literature

Here Lies Your Groom

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This is about eight pages long, double spaced. Please notify me to any mistakes I might have made (typos, the way I worded something, misspellings, ect) by posting it as a comment, even if you think it sounds stupid. Thank you, and enjoy this horror story with the lights turned low...(Well, not really. It's bad to stare at a computer screen in the dark. But you know what I mean, right?)

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Daylight broke through Lena’s window and forced open her sleepy eyes. The maid had already come and gone while she was asleep, and a stack of clean clothes awaited her in her drawers. Lena gathered herself and got dressed, as she did every morning, and began to walk downstairs to greet her mother, father, and older sister. It wasn’t until she crossed the balcony that she remembered what today was going to bring: The matchmaker was going to give her sister Tanya to a bridegroom.

Lena had mixed feelings about Tanya’s marriage. It was tradition in Russia that young girls be wed to suitors as soon as they were of age, but it was going to be lonely in her household when her sister was gone. She remembered sharing fantasies with Tanya as children about being wed to handsome and loving men when they grew up, but now that they were older and knew better, they worried about just what kind of men would father their children. The Titov family was financially well off, so the parents only hoped for a man that was at least equally wealthy.

As the day dragged on, Lena noticed her sister become increasingly nervous. Her mother had helped her into her finest clothes and had given her a lecture about what to say and how to act in the presence of the matchmaker. Tanya had listened and sat down at the table to await the visitor.

Lena knew the matchmaker wasn’t coming until noon, which it gave her plenty of time to go to the church and pray for her sister’s luck. On the way back through the cold and muddy streets, however, a strange old hag of a woman locked her boney fingers to the sleeve of Lena’s coat as she walked by. Before she could say anything in retaliation, the crone pulled her close and spoke a riddle in an old raspy voice:

“A stranger comes; it comes to take. To the world of death’s fate!” Her breath stung Lena’s lungs as she tried to pull away, but the old woman didn’t let go. Something cold dropped in Lena’s palm as the hag continued. “Be quick to see though its disguise, where unprotected evil lies.”

“Let go!” Lena shouted. A few people turned their heads at the slight commotion as the woman let go and sank back to a doorway at the side of the street.

“Look through to see!” She called as Lena ran away. “See the ivory’s sign!”

When she looked back, the woman was gone. Lena kept running and finally stopped at the gate of her house to catch her breath, and then realized that she was still grasping the object that had been given to her. Uncurling her cold fingers, a small flat stone lay in her palm. It was glossy and black, and had a round hole in the middle just big enough for her to fit her finger through.

“Lena!” called her mother as she opened the front door. “What took you so long? The matchmaker will be here any minute.”

Lena hurriedly dropped the stone into the pocket of her fur coat and entered her house. After changing her now muddy clothes, the matchmaker had finally arrived. A tall and lean man accompanied her. At the sight of him, Tanya drew a breath and straightened her back. Lena took her hand, expecting it to be cold and stiff with nervousness. Instead, it was warm and strangely calm.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Titov,” the matchmaker, an elder man, greeted Lena’s father.

“Good afternoon,” The man behind him said with a smile as he took off his cap. His voice was smooth and friendly, as if he were already a dear friend of the family. His skin was clear, his jet black hair was nicely combed, and the suit he wore was elegant and lavished with silver buttons. He was indeed very handsome, and Lena started to feel a bit jealous of her sister’s match. She stole a look toward Tanya, who kept her twinkling eyes plastered to the man with a modest grin on her lips. After exchanging greetings and sitting down to the table, the matchmaker formally introduced the man to the family.

“This is David Egorov, the son of a wealthy bank teller,” He began. Tanya’s parents were already impressed, and while the description continued, Tanya became even more taken. He was young, handsome, a gentleman, and wealthy. Lena nudged Tanya’s arm and gave her a congratulatory look. Tanya smiled brightly and then locked her eyes back onto David.

