Give Me Envy, Give Me Malice, Give Me Your Attention

“You look absolutely gorgeous, Lara!” Bella exclaimed.

Lara emerged with a weak smile, her petite body clad in a fitting off-white gown. The shimmering patterns of the strapless, floor-length wedding dress material resembled elegant flowers, dancing around the tall girl’s figure and accentuating it perfectly. Lara wasn’t always the most classic girl you’d ever met, but on this occasion – the biggest day of her life – she wanted to try and stick to vague tradition. She had her something old; a small, intricate, jeweled hair piece holding only some of her long, soft blonde hair back. It had been a gift from her mother, before she passed away. The wedding dress was something new; they didn’t make dresses like that back when women dressed with modesty. Something borrowed was a silver heart locket necklace that Anna had lent her, and for something blue she wore a thin, dark satin ribbon around her waist.

“It makes me feel a bit more like myself,” she had told them, when they were planning out her outfit.

And now here she was, the morning of her wedding, staring at the amazing reflection in the full-length oval mirror, trying to accept that it was her. Her bright blue eyes glistened like crystals, outlined in perfect eyeliner as she looked herself up and down for anything out of place. Her complexion was even paler than usual, matching up to her vampire friends almost too well. Her black painted toenails only just peeked out in her pumps from under the dress when she walked.

“Wow! Andy’s not going to be able to wait through the whole ceremony!” Anna joked. “Maybe I should be the one marrying you…”

Lara’s cheeks tinged pink as she chuckled a bit. Although excited, and the usual nerves that come along with the occasion, Lara was scared more than anything. She had no idea what to expect of today. Anything could happen. And you could bet that ‘anything’ wouldn’t be good.

“Hey,” Anna said soothingly, crossing the room from the chair she’d been perched in to wrap her cold arms around her friend’s warm shoulders. “It’ll be okay.”

Lara just gulped and nodded very unconvincingly. The three women stared at the mirror for a bit longer before Bella attempted to lighten he dense mood.

“Hey, try not to look so scared going down the aisle. Don’t want to frighten poor Andy when nothing has happened.”

“Yet,” Lara mumbled.

There was another painful pause.

“Lara, try not to be too tense over this,” Anna started. “Pete, Patrick, Andy and Joe have laced all the flowers with holy water and all four of them - as well as some of the other more knowledgeable guests - have some sort of defensive weapon with them. We’re as protected as we can be, and we might even be worrying over nothing. There might not even be a vampire attack.”

Lara nodded grimly, but none of them truly believed that they’d get out of this so easily.

“I should’ve just had the wedding in a damn church…” Lara started, but the others were quick to prevent her from thinking of more ‘what ifs’ and ‘if only’.

Cutting the conversation short, the sharp ring of Lara’s cell phone rang throughout the house, sending the three into silence. Lara bit her lip. This call could only mean one thing.

She looked over to Bella, who looked beautiful in a simple bridesmaid’s dress that Anna replicated, with a small smile fixed on her painted lips.

“You ready for this?” she asked the bride.

Lara sucked in a breath and looked at her perfect reflection in the mirror. Today, she looked just as perfect and ageless as they did, only without the slightly eerie aura. Wobbling just a little from her shaky legs, Lara made her way over to the small table beside the bed she shared with Andy and took hold of a small wooden stake, fashioned to look like a dagger with a metal hilt. With a deep breath, she rolled up the skirt of her dress and tucked the weapon into the garter on her thigh.

“As ready as I’ll ever be.”

***

The small stone courtyard was lined with ridiculous amounts of blue gentian flowers and white roses, overflowing and giving the small garden a magical aesthetic. The stone courtyard blended out into lush green grass, and beyond the low stone wall surrounding the area the view of the deep blue ocean stretched out to the line on the horizon. Although the day was rather dull and overcast, the dark water glistened and swirled as the sun peeked out from its cloudy mask every now and then. The water looked perfectly still from their location high above on the headland, but with the weather everyone knew that the waves beneath would be vicious against the rocks.

It was a small affair, and only five rows of pretty little white chairs were set out on the stone, a long red cloth separating the chairs into two sections. The abundance of dazzling flowers overlapped, dancing around the edges of the chairs. It really did look like a fairytale wedding. It was a shame that many of the guests’ expressions were so wary. Then again, there were the others who knew nothing of the supernatural world and had obliviously happy smiles on their blissfully ignorant faces. It was tough deciding which was more terrifying.

As Lara stepped out onto the aisle, a beautiful image of perfection, guests gasped for she was easily a hundred times more stunning than the flowers surrounding them. She wore no frustrating veil to hide her beautiful face, and there was not a single being in the room that didn’t have a spark of jealousy in their hearts, whether it was the men jealous of Andrew or the women jealous of the mortally amazing woman before them. Lara did her best to give a small smile on her dark-tinted lips, gulping not at all the eyes on her but at the dangerousness of what she was doing.

Her father, now starting to get along in his years, gave her a reassuring smile from beside her. She attempted to return it, but she was sure that her mimic was too feeble. Her father knew vaguely of the danger this event held, but he wasn’t entirely aware of the situation. All he knew was that he was here to look out for his precious daughter and give her away on this special day, and if he happened to be attacked then aim for the offender’s chest with the wooden stake he had been provided. Lara’s older brother was also present, seated in the front row, and was genuinely confused as to what ‘danger’ his little sister could possibly be attached to, and what good a piece of wood would do.

Bella was attached to Patrick’s arm and Anna to Ryan’s, with Andy and Joe keeping an eye out at the back over all the guests. Bella and Anna kept their heads bowed as they walked with small smiles on their faces. They didn’t know if they even could outshine their human friend today, but they didn’t want to risk it. Pete stood at the other end with the bridegroom, a huge smile on both of their faces, even though their defensive stances never faltered.

As the space between Lara and Andy began to close, her heart rate began to slow a little from it’s rapid pace. She wanted to run into his arms, hear his reassuring voice. Every small step that she took led her closer to him, closer to safety, closer to survival. Thunder lowly rattled the gray skies, but the weather was the least of their worries. Andy wanted her to run to him too. He wanted to hold her, be close to her, close enough to protect her. As the distance was slowly shrinking, the lovers’ smiles were becoming filled with more and more relief.

And as Lara’s father left her to sit in his chair, as the couple were only a few feet apart, as the first drop of rain fell from the heavens and made a tiny dark dot on the makeshift aisle, cruel, malicious laughter sounded behind her and the figure of nightmares appeared.

William Beckett was standing there.

But he was not alone. Oh no.

William Beckett stood there, armed with what must have been every Dandy in the mansion.