Corpse Groom

Chapter 3

The next morning, everyone had gathered in the church for the wedding rehearsal, and to say the least, it wasn't going very well...

"Let's try it again, shall we?" The priest had said it for what felt like the 100th time, each time growing more and more aggravated. As if he were about to slam the book shut and call it quits at any given moment. "Right, with this candle..." you say as you try to light the candle, much to your disappointment it doesn't light. "This... Candle..." Again, nothing. "This candle?..." You look up at the priest to see him gritting his teeth in frustration before looking back down at the candle to see it finally lit, "Oh! Ha ha.." It soon goes out before you can even start reciting again and you look up at the priest in horror before there is a knock at the door and in walks a finely dressed woman, with long blonde hair, and pinkish cheeks, adorned by a cunningly charming smile, "My apologies! I thought the wedding was sooner, but it appears I'm a tad bit early." Everyone looks at each other rather confused before Howdy's father whispers to his wife, "Is she from your side of the family?" His wife responds just as confused, "I don't seem to recall. Bently, bring a chair over for Lady?" The girl smiles before replying, "Oh! Lady Julie, Julie Joyful ma'am." Bently soon brings over a chair for her, to which Julie sits down and waves her hand before saying, "Please, proceed."

After collecting yourself, you and Howdy turn back to face the priest, to which he responds, "Let's take it from the hand bit." "Okay." You breathe out, "Right." Says the priest while glaring daggers into your soul, "Right... Oh!" You quickly swap the candle into your left hand and hold up your right one, "Right! Let's see... With this... um..." The priest is practically shaking from anger at this point and slams his cane onto the floor before exclaiming, "Hand!" You jump, startled, and Howdy quickly takes your hand in his in an attempt to calm your nerves, which allows you to move forward, "With this hand! I will.." You and Howdy take three steps forward, while you make an accidental fourth step and bump into the table, nearly spilling the wine, which results in the priest losing control and yelling, "Three steps! Three! Can you not count?? Do you not wish to be married??" You panic and wave your hands in front of you and exclaim, "No! No!" Howdy then looks at you surprised, and almost hurt before exclaiming, "You do not?"

Upon seeing the hurt expression on his face you panic more and say in a rushed voice "No! No! I do! I was just saying I do not NOT wish to be married, meaning I wish very much to- OW!" Your rambling is cut short by the priest hitting you upside the head with his cane and exclaiming in an angry tone of voice "Enough! Did you even remember to bring the ring?" You stop for a minute to comprehend what he had asked before replying, "The ring? Oh! Yes! It's right here!" You begin to pull it out of your pocket but upon being so shaky, you drop the ring, causing it to roll across the floor, and over to a corner. Causing everyone to gasp and for you to practically throw the candle to go retrieve it, leaving the priest to call out, "Dropping the ring! This woman does not wish to be married!" Causing even more of an uprise than it should have.

Upon retrieving the ring a scream was let out, which echoed throughout the church. Causing everyone to turn and see Howdy's mother, screaming, with her dress in flames, his father continuously stomping on it trying to put it out, and your mother aggressively fanning it not realizing that she's not helping at all, and your father running around trying to find a bucket of water. Amongst the chaos, the priest shut his book, set it down, and just sat back and watched as this scene played out until finally, Julie, the lady from earlier, calmly walked over and dumped her glass of wine on the flames, extinguishing them, and calmly taking her leave.

After everything had settled down the priest walked up and pointed a finger towards you before saying in a deep, threatening tone of voice, "Young lady, if you wish to be married then you best learn your vows." You sat, horrified by all the glaring faces that surrounded you, temporarily causing your body to tense up and freeze before looking at Howdy. His face was full of concern and horror at everything that had happened within the past couple of minutes, his face alone is the sole reason you managed to get enough control of your body to run past all the glaring faces, out the door, out into town, before finally resting at the bridge that sat just on the outside of town.

Once you calmed down and got your breathing under control you decided to continue walking to try and rid your thoughts and the events of everything that had happened from your mind, and so, into the woods you ventured. Mumbling, and trying to figure out why you couldn't get simple vows down. It couldn't possibly be that difficult, and yet here you were, struggling. It seemed no matter how hard you tried you always failed. Your parent's must be so disappointed. Howdy's parents probably hate you, not to mention Howdy. Lord only knows what he's going through right now... Possibly regretting our marriage arrangement, or thinking I don't want anything to do with him. I hope that's not the case.

You sigh, "Howdy deserves to be with someone worthy of his love, someone who can get their vows down." So, with the smallest bit of determination, you attempted to be that worthy person, one step at a time. "With this... Hand... I will... I will... Drop the ring and leave the church." you facepalmed and continued to venture deeper into the forest. "With this candle... I will..." You sigh, "I will set your mother on fire." You shake your head out of frustration and try to focus. You then take a long look up at the moon, basking in its glow before taking a deep breath and pulling the ring out of your pocket, grazing your fingers over the familiar item you begin to gain a newfound determination. You stand up straight, fix your hair, and extend your hand out to a random tree branch, grasping it in your hand before exclaiming, "With this hand, I will lift your sorrows." You fake pour a glass into another fake glass, "Your cup will never empty, for I will be your wine." You then proceed to rip a small branch off of a tree and pretend to light it as if it were a candle, "With this candle, I will light your way in darkness." You then walk over to a branch sticking out of the ground that's conveniently shaped like a hand and kneel before gently placing the ring on one of the finger-like branches, "With this ring, I ask you to be mine."

You breathed out a sigh of relief, you had done it. Quite perfectly you might add, but something seemed... off. You weren't sure if it was just the fact that you were just practically yelling into the woods for the past few minutes and didn't realize just how silent it was or if it was just suddenly very quiet, which was unnerving. So much so that it caused you to freeze in place, leaving the only sounds you hear to be the beating of your heart and your rapid breathing. That is until the wind picked up causing nearby crows to start flying around, cawing as if there was danger nearby, making you jump and nearly fall backward into the snow if it wasn't for the tree-like hand from earlier reaching out and grabbing your wrist making you scream out in horror and yank your arm back out of its grasp and practically throwing yourself back a few feet away from it.

You then watch in horror as a figure starts to crawl out of the ground, and once it stands in the light of the full moon, you watch as it moves what seems to be a veil out of its face and whispers, "I do." Shakily you sprint up and take off running through the woods, constantly battling roots and twigs on your way through, tearing up your clothes, and tangling your hair. You want to scream out for help but you can't, your voice seems to be stuck in your throat as you gasp for air, finally reaching the bridge. You turn around, expecting to see the being from before, but to your surprise, it's nowhere in sight. You release a huge breath of air, thinking that your brain might have led you to believe that you were seeing things due to the current fear you had felt beforehand. Although, when you turned back around you were met face-to-face with a corpse. His face was skinny, and his skin was a deathly pale tone, dark blue hair with torn-up clothes, an occasional stitch mark running along his body here and there, and dirt patches littered about. You gasped, and backed away, only to be met with the edge of the bridge. You could only stare as the corpse drew closer and closer until he grasped your shoulders and whispered in an eerie tone of voice, "You may kiss the Groom." He drew closer, and the last thing you remember seeing was darkness.