At the end of the meeting, the wedding was arranged. Tanya was to be married three days from then, and the wedding was to be held in the garden of the church. Even with the snow covering the plants and flowers, it was still a beautiful place. David was going to pay for everything, from the services of the priest to the food and invitations.

Before he left, David quickly and gracefully took the hand of his fiancé and kissed it delicately. “I will await the ceremony,” he whispered to her sweetly. Tanya turned bright red and looked like she was about to faint. Lena’s jaw dropped, and her parents smiled.

“You are the luckiest girl in the world,” Lena praised her sister when the guests had left. “He’s perfect!”

Tanya, whom Lena thought would be as excited and giggly as she was, remained silent, still smiling with a dazed look on her face.

“Are you alright? You seem rather ill today,” Lena put her hand to Tanya’s forehead in search of a fever.

“I’m fine,” Tanya broke her silence and took Lena’s palm away from her brow. “I think I am in a bit of a shock.”

Her sister laughed. “I guess I would be, too.”

The next day, David returned unexpectedly.

“I wanted to get to know my new bride a little better,” He said. Tanya was almost beside herself in joy. Lena felt another pang of jealousy. “Shall we take a walk through town?” He took Tanya by the arm and was leading her out the door when they heard a small click. Tanya looked down at her arm where the sound had come from.

“Oh, my button broke,” She said as she took the two halves of a button from her sleeve cuff where David had been holding her.

“Strange,” Mrs. Titova said as she took the button to examine it. It was as if it were severed cleanly in half. “I shall fetch you a new coat, darling.”

“No need,” David raised his hand and smiled. “I will buy her a new one.”
Tanya turned to him with childlike eyes. “Really?”

“Of course, pick out one you like.”
They left and walked toward town, arm in arm. Lena took a look at the button and noticed the unnatural break. Suddenly, the old woman’s words rushed back to her from the previous day. See the ivory’s sign.

The button was made of ivory.

A few hours later, Tanya returned with a new fur coat fancier than anything Lena had ever seen out of a shop window. Mrs. Titova almost cried tears of joy when she saw her daughter so happy and elegantly dressed. Tanya also had a new necklace that was given to her by David, and she showed it to her family proudly.

“Is this real diamond?” Mr. Titov looked it over.

“Yes, David said it was imported from a far away country!” Tanya exclaimed. Lena started to feel a little wary of her sister’s fiancé. He was perfect, too perfect. He was everything Tanya had ever dreamed for; he gave her expensive gifts and treated her like royalty. But there was something unsettling about him, now that she thought about it. Ever since they met, Tanya had been acting very strange. It was as if she were in a trance, always blankly starring ahead at times. Every time she spoke, it was of David. She had only known him for two days, and yet he was already everything to her. The broken ivory button stayed on Lena’s mind, too.

Suddenly she remembered the peculiar stone that had been given to her. She searched the pockets of her coat until she found it. It gleamed in the light as she held it up to her left eye. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, until she moved it over her sister. Around her neck was a ring of thorns dripping with a purple poison. The points scratched her skin and made her bleed, and the poison dripped into the wounds. Lena gasped and took the stone away from her eye. The diamond necklace stood in the place of the thorns. Tanya noticed Lena’s shock.

“What is it?” She asked. Lena had her look at her necklace through the stone, but she said she saw nothing unusual. Lena looked again. The thorns were back, and they seemed to be getting bigger.

The last day before Tanya’s marriage was busy as the family helped pick out Tanya’s wedding gown. David was nowhere to be seen, though it was expected when he was in charge of getting the ceremony ready. They assumed he was at the church coordinating the event or in town getting the things they needed for a reception. Tanya hadn’t taken the diamond necklace off once, and the thorns were draped over her body when Lena looked through the stone again. She became increasingly worried and tried to tell her mother and father, but they were too occupied to acknowledge her outrageous suspicions.

