𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋𝙏𝙀𝙍 𝙀𝙄𝙂𝙃𝙏𝙀𝙀𝙉
ミ★ ( bewitched, act two ) ★彡

     Lilith Bailey couldn't have been more grateful for the Thanksgiving and Christmas break that had rolled around days after Edward left. It gave her time to wallow in the sadness of her heartbreak without the pestering of her friends and family. They didn't stop coming by, day by day they each noticed how much light had left her and how dead inside she looked. She looked exhausted. She looked dead. Bella was the only person she could truly open up to about what was happening, she felt horrible for laying all of her problems onto her, but, she had no one else to turn to. She was lost. She didn't have anyone else to speak to besides Bella and her parents.

     She didn't know who else to tell about her fears of going dark. Her heartbreak had only seemed to make things go extremely left. The greenery around the home was dead, and it was fine because the Bailey's could brush it off by saying it was because of the fall and winter seasons and the fact that they were at the edge of town; where there were little residents to ask questions, but, they too, worried about the signs.

     Edward took everything with him when he left Forks, including Lilith's soul with him. Her mind was filled of dark thoughts along with the pain inside her chest—it seemed like a huge whole was punched in side her chest. The bags underneath her eye was apparent that she wasn't sleeping and the hollows on her cheeks made it known she wasn't eating either. How could she? Every time she tried to eat she couldn't stomach it and she would immediately vomit it up. Every time she tried to sleep she was plagued by nightmares so horrid that she would wake the whole street up with her shrieking.

     The screams would sometimes hurt her vocal cords for days on end but she couldn't help it, the nightmares were horrid, they were paralysing and it felt like someone was choking her and ripping her heart out of her chest over and over again. She felt like she was constantly living in an out of body experience, like she was no longer in control of her actions or her thoughts. She couldn't tell if she was still dreaming or if she was even still awake; which made it dangerous for her to go out where she could be seen by the human eye if she accidentally thought she was dreaming and used her magic to try and protect herself, like she has done before.

     When school joined back up, her friends worried over her state. They constantly fussed over everything to make sure that she was okay and it had gotten to the point where she would spend her breaks sitting in Bella's truck by herself so she could get some peace and quiet.

     Bella would try and take care of her, but, there were times where Lilith wouldn't let her, the girl constantly creating barriers and forcefield's with her magic to keep people away from her. It worried her more sometimes how she would do it so clearly for everyone else to see when she was always so careful about who saw her magic usage.

     "Maybe we should move." Sierra suggested to her husband in hushed tones, "I don't know what to do anymore. She's been like this for months, maybe we need to start fresh somewhere."

     Oliver shook his head, "No, moving is the last thing she needs right now. If we rip her away from any kind of familiarity we might overwhelm her and make everything a hundred times worse." She needs her friends right now—she might not see it, but, she'll need all of them and if they were to move and try to 'start fresh' they could possibly destroy what was left of their daughter.

     "He's not coming back. She stares out the window every day like he will. This behaviour isn't normal for her." Sierra began to pace around the kitchen, "It's scaring me, Oliver, you can't tell me you haven't noticed the amount of dead flora and fauna around us. What if by the summer time people start to notice that things are staying dead around our house?"

     "She's heartbroken, darling, she doesn't know how else to express her feelings. She's never felt like this before. Just give her time." He argued softly.

     "But, what if it doesn't go away?" She worried, "We came to Forks for protection, we can't rely on the Cullens to do that anymore. Maybe we need to just relocate somewhere else for it to be better in the long run."

     "And what if it makes it worse by moving?" Oliver asked her again, making his wife think about his words, "Bella will be over soon, maybe she'll get through to her."

     "Bella shouldn't have to get through to her, she shouldn't even be apart of this world." Sierra snapped.

     "Regardless of what happened with James, Bella was going to be apart of this world and you know why. She was ready for this world the moment she decided she wanted to stay in Lilith's life regardless of what we were and she didn't want to run." He argued, "Lilith needs someone like Bella in her life because there's only so much we as parents can do. Sometimes our daughter just needs a friend, and I don't care if they're human, a witch, vampire or werewolf, because I'll do whatever it takes to make sure our daughter is okay."

     "Fine." Sierra snipped again, "But, if they find Lilith here before she's ready because of all of this, it's on you."

     "Unfortunately, it's on both of us." Oliver grumbled, sitting back into his chair as he sipped on the coffee.

