𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋𝙏𝙀𝙍 𝙏𝙃𝙄𝙍𝙏𝙔 𝙀𝙄𝙂𝙃𝙏
ミ★ ( bewitched, act three ) ★彡

     Edward Cullen didn't hesitate to run after Lilith the second she ran out of the room and out towards the forestry. He had been using his human speed to chase after her but as soon as he believed they were deep enough into the trees and that he was safe from human eyes, he quickly sped in front of her and stopped her in her tracks.

     "Why did you run away?" Edward worries.

"Because I'm not worth all of this!" She shouted at Edward, her arms swinging up in frustration, "I'm not worth all of you dropping everything to run and protect me from the high priest or this newborn army, I'm not worth you all dying for me. I'm not worth any of it! Why can't you see that already?"

"Hey!" Anger flared in his eyes as he gripped her face, "You are worth everything. You are worth all that and more to me, do you get that?" He told her, "I was willing to sit back and let you make your choices because I know I don't have a right to control you in any way, but, I'm at my breaking point now, and I refuse to let anything happen to you and I refuse to let you give yourself up."

Tears swelled in her eyes, her guard around him dropping almost instantly as she whispered, "I don't want to see you hurt because of me." Just imaging them hurt caused more pain than anything the high priest or the newborn army could do to her, and she could only picture how much the pain would magnify if it were to actually happen.

"And I don't want to see you hurt at all." Edward expressed, "I've been going out of my mind just not having you by my side, and knowing that you hate me because of what I've done to you. But, even after how much I hate that, I know I would rather that any day over you actually being dead or if you were to become a dark witch."

"I just don't see what is so worth it about me that everyone is going through this to protect me." She admitted and Edward's eyes faltered as he realised how much his words had affected her when he broke up with her. He could tell that he had broken her confidence within herself and she had deemed herself unworthy of any form of love or safety, and that broke him inside because he was the cause of it all—and while she had gotten better from when he first left according to Bella, he could see that they would have a long way to go still until she truly believed in herself once more.

Which is something he is planning on staying until they reach that part of her again, because he owed it to her to do that. And he wanted that for her. But, he could see why she was so unwilling to forgive him because that means it's another chance for him to ruin her once more by harming her emotionally and mentally before disappearing once more.

"There isn't anything about you that isn't worth protecting to me."

There was a moment silence, the two looking in each other's eyes with Edward still gently gripping her face, emotion swelling in their eyes telling each other how they really felt. Regret, love, forgiveness, and almost every other emotion under the sun.

Without a moment's thought, Edward swooped in and kissed her, catching her by surprise; the girl letting out a small gasp from the action.

And there was a moment of weakness... where she kissed back.

Maybe it was the way that her heart skipped a beat when his lips touched hers that possessed her to kiss back, or maybe it was the way that his ice cold skin seemed to leave a fiery trail across her own, or maybe even the way that they moulded so perfectly against each other. But, no matter what her heart felt in that moment of weakness, her head brought reality straight back to her and reminded her of everything that had happened causing her to quickly push away from him in shock.

The two looked at each other before Lilith ran back into the house, and not turning back.

The girl continued to run into the party, pushing passed the party goers until the ran into Bella, the brunette holding onto the blonde's arms to stop her from running again, "Woah, are you okay?" Bella asked, "What happened? Where'd you go?"

"It doesn't matter now." Lilith responded, out of breath, "I just need a drink."

Lilith sat up sharply with a gasp, her chest rising and falling trying to catch a breath and she was covered in sweat from the nightmare. Dakota let out a small meow and leaped to her side, the blonde girl patting her to let her know she was okay. It seemed that the alcohol she had consumed had made the reoccurring nightmares extremely more vivid that they began to appear clearer and the meaning behind them began to make sense. But, was it really making sense or was her drunk brain just trying to connect dots for something that would never make sense?

Lilith shook her head before pushing the covers off of her and walking out from the room she had been situated into in the Cullen home. She passed by all of the rooms, not being surprised by how everything had been cleaned already and the home was in its original state and walked towards the kitchen, grabbing herself a glass of water before walking towards the backyard and sitting on the deck, listening to the sounds of the owls and the wind brushing passed the trees.

"You okay?" She heard the soft voice from behind her, and she turned to see Rosalie standing in the doorway, looking concerned, "Your heartbeat is going crazy right now."

Lilith nodded her head, "Yeah, just a nightmare." She frowned and Rosalie made a small noise of realisation before she sat beside Lilith on the deck.

"Do you want to talk about it?" She asked the witch.

"I wouldn't really know where to start to be honest with you." Lilith told Rosalie, "But, I think it's causing some existential crisis within me."

Rosalie raised an eyebrow, "I'm not really sure how to respond to that."