Finally, it was night. The family went to bed, and Lena started thinking about the rest of the riddle she had been given as she laid her head to sleep. A stranger comes; it comes to take. To the world of death’s fate. The words rolled through her head over and over. The world of death’s fate? Did this mean the realm of the dead?

Lena’s thoughts were interrupted when she heard the opening of her sister’s door across from hers. Silently, Tanya crept down the stairs and left out the front door. Through Lena’s window, she could see a tall dark figure join her at the gate. She didn’t need to see his face to know it was David. Lena dashed for her coat and shoes and left the house to follow, though by the time she got there, Tanya and David were already turning the corner of the street.

It was a cold night, and snow fell silently from the tall dark sky. Tanya was still in her sleeping gown, but she showed no signs of being cold. She wore the necklace, and the diamonds twinkled in the low light. David led the way to the whitened forest where they descended into the thick undergrowth. The branches seemed to turn away while the couple passed by and Lena struggled to catch up. They suddenly stopped at a large tree in a clearing. Lena stayed in the bushes, wondering if she should continue to hide and watch or if she should interrupt their midnight stroll. She took the black stone from her coat pocket and held it to her eye one last time. Standing next to Tanya was no longer a man, but a tall grotesque skeleton. The tree in front of them shifted and turned, revealing an opening going into the ground below and through its roots. The skeleton took Tanya’s hand and led her towards the opening. Lena couldn’t watch any longer.

“Stop it!” She yelled as she burst forth from her hiding place and ran to her sister. Tanya didn’t seem to hear her, but David’s head swiveled around revealing empty holes where his eyes should have been. He leapt in front of Lena to stop her, but she was already at her sister’s back. She tore the diamond necklace off Tanya’s neck and it shattered, the glittering jewels fell and singed the ground where they fell. Tanya suddenly snapped out of her trance and looked around wildly. David’s true form replaced his disguise, and the skeleton attempted to push her through the opening in front of her. Lena saw this and bravely shoved him away. He staggered backwards and fell into the tree’s open mouth.

David’s corpse let out a blood curdling scream as the tree began to twist back to its original position. Tanya and Lena backed away as he struggled to get out. They felt the vibrations in the ground and heard the sound of bones snapping and wood rubbing against itself. David reached a boney hand toward Tanya, who then screamed and fell backwards. The tree finally engulfed him, but his ghastly hand was stuck reaching out for his bride from the roots. Everything became silent and still, and Lena helped her sister up. They both shivered in the cold as they waited for something else to happen, though nothing did.

They eventually made their way back home, but the next morning, the sisters were the only ones that remembered the young suitor named David Egorov. Later, Tanya went back to the tree in the forest to discover if any of it ever happened in the first place. When she arrived, the skeleton’s hand had vanished, and four words lay burned in the wood near the ground.

Here lies your groom.







A Little Background
You might notice that the family’s last name seems to change from Titov to Titova. This is because in Russia, the end of the wife’s last name is given an extra ‘a.’ The husband is Mr. Titov and the wife is Mrs. Titova.
Ivory has been given many magical properties by some cultures, including the ability to sense and expose evil.
Seeing stones are common accessories in mysteries, and are used to find things that are lost or discover what is hidden in plain sight when you look through them.
I chose “David” for the bridegroom’s first name because comes from the Hebrew word for “beloved,” and he was very beloved by Tanya and everyone around them. Don’t trust what you see until you have proof that it’s real…
In my literature class, we were all assigned to write a story with the given setting and mood. A young woman is being married off to a mysterious bridegroom in a village in old Russia, and the mood of the story is horror. I guess I went a little crazy with my story. (She was only expecting 3 pages) I enjoyed writing this though, and I think it's one of my best works.

The story is due on Tuesday, so any insight or opinion would be great! Tell me what you liked, what you didn't like, if anything didn't make sense to you, what stands out, etc. Give me anything that I could maybe use to edit it for when I turn it in to my teacher.

Thanks!
© 2009 - 2024 tenshiketsueki1000
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rainhorse's avatar
good story ^-^