my light, my darkness

1

I layed in my bed. The blind rolled down. The sun barely peeking through the window, but still enough for the room to not be pitch.

My keys lay still on the dish in the hall, minutes ago in which I threw in. Making the whole table, in my hallway, shake.

Less my hallway, more my mothers the mansion now finally in my own possession. Its nearly been a year since I acquired it.

Just as I start to rest my tired eyes, of working all day for the money, only.

A polite ring comes from the phone on my bedside table, it makes the wooden draw shudder and I immediately answer. Looking at the old phone and how it needs a touch up of mint green paint.

I place the telephone at my ear.

"Hello?" I answer, not knowing who on the other side I speak.

"Marcia, have you gotten the letter?" The man speaks, leaving me with my jaw hanging.

"Sebastian? What? Please, start again?" The man, the man who I grew up with and always resented.

"The letter. I recieved it mere seconds ago. I'm still standing in my hallway." His rough voice one I haven't heard in a year.

We met up for coffee in a small cafe, next to a library. Before that we hadn't seen it eachother in years, we swapped numbers and I haven't called him since. I lost the card he gave me his number on. He must have kept mine.

"What letter? What does it say and why would I have one?" At this point, I sit up. Resting myself on the back of my bed. It's wooden and extremely hard. Harder than I expected and left a bruise.

"The letter. Laur-" Just as he began to say her name the doorbell rang a sweet ring.

Many years ago when the house was finally mine, I changed every sound that the house could make. The sound of the door bell. The should of the house phones. Even the sound of the fire alarms.

"Wait. I'll call you back, Sebastian."  I push the receiver down and leave the line on a light ringing sound.

I rush to my feet, my dress flowing in the cold room, as it's summer and the blinds shut, there's no heat in the room at all. My flat feet against the cold wooden tiles makes a shudder run up my back, like a lightning bolt.

I exit my bedroom and look around the corridor. This mansion to big for just one person to occupy. The amount of doors on either side of the long, thick, hallways unbelievable.

Over these past ten years, not a single thing had changed, not even a room had changed. The same bedsheets rested on every bed, even if that room had been deserted years ago.

Now at the bottom of these cold steps, I stumble to the door, not wanting the postman to have to wait any longer.

"Madame." He handed me the small, tightly rapped letter and turned away.

"Merci!" I called after his small back, wearing a light blue button up. It hung loosely around his short frame.

I shut the wooden door slowly, not wanting the loud bang to hurt my ears, or startle me.

Less delicately, I rip open the letter that read,

Marcia x

On the front. It had been folded over twice and I couldn't contain myself as I haven't received mail in what seems like a millennial.

Dearest, Marcia.

You have been officially invited to the wedding of two hearts, the bringing of two lonely souls and the love of two people,