Chapter 1

• The cemetery was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop, and I was starting to really regret agreeing to this stupid dare. I secretly hoped that a couple of kids might be hanging out among the tombstones for Halloween fun while I stood there alone in the freezing cold. But I hadn't seen a single person in the cemetery since I got there…
• I felt stupid. Stupid for believing that a girl like Laura Taylor will want to be my friend, stupid for allowing her to use me as her doll to play dress-up, stupid for letting her take me to the frat boys Halloween party, I felt stupid for allowing them to convince me to come here for their stupid “prince of darkness bride” dare. I felt so humiliated and ashemed of my self.
• Now that it's almost midnight, I'm standing under the famous Hangman's Tree and waiting for an urban legend to jump out and grab me. If it wasn't for the cold, I'd probably be freaking out right now. My outfit wasn't made to keep me warm on a cool October night. I tried to take my mind off the fact that I was standing alone in a creepy graveyard by trying to pull Laura's lace gloves that extra millimeter up my freezing cold arms.
• I shivered very hard. It shouldn't be long now.
• I looked at my phone for the sixth millionth time and saw that it was 11:55pm. I also saw that none of my signal bars were showing up. I felt uneasy in my stomach. I said to myself, "Come on, Mia. You only have five minutes left before you can go home."
• I didn't want to say it, but this place was getting to me.
• "Come on, twelve."
• My clock now says 11:59pm because the minute changed.
• "One minute until midnight is fine with me." I said.
• I took a few steps toward the cemetery gates, but stopped when a loud, heavy chime broke the deathly quiet. The witching hour had come, and the church bells were ringing. I looked around the graveyard one more time to see if any ghosts, witches, or demons had decided to join me, but I didn't see anyone. I was the only one.
• The church bells kept ringing out the hours, and by the time the last bell rang, I was halfway across the graveyard and running to get out. I didn't realize how stupid it was for a young woman to be alone in this remote place until now.
• I took out my cell phone and started talking loudly into it. "Hey, Mom! I'm coming to meet you at the gate. I can almost see you."
• Even though there was no one on the other end of the phone, I thought that if anyone was here, they would leave me alone if they saw me talking to someone on the phone.
• When the gates showed up in front of me, I felt a wave of sweet relief. I was almost done, and then I'd be free.
• I sped up because I couldn't wait to get home and forget about this terrible night. As I got closer to the straight path that led to the gate, whisky-colored wisps of white fog began to creep through the railings.
• At first, the mist was almost see-through, so I could still see the gates and the light from the street lamps. However, as I moved forward, the mist changed. It got thicker and denser until it poured out between the railings and covered the gate and path in a solid white layer.
• "Oh, shit," I muttered as the mist swallowed me.
• I could hardly see further than my nose.
• Well, I had no choice but to mess up my way out of here.
• I began to shuffle toward the gates of the cemetery. Everything was going well until my toe hit the stone base of a tombstone. As the pain shot through my foot, I took a sharp breath.
• "Fudge, fudge, fudge, fudge, mother trucking fudge cakes," I gasped.
• I turned on one foot and reached for the closest headstone to rest against.
• God, I hope my toe wasn't broken. The proverbial cherry on top of this fudge cake would be a broken foot.
• I raised my head and rubbed my toe. I felt my stomach drop. There was a dark shape coming toward me in the fog, and I could slowly see how solid it was. The temperature dropped quickly, and all the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.
• The dark shape was getting closer.
• Please, God, let this be a drunk trying to get home faster...
• I tried hard to see through the white, but it was hard.
• "Madam, are you okay?"
• From the fog came the calm, polite voice of an old man. I couldn't see him very well, but I thought he was either the minister or the person in charge of the church grounds.
• "Hello, Sir. I'm sorry to bother you, but I can't figure out how to get out of here."
• "Ah," said the man as he got closer. "These night fogs can make it hard to find your way. Take my hand, and I'll show you the way."
• I took his arm and quickly said, "Thank you." "My friend is at the gate waiting for me."
• I couldn't say for sure that this guy wasn't also a creep.
• As we moved through the fog, I couldn't help but notice that the man's arm was cold and wet. His jacket sleeve looked and felt like he had been standing in the rain for a while.
• "Are you the person in charge of this place?" I asked.
• "Yes, in a way. I've been keeping an eye on this place for the past 300 years."
• "Really? Three hundred years?"
• "Yes, although I sleep on the ground most of the time."
• "Sleeping in the dirt... well, I think I can get out of here," I said with a smile.
• "Oh no, my dear. You are the honored guest, and the ceremony is about to start."
• I let go of his arm and started to move away from the crazy man.
• "I'm sorry, but I have something else to do. We might be able to do this another time."
• "No!" He cried out and grabbed my wrist. "You have to come along."
• I said, "I'm sorry, I can't."
• "There's no going back now.
• "Okay, you're now scaring me so I'm going to go."
• He sighed, "You can't." "My dear, the curse is on you. We can't get away from it now."
• I looked down for the first time and saw that his fingers were tightly wrapped around my wrist.
• "Hey, what's wrong with your arm? The skin, it's gray."
• "It's dead."
• I thought he was joking, but when I looked at his skin, I could see that something was moving underneath it. I gasped and took a few steps back.
• "What are you doing? "Why does your skin look so bad?"
• When the fog lifted, I saw what was wrong with him for the first time. He was a dead body.
• I was in a strange state of shock as I looked at him and suddenly realized that the urban legend was true. I shook my head and said, "I didn't know, I thought it was..."
• "A legend? A storybook?" He queried.
• "Yes." I said this in a desperate attempt to get him to understand my situation so that he would let me go.
• "Sorry, my child, but you have already kept your promise by standing there in that dress waiting for our Lordship." He gave a glum answer.
• "Are you the Prince of Darkness ?"
• "No, I'm Blackwater, the bishop. I will be the one to officiate at your wedding tonight."
• "What do you mean?"
• "Come, Madame. He took my arm and pulled me up the aisle, saying, "Your husband is waiting."Starticiate at your wedding tonight."
• "What do you mean?"
• "Come, Madame. He took my arm and pulled me up the aisle, saying, "Your husband is waiting."