For I Will Be Your Wine

Emily couldn't believe her eyes. Or her ears. Or her hands, for that matter. She couldn't believe anything. Nothing made sense here. Was Victor really doing this? No, he couldn't be.

"Emily, wait," Victor whispered, disentangling himself from the hold of his betrothed.

"Yes, Victor?" Emily asked, her voice light an airy as she turned around, pushing a strand of blue hair out of her face with her skeleton hand.

Instead of answering Emily's question directly, he decided to show her what he wanted—what he somehow knew, deep down in his heart that he'd wanted for some time now.

Victor turned to Victoria, holding her warm hands in his own.

"Victoria, you truly are a wonderful woman, but alas, I cannot find it in myself to marry someone I am not in love with. Forgive me, Victoria, for I am in love with Emily. She is what I've dreamed of all my life and I am sorry that I could not be the husband you dreamed of—the father of your children, the man of your home," Victor apologized, letting her hands go and turning toward the blue-haired woman, clad in a wedding dress and veil.

Soft sobs could be heard from behind Victor, and for that he was truly sorry. Sorry that he could not marry the woman he was intended to.

"Emily, I know I may not be the man you had planned to wed in your first life, but I do hope I could be the one you wish to marry in your second," Victor plead, advancing toward Emily, taking a hand of hers in his, using his free hand to cradle her cheek gently.

The light tap of high heels fading away made Victor and Emily aware of the fact that Victoria had fled the church, covering her eyes with her arm as she cried into it.

"What about Victoria? And your parents. They will not approve," Emily reasoned, trying to shrug away from Victor, despite how much she didn't want to.

"Victoria will find someone she loves like I love you. She will be grateful to me for giving her the opportunity to do so. And as for my parents, they will grow to love you, just as I have. They will learn to see past the differences in themselves and you, for their son's happiness should matter more," Victor explained, pulling Emily back to him as gently as he possibly could, so as not to break her.

"But Elder Gutknecht said the only way for us to ever marry would be for you to give up your life. I couldn't let you do that. Not when you have so much going for you here, Darling," Emily protested, curling her bone fingers around Victor's hand, reveling in the feeling of actual skin rubbing against her.

"Then that is what we will do. I never want to see another day, another night, that I don't see your face. I want to see your smile each second of each day and each second of each night. So what if your eye tends to fall out or you fall apart easily? I'll be there to put you back together, always. I promise."

Victor wrapped both of his hands around Emily's thin waist, pulling her flush against himself as her arms, both bone and flesh, snaked around his neck.

"May I have this dance?" Victor asked, raising one of his hands to meet Emily's, leaving his other on her waist.

"Of course," Emily smiled, beginning to flutter along the isle of the church as she so loved to do—and longed to do at her wedding so many years ago.

"Ah, a happy ending," Elder Gutknecht mused, peaking his head out from the door he and the rest of the dead went through to finish Lord Barkis off.

"Not yet," Victor pointed out, parting himself from Emily, still keeping a hand firmly holding her's.

Elder Gutknecht cocked his head to the side, questioning what Victor had just said.

"Elder, Gutknecht, I would like to officially marry Emily. Can you do that for us?" Victor asked, a hopefulness in his voice that Emily found endearing.

"Of course, my dear boy, I can. Please, if you would, follow me," Elder Gutknecht motioned with his bony hand toward where he and Emily stood not long ago.

Elated and overjoyed, Victor bounced over to the area Elder Gutknecht had told him to go to with Emily in tow, ready to finally be actually married to her.

"Victor, please, if you would like to begin?"

Victor took one of Emily's hand in his, taking the now empty goblet in his hand.

"With this hand, I lift your sorrows. Your cup will never be empty, for I will be your wine. With this candle, I will light your way into darkness. With this ring, I will ask you to be mine."

And with that, Victor slid the gold band that adorned Emily's finger once before back to it's rightful home.

Emily raised the red bottle marked with a skull and repeated Victor's words, "With this hand, I lift your sorrows. Your cup will never be empty, for I will be your wine. With this candle, I will light your way into darkness. With this ring, I will ask you to be mine."

Emily poured Victor a generous amount of the red liquid and watched with fearful eyes as he lifted the goblet to his lips and parted them tilting the cup up to spill the poison into his body.

And that, as they say, was that. Emily finally got her wedding, her husband—the man she always dreamed of. And Victor was able to live out the rest of his days, though dead, with the woman whom he truly loved more than life.

Hello, ladies and gents! So, I just watched Corpse Bride for the first time and I absolutely loathed the ending. And therefore, it desperately needed a rewrite.

I hope you enjoyed! :D

xoxo,

K.J