𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋𝙏𝙀𝙍 𝙀𝙄𝙂𝙃𝙏
ミ★ ( bewitched, act one ) ★彡

     As ironic as it sounds, Lilith is comfortable with the feeling of anxiety. Why, you may ask? It's ridiculous, she knows. It's because she's so used to feeling anxious that it's familiar. It's not a nice feeling, and it's often bittersweet when it returns to her. She picks it up easily in the energy that surrounds her and she soon becomes that same energy. This time, she notices it stemming from herself and she had noticed it in Bella as well. While she went to school feeling slightly anxious, waiting for Edward to show because he promised that he would tell her everything, and she felt that it was only fair for her to tell him about her being a witch; she had noticed that Bella looked slightly off all day and it worried her.

     She wanted to ask earlier, but, she waited the whole day when she noticed everything was different because she didn't want to ask her first thing in the morning and make her upset if it was something intense, "Are you okay?" She asked the brown haired girl, "You don't have to tell me if you're not comfortable; I just noticed you've been a little quiet today."

     "Yeah, my dad's friend was killed in an animal attack last night." Bella explained as she shakily tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, "It was a rough night for him, I stayed up all night to make sure he was okay—not like I could sleep either, I just kept thinking how he's feeling, and now, I feel horrible that he has to work right after he just lost a friend."

     Lilith blinked as she recalled something from the night before.

     Lilith crept around the staircase, her ears trying to focus on the hushed whispers coming from her parents yet again. "Carlisle said to you that Waylon had bite marks all over his body and was drained of blood—it couldn't have just been one, it had to be several. Oliver. We need to do something soon or we need to leave." Sierra stressed to her husband, "We can't have Lilith find out about these things."

     "Lilith is going to find out about this stuff eventually. They're written about in our grimoires." Oliver reminded his wife, "She goes to school with Carlisle's kids for Christ's sake."

     "She could be in danger. We can't have them finding out about her. If they do, she's done for and so are we. I don't want to risk it when the attack was this close to town." She argued.

     "Yeah... my dad told me about that." She slightly lied, "How about I stop by tonight and drop off some dinner? I'm sure he probably doesn't want to make anything while he's in that state." She said sympathetically.

     "Thanks, Lilith." Bella smiled, "Just text me when you're coming over and I'll let my dad know." Lilith looked up and saw that Edward was standing not too far away from her and he smiled when they made eye contact, nodding his head for her to follow him, "Did you ask him to prom?" Bella questioned.

     "No, we're just hanging out." Lilith explained, "I've decided I don't really want to go." If Edward asked her, she would want to go. But, she didn't think that they were there yet and she didn't think that he would be into dances.

     "Yeah, I'm still going to Jacksonville to avoid going to that." Bella said as she fiddled with her jacket.

     "You should ask Jacob to go. You guys would probably have a great time." Lilith recommended. She could see how much Bella liked Jacob but she could see that they were both scared to take the next step. Maybe going to the dance together was the step that they needed to push their relationship to the next step.

     "Maybe." Bella smiled as she suddenly got an idea, "I'll ask Jacob if you ask Edward."

     "We'll see." Lilith grinned as she said goodbye to her friend and began to walk towards Edward. The boy grabbing onto her hand like it was natural which caught her by surprise as they began to walk towards the forrest.

     The two of them were incredibly deep into the forrest before Edward felt it was safe enough for them to stop. He felt no one could hear them or see them or even follow them for what they were about to show each other, "Before I do anything, I want to let you know that scaring you is the last thing that I want to do right now." Edward began.

     Lilith gulped as she tried to calm her breathing and her heart rate—this was really happening and her curiosity will finally be cured, "It's okay, I trust you." She said to him. She had to remind herself that if it came to it and he was trying to hurt her, she would be able to protect herself or he would have done it already as he had plenty of opportunities to do so. But, she knew deep down that Edward wouldn't hurt her as he had saved her on more than one occasion and had admitted to her that he was protective of her. Then again, he could be a very good liar and Lilith wouldn't have a clue.

     "I think you've realised the things about me that explain that I'm different." Edward began, "You know I'm incredibly fast and strong, my eyes change colour and my skin is pale and cold. I don't go out in the sunlight and I don't eat or drink anything—everything that a normal human can't do. You even probably know what I am without me having to tell you." Lilith could only nod silently as Edward tried to find the correct words and the correct way to show her, she watched as he paced around, grabbing at his hair before he turned and walked over to her and simply told her, "I'm a vampire."

