The Silent Bride

The rain came first-soft at the beginning, like the gentle tapping of fingertips on a window. Then the wind arrived, sweeping through the sleeping town with a howl that made the old trees outside Evelyn Hart's cottage sway and groan. She had been curled up on the couch, reading by the fire, when the lights flickered once... twice... and died.

Darkness swallowed the room.

Evelyn reached for the lantern on the side table, muttering under her breath about the unreliable power lines. But as she struck the match, she felt it-a change in the air. The kind that prickled at the skin and sent a shiver to the bones. It was no longer the ordinary chill of a storm; this was different, heavy... almost watching her.

The first sound came from outside-a slow, deliberate knock.

Three times.

Knock.

Knock.

Knock.

She froze. Who could be at her door at midnight in such weather? Gripping the lantern, she approached cautiously. "Who's there?" she called, her voice shaking more than she liked. No answer came, only the wind.

Then she saw it.

Through the thin crack between curtain and wall, a shadow stood beyond the glass. Tall. Unmoving. The lantern's light barely reached far enough to catch the glint of something metallic-perhaps a mask, or eyes that reflected light where human eyes shouldn't.

Her heart raced. She backed away. That's when the door burst inward.

Two figures dressed in black swept inside. They moved like smoke-silent but unstoppable. One clamped a hand over her mouth before she could scream, the other looped something cold and metallic around her neck. Her world became a blur of struggling limbs, overturned furniture, and the bitter scent of something sharp and chemical pressed to her face.

Her last memory before darkness was the faint toll of a distant bell. Twelve times.