Eminence (Wattpad Edition)

Note 23 - We're Such A Mess Together

Warren watched Emanon as Jack, Theo, and Anika worked together on breakfast burritos. She sat quietly on the couch, her hands fidgeting in her lap, gaze drifting from one person to the next, like she didn't quite know where she fit. That wasn't like her. She stood slowly and slipped out onto the balcony, leaving the door open behind her. Warren hesitated, then followed.

"Gave up on being patient and decided to distract yourself with the view?" he asked, stepping outside.

"It's strange... this feeling I'm having."

"Do you want to talk about it?" he said, settling beside her.

Emanon drew in a slow breath, eyes on the horizon. "There's something about the ocean air... the sun, the smell of breakfast mixing with salt in the breeze... After everything last night, it's all so, cathartic. Like my body's just now realizing it can relax." She sighed. "I don't know if I'm explaining it right."

"You don't have to. I'll listen until you find it."

She was glowing in the light, her long ash-blonde hair catching the sun like strands of silver. From a distance, maybe they looked the same age. Up close, a decade apart. But in this moment, she felt timeless, her reddish-brown eyes shimmering like they stood on the edge of something vast.

"Warren?" she asked.

"Yeah?"

"You looked like your mind wandered."

"Sorry," he chuckled. "I was just trying to absorb every second of you."

She raised a brow. "What are you, a black hole?"

"No," he said, smiling. "I'm just so enamored by your presence that I want to consume every inch of you."

Her eyes brimmed. But she smiled.

"You know, you get used to being stuck in survival mode. You don't notice when peace finally sneaks in."

She closed her eyes, wind brushing against her skin.

"It's only when your body calms down that you realize how hard you've been shaking. Then you breathe, and think: I'm alive. And that moment fills you. No noise. Just... peace. And then—" She looked at him, eyes wet.

"Then you start wanting more. Even the things that hurt. I want all of it. I want every part of you. I want to experience more of myself too..." Her voice trembled.

"If it's with you, Warren, I want it all."

For a moment, he couldn't speak. Around them, gulls, the sea, distant laughter. None of it louder than what he felt inside.

"I think," he said slowly, "The feeling people call youth... it's just those moments of emotion so big, you can't hold them. You only understand them once they've passed. But right now... I feel it. I feel it with you."

She laughed through tears, and he did too. He reached for her hand and pulled her into him. Emanon leaned into Warren's chest.

"You ever wonder what we'd be like if we weren't... you know, vampires, amnesiacs, etc.?"

Warren gave a quiet laugh. "You mean, if we were just some couple from Brooklyn?"

She chuckled. "Exactly. Maybe I'd be a florist. You'd be a librarian."

"I do like quiet places."

"See? I'd bring you tea every morning and complain about rude customers."

"And I'd pretend not to love the smell of flowers in your hair, but secretly I'd smell my scarf every time you borrowed it."

Emanon blushed. "...We're ridiculous," she said.

"Hopeless," Warren agreed, smiling.

"I really don't know who I was before. I keep trying to figure it out... like if I can piece her together, maybe I'll feel more real."

Warren didn't answer immediately. He tightened his arm around her and looked out at the ocean.

"You are real, Em. You don't have to remember your past. You're here. That's what matters to me."

She smiled faintly, eyes glassy.

"...You know Warren?"

"Hmm?"

"I love you so much, so much that it hurts."

"I love you so much that it hurts, Em."

And they sat there, quiet and close, letting the breeze carry the rest.