Victor brought the cup to his lips and tilted it back, feeling the cold liquid hit his lips and then splash into his mouth. The wine tasted bitter on his tongue, and he winced as he swallowed it.
He set the cup down on the altar a bit shakily, and then looked at Emily. She was beaming at him, the happiness illuminating her features and causing her beauty to become even more radiant.
Victor tried his best to smile back, but inside he was full of doubt. Had he done the right thing? Should he have tried harder to win back Victoria?
Victoria…Victor supposed he would never see her again…but so long as he could relieve some of Emily's suffering, he would try to make the best of it.
"Victor!" a girl's voice cried out from the back of the church.
Victor, Emily, and the rest of the church turned to see who had entered. Victor and Emily simultaneously gasped, and Emily covered her mouth with her hands.
Victoria, clad in a lovely white wedding gown, stood panting in the back of the church. Her hair was a bit disheveled, as though she had been running. Her eyes were fixed with terror on Victor and Emily.
As soon as she had caught her breath, she walked slowly towards the newly married couple.
"Victor," she said, still sounding breathless, "have you…have you married her?"
Victor felt a pang twist his heart, but tried to remind himself that Victoria had married another man.
"Yes, I have," he replied, trying to keep a stiff lip. "Just as you have married…whoever it was that you did."
Victoria blinked her doe eyes once. "You mean Barkis? I had no choice! My parents thought he was wealthy and forced me to wed him because you were nowhere to be found. It turns out he is just as poor as my family, if not poorer. I do not love him, and he does not love me. Oh, Victor, I'm so sorry…"
Victoria hid her face in her hands and sobbed softly. Victor's lip trembled, but he kept his tears under control.
Emily, however, did not. She burst into tears, sobbing louder than Victoria.
"What have I done?" she wailed, her tears soaking her veil. "I've stolen someone's only chance of a happy marriage!"
Victor hesitated, unsure of which woman to comfort.
"I always cry at weddings," a man said from the back of the church. "How pleasing to see that others share my sentiments."
The two women stopped crying and looked to see who had come in.
Barkis sauntered up the middle of the pews, pretending to wipe tears away from his eyes.
"The two true loves are reunited at last and will live happily ever after, hmm?" he said, strolling up to Victor, Emily, and Victoria. "But you forget…"
Barkis roughly grabbed Victoria and pulled her to him.
"SHE'S STILL MY WIFE!"
Victoria cringed and gasped with fear.
"Victor!" she cried.
Victor stepped forward, intending to wrest Victoria from Barkis's grasp.
"Victor!" the Elder cried. "You are one of the dead, now! You cannot interfere in the affairs of the living."
Barkis smirked. "I won't leave empty-handed."
Emily was staring at Barkis in horror.
"You!" she breathed.
Barkis looked at her in confusion, and then his eyes widened in recognition and shock.
"Emily?" he gasped. "But…in the forest…I left you…"
"For dead," she finished, and the entire church gasped.
"No matter!" Barkis continued, "I'm taking my WIFE, and there's nothing anyone here can do about it!"
Just in case anyone got any ideas, Barkis ripped the sword out of the Dwarf and held it to Victoria's throat.
"Don't try to follow us!" he warned, dragging Victoria out of the church.
Victor stood helplessly on the steps of the church, watching Barkis flee with Victoria into the very forest he himself had met Emily in. He raised a hand after them, though the two were well out of his reach.
"Victoria…" he said sadly.
Emily came out of the church and laid her hand on his shoulder comfortingly.
"Victor, I'm so sorry," she said, looking at his depressed expression.
"It's not your fault," Victor replied downcastedly. "I should have known that she didn't actually fall out of love with me."
The two were silent on the steps of the church. The crowd behind them started to stand up to return home. A chill wind began to blow.
Deep in the forest, Barkis pulled Victoria into a clearing by gravestone.
"I think we've lost them," he announced, panting and looking over his shoulder.
"I'd rather lose YOU," Victoria snapped, yanking her arm free of him.
