop insulting me."

Reese leaped up from her seat, her green eyes blazing. "What should I do then? Just smile and act like everything is sunshine and daisies? I'm coping with this, Emmett, because it's a little hard to wrap my mind around the fact that the guy who gave me a pen when I forgot one and tried to comfort me when I felt like the world was crushing me and likes more Elvis songs than Can't Help Falling In Love is the same guy who could rip me in half no sweat?"

"I'm still that guy, Reese," he stood up, crossing the space between them and reaching for the hand that had held his only a few days ago. "I would never hurt you, you have to believe me."

"Don't touch me right now," she lurched backwards, the ringing in her ears getting louder. "This is too much."

Emmett was getting frustrated. "I can't change what I am, Reese, sorry if that bothers you—"

"No, no, what bothers me is that it was right in front of me and I didn't know," she was talking about the cold one in the prophecy, not that he knew that, which was apparent given the confused look on his face. "I was so caught up in all this shit and trying to figure it out and you were right there!"

"What are you talking about, how would you have known," Emmett motioned to the school around them. "I've been here for a while, and no one else knows, so why should you?"

"Because I'm different!" She screeched and then clutched her ears. "God, don't you hear that!"

"Hear what, Reese," the frustration was replaced with concern. "I don't hear anything."

"It feels like my head is being split open," tears from the pain blinded her. "How can you not hear it!"

Emmett was in front of her quickly, hands on the side of her face and she was in too much pain to tear herself away. "Reese, you need to calm down. You're working yourself up."

Reese let out a little cry and dropped to her knees, the ringing turned to voices. Hundreds of them trying to speak all at once, shouting at her, screaming that the prophecy was beginning; the chosen one will free us they called. It was too much for Reese. "Shut up," she whispered, behind the voices she could vaguely hear Emmett trying to calm her down. "Shut up, shut up, shut up!"

Her palms slammed onto the tiled floor, a wave of energy passing through her. Reese watched through hooded eyelids as desks slammed into the wall on the other side of the room, papers swirled around her and the windows shattered. Emmett Cullen stared at her with wide eyes, her magic having been strong enough to throw him away from her. The voices settled down, their whispers sinking back behind the wall she kept them. 

"Oh my god," she looked at the destruction she caused and then to Emmett. "Oh my god, Emmett, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to."

Her lip wobbled when she saw the destruction she caused and the way he was looking at her. Reese peeled herself off the ground and bolted out of the room, shoving past the desks that had piled up against the door and broke into a full sprint when she was in the hallway. Her lungs burned as she hyperventilated and her chest contracted from the tears. She was ashamed, and that feeling gave space for the darkness to expand. It flowed through her, suffocating her. It wrapped it's tendrils of pain and sadness around her, constricting her breathing. Reese felt all the grief and anger she'd been bottling up begin to spill over; her body shook as the magic came out of her in waves. Reese couldn't believe what she'd done, after all the shit she'd given Emmett about him being a monster she went and ripped a classroom apart and had Emmett been human she probably would have killed him. That thought alone made the darkness stronger.

She kicked the front entrance open, shoving past a few students who got sick of waiting in their cars and decided to venture inside. Flynn O'Connell was one of them. Her blue eyes watched her friend in shock as Reese pushed her out of the way and continued running. Flynn shouted at her, but Reese didn't stop. Her feet pounded against the pavement, the rain slapping against her coat and drenching her hair. As she passed the cars, alarms began to blare from the uncontrollable energy coursing through her. Reese ran without a set destination in mind, only stopping when she was surrounded by trees and far enough away from her peers that she couldn't hurt them. She leaned against a tree, her fingernails digging into the bark painfully. The oak began to wilt, turning a pitch black as it died. Reese cried loudly as she backed away, killing another when she touched it. She crumbled into a ball on the soft, wet moss letting her tears mix with the rain water. The ground around her began to dry out, losing all moisture regardless of the rain. Reese's darkness was effecting her magic and she didn't know how to make it stop.

Her throat was beginning to close as her powers pulsed under her skin, desperate for a release. Reese sat up and leaned back on her knees. Her breathing became labored and before she could stop herself, she was screaming. Cries of frustration and anger exiting her mouth; and with it her magic found a way out. It tore through her, the darkness that attacked and overpowered it causing things to blacken. Reese screamed until her lungs ran out of oxygen and her throat was raw. When she stopped, she looked around and let when she had done set in. Reese had ruined the greenery that was close to her.

"I'm a monster," she whispered, holding a dead piece of moss in her fingers as her cries escalated. 

"Reese!" A voice shouted from somewhere close by, Reese's eyes widened. They couldn't see what she'd done. "Reese?"

Flynn O'Connell broke through the dry brush and found Reese in the middle of a murder scene — of course the victims were plants, but that didn't matter to her. Her blue eyes widened in shock when he saw what her friend had done, but she didn't focus on it for too long. The moss crunched as she got closer to the disheveled witch, but Reese didn't acknowledge her, her attention on her pruned fingers: the fingers that turned life into nothing but darkness. 

"I was wrong, Flynn," Reese cried, looking at the human with tears streaming down her cheeks. "I was wrong!"

