by Shen-Li Lee

Created on: October 20, 2009

The wedding was in two days. The words "two days" rang like the death knells announcing a sentence to be pronounced. What had she been thinking? She was not the marrying kind. Love 'em and leave 'em - that was her style. So why was this happening? It was just two days before the wedding - her wedding. Her heart began to thump wildly at the thought and her breath came out in short, shallow gasps.

In the small darkened room, the curtains had been drawn shut. They were perpetually shut, along with the windows that had never been opened since the day she moved in. The air in the room was stale. The walls felt as though they were closing in upon her. In her mind, she heard a steel gate of a jail cell swinging on creaking hinges. It clanged shut with an ominous boom. Her hands felt heavy, as if iron shackles had bound them down.

She gave her head a hard shake as if the movement would banish the images in her mind. "No, no, no!" She exclaimed out loud. "It will be fine."

She took a deep breath and exhaled as she surveyed the room. Her pearlescent wedding gown was hidden in a suit bag, hanging neatly on a coat rack in the corner of the room. She remembered the day she picked it out - or rather her mother picked it out - her mother had tears of joy in her eyes as she murmured, "Just the picture of a princess!" She had been so relieved that her daughter was finally getting married. Now she could wipe the smirks off the faces of her sisters who would snicker at every wedding, gossiping about her daughter, the "old maid".

Upon the ebony dressing table was her tiara and wedding jewellery. Over the back of the chair were his wedding shirts - a mandarin collar and a butterfly collar. On the floor, two black, patent leather shoes were lined up neatly by the chair. Beside them were her wedding shoes - one tipped on its side, the other upside-down - just the way she had dropped them after they had returned home from their pre-wedding photo shoot.

A smile twisted at the corners of her lips as she thought of how different they were. Like night and day. Even the arrangement of their shoes spoke volumes of their differences.

She placed a hand on her belly, thinking of the foetus that grew within it. She could get rid of it. It wasn't too late. She could have her life back. She wouldn't have to go through with this wedding. An angry tear forced its way out of the corner of her eye. How could she have been so careless? She remembered the night. She had been drunk. They met at

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