Yes, I am in disbelief as well that I actually have started the final installment of this series after starting it eleven years ago. I am very thankful to all of you who have still commented and messaged me that you enjoyed this series so much that you wanted more. I got a review on volume one of this series a few weeks ago that was super touching and wholesome, saying that they come back to these stories when they need their spirits lifted. I have many fan fiction authors that I have done the same with over the years and knowing how much their stories have meant to me during my hard times, it is truly an honor that my stories have done the same for others. Hope you enjoy!
Victor turned and instinctively ducked down in order to avoid a disastrous head-on collision. A coffin rattling with bones floated overhead, carried by two skeleton men on either side. He stood back up once they had passed and looked behind him to see them headed towards the Second Hand Shoppe. He took a breath to calm his startled nerves.
The Land of the Dead was bustling and bright as ever in the town square, looking just how Victor had remembered it when he had first been here a few weeks ago. He was now able to recognize quite a few of its residents and many of them waved to him in greeting as they went about their day. They had become accustomed to his presence over the past week and no longer curiously stared at him like they had the first day or two. While Victor had been easy to forget and overall physically unmemorable upstairs among the other living, his pale white face stood out considerably in the sea of blue corpses and clattering skeletons.
From around the corner of the skeleton horse statue came Scraps barrelling towards Victor. He bent down a bit to catch Scraps as he jumped up into Victor's arms. Victor laughed as the dog nuzzled his snout under Victor's arms, slightly wincing at the pain the movement caused in his back.
"Careful boy! Your human's still healing," General Wellington said, coming up from behind Scraps.
"Oh it's alright," Victor reassured, clutching his side with his free arm. "Elder Gutknecht has been treating me every day for the past week. It's mostly just tight and sore now."
Admittedly, the treatment had been a bit of trial and error for the Elders. There were no true healing spells that would work on someone living, so most of their work had been about fusing the wound back together manually. It wasn't an instant recovery, but it certainly helped speed up the process. Elder Gudna had said that the spell was mostly used on those who weren't quite ready to lose certain body parts yet in their decaying cycle.
"Speaking of the Elders, Scraps told me to tell you that they would like to speak with both you and Emily at fifteen." The General twisted his mustache with one long bony finger in a flamboyant fashion.
"Alright, thank you for passing on the message," Victor replied. "We'll be there."
General Wellington nodded and strode off towards the pub, linking arms with his partner who was waiting outside the front.
The Elders must have found something important, Victor thought. All week the two had been scouring every book within Elder Gutknecht's tower in order to find some way for Emily and him to get married. Whenever Victor went to get the treatment on his back done, he could see numerous experimental potions and books strewn even more haphazardly than they had been the first time Victor had been up in the tower. Victor tried his best to ignore the two brothers arguing whenever he was there. There always seemed to be a reason why something they had found couldn't work and it made Victor become increasingly more worried that they would be unable to find any solution.
He kept these worries away from Emily. She spoke so excitedly about their wedding and future marriage that Victor didn't have the heart to tell her about the lack of success that had been occurring in the tower. He had already come to accept the possible outcome of them being unable to wed and was satisfied with anything that allowed him and Emily to be together. The trek across the Northern Ruins had sharpened the reality of the situation for him. There were multiple people who didn't want them together and he had already almost lost his opportunity to be with Emily a few times.
It wasn't until Victor had been conscious for his first treatment with Elder Gutknecht- who had relented to him the details- that he understood just how close he had been to losing everything.
"If Emily hadn't gotten to you, you would have died there," Gutknecht had said, rubbing the potion into Victor's skin.
"Would that have been so bad though? The plan is for me to die soon anyways."
"Victor, if you were to die here you would not just simply become a corpse. The living are not supposed to be down here; it is unnatural to the ways of nature. Anyone down here is expected to be already dead. Understand Victor, the Land of the Dead is a temporary stop after death. Dying here would not just be the death of your physical body but also your spiritual one."
Victor had almost shot up from this information, but the pain from the movement had stopped him.
"So I wouldn't be with Emily?"
"Not until her spiritual being moved on."
It had made every day he spent in the Land of the Dead more anxiety ridden. He knew he was safe here with everyone, but he couldn't help but fear the consequences of the possibility that he could die here. He didn't know everything about the Land of the Dead, but he knew it wasn't made to support and sustain living individuals.
