Page 72 of Midnight Wedding

But I notice an odd pattern on the floor, like something or someone was dragged through the muck, down to the final door at the end of the hall.

I feel sick. I don’t want to keep going. This is a horror story and I’m making a very dumb mistake. Except I walk on, hand reaching for the knob, trembling like it might fall apart.

Beyond the door is an office.

It looks normal. Outdated, but not covered in blood at least. The carpet is green and shag, and the furniture looks like it was purchased thirty years earlier. There are books on the shelves and a big fireplace against the right wall.

Five skeletons are neatly laid out in front of the desk.

I stare at them. It’s hard to make sense of the bleached white bones. They’re human and big. I’m guessing these people were all taller than me when they were alive. Their skulls gape at me, their eye sockets empty and dull. Five corpses, five bodies, sitting in an empty, unused office, and a whole sea of blood staining the hall leading up to it.

“What the fuck is this?” I whisper.

What did Arsen do here? Why is he keeping it like this? What sort of weird, sick place did I just stumble into?

Fuck my curiosity. Fuck my stupid brain. I never should’ve gone through that door.

I never, ever,evershould’ve come in here.

I want to throw up. I want to start crying. I can’t even move.

A man’s voice breaks my paralysis.

“Oh, Lena, you really disappointed me,” he says.

I whip around. My mouth opens to scream, but Arsen’s hand presses over my mouth as he grabs me roughly. His face is inches from mine, horrible and beautiful at once, his expression mournful.

Like I’m about to be the next victim.

Fuck that. Fuck all this. I struggle, fighting and shoving and kicking, trying to get away, but he holds on tighter. “Don’t make this hard,” he says. “Lena?—”

I claw at him like an animal. Bright red beads of blood appear on his throat.

I break free enough to yell. “Help me! Help, please! He’s going to kill me. He’s going to?—”

Maud appears behind him. Her face is pinched as she rushes toward me. I shout, flinching back.

“Hold her still,” she hisses.

“What are you—” Arsen starts.

A needle sinks into my arm.

“Fuck,” I moan as Maud hits the plunger. I look up at her in horror, my mouth hanging open. She quickly pulls it back out.

“Damn it, Maud,” Arsen snaps, moving me away from her. “What the hell did you do?”

“You’re sick,” I mumble, feeling heavy.

“Protecting you,” Maud says as Arsen’s arms wrap around me tighter. Squeezing the life from me. Crushing my bones to dust.

The world lurches and everything goes black.

Chapter 26

Lena

“What the fuck,” I say through heavy lips. The pillow under my face is wet with drool.

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