Well... this chapter comes with a good new and a bad one.
The good is that it came in less than two weeks! (cheers!)
The bad is that it is quite short... (boo!)
The reason for both of this news is that this is the last chapter of 'Living'.
Now, before anyone sets out to kill me, I am not putting an end to Elli's story just yet. I just think that, for esthetic and organizational reasons, it will be better for me to continue this fic in a sequel. =)
I'll post an AN here to let you all know when I update the sequel's first chapter.
Now, do enjoy the epilogue of 'Living'! ;)
OBS: this chapter is not in Elli's POV.
Not even two days after losing the cross-dressing girl and the mortuary returned to its original state. Dusty, dirty, unorganized. It was very nostalgic to see everything how it was for many, many years; before that strange girl had arrived and changed everything. Of course, she was following Undertaker's orders, but, if it depended on him, the place would never had its messy appearance changed.
Strangely, no matter how much room the coffins, the bottles, the papers, the spider-webs and the chairs (why had the mortician bought chairs, anyway? He never saw need in them before…) occupied, the mortuary seemed a little lonely too.
Well, it was kind of a waste to have just one person living in it.
Maybe Undertaker could take a protégé…. Those kids that had come to visit the girl when she got sick seemed funny enough; they would surely fill up the place.
If only Undertaker had not annoyed the blonde and scared the redhead….
At least more of the mortician's regular, living guests resumed to come and visit. Well, truth be told, they didn't spend much time - just came to ask questions or talk about business that Undertaker didn't want the girl to know about - and many of them were unpleasant men and women, but it was still something.
BRING-BRING
Talking about unpleasant men…
The man who entered was never liked here in the mortuary, but after the cross-dressing girl had arrived and told Undertaker about him, he was downright despised. His butler had been, and still was, hated.
"Marquis Chamberlin~!" Undertaker sang and, for anyone who actually knew him, it was obvious that the sweetness of his voice was masquerading poison. "What can I do for you on this fine day~?"
The platinum man scanned the mortuary in distaste. It was enraging how he came into the place as if he owned it and still had the audacity to outright disdain it. Well, at least, he was as cynical as Undertaker in masquerading it with a smile and a sweet voice.
"Good afternoon, Undertaker. It has been quite some time, no?" Ah, that man sure loved to do small talk. Did he think that would win Undertaker over?
"Indeed." Undertaker replied, motioning for the platinum man and his butler to sit on the new chairs. "And I do apologize for postponing a little-"
"Five months." The man cut in with a smile as bitter as a lemon and sat down; his butler standing behind his chair still as a gargoyle.
"-your visit. But I had been a little busy, you see~."
Very busy, running from mansion to mansion, visiting all the clients that would usually come to him, all to keep that strange girl's existence hidden. Only the platinum Marquise's house he refused to visit, and only the boy-Earl he allowed to come.
Now, thinking back, it is obvious that the mortician had planned for the girl to go to the boy a long time ago. That would surely be a problem to that platinum man's plans.
"Busy with our 'Bizarre Dolls' I trust?"
Even though Undertaker didn't show, it was easy to know that it pained him to hear that man referring to his sweet creations as theirs. They were Undertaker's and they would always be Undertaker's.
"Of course~." It was not a complete lie; in the solitude of his room, the mortician worked hard on perfecting his creations. "They will soon be ready for their debut gala~!"
A pleased, feral grin stretched on the Marquise's lips. "Wonderful! For I know just the place to present them to the world."
"Oh, really?"
"Don't worry; you will still have time to work on them." But Undertaker was not worried about the time; he was worried about the strange girl being there to presence his 'Bizarre Dolls' in action. He knew that the girl would never be able to understand their beauty. "There are still months before the Campania sets sail."
"The Campania~?" Undertaker echoed, tilting his head to the side. "But, don't you think that the Queen's watchdog may be aboard?"
"I am sure he will." The platinum man answered. "It'll be a perfect chance for me to see what he is capable of."
It angered Undertaker. Of course, the mortician knew that the platinum man just wanted to use his 'Bizarre Dolls' as a pawn of his chess game, but they were so much more than that! Here in the mortuary, Undertaker gives his sweat and blood to make sure they are perfect and that man still refers to them as simple sacrifices for his schemes…
No matter, he'd see how wrong he was. Not here, unfortunately, but in the Campania.
"Well, now that I know that you're still hell-bent on working in the 'Bizarre Dolls', I guess I can give you the good news. Boris."
Without a word, the butler left the mortuary for a few seconds and returned with a suitcase in hand. He laid it on one of the coffins on the floor and opened it.
"Money?" Undertaker asked, looking from the case's content to the Marquise.
"And there's much more from where that came from." The platinum man informed, raising himself from the chair. "It is all so you can quadruplicate the amount of 'Bizarre Dolls' you're making."
Undertaker grinned widely to the platinum man. "Quadruplicate? Maybe you're not only worried about seeing the watchdog's strength, my dear Marquise~. What are you going to check? The 'Bizarre Dolls' power? Something happened to renew your interest in my beautiful creations?"
Rage flashed in the platinum man's eyes, before they returned to their warm, amused and fake state.
"Not at all, Undertaker. If it had, I am sure you would know." The platinum man started to walk towards the door. His movements halted for a moment as he stared at the ground. "I am just not sure if you'd tell me about it."
"Me~? Withholding information from you~? That's just preposterous!" Undertaker spoke overly-dramatically. "To think that we have been friends for such a long time…"
The platinum man raised his gaze to the mortician and gave him a bitter-sweet smile. "Of course I am only kidding. Anyway, I must leave now. See you in three months."
With that, the platinum man and his butler left. Unlike the cross-dressing girl's, their departure did not have one negative effect; it was all better without them. Undertaker shared this opinion, relaxing his shoulders and dropping his weight on one of the chairs. There was a moment of calm.
It was the calm before the storm. Before Undertaker's eyes fell onto the same spot the platinum man's had been a moment before.
There on the ground laid one of the cross-dressing girl's favorite books, a child's book, a dreamer's book, a book that Undertaker would never read nor possess: 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'.
Unexpectedly, Undertaker grinned from ear to ear.
"You may even find her, my dear Cyril, but you won't be able to take her away from the watchdog. I couldn't keep her here, away from the dark, twisted world you two live in, but you won't be able to get her either."
By letting the boy-Earl meet the girl, he made him interested in getting her as a chess-piece. By letting the cross-dressing girl meet Madam Lewis and see her parents' grave, he made her want to go to the boy-Earl. By pretending that he didn't want her to go, he made it seem as if he had nothing to do with it.
Undertaker knew she would get involved in everything and that he would not be able to protect her from it. Not unless he gave up his 'Bizarre Dolls'.
He had to choose between his perfect 'Bizarre Dolls' and not allowing the cross-dressing girl - one of the few people he met that suffered far too much from pain and lost but didn't hold it against the world - to become a chess piece to the game of the great, dark nobles.
Well, at least he let her with the least twisted player.
Yes, this chapter is in a third person's POV, but I had one "special character" in mind when I was writing it. The first to PM me with the right answer gets a... a...
I don't know! An one-shot is good enough?
I honestly don't know why I'm doing that... Guess I'm in the mood to tease. XDXD
Anyway, you can just ignore what I just said if you want to, but, as always, please let me know what you think about the chapter. ;)
Kisses,
RedVoid
