Meanwhile, up on the surface, inside the Everglot mansion, Victor stood by the window. He was looking out of it with nothing but concern etched on his face. Victoria came over, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder and he smiled slightly at her kind gesture.
However, the small moment they shared was ruined when Victoria's mother ordered, "You two, come away from the window."
Their parents were all sharing tea next to a fireplace and as the couple moved over to them, Victor's mother spoke up, "Oh, I'm sure she'll be back shortly. She's terrified of the dark."
"Actually, that was me mother. (Y/N) has never really been afraid of anything." Victor corrected but she waved him off without much care. "I'm so worried about her. I can't really remember what happened. I think we were running but..."
He put a hand to his head where it still slightly hurt. He had been found by some townsfolk, lying unconscious on the bridge. When he came to, he was back at the Everglot house, with Victoria worriedly hovering over him and everyone telling him how stupid and disgraceful his actions were.
It was then when he had expected his sister to make one of her usual remarks on their words but was shocked when he saw she wasn't there. He remembered her being with him when he ran from the rehearsal but his memory was fuzzy on what had happened before he was knocked out.
But he wasn't too concerned about his missing memory, he just wanted to know where (Y/N) was. She usually ran from home to get away from their mother but never for so long and never when he needed her the most. So where was she?
"Well, at least we didn't lose you. You still have to get married after all." His mother said, with very little empathy.
He knew she'd be like this but he didn't expect the lack of worry. Or maybe he did.
Just then a knock sounded at the door, breaking Victor from his thoughts.
"Enter." Lord Everglot called.
Lord Barkis entered with a smug smile on his face, which seemed to be his usual expression.
"Ah, Lord Barkis." Lady Everglot cooed. "I trust the room is to your liking?"
"Thank you. You are a most gracious hostess. Which is why it pains me to be the bearer of such bad news." Just as he finished speaking, the town messenger - bell and all - walked into the room. "Would you care to repeat tonight's headline for us?"
Almost immediately, the man began to ring his bell as loudly as he could, causing cups to shake and people to flinch. A few even attempted to cover their ears but still listened to what the man was saying.
"Hear ye! Hear ye! (Y/N) Van Dort seen this night on the bridge in the arms of a mystery man! The dark-haired seducer and Miss Van Dort slipped away into the night!"
(A/N: I was going to say 'tempter' here since Emily is referred to as 'temptress' but that just didn't sound right to me. It doesn't have the same ring as temptress does. So, I decided to go with seducer as - with a quick Google search - it was the next best thing.)
The ringing of the bell soon ended and, with a surprisingly soft voice, the town messenger then began to give the weather forecast. But he didn't get far before Lord Barkis cut him off.
"Enough! That will be all."
As he left the room, everyone could only look off in shock and horror. They had not expected to hear that, especially Victor and his parents. Victor wasn't sure why, but something felt off about this. If (Y/N) was seeing a man, she would have told him. He would have been the only one she could trust to know like that.
Something about this story just didn't add up.
"Mystery man? But she doesn't even know any men!" His mother cried out, somewhat in outrage and confusion.
"Or so you thought." Lord Barkis snarkily replied. "Do call for me if you need my assistance...in any way."
With that, he closed the doors and left, leaving everyone in shock along with other negative emotions. This included Victor, who fell into a seat, unable to process those words. It just couldn't be. (Y/N) told him everything. Trusted him with things that, to this day, their parents didn't even know about. Just them.
If she had met a guy and fell so deeply in love with him that they ran off together, why didn't she tell him? And why would she do such a thing when he needed her by his side the most?
Victoria laid a comforting hand on his arm as she took up the seat next to his. He appreciated the gesture but it didn't stop his thoughts from spiralling.
"Good heavens, Finis. What should we do? That girl will make both families look like utter disgraces in high society!" Lady Everglot worriedly proclaimed.
"Fetch me musket!"
Victor and his parents' eyes widened and his mother cried, "Oh, William do something!"
He was quick to jump up from his seat and try to de-escalate the situation, grabbing the musket before Lord Everglot could take hold of it. "The town crier probably just had a slow news day. You know how it is, you need a little something to cry about. And sure, our daughter may be a little rambunctious but she'd never do something so crazy."
"Regardless, we are one catastrophe away from this wedding being ruined tomorrow!" Lord Everglot looked away and mumbled to himself. "Not to mention the financial implications."
"A most scandalous embarrassment for us all." Lady Everglot added.
That is where Victor, finding a confidence he never knew he could have, stood up. And, in a voice a little louder than his usual soft-spoken tone, spoke out against these comments and accusations.
"My sister did not run away with some mystery man. That just isn't like her."
"Yes, a girl who splashes in muddy puddles and is frequently talked about as having an unladylike mouth with company couldn't possibly have run off."
"She didn't run off and I refuse to let her be talked about in such a manner. In fact...I refuse to have a wedding without her present."
Everyone gasped at his outburst and even Victoria was a little surprised. But she admired his love and care for his sibling's well-being and found it sweet and charming. And, despite the setback to her own wedding, she didn't mind it, if it meant a chance to prove his sister's innocence.
She saw how much care (Y/N) put towards her brother. And she didn't miss the nudges of encouragement during the rehearsal or the glances of excitement when (Y/N) saw her and Victor together. It seemed everyone only saw their marriage as that of convenience but (Y/N) had that hope that it could turn out well for both of them.