     Like expected, Bella came to the Bailey house shortly after, greeting the parents before skipping up to her friend's room. She knocked on the door lightly before opening it anyway since she knew she wasn't going to respond to it and looked at the sight in front of her sympathetically. Her room was a mess and looked like no one had cleaned it for weeks—which she was sure to be true—she had tissues everywhere that were dried of her tears, and most of all, Lilith laid underneath her bed covers, her back facing Bella with Dakota tucked into her side. The black cat turning her head to face the brunette before turning back towards her owner.

     The scene in front of her made it known she hadn't moved from that spot either since that morning when she stopped by as she was in the exact same position.
She was supposed to go to school that day but from what her parents explained to her, she had a long night of nightmares and screaming. Her voice was strained and she was exhausted; a very bad complication to go to school with when she was battling bursts of magic coming out of her when she couldn't control it.

     "Hey." Bella said as she stepped over the other bits and bobs on the floor, walking towards the side that Lilith was facing, "Everyone was asking about you today, we're all really worried." Bella didn't receive a response as she saw her friend staring out the window across from her. The brunette sighed reaching into her backpack and pulling out the handmade trinket, "I thought you might want this." She said holding up a small wooden dream catcher with purple feathers hanging from it, "Jacob got it for my birthday, but... I figured you might need it more than I do." She mentioned as she hung it up on the bed frame.

     Again, there wasn't any response and Bella ran a hand though her hair, not really sure what else do to anymore. She only got up and began to help the girl clean her room as she felt she might feel better when she got out of her stage instead of feeling even worse knowing she would have to clean any remanence of her depression.

     Bella was almost done with putting her washing away when she heard Lilith's little voice speak out, "Why are you here?"

     Bella looked up and walked back towards her, crouching down in front of the bed, "What do you mean?"

     "Why are you here?" She repeated again softly, her voice still slightly scratchy, "You shouldn't be wasting your time taking care of me and my problems when you could be out having fun and living your life."

     Bella tried to hide the shock she felt from her words, it was apparent that not only did Edward break her heart, but, be broke her confidence within herself and any hope she had for the future. The human girl stuttered to find the right words to answer as she let out a worthy response, "Because we're friends... and a wise witch once told me that friends look out for each other, especially accident prone friends."

      Bella watched as Lilith's eyes swelled up with tears, a choking sob racking her chest as she sobbed loudly, "It hurts, Bella."

     "I know." She whispered, getting into the bed with her, letting her friend cry her heart out on her shoulder.

     "It hurts so bad." She continued, her voice scratchy and almost hard to understand from the crying, but, Bella was getting the gist of it considering the situation, "I don't even know what I did to make him leave."

     "You didn't do anything wrong that could've make him leave you like that." She reminded her, "You can't let this boy ruin what's supposed to be the best years of your life."

     "I just want the pain to stop." She choked, "I just want it all to go back to the way it was. When my heart didn't feel like it was being ripped out of my chest and when I actually felt like a human being, not some half alive corpse."

     "Just give it time." Bella hushed her, "Everything always gets better with time."

     It took a few moments before it seemed like Lilith had fallen asleep again, hopefully this time it would be a decent and peaceful one. She hadn't been there when the nightmares started but from what it sounded like, it sounded like they were harsh and extremely vivid.
She could only hope that Lilith would snap out of it soon and begin to see the positive side of things like she usually did. Bella slowly got out of the bed, trying not to wake her as she tried to slip out of the room quietly to give her parents an update of everything that had just happened.

     "You should take the dream catcher back." Lilith said and Bella froze again cussing at herself in her head for accidentally waking her up and turned to face Lilith, "Jacob gave it to you, you shouldn't have to give it to me because I'm sad."

     "I want to give it to you." Bella said firmly, "Because I want you to get a decent night sleep and then maybe my best friend can come back to me."

     "It's your birthday present from your boyfriend." Lilith reminded her.

     "And your birthday is coming up soon anyway, and I want to try and give you the gift of happiness like you had given me so many times." Bella said, walking back over and sitting on top of the bed. They were clearly making process as Lilith hadn't spoken that much in months, at least she was arguing—that counted for something, and Bella wasn't going to let that go, "Jacob wouldn't mind either, he's worried about you too." The brunette persisted, "If you want, I can get him to make another if this one makes you uncomfortable." Maybe Lilith felt uncomfortable because it was a special gift from Jacob to Bella for her birthday, or maybe it made her uncomfortable because it came from a boyfriend and the word reminded her how she no longer had one.

     "I just don't want you to resent me for holding on to something special to you because I can't get it together." Lilith admitted quietly, remembering how Edward had told her that she wasn't good, and this was a perfect example of 'not being good to people' to her.

     "Lilith, I could never resent you." Bella reassured her again, "You're my friend, and I love you."

