Corpse Groom

Chapter 14 - The Dead Walk The Earth!

All was quiet as Hildegarde entered the dining room, with the tiniest wedding cake anyone had ever seen. Well, it would have been if anyone were the least bit focused. Most of the guests were bored, some playing with their small portion of food, and one was even sleeping in his seat. The Everglots were looking as sour as usual and poor Victoria still stared off into space, the dread and disappointment of her future painfully clear on her face.

The silence was broken as Lord Barkis tapped his fork against his glass, waking the one guest and gaining the attention of all of them as he demanded, "Quiet down now, everyone."

They all stared at him, with mostly bored expressions on their faces.

"Thank you. Elegant, cultured, radiant. Victoria has found a husband with all these qualities and more. Serendipity brought us together and no force on earth could tear us apart."

Just then, as if to prove the egotistical bastard wrong, the fireplace sprung to life, with eerie green flames illuminating the room. The suddenness of it all brought Victoria out of her state of pity and into a state of panic. Even the guests' bored expressions were replaced with ones of terror.

From the shadows, where the unnerving green glow could not quite reach, a hoard of skeletons came creeping out behind the Everglots. They were unaware of the skeletal figures, unlike the rest of the guests, but it was made a little more apparent when Bonejangles' eye popped out, bounced off Lord Everglot's head, and right into his bowl of soup.

The stout man gazed down at the peculiar addition to his meal, scooping it up with a spoon as he casually remarked, "There's an eye in me soup."

Chaos immediately broke out as one of the lady guests shrieked out in horror. It caused a slew of screams to erupt from the other guests and caused a few to even flee.

In all the panic and chaos, Lord Barkis showed his true colours as he shoved Victoria in front of him, practically handing her over to the undead intruders, as he cowardly crawled under the table.

Meanwhile, Lady Everglot gasped in horror from atop a chair, doing her best to be out of reach from Scraps, who just wanted to play.

Lord Everglot, deciding to take charge, called to his butler and loudly proclaimed, "Fetch me musket!"

However, Emil was already opening the front door to flee, placing a cap on as he furiously shouted, "Fetch your own musket! I'm off!"

One lady shrieked as Paul creeped out from under her skirt, alerting everyone that he was coming through and to make way for him. Lord Barkis was still under the table but gasped in horror when a couple of skeleton children were found hiding with him, giggling mischievously.

The maggot inched his way up one man's arm, trying to make conversation as he revealed, "Excuse me, you don't know me, but I used to live in your dead mother."

He screeched in horror as he and the rest of the guests began to retreat.

The Everglots found solace from atop the stairs, away from all the mayhem, and Lady Everglot anxiously asked, "Finis, who invited these people? They must be from your side of the family."

"Certainly not! Why, if my grandfather Everglot could see this, he'd be turning in his grave."

"Finis." A ghostly voice called out.

The Everglots turned and, in front of a painting of Lord Everglot's grandfather, stood a skeleton with the exact same attire as that shown in the painting.

The skeleton shook a martini glass expectantly as he asked, "Where do you keep the spirits?"

The Everglots screamed in terror, running away in an almost comical manner before locking themselves in one of their mansion rooms.