A Slight Problem

Aveira sat next to the altar, feeling lost. She'd woken up just moments before, lying in a pool of blood. It wasn't hers. There was too much of it to belong to just one person. Looking around, she had seen around forty or fifty people. No, not people. She had seen fifty bodies. So many bodies dressed up in their best clothing. Some of them were leaning against walls or chairs, but most of them were piled up near windows and the doors. Turning around, Aveira noticed two more bodies. A man in a tuxedo and, clutched in his arms, a woman in a wedding dress. The once white dress, now dyed in her own blood, was almost as beautiful as the woman herself. She looked like she'd been in her early twenties, just starting out on life. Her would-be husband had an emptiness in his gaze that the woman was lacking; The woman must have been killed first, right in front of her lover.

It wasn't the site of this tragic couple that bothered Aveira the most, however. It wasn't the heaps of people or even the walls and floors covered in barrels of blood. What upset Aveira the most was the long, sharp knife in Aveira's hand.

Pulling out her cell phone, Aveira shakily dialed Matthew's number. "Matt?" she said when he picked up, her voice trembling. "I need you. I'm at a big, old fashioned church. Please come quick." She hung up before he could ask her anything else. Standing up, Aveira walked over to the woman wearing the wedding dress and closed her eyes. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

Matthew would be there in just a few minutes. He pulled up in his car, got out, and went inside. Not many things were capable of bothering Matthew. In his occupation he was used to killing people in cold blood, and even killing witnesses. This sight made Matthew stop dead in his tracks. "Damn...." He looked up at Aveira, shock on his face. "What in the bloody hell happened here?"

Aveira wouldn't face him. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "Please don't be mad at me." She stood up and took a few steps away from the bloody couple.

"How... How the hell did this happen?" Matthew looked around at all of the bodies.. This would certainly make the news...

"I don't remember," Aveira said quietly. "This has happened before, but never so many. I've never killed more than five." Her voice broke on the last word and she started sobbing. "Please don't hate me. Please don't..."

"We need to leave... Now..."

Aveira picked up the knife and grabbed Matthew's hand. "Okay," she said softly.

He rushed her out to his car and started it. He drove off, not sure where to go.

"Are we just going to leave them all there, then?" she asked. Shifting her fingers, she realized she was clutching a wedding veil. She must have picked it up when she'd closed the woman's eyes. It had just one small spot of blood on it. Despite that, it was almost untouched. "I'm sorry, Matt..."

"We can't really do anything else... I... May be able to get someone to clean this up. I don't know..."

"Are you mad at me?" she whispered softly. She took her blindfold off. There was blood on it and the smell made her sick.

"No.... No, I'm not. Let's... Let's get you home and washed up." He figured home was the only place he could go.

"Okay." Aveira pulled her legs up in the seat and wrapped her arms around them. She just wanted to forget everything.