     "I love you, too." Lilith whispered, making Bella smile gently. Progress.

     "Now try to get some sleep for me?" She requested, pulling the covers up over her shoulders, "And just try the dream catcher for one night while I get Jacob to make another. I just want to give you some hope that you won't have any nightmares tonight at least."

     "Thank you, Bella." Lilith let out a small smile, "I don't know what I'd do without you."

     The sound of metal chimes rang throughout the store making Magda lift her head up to see the small little blonde witch known as Lilith Bailey standing in the doorway. Only the Lilith standing in the doorway looked like the shell version of the Lilith Bailey she knew, "Oh, sweet child." Magda cooed, sensing that the blonde girl was definitely going through a lot at the moment and she could practically feel her pain just from her spot at the counter, "What is it?"

     The moment Magda asked, tears brimmed in Lilith's eyes as she asked, "Do you have anything to fix a broken heart?" She sobbed into her hand and Magda quickly moved from where she stood towards the teenage girl and pulled her into her embrace.

     "Unfortunately, I don't have anything magic related to fix such a thing." She said, running a hand over her hair, "But, time always seems to do the trick for most."

     "What if I don't have time?" Lilith sniffled and Magda pulled her away to look at her strangely as to what she meant.

     "What is that supposed to mean?" She questioned.

     The blonde girl couldn't help but look down at her feet, she was ashamed she had let herself go on like this for so long over some boy. She thought she was stronger than that. She used to always tell herself when she watched romantic comedies that she would never be like the main character who becomes a mess after a break up, she would pull through and never let herself get down because she was slightly sad a boy left her. But, this felt different because for whatever reason; when Edward left, he took a piece of her with him and that piece of her was important because it was holding together the rest of her. And now she didn't know how long she had left until there wasn't anything left to be held together.

     Lilith would always hear her parents and her friends whisper at how void she was of herself, and how they weren't sure what to do or if there was anything they could do in the first place. She realised that if she couldn't get better for herself or Edward, she would get better for them. But, she just had no idea where to start or if she could even go back to the way things were with how far gone she was, "Ever since he left... it just feels like I've been running out of time." She expressed, "Nothing feels right and I feel like I'm not even my own person anymore. I can't sleep; I can't eat; I can't live. I don't know how to make it stop and I just want things to go back to the way they were."

     "Oh, dear, that's just heartbreak." Magda sympathised, "Nothing feels the same way; food doesn't have as much flavour, colours aren't as bright and the sun doesn't feel as warm. But, you'll heal and everything will almost go back to how it once was—you have to just remember that there'll always be light at the end of the tunnel."

     "But, I don't think there will be this time." Lilith whispered back. The girl then held up her hand and in the palm of her hand sparked a small flicker of a flame before it quickly disintegrated into smoke, "I use this way to show how much power or energy I have. Usually it can rate between a large flame that can be controlled to a decent sized one. But, it's never been like this."

     "You can't control your magic anymore?" Magda tried to understand her analogy.

     "I mean... I almost don't have any magic left." Lilith answered which made Magda's eyes widened in shock shortly after the confession, "The night he left I felt this stabbing pain in my chest and it kept building up until the point I couldn't hold back and it just exploded out of me. I watched all living things around me die, and it spread for a couple of miles around me according to my parents. Ever since then it just kept happening and I couldn't control it, and now I think it sucked all of the magic out of me."

     Magda gently picked up Lilith's hand and inspected her palm. She looked into Lilith's brown eyes and questioned, "Do your parents know of this?" She understood that Lilith and her parents were close but there was always going to be things that a teenager doesn't tell her parents. Especially if it could send them into a frenzy of worry.

     "They know of the death radius that follows me everywhere I go, we've been lucky because of the Winter time, but, I know I'm going to need help before Spring in case it doesn't stop by then." She answered. "But, they don't know about this. I wouldn't even know how to explain to them how this happened."

     "You need to tell them, Lilith." Magda told her.

     "I will. I just want to make sure I know everything about what's happening and hopefully give them a solution. I can't add this on top of the list of things they stress about regarding me." Lilith explained, "I don't want to do that to them anymore. I just want to be me again."

     Magda sighed and placed her hands on both sides of Lilith's cheeks and said, "I will look into it and hopefully find out what is happening, but, in the meantime, I want you to focus on the other things that make you happy. It doesn't matter what it is, because at this point anything is good."

     "I will." She nodded and then pulled Magda in for a hug, "Thank you, Magda. For being there for me."

      "I told you I would always be here to help out a friend." She smiled, "Especially in your darkest days."