x Footsteps x

Outside it was snowing heavily and the wind blew through the trees sending branches against the side of the buildings. The wind was violent and the world was covered in a snowy blanket. It was like a white tornado was blowing through the town.

Yet inside the large stone building on the corner a stifling hot blanket lay upon the crowd of people. Set apart from the group a woman stood with her hand pressed to her beating heart trying hard to breathe. She was attempting to stay calm, but she was shaking and her face was bright red.

No one looked her way, and yet they all knew she was there and they all anticipated her entrance.

'I can't go in there; I can barely stand let alone walk! I can't do it, I won't...I can just walk away now. I can leave without looking back.'

The thoughts ran through her head. She knew she could never just walk away, she had gotten this far...just ten more yards.

'I don't need to do this.'

She couldn't stop now, she had come too far. If she left now her heart would be left behind.

'I can take my heart with me if I want.'

I can't turn back!

'Just turn around and walk away!'

She never really decided...well she did, she didn't just stand there. But it wasn't her mind that decided. In a way it was the music, the song that decided.

Because at that moment the music started to play and suddenly she took a step forward. Her mind stopped thinking, he heart stopped beating, and all she saw, heard, felt...was the music and her destination.

Suddenly the huge congregation of people that had once ignored her all turned to look her way. All eyes were on her.

Beside her a man grabbed her hand and they made their way through the group of people. Her footsteps took her down a long white carpet toward a young man his eyes glazed over as he looked at her.

As she reached the young man the hand that grasped hers let go and the young man reached forward and clasped his sweating hand around her small fingers. She smiled up at him and suddenly she was no longer scared.

Together they kneeled and a voice rang out.

The voice quickly faded as her thoughts took over. 'I can do this, and I will. I love him and I always will. He gives me strength and I shall give him mine. His kiss makes me weak, his soul makes me strong. I am his now, and he will be mine.'

He looked at her his eyes intense as he waited for her to speak. 'I do!' She thought in earnest but she couldn't find her voice. She wanted to scream it, she wanted the whole world to know, she did... 'I do...' But nothing came out.

Suddenly something broke the silence. It sliced through the air like a knife and following it a chorus of screams rose up.

She found her voice, and her cry shattered the air as she fell to ground at his side.

She didn't even see the women in the aisle, a gun in her hand pointed at the couple. She was too busy looking down .

Blood stained his tuxedo and he looked at her, "I love you." He coughed and took a rattling breath. She just shook her head as she looked at him. "No, no, no, NO! We're too close!"

Her voice cracked and tears ran down her cheeks as she held him in her arms. His blood stained her white dress as she rocked his body back and forth but she didn't care. She didn't want to let go, she didn't want him to leave her.

He choked out one last sentence as he looked up at her, "Till we meet again." She screamed in agony as his body grew limp. Suddenly the words came back to her and she screamed them, "I DO! God no, I do!"

Tears ran freely down her face and her whole body shook. People watched frozen in time, not knowing what to do next. She lay down beside him, his head resting on her chest, her hands clasps around his cold body. Both people were stained with his blood, but she didn't care. All she wanted was to die.

Sirens ran out and people screamed about her, but above everything the cries still echoed, each full of a life time of agony, "I do!"