Five Weddings

The simple man

The first wedding Clementianna ever had took place some weeks after her sixteenth birthday. It was to a man as common as they come. She would even have gone as far as to call him pathetic, but she was not the one choosing who she was to marry after all. Her mother told her that a simple man who did good work would be more than enough.

Clementianna didn't want "simple". She didn't want "enough". She wanted to be rich, she wanted to have the jewels to compliment her beauty, she wanted to be admired for what she was. Not that her mother cared.

The simple man was nice enough, she guessed. Easy to manipulate. She had him wrapped around her little finger. She was, and it was important to mention it, the most beautiful girl in the village.

The ceremony was highly disappointing. Clementianna had made herself as... Presentable as possible, she couldn't really say that those rags were her best, but still. She looked really good in anything. Maybe better in nothing than in this, but anyway. She had made an effort. Her hair was clean, soft and bright, its beautiful and naturally vivid color shining. She worked on it for hours. Her dress was complimenting her perfect figure and she even managed to find a necklace, nothing really fancy but she did with what she had.

Her husband to be was... Well she doubted he even bathed. He was at least twenty years older than her, had probably lost as many teeth and smelled as strong as a man working in pig's shit could smell. He was rather disgusting as a whole. And those watery eyes devoid of any intelligence... She still couldn't believe she had to settle for that.

They married in a hurry, because their witnesses had to go back to harvesting the fields, and the priest had another wedding to celebrate right after and really, was it so silly of her to hope that the thing she had been promised would be the most beautiful day of her life would last more than five minutes? And in a place that didn't fall apart either?

Clementianna hadn't been happy in that marriage. Her mother could tell her all she wanted that Clementianna had everything she needed, she knew it wasn't true. She needed so much more.

She actually met her second husband while she was still married to the simple man. And she supposed she wasn't supposed to marry her second husband, but Clementianna had the will to make anything possible.

Her simple husband was really agreeable to everything she wanted, but when he became ill, shortly after she turned seventeen, she had to take it upon herself to work. Which was ridiculous, why did she bother marrying the man if she still ended needing for money? Her mother truly had chosen the worst suitor possible. Anyways. It didn't change the fact that Clementianna needed to eat, and to eat one needs money, and to earn money one needs to work (or find someone who had money and marry them, but that option wasn't available at that moment).

Clementianna wasn't about to raise pigs like her husband though. That was laughable at best. She got herself a job in the mansion of their lord. She wanted to see what a real life, full of wealth and beautiful things looked like. People whispered things about the mansion though, saying it was haunted or cursed. It made it all the easiest for Clementianna to get hired: nobody else wanted the job.

She cleaned the dust, but only when someone was looking - she wasn't about to exhaust herself for this useless job, the dust would always come back anyway! - and the rest of the time she was free to roam the long corridors and empty rooms. The architecture of the place, the furniture, everything was of such luxury. She would dance alone on the music that played in her mind, imagining being the honored guest of a ball organized for her sole sake.

She kept exploring every corner of the mansion until one day she found the Room.

It was a different from the others. The feel of it, the atmosphere... She felt shivers down her spine, yet she wasn't cold. She saw no window or candle, yet she could see as if in plain day. She felt dread and fear, yet... Yet nothing held her back from walking towards her reflection.

The Mirror was on the wall, calling her. She said the words without even thinking, as if something was possessing her.

And then everything changed.