Welcome to 2016

A Chapter by Shaan Ahmed

The first chapter and hopefully many more to come. This chapter deals with Anna waking up 2 years later after the tragic incident of which she has no memory of.

The Devil’s Bride

Chapter 1 : Welcome to 2016

And when they walked in the lights flickered, she wore a dress as white as cocaine and he a black coat. It seemed as if they had just escaped a slaughter house for they were covered in thick red liquid, and if it wasn't for the gaps of white ,it would seem as if she wore a stunningly beautiful red dress. They looked as if a newly wed couple, her hand grasped tightly in his I could see she was in pain. The man on the other hand seemed rough, he had cavernous eyes and just to add a spice to the chills that already ran through my spine -- in his forehead was carved the symbol of a pitchfork, carefully detailed, almost as if the he hadn't resisted the process.

The store was in complete silence, no one uttered a word, they were all too busy staring at the odd couple. After moments of silence the man finally spoke up. ‘Ubi nova nupta’ he said in a hoarse voice. I tried to make sense of what he said but it just seemed to me as a strange pattern of words put together. ‘E-Excuse me?’ I managed to sputter out and everyone turned to look at me.The man stared at me with his dark brown eyes and a smile crossed his face -- I felt a giant chill sweep over me. I collapsed onto the floor. It felt as if I had swam miles in the Great Antarctic, my whole body shivered but my eyes were still fixated on the strange man as he suddenly disappeared.

The alarm clock went off and I sighed in relief ‘It was just a dream’ I thought to myself as I slapped my forehead to forget what was quite possiblythe most vivid dream I ever had. I slowly got out of bed and my back ached as if I had been sat on. As I stood up my legs felt weak, I could barely walk and I constantly wavered left and right but I managed to keep my balance. I began to make my way out of my room when I noticed the calendar: 2016. The numbers stared right at me, I was extremely confused and it felt as if my mind were playing tricks on me. I closed my eyes and shook my head, hoping the world would fall back into it’s right place but as I opened my eyes the numbers in the calender still displayed: 2016. My heart began to pound, I ran outside my room and on the table lay the daily paper, I grabbed it and began to skim through it trying to find the date. Below the headline in tiny bold prints it said: 12th September 2016

I couldn’t quite understand what was going on, my head started to spin and for a moment it seemed as If I was about to collapse again, I held the closest thing I could to keep me up, grabbing the arm of the sofa I started to slowly settle down on it when I heard a familiar voice.

‘Anna?’ Brendan stood in the doorway. He held a tray in his arms and stared at me in disbelief, after what seemed to be moments of interminable silence he dropped the tray, the plates and the glass shattered on the floor into a million pieces, ‘YOU’RE OKAY!’ he screamed ‘Y-YOU’RE REALLY OKAY!’, despite the completely horrendous display of his nervous breakdown and the million pieces of glass on the floor he looked rather adorable. ‘Y-yeah I’m okay Brendan, I really am’ I replied. Brendan is my husband, we were engaged for about an year before whatever happened-happened.

After he had enough time to process the fact that I was ‘REALLY OKAY’ he ran up-to me ignoring the dangerous shards of glass and hugged me tight in his arms, his arms felt as warm as it ever did. ‘mm I missed that’ he said in his deep but unimaginably sexy voice. Around his neck hung a silver cross, Brendan was never the religious type. He’s usually the most carefree and god-less person I ever knew, so imagine my surprise when I spotted the cross hanging around his neck. ‘Brendan.. Why are you wearing that?’ I asked as if I had nothing more important to ever ask him. ‘It’s kind of a long story’ he replied motioning me to sit down. He went into the opposite room to grab himself a newspaper which read: 4th October 2014. ‘That’s the day after ..’ I began to say as Brendan shushed me, he then pointed to me the headline in big bold letters at the top of the page and it said: “THE BLOOD-WED COUPLE - by Lauren Stewart”

My jaw dropped, it was never a dream I realized, it was all real. I grabbed the newspaper onto my hand and began to read the story:

“To Believe in the supernatural or to not-- human beings have pondered and pondered on this question but will this finally be some real proof to the question “does the supernatural really exist?” A cashier of pricepay situated in the midst of North Carolina provided us with the story that many customers and other workers were able to vouch for.