He glared at her. "You'll be free of me much sooner than you think!"
Victoria recoiled, her eyes wide with fright.
"What do you mean?" she stammered, her voice shaking.
He chuckled evilly, running his finger along the sharp blade of the sword. "I think you know, my dear."
Victoria shrieked and turned to run, but her wedding dress prevented her from doing so. Barkis caught her right arm and spun her around to face him, plunging the sword into her stomach at the same time.
Victoria gasped, falling to her knees from the pain of the wound.
"You see," Barkis said, pulling the sword free and wiping it on her veil, "I have no actual use for you. You tricked me, my dear Mrs. Everglot, and I do not appreciate being tricked."
Victoria lay on her stomach, so weak from blood loss that she was barely able to speak.
"You…tricked me," she gasped, her eyes tearing up. "My family…will be…in the poor…house…"
"And what about ME!?" Barkis roared. "Did you ever think that I might be a step away from the poorhouse as well?"
Victoria managed to raise her head up a tiny bit and glare at him.
"I give no thought to leeches," she slowly said, stressing each word.
Barkis narrowed his eyes and snorted contemptuously.
"Very soon you will not give much thought to anything at all," he replied, and pressed down upon her back with his foot.
She groaned from the pain, clawing at the ground with curled fingers.
"Do have fun in the afterlife," Barkis said, walking back towards town. "Say hello to Emily and your forever lost love."
A tear trickled from Victoria's eye as she breathed her last.
Emily was still attempting to cheer Victor up back in the Land of the Dead.
"Victor, I'm so sorry that you won't see her again," she said. "But you do realize that, even if you were still alive, you wouldn't have been able to marry her. She was married to Barkis."
"I know!" Victor cried dejectedly. "But I could have found a way around it somehow! I could have tried to find a way to get her away from him. I can only imagine what he's doing to her now!"
Emily silently hoped that Victor's girl would avoid her fate. As she did, a call of "New Arrival!" was taken up. Emily felt a chill inside.
"New Arrival!" Miss Plum sang, hurrying past Victor and Emily to greet the new person.
Victor raised his head from the table to watch her fly past. Emily swallowed and tried to convince herself that it wasn't Victor's girl.
"Dear, I think it's only polite for us to introduce ourselves to the new person," Emily said to Victor.
Victor sighed, then nodded. "You're right."
The two of them headed into the Lounge, where a crowd had already gathered to shake the newcomer's hand. Bonejangles caught sight of Emily and Victor and waved them over.
"We got a woman this time!" he growled. "A real looker, too. Almost as pretty as you, Emily."
Emily smiled, the fear not leaving her.
Please don't let it be Victor's girl, she prayed. Please!
"Well," Victor sighed, trying to lean around the crowd to catch a glimpse of the newcomer. "Let's see who—"
He stopped talking, and his mouth dropped open.
"VICTORIA!" he shrieked, causing several skeletons to jump.
Victoria looked at Victor, startled. "Victor?"
He regarded her with horror. "What's happened to you?"
Her once-pale skin had turned blue, and her eyes were rimmed with blue that was slightly darker than the hue of her skin. Her veil had several streaks of red in it which looked like dried blood, and there was a hole in the middle of her stomach that looked like a stab wound. Dried blood was crusted all around it, contrasting harshly against the white of her dress. Emily knew only too well what had probably happened.
"Barkis," Victoria began. "He brought me deep into the woods and stabbed me, then left me to die. He…he said he had no use for me."
Her lips (now the color of the blue that rimmed her eyes, Victor noticed) trembled at the recollection of the memory.
"He didn't—" Victor started furiously, dropping his eyes to Victoria's legs.
"No!" she assured him. "Barkis left almost as soon as he stabbed me. Oh Victor, it was so horrible, I'm so sorry that…that…"
She started crying, and Emily quickly went to her and hugged her.
"Y-you must hate me!" Victoria wept. "B-because I wanted to marry Victor!"
