The Corpse Bride, befor Victor

I still remember. I will always remember.
"Emily, do come away from the window and go shopping with me. It'll be such fun." My mother had called after me ages ago. Her hair was the same raven black as mine. Mine seemed to eminate bits of blue on occasion but that was the past. I did go with her and she was right it was a blast no matter how much I miss my window when I'm away from it. I miss her to. But I could never go back no matter how much I wanted to. He is up there. Despite the rules he is still up there. We did have a blast at the stores, browsing through dresses and various other items at a massive array of shops. We were passing by the town square when He showed up. His face was handsome and his hair was a deep brunette. He smiled the most charming smile as he made his way over to me, now that i look back on it he saw my mother purchasing some expensive jewelry and that was the only attachment to me he had. At the time my heart fluttered. He came over and kissed my hand.
"Hello, miss, *kiss* It's a pleasure to meet you. I am lord Barkis Bitterton. And what name might a beautiful creature like you hold?" He asked.
"E-Emily. My name is Emily." My pale, at the time, face was probably flaming at the moment. I was madly in love, but just in my mind, I answered his coy question just because I wanted to feel love. I have always been a hopeless romantic and always will be, but looking back, lying here under the old oak tree so twisted and crippled I find that I miss the feeling of love. Maybe that's why I made the vows I did. Vows. Just like the ones he had made after I had brought him home to meet Papa. Mother smelled trouble on him. It was her gift. But I wished it away, a feeble minded fool desperate to feel the love I had dreamed up in my mind, saying to myself that she was just paranoid.
"I would ever so love to meet your parents, Emily. They must be rich to be able to find clothes or anything to befit a women of such standers like you." He seduced me. He was always such a flirt. But I so desperately desired for someone to love me. Despite the fact that I was one that was referred to as beautiful by many in my little village I had never been asked out to tea or dinner. I had always been a lonely romantic. Now I was even more pitiful then I had been in my previous state. I told myself many a time that I shouldn't dwell on my misfortune but I couldn't help it. He had come to my house, which is more like an estate, to meet my work loving father.
"Papa," I remember approaching my father with Barkis's hands in mine as my father looked up to see that I had a guest.
"Who is this, Emilia?" He asked his voice cold as always while he turned around in his favorite chair.
"Papa, I brought my boyfriend, Lord Barkis Bitterton. He wanted to meet you and I decided to bring him here." My father looked over at Barkis to see  him looking at the various decorations and the size of our estate.
"Ah yes sir," He said in his silk smooth voice, the voice I now fear, "I love your daughter and wanted to meet you first. I mostly wanted to ask permission to ask for young Emily's hand." He cooed as he looked into my eyes. Now that I remember it the gaze he gave me seemed like a mischievous, evil glare. My father glared at his eyes and then looked more softly at me and shuddered.
"I forbid this union. You are not fit to wed my daughter." He shouted at Barkis, he looked as shocked as I was.
"Papa!" I shouted back. I should have let him help me but I was such a fool. A fool that thought she was in love.
"Get out of my house! Away from my daughter!" My dad bellowed at Barkis. I turned to him and whispered to him.
"You better leave now. Meet me out underneath my window Balcony." I told him, he slipped a simple wedding ring into my hands.
"Like Romeo and Juliet. Juliet doesn't compare to you in the least." He said, doing his best to suede me. He was trying to hard for someone like me who was always falling for him, would fall for anyone if it meant a happily ever after. My father was standing now and prepared to shoot at him. I should have let my father shoot him. If I had I would be back at my home. But no, I'm lying down here beneath the snow and the large old oak tree, still waiting. Once he had left my father had calmed down and forbade me from seeing him ever again. I tried to protest but my mother took me to my room and locked the door. I looked outside where Barkis was waiting.
"Darling, Emily, Meet me in the forest by the old Oak I showed you." He said. The oak I'm stuck under now, "I'll marry you there. Bring a gown and the family jewels. We don't need much just something we can use for money. Some gold. Get a bouquet too. I'll see you there at a quarter to three. Until then my love." Those were some of his last words to me.  I was in love, or so I told myself I was. I knew deep down in my soul that there was something wrong with him but my heart wanted to feel true love. So that's what it chose to feel. A fool I was, but it's all in the past. I wonder, why this is the only thing I can think of. The thing I hated most. I remember going to the local florist and asking for roses, lilies, babies breath, all the things my mother had on her wedding bouquet she had told me. I grabbed her wedding gown as well and styled my black hair beneath the veil. I remember the feel of it as I placed a small portion of it over my face and let it flow over the strapless wedding gown. I was ready. Or so I thought. I never could have been ready for what did happen though. I didn't wed that much is obvious. But I never did suspect what he did do to me. I reached the fog surrounded oak tree. Just as twisted and crippled as it is now. I glanced up at the moon, for the last time. I didn't know it would be my last at the time I just wanted to see it. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him. Barkis.
"Barkis? Sweetie is that you?" I called out my heart all aflutter. He came closer, a wicked gleam lingering, flashing, dancing in his gaze. It had frightened me even then .
"Oh, it's me , Emily." he said as he pulled out a long butcher knife. I gasped, eyes wide as I took a step back, which was hard to do in my white heels.
"Barkis?" I asked him terrified as I took another step backward. That one tiny movement with the leg that is now bone, was my very undoing. I might have been able to run had I not been in the shoes I was in. But I tripped into the now to familiar spot. He came closer the knife blade flickering in the moonlight.
