Losing You/Not The One, Chapter 3
May. 28th, 2012 04:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickYeah, still iffy on the title, though I seem to be falling back to the "Blank You" side. People seem to like them, what the hay:
Chapter 3
January 28th, 1875
Burtonsville, England
10:22 A.M.
“EVERGLOTS FLEE TOWN! LOCAL NOBLES DISAPPEAR IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT! VAN DORTS IN A TIZZY OVER FAILED ENGAGEMENT!”
At least someone’s having fun with that information, Victor thought in annoyance, pacing back and forth in his room as he listened to the town crier outside. He’ll have headlines for days because of this.
Personally, Victor was worried half to death. The sudden disappearance of the Everglots had shaken him deeply. Where were they? Why had they run? Was Victoria all right? Had she gone willingly or been taken by force? Most importantly, how was he supposed to find her? This isn’t right, he thought, directing a glare up at the ceiling. After all that’s happened, we should be together. Goodness, it was practically Emily’s last request! That poor woman sacrificed her happiness for Victoria’s – the least you could do was make that sacrifice worthwhile!
The sound of a door opening downstairs alerted him to the fact that his parents were home. He hurried downstairs to meet them. “Any news?” he asked, fiddling with his tie.
“None,” William said, looking just as frustrated as Victor felt. “We’ve asked all over the town – not one person saw them leave. They must have done it after everyone else fell asleep. No one has any idea where they might have gone, either.”
“They can’t just vanish into thin air!” Nell snapped, gesturing violently with her fan. “Don’t they have land? Other houses?”
“Yes, but which one would they have gone to? If they went to any of them at all?” William replied. “It could be they’re staying at hotels.”
“Why stay at a hotel when you’ve got a great house in the country?” Nell poked William in the side. “You’re going to find them if it’s the last thing you do! I am not letting our best opportunity to become important slip through our fingers like this!”
“Don’t worry, dear, I don’t intend to let that happen either,” William assured her. “We’ll hire the best private detective I can find to search for them.”
“Hire two,” Nell told him, then glared at Victor. “You and your other woman! If you hadn’t decided to sow your wild oats at the last possible moment--”
“I wasn’t sowing any oats! I woke up Emily by accident!” Victor said, gripping his tie like a lifeline.
“You’re still sticking to that ridiculous ‘dead bride’ story? Are you that desperate we not find our who your secret lover really is? She must be from a very poor family.”
“Mother, Father, didn’t you ask a-anyone about what happened last night?” Victor asked, feeling a fresh surge of annoyance.
“Only if they knew where the Everglots had gone,” William answered.
“Well, ask them what happened in the church, then. Almost the entire village was there to see me nearly marry Emily. From what I understand, the arrival of the dead c-caused a bit of a ruckus. . . .”
“Oh, so your new friends caused mayhem and destruction while preparing for a wedding,” Nell said, glaring. “Why am I not surprised? Perhaps that’s why the Everglots left – they didn’t want to be associated with such uncouth behavior.”
Victor was about to protest when he realized that his mother might actually be onto something. What if the dead rising was responsible for the Everglots fleeing? He hadn’t heard much of what had happened when they first arrived, but he did know they’d scared some people. What if they’d never made up with the Everglots, showed them that they weren’t dangerous monsters? And when Victoria came home. . .he winced. “They didn’t – I didn’t--”
“Oh, just hold your tongue,” Nell snapped. “I shouldn’t be surprised that you ruined everything. We should have skipped the rehearsal and just gone straight to the wedding.”
“Without Victor knowing his vows?” William asked, frowning at her.
“Even him making a fool of himself in the church would have been better than this!”
There was a sudden sharp rap at the door. Nell turned to it, frowning. “Now who could that be? BARRY! Get the door!”
Barry, their butler, appeared and opened the door to reveal Pastor Galswells, glowering at all and sundry. “Pastor! What brings you by?” William said with his usual friendly grin. “We didn’t find you at the church earlier. Can we offer you some refreshment?”
“I’m not here on a social call, Mr. Van Dort,” Pastor Galswells boomed. “I’m here to talk to you about a most grave matter concerning--”
His eyes found Victor, who was watching the pastor with some concern. He glared and pointed with his holy cane. “Your devil-worshipping son!”
