LIWDF chap 5
Disclaimer: What do Corpse Bride and Toy Story have in common? I don't own either of them! Sniff. And I have to tell myself that every day. Sniff.
Okay, chapter five. In this chapter 'the plan' is put into effect, so hold onto your computer screens. This is probably the penultimate chapter, but we'll see. :)
Thank you to my wonderful reviewers! You cheer me up and help me to update!
Oh, forgive me if this chapter is dark. It sort of wrote itself that way and I went with it. Please, nobody hate me, as you know I promised a happy ending. ;)
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Mist.
Nothing ever seems more ghostly and mysterious than this cool, silent vapor which steals gently and unobtrusively around us until we are smothered in its moist embrace.
The mist crept through the dense undergrowth of the forest, seeping through the gaps between bracken and bush, and winding reproachfully around the legs of the two people who dared intrude on its quiet solitude.
Victoria dropped to her knees once again, exhausted and trembling. As she collapsed the mist puffed up around her dirty wedding dress, then settled again like a gray blanket.
Barkis let go of her disdainfully, wiping his hand on his jacket as though she were something slimy and unpleasant, and assessed the clearing with a practiced eye. Through the mist the gaunt shapes of trees faded in and out of sight, gnarly, twisted branches clawing at the air. His feet crunched on unseen twigs as he scanned for watchers. At last he stepped back, satisfied.
This was far enough from the village.
Victoria, meanwhile, was crouched in the center of the clearing, head down and silent. However, with the certainty of death had come a decision. Slowly, under cover of the mist the young bride peeled off her gloves, soiled now and sodden. Then her pale hands moved slowly over the leaf mold in a desperate search. At last they closed on a large rock with a sharp, broken edge. She brushed the leaves off her prize, and swiftly concealed it under her dress, just as Barkis finished his inspection.
Victoria would not go down without a fight.
He came striding back to her then, arrogance in every line of his face. He still carried his gun in his right hand. On a sudden inspiration, Victoria cried out, staring at something behind her husband. The man turned slightly, and Victoria took the opportunity to rise, tattered skirt flying, and leap at him, brandishing her make-shift weapon in one hand.
But he was too fast.
Turning back swiftly, Barkis caught her rock-holding hand and smashed the butt of his gun into the side of her head. She went limp and he threw her to the frozen ground, where she lay, her outline unclear in the mist. He spat contemptuously into the cloudy whiteness and curled his lip, then raised his gun and took aim at her prostrate form.
"Murderer..."
He paused and looked uneasily around him for the source of the wispy, accusing voice, carried on the rising wind. The branches above his head rubbed and scratched at each other as though they were hands seeking warmth and he heard the faint cawing of crows.
When he heard nothing more for several minutes, Barkis again turned to the task at hand. He raised his gun once more.
"Muuuurderer..."
This time Barkis turned suddenly in the direction he thought the voice had come from, gun still raised as he fought the goose pimples slowly emerging on his neck and arms.
"It's just the wind," he murmured to himself, peering into the wall of grayness surrounding him.
There was a bitter, haunting laugh from somewhere he couldn't place and the voice spoke again.
"No, Barkis," it informed him mockingly, becoming stronger as it continued. "Out of the two of us, you are more full of wind than I."
The voice now had a familiar sound to it, and Barkis began to suspect this was just someone playing a prank. Perhaps one of those common people who lived in this pathetic excuse for a town.
"Who's there?" he called, anger masking the nameless terrors lurking in his heart. "Show yourself!"
"With pleasure," said the voice, and a figure began to emerge, as though by magic, from the wall of mist. Barkis was now certain he had heard the voice before. It was feminine, but held a spark of disdainful fire.
As the figure became clearer Barkis could discern that she was dressed in a long flowing wedding gown, its tatters flying in the wind like white, ghostly wings. A lacy, ragged vale covered her long, blue hair and masked her face, and of her outstretched arms, one was blue flesh, the other white bone.
Barkis recoiled, he had convinced himself the abominations in the Everglot mansion had been hallucinations, and even if he hadn't, the dead bride, wreathed in mist, was far more frightening.
