His fingers hit the keys perfectly, the sound echoing throughout the vast and open room that is the Everglot parlour.
"That must be victor..." Victoria chimed to herself. She thought about going downstairs to see him.
Though, she felt silly, nervous even. The dress she was wearing was ridiculous, and her bun was pulled so tight she could barely blink.
She sighed, wanting to get to know him before she's forced to spend the rest of her life with him.
Victoria scuttled back to her room, and on the way, ignored her servants' attempts to escort her downstairs. Her childhood friend, Emily, was brushing her hair in the mirror.
"Back already?" Emily asked, looking at her friend through the mirror.
"Um... no, as you can tell, I'm not exactly fit to greet him yet."
"Nonsense! I can help you pick out a...um...prettier dress right quick."
"But my mother wanted me to don this during rehearsal."
"Victoria, you have one chance to make a first impression of yourself. Now let me take down that bun!"
Victoria sighed but quickly agreed.
Emily undid the pins that held the bun together, and down came the hazelnut wave of hair.
Victoria gave Emily a smile and slipped herself into the darkly colored tea-gown that was picked out for her. She then examined herself in the mirror. The sleeves of the dress hung off of her shoulders, showing off her figure nicely, and her hair framed her face gorgeously. She almost went as far as to think of herself as dressing scandalously. Whatever the matter, it wasn't as important as meeting Victor, so she rushed her way downstairs.
She slowly strode her way up behind the boy, who was finishing up his song. She waited for him to hit the last note. Victor plucked his finger down onto the final key, and then turned his body to lift himself up but then out of the corner of his eye, saw Victoria standing beside him.
"Gah!" He yelled, falling and taking the stool with him on his way down.
Victoria gasped and reached to help him up. "Victor! Are you alright?"
"Yes, yes. I'm quite fine. Please forgive me for being so startled, Ms. Everglot." he said shyly while brushing off the front of his coat. "Please do call me Victoria, and nonsense, I should apologize for startling you." Victor smiled sheepishly at her then proceeded to position the stool into its original spot. "I must say, Victoria, you look very lovely. Though, I've never witnessed a girl publicly wearing her hair down, are you allowed to do that?" He questioned curiously, trying not to sound rude.
"I...No, I'm not. I was just in such a hurry to see you that I foolishly skipped over letting Hildegard fix my hair."
Lie.
"Oh... either way, you do look quite beautiful."
Victoria smiled at Victor, she studied his face, and she realized he was quite handsome, despite his awkward stature.
"VICTORIA!" Oh, no. Mother. She watched as her parents walked into the room, along with Victor's.
"I was told you ignored my wishes to wear my dress...wait a moment, you've undone your hair! Look at you! You're dressed like a Harlot. At this point I should ask you if you are even wearing your undergarments!" Victor gasped and went wide eyed. Sure, he'd never met a girl who dared dress so out of fashion, but he certainly knew better than to assume that Victoria was one who didn't wear her undergarments. But right now, even his parents were in shock.
"I'm sorry mother, I felt as if I looked like an absolute ninny..." She turned to Victor "I suppose I shall go back upstairs to change. I am also sorry to you, Mr. Van Dort, I hope you don't think of me as less than a wife." Victoria looked down and turned to go up the stairs.
"Does she always do such things?" Asked Victor's mother.
"Heavens no! I don't know what she was thinking." Mrs. Everglot exclaimed, answering the question.
Victor watched Victoria walk up the stairs for the last time before their wedding day.
1 day later
The air was crisp and cool outside, whipping itself at Victor's hair. He looked down at the frozen lake, trying to remember in what order the vows were supposed to be said.
"With this hand, I will be your... in... the darkness? No, no, you absolute fool!"
He pocketed his ring and then sighed.
"She'd never want to marry a fool like me anyways."
"It doesn't matter if she wants to, it's a matter of if she can." Replied a deep voice.
Victor gasped and turned around.
"Who are you?"
"Lord Barkis, my dear boy. I've come to... help you with your vows..."
"Now why would you come out here to do something as foolish as that, I thought you were trying to marry Victoria yourself." Lord Barkis scoffed, reaching into his overcoat.
"Ah...Yes, yes. Very foolish. I just thought you'd need some help so you don't ruin your chance the next time..."
"Funny you should mention a next time, this was supposed to be my actual wedding, I mean, what woman wants to be with a man who can't even say their vows correctly? Especially a woman as daring as Victoria, she disobeyed her parents wishes, only to find out that I'm a blubbering idiot. Surely she must fe-"
In the middle of talking, Victor felt a cold, hard object hit his ribcage.
