The living followed Emily and Scraps as they were walking up the stairs to a tall building. Thunder roared and lightning strikes which startled the girls but the question was... where was it coming from? Storms don't do that in the underworld. As all four and the dog kept going up the stairs, Scraps continued barking until they finally reached to the top of the building.
"Shh! Scraps." Emily silenced him and starts speaking, "Elder Gutknecht, are you there?"
Victor, Madison, and Trysha looked around at the place. There were books everywhere. All were on shelves and some were stacked on the floor. Madison have seen many books before, but not as many like back at Beast's castle. Zor looked around to see how creepy it looked but also how dusty it was. With one speck of dust that the Bearded Dragon accidently sniffed, his nose started twitched and let out a sneeze with fire from his nostrils. Madison jumped from what was happening and quickly covered his nose from her fingers.
"What was that?" Trysha turned to looked at Madison.
"Zor sneezed." she replied in a whispered tone and hopefully that Trysha didn't saw the fire.
"Hello? ls anyone home?" Emily spoke again as she was looking for Elder Gutknecht, "Hello?"
Victor looked around the place. Wondering who this Elder Gutknecht, but as he walked backwards a little, he accidently bumped one of the book stacks and fell to the floor. All four exclaimed to see what happened until a bunch of crows came flying around. Zor and Madison looked at the crows and watching the light going back and forth, but as they heard Scraps barking, they saw shadowy hand that almost covered the bookshelf until the light lamp stood still.
Everyone looked up to where the book stand was and saw a very old skeleton with a huge open crack on his skull, no teeth, and a wispy fragment of beard. The girls knew that he was Elder Gutknecht as he let out a simple old cough and looked around until he heard Emily's voice.
"There you are!" she spoke happily to him.
"Oh, my dear. There you are." he said as he put his spectacles on.
"I've brought my husband, Victor. And my friends: Maddie and Trysha."
Madison and Trysha looked at the bride with a surprised look. How did she even know their names? They didn't tell her, but she must have probably heard them when they were with Victor.
"What's that? Husband? Friends?" the elder skeleton questioned as he scratched his head and studies the living people.
"Hello." Trysha spoke in a loud and gentle voice.
"Pleasure to meet you sir." Victor did same as he greeted the skeleton.
"We need to go up. Upstairs? To visit the land of the living." Emily said to Gutknecht.
"Land of the living?" Gutknecht spoke as he stopped scratching his head and gently going down the stairs. "Oh, my dear."
"Please, Elder Gutknecht." Emily gently begged as she looks desperate.
"Now, why go up there, when people are dying to get down here?" the elder skeleton questioned.
"Sir, I beg you to help." Victor spoke to him, "It means so much to me..." he stopped and looked at the girls, who were just staring at him except Emily smiled to him." Us." he corrected.
"I don't know, it's just not natural." said Gutknecht as he was rubbing his skull but causing the crack to open.
"Please, Elder Gutknecht." Emily spoke as she gently took his hand from scratching, "Surely there must be something you can do."
The living girls looked at the old skeleton. He gently held the bride's hand as he was looking at her. He maybe a skeleton but the girls could imagine a gentle look in his eyes and a soft smile.
"Let me see what l can do." he said to her and starts wondering around, Where did l put that book?"
Elder Gutknecht begins his search as he was looking for a particular book. The group looked at him as he kept on looking through shelves, cabinets, and looked through drawer until crows came flying by which startled Victor.
"I left it here somewhere." said Gutknecht as he starts throwing books from the pile.
Madison and Trysha moved back away as the books were thrown close to them. Almost got their toes smashed. Scraps dodged from the books but then yelped and ran as a big book came to him. Suddenly, he jumped into Trysha's arms, which caught her by surprise but she gently petted him to calm him down. Madison did the same until she and her friends heard Gutknecht's voice.
"There's the one." he said as he grabbed a big, red book from the shelf and blew the dust off.
The group watched him go as he grabbed some bottles and a cup. He reached up the stairs and was back at the book stand. He paced the bottles to the sides of the stand and opened the book.
