The Missing Bride

Mya struggled to keep her balance as she crouched upon the stack of clothes in the girl's room. She closed one eye and peered through the crack between the closet doors. The moonlight pouring in through the open window casted a collection of shadows.

A scream rang throughout the house. Mya knew it has to be Celine, the last girl she saw alive at the party. It was her closet that Mya was currently cowering in. It was her and her boyfriend's plan to go down to the lake. They didn't believe in the legend of the missing bride. They let their naivety guide their actions to cut open their skin and let their blood drip into the water at midnight.

Legend said that the young bride was killed by her jealous sister on her wedding night. Her sister strangled her with her pearl necklace, a gift from their mother, before throwing her near lifeless body into the lake. The sister claimed she had run off, and years later she married her sister's widow. Stories were passed down through generations, and it was said that a blood sacrifice at midnight to her watery grave would bring her back so that she could get her revenge. Her necklace gained a pearl for every life that she took.

Mya never believed the story until she saw the bride climb up the hill into Celine's backyard. She forced her hand through a man's chest and pulled out his heart. Everyone ran, but they all became subjects to the bride's heartbreak.

Mya's breath rattled as she listened to the stillness surrounding her. The cacophony of screams and cries that filled the house had stopped.

The stairs creaked, and she knew that the bride was coming up. Mya threw her hand over her mouth to stop herself from screaming. Her eyes and nose burned as the tears were running down her cheeks. Her chest tightened as she attempted to slow down her breathing. Her body shook and the footsteps became louder.

Mya's heart pounded with every step the bride took. Mya looked through the crack in the closet doors to see the bride enter. Water was pooled around her feet. Her dress and veil were torn, her skin falling off in decaying chunks, and her pearl necklace dragging along the floor.

The bride's hands were extended out as she walked toward the closet. Mya managed to hold back a sob to stay quiet, but she was betrayed by her beating heart.

The closet doors flew open and she screamed.