For Shits and Giggles (complete first draft)

Chapter 37

The sun was setting through the Church windows, the sky was an orange, pink hue.

Giggles and Splendid stood at the top of the aisle facing each other, hand in hand. They'd lit candles up and down the pews, and gathered flowers from the garden outside. Splendid placed one in her hair, and she placed one in the chest pocket of his jumpsuit. They were alone in the Church, except for the minister reading from the bible before them. He'd agreed to the impromptu wedding and married them happily. They barely listened to his words, stared at each other instead.

"Before God, I ask you to affirm your willingness to enter the covenant of marriage and to share all the joys and sorrows of your lives and your relationship, whatever the future may hold," said the minister.

Their smiles widened.

"Splendid and Giggles, have you come here today of your own free will to declare your commitment to one another?"

"We have."

"Do you promise to be there for each other in the good and the bad? To grow with, understand and respect one another during your life together?"

"We do."

"Then please face each other and share your vows."

They hadn't prepared any vows beforehand and looked shyly at the minister, who laughed, amused by the humors of young, wide-eyed love.

Giggles spoke first, "From that drunk kiss at Petunia's party," Splendid blushed at the distant memory. "I knew in my heart that you were the one. I always knew. But I was stupid, dumb. I didn't know how to be honest with you. I was scared you wouldn't feel the same way. But the way that you look at me, it's unlike anything I've ever felt before. Like you're reading me, knowing me. I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you."

Splendid tried not to get choked up, but he failed. His voice wavered, "I... I guess I am grateful to the Tree after all, because it brought us closer together. Hell, I spent so much time looking into your eyes," he laughed, "that I learned just how to read your mind. The colors, how your mood affected them. I did want to know you. I wanted to know everything about you. Because I loved you then, and I love you now. I'll love you forever."

Wait.

What. 

Giggles' mind raced.

"What beautiful words," smiled the minister. "Splendid, do you take this woman to be your wife? Do you promise to love her, comfort her, honor and keep her, in sickness and in health as long as you both shall live?"

"I do."

Giggles' face fell. Splendid looked at her confused.

"Giggles, do you take this man to be your husband? Do you promise to love him, comfort him, honor and keep him, in sickness and in health as long as you both shall live?"

"Wait..." she said, releasing Splendid's hands.

He looked at her in shock.

"What do you mean," she asked. "What do you mean, my mood? The color of my eyes?"

"Well, yeah," he tried to hold her hands again, "I figured it out early on. Red means good, happy, and yellow means bad, the curse is making you say things you don't want to say."

She took a step back, away from Splendid, "You mean... that's how you could tell? How I felt?"

Splendid tried to take her hands again, but she dodged them.

"This entire time... this entire time... there was a way for people to know how I truly felt, and you just kept it to yourself?"

"That's not it," Splendid laughed nervously, taking a step forward with each of her steps backward. He moved slowly, careful not to alarm her. "I just wanted to feel closer to you, it was our secret. Our connection."

The Church began to spin around her, she felt dizzy, weak. 

"You just wanted to play the hero... you wanted to swoop in and save me, is that it? Save me from situations you could have prevented if you'd said something!"

"Please, Giggles, I love you. It was the tree," he said. "The tree made me do it, made me selfish."

"The Tree didn't make you lie to me," she yelled. "You knew how much I was suffering! You knew how to help me but you didn't!"

"But it's over now! It doesn't matter anymore, we're going to break the curse. We're going to be together!"

"What happened with Cuddles... they didn't know that I wasn't happy with him, that I was scared of him... nobody knew to help me," she kept backing away. "I... I can't marry you."

Splendid dropped to his knees in front of her, "Giggles, don't do this. Please don't do this," he begged, "I'm so sorry, please. I love you. I love you so much it hurts. Don't do this."

She wanted to leave him there, sobbing on his knees. She wanted to run away. But the Tree compelled her to stay. She couldn't move her feet. So she said nothing.

"Say you'll marry me," he pleaded, "Say you'll marry me and we can figure it out together! Remember what I said? You'll never have to do this alone. Just say yes!"

She felt the word bubble up inside of her, the dreaded yes. The coerced, insincere agreement clawing its way up her throat and out through her tongue.

She didn't want this. She didn't want to marry someone who manipulated her, who had the power to save her– to truly save her– but who chose a faux, manufactured connection instead. He must've known that she wouldn't want a love like this. Or maybe, he didn't know her at all. Not the way she thought he did. She felt used, taken advantage of. Her body convulsed and a scream ripped through her chest. She screamed so loud that both Splendid and the minister jumped. Birds flew from the windowsill, passersby on the sidewalk stopped to stare at the Church. Giggles screamed with the rage and the frustration and the indignation of a woman robbed of her autonomy, robbed of redemption.

Her face turned a bright red as she screamed her throat raw, until saliva and speckles of blood spit from her mouth. The minister traced a cross on his chest, Splendid rushed forward wanting to hold her, wanting to comfort her. She refused. She reached up, digging her nails into her eyelids. She forced her fingers to rip the eyes from their sockets. They came loose with a sickly, wet pop.

This had always been her punishment. From the very beginning, from the moment Flippy had made his deal. From the very first time he looked at her in lust, her fate had been sent. It was a married man's contempt that cursed their town, that cursed her. It was a married man who betrayed his promise to be loyal and faithful. But it was her that the married man had slept with, and so it was her cross to bear. It was his sin that she needed to atone for. And it wasn't fair. God, it wasn't fair. But if all it took was her eyes to be set free, to release her from her perpetual retribution, she would offer them happily and with vigor.

Giggles' body collapsed to the ground. Her face and wedding dress were stained red with the blood pouring from her empty sockets. She heard a distant screaming as the world faded to black, maybe it was Splendid screaming. Maybe it was God. Her fingers released as she exhaled for the last time, her gouged eyeballs resting neatly inside her open palms.