AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay, this is a fanfiction that randomly I thought of when watching the movie. I found that it seemed to be thoughtful in the two ways. One, the type of story that made sense more to me and two: FAN SERVICE MY FRIENDS. So please enjoy my fanfiction about Emily and Victor! Oh, by the way, I do not own The Corpse Bride, it belongs to a great director, Tim Burton, nor do I own any rights to the characters produced in the movie.
The wind blew, cool and crisp, as a lone leaf began to catch up with all the others being stirred around in the air. A swirl of orange and brown flowed where the wind told it to. One flew past an open window and as it did Victor looked out his window and noticed the lone leaf struggling to catch up with the others in the wind. He sighed, looking back down at his desk, scattered drawings carelessly placed and a glass jar with a blue butterfly within. He opened the jar, releasing the butterfly to let it soar through the sky and join the leaves soaring on the wind.
"Victor!" His mother shouted. He looked toward the door knowing his mother would be there in but a moment. He could hear her heavy footsteps thundering through the house as she came up the stairs. The door swung open to reveal an overweight woman, his mother, gesturing with the small cane at her side. "Quit sitting there and begin preparing yourself for this big day!" His mother demanded.
Victor stood at his mother's command and let out a small sigh which sounded vaguely uncomfortable. He walked past his mother, having to squeezing past her just so he could exit his room.
'Why must I be the one to do this? I have no choice, and yet I feel I'm obligated to say I can't.' Victor thought. Before he could think anything else though, hands were suddenly pushing against his back urging him down the stairs. He sighed, letting the hands guid him down the stairs just to be greeted by his elderly father at the bottom.
"Congratulations-" His father paused. Coughing filled the room as his father tried not to hack up a lung. It was wet and wheezy sounding, shaking the old man's frame. It didn't stop till he took a long, deep breath in. He breathed out and then looked back at Victor. "- on the wedding."
"Thank you father; I'm pleased to have made you proud." Victor lied.
Victor walked past his father and into the foyer. He opened the door, paused for a moment, loosed another miserable sigh and walked on. His nostrils were filled with smoke which caused his lungs to ache and his nose to burn. He coughed, gagging on the excessive amount of smoke in the air, all of it coming from the man sitting in the carriage driver's seat.
"Mayhew! Put out that blasted pipe!" His mother exclaimed. Mayhew, the carriage driver, went into a coughing fit at that moment, releasing a plume of smoke from his lungs into the air, as he dumped the rest of his pipe out over the side of the carriage
seat. Victor snickered at Mayhew's ineffective way of disposing of such a thing. Once again, he felt hands to his back and he was being shoved along into the carriage. "Victor we're running late due to your laziness!" His mother shouted. His mother turned back around and he shouts from outside the carriage door for his father to come along. He ducked his head as his mother squeezed in, the skirts of her dress nearly hitting him in the face. Once his mother sat down across from him, his father got in and sat silently beside his wife.
"Mother, father… why must-" Victor began to say before he was cut off.
"Why must you wed at such a shanty old church? I reckon I have no clue Victor. We will abide by the Everglots standards of this binding!" His mother exclaimed although she looked displeased by this fact, if only because she didn't like the church that was to be used for the wedding. Victor put his head back down unable to get to his point.
There was a yank from the horses at the carriage and the carriage was off, heading at a steady pace toward town square. A tiny tear began to form in Victor's eye. He was careful to hide it from his parents. The drop fell and landed on the tip of his shined shoes.
The carriage moved on and Mayhew let out small coughs along the way. At the same time, his mother would knock her cane heavily on the carriage ceiling, making the coughing stop for a few seconds. Victor let out a small chuckle as the coughs would come back after each knock.
"You know Victor, if you treat a lady with the same disrespect as you do me, you will never produce children." His mother stated. Victor looked out the window, saying nothing while on the inside he felt slightly sick at the thought of having to produce children. Outside the carriage he saw nothing but poor beggars on the street and people starring as the carriage rolled on down to the home of the Everglots. The carriage came to a halt, making everyone lurch forward in their seats.
