Love Conquers All _The Sequel_

Chapter Sixteen - Transform

Michael's POV:

I know it's bad luck to see the bride before the wedding, but it's kind of hard to avoid this when the entire population of the world is made up of clones of your bride...

I stand in front of a full length mirror, looking at my reflection one last time before heading outside where the reception is being held. I'm wearing a black suit, nothing fancy, with a black bow tie. We decided to make the celebration casual since there's no one we can celebrate with, really. We're just gonna get married and then eat some cake, basically.

I leave the room, headed for the lawn outside. As I walk down the stairs my anxiety grows a bit; everything's becoming a bit more real to me now that it's actually happening.

Walking through the front door, morning sun blinds me, and I have to shield my eyes with my forearm. Squinting, I look around. In the distance, I can see the clones have gathered. They are all seated in rows of lawn chairs, mind the clone at the piano and the clone standing front and center, the "priest." They are talking to each other quietly, God knows what about. I head that way.

I stand beside the priest, waiting. Things start in about twenty minutes, and more prominent nerves are gnawing at my stomach. Suddenly I have the fear that I'll begin projectile vomiting, and it makes me smile. Oh, the joys of life.

While I stand idle, I think about who the clones may have been before Mary killed them. Really, we've just invited a bunch of strangers to our wedding, I don't know who any of them are. I wonder if past Tex or past Julia is in the mix of guests. It would've been strange, though, to have a wedding without a group of people there watching you.

The piano player begins to play soft music as the service nears its beginning. Ten more minutes. There are refreshments toward the back; I can see that there is punch and cookies, besides the cake. I decide to go grab a quick drink before everything starts.

Jogging over to the punch bowl, I suddenly realize that it's really, really red. Whoever made it must've added way too much food coloring. Leaning over the pot, I look into the potent drink, thinking that I'll actually probably pass, when my bow tie slips off of my neck and falls into the punch bowl. Great.

Cringing, I make claws with my fingers and stick my hand into the bowl to fetch my tie. Lifting the soggy fabric, I realize I've just made a stupid mistake. I throw the tie to the side, I'm obviously not gonna put it on now, but by putting my hand in the bowl I've let the food coloring seep into my skin. Now my hand is a reddish tint.

Panicking, I grab a wad of napkins and dab my hand dry, but it remains the weird color. I scrub it ferociously but nothing happens, and now the priest is announcing that things are starting, and asking people to quiet down and take their seats.

I decide I'll just have to accept it and toss the napkins to the side, taking my place at the front.

I try to ignore the person dressed in a bright white gown walking towards us that I can see in my peripheral vision, who I'm assuming is Mary. Like I said, it's bad luck to see the bride before the wedding, and technically it's not the wedding yet. Call me a stickler.

Mary arrives at the gathering and stands at the end of the aisle, and everyone stands up. The piano player begins to play Canon in D, and everything suddenly becomes serene.

I stand with my hands behind my back as Mary begins to march towards the priest and I. It's weird how quickly things evolved into this. What started out as a deathly dangerous mission somehow turned into a magical fairytale princess story, of course, I died, though, at some point.

I smile as Mary reaches the front, and we stand facing one another. The priest begins saying all the weird things priests usually say at weddings, and Mary and I take each other's hands. Mary flinches a little when she sees the weird stain on my hand, but she ignores it. She looks at me with confused, wide eyes, and I shake my head a little to indicate that she needn't worry.

We recite whatever we need to recite, and then comes the time when we say I do.

"With this ring, I thee wed," I say, and I slip the wedding band onto Mary's finger. She does the same with me.

We both look at the priest, who continues to read from her book.

Then she says the words, "You may now kiss the bride," and I look towards Mary. She looks back at me, and before I lean in to follow the priest's commands, I observe Mary's appearance. The way she did her makeup, her hair... She looks kinda like a munchkin. A beautiful munchkin... My munchkin.

And then we both close our eyes and kiss. It's the first time we've actually really kissed, other times were when one or the other was close to death. This time it's real and it's coming from both of us, and the circumstance isn't heartbreaking. It's breathtaking... I mean I actually can't breathe when my mouth is smashed up against hers and I try not to break away and gasp for oxygen. Luckily I make it through without fainting.

When we pull away, and I can inhale again, the guests begin to applaud and cheer. But as Mary and I are looking into each other's eyes, I realize that the cheering sounds weird... The voices are different.

Mary hears this at the same time I do, and we both quickly turn to look at the people.

And that's when we see that each of them has somehow returned to their old body, and they're still alive.