Take Your Vows

The air hung tense in the car as the man and woman refused to look at one another. Their biggest fight had happened at the hotel where they were supposed to be celebrating getting engaged but ended up breaking up their relationship completely. Neither would apologise and neither of them had second thoughts of the break up. After all, isn't it best they found out what the other is like before getting married, just so they don't make one of the most costly mistakes in their life? He agreed with that thought.

Their drive continued until he pulled up at the side of the room, mumbled something about filling the tank up and got out. As soon as he was out the car she sighed and rested her head on the back of her seat, enjoying the fact that the tense air had left when he had got out. It was just killing her being trapped in this car with him for this long. Whose idea was it to go on a road trip to a hotel in a different state altogether? Oh, that's right, his. One thing she had acknowledged as a good idea was his suggestion of filling up spare petrol containers and storing them in the boot for the journey. She would not like breaking down in the middle of nowhere, thank you very much.

She tapped her fingers on her thigh for almost a minute before she opened the door and got out. "I'm going to stretch my legs," she told him curtly when he lifted his head to see what she was doing. He didn't reply, just ducked his head back down. She rolled her eyes and walked down the little slope and into the thin wooded area. Where were they anyway? She didn't know and hadn't been paying attention to any signs that may have told her of their location. She knew it was one of the roads they had been on on their way to the hotel, but that was five days ago so it wasn't like she had remembered all the roads she had read out on the map to him for direction. That was just crazy.

Just as she was about to head back to the car the familiar feeling of needing the loo crept up on her. She looked around thoroughly before going behind a thick tree, making sure it covered her before squatting and going toilet. When she was done she pulled her hanky from her pocket, folded it over and wiped. She left it on the ground by the tree and headed back to the car. She was stopped in her tracks with what she saw.

A girl who was probably no older than eighteen was sat in the passenger seat – her seat – while the man was crouched beside her. A once over of the girl told the woman that she was probably bad news because her hair was dirty, she had no shoes and her shirt almost covered the shorts she was wearing – at least, she assumed they were shorts. It could have been a skirt for all she knew.

"Matt, what the fuck?" she said as she approached them. The girl looked up and the man stood from where he was crouched, turning to face the woman. "Who is she?"

"I don't know, Emily--"

"Okay, answer this for me then, Matt: Why is she sat in the car?" Matt grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the car. She rolled her eyes and figured what he was going to say.

She pulled her arm from his grip and crossed them over her chest, raising her eyebrow while she did so. "I found her at the side of the road, Emily. She was curled up in the dirt. What was I supposed to do?" he explained.

"Uh, leave her there?" she said almost like it was obvious.

He stared at her. "I'm not just going to leave her on the side of the road. She doesn't look old enough to be an adult, and look at her! She's wearing barely anything and has no phone or means of communication on her," he argued. "Besides, it's my car, Emily, so if I want to give her a ride then I'll give her a ride."

"You're a fucking idiot Matt," she spat at him before pushing past him and heading towards the car. She heard his footsteps following. The girl was still sat in the passenger seat and her expression was one of vulnerability but Emily didn't trust it. Not one bit. Matt closed the passenger door before going round to the drivers' side, leaving her to get in the back. He started the car and edged back onto the road. Emily leaned forward. "So, what's your name?" she asked.

The girl jumped and turned in her seat a bit. "Kelsey," she said quietly.

"So Kelsey, what you doing in the middle of nowhere with nothing but shorts and a top?" she asked. Matt's grip tightened on the steering wheel and she narrowed her eyes. All she was going was asking the questions that he was too stupid to. She had a bad feeling about this girl and she was not prepared to let his stupidity put her in danger.

"Um, I got lost. One minute I was with my friends and the next I was lost by the side of the road. I don't remember how I got there or what happened to me," the girl replied. It made Emily narrow her eyes more.

"Oh really," she muttered and this time she saw Matt's eyes look in the rear mirror and she could tell he was warning her to shut up. So she did and the ride continued for another twenty minutes. Twenty minutes filled with silence other than the engine of the car going, up until it started to spluttered and cut abruptly. Matt managed to guide the car to the side of the road before it completely cut out. They were around more wooded area now so the light wasn't as bright as it was before. It wasn't late, in fact it was only two in the afternoon. They were expected home at eleven pm.

The girl got out the car suddenly which had Emily confused until Matt got out as well which had her sighing and following their lead. He was by the girl when she shut the door. "I know this place. It's familiar. My friend . . . he lives close by." With that the girl started through the woods. Matt looked alarmed and chased her which left Emily feeling betrayed.