“Our what?” Nell gasped, nearly dropping her fan.
“I’m what?” Victor said, staring at the pastor in confusion. “Sir, are you all right?”
“Yes, and no thanks to you! Your son has been consorting with demons, Mr. and Mrs. Van Dort! He has been making unholy alliances with the evil undead!”
Oh God. “Pastor Galswells, you can’t be that upset about that one man telling you to keep it down in your own church,” Victor said, trying to defuse the situation.
“Man? You call that creature who spoke to me a man?!” Pastor Galswells jabbed his stick at him. “Your son’s soul is tainted! He is one of the damned!”
“Pastor Galswells, please--”
“What are you saying?” William said, his mouth hanging open slightly. “Our Victor? Damned? Don’t you think that’s going a bit far?”
“No! Not after what happened last night! That boy of yours called upon the powers of darkness to help unite him with a dead woman!”
Now Nell’s jaw dropped. “She was a corpse?!”
“Yes! They all were! Horrific visions of rotting flesh and crumbling bones! And your son dared to make profane the sacrament of marriage with one!”
“Victor!” Nell whipped around to face him, looking horrified. “How could you?! A corpse? In a church?! Did everyone see this?”
“The whole village,” Pastor Galswells said. “He had them under a spell of sorts, to stop them from--”
“It wasn’t a s-spell!” Victor shouted, now genuinely angry. How dare Pastor Galswells accuse his friends of being evil? “They just recognized that the d-dead meant them no harm! They were our friends and loved ones! Didn’t you see anyone you knew in life?”
“All I saw was the legions of Hell invading my church at your command!” Pastor Galswells yelled back.
“They were not the legions of H-Hell! Pastor Galswells, please, you’ve got to understand–”
“I understand enough already! You are one of the fallen! One destined for Hell since his birth! And now you’ve turned to harassing God-fearing people with your devil-given powers! And trying to pervert the sacraments of the church for your own ends! I’m glad the Everglots fled rather than send their daughter into a lifetime of horrors with you at her side!”
Victor just shook his head, completely lost for words. What could he say to this – this madman? He looked desperately toward his parents for help. Please, Mother – for once, put your stubbornness and love of arguing to good use!
Nell, however, was looking at him like he was something Scraps had done on the carpet. “You tried to marry a corpse,” she said, shaking her head. “Where did we go wrong with you?”
“Now, now, I think everyone’s overexcited,” William said, holding up a conciliatory hand.
“It is hard not to be overexcited, Mr. Van Dort, when you’ve realized the son of one of the wealthiest people in town is evil,” Pastor Galswells intoned. “I don’t blame you or your wife, you understand. You cannot control these things, no matter how much you try. If one is destined for damnation, it always shows itself sooner or later.”
“Yes, yes, of course,” William said soothingly. “But could you give us some time to talk to Victor? He is our son.”
“You’d be better off disowning him and sending him far away, where his evil cannot hurt so many,” Pastor Galswells replied, voice cold.
“We’ll see,” William said, gently guiding the pastor back through the front door. “But I don’t want to give up hope just yet. Flesh and blood, you know, heh heh. . . .”
Pastor Galswells rolled his eyes. “Very well. But don’t complain to me when he ruins everything you hold dear.”
“He’s already done that,” Nell snapped, still glaring at Victor. “He can’t do much more damage.”
“Don’t be sure of that! Watch him every moment! And whatever you don’t, don’t let him back near those woods!” Pastor Galswells pointed a long finger at Victor. “Enjoy your time on this earth, Master Van Dort! For when you die, you will get what’s truly coming to you!”
With that, the pastor finally left, marching down the street. William closed the door after him with a deep sigh. “Oh, dear, this is just what we need,” he mumbled, then looked up at Victor with a deeply disappointed expression. “You told us it wasn’t like that, son.”
Victor’s jaw dropped. “What – I – it’s not!” he cried, flinging his arms wide. “Father, I swear to you, I – I’m not--”
“He said you made profane the holy sacrament of marriage,” William said. “That doesn’t suggest good things, Victor.”
“I’m not a necrophiliac!”