"Let's just say... I think I found a loophole that might solve half of our problems." Lilith admitted and Rosalie's eyes widened in shock. Lilith then looked around and remembered she didn't see anyone in the house, "Where is everyone anyway?"

Rosalie knew Lilith meant 'Edward' instead of 'everyone' but kept quiet, "They went to hunt. After being around so many humans they needed to let off some steam; and Edward went with them after he put you to bed." Lilith's eyebrows scrunched at Rosalie's words, how drunk did she get? Did Edward really have to put her to bed and what on Earth did she do or say to him in a drunk haze? "Tell me about this loophole." Rose shook her head, changing the subject from Lilith's drunk moments—even though she found it hilarious, she didn't want to embarrass her at that moment.

"Well, in my dream, I think I figured out how to get out of becoming a dark witch." She admitted, not sounding entirely too convinced with herself before letting out a deep breath because she knew that what she was going to say next was going to sound crazy, "And that's by giving the Volturi what they want." They wanted Lilith to become a vampire; then that is what they would get, because if she was a vampire, she wouldn't have magic, meaning she wouldn't be tempted to become a dark witch and she would be deemed as useless towards the high priest.

"And how would that decision be good for anyone?" Rosalie countered. To her, being a vampire wasn't a good thing in any circumstance and she was struggling to see how it was a positive thing to Lilith.

"If I'm a vampire; I don't have magic. Therefore I can't be tempted to go dark by magic use and the high priest would deem me useless to his cause—and it also gets the Volturi off of your back and they won't hurt you for going against their wishes. Plus, I'd be a lot harder to kill by the newborns because we'd be equal in strength." She explained her thoughts before slumping over with another defeated sigh, "I just haven't thought about how it's going to stop the high priest from coming after my parents and stop the newborn army from coming at all."

The blonde vampire thought about her thought process and it unfortunately made sense to her, "Does that mean you're not going to give yourself up to the high priest anymore?" Rosalie suddenly questioned again, slightly hopeful that she was assuming correctly. Everyone in the Cullen family and the pack knew of Lilith's plan to give herself up to the high priest—and even though they hated it, they knew that they wouldn't be able to stop her if it came down to it because she could overpower them if she wanted to.

"It's a last resort." Lilith answered, "I know it doesn't seem like it, but, I don't actually want to do it at all, and I don't exactly want to die either; but, if it meant I could protect everyone, I'd pick that option."

"You don't have to protect us though. We're perfectly capable of that." Rose pointed out.

"I know you guys can, but, it makes me sick and it makes me feel guilty thinking that you have to protect yourselves because of me." Lilith expressed, "And it's simple math; would you give up one and everything be over, or would you risk dozens of other people's lives to protect that one person?"

"Well this simple math of yours doesn't exactly include why everyone is going out of their way to protect that one person." Rosalie smiled as she lightly nudged Lilith with her body, "We're doing this because we want to protect you, because we care about you and we think of you as family. We protect our family, remember?"

Lilith turned her head to look at the vampire, "You still think of me as family after everything that's happened?"

"Never stopped." Rose answered, "Truth be told, none of us ever stopped."

"Then why didn't you come back?" Lilith couldn't help but whisper.

"We wanted to." Rosalie matched her tone, "But, we had to respect Edward's wishes, and we had to stay away, no matter how painful it was to hear about the things that were happening to you because we were gone."

Lilith let out a sigh and the two fell into a comfortable silence, waiting for the return of the rest of the Cullen family. Lilith's mind was going crazy as she thought about what Rosalie had just told her. Rosalie had never lied to her about anything and she doubted that she would have much to gain if she was lying about this. It made her feel even more conflicted about forgiving them all—she could feel herself slipping into doing it regardless because she was naturally a forgiving person—but, it was on the count of how long she was going to string this out for.

She could see how much the Cullens wanted her forgiveness and how much they wanted things to back to the way they were, and Lilith wanted to give that to them since they were willing to go to war for her, but, she was scared that they were going to hurt her again and leave while there were so many threats against her. As much as she didn't want to admit it out loud to them, she needed them; and if she was going to go through with this vampire transformation, she would need them even more to get through the change completely sane.

Because if she was going to willingly give up her magic that she loved about herself to become a vampire, she was definitely going to struggle with the loss. Magic was a huge part of her and getting rid of that was getting rid of her, and she didn't want to do that if she had the choice. But, if she had to choose between becoming a dark witch and becoming a vampire, she would choose to be a vampire for the sake of everyone around her.

"What are you thinking about?" Rosalie asked, trying to get her to open up since she could see how she was worrying about something just by the expression on her face. Rosalie always believed it was best to talk to someone about your emotions because she knew how it felt to struggle and feel alone, and then she knew how much better it felt once she opened up to Emmett.

