Twisted Wonderland | Mickey's Print

Ghost Marriage (V)

Just as the ghosts planned, the wedding proceeded. Grampy, as the officiant, once again reached the part about the vows and the "I do's," even though the groom clearly said: "No, I don't." This was dismissed and ignored under the pretext that he was nervous about the wedding.

It was then that some of the unwilling groomsmen, frozen on either side of the altar—specifically Lilia, Cater, Azul, both Leech twins, and Sebek (this one the most vocal)—began to exclaim excitedly, "Kiss, kiss, kiss!", wanting to be freed from the curse as soon as possible.

"Stop chanting that!" Idia shrieked in despair, knowing full well what the kiss would bring.

"But we're so bored! We can't do anything but move our lips," Lilia complained, feeling his muscles starting to go numb.

The chanting reminded Princess Eliza of something, and she glanced at the clock on the wall, which read 11:25 p.m. She was having such a good time that she'd lost track of time.

"Oh, it's almost midnight. The vow kiss is finally coming!" she squealed excitedly. "Once we seal our vows, Idia will follow me to the land of the dead, and we'll be together forever. I'll finally be happy!"

"Hmm... Now that I think about it, we still have a dilemma at hand," Lilia said before grinning from ear to ear again, revealing his fangs. "If Idia becomes a ghost, who will be the next dorm leader of Ignihyde?"

Jade raised his eyebrows; with all the commotion, that thought hadn't crossed his mind either. "That will definitely be a problem: after all, Ignihyde doesn't have a vice-dorm leader," he said, being aware that Ortho, despite being the closest one to fulfilling that role, wasn't exactly a student at Night Raven College—he was only there to accompany his older brother. "We'll have to come up with something to avoid uncertainty due to the absence of a dorm leader." He flashed a wicked smile. "Oh, I know! Thanks to the magic of this school, we can see ghosts, right? What if Idia continues his duties as dorm leader once he transforms into a ghost? Then there shouldn't be any problem."

Lilia frowned doubtfully. "Although there's no precedent for a dorm leader being both a ghost and married, it might be unheard of for some."

Floyd laughed at the idea: "A ghost dorm leader who's married, how fun!"

"What's fun about that?!" Idia squealed. "I'm going to turn into a ghost in less than half an hour, and you're all talking like it's a blast. Seriously, I can't believe how heartless you are..."

Vil returned his gaze, filled with indignation and disappointment. "Look who's talking! I heard a ghost mention that when you found out we were coming to rescue you, you tried to sell us out to save your own skin, saying there was a 'wide selection of grooms' at school. Is that true?"

"Selling out the friends who tried to save you... You wound me beyond words," Leona mocked with clear sarcasm.

Aware that he'd been caught out, Idia could only respond with a high-pitched, indecipherable shriek.

"It seems that now that he's run out of arguments to defend himself, he's resorted to emitting screams of pain," Azul analyzed humorously.

"Hey, hey, darling! I can't wait for our honeymoon!" the princess exclaimed, trying to regain her fiancé's attention, completely ignoring the whimper of suffering he had just uttered. "The destination is a secret, so we can make a trip full of surprises."

Idia had already stopped paying attention to her; nothing mattered anymore. Tears began to well up in his well-made-up eyes. It was said that hope was the last thing someone could lose, and he had just lost it.

"Uh... Is this how my life is going to end?" he murmured. "The big update for my online game next month, the apps I still have to program, the figures I haven't finished collecting... and I haven't even been able to read the manga I got yesterday, and it's still ongoing. I still have so much to do!"