"Wrong about what?" Flynn asked calmly, kneeling down in front of her.

"Emmett's not the monster," she wailed. "I am!"

Flynn stared at her in surprise. "You're not a monster, Reese—"

"Yes I am!" She denied, waving her arms around to motion to the black plants. "I did this! I destroyed a classroom and flung Emmett away from me! If he was human I would have killed him!"

A second figure burst through the trees, and Reese's cries grew in volume when she saw Emmett. Flynn looked like she wanted to tell him to get lost, but his amber eyes were stuck on the struggling girl. Flynn watched him cautiously as he moved forward until he was squatting in front of Reese, and reached out and let his hand hold Reese's, tightening his grip when she tried to pull away. Flynn's eyes widened as his skin stayed pale and his eyes stayed gold. The darkness that was emitting from Reese — that probably would have killed Flynn — did nothing. The magic that had destroyed the forest, couldn't break him. "Reese, look at me. Nothing is happening, you can't hurt me."

Reese stared at their clasped hands in awe; she didn't kill him. Their fingers were entwined and nothing happened. Her magic didn't touch him, he didn't crumble to dust like the moss or wither away to nothing like the trees. Emmett Cullen just continued to hold her tightly, anchoring her to the world. She immediately felt guilty for everything she'd said to him in the classroom, where her fears caused words she didn't mean to spew from her lips. 

"Did you mean it?" Reese whispered, her green eyes looking into his golden ones. "When you said you wouldn't hurt me?"

"Yes," Emmett answered firmly. "I could never hurt you, Reese."

For the first time in a long time — since Paul and Mallory's death, since her move to Forks, since learning about the curse that was going to take her life — her lung didn't feel like they were being crushed by the weight of the world and for the first time in a long time, Reese Logan felt alright. Not good. Not better. Not even fine. Just alright; but that was progress in her mind. And for the first time in over a month, Reese Logan smiled. It was more than a pathetic twitch of her lips but less than a real smile; it could barely be constituted as a smile, but it was all Reese could manage. Her muscles almost didn't remember how to do it, but for a split second they lifted and she couldn't help but cling to him tighter. 

His free hand cradled her cheek, and she leaned into his touch; the contact meant something different for them. For Reese, it was a reminder that just because she could do horrible things it didn't mean she was a bad person and for Emmett, Reese Logan was a tether to humanity — something that he hadn't had in a long time. They stayed there on the forest floor, comforted by the presence of one another and they were both so lost in their own thoughts that they didn't notice Flynn slip back through the brush and head towards the school, and they especially didn't notice the darkness around them disappearing and the life that Reese had taken being restored.  

□ □ □ □ □ □ □ □

— AFTER THE WHOLE CLASSROOM and killing hundred of trees, Emmett and Reese decided to ditch the rest of the school day to talk about things; thing being how Reese had done what she had and how Emmett had gotten to be the way he was. They occupied a booth in Paula's Diner, seated across from each other and far away from the other occupants of the restaurant. Reese nibbled on some fries and slurped on a milkshake while Emmett sat there with his hands folded and eyes watching her thing fingers meticulously pluck another fry.

"You really can't eat regular food?" Reese asked after swallowing. 

"I can," to prove his point, Emmett stole a fry and chewed on it thoughtfully. "It just kind of tastes like dirt."

"That's sad," Reese mumbled, and looked at him with her sad, green eyes. "Do you miss it? Food, I mean, like pasta and cake?"

Emmett nodded. "Yeah, but not as much as sleeping. Sometimes, if no one's home, I'll lay on the couch and pretend. I just kind of close my eyes and try and remember what it was like to dream. It's been a while."

"I don't like sleeping," Reese whispered, picking at her chipping blue nail polish. "I have nightmares."

"Every night?" When she nodded he pressed further. "What about?"

Reese gulped, not liking dwelling on it too much. Thinking about her nightmares made her remember them, and remembering made her head hurt. But her and Emmett were trying this new thing called being honest. After all, he'd told her he was a vampire and he watched her destroy a classroom with her hands. So, Reese swallowed her fear and started talking. "Mostly my ancestors, sometimes my parents. It's a lot of death."

"Your ancestors?" Emmett asked. "Why them?"

Time to come clean, Reese thought. She took a deep breath and spoke. "Remember when you gave me a ride home and I told you about how I was looking into my ancestors and learned they were witches?" She continued when he nodded. "Well, um, I'm like them. A witch."

"You're a witch?" Emmett stared at her in shock. "Really?"

"Mhmm, I'm a cauldron boiling, spell casting, something wicked this way comes, witch," she picked up another french fry, and examined it to avoid looking at him "My family in particular has this curse, where people we love die. My aunt lost her husband. My mom lost my dad. My grandma lost my grandpa. And so on so forth"

"What about you? Have you lost anyone?"

"Besides my parents?" Reese shook her head. "No. But I'm different."

"You said that earlier," Emmett recounted their conversation from school. "When you said you should have known what I am."

Reese sighed. "There's this prophecy, where the chosen one breaks the curse with the help of a cold one. I knew what I was looking for, and I didn't even realize. I'm the chosen one, destined to save my family, and if this goes the way it should then I won't lose any one."