"No," Emily soothed, patting her shoulder. "How could I blame you? Victor's quite the man to marry."
Victor smiled faintly.
"At least you're free from Barkis," Emily continued. "You're no longer wed to him, and he can't harm you anymore."
Victor's eyes widened. "You mean Victoria…can marry again?"
"Only someone who's dead," Emily replied, then added, "And unmarried."
Victor grinned sheepishly. "I quite forgot."
Emily smiled at him. "It's all right. You could always…dissolve our union."
Emily winced as she said the last part, and a determined look came into Victor's eye.
"No," he said firmly. "Though I am deeply in love with Victoria, I shall always honor my vows."
"What is to be done with Barkis?"Victoria asked. "Surely he cannot go unpunished?"
Emily sighed sadly. "I am afraid that he can. Since we are all dead, we are not allowed to harm him."
Victor frowned, deep in thought.
"Dangit!" Bonejangles growled. "If I were alive, I'd show that fool a thing or twelve!"
Emily and Victoria giggled, and Victor smiled.
"I believe you'd have that chance," Victor said, "if Barkis was dead."
"Yeah, but he isn't," Bonejangles replied.
"Life is…SUCH a temporary state," Victor purred, then grinned. "If, say, Barkis were to…sip from a cup which happened to contain the Wine of Ages, well…he might be in a more permanent condition."
The others dwellers of the Land of the Dead grinned as well.
"We just gotta convince the Elder to let us go back upstairs!" Bonejangles said.
"I don't think he'll let all of us go…" Victor mused. "Perhaps only Emily, Victoria, and myself."
"But then we'll only be able to deal with what's left of Barkis!" Bonejangles growled.
"I'm sure there'll be enough for you," Victor smiled.
Victor, Victoria, and Emily ascended the steep stairway to the Elder's residence. The familiar crows were perched outside and in, and they cawed loudly as the trio entered the Elder's house.
"Elder?" Emily called, looking around the empty building.
Some dry coughing signified his presence. The Elder descended the stairs and hobbled towards the three of them.
"Wonderful to see you two again!" he croaked to Emily and Victor, and then turned to Victoria. "And who might you be? I don't believe I've seen you around here before, but you do look familiar."
"My name is Victoria," Victoria said. "I was the bride who was dragged away by Emily's killer."
"Ah yes," the Elder said, remembering. "Then I see you've met the same fate as she."
Victoria's head drooped slightly. "Yes."
"Ah well, ah well, nevermind, what's done is done," the Elder said. "Now, why have the three of you come to see me?"
Victor stepped forward.
"We wanted to beg you to let us return to the Land of the Living for a short time," he explained. "With a cup full of the Wine of Ages."
"The Land of the Living?" the Elder repeated in bewilderment. "But my boy, you're dead! You have no power over the living!"
"I don't," Victor agreed, "but the Wine of Ages does."
The Elder regarded him seriously. "And I take it you want to use the Wine of Ages on Emily's murderer?"
"You are correct," Victor replied.
The Elder mulled things over for a few minutes in silence, and then nodded.
"Very well," he said, "but you MUST promise me to only give it to him, and no other living person."
"We promise," the trio said in unison.
The Elder smiled. "Then I shall give you four cups, one for each of you, and one for the murderer. If you are planning to have him drink it, your plan would be more likely to suceed if you proposed a toast and drank some of the wine yourselves. Since you are all dead, it shall have no ill effects on you, but on him…"
The three nodded to indicate that they understood and agreed with the Elder's plan.
"Thank you, Elder," Victor said.
"Yes, thank you very much indeed," Victoria joined in.
"It really means…so much to me," Emily added.
"Not at all children, not at all," the Elder said, waving their thanks away. "Now gather together and stand in front of the desk so I can begin the Transportation Spell."
Victoria looked quizically at Emily and Victor. "Transportation Spell?"
"The Elder uses a spell to transport us upstairs to the Land of the Living," Emily explained.
"How do we return?" Victoria asked.
