Torrential

Thunder rumbled above the pavilion as Samuel lifted the veil from his soon-to-be ex-fiancèe's face. Vanessa looked as if she had swallowed her own tongue. Tears swelled in her blue eyes. She couldn't meet his gaze. Her body flinched away from him as he tried to cup his hands around her face.

She knows.

The thought branded itself in Samuel's mind, repeating over and over until it was all he could think about. His cheeks flushed red as the audience of his and Vanessa's family stirred uncomfortably at the pause between them. Several people seated in the field in front of the pavilion cleared their throats nervously as Samuel stole a glance to someone in the crowd.

“I said…you may kiss the bride,” The pastor repeated. His voice barely breaking through the sounds of the storm above them.

Samuel heard him but kept his eyes on a woman in the crowd seated in the front row.

Morgan.

Vanessa's sister Morgan dabbed her fingers at the corner of her eyes, smudging her mascara. Even from across the field, Samuel could see Morgan's eyes were as red as the clay dirt beneath them. She didn't have to utter a word for Samuel to know that she had told her sister Vanessa everything. Even after they had sworn to secrecy, and swore it was a mutual one time mistake.

She knows.

“Samuel…” Vanessa began stepping away from him. Their families began murmuring amongst each other. “Samuel, I can't…”

“Help! God, help me!” A voice screamed.

Running across the field towards the wedding ceremony field was a man, or what looked like a man, dressed in all red. Lighting cracked overhead like a whip against flesh, making everyone in attendance flinch instinctively.

“ The rain! There’s something in the rain!” The man in red hollered. The attendees quickly moved from their seats, distancing themselves from the strange man.

“ Who is that?” Samuel said, asking no one in particular. He kept his eyes trained on the strange hobbling man as he cautiously stepped down from the pavilion with Vanessa.

“ Oh god…” Vanessa shuddered. From the steps of the pavilion she could just barely make out what had the wedding guests so appalled.

The man's right hand was dangling off his arm by a strip of flesh. It swung back and forth like a pendulum, spraying blood across the field. The man hobbled relentlessly towards the frantic crowd, begging anyone to help him. He fell into Morgan in his delirium, taking them both down to the ground.

Samuel ran instinctively from the pavilion towards Morgan leaving Vanessa to make her way down the steps on her own.

“Get off of her!” Samuel howled. He grabbed the man's blood soaked shirt and pulled with all his strength the burly man off of Morgan. Vanessa bit her lip as she watched Samuel attend to her sister.

“ Please…the rain. They're in the rain…” the man's eyes glossed over and his body was finally still. Morgan held Samuel's hand to keep her own from trembling.

Morgan rose from the ground and pulled Samuel's hand and willing him to follow her away from the dead man.

“ Sam, come on! We need to go!” Morgan begged. Thunder roared in reply to her as something on the dead man caught Samuel's eye.

Samuel knelt back down beside the man and wiped the grime of blood from a square piece of metal attached to the man's shirt. Sgt. Peterson.

“ He's a cop. A sergeant.” Samuel said as a crowd warily grew around him.

“Do you know him, Sam?” Samuel's father asked, peering over his son's shoulder at the dead man.

“ Never seen him before. But look.” Samuel pointed to the sergeant's bare feet. His pale skin was blistered and nearly as black as the storm clouds above them. “ He must've ran all the way here from wherever he came from.”

“ Samuel, we should go inside.” Morgan asked, resting her hand on his shoulder.

“ We should call someone.” Vanessa said. She watched her sister retract her hand ashamedly from Samuel.

“ Everyone listen up!” Samuel began, propping up an overturned chair and standing on top of it. “ Please make your way back to the church until we can get the proper authorities out here to..”

Lightning struck the pavilion in a flash of white and violet light. Samuel fell from his chair and watched the wood of the structure erupt into flames along with their pastor. The poor old man Samuel had known since his very first Bible study was dead before he even knew what happened.

Vanessa was carried off by her family towards the church without a second thought. The screams of Vanessa and the rest of the wedding party were drowned out by the overwhelming downpour of rain that followed. The rainfall bombarded the field relentlessly until the screams of the attendees was completely drowned out by the crashing water against the ground. The water engulfed everything and everyone until the gathered crowd couldn't see what was in front of them.

Samuel wiped his face clear just for more water to take its place. He could hardly breathe. Every breath he took sucked in gulps of rainwater into his throat, forcing him to gag for air. He tried to gather his bearings and searched for Morgan or his father, or anyone else in the rain.

A silhouette of someone came into Samuel's view. He yelled out to whoever it was but could only muster a muffled grunt through the downpour. He extended his hands out in front of him and searched for whoever it was that was near him. Samuel stopped cold as his hands finally found something solid in the rain.

Samuel screamed in pain as his hands burned against whatever he had touched. His senses couldn't tell if he were touching skin or fire under the continuous rain. Samuel jerked himself in the opposite direction, his body convulsed and spasmed from the agony. He could feel his very own flesh and bones in his hands melting into whatever or whoever it was that he had unintentionally touched.

Samuel finally fell to the ground as his hands melted off of his body. Lighting streaked across the sky above him, illuminating the area just around him for the briefest of moments. There in the rain Samuel saw its silhouette a bit clearer within the rain. He felt his body relieve itself in response to what he had briefly seen.

Samuel forced himself to move. He crawled in the mud in the opposite direction with what strength he had left and prayed this was all a dream. His ravaged arms screamed at him with every excruciating movement he made, begging for a reprieve.

He held his mutilated arms out in front of him as he crawled along the ground until he finally collided with the church doors. Samuel pounded on the church door, unable to push in the door handles.

“ Help me! There’s something out here!”

The doors opened slightly from Samuel's weight and for a moment he felt relief. The light inside the church felt warm in comparison to the cold unyielding rain.

The church doors slammed shut abruptly.

The sound of the doors locking sent a chill down Samuel's back. Through the church door's window he saw Vanessa standing at the door. The rain had smeared her make up into a mush of red and black colors across her face. Her hair looked like swamp moss now, the hours she spent having her hair done perfectly in complete ruin. Water still dripped down her face as she calmly began to step away from the doors.

“ Vanessa, baby! Open the door!” Samuel yelled.

Vanessa glanced down at Samuel's arms for a moment, noticing his injuries. She looked back up at him through the glass meeting his desperate gaze with her own. Vanessa backed away from the door. Her face and body disappeared beyond the glass window, leaving Samuel out in the unending storm alone.