      Lilith's eyes widened as she finally let out a trembling breath that she had been holding in for a moment now, "I knew it." She whispered in shock. After she had researched all of the books her parents had on supernatural creatures, she was convinced that he was a vampire. Her gut told her he was, but, she wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt up until the point that the evidence was way too obvious that he was and she couldn't deny it any longer—then she slowly began to accept it as that was just who he was.

     There was part of her that wished she never knew, but, then again, people would probably think the same about her. Knowing was part of being a witch, and unfortunately with that one, she didn't have much of a choice. So, it was better to know than be kept in the dark. She would have had to know about everything, but, she would have needed to know who was what to protect herself and to stay away from certain people. Edward wasn't like that, even if he was a vampire.

     "Are you afraid of me?" Edward asked her, his eyes softened as he panicked on the inside that he had probably scared away the only friend he had that wasn't his family.

     "Are you going to hurt me?" Lilith questioned back as she tried to control the shaking mess that was her hands.

     "No." He shook his head violently, he couldn't stomach the thought of hurting her. But, he resisted the urge to say that he could—even though that possibility was incredibly slim.

     "Then I have no reason to be afraid of you." She responded.

      Edward let out a look of relief as he grabbed onto her hand and laced his fingers with hers as he began to drag her lightly along, "Come. I want to show you something else."

     "Where are we going?" She asked as she followed him.

     "Up the mountain. Out of the cloud bank." He answered her, "You need to see what I look like in the sunlight."

     "I told you I'm unfit." Lilith whined quietly as she thought about how out of breath she was going to be once she got up the mountain and no doubt she would sound like a dying whale. He chuckled at her whining and offered her a piggyback ride up the mountain, "Don't complain when you get tired..." She warned him as she got onto his back and wrapped her small legs around his waist while grabbing onto his shoulders.

     Edward began to run up the steep mountain at a speed too fast for the average human, the girl watching as the trees blurred past them and then clenched her eyes shut as the vision began to make her head spin.

     It seemed to be only five minutes before they got to the desired spot, Edward dropping her to her feet and the girl hunched over, resting her hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath and calm her breathing before she threw up, "Are you okay?" Edward asked her.

     Lilith held up a finger to tell him to give her a second, "Just got a slight head spin." She told him as she began to feel the effects slowly fade; standing up straighter as she did so, "But, then again, it's nothing new compared to what you give me constantly."

     The vampire didn't look too impressed with her comment, feeling not proud of his past actions with her and how he treated her but he only did it because he was confused and afraid. He ignored the comment as she walked over towards the small bit of sunlight that peaked through the clouds and hit directly near a rock that was close to them, "This is why we don't show ourselves in the sunlight. People would know we're different." He explains as he took off his coat and unbuttoned his shirt. He slowly turned to face her, the sunlight reflecting off of his skin that crystallised and sparkled due to the sunlight, "This is what I am."

     Lilith's gaze went over his skin, she wasn't able to take her eyes off of the phenomenon that she was witnessing, "It's beautiful." Whatever or whoever created vampires made such a thing so beautiful it made her understand how they were able to attract prey. They were so beautiful that people and animals would want to be near them; to love them.

     "Beautiful?" Edward scoffed. How could she think something so monstrous could be beautiful? "This is nothing of the sort, Lilith." He said as he buttoned his shirt back up and began to walk away from the sun and further down behind the rocks, "I'm a killer."

     "I don't believe that." Lilith denied, "A killer would have let Tyler's van crush me; a killer would've let those guys attack me and a killer wouldn't protect my secret. You need to stop trying to push me away and make me afraid of you, I don't understand why we keep going in circles about this."

     Edward turned to face her, "I'm the world's most dangerous predator. Everything about me invites you in; my voice, my face, even my smell."

     Lilith huffed at his tone, "I guess you're over trying to not scare me." She pointed out how he had told her that he didn't want to scare her before but now he was just trying to make her afraid of him.

     "I'm trying to get you to understand that you should be afraid of me because I could hurt you if I wanted to." The vampire explained to her, "I'm designed to kill, and I've killed people before... but, for some reason, I don't want to hurt you."

     "You hurt me when you try to push me away. We make progress and then we take twenty steps back because you believe I can't handle this." She told him, "Vampires aren't the worst things in our world. Just because you're a vampire doesn't mean that you're a monster and I can tell that you don't want to hurt anyone."

     "But, I could if I wanted to." Edward reminded her.

     "I get it." Lilith huffed again, "You want to scare me away because it'll be easier for you to just wallow in your bubble of self-pity by yourself, instead of accepting that you're different and just living your life to the best of your ability like I'm asking you to. But, if you want to scare someone, you've picked the wrong girl."

