Out of the Coffin

Chapter Fourteen

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Chapter Fourteen

Bella

"So everyone knows what's happening right?" Stan asked as we drove up the road to the church where Breaking Dawn was located.

"Yep," Rose and I said at the same time.

"Your name's Lee, I'm Kris and Rosalie's Nikki. You and I are engaged and looking for a church and Rosalie is coming along as she's my best friend and maid of honour." Stan nodded as I reeled off the plan.

"Remember, let me do all the talking," he said as a final thing as we pulled into the parking lot. I slipped on the fake engagement ring Stan had given me and took a deep breath.

"Well hello there!" A friendly voice called out as we got out the car and walked towards a woman wearing a pale pink dress suit.

"Hello to you too," Stan answered, placing his hand on my back and using his other to shake the hand of the friendly woman.

"I'm Julia and you must be Kris and Lee," she said pointing to us. "The couple who want to get married here?" We nodded.

"And this is the maid of honour Nikki," Lee said gesturing to Rose as she reached and shook the woman's hands.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Rose said a smile on her face.

"Let's go in and meet my husband." We all followed her down the path and into a large building. The church was behind it. What I found strange was the number of people that were wandering around the site – they were all wearing sweat suits and seemed to be training for something.

"What's with all the people?" I politely asked Stan, tensed up.

"We run a training programme for individuals who want to learn leadership skills," Julia said, smiling as she kept walking down towards where her husband presumably was. I opened my mind up, something wasn't right.

Leadership yeah right, I wish Steve hadn't agreed to this. They shouldn't be here. It's too risky.

"What do we have here? More people who have seen the light?" Somebody asked and I turned my head towards the voice. There was a man, not much taller than Rose stood outside a set of double doors with his hands out, extended towards Julia.

"This is my husband Reverend Steve Tipps," Julia said, beaming with pride as he took her hands in his and brought them up to his lips.

"It's a pleasure to meet you all," he said, shaking all of our hands. "Come on in." We all followed him through the double doors before we turned left and entered an office. Steve gestured for us to sit down as he sat down behind a large desk, Julia stood behind him as she placed her hands on his shoulders.

I sat down in one of the chairs, Stan on my right and Rose on my left. I looked around the room and fought the urge to cringe – there were promotional posters of Breaking Dawn everywhere; slogans about seeing the light and not being taken into the darkness; pictures of vampires depicted as monsters, blood dripping down their chins as they drank from children.

"So – why do you want to get married in our church?" Steve said, crossing his legs and arms.

"We've been hearing about your church for a while, and we always wanted to join, but we wanted to stay loyal to our church..." Stan paused for dramatic effect. "However, that changed when we found out our pastor was... a sympathiser." Steve shook his head as I reached over and gripped Stan's hand for 'support'. A sympathiser was someone like Rose, Stan and I – people who liked vampires and didn't have a problem with them, people who wanted them to be equal and have the same rights as we did.