Chapter Seven:

New Arrival

~TLH~

"Oh, it's almost dawn…" Caballine looked outside of her carriage. "Where could she be?"

"Holly Short elopes with corpse! Young groom to wed wealthy newcomer!" How did the town crier have such convenient timing?

"Wealthy newcomer? It cannot be," Caballine searched the horizon for any sign of her adoptive daughter.

"I don't know if you noticed, darling, but the crier said corpse," Foaly scratched his head.

"Don't be ridiculous... What corpse would marry Holly?"

From outside the carriage, a rather disturbing sound emerged from under the coach driver.

"Mulch! Please, stop passing gases, or at least silence them."

Another burst escaped the coach driver's rear end. "Sorry, must be something I ate," mumbled Mulch. His stomach was aching so badly.

He had not been feeling exactly well in the last few days and now it was getting even worst.

A sharp pain hit his stomach like a knife; and then, Mulch rolled from his seat to end up lifeless on the ground.

"Mulch? Are you trying to kill us?" Wondered Foaly, not noticing that the driver was gone...

~TLH~

Holly wandered the Land of the Dead feeling confused about what would be the right thing to do next.

Walking near-by Juliet's pub, she was so lost in her thoughts that she nearly tripped over a small metallic object.

She looked down on the ground to find a knife, Trouble's dagger. Artemis must have had tossed it there.

She picked it up, feeling uneasy about what Trouble had done with it. She could almost hear a dramatic music in the background as she thought back on the events.

Wait, there really is some music playing...

She stopped breathing for a second, letting her ears guide her in the pub, where someone played the piano.

Artemis was seated by the instrument, lost in the beautiful music his fingers managed to create, even in death.

Holly quietly walked towards him… "Artemis... I'm so sorry you had to deal with Trouble and I," she sat beside him, still clutching the knife. "It's just that this whole day hasn't gone quite, well... According to plan. And everything is my fault."

Artemis appeared to be ignoring her, continuing to play.

Holly sighed and bit her tongue not to spit bitter words at him. She was the one who had the right to be angry, not him! She had been abducted by a corpse who assumed that she would give him her heart to compensate for his actual absence of heart. She was the one whose fiancé almost killed her by trying to kill the corpse.

"Why are you here?" The young man's voice lacked emotions. He was still playing.

"I just heard you play… And –"

"I played back when I was alive, and well, it's the only thing I can still do in death…"

"I'm sure that's not true," she watched his fingers brush the keyboard and wished that she knew a little bit more about music.

"What is that piece called?" She wondered, fascinated by how Artemis transformed notes in melodies.

"The Moonlight Sonata…" replied the corpse. "Written by Beethoven."

"It's very beautiful… Though kind of depressing."

"Just like being dead."

"It's not what the others around here seem to think." She thought back of Juliet and how she was always so positive. "You know what I do when I feel down?" A smile played across her lips.

"How would I possibly know?" Artemis stopped playing, turning his attention to the living woman "And to me, being dead is very depressing, for your information…"

Holly sighed. "Actually, you would be the very first one I would tell about this, because my parents would never approve of my pastime... See, my adoptive dad develops weapons and every now and then, I look through his old models and head for the forest. Then I just shoot on targets." She smiled, speaking very softly, as if she wanted to make sure that no one but Artemis would hear.

"So… Those sounds came from you…" murmured the dead man, "I've heard you…"

Holly tried to figure how he could have possible heard her fire her gun in the middle of nowhere in the forest, but then remembered that it was exactly where she had - or rather – he had found her.

"Pardon my pastime," she smiled.

"Well, you seemed to enjoy yourself. And that is the overall desired effect of pastime, is it not?"

A loud bell suddenly rang from the main room of the pub, followed by Juliet's voice. "New arrival! New arrival!" She nearly singed.

Cheerful corpses filled the room, ordering drinks and getting ready to welcome the newly dead.

"Are they always like that when someone arrives?" Holly stood up as Juliet greeted the newcomer.

"Yes... Awfully noisy for dead people."

Holly's eyes grew wide as she scanned the pub. "Mulch?" She could only see the man's back, but she knew that it was him. "How nice to see..." At the sound of her voice, the short man turned around, revealing a blue-ish skin tone. He was dead.

"Oh, hi Miss Holly!" He gave her a smile, revealing his huge teeth.

"I am so sorry..." she whispered.

He took a few steps towards her. "Don't be sorry, I feel great!"

"That would be because you don't feel at all," mumbled Artemis.

"He, he! So true," grinned Mulch. "But I prefer not feeling anything; my last few days were rather painful. I think I ate something rotten."

