Kate twisted to the side to have a better look at the dress she was wearing.
"I think this is the best," Evelyn said.
Of the three dresses she'd shortlisted, she loved the current one she had on. "I think so, too." She ran her hand down the smooth satin with silver and gold embroidery threads that weaved classy flowers down one side of the gown.
"It's so you." Evelyn walked around her, looking at the dress at every angle. "Perfect. This is perfect."
"The dress does look great on you. With veil or without?" Helen asked as she tugged at the excess material around Kate's waist and took note of the adjustments that had to be made.
"With," Evelyn said.
Kate nodded, agreeing with Evelyn. "Have you decided on your bridesmaid dress?"
Evelyn picked up a dark violet off-shoulder dress. "You know, most brides choose the bridesmaid's dress. They choose the ugly ones."
"Why would I do that? You're the maid of honor, so you get to decide what you want to wear."
Evelyn laughed and shook her head. "Everything is perfect. You'll have a perfect wedding, a perfect marriage, and you'll live happily ever after."
"I thought you didn't believe in happily-ever-afters."
"I believe it for you."
Kate smiled warmly at Evelyn and gave her a hug. "Thanks."
"It's settled, then. We should pack up and leave. We shouldn't be here in the first place, and where is Dan?" Evelyn checked the time on her phone.
"I'm sorry, it's just that ..." Helen pursed her lips. "It's a little difficult to work on the dress at Evelyn's place."
It wasn't just difficult for Helen to work on the dress; it was impossible to walk across Evelyn's living room without dragging something under the train of the dress.
An hour before the appointment, Helen had suddenly called and asked for a change in location.
Evelyn was adamant about not letting Tyler see the wedding dress. With that, the only location left was Kate's own house.
Though Tyler was totally against the idea, it was too late to make other arrangements, so he eventually gave in after asking Dan to accompany them since he was around the area.
But they had been in the house for over an hour, and Dan was still nowhere to be seen.
"He's probably caught in a jam," Kate said.
"Tyler won't be too happy with us staying here longer than necessary."
Helen led Kate away and helped her remove the dress, making sure that the pins stayed in place.
"All right, I'm done. Do you want me to stay with the two of you?" Helen said as she packed up her bag.
Kate smiled and shook her head. Helen was already going out of her way to travel out of the studio with all the heavy gowns. Kate had told Helen the gist of what had been happening, and she had been kind enough to accommodate. "We'll be fine. Thanks for coming."
"Thanks for flying me in first-class and for the five-star hotel suite," Helen said mischievously. "I'll see you at the next fitting."
"Thanks."
Helen left while Kate and Evelyn continued waiting for Dan.
"We should head back to the mansion on our own," Evelyn said when Dan didn't pick up his phone.
"He's probably on the way here. Let's wait for a while. I can clean up a little while waiting," Kate said with her arms akimbo and her eyes scanning the room.
Even with her back toward Evelyn, she could feel Evelyn rolling her eyes.
"Fine. Fifteen minutes, then we're leaving."
Kate agreed and proceeded with her chores, trying to clean as much of her house as she could. Evelyn switched on the television and lazed on her bed, waiting for the fifteen minutes to pass.
As she was wiping the dust off her table, a sudden brightness from outside her window attracted her attention.
It was the light from the motion-sensors.
Dan. But she couldn't help wondering why Dan would walk toward the back of the house instead of ringing the bell. Curious, she peeked out the window to see what he was doing.
She couldn't see the man's face, but it definitely wasn't Dan.
Dan wouldn't be wearing black leather gloves and a ski mask.
Kate reeled back from the window. "There's someone outside." Just as she finished her sentence, the shattering of glass confirmed her statement.
Evelyn hopped off the bed at the same moment the security alarm rang. "Call Tyler now," she instructed and went over to lock the door. Taking Kate's chair, Evelyn jammed it against the doorknob. Then she reached into her bag and pulled out a handgun.
"When did you get that?"
Evelyn frowned at her. "You knew I always had a gun at home. I've kept it in my bag since you received the threats." Evelyn took a few steps back and took aim at the door. She cocked her head to the side, gesturing for Kate to move behind her. "How many are there?" Evelyn shouted over the alarm.
"I don't know. I only saw one."
Evelyn thought about that for a moment. "You should get in the bathroom. I'm the only one with a gun."
"I'm not leaving you alone out here."
Evelyn sighed and dragged her into the bathroom, locking the door.
"How does this help?" Kate asked.
"It puts more space between us and whoever is in the house." Again, Evelyn aimed her gun at the door, and the two of them fell silent as they waited.
Kate's heart pounded against her chest, and she found herself staring at the doorknob, waiting for the inevitable. She swallowed, remembering the anxiety she'd felt when watching the zombie film.
The person in her house wasn't a zombie, but this ending would affect her directly. She exhaled deeply through her nose, trying to calm her palpitating heart.
"Kate, call Tyler."
She'd clean forgotten about the phone in her hand. Her fingers moved quickly across the screen, calling Tyler.
"Done with your dress?"
"There's someone in the house. I saw him breaking in."
Tyler didn't say anything.
"Evelyn has a gun."
More silence. Kate kept her eyes on the door knob until Tyler spoke.
"Stay where you are. I'm on my way. Where's Dan?"
