3
Transformation
"New arrival!" Miss Plum said with glee as she and the other dead pulled a newly deceased Barkis through the door leading back into the Underworld.
Emily found that all she could do was stare, feeling conflicting emotions. Next to her, Victoria shuddered and buried her face against Victor's shoulder. Just moments before, Emily had been filled with such hatred for Barkis, not only for what he had done to her all those years ago but for what he had intended to do to her friends Victor and Victoria. She had been tempted to use that sword against him.
But her anger had rapidly turned to hurt when he had mocked her with that toast. "Always the bridesmaid, never the bride." And, "Can a heart still break once it's stopped beating?" Those stinging words still vibrated through her mind. She didn't think to warn him of the poison he was about to drink and now it was too late. He was dead and would most likely be punished by those who had been her friends and companions in the Underworld for so many years. I actually loved that man once, she thought. Did he have any good in him at all? He did have a difficult early life. Could he ever have changed?
"Oh Victor," Victoria sighed in her lover's arms, drawing Emily from her thoughts. "I thought I'd never see you again."
A flicker of sadness stirred within her but she forced a smile. Victor and Victoria were both alive and in love. They belonged together.
Her melancholy quickly passed. The moonlight, spilling through the open doors at the back of the church, seemed to be beckoning to her. Emily had always been enchanted by the moon, ever since she was a child and her mother Sara had taught her to dance in its glow. She remembered how, not too long before, she had looked up at the moon with Victor for the first time after so many years of dwelling in the endless caverns of the Underworld, and the intense euphoria she had felt. That sensation now had multiplied: the moon was calling to her, urging her to join it. It is time, it whispered to her in an ageless voice that seemed to be a combination of countless others voices.
Emily started to walk toward it. She was briefly surprised to find that she had forgiven Barkis and accepted the love between Victor and Victoria. That young couple would be happy, she knew. And so would she…
Someone gently grabbed her arm, distracting her. She turned to see Victor standing before her, smiling, his face bright with that luring moonlight. "Wait. I made a promise," he said.
Warmth filled Emily. She did love him. He had been willing to die for her, to be with her, but that wouldn't have been right. Had she allowed him to drink that poison, they would both have come to regret it, and perhaps would have found themselves trapped in the Underworld forever. He still had a life to live. And the moon, the voices, were calling to her. She wouldn't be returning to the Underworld. It was time to move on.
She realized that she was still wearing his ring. "You kept your promise," she said as she slipped it off her bony finger and placed it into his hand, curling his fingers around it. "You have set me free. And now I shall do the same with you."
She turned back to the waiting moonlight and continued gliding toward it. She paused just briefly to pick up her bouquet, which she had earlier placed on one of the pews. When she reached the doors, she glanced back at her friends and smiled. She tossed the bouquet to Victoria but it didn't fly far enough and landed in the hands of an elderly woman. The maggot that had been Emily's constant companion for the last several years was curled up on that woman's shoulder. He laughed evilly. The woman shrieked and threw the bouquet. Victoria caught it.
Smiling, Emily stepped out into the moonlight. It seemed to flow through her entire body, filling her with comforting warmth. She felt lighter, as if she were made of that silvery glow. A few sparkling blue butterflies swirled around her, gradually increasing in number. She realized with delighted surprise that she was these butterflies, as well as the moonlight and the surrounding air.
Elder Gutknecht's words concerning those who had completed their unfinished business in the Underworld came to her: "They become the essence of the Earth and can be anything, anywhere. It is the greatest of freedoms and, in a sense, heaven." He had told her that so long ago, when she had newly arrived in the Underworld and wondered what had become of her deceased mother. She had later witnessed her father transform, after he had expressed to Emily the love he had hidden from her during their lives, as well as several others. Now it was her turn. She would at last shed that useless, decaying body.
Emily! Emily, come with us. Those voices belonged to her parents, Sara and James. We have been waiting for you.
She took a deep breath, something that she hadn't been able to do during her long stay in the Underworld, and allowed herself to join them.
She could see everything through hundreds of pairs of eyes: the town stretched below, its gloomy edifices shadow-streaked in the moonlight, the dark forest beyond, the tiny forms of Victor and Victoria watching her from the doors of the church. She was now air and moonlight and countless butterflies: all these things yet she still held a consciousness. She could fly in different directions, see multiple things at once. How limited she had been before! And amongst all this appeared the brief images of her parents as they had looked in life: her tall handsome father and beautiful mother, who had Emily's same long blue-black hair and large eyes. She was drawn into their embraces, their essences merging with hers.
We have missed you, Emily.
Countless other spirits joined them, all in the forms of mist, wind, butterflies, clouds, moonlight… Elder Gutknecht had been right. She felt complete and loved, yet a part of something larger, something greater. We are the essence of the Earth, she thought, enjoying the expansive sensation, the weightlessness of flying with hundreds of wings…
She was free but not alone.