Victor jumped at how loud his voice had become. He’d barely realized he was shouting again. He was just so stunned at how quickly things were spiraling out of control. . . . He forced himself to lower his voice. “He’s m-merely talking about how I w-wanted to m-marry Emily – just m-marry. There wasn’t a w-word said about c-c-con-consummation.” Which was a good thing, Victor realized – if Emily had started talking about the wedding night. . .especially before he’d agreed to kill himself. . . . Suddenly Victor wanted a chair.
“But you still admit to dragging a corpse into a church and declaring you wanted to marry it!” Nell shrieked, pointing at him with her fan. “All these years, I thought you were afraid of everything. . . .”
“Mother, I – D-dragging?” His eyes went wide. “You can’t still – Mother, Pastor Galswells himself just told you the dead rose!”
“At your command! Obviously you scared the poor man literally out of his wits by digging up half the village graveyard to attend your ‘wedding!’”
“Be reasonable, Nell – if he’d dug up that many graves, he wouldn’t have had time to set things to rights before we came home,” William said, putting a hand on her shoulder.
“All right, perhaps,” Nell allowed. “He must have just had the one and told Pastor Galswells the others were coming, which cause the poor man to snap. Always seemed a bit on the edge to me, poor fellow.”
This was mad. This was completely and utterly mad. Victoria was gone, Pastor Galswells thought he was the child of the devil, and his own parents still refused to believe that last night had actually happened. “Ask the others in the village then!” he begged. “Please! They’ll tell you what happened!”
“All they’ll tell us is the same thing Pastor Galswells told us – you tried to marry a corpse,” Nell said, waving her fan dismissively. “I don’t want to hear any more about your – proclivities.”
“Then ask Barry!” Victor cried, grabbing the butler’s arm as he tried to leave. “Please, Barry, you were there, weren’t you? At least you must have seen the dead walking through the streets! Tell them it happened! Please!”
Barry looked at him – and to Victor’s shock, he saw fear in the older man’s gaze. “I – the pastor said--” he whispered. “I w-wasn’t at the church, but I d-did hear about you t-trying to commit suicide for a corpse. . .” His eyes flicked to the elder Van Dorts. “I don’t know anything. . .”
Victor stared at him for a moment. Then he released him and moved back a step. Was – was it going to be like this all throughout the village? Would the others be intimidated into believing Pastor Galswells’s version of events? Would they agree that he was some evil being who’d brought the dead back for some sinister purpose? Or would they be more like his parents, and convince themselves the whole thing hadn’t happened? If there was one thing he knew about Burtonsville, it was that it loathed excitement. And having to acknowledge that the dead had risen was definitely excitement.
“Now, really, Victor,” his mother scolded. “Keep scaring the servants like that, and they’ll all quit their positions.”
“We can get you help, son,” William said, reaching out to touch his arm. “Someone to talk to, show you why such things are wrong--”
Victor pulled away from his father and darted up the stairs, running back to his room. He locked the door behind him, then fell onto his bed. This isn’t happening, he thought. This is all a dream. Some horrible nightmare I’ll wake up from soon. And then my parents will be waiting for me downstairs again, and I’ll explain, and this time the villagers will speak up and they’ll believe me and Victoria will be at her home ready to try our wedding again –
“PASTOR GALSWELLS DECLARES VAN DORT BOY DAMNED! SAYS MASTER VAN DORT IS EVIL INCARNATE!”
Victor forced himself to get up and go to the window. Down in the square, the town crier paraded around, ringing his bell and spreading this latest bit of news. The people in the square looked at him, then over at the Van Dort house. Their expressions, from what Victor could see, appeared to be mingled worry and fear. Victor turned away, resting his head against the nearby wall. They’ll never speak up for me – not now. Everyone’s too scared of Pastor Galswells – and even if they weren’t, Mother would never listen anyway. I’m – I’m alone.
He remained that way for a moment. Then, slowly, he clasped his hands and looked up at the ceiling again. Please, God, he prayed, closing his eyes. Please let us find the Everglots – and quickly. I need Victoria back in my life. If – if only because she’s the only one who understands anymore. Please – bring her back to me.
Thoughts appreciated!
January 28th, 1875
Burtonsville, England
10:22 A.M.
“EVERGLOTS FLEE TOWN! LOCAL NOBLES DISAPPEAR IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT! VAN DORTS IN A TIZZY OVER FAILED ENGAGEMENT!”
