Corpse Groom

Chapter 5

(With your parents)

"Ugh! Where could she be?" Your mother exclaimed out of pure frustration while frequently looking out the window of the carriage in hopes of finding you. "You don't think anything bad has happened to her do you?" Your father replied, worry lacing his voice, and sweat dripping down his face. "Nonsense! She's just hiding, or lost. She never does this so it's not too far-fetched for her to be lost, considering she rarely leaves the house." Not entirely convinced by your mother's "reassurance" your father looked away and continued to stare out his window until the carriage swerved causing him to fall into his wife's side, followed by a fit of violent coughs from their driver Eddie. Enraged, your mother shoved her husband off of her and yelled, "EDDIE! Quiet that blasted coughing!" Eddie, unable to stop, continued to cough, resulting in him taking violent breaths in to try and catch his breath, which eventually turned into violent gasps until he just couldn't breathe altogether, resulting in him passing out and falling off of the carriage and getting ran over as the horse continued to pull the carriage. Leaving your mother and father completely oblivious as to what happened.

(With You)

You ran as fast as your legs could carry you, desperately trying to find your way out of here and back home. Your lungs felt as if they were burning, causing every sharp intake of breath you made to feel as if your lungs were going to collapse at any given moment. Even your legs burned from all the running, you wanted to stop and take a quick break to recollect yourself, but "(Y/n) darling? Where are you?" He had been following you, leaving you no choice but to press on.

You turned down a long hall of sorts and spotted a guy with a big yellow nose, black hair, and glasses while being dressed in black dress pants, and a white button-down with a gray vest over the top. He seemed so focused on reading that he hadn't seen or heard you run up to him. "Excuse me! Sir! You need to help me! I'm not dead!" Once you got close to him you placed a hand on his shoulder causing him to jump and for his head to spin around in a complete 360 rotation. You screamed, alerting the groom of your whereabouts, and once again proceeded to take off in a full sprint.

When the groom reached the figure down the hall he no longer saw your figure standing with him, so from confusion, he asked, "Frank? Do you know which way she went?" The stranger, also known as Frank, adjusted his glasses and pointed down the hall in the direction you had run off to. "Thank you, see you later!" Pressing on, he proceeded to call out for you, although he wasn't fully aware as to why you were running in the first place. He just assumed that you didn't like big crowds and was trying to get away and find a more secluded place to calm down, Which is why he was trying to find you. He knew the perfect spot for you to calm down.

You made another sharp turn into a hall full of coffins and decided it'd be a good idea to open one up and hide inside, out of sight from the groom that was somehow still on your trail. Upon hearing him walk by, you moved to open the coffin and sprint in the opposite direction, but unfortunately, it wouldn't budge. "Oh no. Oh, please, no! Help! Someone, please open the door!" You began to panic, continuously banging on the lid before it opened up revealing the actress that was on stage earlier performing with that giant blue dog. "Goodness! What an amazing idea!" She took your hand and pulled you out of the coffin before exclaiming dramatically, "A play! Where a maiden falls into a deep slumber, leading everyone to believe she perished, and upon being put underground she awakens! Leaving her lover to dig her out, but will he get to her in time before she suffocates??" Horrified by the story she was envisioning for you, you ripped your hand away from her grasp and took off down the hall. Leaving her furious about your impoliteness. "Oh, how rude! SHE WENT THIS WAY!" Upon hearing his friend yell out behind him the groom turned and just caught a glimpse of you rounding the corner before vanishing out of sight. Sighing, the groom proceeded to follow you.