"Matt!" she shouted. "What are you doing?!" He stopped for a moment, turned back and gestured for her to follow before continuing to chase after the girl. She stared at his figure incredulously. "You are joking me," she muttered to herself. Just as she was about to follow she turned back to the car, grabbed both their phones from the pull down in front of the passenger seat and took the keys out of the engine. She had seen too many horror films to make mistakes like that, but sadly for her it looked like Matt hadn't been watching them with her. Of course if he knew why she had just taken their phones and the keys he would have called her silly because "They're just films, Emily. Actors who are hired to be killed by crazies. Nothing real." Yeah, nothing real her arse.

Trudging after them, Emily made sure she could see Matt in front of her. After a while it seemed like he had stopped because it looked like she was getting closer to him instead of farther away like it had seemed before. Three minutes later she approached Matt and the girl, the latter of which was speaking to Matt about something.

"—and apparently it's haunted, even though my friend lives there. He told me once that people used to call it not a house but a tomb because of what happened there before," she was telling Matt, and it was all that Emily heard.

"What did happen there?" she butted in making both Matt and the girl look at her. The girl's eyes seemed to narrow when she saw here there.

"A wedding reception. It was on the top floor and apparently the wedding party all collapsed in the room, bride and groom included." Emily was about to call her out on bullshit when she started walking again, almost like she knew where she was going. And like she thought, Matt started following after her, trying to get her to stop for a while and tell him where she was going. Goodness knows why he was so concerned about her, she thought.

She let out a frustrated sigh before giving up and turning to head back to the car. However Matt had other ideas and called her name, making her turn back around to see him signalling her over. She was not in a good mood but went up to him anyway. "I'm just making sure she gets to this house alright, Emily," he told her.

"More like being stupid," she told him. He sighed but didn't say anything instead opting to turn back around and head to the small house that the girl was standing in front of. She followed after him.

"It's private owned land, something that his grandfather owned when he was alive. Passed it down to his father and then his father passed it down to him. I haven't seen him in a while, though," the girl told Matt before grabbing his hand and pulling him towards the house. Emily's mouth dropped as she watched Matt go with her without a fight. Oh hell no. They may no longer be engaged and they may no longer be anything to do with each other romantically, but there was no way she was going to let that bitch take him into that house. Her bad feeling had grown strong as they had approached the house and she wasn't going to let the feeling become reality.

However, it seemed like someone was against her thoughts because she took one step forward before being hit over the head with something hard and collapsing to the ground, unconscious.

-

When she felt the life awaken in her, she found her head was hung forward and her hair was down, covering her face. Suddenly she smelt a stench that made her feel like she was choking because it was heavy in the air. It reduced her to a coughing fit where she became aware that her arms were tied behind her and that she was sat on a wooden chair. Her arse was numb and her head hurt, not to mention it felt like her blood circulation was being cut off in her hands.

"Emily?" a gruff voice called out and she looked up slowly. Matt was sat opposite her, tied to a chair with a bloodied nose. She linked that with the blood that was on his shirt. "Emily, are you okay?"

She coughed. "This is all your fault, Matt. I told you there was something about her," she told him. Even though it wasn't the right time for her to be blaming him, she couldn't help it because she really did tell him and he just ignored her, almost like he had known this other girl longer than her.

"Well, you were right Emily. There is something about me," a voice said which had both Matt and Emily looking up instead of at each other. The girl stood by the broken fireplace, a guy alongside her. Her clothes had been replaced with a white gown that hung to her knees. The guy was dressed in a suit. She moved away from the guy and stood in front of her, looking at the woman on the chair. "Isn't it just horrible when guys just don't listen?"

"Fuck you," she spat only to be punched by the girl. Her head rolled to the side and her jaw hurt. The girl packed a punch and Emily had the feeling that she wasn't the first girl in this position that had been punched by her.

"Don't you touch her," Matt seethed at her which had the guy tilt his head. The girl turned from her and looked at Matt with a sweet smile on her face.

"Aw, don't be like that. After all, it is all your fault that you're both here right now," she told him before patting his cheek lightly. "Besides, you're here to be our witnesses." She moved away from the two of them and stood beside the man. Emily looked at Matt. Witnesses? Almost as if she had read her mind, the girl called out: "Ted, it's time."

A man in vicar's clothes came through the door closest to Matt. He approached the couple by the fireplace and opened his book slowly. "Start the ceremony," the man said and his tone shook Emily. The old man opened his mouth and began reading from his book, letting both Matt and Emily know that it was a wedding ceremony that the girl was on about.

Both Emily and Matt stayed silent throughout the whole thing, both trying to loosen their restraints. This was beyond insane for Emily, and she would have never guessed that they would be tied to a chair and forced to be witnesses at a wedding. She didn't know what was going to happen to them but she could tell that it wasn't going to be pretty.

The man – Ted – finished up reading from the book. "Vows?" he asked the pair and Emily watched as they turned to face each other. The girl pulled a piece of paper from up her sleeve and began reading something that neither of them understood due to the fact it was in a different language. Emily kept trying her restraints because she had a feeling that whenever this service ended would be the time when the attention was on her and Matt, and she didn't want to be around to see the end of it.