At least someone’s having fun with that information, Victor thought in annoyance, pacing back and forth in his room as he listened to the town crier outside. He’ll have headlines for days because of this.
Personally, Victor was worried half to death. The sudden disappearance of the Everglots had shaken him deeply. Where were they? Why had they run? Was Victoria all right? Had she gone willingly or been taken by force? Most importantly, how was he supposed to find her? This isn’t right, he thought, directing a glare up at the ceiling. After all that’s happened, we should be together. Goodness, it was practically Emily’s last request! That poor woman sacrificed her happiness for Victoria’s – the least you could do was make that sacrifice worthwhile!
The sound of a door opening downstairs alerted him to the fact that his parents were home. He hurried downstairs to meet them. “Any news?” he asked, fiddling with his tie.
“None,” William said, looking just as frustrated as Victor felt. “We’ve asked all over the town – not one person saw them leave. They must have done it after everyone else fell asleep. No one has any idea where they might have gone, either.”
“They can’t just vanish into thin air!” Nell snapped, gesturing violently with her fan. “Don’t they have land? Other houses?”
“Yes, but which one would they have gone to? If they went to any of them at all?” William replied. “It could be they’re staying at hotels.”
“Why stay at a hotel when you’ve got a great house in the country?” Nell poked William in the side. “You’re going to find them if it’s the last thing you do! I am not letting our best opportunity to become important slip through our fingers like this!”
“Don’t worry, dear, I don’t intend to let that happen either,” William assured her. “We’ll hire the best private detective I can find to search for them.”
“Hire two,” Nell told him, then glared at Victor. “You and your other woman! If you hadn’t decided to sow your wild oats at the last possible moment--”
“I wasn’t sowing any oats! I woke up Emily by accident!” Victor said, gripping his tie like a lifeline.
“You’re still sticking to that ridiculous ‘dead bride’ story? Are you that desperate we not find our who your secret lover really is? She must be from a very poor family.”
“Mother, Father, didn’t you ask a-anyone about what happened last night?” Victor asked, feeling a fresh surge of annoyance.
“Only if they knew where the Everglots had gone,” William answered.
“Well, ask them what happened in the church, then. Almost the entire village was there to see me nearly marry Emily. From what I understand, the arrival of the dead c-caused a bit of a ruckus. . . .”
“Oh, so your new friends caused mayhem and destruction while preparing for a wedding,” Nell said, glaring. “Why am I not surprised? Perhaps that’s why the Everglots left – they didn’t want to be associated with such uncouth behavior.”
Victor was about to protest when he realized that his mother might actually be onto something. What if the dead rising was responsible for the Everglots fleeing? He hadn’t heard much of what had happened when they first arrived, but he did know they’d scared some people. What if they’d never made up with the Everglots, showed them that they weren’t dangerous monsters? And when Victoria came home. . .he winced. “They didn’t – I didn’t--”
“Oh, just hold your tongue,” Nell snapped. “I shouldn’t be surprised that you ruined everything. We should have skipped the rehearsal and just gone straight to the wedding.”
“Without Victor knowing his vows?” William asked, frowning at her.
“Even him making a fool of himself in the church would have been better than this!”
There was a sudden sharp rap at the door. Nell turned to it, frowning. “Now who could that be? BARRY! Get the door!”
Barry, their butler, appeared and opened the door to reveal Pastor Galswells, glowering at all and sundry. “Pastor! What brings you by?” William said with his usual friendly grin. “We didn’t find you at the church earlier. Can we offer you some refreshment?”
“I’m not here on a social call, Mr. Van Dort,” Pastor Galswells boomed. “I’m here to talk to you about a most grave matter concerning--”
His eyes found Victor, who was watching the pastor with some concern. He glared and pointed with his holy cane. “Your devil-worshipping son!”
“Our what?” Nell gasped, nearly dropping her fan.
“I’m what?” Victor said, staring at the pastor in confusion. “Sir, are you all right?”
“Yes, and no thanks to you! Your son has been consorting with demons, Mr. and Mrs. Van Dort! He has been making unholy alliances with the evil undead!”
Oh God. “Pastor Galswells, you can’t be that upset about that one man telling you to keep it down in your own church,” Victor said, trying to defuse the situation.
“Man? You call that creature who spoke to me a man?!” Pastor Galswells jabbed his stick at him. “Your son’s soul is tainted! He is one of the damned!”
