Oh to Be Married

Sandra started to panic. It took her 10 minutes to admit to herself that there was no wind inside the auditorium. None of the windows were even open.

“Who’s there?” she screamed out into the dark, musty area.

“Someone you’re never likely to meet,” a voice answered. As deep and eerie as the voice sounded, Sandra was positive it was not the owner of the voices she’d been hearing seconds before. An accomplice, maybe?

“Who are you?” she called out again.

“That’s classified information, dearie,” the voice answered back. Sandra spun around in circles, trying to decipher the exact location in which the voice was traveling from. “But I will tell you that you are in grave peril,” the voice continued. Sandra froze in her tracks.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked.

“You know your brother, Mark?” the voice asked.

“Sadly,” was Sandra’s answer.

“He’s dead,” the voice said. Sandra froze yet again.

“What’d you do to him?!” Sandra was yelling now. The voice laughed a cold, cruel, violent, laugh that made Sandra shiver every time he spoke.

“Try and find him…just don’t get your hopes up,” the voice said. A door opened at the side of the auditorium and Sandra walked through. She found herself in a stairway leading to the basement of the college. The door closed behind her. Sandra crept down the stairs, slightly terrified at the thought of someone jumping out at her like in a haunted house. She didn’t notice, however, that she was being too careful that she lost her balance and fell. She tumbled onto the cold, hard floor of the basement, afraid someone had heard her. She could faintly hear the voice laughing at her from a distance. She muttered swears under her breath.

The basement was a long pathway looming in front of Sandra. She stood up and brushed herself off; the floor was absolutely filthy. Gee, she thought to herself, you’d think my brother would hire someone to clean this school up a bit. Sandra had been to the college many times before, yet it never seemed to improve in cleanliness.

She continued walking in the darkness, being very careful to avoid any items that stood in her way that could make even the slightest bit of noise. She crept along until she reached a large door she had to go through in order to get to another stairway that would lead her upstairs again. But the sight before her made her want to scream and give her location away. There appeared to be blood dripping from the ceiling to the door handle. Sandra, not wanting to panic, put the sleeve of her shirt over her hand and turned the door knob, feeling a little faint. This stairway was much longer than the original one, and she realized that this particular stairway must lead to a different area of the college. Suddenly, she hesitated. What if this was all a trap? True, it did seem a little weird how she was the only one invited to a faculty dinner party at the college. Literally no one else showed up, not even her brother. Although, the voice said he was indeed here at the college. It suddenly occurred to Sandra that this might be a prank as well. But then again, her brother never pulled pranks on anyone. He was always a boring stick in the mud. Sandra was torn. But if her brother was really grievously injured, if he was even still alive, she figured she had to look for him. She continued on her way up the stairs and opened the door at the top. She shut the door the minute she got a glimpse of what lurked behind it. Someone was in the next room. Was it a voice? Was it her brother, Mark? Sandra didn’t want to take any chances.

She decided to try and call Sam. Sam was Mark’s best friend since preschool, and still was after they already graduated college. Both were only one year older than Sandra, but they found themselves to be much wiser and better than she ever would be. It was her freshman year in college, their sophomore, that she started dating Sam. Now it was eight years later, and Sandra and Sam were still going strong. And it was under the Eiffel tower on a trip to Paris that Sam asked her to be his bride. Of course, she said yes. They had started planning the wedding, but Sam didn’t seem to like any of Sandra’s traditional ideas. He finally said, “Sandra, let me handle this wedding thing. You pick out your dress and all that stuff and I’ll plan the actual wedding itself. I’ll make it so freaking special, you’ll be begging on your knees to marry me as soon as possible.” Sandra thought this was really sweet. Her parents thought it was a load of crap.

“He’s definitely up to something, that boy. Always was an evil genius, always will be,” Sandra’s father had told her. Her parents didn’t particularly like Sam…ever since even before Mark became best friends with him. They just didn’t seem to trust him because he seemed to be a troublemaker at school and in the neighborhood. But to Sandra and Mark, flooding all the bathrooms in the school and toilet papering someone’s yard did not seem evil. So Sandra ignored her parents.

