Me: Hey guys! First month of December! Woo! Only 24 more days! Please Enjoy and Review!
Emily and Scraps led Victor up the large tower in the middle of the Land of the Dead, Scraps barking excitedly, "Shh, Scraps. Elder Gutknecht? Are you there?" Victor looked around the book-filled room in awe. This place had so many books, he was sure he could get lost there. "Hello? Is anyone home? Hello?"
Victor wasn't looking where he was going and accidentally knocked over a pile of books, scaring the crows and waking said skeleton from his nap. The old skeleton coughed before looking around as Emily smiled fondly at her pseudo grandfather, "There you are!"
Elder Gutknecht put on his moon glasses and finally was able to see Emily, "Oh, there you are, my dear. You're back earlier than normal. Usually you wait until the morning to come back."
"Yes well, I wanted you to meet my husband, Victor" Emily introduced, hugging Victor's arm happily.
"Husband? He finally came? Well good for you darling."
"Pleasure to meet you sir" Victor said a bit louder, unsure if the elderly skeleton would be able to hear him.
"We need to go up. Upstairs? To visit the land of the living."
"Again? I don't understand why you wish to go back up there when you already found your husband. Besides, people are just dying to get down here" Gutknecht said, slowly making his way to the floor, using the piles of books as stairs.
"Very funny" Emily said dully, before giving him a pleading look, "Please!"
"Please sir, it'd mean so much to m-us" Victor stumbled, almost forgetting he was there with his wife.
"Well-"
"Please!" Emily begged with a pout.
"Oh fine. Now, where did I put that book?" Victor internally winced. If he lost a book here, it would probably be weeks before he found it. Fortunately, however, it took only a few minutes, "Aha, here it is." He took the book and gathered a few bottles of potions, before going back to his desk. He flipped through the book, before looking up at Emily, "I'll just use the Ukrainian Haunting Spell instead of the spell I use to send you back this time of year. The haunting spell allows you to come back whenever you want, instead of waiting the designated time.
Emily leaned over to her husband with a smile, "So glad you thought of this."
"Me too" He muttered, feeling guilty for lying to her. They watched as Elder Gutknecht began mixing potions and other items together in a goblet. When he finished, the two waited anxiously for them to be transported to the Land of the Living, only for Elder Gutknecht to down the drink in one go instead.
"Where were we?"
"Uh, The Ukrainian Haunting Spell" Emily reminded him.
"Oh right." Elder Gutknecht then takes his crow assistant and squeezes him, making an egg plop out. Gutknecht takes the egg and holds it up to crack it, "Now, remember, when you want to come back, just say 'Hopscotch'."
"Hopscotch?" Emily giggled, remembering her time with the trickster trio when they were younger and used spiders as the rocks.
"That's it" Gutknecht replies simply, before cracking the egg and pouring the smoke over the couple, making them disappear from his view. The two soon reappear in front of the old oak tree where Victor had accidentally married Emily.
Emily smiled widely at the moon above, "I've always loved seeing the moonlight in this realm. The moon in Halloween Town doesn't compare. Then again, it's just a giant yellow circle, not a beautiful white." Unable to resist, she began to dance around, giving in to her selfish goal of entrancing her husband with the beauty and grace everyone constantly told her she had.
Victor watched his wife glide around the clearing, obviously lost in her silent music if the wide smile and slight humming has anything to say about it. His heart thumped against his chest as the guilt he felt for lying to her grew, but he had to see Victoria! Not because he wished he had married her instead, but because he doesn't. He had to explain everything to her and let her out of the arranged marriage.
Emily, while Victor was turned away and lost in thought, had accidentally tripped over a root and her bony leg snapped off as she tumbled to the ground. Maggot popped out of her ear and gestured to her leg, "I think you dropped something." Embarrassed, she quickly grabbed her leg and snapped it back in place right before her husband turned back to her. She gave him an uneasy smile, before going back to dancing around. She even tried to get her husband to join in, but he quickly, and gently, sat her on a large root instead.
"I think I should, prepare Mother and Father for the big news. I'll go ahead, and you, wait, here" Victor forced out, shoving his guilt down.
"Perfect!" Emily replied happily.
"I won't be long" Victor tells her, starting back away, "Stay right here. I'll be right back. No peeking." Emily giggled as Victor ran off towards civilization.
