as far as friends go

chapter 26

An orange-yellowish shade of the sun setting shone through the church's beautiful stained glass windows as the opening wedding theme was beginning to play by a woman on the harp. Thinking to herself, Rachel looked through the crack leading to the aisle. The church was packed. Every familiar face that Finn and she loved dearly were sitting in the long rows of pews, looking around; looking for her she assumed. The setting was beautiful. She'd have to remember to thank Santana for her impeccable taste in wedding planning.

Taking a deep breath, she turned around to her dad, Leroy, who had the biggest smile a father could project on his baby girl's wedding day.

"Are you ready?" he asked, handing her the beautiful bouquet of flowers that she was assigned before wrapping his right arm around her left.

"Do I really have a choice?" she replied, letting a chuckle escape to attempt at hiding her somewhat obvious nervousness.

"Of course you do. You know, it's never too late to back out." Leroy pushed.

"No. I've made my choice long ago, daddy. Finn is my choice." She smiled to herself.

"Well then, let's let my baby girl get married." He grinned.

"Let's." she replied, facing forward as the two doors leading to a long aisle opened. The minute they were opened, a bunch of eyes were on her, making her maybe even more nervous than she had been the night before. Her heart was pounding like a running rabbit. And then a certain pair of eyes was looking at her and her heart stopped completely. There he was, standing at the altar with his million dollar smile and his tux, making him look like James Bond.

Becoming impatient, Rachel took a deep breath, straightened out her dress, and tried to hold back the joyous tears threatening to spill out of her eyes. Slowly, she held onto her father's arm and began slowly walking forward to the sound of the beautiful music playing through the church. This was it. The moment she had been dreaming about ever since she was a little girl. It was her wedding day; her wedding to the one and only Finn Hudson.

Once she got to the end of the altar, her father gave her a kiss on the cheek, placed her hand in Finn's, and stepped to the side. The weirdest thing to her, though, was that he didn't sit down next to Hiram like a normal parent should. He just stood on the other side of her, watching Finn walk her up to the pastor. Another thing that caught her attention was that Finn was wearing the cologne that she loathed. She decided to just let it all go. All that mattered was that she was standing in front of the love of her life.

As the pastor began his opening speech, Rachel couldn't help but stare at Finn. She was so happy in this moment. But that's when everything changed. She caught Finn's eyes, and they weren't the same as they were before. They were widened, like he was shocked or scared. She turned to the audience to see the same look from all of their loved ones. They were all looking at her dress. Looking down, Rachel's heart dropped when the perfectly white dress had a dark red substance all over the waist area. Placing her hand to her stomach, she raised it to see what it was; Blood.

She was so confused. Why did she have blood on her dress? Was she hurt? Had it been there the whole time? If it was, someone probably would have told her something before humiliation at her own wedding. Horrifyingly, the blood started spreading at a faster pace, and before she realized it, she was covered. Looking up at Finn, she was startled to find him smiling.

"I do." He said, low, but loud enough for her to hear it.

Before she could ask him what he was doing, a way too familiar voice came from behind her. "I do, too."

Turning around, she came face to face with her worst nightmare. The blonde was wearing the exact same wedding dress as Rachel. She even had her hair styled in the same decorative bun that Rachel was sporting. She had a small smear of blood on her right hand, right where she was holding a large kitchen knife. The blood on my dress, Rachel thought. Mandy.