When he looked down, he saw that Lord Barkis had a gun pointed at his side.
"W-what are you d-doing?"
"Save the stuttering. Start walking, there, into the forest." Demanded Barkis.
Victor glumly looked back at the church, and then began to shuffle his way toward the tree line, with the gun still pointed at his side.
"Oh, Victoria, maybe he's somewhere out there."
"Im not so sure, Emily! I didn't really know Victor that well but I don't think he'd do something as drastic as running away. It's been almost 3 months now. We were supposed to be wed already bu-"
The two girls heard footsteps, knowing it was Victoria's new husband, Barkis, and so they began to change the subject.
"So, Emily, what do you think of Edward? Have you taken a liking to him yet?" Victoria asked, lacing Emily's corset. As she was about to reply to the question, she was interrupted.
"Nonsense, she doesn't have to take a liking to him! It's marriage!" Wailed Barkis, giving a grim smug to the two.
"Excuse me...Darling..." Victoria internally cringed at having called him that, "Emily is in her delicates, you shouldn't be in here."
"Interesting. What about when you were showing off your lady bits to that boy...what was his name...Ah, Victor!...in that dress, you know, like some kind of toffer?"
"That was different! And I most certainly wasn't showing off any of my business! Now shoo!" Barkis scoffed at Victoria's response and left the room, closing the door behind him.
"I can't believe he would call you such a name!" Emily exclaimed.
Victoria said nothing.
"Is this what marriage is like?" Emily continued to press.
"I'm starting to believe so, my parents hate each other. Victor's parents barely tolerate each other, and Barkis and I are miserable together; Well, mostly I'm the one who's miserable. He married me to receive incredible wealth from us, only to find out that we're going to be in the poorhouse soon enough. Even worse, I was to marry him because my parents believed he had 'oh-so much money.' I've even put off our honey moon for so long, the last thing I want is to bear children that belong to him." Emily frowned.
"I wish we could marry by our own standards. I'd hate to waste my life with someone who makes me feel trapped."
"Oh, how I do agree." Replied Victoria, who finished up the lace on the bride's corset.
"Well, I'm finished here. All you have to do is slip into your mother's wedding dress and join us downstairs." Emily frowned into the mirror.
"Call for me if you need assistance." Victoria informed her, leaving the girl alone in the room.
Emily did as she was told, and clothed herself in her mother's wedding dress.
She completed the look by placing her veil over the half up-half down hairstyle that Victoria had done for her.
"Here we go. .."
Emily picked up the sides of her dress, careful not to trip as she made her way into the woods. She dodged tree limbs and roots as best as she could.
Eventually reaching a clearing, where she stopped to collapse onto the ground.
"Oh, what am I going to do?" She cried, running a finger under the crease of her eyelid.
Then she quickly sat up, composing herself.
The ring sat, with its shiny gold build wrapped around her finger.
"Useless..." she pulled it off, examining the object. She had a thought and hoisted herself into her feet.
"With this hand I will lift your sorrows." Emily smirked to herself, imagining that she was marrying someone she loved.
"Your cup will never be empty, for I will be your wine." She continued, sipping a pretend cup and smiling. Looking around, she snapped a branch off of a tree, as if it were a candle.
"And with this candle, I will light your way into darkness."
Finally, she looked around, and spotted a hand shaped branch.
CAH! CAH!
"Huh?" She looked up to see dozens of crows sitting in the trees, looking down on her. Gusts of wind tangled themselves through her hair.
But she was busy looking up, and a hand quickly grabbed onto her wrist, pulling her arm deep into the soil.
"AH!"
Emily yanked back, with her arm came the skeletal one that had latched onto her.
To her dismay, it wouldn't come off even when she flailed her hand around.
Riiiiiiip. Thump.
She looked up, the dirt was crumbling, tearing apart roots. A few moments before she could process what was happening, a corpse appeared from the ground.
He was a pale blue, with jet black hair. His face was accompanied by a very prominent bruise on his cheek. Emily looked further down in horror, to see aged bullet holes in his chest, and he was wearing a grey suit, the kind a groom would wear.
"I do." He whispered.
Emily shrieked and tried to lift herself to run, but her dress was caught, and the man was already kneeled down to her height. "You may kiss the bride."
She screamed but was suddenly enveloped in darkness as the corpse wrapped his arms around her.
Everything went black.