Victor felt a twinge of pain in his stomach as it growled loudly. The spell that Elder Gudna had used was beginning to wear off and he had been told that the spell wouldn't work a second time. Apparently, it wasn't meant to be used on humans either. It was more so meant for living animals that could make their way between the two worlds, such as the crows that inhabited Elder Gutknecht's tower. The spell was used during their time in the Land of the Dead, though he had learned that it wasn't often that they would stay long enough for the spell to be warranted.
Scraps jogged in between Victor's legs as he began to head towards the Ball and Socket Lounge. He had to get something into his system to subdue the hunger pains or else it would distract him for the rest of the day. The round sign featuring the pub's name and a picture of Bonejangles came into view and Victor could see from the lack of customers seated at the outside tables that the place wasn't busy.
The food down here was still a little questionable to him, especially after Mrs. Plum had informed him that the most distinguished ingredient in the wedding cake had been a fellow cook's nose. He had thus far denied all food offered to him, which he figured was best since he was certain it wouldn't agree with his alive and functioning stomach. And admittedly, the thought of it made him slightly nauseous.
A few skeletons lingering by the door briefly nodded to him as he entered the lounge. Before Victor had even fully taken a seat at the bar, the disembodied head of Paul came skirting around on a group of cockroaches.
"And what will it be today, Victor?" Paul questioned as he floated around on the counter.
"Just the usual."
"You heard ze man!" Paul yelled over to some other roaches swarming around the different bottles and glasses.
The little creatures grouped closely together as they formed over a thin green bottle in the collection of drinks behind the bar counter. Using their collected strength, they lifted the bottle and scurried it over to one of the small glasses readily assorted in front of him. Tilting the bottle up wobbly, the fluid splashed into the glass and slightly onto the floor.
"Thank you," Victor said.
He took a small sip, and was comforted by the immediate relief to his parched throat as he felt the alcohol burn down his esophagus. Victor had never been much of an enthusiast for drinking, but as far as he could tell the liquid seemed to taste the same down here as it did in the Land of the Living.
A loud crash came from the kitchen, causing everyone to turn to find the source of the noise. Scraps came scurrying out from behind the kitchen door, closely followed by Mrs. Plum with a cooking utensil raised high above her head.
"Get out! Get out!" Mrs. Plum cried. "Go on! Clear off!
Scraps bolted towards Victor and leaped into his lap, almost causing Victor to fall backwards on his bar stool.
"Who let that horrid beast in here?" Mrs. Plum demanded.
Paul gave Scraps a disapproving glance. "He came in with ze dog."
"I'm terribly sorry," Victor apologized. "It won't happen again."
"Well, just keep him out of my kitchen– who knows where he's been." Mrs. Plum pointed her baking spoon at Scraps, who cowered under Victor's waistcoat.
Pets hadn't been universally well received and understood among the living, and unfortunately Victor had found it to be relatively the same in the land down under. Scraps was one of the only dead animals he had seen in the Land of the Dead, and many people had been startled to see him running around. Emily had said that she had to find where Scraps was buried in order to give him to Victor. He had learned that it wasn't uncommon for the dead to remain buried and peacefully resting if they had no reason to come out of their coffins and animals especially were inclined to just stay in this state.
"Scraps," Victor scolded. "I can't take you everywhere with me if you're going to keep getting into trouble."
Scraps barked and sat down, staring up at him with his tail gently wagging. Victor sighed. Even when the dog was alive, Victor had always struggled with disciplining him. If anything, he had always ended up spoiling Scraps a bit too much. He didn't think that was going to stop anytime soon, with the pups keen ability to sway Victor emotions.
"Well, I suppose we should go now," Victor said. "I think it would be best if you're going to keep being naughty." He picked up his drink and quickly downed the rest of it. The roaches carried the glass over to the rest of the used dishes as Victor thanked Paul for the service.
He decided to head back over to Emily's place, hoping she was back from the library by now. She had been going occasionally to try to find anything that could help the Elders. Victor accompanied her most of the time, but today he had awoken to his foot throbbing in pain. It had mostly healed from when the wall had collapsed on it during his confrontation with Barkis, but Victor sometimes managed to hit it against the edge of the coffin during his sleep, causing it to become bruised and sore again.
