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Emile stomped over to a coffin and sat down with a huff and picked up a bouquet of flowers that were nearby, and started picking them apart.
"Roses for eternal love. Lilies for sweetness. Baby's breath." He scoffed and threw the flowers onto the ground.
"Why so blue?" Miss Spider asked.
"Maybe she's right. Maybe we are too different." Emile confessed.
"Maybe she needs her head examined."
Emile reached into his ear and pulled the maggot out.
"I could do it." He offered.
"Or perhaps she does belong with him. Mr. Living. With his rosy cheeks and beating heart." Emile rolled his eyes. "Maybe she's too perfect for me."
"Oh, those boys are ten a penny. You've got so much more. You've got...you've got...you've got a wonderful personality." Miss Spider said.
Emile rolled his eyes, and shook his head.
🎵Maggot: "What does that wispy little brat have that you don't have double?"🎵
🎵Spider: "He can't hold a candle to the beauty of your smile."🎵
🎵Emile: "How about a pulse?"🎵
🎵Maggot: "Overrated by a mile."🎵
🎵Spider: "Overvalued."🎵
🎵Maggot: "Overblown."🎵
🎵Both: "If she only knew the you that we know."🎵
🎵Spider: "And that silly little creature isn't wearing her ring."🎵
Mrs. Spider lifted up Emile's finger that had the ring on it.
🎵Maggot: "And he doesn't play piano..."🎵
🎵Both: "...Or dance or sing."🎵
🎵Spider: "No, he doesn't compare."🎵
🎵Emile: "But he still breathes air."🎵
Emile turned away.
🎵Maggot: "Who cares?"🎵
🎵"Spider: Unimportant."🎵
🎵Maggot: "Overrated."🎵
🎵Spider: "Overblown."🎵
🎵Both: "If only she could see how special you can be. If she only knew the you that we know."🎵
Emile sighed and stood up from the coffin.
🎵Emile: "If I touch a burning candle, I can feel no pain. If you cut me with a knife it's still the same."🎵
🎵Emile: "And I know his heart is beating, and I know that I am dead. Yet the pain here that I feel, try and tell me it's not real. And it seems that I still have a tear to shed."🎵
🎵Maggot: "The sole redeeming feature from that little creature, is that he's alive."🎵
🎵Spider: "Overrated."🎵
🎵Maggot: "Overblown."🎵
🎵Spider: "Everybody knows that's just a temporary state, which is cured very quickly when we meet our fate."🎵
🎵Maggot: "Who cares?"🎵
🎵Spider: "Unimportant."🎵
🎵Maggot: "Overrated."🎵
🎵Spider: "Overblown."🎵
Scraps came over holding the flowers that Emile had thrown and placed them in front of him.
🎵Both: "If only she could see how special you can be. If he only knew the you that we know."🎵
🎵Emile: "If I touch a burning candle, I can feel no pain. In the ice or in the sun it's all the same."🎵
Emile laid back down in the coffin.
🎵Emile: "Yet I feel my heart is aching, though it doesn't beat, it's breaking. And the pain here that I feel, try and tell me it's not real. I know that I am dead, yet it seems that I still have some tears to shed."🎵
A tear slipped out of his eye and fell to the ground. Mrs. Spider and the Maggot gave each other sad looks, and walked away, leaving Emile alone.
...
"It's true Mother! (Y/n) is married to a dead man! I saw him. A corpse! Standing right here with her and Victor and I." Victoria told her mother.
"Victor was in your room?" Lady Everglot asked incredulously.
"I have to help her."
"The scandal!"
An old maid came forward and took Victoria's hands.
"Oh, come sit in your chair, dearie. Your shaking like a leaf. Let Hilde fetch you a blanket."
"Fetch her a straight jacket! She's completely mad!" Lady Everglot declared. "Come Hildegard."
Mrs. Everglot and the maid exited the room, locking Victoria in.
Victoria turned to her balcony and opened the doors. She stepped out into the rain and looked over the railing, and got an idea. She threw a blanket over the railing and used it to lower herself down. However, the blanket ripped, and she fell the rest of the way. Victoria grabbed the rest of the blanket and threw it over herself, and left the house.
...
Victoria walked up the steps to the church and knocked rather insistently on the door.
Pastor Galswells opened the door and saw Victoria standing there.
"Miss Everglot. What are you doing here?" You should be at home, prostrate with grief."
"Pastor Galswells, I have to ask you something." Victoria told him.
"This is most irregular." He said, and began to close the door.
"Please, I beg of you." Victoria pushed her way inside. "You are the only one in the village who knows of what awaits beyond the grave."
"A grim topic for someone who's sister is a bride-to-be."
