Eyes of Blood

Ron Koppelberger

Eyes of Blood

The horrors of ethereal moments borne in scarlet betrothal were evoked and initiated by the ivory wedding gown and the grooms neat attire; in contrast it was their eyes, blood red with streaks of crimson rolling down sallow sunken cheeks and drizzling onto her gown in slashes of color. The red adorned his silk white tuxedo in horrible smears.
They were barely alive by any measure, metal frameworks held them in an upright standing position before the alter, the muscles in their legs had given out weeks earlier, now they stood poised by braces in troth, side by side eternally, vowing the bond. Their hands were wired together a bridge of clasped caress signifying their love.
The priest was insane, he had drugged the couple and wired them into a parody of marriage. They still bled, nearly finished with life and they still bled. The mad priest had cut tiny incisions into their eyes and they had bled.
In the end the police came to the abandoned church the crazed priest had moved into. He had screamed, “Redemption, the marriage of demons and angels!” he had flailed his arms and ran at the officers. They resolved the priests wild mania with several shots to the chest. He collapsed and died immediately and in the aftermath they discovered the nearly dead couple, emaciated and bleeding near the alter.
Several years later the couple divorced seeing each other only once more in the following twenty years. They would nod shyly and commit to questions of health and the weather, lastly they embraced and moved on leaving the horror behind.