My Perfect Bride

CHAPTER 3

The cabin was a really old, it was built when Ethan wasn't even born, his grandparents were the original owner, from outside it looked fine but from the inside it was clear that it needed repairing. The ceiling and the floor both were in desperate need of paint and on several places, it had been decayed too. This personally gave a creepy haunted house feeling to the cabin.

The voice of dripping water from the ceiling woke Rachel up. The first thought that came to her mind was, where is she? The last thing she remembers is Ethan picking her up from the ground, but why did she pass out in the first place? Realization of his crime hits her just like Ethan did with a shovel.

"That bastard!!" Rachel muttered to herself. She swore if she ever got out of this situation alive, she would make sure to make his pay for what he did to her. Her head felt heavy to her but when she tried to examine it, she was unable to do so because her hands were tied to the back of the chair on which she was sitting.  

Rachel tried to observe her surroundings, she was having a hard time in making out shapes since all she could saw was darkness. Then a light switch was turned on and the place where she was held captive lit up like a Christmas tree. It took some time for her eyes to adjust to the bright light. The first thing she saw was a tall figure leaning on the wall in front of her. His hands were casually folded against his chest, no matter how much Rachel tried to convince herself that this man wasn't Ethan she couldn't do so because this man was indeed her psychotic husband. 

In the last few hours, she has found herself being tied to different things first it was a bed, now it was a chair. She was in the basement, it was neither big nor small it was medium, filled with tools, and old belongings of Ethan and his family, He then finally broke the silence.

"You are awake. So, were you dreaming?" 

she was confused by his question but even in this desperate situation she felt the need to say, "Duh!" 

Ethan didn't like her new attitude but decided to ignore it just this time, "oh pardon me milady I meant were you dreaming about your freedom? Because that is the only thing that you can't have anymore."

From confusion her expression changed into hurt, she refused to look at his face when he tries to mock her in this humiliating situation. She tried her best to keep the tears from falling but she was having a hard time in accomplishing this task.  

Ethan was expecting a rebellious answer from her but instead she kept her head down and sniffled in her tears. Furious by her reaction he took angry steps toward her until he was merely inches away from her, he grabbed her chin a little too harshly "you would look at me whenever I ask you a question. Is that clear sweetie?" he got no response.

"Why are you making this so difficult?" he bends down in front of her so that his face was now in the same level with Rachel's, "I want to look at your traitorous face when I talk to you, have I asked too much?" Rachel nodded to his threat but still refused to speak any words.  

Ethan let go off her chin and placed both his hands sideways around her face "That's my girl." he whispered in her ear. Rachel was unable to hide the evident shock on her face; a minute ago he was so rude to her why the sudden change of heart? 

Ethan was still unsure of his feelings towards his wife. He wanted to punish her for breaking his heart into million pieces because there was a time he would have died for her because that's how much he used to love her, and a part of him still loved her. He knew his feelings just can't die in two days, and these mixed emotions were driving him insane. 

Ethan placed some few free strands of brunette hair that hung on her face behind her ear. Her big brown eyes were pleading silently for her life, her bottom lip quivered from his touch which only happened when she was scared.

"Why? I thought you forgave me." she remembered the time when she told him, and he still agreed to marrying her. She was so happy that day, she thought she was the luckiest girl in the world for having such a lovely husband, "I thought you loved me then why this?" she asked him signalling to the ropes.

"I do love you. No no correction, I did loved you, but that love died when you told me that you willingly gave yourself to an another man." he paused to notice her reaction, "Not the answer you were expecting am I right?" his hand was moving around the curve of her jawline. 

This time she flinched from his touch and with all the bitterness in the world she spoke, "You are a monster, and you think you can just kill me here and then get on with your life? you won't get away with it my dear hubby."

The light smile, which was playing on Ethan's lips faded immediately, and he decided to stand up finally, and started dusting off his pants, "enough of this chit chat. Let's make one thing clear I have no intention of getting on with my life once I am done with you. See the thing is my love, you have made me sinister in so many ways that nobody can imagine what I am going to do with you." she noticed how with each word, his eyes became more cruel and his body language became more violent, "So let's talk about you shall we, you broke your promise, you told me that you won't try to escape but you did anyway." 

A smirk played on his lips "so what do we do now?" he stroked his chin as if he was in a deep thought, "Yes you guessed it right, you get a punishment for bad behaviour naughty girl." he patted her head as if she was a little child who have just gotten an A in her test. 

Rachel was a fool if she thought that he will forget about her failed attempt to escape. Anxiety and panic took over her, all these feelings started showing on her face.  

"Oh, don't panic I won't hit you or anything because I already did that remember- with a shovel. And if I did anyway it won't be your beautiful face next time I promise, and see when I make a promise, I stick to it, unlike you."

"Just like you vowed to protect me, oh dear how ironic." her answer was short but was enough to piss off Ethan.

"Listen carefully you w***e don't take that tongue with me; you understand because I might just break my promise and you never know what happens next." the threat in his words was clear. Rachel was walking on thin shells here and she knew it won't be a good idea to tick off an angry psychopath. The terror in her finally provided some satisfaction to Ethan.

"Good now, where were we? yes your punishment... so tell me what is the only thing that you are most afraid of?" she didn't know the answer as there were millions of things that terrified her.

"Well this is no fun I thought we were going to play a guessing game but never mind." He took out a small box from the shelf and placed it on the table. "so do you remember when we were in high school and a friend of yours dared you too play seven minutes of heaven but when you went in the closet she turned off the lights to scare you."

While speaking he continued to take small steps towards her. She answered with a sigh "Yes I do remember, what about it."

"Do you remember how scared you were for days after that incident? At first, I thought you were scared because you were alone and all that. But then I figured it out it wasn't loneliness it was the darkness that scared you and may I add that you do a very good job at hiding your fear."

The colour faded from Rachel's face. Her bottom lip started quivering, for years she was able to hide her silly fear. But today it was no longer a secret and soon she realized to what Ethan was actually up to. 

"See I told you my pain given to you won't be just physical it would be emotional also. Just like the way you shattered my world with just simple emotional pain." He placed a soft kiss on her forehead "so I must be leaving now, you have a lot of screaming to do."

"Ethan please don't, I beg you. Don't leave me here alone"

"Awh so I am not looking that bad, am I? You know you should be thanking me for being so generous here, the least you could do is stop your whining." He picked up the small box from the table and took off the lid “and just to make things interesting.."

And with that he turned the box upside down, dozens of rats poured from it and they all started running in different direction almost covering the whole floor. One rat made its way to Rachel's chair and started to scratch Rachel's leg, she started screaming. she tried to move her leg, but it was tied down too. 

"The things that I do to make my bride's life miserable... Aren't I the best? Bye wifey don't let the bed bugs bite you." He was now almost at the top of the stairs where the basement door was.

Taking a last look at his screaming wife he switched off the light and closed the basement door behind him.

He went to the living room and played his and Rachel's favourite movie in the VCR and started watching Casablanca. His eyes were on the screen but mind somewhere else he could still here the screams which were coming from the basement, from the past hour. He paused the movie and went to the kitchen to get a knife; He took off his belt.

He couldn't take it anymore he wanted to feel something; anything except guilt, he tied the belt around his thigh, slowing down the blood flow. He took the pocketknife in his hand and in one swift motion stabbed himself in his thigh. It wasn't too deep but was enough to send him to sleep for some time, now he wasn't feeling guilty anymore because he punished himself too.