**Disclaimer, read this chapter at your discretion**
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In front of him was a woman who loved him, who felt loved by him.
Was it right for him to rip himself out of the picture? He thought of it as the pastor's words continued, and still couldn't find himself being remorseful.
In reality, the two didn't know each other, Ely couldn't find himself opening up to her or being vulnerable. In a sense neither did Tamari.
Tamari's vows finished and Ely's vows poured out mechanically, it was instilled into him like memorizing formulas.
Emotions couldn't be relayed by his speech but it was good enough that the words were.
The pastor gave him a sentimental look as Ely finished and continued, "Do you take Tamari Rosemary as your faithful bride through divine love, faith, and health?"
Ely's throat felt clogged up but he still managed to get out the two words, "I do."
In that second, Tamari quickly reached towards him and they both shared a passionate kiss. There was no going back now, Ely had to see it through.
The next few hours were filled with food and drinks, the two would have already cut the cake and welcomed everyone to eat as much as they wanted since it was a twenty-four-hour service.
Tamari had planned to do a seeing-off in the morning before everyone left but Ely knew he'd have to end it before the night did first. He tried making himself distanced from Tamari as the party continued—making small talk with the male guests.
It was only when the night was at the very latest did Tamari went to go find him. Clinging to his shoulder and nuzzling herself next to him. At this, all the guys looked at each other and left the newlywed alone.
"Let's go to the room."
Ely's body felt induced with adrenaline, and his heart was drumming inside his chest.
He still had to keep up the act, so he took his wife by the arm to the single room in the hallway meant for the two.
He could hear a drunk man's laugh boom nearby, he could tell that the guy was alone by the sound alone. No other voice or laugh followed his.
Tamari opened the door and went to freshen up and change in the bathroom, Ely assured her he'd wait in the room.
The moment he heard the door close he lay on the bed for a bit to think, he could either live his life out as the husband—Tamari was understanding so they'd get some kid from somewhere.
Or he could call it quits right then and there.
The running water stopped abruptly, and the bathroom door slightly opened, "Ely could you hand me a towel? I forgot to bring one," she still sounded nervous as she did during the vows.
She could've purposely left it there to give her a chance to make sure Ely didn't leave. But then why would she have been suspicious of that?
He sat up and saw the towel that was neatly placed beside him, he reached his hand out to Tamari.
Her damp hair was completely straightened, something Ely never saw. Her curls always recoiled in the rain despite how heavy the pour was.
However, that wasn't what shocked him.
It was only when he went to look away from her, that he got a slight glimpse of Tamari's face, "Here you-"
He met eyes with her, and both of her eyeballs were completely submerged in a ruby-colored redness. The towel fell from his hands, and he slammed the bathroom door shut with full force in horror.
His breath was raspy, 'Am I seeing shit?'
He tightened his hold on the doorknob to prevent Tamari from reopening it.
A voice screeched from the bathroom as he held the doorknob. She was screaming his name but her voice didn't sound the same.
It was inhumane, the pitch was echoing in his eardrums and nailing its way through his canal all at the same time.
His head rapidly darted around to figure out another way since he couldn't barricade the door. Ely could hear her whimpering in tears as the scream receded, and then he could hear Tamari's normal tone, "Ely I still need that towel, open the door."
She tried to make her tone sound sweet but he was already disturbed by the whole ordeal so he had no trust in the normalness he heard from Tamari.
This was only proving his point. If he had to live the rest of his life with the crazy bitch beyond the door—he'd take his life a hundred times over.
He took his lax tie from his neck and wrapped it around the doorknob connecting it to the metal drawer beside him.
He made tight twists through it and looked at the door one more time it was-
'Quiet?'
He put his ear to the door, trying to listen to anything. He thought he could hear her breathing, it was a quiet huffing sound. Ely's speculations were of the three,
'She had to be either crazy, cursed, or possessed.'
A long silence followed before he noticed the doorknob slightly moving to the left and the right. He moved his head and heard a loud strike hit the doorknob.
It became loose.
At this Ely had already run out of the room and locked the entrance into the room with the spare key Sarai had given him a few days prior.
'Does Sarai know her sister is like this? Or are they both batshit crazy?'
His quick footsteps out of the room and the shutting of the door must've alerted Tamari because the cries only got louder. He could hear it echo through the halls as he ran. The image of her bloody eyes imprinted itself in his mind.
The banging sound that heavily pounded the door gradually became more continuous.
Her screams were louder than they should've been. It was like hearing a blare of a siren and instrumental pitches of the loudest sounds all put together.
It screeched and bellowed behind him, he could envision the doorknob slowly coming undone. He wasn't going to look back, in fear she'd be standing right there.
"You bastard, open the fucking door, Ely!"
Ely had no time to take the small knife he had tucked in his coat pocket, he ran barefoot through the place it was as if there wasn't a single soul other than him and Tamari.
He pushed through any door he could but to his avail, it was empty too.
The large windows showed the stars peering over at him. That was when he heard the booming voice again, this time there was no doubt it wasn't Kirsch.
An empty click could be heard in the direction in front of him and the sound of a glass being smashed into the table.
The damned drunkard.
"Yessir!"
Ely dragged his feet one more time in front of the man he hated, 'The idiot was playing Russian roulette.'
He slammed the gun away from his hand, "Shoot me you fucking drunkard!"
Kirsch's eyes didn't widen at his sudden appearance, nothing scared the man. Instead of being shocked, he retracted his gun back to his head, "Why would I do that?"
Ely had to find a plausible reason for the idiot to shoot him.
He knew that Kirsch would do it in a heartbeat anywhere else, but this was the day of his wedding. He was recently married, if word got out that Kirsch killed him—he'd be the one to take the fall.
He could still see Tamari's red eyes and the strange appearance in his eyes, "Beca...Because I can give you something in return!"
Even with a gun pointed at his head, Kirsch's face remained unphased, "Son what would you have that I'd want?"
Ely noticed the bills that stuffed his jean pockets, he didn't care how he and Tamari met but if he came as a guest they must've had history.
He rummaged for the key in his pants, holding it in front of Kirsch, "I bet you know where this goes to, I'll give you the key to that room."
Kirsch recognized the key, it appeared he was familiar with this place, "What's in that room?"
"My wife."
Kirsch took his gun away from his head and pointed it at Ely's, "Don't blame me if you don't like what you see in hell."
There was still a chance a shot wouldn't fire but Ely did not doubt in his mind that the next one was the bullet.
"I don't believe in that shit."
With that, a gunshot could be heard.
Everyone from the party scattered in screams. Some ran out of the building while some rushed to call the cops and investigate what happened.
After some time, they found Tamari in ruin and in tears, the drunkard had managed to get in.
But Tamari didn't appear before him the same as she did in front of Ely. When they finally got her to speak she told them she never left the bed and was waiting for her husband after Ely abruptly left.
Only to see Kirsch was the one to open the door.
Everyone was still in horror at the events that took play, and no one thought to highlight the deep scratches on the bathroom door. Tamari always kept her nails short, no one questioned how the doorknob lay idly on the floor or Ely's tie beside it.
They thought it was from when Ely was still in the room with Tamari since she wouldn't say anything more.
Her father found Kirsch in cold blood, and no one had the heart to tell Tamari that her mother had passed the moment the party began.
It was a wedding sanguinary disaster.
The last thing to be untold was Tamari standing in front of her fallen husband her hands wiped at the ruined stains he had.
She viscously wiped at her face blending his bloodshed to become her bloody tears streaming down her cheeks, her fingertips turned yellow from how hard she clenched her fists.
While Ely...is still alive subconsciously?
...Somehow?