Don't Burn Out (Currently Editing)

Sixty Nine

POV Ashley

In the woods outside of the main pack house Zayn and Tiffany will wed. Whites and greens with a dash of blush give off a nice, neutral, earthy vibe. The space is vast but packed with people, chairs, and flowers. The air clean, much cleaner than the air of the city forty minutes east, it slips down as smooth cool water on a hot summers day. The day is lighter than a feather. The world is quiet; like all its drama and wars have stopped just for today.

I slip into a seat in the back row. Doused in perfume, to hide my scent from the Lycans heightened senses.

The groomsmen start their stroll down the isle all decking out in white. Preston leads, Louis, Liam, Harry, Zander; Mason, whom had really gained Zayn's friendship after his part in helping resolve a dispute between packs in South America about two years ago; Niall, then the groom himself, Zayn.

A frame shaking cringe rocks through my body. Seven groomsmen and seven bridesmaids! Why, Ashley? Ugh.

They walk beneath the string lights and hanging flowers to the base of the White Oak tree under which Zayn and Tiffany would be married.

The lycans around me mingle about. Over a seven hundred werewolves are present. Both the bride and groom wanted a smaller, more intimate ceremony, but with their political positions they practically owned half the world and half the world wanted to witness their nuptials. Alpha families from as far away as Chile came here today. There are many strange faces here. Tiffany and Zayn tried their best to fit many familiar faces in.

Nadia and Elliott were present they sit holding hands in the second row on the right. Elliott holds their four year old daughter, Valentina Bethany Calder. Evelyn and Kaiden with a now eight year old Tobias are in the row in front of me. Doniya with her mate Alec. Alec rubs Doniya's round tummy. Wailyha sits next the her older sister and her mate Andre, and Safaa all sit on the first row on the left. Mary-Alice sits next to Aaliyah's sister Chloris Armistead, whom Tiffany met at Aaliyah and Zander's wedding. Chloris was babysitting her sisters three year old twins Ruka Antonino Sinclair and Romeo Luka Sinclair.

Five seats sit in the front row on the right side. Each holds four things a platinum name tag, a white rose, a framed photo, and something the person held dear in their time of living. From right to left; Yaser Malik and his favorite worn out Bob Marley tshirt, Patricia Malik and her book of poems (the same one which Zayn read to Tiffany from), Olivia Bristol and a tube of red lipstick (the same tube Tiffany used on her just before she flatlined), Wesley Bristol and his worn copy of To Kill A Mocking Bird (where Tiffany got her love of literacy), Chanel Bristol and a teddy bear (not the bunny, Tiffany had her buried with that.)

The five spirits whose belongings lie in those chairs are not all the love ones that should have been present today, however, they are the most important at lease to the bride and groom. I can not speak on personal experience, but the lost of parent or sibling has to be an unimaginable horrid feeling of grief, fear, and sadness. Like the world has completely collapsed on the top of you. Zayn and Tiffany through this have lost both their parents. Tiffany also lost her only sibling, a little girl she saw as her own. I cried and grieved with my characters, but one will never truly know the pain of such lost till it happens to oneself.

Grief and pain are such a sour note damping today's joy. Today is good day, a happy day. That's how the five spirits, from the front row would want today to be. I'm an atheist myself. Due to the stress that was her everyday life Tiffany lost her faith and though it is not discussed Zayn lost his faith as well when he saw how badly Tiffany was hurting. Though god is as real as Santa, there is noway spirits take the wondrous trip called the, "Human Experience" cease to exist when the casket is shut. Both Tiffany and Zayn knew those five spirits are roaming the forest somewhere near.