The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

The Blushing Bride  
by Ela Lourenco

I gently tiptoe across the rose petals strewn down the aisle. Decked in all my finest jewellery, in my red silk sari like a gift waiting to be unwrapped by my eager groom. The jewels of my ancestors jingle daintily, my eyes down as I walk with the grace and hesitancy expected of young innocent girls. Someone is playing a sitar in the distance. The melancholy notes in sync with the beating of my heart.

I reach my destination and risk a glance up. The man who would be my husband is leering at me, as is his father. The stench of evil permeates the air despite the perfume of the hundreds of flowers they have bought. The flawless diamond that my soon to be family places around my neck an ice rock burdening me with their ostentation.

I exhale deeply and silently as the wedding rites are chanted. Not yet. Just a moment longer… The rubies on my headdress begin to warm. I can feel them glowing and vibrating, pulsing with the blood of thousands of innocent women shed for the pleasures of men. Sold and bought like cattle… The energy of my grandmothers and all those before them lights me up from within as I raise my eyes upwards. Red is all I see. My feet leave the ground as all those men watch, mouths gaping. And that is how they remain. Shocked and frozen in stone as I unleash the reckoning.

The red disappears, the sky is blue once again as I walk back down the aisle, alone – still the keeper of my own self.

Fiction © Copyright Ela Lourenco
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com.

More from Ela Lourenco:

Dragon Born: Book Three
Awakening

The Royal tournament, the Karnac, is fully underway. But there is deception and betrayal at every turn. Unseen dark forces are at play, both within the school grounds and out with. Even the Gods are unable to help when a new threat looms over them all.The very existence of Azmantium depends on Lara fully becoming the Child of Fire and casting aside the Shadows lurking in every corner of her beloved planet.Can she overcome the challenges that await? Will the Shadows cover the world in darkness? Only Lara and her friends can change the fate of Azmantium.

Available on Amazon!