     He was taken aback by her words, she did guess correctly parts of why he kept pushing her away, but, the main reason was that he didn't want to accidentally hurt someone that he cared about and felt connected to, "And why's that?" He asked her.

     Lilith held up her palm and a flame appeared on top of it, "Because I'm a witch and I can protect myself." She simply answered.

     Edward's eyes widened further. Witches were hard to come by as they were hunted and taken to be used for their power against their wills. Sometimes they had more of a bad reputation than vampires did when they went dark and used their magic for ill reasons. But, it all made sense now, he finally felt like he understood why she kept people at an arm's length and how she was able to push the van away from her with the force field that he had sworn he imagined.

     "That day in Biology when I told you that we moved around a lot because of my dad's job wasn't the complete truth. While him going to help out hospitals is true; he helps out covens and other supernatural creatures with things that they are having troubles with." Lilith confessed as she moved to brush off the dirt on a flat rock before sitting down on it, ignoring how cold it felt against her legs, "The constant moving sometimes takes a toll on me, but, I can never say anything to my parents because they love what they do and it would crush them to find out that it hurts me."

     Edward felt that he could relate to her about the constant moving and wish he could stay in a place that he loved forever, but, the curse of his eternal existence would make that wish impossible since if they stayed in the one place for too long, people would notice that they don't age, "My family, we're different from others of our kind. We only hunt animals. We've learned to control our thirst. It helps us stay in places longer as we have minimal slip ups and the risk of getting exposed is lessened." Edward told her as he sat down next to her.

     "Is that why you hated me so much when we met? Because you were afraid of me having to make you move again?" Lilith questioned.

      "I didn't hate you. I felt drawn to you, and because of that, I felt protective over you. I would go against my family's wishes constantly and risk myself to keep you safe even if I knew that you could protect yourself." The vampire explained, "This feeling made me want you so badly that it made me afraid of it and want to push it away so I wouldn't have to deal with it. So, that's why I kept trying to push you away."

     Lilith gaped at his confession. She had no idea he felt that way about her, she had always assumed that she had just annoyed her way into him tolerating her and not that he was fighting himself because he felt the same way she did, "But, what about your reaction to Bella on the first day?" She asked, recalling how he acted like she smelt which got them into the mess in the first place, "What did she do to get that reaction?"

     "It wasn't Bella." He admitted, "I smelt your scent when you first walked in—I was so overwhelmed by it that I nearly exposed myself in front of everyone because I was attracted to it, so, I had to try and distract myself from it by covering my nose and diverting my attention to the person that scent wasn't coming from."

     "Oh." She muttered. That did make sense, and it probably didn't help when she sat next to him, "But, what changed? I've been around you constantly since then."

     "I've gotten used to it, there are times when I feel it, but, then I remind myself that I don't want to hurt you and it goes away almost instantly." He answered her question.

     The girl could only sit there as she tried to process all of the information given, she then got another question and she turned to look at the boy, "Is that why you were glaring at me? Because my scent was overwhelming you?"

      "That day... you took me by surprise and I tried to get into your head to figure out why I felt so drawn to you, but, I was getting frustrated when I could see myself falling short when it came to getting into your thoughts." He scoffed at himself, "I can only sometimes read your mind. Sometimes it takes an extraordinary amount of strength to push through the mental barrier, and sometimes it's just because you've put down the mental wall unconsciously." Edward explains, "And right now, I've got nothing as well. What are you thinking?"

     "I'm a little afraid—but, not of you." Lilith answered him, making sure to reassure him that she wasn't afraid of him as she knew that he would hate himself for it, "It might sound silly, but, I'm afraid of losing you, and losing this. I'm afraid of having to move again and start fresh. I could feel that Forks was going to be different—and it is—and I don't want that to slip away."

     "How do you feel that Forks is different from all of the other places that you've been?" Edward asked her again.

     "With being a witch, I don't exactly make many friends. The secrets all pile up to the point that people don't even bother trying. It's just me and my cat, and it's fine, I like it that way; but, now I have Bella, and all of my friends from school, and I have you." She answered him as she turned her head to face him, "That's what makes it different. And I don't want that to disappear." Her words felt like she had just expressed her feelings for him and she wasn't sure if she liked it or not.

     Edward's eyes met with hers, gazing deeply into them as he said to her, "You don't know how long I've waited for someone like you."

     "Does that mean no more running away?" She asked him hopefully, her eyes softening at his words as she realised that he most likely felt the same way as she did and her crush on him had just expanded by a magnitude.

     Edward placed his forehead against hers, resting his hand on the nape of her neck, "I promised you that I wouldn't run away anymore."

     The witch smiled which made him grin back at her as she said, "I just wanted to make sure you remembered."