Disclaimer: I do not own any part of The Corpse Bride. This fanfiction is for entertainment purposes only.
Chapter Ten: The Revenge of Love
Victor turned to see the man who had been at his wedding rehearsal with Victoria come into the church, wiping a fake tear away from his eye. "I always cry at weddings," he fake congratulated them.
Victoria gasped and hid behind him.
"Our young lovers together at last," the man continued, walking up to aisle towards them. "Surely now they can live happily ever after," he stated.
Barkis came to stand before Victor, holding up a finger, "But you forget," he said, "she's still my wife!" he yelled yanking Victoria roughly out from behind him. "I'll not leave here empty-handed!" he declared.
"You?" Emily whispered, obviously surprised.
Barkis looked at her and visibly gulped. "Emily?" he asked, suddenly sounding uncertain.
"You!" Emily repeated, accusing him with one word.
"But -- But -- I left you," he stated, shocked.
"For dead," Emily replied, her voice a ghost of its former self, looking momentarily haunted by her memories.
Victor ignored the stunned gasps of the witnesses as he felt a cold fury fill him.
This was the man that betrayed and murdered Emily? Who left her to pine for years to find her true love?
"This woman is obviously delusional," Barkis tried to defame her, backing away from the altar with Victoria held captive.
He saw Bonesapart and wrenched the sword free from his chest, holding the blade dangerously close to Victoria's throat.
"Sorry to cut things short," he sneered, "but we must be on our way."
No. Victor wouldn't let him kill another innocent bride.
"Take your hands off her," Victor ordered him, glaring at Barkis as he walked closer to the coward and his hostage.
"Do I have to kill you too?" Barkis asked, taking the sword from Victoria's throat and placing the point against Victor's jacket. Victor didn't move, didn't twitch.
So what if Barkis ran him through? He was still planning on joining Emily in death. Did it really matter the manner how it was achieved?
Barkis suddenly screamed, jerking away, letting the sword fall a little to the side.
Apparently, Scraps had taken the opportunity to bite Barkis' leg.
Victoria took the opportunity to run away from her dangerous husband.
"Victor, catch!" Miss Plum yelled, pulling something from the other chef's back and throwing it to him.
Victor caught it, but was startled to see it was a serving fork instead of a knife.
"Sorry," Miss Plum apologized somewhat sheepishly.
Barkis swung viscously at Victor, but Victor managed to deflect it with the side of the fork, which gave Victor a few precious seconds to dodge out of the way of the next strike and making Barkis stumble forward into the altar. The evil lord recovered quickly and charged toward him again, continually striking at him with the stolen sword. Victor backed into a stone pillar, barely ducking another swing that would have taken his head off and darting around the pillar to stab Barkis in the thigh with the rather sharp fork tines. Barkis yelped, straightening and slapping one hand over the injury before spinning around, swiping at two corpses who were unlucky enough to be in the way, barely missing poor Paul and taking off the top of another cook's hat. The lord twisted around, hacking down at Victor with the sword but Victor somehow managed to keep catching the sword between the fork tines, forcing Barkis to withdraw the sword and try again.
"I say, you're not playing fair, sir," someone behind him said.
Victor dodged to the side to avoid being cleaved in two. Ducking under another of Barkis' wild swings, the sword lodged firmly in the wood of a pew. Barkis wrenched it free, but Victor managed to take a swipe at him with the fork, leaving three gashes in Barkis' waistcoat. Barkis swung at him again and Victor caught it in the fork tines and managed to duck under a pew when Barkis withdrew.
The sword started stabbing down through the relatively thin wood, Barkis evidently trying to impale Victor, but missing through chance. Victor took the opportunity to thrust his weapon up through one of the holes and managed to stab one of Barkis' feet, apparently causing him to fall off the pew and allowing Victor time to crawl out from beneath the pew.
He stood up but had the fork knocked away from him before he had time to ready himself, being quickly kicked in the stomach, back onto the dais by the altar.
Barkis held the sword tip in front of Victor's face but Victor only glared unwaveringly at him.
Barkis grinned pulling the sword back slightly and stabbing it forward.
And stuck it through Emily who had dashed between them in time to stop the sword from impaling him.
Barkis jerked back with a gasp, releasing the sword, apparently not used to stabbing dead people.
Victor supposed it was logical. When you had a sword through someone you gained both an advantage and a disadvantage. The advantage being that the person you had just impaled was usually in too much pain to make any type of retaliation; but the disadvantage being that it also left you open. If you didn't hit the right place, it would give the person stabbed the advantage of leverage to get the sword away from you and possibly use it on you.
And dead people couldn't be injured by being run through.
Victor scrambled out from behind her, stepping away to allow her the room to do whatever she wished to punish her murderer.
Emily glared at him, withdrawing the sword and holding it at Barkis.
"Touché, my dear," he smiled, gloating.
"Get out," Emily tells him in a cold voice.
Victor watched as Barkis circled her, absently pulling Victoria further away for her safety.
Barkis went to the altar and picked up the goblet of wine, "But first, a toast," he reveled. "To Emily," he said, raising the goblet in salute, "Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. Tell me, my dear," he continued, smoothing back his hair arrogantly. "Can a heart still break once it's stopped beating?" he asked.
Emily looks like she was about to cry, spurring Victor forward several steps before he realized something.
The wine…
The assembled corpses obviously felt the same as he as they had suddenly formed a small horde, looking like they were about to mob the black-hearted lord.
Elder Gutknecht barred their way with his weakened skeletal body.
The corpses had too much respect for him to trample over him.
"We must abide by their rules," he said, keeping his arms up to block the corpses from stampeding Barkis. "We are amongst the living," he reminded them.
"Well said," Barkis toasted them, drinking the wine. He sighed, throwing the goblet disrespectively to the side and walking away from them.
He only got to the door before he choked suddenly, bending over, clutching his chest and bracing himself against the door.
Victor couldn't help the surely evil looking smirk that he knew had formed on his lips, making him wonder if he didn't have a little mean streak somewhere in him.
"Not anymore," the maggot gloated.
Barkis turned to face them, gasping, face already blue.
"Yep. You're right. He's all yours," Elder Gutknecht said, letting the crowd pass unhindered.
Barkis frantically tried the door to escape the oncoming corpses, but as soon as he managed to do so, the dead pushed him inside, crowding around him.
"New arrival," Miss Plum said gleefully, holding the fork as she closed the door on Barkis' screams.
"Oh Victor," Victoria said, suddenly giving Victor a gentle hug and distracting him from his thoughts, "no one would believe me."
"You told people I had been kidnapped by a corpse?" he asked, surprised at her daring.
"You didn't seem like you wanted to go with her. It seemed to be the least I could do for you for releasing me from my parent's promise."
Victor couldn't help but smile, amazed that he had somehow managed to find such a good friend who was willing to be publicly called insane for his sake after just two brief meetings.
"Thank you," he said, kissing her cheek, "but-" he stopped, seeing Emily beginning to walk away from them.
"Wait!" he called, starting forward and grabbing hold of Emily's hand to halt her progress. "Where are you going?"
A/N: I'm not sure if 'disrespectively' is a real word or not, but it fit the sentence and I couldn't find another word that did as well. My apologies if it's not a real word.
This chapter is entitled what it is because I always felt that Emily facing Barkis was a big point of growth for her. He murdered her and she faced him down. The fact that he no longer frightened her proved that he no longer had power over her.