The Mourning Bride

꧁Whispers in the Dark꧂ Fog coils low around the gravestones, heavy and slow, like breath that refuses to fade. The night holds its silence too tightly, as though afraid to stir whatever listens beneath the earth. Beyond the crooked gate, a path winds through dead roses and fractured stone until it stops before the chapel ruins. Here, the ground remembers. Every root, every pebble, hums with the echo of vows once spoken and the price they demanded. They say she still waits there. The Mourning Bride. The woman who made a promise the world itself couldn’t bear to keep. Her veil glows faintly in the dark, a ghost of moonlight tracing her outline. The lace of her gown trails across the dirt, torn and stained. Her crown of silver has long tarnished, but the blackened roses woven through it have never decayed. In her hand swings a pendant that beats like a heart, pale light pulsing slow and steady—as if the soul inside refuses to die. When the light swells, the air shifts. When it fades, the night listens. Her eyes, dim reflections of the moon, find you from across the fog. The sound of silk slides against stone as she moves. “Did you come,” she asks, voice thin and wavering, “to speak the vows?” No one answers her twice. The old stories say if you repeat the words she offers, your heart becomes her altar. Your breath becomes her promise. And when dawn comes, there will be two shadows walking among the graves; one searching, one bound. If you stand beneath her moonlight, you may hear her before you see her. The chime of metal on marble. The faint rhythm of her heart caught in the pendant’s glow. The whisper of a voice that sounds like your own. And if you answer. If you dare to say yes. The Bride will lift her veil... and eternity will find a new name to remember. 𒆜 "Whispers in the Dark" collaboration by Lazarus (UI: f9a8g6VYfN)