Well, that was certainly simple enough, Barkis thought as he strolled nonchalantly out of the jailhouse and into the cool night air. He knew that luring Annabelle into his cell and locking her in wasn't going to prove to be too difficult of a task, but he had no idea it would only take a matter of minutes. All he had to do was fake a very bad headache and she ran right into his cell.

Poor, foolish little girl, Barkis thought with a slight grin, just like all the rest: naïve, little hopeless romantic. I don't think corpses even get headaches!

Barkis sauntered through the hidden alley ways of the Land of the Dead, whistling a carefree tune, but still sure to be aware of his surroundings. He knew it would be at least noon tomorrow before anyone would realize he was gone, but one could never be too careful.

Speaking of which, Barkis realized he had to start planning his next moves right away, before he was caught out in the open and tossed right back to square one.

First things first, Barkis thought, I must find a safe house. He knew that once the residents of the Land of the Dead did discover his disappearance, they would be searching for him fervently. He needed a place to lie low until some of the heat died off. After that, he would be free to execute the next phase of his plan: supplies. He figured it would take but one trip to that old decrepit looking skeletons lair to gather his supplies needed to get to the Land of the Living and complete the spell on him and Victoria.

Then my revenge will be complete, Barkis thought with a demented smile, and everything Victor and Victoria had will belong to me!

Barkis paused for a moment from his quest for a hideout to take out the crumpled up portrait he had of Victoria and study it. A great, vengeful anger rose within as he gazed upon her pure, pleasant smile.

We'll see who has the last laugh, my dear, Barkis thought. We'll see…

One Week Later…

It certainly had proved to be a hectic week for the newlyweds. Apparently settling into a new home and new lives was harder than either of them estimated.

It all started the very first day Victor and Victoria had arrived back from the honeymoon. They had just finished unpacking their belongings and were about to finally relax when each received a telegram informing them that their parents were coming for a visit to see the finished product of their new home…on the same day! Apparently neither Victor's parents nor Victoria's parents bothered to check with each other to schedule different visiting dates (both set of parents agreed on the wedding day that it was best that they not meet beyond what was necessary). Since it was too late to cancel either visit, Victor and Victoria could do nothing but brace themselves for an all-out war between both families.

And they were right to do so. As soon as both sets of parents arrived (by some freakish chance, they arrived at the exact same time), insults and threats flew back and forth. Both sets of parents wanted the other to leave, but both were to prideful to do so. After pleading with them for several minutes, Victor and Victoria managed to convince their respective parents to stay.

After a tour of the house (which was filled with looks of disdain from the Everglots and thoughtless, offensive remarks from the Van Dorts), the rest of the time was spent either sitting in awkward silence or listening to the mothers try to out-do the other with their wedding gifts. It seemed to the newlyweds that the night would never end, but miraculously it did, and their parents finally went home.

The next three days were a little less hectic. Victor began his new job as head of his father's fish market and he had to admit, it wasn't as bad a job as he thought. He had many people helping him learn the tricks of the trade and he found he had a slight knack for making good business decisions (not a large knack, but a knack none the less).

However good he was at his work, Victor always enjoyed going home the best. Victoria would run out of wherever she had happened to be to the foyer to greet him with a smile and a kiss. He would then proudly tell her of the things he was able to accomplish that day. They would then spend the rest of their evening happily reading together or sitting outside in their enormous, lush garden. They even started getting into the habit of going for strolls through the village, arm in arm.

That, however, created a problem of its own. It seemed that though the inhabitants of the village forgave Victor and Victoria for the dead walking the earth incident, but the slightest hint of any abnormal behavior would send their suspicions a flame once again, including happiness. The townspeople had never seen, well, any couple as happy as Victor and Victoria were much less a couple brought together by an arranged marriage. They couldn't believe the newlyweds actually enjoyed each other. It was so uncommon. This, of course, sent more rumors of plagues and evil spirits flying once more. Consequently, the Van Dorts became the most avoided couple in the entire village. Not that they minded, quite the contrary actually. It lifted the pressure of attending dull tea parties and galas. Victor and Victoria were perfectly content being the social outcasts and spending all their time with only each other.

Anyway, that was what Victor affectionately liked to call "peace time", for the very next day, just as him and his wife were getting used to their new little routine, the doorbell rang. Having a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach, Victor hesitantly answered the door, and lo and behold, it was his mother. It seemed that in an attempt to finally trump over Victoria's mother's wedding gifts, she "generously" decided to hire a small servant staff to assist the newlyweds. Since they discovered that Victoria had no domestic skills (Victor had found her a couple of days ago standing in the middle of a completely disastrous kitchen covered in flour from head to toe, apparently after attempting to surprise him by cooking dinner), they had no choice but to accept Nell Van Dort's wedding gift.

So for the next two days, Victor and Victoria tried their best to deal with their new staff. But they soon discovered that when Victor's mother said she had hired a new staff for them, she meant she had scraped the bottom of the barrel to find the cheapest staff possible. The two young ladies and the older man she had hired for them were absolutely impossible to handle.

The first young lady, whom they had put in charge of the kitchen and the meals, had even worse culinary skills than Victoria. She managed to burn every single meal they ate. The Van Dorts tried to give her a chance, but after she gave Victor food poisoning, she was out.

The second young lady was put in charge of cleaning, but that decision was a dire mistake. The newlyweds soon discovered that she was perhaps the one person on earth who was clumsier than Victor. She managed to break a countless number of vases, wax the floor to wear no one could walk on it without falling (Victor discovered that the hard way), and cause more stains than she cleaned up. Victor and Victoria had no choice but to let her go.

The older man was Victor's least favorite, however. From the moment he stepped into the house, he seemed to have to great an interest in Victoria. He soon appointed himself personal servant to her and insisted on being the one to assist her with her coats when she left, help her onto the carriage, and bring her anything she requested at any time of the day. Not wanting to appear like a jealous husband, Victor could do nothing but sit back and silently fume. But as soon as Victoria voiced her uneasiness about the man's attention, Victor couldn't fire him fast enough.

After that disastrous situation, Victor and Victoria decided that it would be best if they picked out servants for themselves. They searched extensively and finally stumbled across a nice, older couple and their cousinwho had been looking for work as a trio for years but no one had been willing to hire them. Victor and Victoria took a liking to all three of them instantly, and by the end of the week, the three of them were all moved in and officially part of the Van Dort staff.

After that, things finally started to settle down once again. Victor and Victoria were beginning to fall back into their comfortable routine again, and the newly hired staff was quickly becoming part of the family.

Now, as Victor sits in his studio (as he liked to call it) and watches Victoria busily knit away, he sighs contently.

"Things will get better know," he whispers. "I just know it."

"What was that, dear," Victoria asked from across the room.

"Nothing darling," Victor responds quickly, not realizing that he said that aloud. He smiles at her and quickly returns back to the artwork at hand, confident in and completely content with his new life.