"Oh my dear, don't look at me that way. I did you a kindness. I let you feel love, I let you die inside a beautiful gown that you can wear to your grave, I let you see the moon. One. Last. Time." With each word he raised the knife higher, higher. As he said time, he brought it down hard on my now boney stomach, where my dress was torn and you could see the entry wound's scar that it left on my ribs. The pain is unforgettable, and even unbearable inside this twisted memory unfolding before my mind's eye like a motion picture, unending, and horrifying. I remember looking down at the blood. I couldn't hear. Could barely see. I shed a tear. One single tear that I could feel sliding down my face to my chin. I fought to stay open but the blackness of my own eyes closing engulfed me and all my fears surrounded me. When I opened my eyes, expecting to wake up in my room inside my bed, free of a tormenting dream. I looked down at myself. I was blue, BLUE!  So was my hair. I was wearing my mothers now tattered and filthy wedding gown and veil. My gloves were torn too. There were a few corpses and skeletons standing over me. I couldn't help it but I let out a shriek that could have let the living find my body. But I didn't know it at the time. They covered their ears. Even the ones without ears.
"Calm down, darling, no need to wake the dead were already up." Said a small plump women in chef's clothing said to me. I began my rushed protests.
"But, but, but I'm not dead!" I said as my hand went to my stomach. It had a hole in it where you could feel my bones, the skin already decayed. I gasped in horror as my bones had small divots in them where the knife must have entered.
"Oh yes you are darling. OMNOMNOM." a voice inside my head said. I yelped again as the voice began to quite me down.
"Hey, hey quite. I'm in your ear for crying out loud!" The mysterious voice called out impatiently. I used my decaying hand to reach up and pull out a chubby green worm with bright pink lips, yellowed eyes surrounded by purple around the lids. I screamed and dropped him immediately and jumped up onto the bar stool behind me, pulling my dress up as well.
"Who are you? Where am I? What's happened to me?" I shouted, positively terrified of the people who became my friends and acquaintances. The women who was wearing cooking clothes explained that her name was Ms. Plum and that everyone there was dead and so was I. And that the reason they were there is because I was a new arrival to the land of the dead. The worm's name wasn't well known but many called him Nestle because he liked to nestle in peoples minds. He was a magot that feasted on things like us. She explained that for dead people this was perfectly normal and if he liked you, he might just live inside me not eat me any further.
"You mean he's started eating me already!" I shouted as I felt over my body. My hand was missing it's skin as well as the rest of my arm. My leg was virtually skinless to . The top section just above the knee and above that was still there, despite the scattered holes. Terrified I brought my endeavored hand up to the face that had caused the entire town to talk by the time I had reached adulthood. There was most of it there but there was a hole in one of my cheeks and the other side was fairly thin and eroded away. Tears came to my eyes quickly as I realized I was missing pieces like a pitiful puzzle. The small maggot crawled up to my shoulder that was still complete.
"I-I'm sorry. I had a party with some friends to celebrate my new home. I know it was a bad idea but new corpses like you who sleep in late, especially the crazy ones who are still freaking out from memories like you were, are idea for parties and rare. They ate your arm and most your leg. I ate your cheek and I'm beyond sorry. Your face was beyond beautiful. I couldn't help myself. I'm sorry." He explained sympathetically. He shed a tear and all my anger towards the little creature had melted away. I smiled and patted his head and wiped his tears.
"It's alright. I forgive you."  He smiled and asked me the most traumatic question I had heard in the underworld.
"Where are you from? How did you die?" I felt tears come to my eyes. I shook them off best I could and forced a smile.
"I was m-m-mur-murdered." Everyone gasped and added questions. When I got them to calm down I told them the story. They were all weeping by the end of my tale. I asked where they had found me. Ms. Plumm led me to a spot where winding roots sank deep below and a small entrance lay leading to a sloppy hole in the ground where a makeshift coffin lay on the bottom.
"I'm sorry its so crude," She apologized, "Your body was just thrown down here coffin less. We decided to fix the place up a bit. You can do what you wish with it now. I'm terribly sorry." When she was leaving she was joined by others from the bar which I would later learn was called the Ball & Socket. They heard me sniffle and turned around to listen to what I had began saying.
"Thank you all for your kindness. Thank you all for showing, me the way. I thought I had found the true love that must only exist in fantasy. But I must be wrong. The world isn't always that cold. I vow that I will wait for my love, true love, to set me free of my curse." I said the Ms. Plumm came up behind me and took my skeletal hand and positioned it perfectly up above on the surface. I have been waiting since then. Perfectly positioned able to hear and see everything up above. I saw the many men and women pass me right by. Finally there was a tall, thin, handsome young man properly dressed speaking to himself.  He began reciting wedding vows. I grew excited and twitched ever so slightly as I listened to his vows. Had he heard the legend that was probably floating around on the surface?  My face grew brighter as he approached and placed a gold ring upon my finger. The ravens made there sounds as I grabbed his hand and tried to pull him down here with me. He pulled away, taking most my arm with me, a mistake made often by me for being unaware of being able to control it yet despite my time. He was my one. My love. I wouldn't let him get away. Being grabbed by a corpse is always a bit shocking, but he would probably love me anyway. I won't make the same mistake again.