This is your final warningchange the reception venue, or I wont marry you. Only two weeks remained until the wedding, and Charlotte clutched the invitations, unable to bring herself to sign them.
Her fiancé looked at her, crestfallen. Whats wrong with you now, Charlotte?
Ive got a horrible feeling about this
He chuckled softly. Of course you do. Its not every day a girl gets married. Youre nervous, but itll passI promise, everything will be all right.
How can you promise something you dont even know? she snapped. Is it really so difficult to be on my side? How do you expect us to live together if youre already refusing to compromise?
He bristled. Were not exactly rolling in cash, darling. Ive already booked the hall and paid a deposit for the reception. If we cancel now, well lose it all.
Thats not the worst of it, love, trust me.
I refuse to buy into this nonsense. It’s irrational, at bestat worst, well end up skipping our honeymoon. Are you ever going to explain whats really going on?
Fine, but dont act like its impossible. Just because you dont believe in something doesnt mean it isnt real.
I promise, Ill listen, he replied, though doubt lingered in his voice.
We had a new woman join the office recentlyMabel. Shes odd. Keeps to herself, always dressed in black. The other day she came up to me and said, A message from your grandma Edith.
What? I stammeredGrandma Edith had been gone for three years.
Would you like to know what shes warning you about? she asked. But after work. I agreed, and this is what she told me.
It happened years ago, when a new restaurant opened right here in town with a grand banquet hall. Robert was working as a driver on the construction site, earning good money, so he suggested to his bride, Susan, that they hold their wedding there. Susan, who grew up in a small village and came from a poor family, was thrilled. Her relatives had never even set foot in a restaurant; she saw it as a chance to treat them all to something wonderful.
The big day came. Susan was radiant in her white dress and veil, and Robert looked every bit the dashing gent. After the ceremony, the bridal car and a coach full of guests made their way to the restaurant. Everyone marvelled at the splendour of the hallexcept for one old woman, who shook her head and tutted, Artificial flowers at a wedding very bad luck, that is. But no one paid her much mindthose days, everything seemed artificial, from tablecloths to crockery to the very fabric in our clothes. Chemical industries were blooming back in the fifties and sixties. This event took place a bit later.
Still, guests brought fresh flowers, placing bouquets in vases on the head table. Then, right in the middle of the first dance, the bride and groom returned to their seatsonly to find that the roses in Susans bouquet had wilted completely. The staff hurriedly removed the flowers, and the merriment resumed. But soon after, Susan turned pale, felt sick, and fainted. They opened the windows, thinking the room was stuffy, but she still got worse. A murmur rippled through the guests.
Ill bet shes up the duff, someone whispered.
Better that than illa babys temporary, others joked.
I thought I saw blood on Susans dress, one relative told her parents, but when they checked, no sign of any stain.
Another rumour travelled nextsomeone claimed theyd seen a strange woman, all in black, standing by the door. They searched high and low, to no avail.
The newlyweds first night was a nightmare. They felt another presence in the roomheard footsteps and whispers, and Robert swore he was being watched. The next morning, panic set in.
In those days, honeymoons were rare. Married life began at once, back to work on Monday. Before the week was through, Robert died in a crashhead-on collision, perfect weather, good road, and he was a careful, experienced driver. No one understood how it happened.
Susan was inconsolable. She wasted away before everyones eyes. A year later, she left homeand never came back. No one ever found her.
James, her fiancé, scoffed, Chilling little ghost story, but whats it got to do with us, Charlie?
Charlottes voice nearly broke. Everything! That cursed wedding happened in the exact hall youve booked for us.
I still dont see what that has to do with us. Loads of people have tragic lives.
They say the restaurant was built over an old graveyard. The hall stands right where the grave of a jilted bride used to bea woman who took her own life days after catching her new husband cheating. Cant you see?
No, I dont believe in all that superstitious rot.
They say her restless spirit seeks revengetakes the groom after the wedding, the bride a year later. Maybe the curse is ready to strike again. What if our wedding is next? Would my grandma have warned me for nothing?
Im done with this. If you wont marry me, Ill wed your mate Sophie instead. Sophie was Charlottes oldest friend. Sign the invitations. Now. Or Ill keep my word.
Charlotte hesitated, devastated by his betrayal and the threat of marrying Sophie. In the end, she refused to go through with it.
James kept his word; Sophie, it turned out, was not the friend Charlotte believed, and agreed to marry him. Less than a week later, the grim legend proved true: James died in a motorbike crash, the brakes failed.
Shaken but unable to forgive Sophie, Charlotte worried for her all the same. She tried to find Mabel for advice, to help her former friendSophies time would be up in a yearbut Mabel had left the job and vanished, her address false.
Its said the haunted wedding happened sometime in the 1970s, though Charlotte never found any official records to prove it. But the locals, they still talk, voicing superstitions behind lowered voiceswhat you dont know can still hurt you, after all.