"Maddie..." Trysha whispered to her friend as she stood close, "When he opened the book, the first look of the page was poison."
"I remember that." Madison whispered back as she was still looking at the elder skeleton going through the pages until he stopped.
"I have it." he spoke and Emily gasped with excitement. "A Ukrainian haunting spell. Just the thing for these quick trips."
"So glad you thought of this." Emily whispered to her living husband.
Victor looked at her shocked but acted with a small smile.
"Me too." he said to her.
Elder Gutknecht grabbed a small, metal wine cup and was working on something. The group watched as they wondered what he was doing as he poured something from a bottle and pinch of powder in the cup. But Madison and Trysha knew what the old skeleton was doing as he plucked a feather from a crow and put in the cup until red smoke comes out. Gutknecht grabbed the cup with his hand and then starts drinking it, which the group could see the liquid through him.
"Now then..." the skeleton spoke until his bones rattle. He quickly covered his mouth and let out a burp that came to his cracked skull. "Where were we?"
The group looked at each other and looked back at Gutknecht.
"The Ukrainian haunting spell?" Emily spoke.
The elder skeleton finally remembers and grabbed the crow that was with him. Scraps was hiding under an open book and Zor just looked shocked as the crow kept cawing. Gutknecht squeezed the bird a little until an egg popped out of it.
"Here we have it." he spoke as he held the egg in his hand. "Ready? Just remember, when you want to come back, say 'Hopscotch'."
"Hopscotch?" Emily giggled.
"That's it."
Elder Gutknecht breaks the egg in half and a puff a smoke came out towards the group. Madison and Trysha could only see the smoke but as it was clear up, a bright light shone on them.
All four and Zor looked up to see a bright, full moon and trees around. The living are back at the surface except that Emily is with them. She was in awe at the sight.
"I spent so long in the darkness. I'd almost forgotten how beautiful the moonlight is." she said.
Madison, Trysha, and Zor looked at her for a moment and Emily giggled at what she saw. The living looked up to see a blue butterfly fluttering by to the moonlight. The corpse bride sighed with happiness and started to dance.
The girls watched her danced with joy and grace. They smiled to see how happy she really is to see things from her past for so long. Emily continued dancing until she grabbed Madison and Trysha's hands. The two knew she wanted to dance with her and decided to go along. With twirls and around the trees, the two felt like how they done this when they were so little while was hanging on to his dear life from spinning. Emily danced around with Victor a little and continued her dance, but when the young man looked away, the bride fell.
Madison and Trysha stopped dancing to see Emily on the ground with her boney arm sticking out that came off. They saw the maggot coming out of her ear as he was telling her that she dropped something. Trysha quickly came to the bride and decided to help her. Madison quickly looked at Victor and looked back Emily until with the sound of a click, she got her leg back on and Victor turned.
Emily continued dancing as the girls decided to watch along with Victor. The bride danced around the tree and head towards Victor. The young man looked at her as she was smiling and looked desperate for him to dance with her. So he twirled her a few times until he stopped.
"Hold on, hold on." he spoke as he placed her down on a tree stump. "I think I should prepare Mother and Father for the big news. I'll go ahead and you wait here."
"Perfect." Emily smiled.
The girls looked at each other with concern looks and looked back at the two.
"I won't be long." said Victor as he was behind Emily and moving back. "Stay right here. I'll be right back."
"Okay."
"No peeking."
The corpse bride giggled as Victor walked slowly from her until he stopped and looked at the living girls.
"Distract her or something." he whispered to them and ran off.
The girls watched them go until he was gone.
"I don't want to be involved. I mean I don't want to upset Emily." Madison whispered.
"Neither do I. But we have to do it." said Trysha.
Madison sighed and sadly nodded and the two walked towards to Emily.
"So... while we wait for your husband, why not we just chat? Like getting to know each other." said Trysha.
"Sounds like a good idea." said Emily as she smiled.
The girls sat down on a log nearby and then looked at Emily.