The corpse bride was now fully reveled, just enough mist surrounding her to make her image slightly otherworldly. Now she raised her fleshed hand, the right one, and lifted the vale, sweeping it away from her face in one fluid motion. Barkis took a half step back, feeling icy sweat break out on his forehead and trickle down the small of his back. That face...
"Don't you remember me, Barkis?" asked the bride sweetly.
"Emily!" he gasped out. "No, it can't be!"
"I know it's been a while." Fained understanding in her too nice voice. "Love 'em and leave 'em, right? Only you seem to leave them...for dead. Now dropping her facade, Emily smiled in quite a wicked manner, and came a few steps closer, backing Barkis into the center of the clearing.
"You know," Emily continued pleasantly. "Since I died I made quite a few friends. And they really aren't happy about the way I was treated."
As soon as she spoke other forms began to slowly emerge from all around. Barkis turned, and turned again, as the forms became clearer and he saw protruding bones, men with holes in their chests, and other horrors.
He backed away from the corpses in front of him, then felt something run over his foot and looked down on a bodiless head, supported by scurrying cockroaches. He tried to run to his left and smacked right into the corpse of a proper looking man, who split his body into two halves upon the collision and stared at Barkis, open hatred in his eyes.
Desperate, Barkis ducked around the split man and put his back to a tree. The next instant something landed in his hair, and then a great, black spider ran down his forehead and over his nose, pinching that appendage rather sharply as it went. Barkis let out an animalistic whimper and cowered against the tree trunk.
When he dared to look up Emily was standing there, vale whipping around her slender frame from the force of the wind.
"You had better run, Barkis," Emily stated, eyes hard as black diamonds. "Keep running and don't come back. And if you ever hurt anyone again we'll find out, Barkis. The dead can see everything," she said. Then she bent forward, a green maggot poking his head from her ear and glaring as she did.
"Run," the corps bride said. And he did.
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As soon as Barkis's terrified figure was out of site a wild cheer erupted from the group of corpses. Victor ran to Emily and swung her around in a wild dance. There was hand shaking and back slapping all around.
After a moment the newlyweds stopped dancing and just held each other. Victor wrapped his arms around his wife and let her rest her lace valed head on his shoulder. Emily was crying, but they were tears of happiness. She had stood up to her murderer, faced her fear. And she had won.
"You were wonderful, Emily." Victor's voice was so full of love and pride it seemed about to overflow.
"It was your plan, darling," Emily told him, snuggling closer.
"Maybe, but you made him tremble." Emily giggled, feeling like the bubbly teenager she had died as, but lost touch with for so long.
Just then, the party who had been sent to carry Victoria to safety and revive her rounded the crest of the hill above the clearing. The high wind had begun to blow the mist away, so Victor's group could see them quite plainly as they picked their way down the hill. Three skeletons, lead by Bonejangles and carrying Victoria between them. She was not moving, and her escort looked so grim the corpses below stopped celebrating and watched silently.
Reaching the hill's bottom, Bonejangles helped to lay Victoria gently on the ground. The other corpses gathered round. No one spoke, they just watched Bonejangles.
"Look," he said, and pointed. It was all he needed to say. Victoria's face, upturned and bathed in moonlight, was pale blue, the color growing darker by the second.
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And that was chapter 5, everyone.
So, in case you still don't know, 'the plan' was taken from "Toy Story" when all Sid's toys get back at him. I saw that movie recently, and I just couldn't get that part out of my head. Corpses are naturally freaky, and I just started thinking about how much scarier they would be in a dark, mist shrouded forest with no escape in site. And I really like how in control Emily turned out to be.
Some of her lines are almost exactly what Woody says during that part of "Toy Story," I just changed them to fit the situation. And, of course, Victor's line "play nice" in the last chapter was from that part as well.
If you noticed any inconsistencies, such as how Emily found out Victoria's kidnapper was Barkis they will be explained in the next chapter.
As for Victoria, you can probably tell what's happening to her. If you're getting ready to kill me again just repeat 'happy ending, happy ending' to yourself for a while. ;) There may have to be two more chapters now, but I'm pretty sure that's it. And they shouldn't take too long. I'm focusing all my writing time on this story until it's finished. Go me.
As always, please review, even if it's only to yell at me about my little cliffhanger. ;)
See you later!