Page 47

"Come here Pearl!" Emmet called out to the hybrid.

Following the voice, she entered the backyard. Spotting Emmet, standing amongst multiple boxes.

"What is it?" Pearl warily asked.

"They arrived!" Emmet exclaimed, gesturing to the boxes. Which upon closer inspection, appeared to be packages from the post office.

"What arrived?" Pearl asked while frowning. A hint of curiosity could be heard in her voice.

"Your dinner!" Emmet smirked.

"What." Pearl said bluntly.

Picking up one of the boxes and bringing it in front of her, Emmet opened it up, revealing what was inside to Pearl, "This is your lunch!" Emmet grinned at the hybrid, clearly very proud of himself.

Looking down into the box, Pearl's face scrunched up in disgust. "You are kidding." She said, looking at Emmet in disbelief.

Inside the box, was a tub. And the tub, was filled with cockroaches.

"Nope!" Emmet smirked at Pearl. "And there's more where this came from!" He said, placing the container on the ground, he speedily opened all of the other boxes and placed them in front of Pearl, so she could see the contents of each one.

Every single box, was filled with some sort of bug or critter. Termites, Roaches, Ants, Spiders and Beetles, she could even see a Scorpion in one of the boxes.

Pearl stared at the animals, then at Emmet, then back to the animals. She was speechless. What the hell was she supposed to say?

Emmet grinned at her, "Take your pick. Which one are you gonna eat first?" He asked, way to happily for the current situation.

"Im not eating those." Pearl immediately deadpanned.

"Yes you are." Emmet replied confidently.

"No I'm-" Pearl got cut off.

"You don't have a choice." Emmet declared. "This is what I'm telling you to do in exchange for the whole dress fiasco at Edward's wedding." He smirked victoriously at her.

Pearl paused and stared at the animals. There were at least 40 animals here. Some different species, some were the same.

"I have to eat all of them?" Pearl questioned, after a minute of silence.

"Yep" Emmet answered, popping the 'p'.

"But they're alive." She protested.

"They won't be once you chew them." Emmet smirked.

"What the hell man?!" Pearl yelled, officially disgusted.

"Oh come on! We drink blood from animals! This is hardly any different!" He argued.

"They, aren't creepy! Nor do deers, have eight legs!" Pearl shouted.

"Heh. Well if humans can do this, then you can too." Emmet responded.

"What the hell do you mean humans do this?!" Pearl yelled out in surprise and disgust.

"I saw it on 'I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here'. A lady ate a live spider for a challenge. It was epic!" Emmet exclaimed.

"That is gross." Pearl stated bluntly.

"Wouldn't know. Never tried it when I was human. Now, stop wasting time. Chop chop. Choose your first!" Emmet said in a dramatic voice. Almost like he was announcing the next opponent in a major competition.

Pearl paused, until eventually asking, "... There's so many. Why's there so many?"

"Couldn't decide on which one to make you eat. So I figured you could just eat all of them!" Emmet said happily, like it was the only logical solution to his problem.

Glaring at him, Pearl spoke in a mainly disgusted tone but also slightly playful, so that he knew she was joking, kind of. "You sick man."

"I try" Emmet replied. Taking the joke. "Now. Who's first?" He impatiently asked.

Wanting to delay it as much as possible, Pearl asked another question. "Why bugs?"

Emmet shrugged. "Wanted to know what they taste like." He answered. "If I did it myself, I wouldn't get an accurate answer. Since everything tastes like pure dirt and all. But you'll be able to actually taste it. So you obviously have to do it."

"And why not just look at the reactions of the humans who already did this to get your answer?" Pearl questioned, genuinely curious.

"They could be lying. They might have made it seem more dramatic for the tv.

" Emmet said, deadly serious. Then added, "I was gonna ask Bella to try one before the wedding, but Edward heard my thoughts and kinda told me that he'd tear me apart and burn the pieces if I asked her.

So, you're the only option left." He revealed.

"Dude... that's messed up. You were gonna ask the bride, on her wedding day, to eat a live cockroach?"

"Yep. But like I said, my brother threatened me. So I wasn't able to. Plus it was the dudes wedding, so, I kinda had to do as he said. Edward was the groom after all." Emmet said, matter of factly.

Pearl looked back down at the tub of cockroaches and picked it up off of the floor.

And stared at the group of bugs. She gulped, dreading the thought of them crawling around in her mouth before she would be able to kill them by biting them in half.

Looking at the other critters, she wondered out loud, "Why are some of the animals in groups, but others are solo? "

"Figured for the smaller ones, like the ants and roaches, it would be better to eat a handful instead of just one.

The larger ones are fine to just eat a singular one.

I didn't want this to be too easy. Plus you wouldn't have been able to properly describe a singular ants taste. " Emmet responded playfully.

"I hate you." Pearl deadpanned. Looking down at the cockroaches she counted at least seven of them. She could probably just about, fit them all into her mouth at the same time. The thought of doing so, was incredibly sickening to her.

Emmet smiled evilly at her. Excited to see her fulfil his request/dare/order.

Esme, Bree, Rosalie and Carlisle were inside the house, listening to the two's conversation.

They were all well aware of what Emmet had been planning.

Although some of them had attempted to dissuade him at first, ultimately they had given up and let him do what he wanted.

Some of them were tempted to go and watch, but their overall disgust ended up outweighing their curiosity.

Jasper however, desperately wanted to witness the event.

It was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and they were gonna live forever so that's saying something.

The Texan was desperately trying to get his mate to hurry up so that he could leave and witness the spectacle of Pearl eating bugs.

Pearl glared at Emmet. "I can't believe you are making me do this." Emmet only smirked at her in response. "And for the record. Im not a celebrity." Pearl said, then opened the tub, tossing the lid aside. She scooped all of the cockroaches into her hand and practically threw them into her mouth.

The consequential crunch that followed, could be heard all throughout the house.

It was soon paired with Emmet's unmistakable laughter.

Most of the coven grimaced when the crunch reached their ears.

Alice giggled quietly and finally allowed Jasper to leave, causing him to rush out of the house at full speed, into the backyard to witness the rest.

Pearl swallowed unceremoniously and gagged afterwards.

Trying to rid of the taste from her mouth, she immediately started wiping her tongue with her hands.

Picking out a couple of stray legs that didn't go down with her initial swallow.

Listening to Emmet's laughter while she removed the literal body parts from her mouth, was infuriating to her.

When she eventually got them all out and was able to stop, Pearl looked at Emmet and wished that he would just drop dead.

When Emmet's laughter finally cleared up, he asked, "Which one is next?" He grinned.

Jasper smirked at the hybrid from his spot on the porch.

It was obvious to them both that Pearl wanted to yell out many obscenities and profanities towards Emmet.

But was restraining herself due to Esme being inside the house.

Despite believing that she would certainly be justified, Pearl still doubted that Esme would approve of such language.

Begrudgingly, Pearl picked up the next container from the boxes, and made eye contact with the tarantula. Already resigned to her fate, she sucked in a deep breath and steeled her resolve, as she opened the lid.