The Crimson Bride

Prologue

Content warning: depiction of suicide.

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She needed to get out.

As she stared at the vanity mirror, nothing but disgust crept into her senses. She grabbed the heavy nightstand lamp and threw it at her reflection, smashing it. She couldn't stand to look at herself anymore.

She had endured everything for nearly a century and a half. She was tired.

Tired of the bloodshed. Tired of how her family spat at the sanctity of marriage so easily. Tired of not being his one and only. Tired of never changing.

So she made the decision. She needed to get out, but she knew there was no easy way to do that. Not when the entire village nearby was under the Sinclair family's thumb. There was only one way she could escape.

It would be painful, but is was the only way.

Having steeled her conviction, she fled from her room.

It only took mere seconds before the service bells rang uncontrollably and the whispering began. The damned whispering, the beckoning call of her family and her master. She tried to ignore the irritable ringing as she slipped into the music room.

This room was once her solace, it now held the key to her salvation.

She took what she needed and swiftly left before the staff could find her and lock her in.

The ringing and the whispers grew more loud and frantic as she proceeded down the main hall. It was like they knew what she was planning to do. She wondered how they would react when they found her. Would they weep? Would they mourn? 

She knew her family wouldn't, but what about them?

The thought brought tears to her eyes, but she couldn't turn back now. She didn't know what kind of punishment she would have to endure if she was caught. Her family was not the merciful kind.

She took a deep breath as she wrapped the piano wire around the railing and then grabbed a bust of her husband. How cruel and ironic it is to use his image as a tool for her freedom.

She wiped away the last of her tears as she tied the other end of the cord around her throat.

She could hear footsteps now on either side of the hall.

As she crossed the railing she met those tender baby blue eyes. She couldn't allow her heart to melt now, not when she was so close to her freedom.

"I'm sorry Deacon..."

With that she let go of the railing and held the bust tightly against herself, allowing herself to fall. The wire tightened around the railing as she quickly plummeted down. The bust hit the floor and shattered as her life was snuffed out.

Her body also soon hit the floor as well as her head was torn from her shoulders.

No more bells, no more whispers.

She was finally free.