Victor tripped over a raised cobblestone in the ground and caught himself on a lamppost before he fell. The residential parts here in the Land of the Dead were closely grouped together and connected through a variety of alleyways that blended into one another like a maze. It had taken a while for Victor to learn the way to and from where Emily lived and he had admittedly gotten lost more than a handful of times. He had no idea how others remembered it all, from the tall stone walls and lack of street signs to show the way.
Victor turned down the corner that led to Emily's dwelling. It was at the very back of an alleyway that led to a dead end. The front was decorated with green and yellow lanterns strung up above the entrance and on each side of the front door, there were planters that housed a variety of dead flowers, all of which were cracking and peeling. Dry petals littered the floor of the alleyway and he navigated around them so that he wouldn't accidentally crush them. He made a mental note to himself to bring back some brightly colored dried and pressed flowers for Emily when he made it back to the Land of the Living.
When Victor entered into the main living area of the house, he saw Emily sitting on a stone ledge to his left, her head engrossed in a book. She looked up when she heard him enter, quickly setting the book down and leaping up to greet him.
"Hello, love," Victor breathed, pulling her into his arms.
She giggled and gently wrapped her arms around his small frame, careful to avoid the spot where Barkis had stabbed him. "The Elders want to see us later. I think that they might have finally found something."
"I heard," Victor mumbled into her hair, twisting it between his fingers. "I'll be all healed up just in time to die."
Emily pulled away with a small smirk and batted his bangs out of the way. "Well now, you don't want to be miserable and in pain before the wedding."
"The days without you were much more excruciating than this little thing," he sighed, giving her a small smile. He still wasn't used to having her so close to him. Each time he saw her his heart continued to flutter just as rapidly as it had the first time he ever saw her. Her being was just so unbelievably ethereal that Victor had a difficult time grasping that he could even touch her, let alone be the one she had chosen for herself.
"Speaking of the wedding." Emily glanced down, playing with the wedding ring on her bony finger. "I have been thinking about some preparations that would be nice to have done before the day. I know we might not be able to have anyone down here at the actual ceremony, but it would mean a lot to me to have some way to include everyone somehow."
Victor took her hands into his and leaned over to kiss her on the cheek. "Of course. Anything you want."
She continued staring at the ground for a beat before peeping up at him through her long eyelashes. "Well…I was so happy that I was able to meet your father and get his approval. I know I'm probably not the bride your parents were hoping for you to have, so it means so much to me that he likes me."
"It would be very hard for someone not to like you."
"To be fair though sweetheart, I am still dead," she sighed. "The majority of the living seemed quite frightened by me." She looked down and bit one of her knuckles.
He hated seeing her be any bit insecure about herself. "Oh they're easily frightened by anything they don't understand," Victor said defensively. "Don't blame yourself for their faults."
"Either way, it was very special and important to me." She rocked back and forth on her heels. "I want to do the same for you. I want you to meet my family as well."
Victor hadn't thought too much about Emily's parents. She was always so sweet and familiar with everyone down here that Victor had assumed if her parents were around, she would have introduced him or made some mention of them when he had first arrived in the Land of the Dead. He knew from the story of her death that her at least her father had still been alive when Barkis had murdered her, so he had theorized that most of her family was still living.
"Where are they?" he asked.
"My father and my brother are down here, so you will be able to meet them. My mother passed on long ago," she conveyed with a bittersweet tone. Victor could tell from the sadness in her eyes that she must miss her mother a lot. "It would mean a lot to me to have you meet with my father, especially after…everything that happened the first time I wanted to get married."
Victor suddenly found himself filled with a wave of anxiety. He had never asked for permission to marry Emily– would her father approve of him? He hadn't approved of Lord Barkis and Victor himself hadn't found anything too amiss about the man when he had first seen him at his and Victoria's wedding rehearsal. He had come off as a bit of a bootlicker or people-pleaser to the Everglots but Victor would have never guessed that the man would turn out to be a murderer. Maybe Emily's father had seen through his facade?
Victor glanced at his reflection in the slightly chipped mirror in the corner of Emily's room. What did he truly have to offer Emily? His engagement to Victoria was based on one of beneficial exchanges. The Van Dort family had money to offer the Everglots, but what did any of that mean down here? He would have to impress Emily's father with his personality and qualities, but his memory of the disastrous first impression he had made on the Everglots made him internally cringe.
