"Rise and shine, Samantha!"
Half asleep, Sam rolled over onto her back at the sound of the bedroom door hitting the wall. Her mother greeted her with a huge grin on her face as she strode right in with the maid right behind her carrying some large white silk in her arms. Sam groaned and rolled back onto her stomach as Pamela drew back the curtains.
"Today's the big day!" she continued in an annoyingly cheerful voice, "Aren't you excited?"
"You mean you finally came to your senses and called the wedding off?" Sam answered sarcastically.
Pamela threw the covers off her daughter and yanked her up into a sitting position.
"You're such a joker," Star giggled.
She laid the silk down onto the bed, allowing Sam to finally get a closer look. Upon realizing it was a wedding dress, she glared at it. It wasn't that it was particularly ugly, though it wasn't really something Sam would pick out for herself, either. Delicate lace woven into a floral pattern covered the bodice and the long sleeves of the dress. The hem of its floor-length skirt had golden roses that connected to each stitched around it with a three-inch train trailing behind. Next to the dress, Star had already laid out the blue lace garter and white kid gloves. White satin slippers with a white bow were gently placed on the floor. Pamela placed a wooded box onto the night stand and began pulling out various diamond and pearl pieces.
"Now, we'd better get started on your hair," Pamela said, talking more to herself than to anyone else, "The dress really shouldn't be too much of a problem. I think we got all the measurements right."
"You think?" Sam replied, "You couldn't be bothered to actually make sure?"
"Now, now, Samantha. I know you're excited, but there's no need for that tone. Everything is just fine. Now, sit still."
For the next hour, Sam yelped and shouted through a series of "Hold still!" and "Honestly, Samantha!" as her mother and Star tugged, pulled, and god knows what else at her hair.
"There!" Pamela said triumphantly as she pushed the last hairpin onto Sam's head.
Sam looked at herself in the vanity mirror and wrinkled her nose in disgust. Her shoulder-length hair had been pinned up into what she thought looked like a braided, dark mess on top of her head. She didn't have any time to fix it, however, for soon she was pulled up and shoved into her wedding outfit. She glared back at the two women as her mother placed a crown of orange marigolds on her head and covered it with a floor-length lace veil.
"Oh!" Pamela crooned, "Look at my beautiful daughter! You know, this is the same headpiece I wore at my wedding! Oh, such wonderful memories."
Sam growled in response as Star fastened a diamond brooch onto the dress.
"Oh, I knew you would love it! Come on! Downstairs!"
She grabbed Sam's hand and pulled her along, nearly causing Sam to fall over. The maid eagerly followed with a silly grin on her face.
"My goodness, darling!" Mrs. Masters gasped in delight when they reached downstairs, "You look absolutely beautiful! I can just imagine the look on Dashiel's face when he sees you!"
"So can I, dearie!" Ida wheeled herself in to join the others, "And it'll be just the same as yesterday, pure hatred."
"Go wheel-" Pamela suddenly stopped herself, "You know what, no. I am not going to let you ruin this day for me, you old waste of space. This is supposed to be the happiest day of my life and it's going to stay that way!"
"I thought this was supposed to be the happiest day of Sam's life, dearie."
"You know what I meant!"
"In any case," Mrs. Masters continued, "My son is certainly a very lucky man to have such a beautiful bride as you."
"That's it?" Sam asked, "That's my only quality? I'm beautiful?"
"Oh, well," Mrs. Masters stammered, "No, there's other things too."
"Such as?"
"Samantha," Pamela scolded, "Stop being so ridiculous. Dashiel has plenty of time to figure out your other qualities after the wedding."
"Speaking of Dashiel," Mrs. Masters quickly headed for the staircase looking quite relieved to escape Sam's interrogation, "I'd better go and see how he's doing. Come along, Star. The carriage will be here in an hour and you know how he's terrible at keeping time."
"Something tells me he's terrible in other ways too, dearie."
"Throw yourself-! Calm, Pamela. Keep calm."
"You know," Sam turned towards her mother, "I was being completely serious. Never mind that we both hate each other and have nothing in common, but what other qualities are there? Why should we go on with this?"
"Samantha," Pamela sighed wearily, "We've been through this dozens of times. There are plenty of reasons why you two are perfect for each other. There's just too many to list."
"In other words, we're both rich and need to uphold our families' honor."
