“Nancy, are you done taking photos yet? You know they’ve hired a photographer, right?”
“Just one more. OK, guys, smile!”
Having been raised with a camera in their faces, the kids deployed their automatic reaction to their mom’s request and smiled their big, photogenic smiles.
“Perfect. OK, now I’m done.”
Her husband smiled indulgently. “Yeah, right. The ceremony hasn’t even started yet. Don’t tell me you’re not going to whip out your camera as soon as the music starts.”
“I could tell you I’m not going to do that, but we both know it would be a lie. I just meant I’m done taking photos for now.”
“I think you’ve made the kids sit and stand on every square inch of this place. You do realize today is not about them, don’t you?”
“Of course. But it’s probably Liz’s only chance to be a flower girl. I want to capture every moment.”
“And you have, maybe now we should find our seats?”
He gestured to the rows of seats arranged neatly on either side of the aisle, and Nancy saw that everyone else was starting to sit down. If she didn’t hurry, she was going to lose her chance to grab an aisle seat that would give her the best vantage point for taking photos of the wedding party making their way towards the raised dais at the front of the space.
Nancy escorted her daughter down the path and around a corner behind some foliage where the wedding party was waiting for the signal to start walking down the aisle. The bridesmaids all oohed and aahed over her dress and fawned over her. Once Nancy felt assured Liz knew her place in line and the role she was to play in the ceremony, she went back to the seating area to rejoin her husband and son.
Sure enough, almost as soon as she reached her seat the music started and the bridesmaids and groomsmen started making their way down the aisle. Nancy’s phone was already in her hand and the camera app open, so all she needed to do was point and shoot to capture every moment of the ceremony. That’s exactly what she was doing when the bridesmaids and groomsmen were all gathered on the raised dais and the music changed to “Here Comes the Bride.”
Nancy held her camera steady and pointed at the end of the aisle as she stood along with everyone else.
But instead of the bride making her entrance from around the corner of the foliage, the only thing that emerged from that area was a bloodcurdling scream.
The music stopped and everyone stood frozen, looking at each other as if for directions.
Finally the groom’s father broke away from the crowd and made his way up the aisle and in the direction from which the scream had emerged.
Nancy followed him, so she was the second person to see the horrifying scene.
The groom’s sister was sobbing as she held the bride, who lay slumped across the path she had been getting ready to walk down as a bride. Her eyes stared sightlessly straight ahead, unblinking as blood dripped into them from the wound made by the knife that was still sticking out of the left side of her skull.
To be continued…