Eventually, you stumbled upon a giant wall, so you started climbing. You figured with all the roots protruding from the side of you'd eventually get to the surface. That was logical, right? After losing your footing a few times along with a few mini heart attacks whenever your grip would falter you eventually made it to the top where the oh-so-familiar face stood waiting for you. "You could have used the stairs silly!" The groom grabbed you by the arm and helped you up over the edge. "Stairs?" Indeed, when you turned your head to the side there were in fact stairs there. You then started mentally beating yourself up for being such an idiot and not paying close enough attention to your surroundings. The groom, having sensed your distress, gently took your arm and started pulling you over to a nearby bench to sit down and take a break, and have a little chat, "I was looking for you so I could bring you here." Confused, you looked at him and asked, "Really? Why is that?" The groom smiled before pulling out a present from behind his back and handing it to you, "So I could give you this." You carefully took it into your hands and gazed at it curiously before looking back at the groom, making him smile even more, "Consider it a wedding present." You then proceeded to slowly unwrap the present, revealing a bunch of bones inside it. You shivered and closed the lid back up before forcing a smile onto your face, "How... lovely. Thank you." Just then, the box started shaking before tipping out of your hands and onto the ground where all the bones started piecing together revealing a dog. It picked up a collar off of the ground and dropped it into your lap making you gasp upon reading the name on the tag.

"(Y/d/n)?" (your dog's name, if you don't have one then congrats now you do) The dog barked upon hearing its name and then started jumping around. "(Y/d/n)! I can't believe it!" You laughed and pulled the dog onto your lap, "I missed you so much!" The dog started nuzzling your face making the groom beside you chuckle, "It appears he missed you too." You looked at him and smiled full-heartedly, "Thank you, this gift is truly amazing." Flustered, the groom began to rub the back of his neck for a moment before responding, "It's no problem. Besides, I figured it'd be nice for you two to be reunited." After a bit of silence, the groom spoke up again, "Do they know any tricks?" You smiled and set the dog onto the ground, "They do actually, sit (Y/d/n), sit." The dog sits, staring at you expectantly, "Roll over, go on." The dog rolls over and returns to a sitting position, "Play dead!" The dog then cocks its head in confusion, making you rub the back of your neck out of embarrassment. "Right, sorry about that." The groom chuckled before placing the dog onto his lap and scratching him. "Such a good dog." Your smile faltered, "Yeah, my mother never really liked them. Said they were too much of a nuisance." The groom frowned and stopped scratching the dog, letting it return back to your lap, "That's awful." You sighed, "Yeah well, my mother never really approved of the things I cared about." With hope in his eyes, the groom looked at you, "Do you think she'd approve of me?" You looked at him, an idea flashing through your mind making you grab his hand and smile reassuringly, "Of course, she'd approve, actually, you should meet her!"

The groom's eyes lit up as he jumped to his feet, "Really? That's perfect! Where are they buried?" You looked down and rubbed the back of your neck, "Actually they are um..." You then pointed up toward the sky. "Oh, they're still alive...Well, this is a predicament isn't it?" Just then your dog started barking, "What's that (Y/d/n)?" He continued to bark a bit more, "Hm... I guess that's not a bad idea..." Confused, you looked between the two before settling your gaze on the groom, "What? What is it?" The groom looked at you with a serious face, "He says we should go to the home of the all-knowing."

After a short journey, you all arrived at this "all-knowing" guy's house, but upon entering it just seemed dark and dusty, as if no one had been here for years. "I don't think anyone is home-" You were cut off by all of the candles suddenly lighting up and a red phone, with a spinning dial, ringing, making it eerily echo throughout the quiet house. The groom slowly walked up to the phone and answered in a smooth yet calming tone of voice, "Hello? Who is this?" It was silent on the other line before an ominous dark voice responded through the phone, "Why, I'm the all-knowing. What is it I can help you with?" Your blood ran cold from the eerie feeling this "all-knowing" guy was giving off, but the groom responded calmly, seeming unfazed by the whole ordeal. "Me and my fiance want to go visit the land of the living, do you think that is possible?" Silence followed the groom's question for a short time, seeming as if this guy was pondering his question before he answered, "Yes I can help you with that, I just need you both to hold still and when you're ready to come back just say "apples" you got that?" The groom laughed, "Apples?" "You got it." Before we knew it a sudden gust of wind picked up, which caused crows to spin around the two of us before extinguishing the candles and going black. 

(Sorry for the extremely short chapter :P)