"Since we... know little about you, perhaps you want to know about us." said Madison.
"Yeah like you have questions, but let's go one at a time."
"Alright." said Emily until she looked at Madison as she was looking at the crystal.
"I'm pretty sure you're going to ask me that." said Madison as she touched her chocker and Emily nodded.
"Yeah, it's mega special trust me." said Trysha.
Madison took a deep breath and then face Emily.
"To begin with, I'm not really a witch. It's just my crystal have powers. A couple of years ago, I somehow killed a wicked witch, with a friend that I was with. All of a sudden, a good witch gave me this necklace. It belonged to the witch whom I killed, but now I'm using power for good and gone through so many, wonderful adventures."
"Yeah, including that one she mentioned that nasty little pipsqueak named Rumpelstiltskin which it's a mouthful."
"Rumpelstiltskin? I've remembered that story when I was little. He's real?" Emily asks.
"Only in the fairytale world I've went to." Madison answered.
"This is really interesting." said Emily and then turn to Trysha. "Are you magical also?"
"No, not really." she answered.
The girls continued talking as they were getting along. But as minutes pass, everything went silent. The three all waited in the cold as Emily was waiting for Victor while the living girls just watched her and trying to stay warm. Zor couldn't stand the cold and quickly went inside his mistress's skirt pocket. Emily felt a little bored as she was still waiting for Victor until...
"This is the voice of your conscience. Listen to what I say." a voice spoke which got the bride's attention. "I have a bad feeling about that boy. You know he is no..."
Emily banged her head as if there was something inside her ear. The girls watched her until something finally got out of her ear and landed in the snow. It was the maggot as his head popped out with snow on top of his head.
"Go chew someone else's ear for a while." she said to him. "Victor has gone to see his parents, just like he said."
"If I hadn't just been sitting in it, I would say that you had lost your mind!"
"I'm sure he has a perfectly good reason for taking so long."
"I am sure he does. Why don't you go ask him?"
"All right, I will." said Emily.
"After all, he couldn't get far with those cold feet." said Maggot as he was showing her the footprints that belonged to Victor.
Madison and Trysha looked at each other with worried looks and decided to follow her. They watched the bride picked up the maggot and start walking while that little worm went back in her head.
"Has that maggot been living inside you your whole life?" Madison questioned.
"Since my death. He maybe annoying but he's still a friend." Emily answered and continued walking.
"If that worm ever comes near me, I'll feed him to Zor." Madison whispered to Trysha.
Zor popped his head out of the skirt pocket and starts climbing up to Madison shoulder. He was eyeing at the maggot and licked his lips but didn't see the worm's face as he went inside the head.
Finally, the made it to the town. It was quiet and no one is still around. Not even the town crier. Emily continued following the footprints until they were gone. She along with the girls looked up to see the a mansion that was actually Everglots's home. The three looked up to see a balcony with vines hanging down and the living knew that's where Victor be... with Victoria. But then saw Emily climbing up. The girls looked at each other in concern but decided to climb up with her.
Madison and Trysha start climbing up the vines and they were halfway to the balcony until they heard the sound of doors opening. The two looked up to see the balcony doors opened, knowing that Emily just went inside. They quickly continued climbing until they finally reached to the top but saw the bride with Victor and Victoria.
"Darling? Who's this?" Emily questioned as she stood close to Victor, looking at the living woman.
"Who is she?" Victoria asked with a shocking look.
"I'm his wife." she answered as she showed her the ring on her boney finger.
"Victor?"
"Victoria, wait. You don't understand." Victor spoke and grabbed Emily's skeleton arm. "She's dead. Look."
Emily was liking what Victor was saying moved back away with an angry look on her face.
"Hopscotch!"
The girls looked at her. They remember that word of returning to the dead world. The wind was blowing hard, and crows start flying around. Emily quickly grabbed Victor and floated away.
"No! No! Victoria!" Victor shouted.
Madison and Trysha looked away as crows were flying around them until everything went dark.
To Be Continued...