ᴅᴀᴡɴ ᴏꜰ ᴄʀɪᴍꜱᴏɴ ─── ᴇᴍᴍᴇᴛᴛ ᴄᴜʟʟᴇɴ ³

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴏɴᴇ: ʜᴀɴᴅꜰᴀꜱᴛɪɴɢ

     The next day arrived, and Alice and I brainstormed a few ideas the day before, but nothing really stood out to me. I wanted something intimate, a small gathering with just close friends and family. But I knew I wanted to have the wedding while I was still human, with the transformation happening a few days after. 

As much as I would have loved to spend more time as a human, married to Emmett, and cherished every moment together, I knew it was best to be turned soon after the wedding. Deep down, I couldn't deny the practicality of it; getting married while I was still human felt like holding on to a piece of myself for just a little longer.

I even made a half-hearted joke about the transformation being an early honeymoon present, but the truth was, I was trying to mask the reality of what was coming.

The Salem Thirteen hadn't bothered me since that day; I hadn't seen or heard from them. I tried summoning them, but they didn't respond, or perhaps they didn't want to be summoned. I told my Grams everything about Alice's vision, the deaths, the unknown magic I had tapped into, but even she had no idea what kind of magic I had used. She even searched through the Book of Shadows and the other books she had collected over the decades, but found nothing. It was as if the magic had never existed at all.

I sat at the kitchen table, staring absently at the patterns in the wood, lost in my thoughts. The wedding was weeks away, and I still didn't have a vision of what it would look like. Alice had thrown some ideas out to me, but again, none stuck. But I could picture myself walking down the aisle to Emmett, of becoming his wife. It made my heart flutter.

But beneath that excitement, there was a knot in my stomach that wouldn't go away. I couldn't shake the feeling that this happiness was fleeting, that the countdown to the wedding was also a countdown to the end of my human life, my magic. The thought crept in during the quiet moments, making me feel hollow. I tried to focus on the joy of the wedding, the flowers, the dress, the smiles, but the looming transformation weighed heavily on my heart.

I pushed down the terror and fear of what was coming, doing my best to focus on the good, on him. Emmett was my anchor, and I clung to that, hoping it would be enough to drown out the growing dread inside me.

"Honey?" My Grams' soft voice echoed in my ears, pulling me from my thoughts. I glanced up to see her standing by the stove, placing a kettle onto boil. "Do you want some tea?" she asked, her tone gentle, as if she'd already asked once and I hadn't heard her the first time.

"If you don't mind," I replied, offering a small smile. She nodded and turned back to the kettle; her expression was warm. I shook my head slightly, trying to clear away the dark thoughts lingering in my mind.

"You and Alice got any ideas yet?" she asked, glancing back over her shoulder for a brief moment. My thoughts drifted to the wedding, but all I could picture was Emmett, standing there, with his boyish smile spread across his face, which made me smile at the thought.