"It is my sister that I'm worried about. Which is why I must know: Can the living marry the dead?" She asked.
Pastor Galswells gave her a shocked look. "What on earth are you speaking about?"
"Please, it's (Y/n). She's married to a corpse. She has a Corpse Groom!"
"Hmm. I believe I know the thing to do. Come with me." Pastor Galswells said.
...
Lady Everglot opened the door to see Pastor Galswell standing there holding onto Victoria's shoulders as she squirmed.
"Victoria?" She gasped. "Where are your corsets?"
"She's speaking in tongues. Of unholy alliances. Her mind has come undone, I fear."
"It's not true! Let me go! Let me go!" Victoria escaped his grip and stumbled inside.
"Thank you Pastor Galswells. Thank you so very much." Lady Everglot closed the door. "Take her to her room!" She ordered.
Hildegard and the butler took her arms and started dragging her upstairs.
"No, I'm telling the truth! (Y/n) needs my help! Hildegard, you believe me don't you? Mother, father, please." Victoria begged.
"Seal the doors and bar the windows. See to it that she doesn't escape again."
"She needs our help! Oh, let me go! Let me go!"
"Will the mortification never cease?" Lady Everglot whined, unaware that the Barkis siblings were listening to their conversation. "It will be years before we can show ourselves in public again. What shall we do?"
"We shall continue as planned. With or without (Y/n)." Lord Everglot declared.
"For that girl to toss aside a sister like Victoria, it's positively criminal." Lord Barkis declared, as he and his sister entered the room.
"And for her to discard a man like Victor, is beyond me." Lady Barkis added.
"Why, if I had a woman like either of your daughters on my arm, I would lavish them with riches befitting royalty." Lord Barkis continued.
"Your lady wife and your husband are most fortunate." Lady Everglot complimented.
Lady Barkis sighed. "Alas, we are not married. I was betrothed some years ago, but tragedy snatched my groom away."
"When one lives alone, wealth counts for naught." Lord Barkis added, sadly.
Lord and Lady Everglot glanced at each other, getting an idea.
...
Meanwhile, Victoria was in her room trying to pry open her door with a fire poker, when she heard the door unlocking. Her parents entered the room and she hid the poker behind her back.
"Marvelous news, Victoria, there'll be a wedding after all." Lord Everglot said.
"You found (Y/n)?" She asked with hope.
"Make haste, my dear. Our relatives will arrive at any moment. We must have you looking presentable for Lord Barkis." Lady Everglot told her.
Victoria gasped and dropped the fire poker. "Lord Barkis?"
"He will make a fine husband. Much better than the Van Dort boy."
"Aye. A fortuitous tube of events indeed."
"A far better prospect this time."
"But I do not love him. You cannot make me do this." Victoria said.
"We must."
"Please. I beg of you. Couldn't I marry Victor instead?" She asked.
"Lord Barkis can provide us with more money than the Van Dort's ever could. And without this marriage, we shall be forced penniless, into the street. We are destitute."
"But, (Y/n)..."
"(Y/n) has gone, child."
"You shall marry Lord Barkis tomorrow."
"According to plan." They both said, as they left the room.
...
Lord Barkis walked down the hallway with the paintings of the Everglot ancestors, cackling evilly. He stopped in front of (Y/n)'s portrait.
"Oh, my dear. Such a shame you ran off. I so would have enjoyed having such a pretty girl on my arm. Alas, I suppose your sister will do."
He stroked his finger along her painted face.
"Don't look at me like that. She'll only have to suffer this union until death do us part. And that, will come sooner than you think."
...
"Oh, it's almost dawn! Where could that girl be?" Mrs. Van Dort complained as she, her husband and Victor rode in their carriage looking for the Everglot girl.
"(Y/n) Everglot elopes with corpse! Heartbroken sister to wed wealthy newcomer!" The town crier announced.
"What? Victoria? Marrying?" Victor asked in shock.
"Wealthy newcomer? It cannot be." Mrs. Van Dort declared.
"Did he say corpse?" Mr. Van Dort asked.
"Oh, don't be ridiculous. Why would such a pretty girl marry a corpse?"
"How could she?" Victor whispered in disbelief.
Above them, Mayhew the carriage driver could be heard coughing harshly.
"Oh, Mayhew! Silence that blasted coughing!"
Mayhew kept coughing hoarsely and suddenly clutched his chest. He tried to get air in his lungs, but he froze up and toppled forward. The carriage jolted as it ran over his body.
"Mayhew, are you trying to kill us?!" Mrs. Van Dort snapped. "I think he's trying to kill us!"
Little did she know, that Mayhew was the one who was dead in the road.
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