Love Bites ~ Craig of the Dead au ~ Tricia x Karen fan fiction [COMPLETE]

25

"Thanks for letting me know. I'll head over there now. See you at the ceremony."

He pulls me into a quick one-armed hug before I leave, his other arm trying to stop Pecky from running off again. It's warm and comforting despite it being so short and I feel as though I've known him all of my life, despite the fact that I haven't seen him in years.

"See you later, Tricia." He smiles.

I give him a wave before hurrying out of my room to try and find the church before it gets crowded.

Outside, Kenny is chatting with Firkle, sat on one of the benches placed beside a flowerbed. Firkle doesn't appear to be contributing to the conversation much, but they look happy to be included. Kenny is talking really animatedly, hands pointing and gesturing with nearly  every word. Firkle chuckles at whatever was said.

"Morning, Trish!" Kenny beckons for me to join them, "I was just telling Firkle what being gender fluid is like. It's cool having someone around who can relate to the struggle of using they/them pronouns."

"How are you feeling this morning?" I ask.

Kenny raises a wrist, revealing a blue wristband.

"Hey, show her yours." He nudges Firkle with his elbow.

Shyly, Firkle raises their wrist to show me a green wristband with a yellow line running through it. That must be what Kenny uses when he uses they/them pronouns.

"That's cool. I bet Henrietta would love to see it." I smile.

"Hey, that's a good idea!" Kenny agrees, "D'you wanna go find her?"

Still feeling a bit shy, Firkle gives a slight nod. Kenny jumps to his feet and grabs Firkle's hand then runs off, leading him to wherever Henrietta is.

Now that I'm not distracted, I scan the area for the church. The grounds are surprisingly big and it's easy to get lost in here. I spot the tell-tale spire poking the sky from behind the crematory.

Now that I know where I'm going, I start heading for the church. It's not directly behind the crematory, so it's a short walk, but I get there pretty quickly.

Sat outside the church on a broken grave is Craig, hunched forwards with his forearms resting on his knees. In his hands are his vows that I read yesterday, the paper crumpled in his hands as he grips the paper tightly.

"Craig?" I sit on the ground in front of him, "Are you alright?

"Trish, I really need your help." He stuffs his vows into his pockets, gets to his feet, and starts walking inside the church.

People are busily cleaning the inside of the church, even going on their hands and knees to furiously scrub the dusty tiled floor, whilst others are carefully arranging chairs, benches and throw cushions (that have seen better days) around the room, facing the altar. Craig leads me to the back of the church to the sacristy.  The sacristy has, at some point, been turned into a living space, with a tatty sofa bed pushed into the corner, and I'm assuming this is where Tweek and Craig are staying.

Craig quickly folds up the sofa bed and gestures for me to take a seat.

"What's going on? Are you okay?" I ask.

Running a hand through his hair, Craig starts pacing the floor. He seems really worried about something.

"Are you having second thoughts about the wedding? I'm sure if you talk your feelings out with Tweek he'll underst-"

"It's nothing to do with the wedding," He interrupts me, "Well, sort of. I just- God, it's... Just read this."

He digs in his pocket for the piece of paper he had earlier and holds it out to me.

"I've already read your vows and they're beautiful. Tweek will love it."

"These aren't my vows. It's a threat."

"What?"

I grab the paper and read it quickly. My heart races.

'Craig, we have already warned you that unless you cancel the wedding, the rebels will rise and revolt. We don't care what we have to do to get you to stop the event, but we will go to extreme measures until you listen to our demands. We gave you twenty four hours to think about it. You have three more until we act. That is, unless you cancel your big day. We are expecting your answer to be left under the apple tree on plot 4 in three hours.'

"What the fuck?" I gasp, "Who sent you this? Have you told Tweek?"

"I don't want to worry him. He's had a rough time recently and he's been looking forward to this wedding for a long time. I can't just cancel it."

"You can if you're being threatened with a revolution. What are they going to revolt over anyway? This place is great."

"There are some people who disagree with the way we run things around here. I'm responsible for the farming and medical fields, which means I have the most power out of the four leaders since I have control of more people since they're the largest fields. Some people, the rebels, want a fairer leadership and want to elect a new leader, but as the founders of this group, Tweek, Butters, Kenny and I think this could mess things up," Craig explains, "For some reason they think that I'm going for more control by marrying Tweek, since he has control of the surveillance field and that's got quite a few people in it, but I'm just marrying him since I love him."

"Have you tried telling them that?"

"Yes. They clearly haven't listened."

"Shit..." I scrunch up the letter and throw it at the wall, "Do you know who sent this?"

"I have an idea who could've, but I'm not entirely sure."

"Who?"

"You're not going to like this."

"Just tell me, asshat."

"Phillip."