Forever yours

Chapter 6 - Thomas

 His mind was glitching between now and then. He tried to hold on to reality.

Reality was that he was in a cabin in the woods, looking at a picture of the exact same figure he saw on his wedding day, in his house. On that terrible day that made the emotional scars in his mind itch. The hooded man. Thomas's whole body tensed, his eyes were glued to the drawing of the skull mask on the board. His hands visibly trembled and he had it both hot from anger and cold from fear. Seeing that drawing in front of him kept pulling him back to memories he had tried to forget for weeks.

The continuous pounding of his heart against his chest took away all his attention from the white paper in front of him. Before he was to walk up to the altar, in front of all his family and friends, he wanted to go through his vows one last time. Not because it didn't come from his heart, but because he was scared he would forget how to think and speak once he would see his beautiful bride walk down the aisle.

Even now, in front of his mirror when he was dressed in a black tuxedo and he looked all handsome, his mind kept wandering off to his fiancée. He wondered if Esmeralda was just as distracted and nervous as he was. Probably not, she was always way more collected.

He shook his head before focusing for the third time on the paper and his neat handwriting. He read through them, nothing he hadn't done a million times already in the past weeks. Then looked himself in the eyes, the green glimmered in the few rays of sunlight and genuine happiness shone in them. When he smiled, his white teeth reflected inside the mirror. He nodded to himself before he turned around and walked towards the entrance hall that led to the street.

Their wedding would be held in the middle of the street with the altar located on the cobblestone bridge. It was a magnificent place to hold a wedding, with the sights of the green meadows behind them and the water running under the altar. The streets were decorated with flowers of all kinds and colors. Joy was vibrating through the air. The laughter and the happy conversations from outside were heard, filling the warm sunny summer day. The hallway on the other hand was cool, not that the young groom minded, it kept his mind clear.

"-don't!" Esme's panicked but muffled voice echoed against the cold stone walls.

In an instant Thomas's smile was wiped from his face and an unpleasant shiver ran down his body. He sprinted in the direction where the voice came from. What he saw behind the corner, in front of his back door on the white tiled floor, made his body stop functioning. His feet didn't seem to work, his heart fell to the floor and his breath hitched in his throat.

His angelic looking bride lay lifeless in a pool of red. Her white wedding dress was drenched in her own blood, multiple cuts and stab wounds covered her stomach and chest. Her made-up face was contracted in pain and a hint of sadness crossed her features. It was only when the black shadow that was looming over the bride's body moved that Thomas noticed the killer's presence.

The in-black-dressed figure turned around facing Thomas. It happened so quickly that Thomas wasn't sure what he saw. Was that a skull? His body turned cold as if his blood had left his body, just like it had left Esmeralda's.

How could this drawing be hanging in the Devon's cottage? What did they know about this mystery figure that kept haunting his dreams?

"It's-," he started.

"Nothing, a project of mine. You were leaving."

Mykayla was pushing his shoulder towards the door, bringing him back to the present. He didn't move, his feet felt like they were nailed down to the ground and his eyes couldn't look away from the perfect drawing of the person that constantly appeared in his head.