Within Grim Wedlock

Chapter Twenty Five: Childhood Natalie

She hated that they had seen her fall apart, even under the circumstances it was all she could think about. Despite this, she knew it would be incredibly hard to act the way Fiona wanted them too.

Slowly, she turned around acting as happy as she could, fighting her sadness.

“I don’t remember what happened or why I was over there! All I know is that I should’ve been here!” She giggled, sitting back down as Lilith seemingly relaxed.

She kept forcing herself to pretend as if she was talking to popular kids at school or friends of her parents. All she had to do was keep up the fake act she’d been pulling off for years.

“We knew you’d come around, it’s okay to have moments of confusion darling.” Lilith said.

“My apologies, I too don’t remember what happened. But Tyler is missing out.” Fiona smiled.

“We only have one more step before the final marriage! Don’t worry, everyone gets to contribute.” Rowan said as the table applauded in response.

Kaiya stood up from her chair and picked up a strange looking crown. She carefully carried it towards Ellie’s chair, and set it in front of her as Ellie cheered happily.

“That's what the crown I saw looked like, it must be made of Betsy and Simon.” Fiona whispered as Anthony gagged.

“In order to connect ourselves with ourselves and the bride, it’s vital we add a piece of ourselves to the crown as a final gift. Lilith and I shall start.” Rowan said as he grabbed a knife.

Swiftly, he stabbed it through the webbing between his fingers as his blood and flesh squelched against the blade. Without even a blink, he carved out a chunk and stuck it onto the crown, calm as could be.

“Fuck no.” Anthony whispered through his clenched smile.

The room filled with the sounds of splattering blood, shattered bone and torn skin as members grabbed their weapons, and began collecting their additions.

Natalie watched in fear as a woman sawed off her thumb, giggling as the blood flooded out and her finger began to dangle off its limbs.

“Don’t puke, cooperate, it's okay.” Fiona whispered, softly grabbing her knife.

“Haha, Fiona! What are you doing?” Natalie giggled panickley as Fiona winced and drove the knife into her forearm, yelping as the blade dug in.

She shakily drove it in further, and began slicing through the top layer, leaving a chunk of dripping pale skin laying loose on the table.

“Use fingernails…hair…anything it’ll only hurt for a bit.” Fiona said as she walked towards Ellie, holding the dead flesh between her fingers.

“We have to do this. It’s okay.” Natalie said, eying the knife as Anthony slid the knife under the top of his fingernail.

Wincing, he carefully peeled it off, leaving droplets of blood surrounding the area, and pink, raw flesh where his nail once laid.

“Just get it over with.” He said, gasping as he walked towards the crown.

Natalie stared in shock at the crown as it grew with new additions every second. Hair, skin, fingertips, toes.

She covered her mouth the longer she looked as members began adding more pieces of themselves.

“Fiona…there's eyes on there.” She squeaked as Fiona stood beside her, speechless.

“Torn out eyes…you can see the veins.” She whispered.

“Nat you need to add something, I know it's hard, please we need to do this to get out.” Fiona begged as Natalie fixated on the crown in fear.