She admired that and she was willing to pause the wedding if it meant such a wonderful person could bear witness to it.
"I completely agree." Victoria spoke up, earning more gasps. "It just wouldn't look civilised if we didn't try to clear her name - and ours for that matter."
Victor caught on to her facade. He recognised that she just said it so they would go look for (Y/N). They all cared more about reputation than they actually cared for her but it still warmed his heart that she wanted them looking for (Y/N).
His mother was especially worried about their reputation. She wanted this wedding to go off without a hitch and having her daughter run off with some man of the night, as well as her son now refusing to get married without his sister present, was definitely ruining her plans to climb the social ladder.
So, it didn't surprise Victor in the slightest, when she was the first to jump up and say, "Oh, give us a chance to find her, we beg of you. Just give us until dawn."
"Very well. Til dawn."
...
"(Y/N), Darling, where are you?" The corpse groom's sweet voice called out.
Back in the land of the dead, after the crazy singing and dancing ended and things got somewhat back to normal, the groom noticed that his bride was nowhere to be seen. He assumed she maybe got overwhelmed by it all and stepped out to get some fresh air but he hadn't seen her outside. So, to make sure nothing bad had happened to her, he went around to look for her.
"If you ask me, your girlfriend is kind of jumpy." The little maggot said within his head.
"She's not my girlfriend, she's my wife. (Y/N), where have you gone?"
Just then his eye popped out and he was quick to catch it. The maggot looked around for him and encouragingly said, "I'll keep an eye out for her."
"(Y/N)?"
Behind a wall, not too far away, (Y/N) peeked around it to see that indeed the corpse groom had been looking for her. She was hoping that she had just imagined him calling out to her but she was very, very wrong.
She made an attempt to run off in the opposite direction and sneak past him but the maggot immediately spotted her and yelled out hurriedly, "There she goes! There she goes! She's getting away! Quick, quick, after her!"
The groom popped his eye back in and then took off after her. "(Y/N)!"
She ran past a 2nd hand shop that sold...extra hands. The groom was soon standing where (Y/N) once stood but had not seen where she had gone. The hands decided to be helpful and they all pointed in the direction (Y/N) ran in.
"Thank you."
She ran all the way down a long and winding alley and eventually made it outside the back of another store. This one sold coffins.
"(Y/N)! Where are you?"
She gasped at how close he sounded. He'd be on her at any moment. She needed to hide so that she could lose him then find a way out of this place.
But all that surrounded her was coffins. Left with no other option, she got into one of them, crossed her arms, closed her eyes, and pretended to be dead.
Surprisingly, it worked, as the groom walked right past her and called out, "(Y/N)? Where've you gone?"
She sightly opened her eyes, making sure he was far enough before she could start running in the opposite direction. But it was then that a big black widow spider glided down from her web and hung next to her.
"Married huh?" The spider asked. "I'm a widow."
(Y/N) gasped and ran away, making her accidentally shove the spider and knock her about.
"How rude." She huffed and decided to call out to the corpse groom as payback. "She went that way!"
"(Y/N)!" The corpse groom continued to call out.
(Y/N) was getting extremely tired of this. But she had to continue. All she wanted was to go home, not be married to a corpse, and make sure Victor and Victoria's wedding went off without any problems.
She was so sure that he must have been worried sick about her. She was also sure everyone was complaining about her absence. And the excuse of 'a corpse kidnapped me' probably wouldn't hold much weight.
Before she could even think about what she was going to say to them when she got back, the corpse groom called out to her once more, "(Y/N)! Darling!"
She bumped into a corpse sweeping the streets and desperately shook him as she pleadingly explained, "Please, there's been a mistake. I'm not dead."
But all that shaking caused the man's head to fall off. She shrieked, gaining the attention of the corpse groom, but had no time to worry about that as she sped off.
She ran into another corpse that blocked her path, that of a finely dressed gentleman. However, when she tried to walk around him, he stepped where she did.
"Excuse me." He politely said.
She attempted to walk around again but, once more, he went the same way.
"Excuse me."
She was growing a little frustrated but hadn't been prepared for the man to split in half, organs for all to see and hopping on one leg for each half.
"Excuse me." Each half said as he hopped past her.
She stood still for a moment, wondering how she would ever process that. This world was wild, strange, and sometimes even too much to handle. She definitely needed to get out of here.
"(Y/N)!"
She ran like she had never run before, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes that threatened to spill over. She just wanted to go back home to her brother. He'd be there to comfort her, to play her favourite music piece and tell her everything would be fine.
But everything wasn't fine as she ran right into a cliff face, with no other way out than back from where she had just come from.
"Dead end."
"(Y/N)!"
She gasped when she realized the corpse groom was still following her. He sounded a distance off but, with a dead end, her back tracking would for sure make him catch up eventually.
With no other choice, she began to climb. She grabbed onto whatever poked out of the cliff face and climbed like her life depended on it. Her hands did start to ache after a while and there were moments where she thought she was going to fall. But, through it all, she persevered and made it to the top.
She grabbed onto a handle sticking out of the ground right at the cliff edge, then grabbed onto another. But, to her horror, a shoe was attached to it and when she looked up, she saw the corpse groom smiling down at her.
"Could have used the stairs, silly." He jokingly commented.