Now they were rushing across the churchyard and Mum was flapping that they were going to be late. It was Sarah’s fault; of course, she’d spend to long doing her hair and had stopped to fiddle with the strap on her shoe.
“I’ll catch you up in a minute,” she yelled as her mum and dad strode purposefully ahead, catching up with their relatives.
Sarah was only moments behind yet as soon as she entered the church, she couldn’t see her parents anywhere. In fact, she couldn’t see anyone she recognised and the more she looked, the weirder things seemed. Like, why was everyone dressed in such old fashioned clothes? Confused, Sarah thought she must be in the wrong place, so she crept out again- only to find the landscape outside had changed completely. Instead of a posh wedding car that’d been parked there before, there was a horse and carriage, and now a lady in a big bonnet was thrusting a bouquet into her arms.
“Emma, there you are. Your father’s been looking for you everywhere. Come along, you don’t want to keep James waiting, do you?”
Emma? James? What was going on? Sarah felt like she’d just walked on stage in the middle of a play. Looking down, she was alarmed to find she was no longer in her sparkly dress but draped in what looked like a Victorian wedding gown, with lace around the cuffs and collar. How was this possible? Suddenly, a short grey haired man wearing a black tail coat was by her side, smiling at her with tears in his eyes. “I’m so proud....” he said before taking her arm and leading her back into the church. What on earth was going on?
Inside Sarah’s head was screaming and wanting to run way back to normal life- but she was unable to move. She was being led town the aisle to... well, who knew what? “Oh my God,” thought Sarah, “It’s me, I’m the bride! But how?” Now the groom was turning to greet her- he looked so handsome, even though his clothes were wierd. And yet something about him was familiar. He reminded Sarah of someone. As she looked into his eyes, Sarah knew with utter certainty who he was, though he looked a lot older. There was no doubt about it- he was Adam!
Suddenly, she felt a searing pain across her forehead. Everything went burry and the next instant she seemed to be at the cemetery watching a funeral. There was the bridegroom who looked like Adam, there was the mad who’d let her down the aisle and there was the woman in the bonnet. They were all dressed in black, standing round a grave, weeping. Sarah moved closer to them but no one seemed to see her. She peered at the grave and read: ‘Our beloved Emma Constance Brown, May 5TH 1865- January 25th 1886, taken from the world on the day of her wedding to James Edward Goodman.’ Freaky. Sarah had the strange feeling she was watching her own funeral- hadn’t the woman called her Emma earlier? Standing there she looked at James and at that moment he caught her eye. “Emma...” he whispered. But then came back that sharp pain again. Sarah’s head spun again and the next thing she knew, she was lying in bed at the castle hotel, looking up at her mother.
“Oh Sarah love, we were so worried,” she sobbed. “You missed the whole wedding- we found you collapsed outside the church.”
When Sarah tried to say what’d happened, her mum smiled and said it must’ve been a strange dream. But Sarah couldn’t forget her experience. The following day, after breakfast, she wandered back to the church and recognised the graveyard. Her feet seemed to lead her directly to an ancient looking gravestone. Taking a deep breath, Sarah read the inscription on the headstone: ‘Emma Constance Brown’. Freaked out, she ran back to the castle and got straight on her mobile to Lauren. But before she could get a word out, Lauren was yelling about her party. “Oh Sarah, you missed a great night,” she said. “But something weird happened. Adam turned up but collapsed when he arrived. He suddenly came round and seemed fine- except he kept going on about a girl called Emma....”