Town of Limbo Chapter Four: Wedding Dress

It's a horror story meant to specifically appeal to teenagers. It takes place in an uncanny, paranormal town with powerful entities at work. Indeed, all is not well in Mortorville

Wedding Dress

 

Lilly Eden came into the world perfect, but not naturally.
Her parents never really wanted to deal with the strains and strifes of a child, so when the mother discovered she was pregnant, unsure of what to do, she went to an old family friend who ran a rather unconventional liquor store. In fact, the friend was himself unconventional, a handsome red haired man who would looked at you as though he was looking at in amoeba through a microscope.

“Your child will have no freckles, birthmarks, or blemishes. She will never fall ill. Her mind will be as analytical as a computer, her body as robust as a lion. She will almost be a god,” he said handing her a bottle of vodka, “Just a drop. That’s all you need. You can pay later.” And, figuring that gods didn’t really need to be cared for, she did so.

So It came to be that Eden Jackson was born into the world like a diamond, beautiful and unbreakable. She knew about the man and the liquor bottle. Her parents saw no reason to lie to her about it, and they were right. She was happy.

All the things that liquor store owner prophesied came to be. The girl was the captain of her football team, she got straight A’s. She had it all, except love, but what use did she have for that? Everyone, even her parents hated her out of envy, but hid their loathing out of fear. She knew from birth how flawless she was, and she never second guessed herself. So she hated them back. But, feeling their enmity,  she was lonely. And so was he. That boy who constantly tripped over himself, never did any work, had no social skills. Neither of them had anyone else to talk to, so there was an inevitability about their strange symbiotic pairing.

He couldn't get a job, cook, do taxes, nothing really. No matter how much he tried. And he did try, he really did. Which is why when he asked for her hand in marriage she said yes. But that man was useless with vows too, so he never showed to the alter.

But what a perfect wedding it would have been if only he weren’t so him. She couldn’t quite let go of that thought, so she kept wearing that wedding dress, and took his last name. Now she was Miss Jackson, and Miss Jackson was haunted by the realisation that she wasn’t perfect. She was almost a god. She started to read, shocked by the fact that she had not been born with all the knowledge in her world.

She didn’t know what had happened to him, didn’t really care. He must have hated her too, she supposed. She kept up on her own, cooking gourmet meals for one. She read and read into the night, haunted by what she wasn’t, scrambling to be all that she wasn’t.

Tired and weak, one fateful day she visited the liquor store. It was no conventional liquor store. And she met that shadowy handsome man who directed her, in his swab, playful voice to children.

To teach, to make sure none of the children ended up being like the useless spouse she had been burdened with, to make sure that no child would ever be the imperfect adult who might leave a perfect bride at the altar. She started wearing the dress to and veil, to show the kids what the future might hold, and to hide the dark rings under her eyes that had formed from all the late nights reading.

Not all of them need a reminder though. Emily, dear sweet Emily is the highlight of her life. That poor girl with skin snow white like hers, but with a spirit covered in bruises. She doesn’t need to learn much at all. No. Emily knows it all, just as Lily had so many years ago. Lily is so happy that Emily is safe, that Emily will not join the ranks of the missing children.

These are better days than then. Happier days.

But now she’s getting a phone call about a boy who threatens to ruin all that. She answers. “What exactly, is the problem?”

 

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Author's Note

Your honest criticism, please.