"Oh, what happened? Where am I?" Emily mumbled as she stood up. All around her were corpses and skeletons, dead of all kind staring her down. Seeing as what happened earlier, she wasn't exactly too phased right now. Just then, something poked at her side, making her giggle.
"Hey, she's still soft!" Yelled a small child.
Emily dazingly scanned the bar and spotted a short man with a sword through his chest, and hastily tried to tug the object from his ribcage but it wasn't going to budge. Instead, she picked him up with the weapon still in his body and she pointed it at the corpses around her.
"I want answers! Where am I, how did I get here, and why?"
A hand gripped Emily's shoulder, and she turned to see the man that appeared in the forest. He smiled at her and pointed to a group of skeletons that began to play a song.
"Hit it boys!"
A variety of instruments began to play, filling Emily's eardrums.
"Good, hopefully this gives me all of the answers I need."
Hey! Give me a listen, you corpses of cheer
'Least those of you who still got an ear
I'll tell you a story make a skeleton gloom
Of our own ridiculously nervous corpse groom!
The man, whose name she still didn't know, dragged Emily near the middle of the bar, happily twirling her around.
Die, die we all pass away
We don't wear a frown 'cause it's really okay
You might try 'n' hide
And you might try 'n' pray
But we all end up the remains of the day
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!
Yeah, yeah, yeahhh!
Well our guy was quite a fool known for miles around
'Till he was so soon to be bound
He was plenty good lookin', but not up on his vows
And for his poor bride-to-be, he fell for her, now!
When he disappeared, our poor baby, she just couldn't cope
So her parents came up with a plan for her to elope!
Emily started to enjoy the tune, but she was still so confused and slightly saddened by this story so far, come to think of it, it sounded all so familiar to her...
Die, die we all pass away
We don't wear a frown 'cause it's really okay
You might try 'n' hide
And you might try 'n' pray
But we all end up the remains of the dayYeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!
Yeah, yeah, yeahhh!
So they conjured up a way to marry her off to a mysterious ol' man
What they didn't know, and when they did, it all hit the fan
The young fellow was down on his cash
Even so, they were still married fast
The young broad was amissin' her real true groom,
who she suspected was brought to his doom
Little did she know, she was oh-so right
And the true story is ooooOh such a fright
Her so called lover had brought him out to the woods
Planning to kill him and marry the girl the young lad would
Then there in the forest, next to a tall oak tree
On a dark foggy night at a quarter to three
He stood there with a gun pointed at he who pleaaaaaaad!
And then?
He waited
And then?
Was he going to do it?
And then?
His little heart beat so loud
And then?
And then baby, everything went black.
Now when he opened his eyes he was dead as dust
His ring was gone and his heart was bust
So he made a vow lyin' under that tree
That he'd wait for his true love to come set him free
Even if waiting was what he had to do, so then he shall
When out of the blue comes this beautiful young gal
Who vows forever to be there until the other is sealed in their tomb
And that's the tale of
ouuurrrr
corpseeeeee
groooooom!
Yeah!
The music stopped, and everyone started cheering around the couple.
Emily looked into her so-called husbands eyes, grinning.
"Do forgive me, I haven't even asked for your name."
"Victor, my darling."
Emily gasped, "Victor?!"
Victor raised an eyebrow as if to question her.
"You were going to marry Victoria!"
"I still don't understand, dear, who is Victoria?"
"Do you not remember anything from when you were alive?"
"No, I'm afraid not so much. Although, I do remember how I passed."
The girl frowned. She thought about telling Victoria, but she had no clue how to get back to where home was, hell, she didn't even know if Victoria would believe her.
Victor took Emily gently by the arm, guiding her out of the building and into the streets.
"I have a gift for you, one moment."
Victor walked around the corner, and appeared a few moments later, smiling and holding a beautiful, but slightly wilted, bouquet of pink and white roses that matched the ones around her veil.
"Oh, They're lovely!"
"So are you, my love. Shall we go?"
"Where to?"
"My home, or more accurate, our home, of course."
'As crazy and as soon as it was, Emily thought Victor was a good man (and a dead one at that) She felt she could certainly stand to spend the rest of her life with him here, away from arranged marriage. On the other hand, she also felt horrid because this was the man Victoria once wanted to marry.'
So I hope you guys enjoyed this, I worked forever on changing up the lyrics to 'remains of the day', though it's not the best, I enjoyed singing it inside of my head xD Anyhow, let me know if I should continue writing! Thanks to those who do read! Peace!