Title: A Sacrifice to The Voice

Rating: T

Disclaimer: I will not now or ever own the rights to the characters and storylines of The Mentalist.

Summary: One shot. "The wall had been smiling."

I want to thank iloveplotbunnies and SteeleSimz for the lovely reviews on my last one shot, Dreaming in Red. They were very sweet and I appreciate the kind words.

Pictures flashed through his memory, like a movie on fast forward. Sounds and voices were overlapped with the pictures.

He had heard the music swell. She had made her way down the burgundy-carpeted floor. He remembered that her veil had covered her angelic face as Amos had walked her down the aisle. The way that she had let her hair flow freely.

His body had gone numb, as he had done it. He hadn't wanted to. He loved her. He didn't want it to end this way, but he had had no choice. The voice and the bloodshot eyes had told him that this had been the only way. To set him free of the curse he was under.

He tried to remember the good. Her strapless, white wedding gown, the way it hugged at her waist, and had a princess-like train. How she had been smiling, how she had laughed when they were on the dance floor.

He didn't want to remember her cries or her tears, just the smiles. When it had ended, the wall had been smiling; the red lips and eyes that would put fear and dread into the minds' of the beholder, while the victim would lay still on the floor, in serenity and peace.

The dress had been soaked in the warm, red liquid. The gold beading that had outlined the dress had been pink. He had felt his heart pumping, a million miles a minute.

The cold voice, with eyes that he had sworn could shoot out fire, had told him, "Choose me or her. You choose her – you are next. Nobody is going to be able to save you."

However, no matter what he had chosen, he knew the next smile he would ever see would be the one of the voice that had told him to do this. The sacrifice had been made.