The Bride Killer

Prologue

Ding! The elevator stopped at the second level of the parking structure and Angela Guzman stepped out.

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow," she said with her usual cheery smile as she waved goodbye to her coworker. "Bye!"

"Bye!" came the voice from within the elevator. "Say hi to Mike for me!"

Mike was Angela's boyfriend of six years, and as of 24-hours ago, her fiancé. She felt like a blushing bride even before the big day. They had set the wedding for the end of March—less than a month away. Angela was excited. She couldn't wait to walk down the aisle. Michael Taylor was the sweetest man that God had sent her way and the moment they met, she just knew he was the one who would pick up all the pieces and stitch her broken heart back together again. She couldn't wait for the day when she would walk down that long white carpet strewn with petals, a nervous Mike waiting at the altar with his best man and the priest.

Little did she know that she was walking toward Death and not her beloved Michael. She would never walk down that aisle she had dreamed about so many times before.

Angela opened the door of her car and sat in the driver seat just like any other night when she came out of the office. But tonight, something wasn't right. She could feel it in her gut. Her car wouldn't start. She tried once, twice, three times. Nothing. The engine failed to come to life each time. More frustrated than worried, she fished for her phone in her purse and dialed AAA. She screamed. She had noticed the silhouette of a man sitting in the back seat of her car for the first time since she got in. How he managed to sneak into her car, she didn't know. His hand shot forward from behind, grabbing her face and smothering it in a cloth soaked in ether. Her head swam, her vision blurring. She had no sense of time or space. She could not breathed. Could not see. Even the bright smiling face of her Michael was rapidly vanishing. It was replaced with a face of a man with a crazed demonic smile. She thought she heard him laughing—a laugh coming from the lowest pits of Hell itself.

Mike... I love you... G—