The waitress with the sewn mouth offered Mulch something to drink, which he instantly accepted.

"Mulch, how is everyone up there?" Asked Holly pointing to the ceiling.

"Well, they're still wondering where you slipped off to." He paused to drink. "Oh, and Trouble's getting married this evening."

"What?" Holly was in disbelief. "Married to who?"

"Oh, some newcomer, Lady What's-her-face, or something like that."

Holly groaned. The good thing was that now she would not be forced to marry him.

"With you gone and all... I guess they didn't wanna waste the cake." Mulch shrugged.

"Typical." murmured Orion's voice from Artemis's ear.

"Can you believe it? Everyone in town thinks that you are married to a corpse and that you escaped in the night with him," Mulch was thinking that it was a pretty comical situation.

"I can believe it," said the maggot, climbing on Artemis's shoulder, "You've got the fellow right here."

"Oh goodness!" Mulch starred at Holly with the biggest surprised smile she ever saw. "Talking maggots! This place is great!"

"Not when he inhabits your brain, believe me, it's far from being great," murmured Artemis, picking up Orion, "Didn't I make it clear? Keep quiet or I'll leave you to the crows."

"If that really is your husband, he's got quite the temper," said Mulch to Holly. "I can see the similarities."

Artemis raised an eyebrow at Mulch, "I beg you pardon?"

"I think you should shut up, Mulch." Holly crossed her arms around her chest.

"See, she's got an attitude too," said the short and hairy man.

"Can't argue on that," came Orion's voice

"So... Would you two explain to me how we all missed your wedding," asked Mulch, not even bothering with the fact that Artemis was dead.

"We are only technically married," mumbled Holly. "It's really not what you think."

"True…" Confirmed Artemis. "It was more a misunderstanding…"

"Well, that's a grave misunderstanding, let me tell ya," Mulch winked.

Holly was not amused. "Yes, I know. I ruined everyone's plans," she frowned.

Mulch didn't like to see Holly like that. "Lighten up! Everything is going to be fine. Listen, Trouble will get a rich wife that is not you, which I think you enjoy and… And…" he wondered what would happen then. As far as he was concerned, he was going to enjoy himself in the Land of the Dead, but Holly was not exactly in the right state to do the same. And with that corpse groom, what options did she have left anyway? "How married are you two exactly?" Asked the short man spontaneously.

Artemis rolled his eyes. "There is only one kind of marriage," he said... eyes going to the ring.

"I was just wondering… Because, you know, you don't seem especially full of joy regarding your union."

"Being dead, tends to take the joy out of most things," snapped the raven-haired corpse.

"Now you're just breaking my heart," said Mulch dramatically. "Destroying my dreams! Being dead was so fun up until now."

Artemis tensed. He took a step back form his wife and the short man. "Oh…" Orion dragged the word. "Sensitive subject…"

"What?" Even Holly was looking at Mulch as if he had done something wrong. "Did I say anything I wasn't supposed to say?"

"Oh, you are new, you don't know the thrilling tale… Such a foul fate…" began the maggot. "You see, Master Fowl here got his heart literally cut out of his chest so…" the maggot lowered his voice, moving closer to Mulch, "No heart puns around him…"

"Oh, sorry boy. Do you want to hear the story of how I died?" Not waiting for an answer, Mulch went right ahead. "It's actually really funny... I had some troubles with my digestive system for a little while and I probably ate something bad, which caused–"

Holly cut him right off, maybe because Mulch's grin was terrifyingly amused. "We don't want to know every detail!"

"Personally, I had enough misery in life… Thank you very much…" added Artemis.

"I did not suffer for a very long time, you know, the pity should be on the noses of those who surrounded me in my last days."

"I am one of those persons," sighed Holly. "I know how gassy you were."

"Still, you got all the organs inside…" murmured Artemis, "Nor were you murdered."

"Speaking of murders," Holly bit her lip. "Do you think that my parents will want to kill me after today?" She had been so worried about her parents being worried that only asking the question to Mulch felt like a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

"I'm not too sure about that. Last time I saw them, their carriage was rolling on top of me and they were looking for you in order to get you to the wedding in time, but then, the town crier said that you left with a corpse and then I died."

"Why do you even ask, lovely lady?" wondered Orion, turning to Holly. "You can't leave this place anyway."

That was it. The thing that had been on everyone's mind through most of the conversation… The thing that Artemis and Holly never dared to admit and face out loud.

Holly Short, the girl who had been promised to Trouble Kelp, the one who had ran away from their rehearsal ceremony, the one who had never had any feelings for anyone... The one who wanted nothing but her free will… She had dug her own grave apparently.