Chapter 01: The Wedding Night
The air was thick with the scent of roses, and the soft flicker of candlelight cast dancing shadows against the walls of the bridal chamber. The room was large, a sumptuous space with high, vaulted ceilings and dark wooden beams, each intricately carved with forgotten symbols. The bed, adorned in delicate lace and satin, looked like something spun from a dream—a place of serenity, of new beginnings. Yet, as Evelyn stood before it, her heart ached with the weight of an unsettling foreboding that had taken root in the depths of her chest.
It was their wedding night.
Her fingers brushed the veil that hung loosely around her neck, the final touch of her bridal attire, and she glanced over her shoulder. David, her new husband, stood by the window, his tall frame casting a long shadow across the floor. He had been distant throughout the evening—more so than usual. The once bright gleam in his eyes had dimmed, replaced by an unsettling, quiet sorrow. He had not smiled since the vows were exchanged, nor had he touched her the way she had imagined, the way she had longed for during their courtship. The soft glow of moonlight highlighted his chiseled features, but there was something cold about his presence.
She bit her lip, hesitant. It was her wedding night, the night she had dreamed of for so long, but it felt as though the air itself had turned to lead. Something was wrong.
David turned slowly from the window, his gaze meeting hers for the first time that night. The shadows in his eyes seemed deeper now, as if something ancient stirred beneath the surface.
“Evelyn,” he whispered, his voice hoarse, laced with a heaviness she had never heard before. “I need to speak with you.”
Her breath caught in her throat. There was an odd stillness to his voice, an unspoken tension hanging in the air. She nodded, stepping closer, trying to bridge the chasm that had suddenly opened between them.
“David, what’s wrong?” she asked softly, her voice trembling despite her attempt to sound steady. “Is something troubling you?”
He hesitated, his hands clenched into fists at his sides, as though he were fighting against something—or someone. The moonlight touched his face, and for a fleeting moment, his expression shifted, as though a darker version of himself emerged from within. But it was gone as quickly as it had come, leaving only the man she knew, the man she had married.
He stepped forward, closing the distance between them, but he did not touch her. His eyes were fixed on hers, filled with a quiet desperation. “Evelyn, there is something I must tell you,” he began, his voice barely above a whisper. “Something that has bound me… something that now binds you as well.”
The chill in his words froze her to the spot. She could see it now—the flicker of terror behind his eyes, the way his shoulders stiffened, as though he were carrying an unbearable weight.
“What do you mean?” she asked, her heart hammering against her ribcage.
David took a deep breath, his gaze shifting away from hers, as though searching for the right words. “I—” He paused, the words hanging heavy in the air. “I never wanted to burden you with this, but now, there’s no other choice.”
Evelyn’s pulse quickened as a strange sensation crept up her spine. The room felt colder, the candlelight now casting long, unnatural shadows across the walls. Something was wrong. It felt wrong. David’s presence, his touch—it was as if the very air around him had become tainted.
“David, what is it?” she repeated, her voice rising in urgency. “What’s happened? Why are you acting this way?”
He turned his gaze back to her, his eyes darkened with guilt and something far deeper, far darker. “I—Evelyn, I—have made a pact.”
The words hung between them like a curse.
“A pact?” Her voice faltered. “What kind of pact?”
David’s lips trembled as he stepped back, as though the weight of his confession had shattered the fragile barrier he had tried so desperately to maintain. “A pact… with forces beyond our understanding. Forces that demand something in return.”
Her head spun as she tried to process his words, the night, their marriage, it all spiraling into a nightmare of her own. “What forces? What do you mean?”
His face was pale now, his eyes hollow, as though the light within them had been extinguished. “They’ve taken something from me—something precious. And now, they have come to claim what is theirs. They will come for you, Evelyn. They will come for us.”
The room seemed to shrink as the weight of his words settled into the corners of her mind. The air, once warm and welcoming, now pressed in on her from all sides, suffocating her with an invisible dread.
Her voice broke as she tried to speak, but the words stuck in her throat. “What do you mean? What are you asking me to do?”
David’s gaze softened, his hand reaching out as if to comfort her. But there was no warmth in his touch. No safety. “You must break the pact, Evelyn. Or we will both perish.”
Her heart dropped into her stomach. The silence that followed was deafening, filled with the sound of her own breath, ragged and trembling.
“Break the pact?” she whispered. “How?”
David stepped back, his eyes brimming with unshed tears, his voice barely audible. “I don’t know. But I know this—if we don’t, there will be no escape. The pact is already in motion. We’re bound to it. And the darkness… it’s coming for us.”
The room grew colder still, and for the first time that night, Evelyn felt it—an overwhelming sense of dread, of something terrible waiting just beyond the veil, watching them both.
David’s voice was barely a whisper as he spoke once more. “You must find the way, Evelyn. Before it’s too late.”