"Oh don't worry darling!" Emily reassured, noticing the worry in his eyes. "They'll love you!"
"How can you be so sure?" Victor inquired, nervously wringing his tattered tie with his hands. The clothes that he had been wearing when Scraps had transported them back to the Land of the Dead had become completely unwearable. Between the encounter he had had with Barkis, the shark attack, and just the general wear from trekking across the Northern Ruins, the tears and stains his clothes had endured were enough to render them useless. He had been lent some clothes from an owner of a retired clothing shop, however there weren't many pieces of clothing in decent condition down under.
"Well, if you put everything into consideration," Emily tittered sadly. "When my father had passed away and arrived down here I avoided him at all costs. I knew that my body had never been found after my death and I just couldn't bear having him see me like this." She ran her hands through the holes in her veil. "For all he knew, I had just run away to go marry Barkis. I didn't want him to know his only daughter had met such a terrible fate. It would have broken him."
Victor nodded in understanding, wrapping an arm around her waist and bringing her in close to his chest.
"I also felt so gullible and foolish. He had warned me about Barkis and knew that he wouldn't be a good man for me. But when you're young, naive, and think you're in love…" Tears started to pool in her eyes. "I thought he was just being cruel and controlling because he wasn't ready to let me go. I didn't listen to him."
She buried her head deeper into his chest. Victor reached up and wiped her eyes before the tears had a chance to fall. She shook her head to compose herself.
"He had found out about everything of course once he had come down here. I don't remember how long I had just hid away in my grave to avoid having to see him, but it felt like an eternity."
Victor now understood why she hadn't made any mention of her parents when he had first come down here. He could imagine how it would be painful to see her father, especially after his warning and how Barkis ended up breaking her heart.
"I saw him for the first time again a little over a week ago. He had heard about us and what had happened. He came to see if I was alright. He had heard about the way everyone down here spoke about you and has been wanting to meet you."
"Really?"
"Well for one, I've already told them plenty about you," she smiled. "He could tell how much more genuine you were compared to Barkis. And they know we've been with each other for a long time, unlike how I rushed into things before."
Victor raised an eyebrow. He guessed in comparison to how long he had known Victoria before they were planned to be wed, it was a much more considerable amount of time to be with one another before marriage. Though, Victor wasn't exactly sure he would classify it as a lengthy amount of time. He had completely fallen in love with Emily in the span of one night.
The memory of it sparked a curiosity within him. "When we first met, how did you know my name? I don't think I ever actually told you."
Emily was silent for a moment, hugging his arm close to her chest while her mind was deep in thought. "You know Victor, I've watched you– wandering through the woods. When you were sketching."
Victor raised his head in surprise and looked at her. "You have? When?"
"Have you ever felt like you were not alone? Or saw something out of the corner of your eye, turned, and it wasn't there?"
"Yes? I suppose so."
"It was me," Emily confessed.
Victor's eyes lit up in awe. She had been watching him this whole time? He had been exploring the woods and using it as his safe haven away from prying eyes for the majority of his young adult life. He may have unknowingly passed by her burial spot many times without consciously knowing it. With his habit of talking to himself while he was alone and bringing his journals to the woods with him, Victor realized just how much Emily might already know about him.
"How were you able to watch me?"
"The same way I was able to see you when you were getting attacked by Lord Barkis. Down here, crows are used as ties between the living and the dead."
"So that was why all those crows were watching me while I proposed to you…That was you watching me?"
"Yes," Emily chuckled. "I liked to imagine that you always knew I was there in some way…You can imagine how overjoyed I was when you placed this ring on my finger." She wiggled the fingers on her left hand, causing the ring to reflect the light coming from the candlelight. "I was so proud of how confidently you said the vows."
Victor winced at the thought of Emily witnessing all his terribly failed attempts at getting his vows right. She must have found something charming about it somehow, though Victor certainly couldn't imagine any reason why.
"I suppose that was quite the rarity for me," Victor grimaced.
"Don't feel upset about your stuttering. As it so happens I find it utterly adorable," she gushed and walked over to a stack of books on the floor. "But I've been thinking about how I used to watch you and how there must be some way it could lead to the answers that we've been looking for."
