Sandy Supposes....

BRUISED BRIDE

         PROMPT: Write about a haunted place, could be fact or fiction.

         In the rugged Rockies lies a majestic hotel. It welcomes many tourists, especially honeymooners. Visitors praise the beauty where soaring peaks meet brilliant blue skies.

At night, thick mist seeps amid towering, shadowed trees. Weak moonlight struggles to pierce the thick foliage. Small, unseen animals scurry and rustle. Owls hoot and wolves howl.

         The hotel itself is a ramshackle building of timber and stone. It looms from a dense, dark , isolated forest. It's only illumination is candlelight. Flickering flames fail to reveal far corners.

Every Saturday evening, the unmistakable notes of the Wedding March slither and soar eerily through the cavernous rooms. Inexplicably, the somber serenade resonates from the lobby's grand piano sans a musician. The music seems to pulse forever, but it reaches a crescendo with the appearance of an ethereal, floating figure at the head of the sweeping staircase. As the last of the notes fades, the shimmering outline of a veiled woman slowly descends. Suddenly, the spectre stumbles, then tumbles, each thump and bump magnified. It's a long, unimpeded fall that ends with the white wedding train tangled and taut around a bannister. The anguished screams linger.

          I embellished this, but I read of a Banff Springs Hotel haunted by a bride who supposedly perished the night of her wedding.