"I don't want to be a vampire." Lilith frowned, "I like being a witch—it's all I've ever known. But, I don't want to be a dark witch or die either."

"I didn't want to be a vampire either." Rosalie admitted to her, deciding to tell the blonde witch about her past to strengthen their broken friendship by placing her trust in Lilith with the information, "I didn't exactly get a choice, but, if I didn't become this, I wouldn't of met Emmett." Lilith turned her head towards Rosalie and pulled her legs up into a ball and rested her head on her knees as Rosalie prepared herself to tell Lilith her past, "In all honesty, I envy yourself and Bella for your humanity. You have the ability to have a family of your own. I had that once, and I'd be slightly frustrated if you were giving that up because you want to live forever, but, you don't." Rose started, sympathising with Lilith's situation, to which it made Lilith feel a bit better about her choices.

"Before I turned, I had the perfect life. There were still things that I wanted, but, I was so close to getting them. I was being courted by a man named Royce King; he was the most eligible bachelor in town. I barely knew him... but, I was young. I was in love with the idea of love." Rosalie began to recall and Lilith listened intently.

She pictured a young Rosalie, much how she looked now, but she imagined that she had these gorgeous brown eyes and lightly tanned skin from being out in the sun all day. She imagined that Rose constantly wore a bright smile and was the most fashionable in town.

"On the last night of my life, I left a friend's house late. I wasn't far from home. I was passing by when I saw Royce and his friends drinking in an alley, he called me over to introduce me to them—I had no reason to not go with them, he had been trustworthy and great to me, so I wasn't afraid. Things turned south when I noticed they were all drunk and I tried to leave. He grabbed me and pulled me back, he held me down and then they took everything from me. I couldn't compete with six of them all at once, I tried screaming out but it only seemed to fuel them more and make it worse. It felt like hours until they got bored and were over me—I was no longer useful, I guess."

Lilith couldn't help the tears that brimmed in her eyes as she listened to Rosalie's story, all she could think about was how afraid and betrayed she felt. The person that was supposed to love and protect her was a monster and did something so undignified and horrid. She reached out and grabbed Rosalie's hand as she wiped the tears away with the other. She couldn't imagine that happening to her; she would hope that someone would try to stop it, but Rose had no one.

Rose squeezed Lilith's hand as a sign of appreciation, "They left me in the street, thinking I was dead—believe me, I wanted to be." She recalled, "Carlisle found me. He smelled all the blood. He thought he was helping me."

"I'm sorry." Lilith choked.

"Don't be." Rose smiled, it turning slightly sinister as she muttered the next words, "I got my revenge on them. One at a time. Saved Royce for last, so he knew I was coming. When he did, he ran and he hid behind his heavily guarded hotels—I showed up in the dress that was supposed to be worn for our wedding and I killed him. I rejoiced in his fear, I wanted him to feel a slither of the fear I did." Rose lightly flicked the hair off of her shoulder, "I was a little theatrical back then."

"I wouldn't expect anything less." Lilith joked and Rosalie chuckled.

Rosalie's smile died down as she continued her story, "Things got better after I found Emmett. But, we'll always be this—frozen; never moving forward. And that's what I miss the most about my eternal life; I miss the possibilities. The idea of sitting on a front porch somewhere with Emmett, grey-haired by my side, surrounded by our grandchildren and hearing their laughter as they live their lives in front of us."

Lilith frowned, "You're really not helping me with this decision now." Rosalie's story only made Lilith more conflicted about her choice to become a vampire; if anything, it made her want to stray away from it and fight everything off as a witch and pray that she would never turn dark. If she became a vampire, she would miss the chance to have children of her own, and then grandchildren further on in the future. There would be none of that.

"It wasn't meant to be to stray your decision. I just want you to know what you could be missing if you choose this—and I wanted you to know a little more about me." Rosalie shook her head, "I normally wouldn't recommend wanting this type of lifestyle, but, I can understand where you're coming from. You don't exactly have much of a choice either." Rosalie told her, "You have to pick the lesser of two evils, and unfortunately what might be the most evil to me, isn't exactly the most evil to you."

"Is there anything that made what you are worth it all?" Lilith asked, trying to get the pros and the cons of her decision.

"Emmett did." Rosalie answered, "And even though it might not seem like it sometimes, so did everyone else in our family." The blonde vampire hoped that maybe her words would imply something more to Lilith, and that she would really think about her decision. Rosalie would love to have Lilith as a sister for the rest of their eternal life, but, she had to make sure that she really knew what she was getting herself into. She had to know about the good things and the bad things eventually.

Rosalie's eyes then snapped up as she heard the laughter and the sounds of the steps from her family coming closer towards their home and got up to greet them—or more specifically, Emmett—leaving Lilith sitting there with one thought that was on her mind.

Would Edward be the one to make it all worth it in the end?