At approximately 7p.m last night two newly wed couples covered in what seemed to be thick red blood walked into the store hand in hand, they were armed with no weapons but were able to leave the store with a casualty of just one-- who wishes to remain anonymous. The people in the store seemed to believe the couple vanished into thin air leaving no trace of blood or any other proof. The police scoured the area but were not even able to find any sort of proof the couple was present. The security camera’s were checked but the clip of that particular time was deleted. The guards in charge of the camera’s were called into question earlier this morning.

However, some people who were in the store and present during this time deny the presence of such a couple however this was just the minority. The casualty was able to be nursed to full health later that night. The people in the store described the couple was able to hurt the woman without lifting a finger , the doctors have ruled out the cause of her collapse as just a mere seizure of the moment. Whether the police force will continue the investigation is a mystery, but until then -- we’re all in the dark..”

‘The police called it a hallucination later on...’ Brendan said sighing, ‘15 people in the store to vouch for and they still ruled it out as a hallucination? Welcome to America’ he added. The story was pretty accurate up until the part where it said “The casualty was able to be nursed to full health later that night”

How is that even possible? I don’t even remember waking up...

‘Brendan...’ I started ‘why does it say I was nursed to full health? I clearly wasn’t if I’m waking up 2 years later...’ I said confused. I wasn’t sure Brendan even heard a word I said, my throat was dry and it felt like I haven’t had a thing to eat or drink for years. In which case I should be dead. He stood up to get me a glass of water when suddenly he froze on his way. He stood right before the water filter, blank. He looked confused or rather he looked like he was thinking. He stood there for over a minute, I didn’t dare say anything because I’ve never seen him look this serious, it began to scare me. When he finally spoke up he said ‘Anna..after the incident.. Do you remember anything that happened..?’

After the incident? The last thing I remember was the incident. The only thing I could remember were the elusive thoughts of that particular day, so why would he ask me that?

I shook my head looking completely and utterly confused.

He sighed as he settled down next to me with the glass of water. I could see if he was debating in his mind whether to tell me or not. ‘Just don’t hide anything from me...please?’ I begged. He took a deep breath and began.

“The day of the incident after you collapsed on the floor and the dev.. I mean the couple dissapeared we took you to the nearest doctor. They checked the cause of the seizure and they weren't able to locate the exact problem, so they ruled it out as a ‘seizure of the moment’. I was overjoyed obviously. I took you home soon after, and I settled you down on the bed, you were still unconscious but the doctors said you’ll be fine in a few hours. I stayed up that night waiting for you to wake up, and you did... Except it wasn’t really you.”

‘It wasn’t really me?’ I didn’t understand a word he was saying.

“You woke up and you were acting quite weird, you didn’t even ask me what happened, and when I tried to explain it to you, you told me not to worry and that you were fine, which was apparently the most important thing according to you. I thought maybe you’d just wanted to get past it or you wanted to be left alone so I decided to let it go for the night and planned to discuss it the next day. Few minutes later you started to bake apple pie’s like you normally do when you’re bored tapping your feet along to the rhythm of your favorite song. I obviously started to worry about how normal you were acting after all what had happened so I decided to keep an eye on you, after around a good 20 minutes the pain began to show. You began to scream enough to make the ground shake, enough to make the bats return to their caves, it was... Morbid and all I could do was stand there shaking until the last bone in my body quivered, after your unending screams you began to cry, or so I thought. I leaned in closer, my body still trembling from the bizarre sight and my brain still debating over whether it was all reality or just a nightmare. As I got closer I realized you weren't crying-- not even a bit. You were laughing.”

Brendan was sitting with his head faced down and his hands just shielding his eyes, he seemed to be in pain just narrating the story that I had a very hard time understanding. It seemed as if it was all fiction, made up and for a moment my mind wandered back to that day just thinking if all I had seen that day was real why shouldn't any of this be? My head felt like it was about to implode, I placed my hand on my forehead and I could feel my head just dancing to the rhythm of my heart, as I stared at the clock the tick tock’s sounded louder than a marching parade and if it wasn't for the curiosity bothering me I would have already collapsed onto the floor. I took a deep breath, held my head with both my hands and braced myself for the rest of the story.

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