It took him a while to reach the Everglotts, but he soon did. He was about to knock on the front door, but then heard Victoria's parents talking about the best way to strangle him, and then decided to climb up the wall to avoid them.
Meanwhile, Emily was waiting for her husband, growing more bored by the minute. "This is the voice of your conscience. Listen to what I say. I have a bad feeling about that boy. You know, he is no-" Emily rolled her eyes at Maggot's antics and banged the side of her head, forcing the bug to shoot out of her ear.
"Go chew on someone else's ear for a while. Victor has gone to see his parents, just like he said" Emily huffed at Maggot, who wiggled his way out of the snow.
"If I hadn't just been sitting in it, I would've said you lost your mind!"
"I'm sure he has a perfectly good reason for taking so long" Emily trailed off, starting to doubt her own husband. She blamed Maggot for all the whispers in her ear.
Said bug just huffed, "I'm sure he does. Why don't you go ask him?"
"Alright, I will" Emily replied stubbornly.
"After all," Maggot continued, gesturing to the footprints Victor left behind, "He couldn't get far with those cold feet."
With Victor, he reached the second floor and knocked on the glass door when he noticed Victoria had her back turned to him. She gasped when she saw him, but opened the door, pulling him towards the fireplace, "Where have you been? Are you alright? You're as cold as death. What's happened to you? What happened to your coat?"
Victor sighed, "Victoria, I confess. I have had an...experience. This morning I was...terrified of marriage. But then on meeting you, I felt that, it wouldn't be too bad. We both got along and have similar interests. However, after I….ruined, the rehearsal, I went into the woods and...something happened."
"What is it? Did an animal attack you?" Victoria gasped, worried that he was hurt. Yes, he was right, their marriage wouldn't be too bad. At least they could be friends if nothing more, not like her parents, who didn't seem to like each other at all.
"No no. Nothing like that. Well…" Victor paused, then again, the crows flew after him, but, on second thought, they didn't really hurt him, "No. It's just, I seem to find myself already married."
"I...don't understand" Victoria said slowly, looking at Victor oddly. He didn't blame her, "How…"
"It sort of came unexpectedly. But I just wished to let you know that, with this new marriage, the arrangement our parents made is void. They cannot force our marriage any longer. You can find someone you love instead."
Victoria couldn't stop the smile that reached her face, remembering what they talked about when they first met. "Thank you Victor."
Victor nodded, happy he was able to set the innocent woman free, but gasped when saw his own spirit wife climbing up the balcony. Victoria, worried about why Victor gasped, started to turn, but Victor took her face and kept it away from the doors. "Yes well, now that that is all out of the way, there's one more thing you should. My wife, well, she isn't exactly from around here."
"What do you mean?" Victoria asked confused.
"Uh, well, you see-" However he was cut off by the doors slammed open, wind rushing in as Emily walked inside, trying to fix her veil, which had flown over her head.
"My darling, I apologize but I just couldn't wait to meet-" Emily cut herself off with a gasp at the young woman standing near her husband. Emily gave him an uneasy smile, pulling him closer by his arm, "Victor, darling, who is this?"
"Who is she?" Victoria trembled, scared by the sudden appearance by this….woman. The young victorian could see some of her bones and her skin was blue! Wh-
"I'm his wife" Emily said proudly, showing off her ring smugly. She was the one wearing Victor's ring, not this other woman! And she was going to rub it in her face. How dare she try to steal her husband!
"Victor?" Victoria asked, looking at her ex-fiance with wide eyes. When he said she wasn't from around here, he meant she was dead?! Wh-Can the living even marry the dead?! This just didn't seem right to her!
Victor had no idea what to say. 'The woman I told you about is a corpse spirit who lives in a spirit town underground'? Yeah, that'd go well. In his panic, he barely registered what he actually did, which he realized was much worse. He took Emily's hand and showed off the bony structure, "She's dead. Look."
Emily snatched her arm away from her, her anger growing. How could he betray her like this?! Why? Why did every man she loved have to betray her? Why?! Was it impossible for someone to love her? Was that it?! She backed away to the balcony, the wind seeming to match her anger, blowing harshly against them as the corpse glared at them, making her seem much more frightening than Victor thought she could be, "Hopscotch." Emily grabbed Victor's arm and dragged him with her as the crows flew around them, the magic transporting them back to the underground, despite Victor's surprised cry of 'No'.