"Don't trouble yourself about it," the Elder said before Emily could reply. "Are you ready?"
The three nodded, and the Elder broke the crow egg over them.
"Oh!" Victoria exclaimed. "We're back in the forest!"
"Yes," Emily agreed, sighing. "The moon is so beautiful!"
"When Barkis is dead, I'll throttle him!" Victor said.
Emily and Victoria gave him a look.
"Victor, darling, you're ruining the mood," Emily said.
"Sorry," Victor apologized, "but we did come here to kill Barkis, didn't we?"
"Yes," Emily agreed, looking at the moon wistfully. "I only wish we had time for some dancing…"
Victoria smiled sympathetically. "You've been underground for a long time, haven't you?"
Emily nodded sadly.
"But," Emily said, "one can't dwell on unpleasant things. Let us find Barkis and propose a toast."
Emily and Victoria started off towards the direction of town.
"Erm, ladies?" Victor said. "I think we have a problem."
Emily and Victoria stopped and looked at him.
"What is it?" they asked.
"Well…" Victor said hesitantly. "We're dead."
Emily shrugged. "And?"
"I don't think we'd go unnoticed in town," Victor pointed out. "I mean, we all have blue skin, you have bones showing, and Victoria has a giant wound in her stomach."
The girls looked at each other and realized Victor was right.
"Then…does that mean you'll be the one going into town?" Victoria asked.
Victor frowned and sat down on a log. "Let me think…I want Barkis to see all three of us when he drinks the wine. I don't know how to get him here. We can't have the town announcer try to summon him anywhere because Barkis might have left town already. If we only knew where he was…"
"Do…do you think…" Victoria said slowly. "Do you think that he went…back to my parents house? To try and search for any lingering valuables he could sell?"
"Hm…it's worth investigating," Victor replied. "Let's hurry."
The three scurried under the cover of night to Victoria's house. Upon testing the front door, they found it unlocked, so they crept inside. The three stood in the entryway, listening to the silence to try and detect any noises.
"I don't hear anything," Emily said.
Victor frowned. "Let's investigate the rooms together."
They searched the kitchen (no Barkis), the dining room (no Barkis), Victoria's bedroom (no Barkis), the drawing room (no Barkis), and the Everglot's bedroom (frightened Everglots, but no Barkis). But when they searched the Everglot's bathroom…
Barkis was pawing through Maudeline's drawer. Upon discovering a silver hairbrush with an emerald set in the back, he took it out and examined it.
"This might be worth some money," he mumbled to himself.
Victor cleared his throat, but Barkis didn't hear him.
"That's my mother's!" Victoria cried upon seeing the hairbrush. "It's been passed down from mother to daughter for generations!"
Barkis spun around.
"You three!?" he cried. "Not again!"
Emily, Victoria, and Victor all scowled darkly at him. "We have some unfinished business with you, Barkis."
Barkis screamed like a little girl, dropped the brush, and ran out of the Everglot house like a puss. Victor, Emily, and Victoria blinked.
"Quick! We have to go after him!" Emily cried.
The three hurried down the steps and outside just in time to see Barkis running for the forest.
"Oh? It looks like we're going back the way we came," Victor said.
Barkis ran through the forest trying to find the clearing with the gravestone. He had stabbed the sword into the ground next to the gravestone in case he needed it in the future. And as it turned out, he did need it. NOW.
"Oof!" he grunted, tripping over a raised root and sprawling forward onto his face.
He quickly picked himself up and continued running. He was close to the clearing. There was the frozen pond, and the hill.
Barkis spotted the sword just a few feet away, but as he headed for it he heard some voices behind him.
"…went this way!" Emily's voice called distantly.
Barkis gasped. Would his past never cease to haunt him?
Running over to the sword, Barkis grabbed onto the hilt of the it and tugged for a good two minutes before it finally came out of the ground. Barkis fell onto his ass, and as he stood up, he saw he was surrounded.
Victor, Victoria, and Emily all stared at him, cups clutched in their hands. Barkis took a step back, then brandished the sword.
