She knelt on the road, her dress spread out around her. Blood streamed down the white fabric, soaking it into scarlet strips. The man she held in her lap looked up sightlessly at her, covered in road rash from where the car had dragged him.
“Laura?” He murmured, reaching for her hair, hair carefully pinned up in intricate twirls around her head. “I can’t- I can’t see you. But I can smell you. I can smell your body wash.”
She bent her head over his face, a sob wracking through her chest as he blindly reached for her. “Laura, I-I thought we were going to get married?”
“We were,” she soothed, “We were standing at the altar. We-we….” She clenched her teeth, looking up again at her father, his shoe the only sign of him under the rubble.
“Laura?”
“A car flew through the church wall, you smashed into the windshield through the other side to the road. It… it was something out of a really bad action film.”
He coughed, sitting up to spit blood, “always wanted to be in one.” He winced, lying back down in her lap, “how many were injured?”
She looked behind her at the church, at the people clustered around bodies and kneeling in the grass. “A few.”
He jolted at the sound of sirens screeching down the street towards them, “all I wanted was to marry you.” He said, relaxing, “didn’t know I’d lose my eyes for it.”
She looked at the bandage she had wrapped around his head, a bandage made from a $1200 wedding dress.
“I’m so sorry Jack,” she whispered, silent tears trickling down her face, “this is all my fault. I wanted to get married in a church. I knew there were people burning down churches, but I thought- I thought.” The breath in her lungs caught in her chest, constricting it until it hurt to breathe. Blood ran down the grass from where she had opened her eyes after her father had pushed her to the side, plaster floating in the air as she carefully stood moments later and hurled herself in a stumbled tangle of arms and legs down towards her lover. Her fiancé.
He smiled up at her, even through the tears that splashed down onto his face, “it’s not your fault babe. How were we to know? At least I got to see your dress..." he broke off and whistled, "you looked incredible.”
A shriek blew through the church behind them, Laura’s mother finding her husband buried in the rubble. Laura shut her eyes, curling in on herself. Jack cupped her face, feeling a sticky substance on her face, traveling his hands down to her waist and finding her dress soaked in it.
“Laura,” Jack murmured, “is that-is that blood?”
Laura blurrily opened her eyes, seeing the bright colours of the ambulance glance off her. “Um, yeah...”
A man wearing green sprinted and crouched next to them, flickering a small torch first in Jack’s eyes, and then seeing Laura, swore, dropped the torch, and shouted for help.
“BACKUP IMMEDIATELY! FRACTURED RIBS HAVE PIERCED LUNGS AND POSSIBLY HEART! I NEED ASSISTANCE!” The shouting seemed very far away from Laura, as though he was bobbing away out to sea. Or perhaps she was.
“Miss, you need to stay conscious. Miss. Miss!”
“What wrong with Laura?” Jack demanded, panic settling into his voice. He sat up and tried to touch her, “what’s wrong with my wife?!”
Laura smiled a hazy smile, feeling herself fall backwards. She had hoped for a pretty wedding. Purple flowers, bridesmaids dressed in blue, her mother’s happy face. And still Jack yelled for her. She tried to tell him nothing hurt. Not like it did. But still he screamed and still she smiled until everything faded to black.
“Babe, babe! Laura! Can you hear me darling? I love you Laura! Don’t leave me on our wedding day!”
Her last thought as red and blue lights danced beyond her, was how she wished she could tell Jack how much she loved him too. 697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz8exlh4rA1