"MAYHEW! Are you TRYING to kill us!?" his mother exclaimed.
Victor was the first to exit the carriage, stepping to the side to let his mother and father exist and stand beside him. The doors to the house in front of them seemed to know that they had arrived because the swung open to reveal the gloom of the front room and a butler who was waiting for them all. His nose was pointed up in the air and his mustache was curved upwards in an exaggerated angel.
"Welcome, Van Dorts, the Everglots are waiting for you upstairs in the smoking room." The butler explained.
"Splendid, we'll go right up then." Mrs. Van Dort replied, gripping her husband's arm.
The two eager parents walked in and followed the butler upstairs, leaving Victor in the doorway completely forgotten. He sighed and walked in, almost feeling uninvited and unwelcome by the household. His eyes gazed around the room in astonishment and awe. The room was grand, if a little dusty and gloomy. It looked like it was hardly used for anything at all. His admiration of the room halted when beautifully crafted piano came into view and what felt like the first time since he learned he was to marry a genuine smile spread across his face. A sense of wonderment filled his heart which caused him to be draw toward the instrument. He walked over to the piano bench, lifted the back of his suit jacket as to not sit on it and sat down. Admiring the complexity of the piano itself, he flicked a key and shut his eyes. That first note played appealed to him, causing his heart to fill with joy so he continued to play on. The sounds of the piano filled the room and echoed through the halls of the Everglot house, causing Victor to smile even wider at the sounds played with each other, bouncing off the walls and floor and ceiling, filling the gloomy space with joyous music.
Victor, when he played the piano, imagined himself to be in a land where nothing could bother him. This wasn't the land of mystery, of forced marriages and unhappily ever after but rather the land of opportunity. He mind often wandered, images of himself sitting in a meadow of dandelions and green grass far as the eye can see. He imagined the smell of the flowers and being able to draw butterflies of all variations of color and size whenever he wished. Trees and the sunset on the horizon beyond him. He often wondered, in that world he created for himself, what if he wasn't alone? What if somebody was to come up and sit next to him and say-
"Excuse me?"
Victor jumped, his nerves being ignited in panic at having been caught off guard. His eyes opened up wide and he let out a little yelp as the chair fell over. His arm swung out and hit vase that had been sitting on the piano as he righted himself, almost knocking it over and onto the floor where it would have shattered. Luckily, he could catch it before it could contact the floor and set it back down, turning to focus on the gentlemen who interrupted him.
"Who are you?" The man asked.
"I… I am V-Victor Van Dort." Victor explained to the man with a slight stutter.
The man chuckled at the name and raised his chin as he walked toward him. Victor's eyes stopped following the mysterious man instead looking back down at the keys of the piano. The man's voice was full of confidence, perhaps too much confidence.
"Van Dort? What kind of name is that good sir?" The man asked in a curious tone of voice. Victor's eyebrows went up in confusion and a sense of annoyance crept into him. The man let out a laugh that echoed through the room. He put a hand on Victor's shoulder and pretended to wipe away a tear as if he had been laughing so hard at what he had said that his eyes had teared up.
"My boy, I'm joking with you! My name is Lord Barkis, I mean what kind of name is that?" Lord Barkis asked with a chuckle.
Victor's expression never changed and he looked down at Barkis's hand on his shoulder. His eyes squinted as Barkis's hand slowly drifted off his shoulder. Victor scrubbed at the spot the hand had been and straightened his jacket going to stand up when a voice rang out.
"Oh my. I can see you two have met." A steady voice from the top of the stairs said.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Oh, I bet you all just hate me now for leaving Cliffhangers like that! Ha! I just love
it though. I hope you all liked it and please feel free to review, follow, favorite, or don't do a thing :D. I
hope you all keep reading this fanfiction because… ahem, it's got something that the movie doesn't :o.