"I can't speak for Dashiel's s family honor, dearie, but as for ours-"
"Yes, you old fool. You've made your opinion on that matter perfectly clear yesterday."
"Apparently not, dearie. Jeremey's still married to you."
"Where is Jeremy, anyways? I haven't seen him at all this morning."
"He's finally come to his senses, dearie."
"I'll go look for him. Samantha, why don't you go and take this old nitw- I mean, your grandmother out for a walk. I mean, it's such a wonderful day outside. You know, I can't help but think this must be some sort of sign about today."
"Indeed, dearie," ida replied as Sam pushed her wheelchair out onto the mansion grounds, "And that sign says, 'Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.'"
Pamela slammed the door behind them as she muttered something about throwing some old coot into a ditch infested with rats. Sam and Ida said nothing at first as they went down the pathway. Each of them just enjoyed the warmth shining down, the wedding pushed far back into their minds.
"Excited, Sam?" Ida asked, knowing fully well what the answer was, "I don't blame you one bit. Jeremy and I tried to reason with your mother, but, well, your mother's beyond reasoning."
"Wait," Sam blinked in surprise, "Father's against this? Why didn't he say something to me?"
"That succubus is very good at hypnotizing your father into doing what she says. To be honest with you, I'm rather surprised she picked the Masters family for you to marry into. There's plenty of other selfish, rich stuck-ups, and yet she picked this one. As moronic as she can be, I didn't think she'd be that stupid."
"What are you talking about? What's wrong with the Masters family? I mean, besides the obvious?"
Ida gave a big sigh before answering, "I suppose you'll find out sooner or later, especially since it was such a huge scandal. About five years ago, Mrs. Masters married an incredibly wealthy widower with two children of his own. One was already grown, but the other was still a child. Not more than two months had past when Mr. Masters suddenly up and died."
Sam widened her eyes in shock. Thanks to that last journal entry she read last night, none of this was really new to her. But to here her grandmother say it was just a bit chilling.
"What did he die of?" she asked.
"The official report says food poisoning. Apparently, everyone that night had gotten sick after dinner, but they all recovered except for him."
"But, you think otherwise?"
"I'm not the only one. Everyone thought Mrs. Masters had something to do with it since it happened so soon after the wedding. Problem is nobody had any proof. And if that wasn't bad enough, her stepson turned up dead two weeks later with her stepdaughter no where to be found."
"How did she get out of that?"
"I don't know. Bribed someone most likely."
"Where'd they find the stepdaughter?"
"They never did. It's like she disappeared in thin air. You can just imagine the sort of talk that followed this afterwards. It took about a year, but the affair finally blew over and now people have other things to gossip about. Still, the Masters mansion is mostly avoided by most folks. I can't imagine what your mother's thinking. You'd best watch yourself, Sam. You're going to be living with a very dangerous woman."
Sam had already had a knot inside her stomach when she woke up today, but after hearing all this, it had grown and seemed to replace her stomach all together. She stopped and placed a hand over her mouth as nausea began to set in.
"Sam, dearie?"
Ida turned back and watched as her granddaughter started to keel over. Without saying a word, Sam ran straight back into the mansion and up into her room. Placing both of her hands on the vanity in order to steady herself, she closed her eyes firmly shug and breathed hard in an attempt to calm herself. When the nausea seemed bearable, she opened her eyes again and stared at the little violet she had managed to fix onto one of her hairpins. She fastened it into her hair and looked at her reflection. She felt herself relax a little, but not enough to feel at ease.
"Get me out of here," she muttered to herself, "Please, just get me out of this hell house."
Suddenly, a strong burst of wind blew throughout the room. Sam went to shut the window, but to her astonishment, it was already closed. Fighting the wind, she turned around for the door and gasped. It was shut as well. As the wind grew stronger, white pieces of paper began to whirl around her head. She turned in time to see the journal fall from its place on the dresser with a loud THUD! Upon landing on the floor, it flew open and let out a large, bright green, tornado-like vortex. Sam let out a scream as it came closer to her. She could feel it trying to suck her in and ran for the door with the vortex following close behind, increasing its speed. She reached the door and tried to turn the handle, but found it locked tight. Unable to escape, she screamed as the vortex finally caught up and sucked her inside the open book. It slammed shut as the wind died down. All was calm again.