"What do you mean?"
She picked up a small black book with a gold embroidered feather on the cover. "Well, I started thinking about the spell Elder Gutknecht used to bring us upstairs the first time. It was in an egg from a crow!"
"So maybe the crows have a way to connect us since I'm living and you're dead," Victor mused, seeing the connection she was making.
"Exactly! Look at this here." She grabbed his arm and pulled him down so that they were both sitting on her bed, which was crafted from the remains of a chipped and worn coffin.
"Is this another spell?" Victor asked, looking over the page in the book she had turned to.
"No, I don't think that there is any spell here, though the Elders are more so the experts at deciphering this kind of stuff. But it shows in this picture another living person in the Land of the Dead!"
Victor studied the drawing and could see a living man surrounded by skeletons. Flying around him were a group of crows. Victor attempted to make out the words next to the sketch, but it was written in a language he couldn't read.
"It doesn't look like I'm the only living person who's been down here before."
"Interesting, isn't it? And remember how the crows transported us back to the Land of the Dead when Elder Gutknecht did the Ukrainian Haunting spell to transport us? I'm not sure how exactly they could help with our case but there is definitely something more to this that would be good to look into I think."
Emily examined the pages thoughtfully before closing the book and placing it beside her bed. "But we can speak about that with the Elders later."
She stood from the bed and pulled him up with her.
"Let's go see my family!"
—-
The walk hadn't been too long, though Victor felt as though each minute stretched out to become unbearably long as his nervousness rose the closer they got.
"Here it is," Emily said, stopping in front of a small shop with yellow tinted windows and rotting purple french doors. Above the door were intricately engraved letters into a piece of wood that advertised, "Nathaniel's Cartilage Carvings". Glancing at the window displays, Victor could make out various knickknacks and furniture that looked to be carved out bone.
"This is the business of one of my brother's friends. He and my father have been staying here during their visit," she explained, walking around the corner towards the side of the building. There was a set of stairs attached to the wall that led up to the second floor above the shop. Victor followed closely behind Emily, holding on tightly to the wiry and loopy railing. He really didn't need her family's first impression of him to be himself tripping and falling.
Once they had reached the small landing at the top, Emily softly knocked on the door. Victor's heart pounded intensely in his chest and he attempted to smooth his hair back the best he could. He smelled truly horrid after not having bathed for weeks, but he had to remind himself a few times that the people down here could care less about that particular attribute. Victor's own nose had become completely numb to it.
They heard the sound of the door being unlocked from the other side and Victor felt his stomach lurch. Emily slipped her hand into his and smiled at him in reassurance.
The door swung open to reveal a short and slender man who was missing one of his eyes. He wore gray pants held up with suspenders and a flowy beige shirt that was torn to reveal his left forearm. The limb lacked it's flesh and Victor could see that the bone had been carved to host a number of delicately detailed flowers and leaves.
"What a pleasure to see you Emily," the man smiled sweetly. "Here to visit Alexander and your father?"
"Yes, Victor has finally healed up enough to come over."
"So this is the man everyone has been talking about." The man gave Victor a look over. "You're an artist as well, aren't you?"
"I am," Victor replied. "M- Mostly just sketching, though I do some water coloring from time to time."
"I'll have to introduce you to our art subculture here some time. I think you would fit in quite well. I'm Nathaniel by the way. A pleasure to meet you." He reached out and shook Victor's hand.
"Likewise."
He invited them into the small room which contained numerous uniquely designed pieces of furniture and statues. Unlike Emily's residence, which was more minimalistic and simple, Nathaniel's home was almost bursting with the different amount of painting and sculptures it contained. Across from the front door was an entryway that Victor guessed led to the bedrooms.
"Alexander!" Nathaniel called. "Your sister is here. I'm going to go back down to the shop."
Nathaniel excused himself and exited the room, leaving Victor and Emily alone. Victor looked around awkwardly. Emily went over and sat down on a red couch with a backrest that looked to be carved into the shape of a rib cage. She patted the spot next to her and Victor joined her.
A minute later another man stumbled into the room and Victor could tell that it was Alexander the moment he laid eyes on him. His hair was a mass of gentle waves and his eyes were framed with the same long and thick eyelashes that Emily had. His body still appeared to be mostly intact other than the skin that looked to have been ripped from his hands. Victor could also make out a bony knee cap poking through a hole in his pants.
