Chapter 1
Malcolm Peterson, my fiancé, had heard that sacrificing a bride to the Mountain God would bring endless wealth.
He, along with his mother, Olivia Peterson, and my sister, Isabella Johnston, stuffed me into a coffin and hauled me deep into the mountains, right to the front of the shrine.
Inside the coffin, I clawed desperately at the lid, my blood smearing it red as I begged them not to give me to the Mountain God.
"Please, don't send me away! I'll work myself to the bone for you, just let me stay," I cried out.
The Mountain God everyone talked about was actually a giant python, its whole body covered in pitch-black scales.
For the past three years, he slithered into my bed every night, wrapping himself around me.
"Malcolm, I'm your fiancée. I'm begging you. Please don't offer me to the Mountain God!" I pleaded.
"I'll be your slave and do whatever you ask. Please don't do this," I begged.
Lying in the coffin, my desperate cries echoed, my voice growing raw and broken.
The bride, whom they called a sacrifice to the Mountain God, wasn't a real bride at all.
She was just a human sacrifice to the mountain, left out there at St. Van Shrine for seven days and seven nights.
In the end, wild beasts would devour her until she was a heap of bones.
"Jacqueline, since you're willing to do anything, why not just do Malcolm this little favor?" Isabella said.
"Weren't you always worried I'd never find a good husband and end up having a tough life?" Isabella added.
*****
"If we offer you to the Mountain God, Malcolm will have endless wealth, and I'll get to enjoy the good life with him for the rest of my days," Isabella said.
Isabella had slipped me a double dose of knockout drops the previous night. By the time I woke up, I was already trapped inside the coffin.
On the way to St. Van Shrine, I frantically pounded and clawed at the lid, desperate to break free.
Not a single finger was left intact. My hands were a bloody mess, flesh torn and blood streaming down, and I was so weak that I could barely move.
Meanwhile, Isabella was busy smearing makeup all over my face.
Her laughter was chilling and strange, making her seem like a stranger to me.
She was my little sister, the one I'd looked after since she was little.
"Isabella, don't bother talking to her," Malcolm cut in.
"Once we sacrifice her to the Mountain God and I get rich, I'll make you my wife, and we'll live a good life," Malcolm promised.
Malcolm wrapped his arm around Isabella, squeezing her slim waist hard.
It finally dawned on me that Isabella and Malcolm had been hooking up behind my back all along.
Staring at St. Van Shrine, wrapped in hazy gray fog, I felt my heart drop straight into an icy pit.
The Mountain God everyone talked about was really just a giant black python.
Ever since I messed with that black python three years ago, he had been haunting me.
Every night, he'd slither into my bed, making me dread the dark and exhausted all the time.
He once told me that the moment I saved him, I made a pact for life and death with him.
Whether I lived or died, I was bound to be his wife.
But he was a freaking python, scary as hell.
To get away from him, I agreed to the marriage my dying parents set up for me.
But I never thought Malcolm would actually throw me to the Mountain God just for money.
"Malcolm, Isabella, please! I'm begging you. Don't offer me to the Mountain God.
"I'll do anything for you and serve you for the rest of my life. Just don't do this," I cried desperately.
Olivia stormed over and pinched me so hard that tears sprang to my eyes.
"You little bitch, quit dreaming! Once we're rich, we don't need you waiting on us.
"Keep mouthing off, and I'll stitch your lips together!" Olivia threatened.
Olivia pulled a needle and thread out, grabbed my lips, and shoved the needle right through, gritting her teeth.
The pain was so excruciating that I didn't dare make another sound.
"So this is the bride you've prepared for the Mountain God?" A high-pitched, familiar male voice suddenly rang out.
My eyes lit up. Finally, there was a glimmer of hope.
I thought I would be saved!
"My Lord," Malcolm called out.
As I lay trapped in the coffin, I heard Malcolm mention the Mountain Ghost, Samuel Townsend.
There was no mistaking it. That was Samuel's voice, the Mountain Ghost himself, the Mountain God's guardian.
Three years ago, when I rescued that python, the Mountain God, whose name was Vincent Whitehead, Samuel helped me carry him back to the shrine.
Samuel must remember me!
"Samuel, help me..." I tried to call out, my voice barely more than a broken whisper.
Fighting through the stabbing pain in my lips, I was desperate to scream for help.
Olivia slapped me hard across the face.
"You little bitch, do you really think you can handle the punishment if you piss off the Mountain Ghost?" Olivia spat.
Still cursing, Olivia drove the needle deep into my lips, not holding back at all.
Blood gushed from my mouth. The pain was so intense that my whole body shook.
I clawed desperately at Olivia, but Isabella stepped forward and pinned my arms down, locking me in place so I couldn't move an inch.
"This bride is really quite unruly, isn't she?" Samuel's voice was chilling as he spoke, drawing closer to the coffin.
Even though everyone called him the Mountain Ghost, he was actually a gray spirit, which was a rat demon.
His ancestors were rats in St. Van Shrine, soaked in the Mountain God's power, and, under his protection, turned into gray spirits. Ever since, their family had guarded the shrine's entrance for generations.
Rumor had it that Samuel loved nothing more than gnawing the flesh off the faces of unruly brides, leaving them a bloody, mangled mess.
"My Lord, being chosen as the Mountain God's bride is supposed to be a huge honor, but she just doesn't know what's good for her," Malcolm said, sucking up shamelessly.
Malcolm exaggerated his accusations, deliberately blocking Samuel's view, and shot me a taunting grin, making sure I saw just how much he was enjoying this.