Tulip poured her heart and soul into dinners dish. Lily was extra cautious to keep her mouth shut and keep the peace and apparently so was Jesse. Cassidy was making up for everyone's lack of noise, practically conversing with himself.
Lily forgot multiple times that Emily was even in the room. Each time Tulip would try and spark conversation with Jesse, he would hardly interact back. It was a painful and unnatural setting. Finally, Tulip called him out, slamming her cutlery down and demanding to know what was going on. Suddenly, Lily heard a familiar voice, she turned around to see the local town sheriff.
The first and only time she saw him was in the hospital. Lily turned back around, her back to him, and she was relieved he didn't say anything other than asking everyone one question - where his son was.
Lily glanced to Cassidy, who narrowed his brows at her, making her assume it was this man's son that Jesse had sent to Hell. Jesse nonchalantly said he had no idea, when suddenly Emily spoke, which surprised Lily as she turned to her. "You did see him." Emily corrected Jesse. Lily went stiff and Cassidy's stomach dropped. Tulip clearly wasn't following, still red hot as she glared at Jesse. As quickly as she had said the words, Emily retracted her statement. The sheriff slumped glumly, finding his way out and Jesse followed out after him.
Lily picked at her plate, feeling Tulip's laser stare into her soul. She looked up, "What?" Lily asked. Tulip crossed her arms and pursed her lips, "What's goin' on here?!" She asked. Lily shrugged, playing dumb, and thankfully, her phone rang. She quickly stood up and walked to the bathroom for some privacy in her conversation - it was her co-worker Ezra, he'd called her a few times now just checking in on her, since she'd left out of the blue and in terrible timing. If she had to claim anyone in her workplace anything close enough to constitute as a friend - it would be Ezra.
When Lily came back to the table only a few short minutes later, it was just Emily and Tulip. Lily stood at the doorway, "Where's Jesse and Cassidy?" She asked. Tulip shrugged her shoulder, her energy clearly deflated, "Who knows?" She had her head in her hand and was pushing around her food on her plate.
Emily continued to eat in silence. Lily didn't like the idea of Jesse and Cassidy being alone somewhere, for many reasons. She walked out the door beside the fridge and turned towards the front of the church, walking along it's side, until she heard Cassidy's voice - he was obviously irritated.
She walked around the side of the church to the front, seeing Jesse standing in the blaring sun a ways in front of the steps of the church, Cassidy stood bundled in the shade under the entrance awning. "What's going on?" Lily asked, noticing the tensity between them immediately. With her heart racing, she worried what Cassidy might've already said to her brother and how much damage control it was going to take to reverse all of it.
Neither of them said anything to her, and she caught on pretty quickly that Cassidy must be in his first phase of his promise he'd made - making sure Jesse knew he was a vampire - and it looked like Cassidy was going the dramatic route. Suddenly, Cassidy tossed a large fire extinguisher down to Jesse's feet. Lily noticed Cassidy begin to walk down the stairs towards Jesse - towards the sun - as he slid his first layer of clothing off. Realizing what was going and without thinking twice, she ran in front of him, skidding against the sandy ground. Thankfully, he stopped, "Cassidy." Lily said with prudence, "Don't." She looked up to him with meaningful eyes.
From behind her, she heard Jesse stepped closer to them, "Don't, what, Lily?" He asked cautiously, "What's he gonna do?" Jesse puffed on his cigarette, not sure what to expect. Cassidy's face was straight, and he stepped closer to Lily, he pushed her to the side with his arm as she at the same time grabbed it, pulling at him, "Cassidy!" She said with a clenched voice, her heels dragging in the dirt as he walked without any struggle.
As the sunlight hit, Cassidy was instantly engulfed in flames. For Lily, it was as if her hands were pressed onto a red hot stove top, giving her no choice but to let go of her grasp on him as she fell backwards. She'd winded herself, but it only took a couple seconds of Cassidy's gut-wrenching screaming for her to get back up and spectate at the horrifying event.
Jesse stared in awe, the fire extinguisher at his feet catching Lily's eye. "Jesse!" Lily yelled, running at him, "Put him out! JESSE!" The smoke was thick and the heat wave from the flames was getting stronger. Cassidy's screams were becoming more sparse. Finally, Jesse came to his senses from his shock and sprayed him. Lily stared helplessly, unable to do anything.
When the fire extinguisher wouldn't put out anymore, there was a giant disaster area of mess. Jesse kept the fire extinguisher in his hand as he stomped away, back into the church, practically leaving Cassidy for dead, and Lily to deal with it. There was frothy foam everywhere from the extinguisher as it had quickly melted off of Cassidy's body, which was a completely charred corpse, still sizzling.
Lily grabbed onto what she assumed where his arms, and as she wrapped her hands around, it cracked underneath them. She dragged what was left of him into the shade, collapsing on the stairs, her eyes welling up involuntarily as she looked at his remains. She leaned to her side and vomited the dinner she'd just ate onto the stairs, spitting and wiping her mouth, before staring at the horizon, losing touch of the moment.
She wasn't sure how long she'd zoned out for, but Tulip grabbed her arm in a panic, "What the HELL, Lil?! Is that...?" She asked. Lily nodded feebly, "That's Cassidy." She looked up to Tulip, "Was Cassidy." She corrected.
As if on queue, suddenly Cassidy's corpse gasped. Lily had the life scared out of her as she jumped up and slipped in her own vomit on the steps at her side, falling backwards before sitting up and looking at the blackened carcass in complete shock.
Tulip ran back up to the doors into the church, coming out with an arm full of linens.
Tulip threw the linens over Cassidy, and turned her head towards Lily with a stern look in her eyes, "Lily. If Cassidy stands any chance here, we gotta act fast." Lily nodded, wide eyed as she scrambled up towards Tulip.
"Ok," Tulip continued, "Help me wrap these around him. Here. Take his legs and we'll get 'im into my car." They packed Cassidy into her vehicle and no matter how chaotic of a situation she was in, Lily would never forget the single most important thing to her: her bag. She grabbed it from her SUV Tulip sped away as fast as she could. Every so often they'd hear a muffled and unconvincing grumble, but that was the only sound they'd heard from the church to Tulip's uncles.
When they carried him into the bedroom at the back of the house and unwrapped him, it seemed like a thick layer of soot came off with the linen. "I'm running to the hospital," Tulip said, "Stay here and keep an eye on him. Keep your guard up - he's gonna be hungry I would imagine."
Lily furrowed her brows, "Why are you going to the hospital?" She asked. Tulip lowered her eyes, repeating slower, "Cause. He's gonna be hungry I would imagine."