His expression lifted when he noticed Emily and he smiled brightly. "I see you brought the man you kidnapped."
"Alex!" Emily squealed, snapping off her left hand throwing it at him. "You know very well that he asked me to marry him."
Alexander caught the hand before it could fall to the floor and lifted it up to examine the golden ring wrapped around one of the fingers. "So he did."
"Where is father?"
"I think he is having a drink with the gentlemen upstairs. I'll go get him."
Alexander quickly crossed the room towards the front door.
"Wait! I need my hand back!"
"Oh sorry, I thought this was a precious gift to your most wonderful brother?" Alexander smirked, opening the door and quickly disappearing behind it.
Emily grasped onto her dress and lifted it up to more easily maneuver and chased after him. "Alex!"
Victor heard their footsteps ascend the stairs until eventually the room was shrouded in silence.
Victor smiled to himself. He had never had any siblings of his own, so it was fascinating to see Emily interact with her brother. Now that he thought about it, he didn't remember that many families who had more than one child when he was growing up. Many children unfortunately died from disease or other accidents at a young age.
"So you're Victor, aren't you?"
Victor jolted in surprise, turning around to find the source of the voice. A tall gentleman was standing behind him in front of the entryway. He had a fluffy mustache and beard.
"Oh well, of course you are! Not as though there are any other living men down here." He laughed.
"You must be Mr…?" Victor paused, realizing he didn't actually know Emily's family name.
"Wilson. You can just call me Thomas," he said, taking a seat next to Victor.
They sat in comfortable silence for a few moments.
"My son told me that she used to talk about you all the time," Thomas began. "She loved watching you draw and write your music. I think she fell in love with how much passion you had towards your art. There were other girls she knew that learned to play, but many of them did so only as a way to add to their attractive qualities, rather than having any real love for the craft."
"M- Music and art were really the only joy I had before I met Emily," Victor exhaled. "They kept me distracted and entertained, but it was never rightly satisfying. Truth be told, I was completely lost. I- I had no idea what my purpose was."
He glanced down at his hands, thumbing his ring finger where he imagined his wedding band to be. His own was unfortunately still in the Land of the Living. He wished he could have chosen something more fitting for Emily, rather than the plain gold wedding bands he had picked when his parents told him about the marriage arrangement between him and Victoria. Emily had insisted however that she loved her ring and refused any notion of changing it.
"When I first met Emily, I finally understood that life doesn't necessarily always have a purpose. Just existing and being happy is what makes our places in this universe fulfilling."
Thomas nodded. "I can tell that you're very genuine, just as Emily said. There are a great number of men who secretly harbor other intentions. It's very clear to me that you truly love her. I mean," he gestured to the wrapping around Victor's torso. "if going through all that isn't proof enough!"
"I couldn't lose her again. I can't imagine life without her now," Victor confided.
"I'm glad she has someone now who loves her so much that he is willing to die for her. She needs someone like that, especially after what that man did to her," he spat. "He took away her life for his own disgustingly selfish desires."
"I'd give anything for that monster to no longer exist," Victor muttered, shaking his head.
"I heard that you sure gave him quite a bit of a chastisement," he snickered.
Victor thought back to that confrontation in the church. If Barkis hadn't become too cocky and drank the wine, he might have found a way to escape. "Well, he also certainly got me back for it."
"Not fully. You still have your life. He can't say the same."
The front door opened and Emily reappeared with Alexander. Emily had her hand back and was playfully swatting Alexander's hand away as he made feeble attempts to reach for it.
"Oh! There you are!" Emily said, noticing them on the couch.
"I was just having a talk with your soon-to-be husband," Thomas beamed. "You've found a keeper dear."
Emily clasped her hands together and grinned back at them. "I told you he was the one."
"So, have the Elders found out when you're going to be able to get married?"
"They actually want us to meet up with them to discuss that," Victor commented.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Alexander quipped, pulling the door open. "Go get married!"
"Shall we?" Emily prompted, offering a hand.
Victor stood and knotted his fingers into hers. "Let's."
And that's chapter one of our final adventure! I'm sorry it's taken so long and again, I can't thank you guys enough for sticking around! See you all again soon for chapter two!