Before Kate could answer, a loud bang against her bedroom door and the sound of wood splintering made her scream. Her phone slipped out of her hand, crashing onto the floor. She picked it up to see cracked lines across a black screen. "No, not now."
She pressed the home button, but no light came on. Frantically, she tried the power button.
Nothing.
Nothing but a blank screen stared back at her. "Ugh!"
Evelyn held her ground and kept her eyes on the door. "Leave it. Just stay behind me."
Kate moved behind Evelyn, leaning against the sink for support. She watched as Evelyn took long deep breaths, her eyes focused on the door. Despite Evelyn's placid exterior, she was sure Evelyn was terrified.
She knew every detail of Evelyn's terrible childhood. Having to hide away in the bathroom was probably bringing up memories from the past that Evelyn couldn't forget or wait to shake.
Then, the doorknob to the bathroom started shaking violently as someone on the other side tried to open the locked door.
Without shouting any warnings or threats, Evelyn pulled the trigger and fired a warning shot through the door.
Kate cringed and bit down on her lips to stop herself from screaming while her fingers tightened around her locket.
The doorknob stilled, and there wasn't any sound. Her fingers gripped the edge of the sink, and she realized she'd stopped breathing.
Drawing a shaky breath, she flexed her fingers and shook her hand.
Jesus, please end this. Please let this be over.
Evelyn got back in position, poised for another shot.
After a few minutes, it felt as though her prayer was answered. She stepped from behind Evelyn and moved toward the door, thinking she could look through the bullet hole to see what was going on outside.
"Kate, stay behind me," Evelyn whispered harshly.
"Maybe he left."
"Maybe. Or maybe he's waiting for you to open the door. We're not leaving the room until Tyler or Dan arrives."
Resuming her position, Kate tugged on her necklace and twirled it around her fingers. The anticipation of someone knocking down the door was worse than getting killed.
She sighed, and as the thought entered her head, she had to ask, "Eve, what if your shot killed him?"
"Then we continue to wait. The security will dispatch somebody, right? We'll just wait until someone comes for us. I'm not putting down the gun, and we're staying put until someone arrives."
Moving to sit on the edge of the bathtub, Kate took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down. She wrinkled her nose and took a sniff. "Is that smoke?"
Evelyn lowered her arm and took a deep breath. "Damn!" She reached for the doorknob and screamed when her fingers wrapped around it. Jerking her hand back, Evelyn turned around to put her hand under running water.
Kate stood and saw an orange light flickering off the windowpanes in her bathroom. "There's fire downstairs, too." She pulled the towel off the rack then dumped it into her tub and turned on the water. Opening one of the cabinets, she pulled out another towel and threw it under the running water.
Evelyn took the first towel and wrapped it around her hand while Kate took the second towel from the tub and pulled it over Evelyn and herself.
"Stay behind the door!" Evelyn yanked the door open and wrapped the towel over herself.
After the initial burst of fire through the door, they kept their heads low and ran out. Instantly, the heat and smoke overwhelmed them.
Kate bent over, coughing and choking from the thick smoke. Every breath she took only made her cough more severely, and her throat quickly became sore as the smoke stung through the membranes.
Evelyn dropped to her knees and pulled her toward the door.
Kate crawled along, squinting as the smoke continued its assault. She bent low and saw the raging flames through the slit at the bottom of the door.
Reaching out, she grabbed Evelyn's arm.
She shook her head. "The window!" she shouted amid a cough, then pulled the wet towel over her mouth. She breathed through it and started crawling toward her bedroom's window.
She was no longer sure if the towel was wet from the water she had soaked it with or from her perspiration. The heat was making it difficult to take in the already pathetic amount of oxygen left in the room, and she struggled to keep her limbs moving.
Evelyn's cough caught her attention.
She paused and turned around. It was clear that Evelyn was struggling as well. "Come on!" Kate shouted through the cloth.
Evelyn coughed again, her entire frame shaking as she did. She stopped moving completely, and her arm flew to her chest. Evelyn collapsed onto the floor, pushing Kate's arm away. "Go," the word came out in a gasp.
Even through the smoke, Kate could see Evelyn's eyes losing focus. She cast a frantic glance around.
The fire was inching closer, devouring everything in its way. She turned back to Evelyn and clamped her fingers over Evelyn's arm, refusing Evelyn's weak attempts to push her hand away.
Her lungs were throbbing with pain, and she couldn't speak. She had to get both of them out before it was too late.
Thankfully, when Evelyn realized that Kate wasn't going to leave her behind and that she was wasting precious time and strength trying to do otherwise, she cooperated.
With what little strength she had left, Kate dragged Evelyn toward the window. She pulled herself up using the window ledge and tried lifting the window pane.
She used all the strength she could gather, but it refused to budge. Desperate, she grabbed the lamp beside the window and swung her arm, smashing the window pane. The glass shattered, pieces flying everywhere. But compared to the stabbing pain in her chest, the pain from the cuts was negligible.
Fresh air hit her and she gasped, sucking in a much-needed deep breath, relieving some of the pain.
Taking another deep breath, she spun around and helped Evelyn to her feet.
Then, she heard it.
The crackling of wood. The same crackling of wood she'd heard in the hallway as the fire licked up the hardwood flooring.
The unmistakable sound of wood caving to fire.
Without thinking, she shoved Evelyn out of the window.
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