Now that Sandra thought about it, she had never heard Sam talking to anybody about wedding flowers or food for the wedding or about the time and place of the wedding. It was very rare for the husbands to take charge of the preparations. But now wasn’t the time to think about a day she might never get to see. She put it out of her mind and dialed Sam’s cell number. He answered after the 5th ring.

“Hey, what’s up?” Sam asked.

“Hey, did you happen to be invited to Mark’s faculty dinner party at the college?” Sandra got right to the point.

“Yeah, I was. But I couldn’t go. I’m in Cancun with my entire family to celebrate the engagement, remember?” he asked. She had completely forgotten. He had left the day before.

“Oh, yeah,” she said.

“You alright?” he asked.

“No, there’s this creepy guy in the college who’s claiming that Mark is dead,” she said without hesitation.

“You know…lying was never your specialty,” was the response.

“Sam, I’m serious. I’m freaking out over here!” she whispered into the phone. Tears slowly began to drip down her face and apparently Sam could hear the terror in her voice.

“What?! Sandra, get out of the college right now!” He ordered. And then the line went dead. Sandra figured she just lost reception. But Sam wouldn’t have been of much help, anyway. He was on vacation; his parents were probably trying to convince him to back out on the marriage.

Sandra decided to open the door again. No one was there now. But someone definitely had been a few moments ago. There was a pot in the center of what appeared to be the kitchen, now vacant. The pot itself was boiling with small flames shooting up out of it. She crept over to the pot and peered in, and let out a slight squeal. Was that…an eyeball? No, it couldn’t be. Besides being seriously grossed out, she was also extremely terrified. Where the heck was Mark? Was he really murdered? Sandra was having a hard time thinking positively. She went into the next room, and the door once again closed suddenly behind her. Now she was in panic mode.

“Mark?” she called out, way past just nervous. There was a muffled response. It was pitch black in the room but Sandra ran forward. “Where are you?” she called out. Another muffled response. Now Sandra was sprinting across the room blindly.

“You see, Sandra? You’re too late,” the voice answered again. A few lights turned on suddenly, and Sandra spun around. Where she just came from now stood a tall dark young man with bright orange hair. He had Mark by the throat and Mark appeared to be unconscious. “One more step, Sandra, and I’ll throw your brother into that boiling pot of water in the kitchen.

“No!” Sandra screamed. So this was real. She lunged for the mysterious man and was sent flying by a flick of his wrist. Now with a black eye, Sandra turned to find the man and Mark gone. She heard screaming coming from the kitchen. Oh Sandra what did you do?! Sandra thought to herself. She started crying and ran into the kitchen, so full of anger nothing really mattered anymore. But when she got into the kitchen, no one was there. What the… Sandra went back the way she came until she reached the auditorium again. Still, no one was there. How peculiar. Sandra now spotted another open door in the auditorium and walked through it. The wedding march tune started playing. Sandra’s jaw dropped.

She was staring at rows and rows of people sitting, watching her. Mark was there, looking happy and healthy as ever and very much alive. Her parents were there, looking a bit uncomfortable but happy all around. What surprised Sandra the most was that Sam was there as well. He was wearing a black tuxedo and smiling a devilish grin that Sandra had grown to love. He walked over to Sandra, who was still speechless up until he took her hand.

“Surprise! I told you I’d plan the best wedding ever,” he said.

“You sick, sick man! You tried to scare me so you could marry me?” Sandra yelled at him.

“Something like that. Did you even realize that I wouldn’t have cell connection in Cancun?” Sam answered. Then Sandra screamed again because orange haired evil psychopath voice man was there as well.

“Hi Sandra, my name is Greg. I’m sorry for freaking you out like that, but I’m in the acting program here at the college. When your brother asked me for help with pranking you, I couldn’t help but agree.”

“My brother…helped my fiancé plan this?” Sandra said, shocked. Greg nodded.

“He was even one of the voices.”

Sandra caught Mark’s eye, and he winked. Sandra thought he was a little off in the brain as well. She turned to Sam.

“You did all this for me?” she asked. No matter how weird the situation, it was still sweet that Sam went through all that trouble to plan a unique wedding for her.

“So, are you ready to marry me?” Sam asked.

“No,” was the answer.

“What do you mean, NO?” Sam said, laughing.

“You TERRFIED me, I am not marrying anyone who would play as dirty as you just did,” Sandra snapped. They were married less than 10 minutes later.