Reese chose to leave out the minor fact that while she wouldn't lose anyone, it wasn't because the curse would be broken and she could love freely, it was because she would be dead. Opting out of telling him was a mercy, because if he knew the truth he might try to find a way to save her. And, to be completely frank, Reese didn't want to be saved. She just wanted to slip away and find peace. Somewhere where her magic didn't cause damage because of the pain she was bottling up. Somewhere where she could be happy without it all having a catch or be ripped away from her. So, Reese kept her mouth shut.

"Wow," Emmett whistled lowly. "So you're going to save everyone?"

I'm not going to save me, Reese thought to herself. "Yeah, something like that."

"That's bad ass," Emmett laughed, smiling at her. 

"You sound like Flynn," Reese rolled her eyes at him.

"How long has she known?"

"Flynn's kind of a major part of the which witch is which mission," Reese told him, finishing her milkshake. "She's been there for me through the whole thing."

"Does she know about me?" Emmett asked and Reese winced.

"Yeah, sorry, I was kind of panicked and I told her," she bowed her head in shame. "But don't worry, Flynn's really good with secrets!"

Emmett twiddled his thumbs in thought. "Does she think I'm a monster too?"

"No," Reese shook her head. "No, she doesn't."

"Well, she'd be the first," Emmett chuckled dryly. "Even most of our kind thinks of ourselves as soulless beasts."

"I know that I said a lot of things earlier," Reese was ashamed of those things, too. "But I was just scared. I've seen monsters, Emmett. A woman with a rope around her neck and a pointed finger who cursed a whole line of innocent people because she was betrayed. I've seen the deaths she's caused; that's a real monster."

"I've killed people, Reese," Emmett confessed. "Back in the day, before I had it fully under control, I have blood on my hands."

"Do you feel bad?" Reese asked, setting down her milkshake. "Did you sympathize with the people who lost them, and wondered how they must be feeling?"

"Yes."

"Then you're not a monster," Reese reasoned. "Monsters don't feel pity or guilt, you're just a boy with monstrous capabilities and a heart that doesn't let you forget the pain of what you've done. There's a difference."

They sat in silence after that, Emmett letting Reese's words sit in his mind: a boy with monstrous capabilities and a heart that doesn't let you forget. It sounded similar to what Carlisle preached when one of them was feeling particularly soulless, they weren't monsters just because that's what people called them. Actions make monsters, not the person. 

"So," Reese spoke again after a short bit of quiet. "How did you become, this?"

"A vampire?" Emmett used the word for her, when her mouth couldn't get it out. "You said you saw what happened to me."

"It was flashes," Reese corrected him. "Parts of memories, but not everything. I saw the bear and a blonde girl and I felt what was happening to you, but I don't really understand what I saw."

"The blonde girl was Rosalie," Emmett told her. "She was hunting when she found me being attacked, and brought me to Carlisle."

"Why did she save you?" Reese asked and then her eye's widened. "I didn't mean to sound rude, I meant that as a, you know, it must have been incredibly difficult for her to resist blood. So why did she save you?"

Emmett smiled. "I knew what you meant. When Rose was human she had a friend who had just had a baby, he had hair like mine and dimples like I do. She saw him in me, and couldn't leave me there to die."

"That's very sad," Reese's heart ached at his words. 

"It is," Emmett agreed. "So, she carried me over one hundred miles back to Carlisle and practically forced him to save me."

"So, you can only get turned when you're dying?"

"No, that's just Carlisle. He treasures human life and would never even think of turning someone who didn't need to be. He saved all of us."

Reese realized that all of them had been where she is: staring death in the eyes. Except they were saved, and Reese will be nothing more than a name on a headstone. She hoped that when her time of dying came, Emmett wouldn't bring her to Carlisle and beg him to save her the same way Rosalie had for him. "He sounds like a good man."

"He is," Emmett smiled at the thought of his adoptive father. "Not many of our kind are like him, we're very lucky."

"Yeah," Reese let her lips twitch again. "You are."

They continued to talk about his family, even touching upon Reese's own lineage, but she wasn't really into it. Reese just kept thinking about Emmett Cullen — or Emmett McCarty before he'd been turned and joined his immortal family — and how happy he seemed with his new life; a family who he loved, years of schooling that gave him many talents and the ability to see the world whenever he so decided. Reese wondered if a life like that would make her happy. It won't happen, a voice in her head reminded her, you aren't destined for a happily every after. Reese knew the voice was right. Reese Logan had many things in her future: an A in biology, a fantastic friendship, (maybe) a relationship, but a happily every after? No, that was one thing that even chosen ones don't get. Pity.

authors note: okay so once again, not my best work but hey reese and em had the talk !!!! she knows what he is and he knows about her, and yet not all of it,,,reese my poor bby doesn't deserve this )): but i hope you guys are liking my updates and everything and ik i usually don't update this frequently, but i'm moving to australia in a month so i'm trying to get as far as i can before i move,,because i don't know if i'll have service !! let me know what you guys think about the chapter and if it was any good and what you guys think that reese will end up doing. will she try to find a second way or will she stick with the prophecy ??