Chapter 3 - Goodbyes
As per usual, not my characters, based on a theory I once read! Enjoy and please review, this is, after all, my first story!
"I know that I am dead... Yet it seems that I still have some tears to shed."
Victor rode through town, headed back to home. His home. Dear Victoria awaited him there, where he would have to tell her...
What was I to tell her? he thought, an ache forming behind his eyes.
Where is home? he thought, looking around him.
The town crier was out, spouting off news. He was several generations past the crier that Victor once knew, but he looked much the same. Everyone in town passed their jobs on to their sons - the butcher now was the butcher's son, and he was training his son to be the butcher when he grew older. The fish monger was the old fish monger's son, who was training his daughter to take up the job when she grew old enough. The shopkeepers, the blacksmith... they all did the same. The town would never change, and Victor was thankful.
"Extra, extra, read all about it! Boy discovered wiff scissors for hands! Barber convicted of-"
"Excuse me, young man," Victor said quietly. Politely. He hadn't ever spoken to this crier. "But can you please point me in the direction of my home?"
For a moment, the crier looked perplexed. Suddenly, it was as if a light shone behind his eyes: the spark of recognition.
"You're the old man at the edge of town what plays wiff bugs! Mister Van Dort, what lost his own fambily's fortune!" he exclaimed, "Sure thing, mister! You live as far west as this road might take you! Are you alright, sir? You look sort of... green."
"It's simply that... I don't quite remember why I was going home... or where I was," he hesitated.
"Oh I see. Well, good luck, sir," the boy said, before wailing again. "Extra, extra! Read all about it! Old man Van Dort forgets it all! Looks a bit green around the gills!"
Victor frowned and hung his head. That certainly didn't help him to feel better about anything, did it? Or did it?
With the help of his old nag, he was able to navigate home. He was lucky it was straight down the road. He dismounted and walked into the parlor, where his beautiful Victoria sat playing her piano with her withered hands. He sat next to her wordlessly and began to play alongside her. His muscles remembered much better than he did, and he closed his eyes as they played their song together.
As it ended, she turned to him and quietly put a hand over his. "Victor, what did Elder Gutknecht say to you, my love?"
He opened his eyes, meeting hers. They were already forming slight cataracts. He had never had much problem with his eyesight aside from the typical blurring of old age, but now his vision was deeply clouded.
"Elder Gutknecht?"
"Yes, my darling, isn't that where you went?" she asked softly.
"Oh, yes. Yes, it is," he said, his brow furrowing worriedly. "Now what was it that he told me?"
Victoria finally began to lose her composure. It was all happening too quickly for her to process. Her typically calm expression broke, tears falling down her face. "Victor, my love, what was it that he said? Can this be fixed?"
Suddenly he remembered what the man had told him. He put his free hand over hers, upturning his palm beneath hers. "Victoria, my love, I... I cannot stay in this world. I must leave this place, to... well, to somewhere I can fit in as a living corpse."
"Well, where are we going, my love?" she said, wiping away a tear from her cheek and calming down once more. If only for a moment, she had her true love back.
Only for a moment.
"I'm going, my dear... I have to go alone. To a place called Halloweentown," he said, softly. His own eyes would fill with tears, if he could cry.
Her own replaced his, her cheeks damp once more with tears. "I will come visit you every single day, I promise."
"I'm... I'm afraid you can't, Victoria. I am sorry. I love you," he said, crying tearlessly.
There are moments in life when you can feel your heart sink. There are moments in life when your heart can break, when you can feel it stop in your chest for only a moment as if to pause to make certain that what you care about the most has truly been shattered.
For Victoria, this moment was now.
"What do you mean, Victor?" she sobbed, her lip quivering.
"I have until tomorrow," he choked out, "and then I have to leave you."
"No!" she shouted, her hands shaking, "How could he! I'll go explain to him, I'll go ask him for you to stay-"
"I can't, please understand-"
"He can't make you go! He can't!"
"He can't, but I must... I have no place here, a walking skeleton has no place in this world, Victoria..."
"Please don't leave me," she cried, wiping at her eyes to no avail, "Victor I love you..."
"Then, just for tonight... just for tonight, please just spend time with me. Love me, as I love you, and we'll pretend it won't ever have to change."