"I'll kill her again!" he cried, stepping towards Victoria.
Victor stepped in front of her. "I don't think so."
Barkis backed up. "Wh-wh-what do you want, you…dead things?"
"We've come for one thing," Victor said, grining sinisterly and advancing towards Barkis with a cup.
"And what might that be?" Barkis squeaked in terror.
"A toast," Emily said, smiling. "After all, Victor and I did get married, and you didn't give us one."
Barkis blinked, then eyed the three of them suspiciously. A toast was all they wanted? It seemed too easy.
"Very well," he said, his suspicions still strong as he took the cup from Victor. "A toast to the newlyweds! May they…er…be content in death evermore."
Victor raised his cup. "And now we drink."
"Oh, not yet," Barkis said with a grin. "I believe a toast is in order for Mrs. Everglot."
Victoria's face fell as Barkis turned toward her and raised his cup.
"To Victoria!" he announced. "The girl who is as plain in death as she is in life! The young lady forced to give up her dream of a happy marriage in order to save her family, who wound up in the poorhouse anyway. Tell me, Victoria; how does it make you feel to know that you'll be unwed for the rest of eternity?"
Victoria blinked back tears as Barkis drained the cup.
"Ahh," he gasped. "And now, I must depart."
"You most certainly will," Emily growled.
Barkis frowned. "What are you—arrgh! AGGH!"
Barkis suddenly jack-knifed from pain, clutching at his chest.
"Can't," he groaned through gritted teeth, "Pain…"
He staggered away from the three of them and collapsed next to the gravestone, gasping in pain before finally ceasing to breathe.
As Victor, Victoria, and Emily watched, Barkis's skin turned blue and his hair grew limp. He suddenly sucked in air loudly and shot up to his knees, looking around in terror with bright yellow eyes.
"What have you done?" he shrieked, climbing to his feet and staggering towards the three of them.
A skeletal hand suddenly shot up from the earth in front of the gravestone and grabbed Barkis's ankle. Barkis shrieked and tried to beat the hand away, but it held fast. With a few sharp tugs, it managed to yank Barkis beneath the ground. As Barkis's yells faded, the three could have sworn that they heard something that sounded remarkably like Bonejangles's chuckle.
The three looked at each other in silence as the moon shone down and the wind blew. Emily smiled, and hugged both Victor and Victoria.
"Thank you both for your help," she thanked them. "Barkis is no longer a problem to me, or anyone else."
She started to walk towards a circle of moonlight on the ground. Victor hurried after her.
"Wait!" he said, stopping her. "I made a promise."
She smiled at him. "You kept your promise. I free you."
She removed his ring and handed it back to him, then turned and stepped into the moonlight. Butterflies began flying from her veil, at first only one but then more and more until her veil had numerous butterfly-shaped holes in it. Heaving a satisfied sigh, Emily dissolved into hundreds of lovely blue butterflies which flapped towards the moon.
One butterfly flitted over to Victor and Victoria, and settled briefly on both of their noses before flying after its fellows.
Victor turned towards Victoria with a smile.
"The thing I wanted to do before I died," he said, "was marry you."
Victoria smiled back shyly. "That was the thing I wanted, as well."
Victor dropped to one knee in front of her.
"With this candle, I shall light your way in darkness. Your cup will never be empty, for I shall be your wine. With this ring, I ask you to be mine," he recited.
"Oh Victor, you learned your vows!" Victoria exclaimed delightedly.
He slid the ring onto her finger.
"Victoria, do you want to be with me?" he asked, holding her arms.
"Always," she replied.
Victor smiled.
"We have both accomplished what we wanted most, so only one thing is left to be done…" he said.
Victoria smiled and leaned her head against his shoulder.
The two of them strolled forward towards the circle of moonlight together, arm in arm. As they stepped fully into the circle, their forms shone and blurred until they could no longer be seen.
When the bright light had faded, only two forget-me-nots could be seen, entwined around each other, never to be parted.