The wedding was supposed to be romantic. Instead, it felt like standing in the middle of a natural disaster dressed in silk. I was Lisa’s bridesmaid, bouquet trembling slightly in my hands, forcing smiles while my chest ached. I’d only just divorced Jona, and watching my best friend promise forever felt cruel in a way I couldn’t explain. Amy stood next to me, eyes rimmed in black, chewing gum like it was the only thing keeping her grounded. Damon, one of Brad’s groomsmen, kept glancing around like he already knew this was going to end badly.

I didn’t see him during the ceremony. I didn’t even know what he looked like. To me, Corey Taylor only existed as a mask on television — screaming, violent, inhuman. I had no idea that somewhere in the crowd, completely unmasked, he’d noticed me immediately. While I was fighting tears and clapping at the wrong moments, he was thinking, who is that? thinking I was gorgeous, thinking I didn’t belong in the middle of this chaos.

The reception detonated everything. Lisa hijacked the sound system and, instead of gentle love songs, blasted Slipknot at full volume. No Fleetwood Mac. No Songbird. Just crushing drums and screaming vocals rattling the walls. People were yelling just to be heard. Someone’s grandmother started crying. Amy climbed onto a chair and screamed, “THIS SLAPS,” while Brad stared at the ceiling like a man praying for patience.

Then the fights started. Lisa’s family accusing Brad’s family of “ruining the vibe.” Brad’s friends calling Lisa’s cousins unhinged. Wine glasses shattered. Someone flipped a table. I got shoved trying to separate two men twice my size. Damon grabbed one guy by the collar, Amy slapped another with her clutch, and chairs scraped, bodies slammed, people screaming over the music. To make it worse, Lisa had invited the other members of Slipknot — a catastrophic decision. People were jumping, moshing, throwing drinks. Even Corey was trying to de-escalate, yelling that this was a wedding, not a pit. No one listened.

Someone fired a gunshot into the air.

The music cut. Screaming stopped mid-breath. Glass froze on the floor. Silence slammed down hard and sudden. In that stillness, my heart pounding, I finally looked up — and that’s when I saw him. Calm. Unmasked. Watching me like I was the only still thing in the room. And in the middle of absolute ruin, everything changed.