Emily left to check on the arrangements for the rehearsal dinner, while Mary confirmed song selections with the string quartet Laura had hired for the ceremony. They had been less than thrilled to see her, already wary of any of Laura's minions. At one point she'd caught the eye of the cellist, who seemed to plead silently with her eyes to get them out of this gig. But there was no real spark of hope in them; rather her gaze and body language suggested nothing but defeat. Mary tried to reassure them all with a smile before she left, though she was sure it looked more like a grimace.

Her next stop was the library. The new house wasn't hooked up for internet access yet, and she wanted to do some research. She stared at the blinking cursor in the search box, wondering where to start. Finally, she simply typed 'demons,' which returned nothing short of twenty million results. After narrowing the results by adding 'wedding ceremony,' she was left with a few demonology sites and several sites about the popular show 'Mitzy the Demon Slayer.'

The most promising site was a comprehensive Demonology site that must have taken ages to put together. Mary was surprised by the depth and detail included, and even more surprised by the fact that there were several demonology experts located all over the globe. She had expected to find little more than myths from the bible, and she began to feel very silly for her unarticulated belief that she and Emily were the only people in the world with some sort of connection to the Supernatural. She quickly jotted down the name of a demon expert located in Seattle, then settled into her chair and began soaking up the information on the site.

Two hours went by before she realized that she wasn't actually getting anywhere, despite all of the information she was gathering. She decided to narrow her focus for the rest of the night, and concentrated on the details she had, including the flowers, the horrible bridesmaid dresses, and Laura herself.

A number of reference sites listed possible meanings and uses for the flowers Laura had chosen, but they didn't come together into a 'eureka!' moment as Mary had hoped. She printed off a list and filed it away for later.

The horrible bridesmaid dresses seemed to be a dead end. Bridal lore told of bridesmaids dressing like the bride in order to confuse evil spirits, but Mary couldn't imagine that Laura would be wearing a horrible pink gown to her own wedding. A more likely scenario was that the materials of the bridesmaid gowns were meant to blind the evil spirits.

Laura herself proved a little more interesting. Mary found three separate engagement announcements in the newspaper, the most recent of which featured a photograph of a perfectly coiffed, smiling Laura with an oddly familiar man named Brian Howell. Mary racked her brain trying to remember the name of Laura's fiancé, but wasn't sure Laura had even mentioned a name. In fact, she wasn't sure she or Emily had even received a paper invitation.

The second most recent announcement was from three years ago. Laura had been engaged to William Anderson, and still had her old nose. Mary was unable to find a record of the marriage and assumed that the wedding had been called off.

The oldest announcement left her shaken. The man in this picture was also familiar. Mary knew him: Tim Armstrong, her ex-boyfriend from college. Laura had been engaged to him less than a year after Mary stopped speaking to him. No doubt that engagement had ended because Tim couldn't keep it in his pants.

Mary took a few deep breaths and tried to push past injuries aside. It was getting late, and the library would soon close. She decided to look up contact information for the Seattle Demonology expert, Hans P. Baumann, and then go home.

What she ended up finding brought everything together.