But I Thought You Loved Me

A lot can happen in one minute, a person can die, or be born, they can win everything or lose it all. I never thought I'd experience the last one.

"But I thought you loved me," I take a step back.

"I did," he hangs his head.

"What happened? What did I do?" My voice choked up as my eyes filled with tears.

"I don't know, I just realised that I didn’t want this anymore," he hangs his head.

"Well, thanks a lot," I run out of the church, tears falling down my cheeks and leaving our families behind. I decide not to look back at my no longer husband-to-be. How could I face that? In just thirty seconds I lost the love of my life and now my whole life is just gone. What do you do when you've planned a future with someone and they just end it? I get in the limo that’s waiting outside and look back at the church one last time. Not even a minute has passed as we pull away and I leave everything behind. That's when the flames started.

I lost my whole family and all of my friends on my wedding day. In just one minute, I was dumped at the altar and the church went up in flames. The doors were blocked and everyone died. They said it was a candle, too close to a curtain. How did one candle and one minute ruin my life?

~~~~

I loved her, once. She was my everything. I looked at her and saw the most beautiful woman. I saw our whole lives together and wanted nothing more, but as I watched her walk down the aisle I realised that I didn't want it anymore. "I'm sorry," I tell her.

"but I thought you loved me?" she steps away and I almost feel relieved.

"I did," I said.

I regret that now that I’m crawling on the floor. I see my mother and crawl to her, coughing as smoke fills my lungs and not in the good way. I laugh thinking about the pack of cigarettes in my pocket. But I just inhale more smoke. I'm going to die, I think. At least she'll live.

~~~~

I watch my daughter run out the door and get up to follow her. But my husband grabs my hand. He looks at me and says, "Let her go," so I do. I know that she’ll want to be alone to sort through her feelings first before I talk to her. I walk up to the altar and face everyone.

"It seems that the wedding will not go as planned, thank you all for coming, but we should go now," I say, but as I walk back down, I knock over one of the candles and the whole curtain goes up in flames and I watch in horror as my dress also catches fire. Everyone rushes to me and the fire spreads. It's a stampede to the door, but I just scream.

~~~~

I look at her face and my heart aches, I’ve loved her secretly for years. I watched them be happy, sad, angry and happy again. When I agreed to be the best man I thought maybe she’d look at me and realise that I was the one she wanted to marry. But I didn’t want this. She walks away and I want to run after her, tell her how I feel, but I let her go. Maybe if it’s meant to be, it’ll happen. I grab his arm and pull him to face me, “How could you do that to her?” I ask, “She deserves so much better than that,” I see her mother walking up the steps to the altar.

“It would have been worse if I went through with it,” he says looking down.

I don’t even notice the flames at first. I just keep thinking about her and I’m so angry on her behalf that by the time I look up and see everyone running to the door it’s too late. I drop to the floor, but my suit catches fire and the pain is blinding. I hear screams and realise that they’re mine. The last thought I have is about her, I just want her.