BRIDE AND SEEK
“We need to talk.”
Brian had been dreading this conversation, but had known it was coming ever since they’d left the highway to head up into the mountains. Lisa had gotten unusually quiet in the car and now at the campsite he could tell she was obsessing over something in that pretty little head of hers. “It’s just that we’ve been going out for over a year,” Lisa continued as Brian stoked the fire and avoided her gaze. “And I need to know where this is going. I need to know if you see a future together.” Brian chuckled to himself. “What?” she scoffed. “What’s funny?” “It’s these woods,” he said, shaking his head. “They have that effect on women. Every female to step foot into these woods becomes obsessed with tying the knot.” “Oh please…” “It’s true,” he said, squinting his stinging eyes as the shifting night breeze brought the smoke into his face. “You’ve heard of the Blushing Bride, right?” “Brian. Come on. Every kid in the state heard about the Blushing Bride in elementary school. It’s a local legend – like, our version of La Llarona.” “But what if it’s not a legend?” Brian said quietly, the shadows on his face jumping and jerking in unexpected directions with every flicker of the fire. “What if it’s true?” Lisa made a sound that clearly indicated she thought he was full of it. “So you expect me to believe that there is actually a woman out there – no, no, the GHOST of a woman -- in a tattered wedding dress who roams these woods searching for her lost husband, reliving the day she was jilted, over and over for all eternity? Oh, and she looks young and hauntingly beautiful in the moonlight, but if you move aside her faded veil, wooo-ooo-ooo, you’ll see the rotting visage of a hideous old woman from beyond the grave.” “That’s not exactly how I heard it, but yes, close enough.” Brian looked out from the pulsing circle of light around the fire and tried to peer into the impenetrable darkness of the woods around them. “Her luminous corpse floating a few inches above the pine needles as she seeks her mate, killing any woman who stands in her way, and dragging any man she finds back to hell with her.” “If you’re trying to scare me, it’s not going to work,” Lisa huffed, crossing her arms across her chest. “And you’re not getting out of this conversation.” A rustling beyond the tree line stole pulled attention away. Something was moving in the woods. A glow, so dim that Brian had to question his vision, ebbed in the inky blackness of the forest. But as the source drew closer, the light grew brighter and soon he could see the outline of the tattered white dress sweeping past the trees. “Here comes the bride…” Brian whispered. “Oh… oh no. Brian!” Lisa leapt from her folding chair and grabbed onto her boyfriend. “You see her, right? You see her?” “Yes,” Brian said quietly. “I knew she would come.” “You knew?” Lisa’s mouth dropped open. “You knew? And you still brought us here? You just sat here while… We have to get out of here!” “Well, yeah, you definitely should. If the stories are true, she is not going to treat you well at all.” “Me? But what about you?” Lisa hissed, her apprehension quickly blossoming into terror. “That Bridezilla is here looking for a husband!” “True, but honestly, how different is that than every woman in her mid to late 30’s with a ticking biological clock looking to trap a man?” Brian shrugged. “At least she’s honest about it.” The bride floated across the edge of the tree line, her blood-smeared wedding dress dragging in the dirt as she entered the clearing like a white slash against the black fabric of night. The dim glow they had seen earlier was now brighter than their lantern as it emanated from beneath her yellowed veil. “Brian! Come on! Let’s get out of here! You do not want to spend all eternity with her, til death do us part, just reliving her wedding day over and over again!” “Yeah, I get that,” Brian conceded. “But again, that’s no worse than any wife with a wedding scrapbook and a bad vhs of her ceremony. I mean, is watching five seasons of ‘Married at First Sight’ and ‘Ninety Day Fiancée’ really any better?” The orange light of the fire wrapped around the tule and lace of the dress, the pearl buttons reflecting back like twinkling cat eyes as the bride moved down an invisible aisle toward its victims, a nonexistent wind lifting the train like a ghostly cape. “Brian!” Lisa screamed. “What is wrong with you? Has she got you hypnotized or something? Snap out of it! She may look young and beautiful, but the second you lift the veil you’ll see a skeletal old crone, blood red eyes gazing out of her rotting black skin, a horrifying soul-draining face of evil.” “Oh in twenty to thirty years, that’s going to happen to you too,” Brian sighed. “To any woman I marry. Again, at least she’s being honest about it instead of spending all my money on pricey makeup and Botox.” The bride, horrifying enough as a small figure emerging from the words now towered over them, her long flowing dress spreading out behind her like the wings of an angel, or, in the harsh orange glow of the fire light, a devil. She had nearly reached her victims and the fire pit that would serve as her unholy altar for the joining of life and death, the marriage of heaven and hell. “I guess I’m just not seeing the downside of joining this homicidal bridal party,” Brian said. “She wears the same dress every day, so no huge shopping bills. She doesn’t expect an expensive ring. Heck, she probably doesn’t even eat. Financially speaking, it really seems like a win-win.” With an unholy scream that echoed throughout the trees, the bride lunged for her victims. Lisa ran as fast as she could, leaping into the car, fumbling for her keys, and tearing out of the woods and down the mountain as fast as she could. The bride stopped cold. “Thanks, buddy,” Brian said with a nod to his costumed friend. “Can I get you a beer?” “Hell yeah, this thing is heavy, and hot as hell.” Johnny pulled the wedding dress over his head and plopped down by the fire to start scrubbing off the phosphorescent makeup. “It worked just like you said it would,” Johnny acknowledged as he took a long drink of the cold beer. “But still. Wouldn’t it have been easier just to break up with her?” “Probably,” Brian admitted. “So I guess you want to cancel our plans to do it all again next week to your girlfriend?” “Hell no,” Johnny said, tossing the gown to his buddy. “And you better not stretch out my dress.” |