The girl stopped with her vows and it was the man's turn. "My one and only vow: If you marry me, would you bury me?" he asked her.

"Of course," she told him. They looked at each other for a moment before the man looked at the priest.

"I now pronounce you husband and wife," he rushed out. That was all the man needed. He pulled a gun out of his trousers and shot the priest dead. Emily felt a scream build up in her chest but she didn't let it escape. Her eyes darted to Matt and she saw his muscles were tense. He was trying to break the rope that was keeping him tied to the chair. She moved her eyes to the couple and wrinkled her nose at them standing there, while the man on the floor bled, kissing.

Matt's chair made a noise which made them break apart, their eyes going to the two tied to the chairs. "We almost forgot about our guests, Honey," the man drawled. "What kind of hosts would we be if we did that?" He laughed, pecked her on the cheek and walked over and stood in front of Matt. Emily's heart leapt into her throat.

"You stay away from him!" she shouted. The guy turned to her and punched her in the mouth, making her head snap to the side painfully.

"Don't you touch her you fucking bastard. I'll kill you!" Matt raged only to have the girl laugh and walk over to him. He gritted his teeth and stared at her.

"Well, well, Matt, wishing you had listened to your little girlfriend now? She's going to die because you didn't listen . . . but first she's going to watch me bleed you dry, just to rub it in a little more," she explained. In an instant she had reached down to her leg, pulled out a knife that was secured there, and had sliced down his leg, cutting the fabric as well as the skin. He hissed but made no other noise.

The man moved behind Emily and suddenly she felt her hair being grabbed harshly, making it so she was watching what the girl was doing to Matt. It was their sick idea of a show and she knew there was no way they'd let her not watch. The girl looked at her and grinned. "Let's see how much pain your boyfriend will take for you, shall we?"

Emily watched as Matt gritted his teeth while the girl ran the knife up and down his leg, digging into his skin and muscles, making blood gush and stain his jeans. She could feel the tears wanting to fall but she wouldn't let herself. No, she had no reason to cry right now. She had to tough this out, much like Matt was. They needed to get out and if she cried and became weak then it would never happen. She knew this and she knew that Matt did too. Her eyes met his as the girl moved the knife up to his chest, pushing it into his shoulder. She could see the pain in his eyes, but she could also see his unwillingness to let a sound escape him because of what the girl had said. He was trying to save her from any harm.

The knife was twisted and turned and pushed further into his shoulder. The pain was excruciating but he needed to protect Emily. He got her into this mess and he was blaming himself so he had to get her out safely. The girl turned her wrist and dragged the blade down from his shoulder to his chest, digging close to the bone. He couldn't help the groan of pain pass his lips when that happened, but he probably would have tried harder to withhold it if he knew it had signed their death certificates.

She pulled the knife out and smiled at the man. He nodded. With her free hand she grabbed Matt's hair tightly and pulled his head right the way back, putting his neck in plain view. Emily's eyes widened when she realised what was going to happened. "No, no, no--!" her words died on her lips as the girl brought the knife to Matt's neck, pressed down and dragged the blade across his neck. She saw the blood begin to spill and she watched as the girl let go of his hair only for his head to fall forward and allow her to see him struggling to breathe as he bled. "Matt!"

What she didn't expect was the girl to drive the knife back into the centre of his throat, pushing it all the way through so that it emerged out the back of his neck, only to then pull it to the right and almost decapitate him.

Emily's head was let go of and it just hung in front of her, her eyes staring at Matt's dead body, and only then did she allow her tears to begin to fall. He was dead. The girl had killed him with glee and she had been forced to watch it. A strangled sob escaped her when she realised that the last time they had had an actual conversation she had told him that she hated him.

The girl looked at the man and he met her gaze. She nodded slightly but he caught it. With one hand he grabbed her hair again, pulled her head up and bent down in front of her. He showed her his knife and then drove it in just beneath her ribs. She let out a harsh cry and felt the pain slowly inch its way through her. She cried out louder when he dragged the knife up her chest, slicing the skin open and staining her top with blood.

"Weren't my vows just beautiful?" he said, teasing her. She couldn't reply because now she could feel the blood in her mouth, dripping down from her lips and to her chin. She had to cough and that just sprayed the blood more down her. "Aw, look at that Honey, she's speechless."

The girl laughed innocently. "Adorable. But we have to go now, baby. We have to get the rings," she reminded him. "Let her bleed out." The man stood up, pulled the knife out of Emily and wiped the blood down her face. He turned to the girl.

"Okay, Honey." He put the knife in his pocket, walked up to her and placed an arm around her shoulder. He looked at Emily once more and said: "At least you won't be alone." He then kissed the girl's cheek and they left the house, leaving Emily to bleed out in the chair. Just like her vows had said.