“Pastor Galswells, please--”
“What are you saying?” William said, his mouth hanging open slightly. “Our Victor? Damned? Don’t you think that’s going a bit far?”
“No! Not after what happened last night! That boy of yours called upon the powers of darkness to help unite him with a dead woman!”
Now Nell’s jaw dropped. “She was a corpse?!”
“Yes! They all were! Horrific visions of rotting flesh and crumbling bones! And your son dared to make profane the sacrament of marriage with one!”
“Victor!” Nell whipped around to face him, looking horrified. “How could you?! A corpse? In a church?! Did everyone see this?”
“The whole village,” Pastor Galswells said. “He had them under a spell of sorts, to stop them from--”
“It wasn’t a s-spell!” Victor shouted, now genuinely angry. How dare Pastor Galswells accuse his friends of being evil? “They just recognized that the d-dead meant them no harm! They were our friends and loved ones! Didn’t you see anyone you knew in life?”
“All I saw was the legions of Hell invading my church at your command!” Pastor Galswells yelled back.
“They were not the legions of H-Hell! Pastor Galswells, please, you’ve got to understand–”
“I understand enough already! You are one of the fallen! One destined for Hell since his birth! And now you’ve turned to harassing God-fearing people with your devil-given powers! And trying to pervert the sacraments of the church for your own ends! I’m glad the Everglots fled rather than send their daughter into a lifetime of horrors with you at her side!”
Victor just shook his head, completely lost for words. What could he say to this – this madman? He looked desperately toward his parents for help. Please, Mother – for once, put your stubbornness and love of arguing to good use!
Nell, however, was looking at him like he was something Scraps had done on the carpet. “You tried to marry a corpse,” she said, shaking her head. “Where did we go wrong with you?”
“Now, now, I think everyone’s overexcited,” William said, holding up a conciliatory hand.
“It is hard not to be overexcited, Mr. Van Dort, when you’ve realized the son of one of the wealthiest people in town is evil,” Pastor Galswells intoned. “I don’t blame you or your wife, you understand. You cannot control these things, no matter how much you try. If one is destined for damnation, it always shows itself sooner or later.”
“Yes, yes, of course,” William said soothingly. “But could you give us some time to talk to Victor? He is our son.”
“You’d be better off disowning him and sending him far away, where his evil cannot hurt so many,” Pastor Galswells replied, voice cold.
“We’ll see,” William said, gently guiding the pastor back through the front door. “But I don’t want to give up hope just yet. Flesh and blood, you know, heh heh. . . .”
Pastor Galswells rolled his eyes. “Very well. But don’t complain to me when he ruins everything you hold dear.”
“He’s already done that,” Nell snapped, still glaring at Victor. “He can’t do much more damage.”
“Don’t be sure of that! Watch him every moment! And whatever you don’t, don’t let him back near those woods!” Pastor Galswells pointed a long finger at Victor. “Enjoy your time on this earth, Master Van Dort! For when you die, you will get what’s truly coming to you!”
With that, the pastor finally left, marching down the street. William closed the door after him with a deep sigh. “Oh, dear, this is just what we need,” he mumbled, then looked up at Victor with a deeply disappointed expression. “You told us it wasn’t like that, son.”
Victor’s jaw dropped. “What – I – it’s not!” he cried, flinging his arms wide. “Father, I swear to you, I – I’m not--”
“He said you made profane the holy sacrament of marriage,” William said. “That doesn’t suggest good things, Victor.”
“I’m not a necrophiliac!”
Victor jumped at how loud his voice had become. He’d barely realized he was shouting again. He was just so stunned at how quickly things were spiraling out of control. . . . He forced himself to lower his voice. “He’s m-merely talking about how I w-wanted to m-marry Emily – just m-marry. There wasn’t a w-word said about c-c-con-consummation.” Which was a good thing, Victor realized – if Emily had started talking about the wedding night. . .especially before he’d agreed to kill himself. . . . Suddenly Victor wanted a chair.
“But you still admit to dragging a corpse into a church and declaring you wanted to marry it!” Nell shrieked, pointing at him with her fan. “All these years, I thought you were afraid of everything. . . .”
“Mother, I – D-dragging?” His eyes went wide. “You can’t still – Mother, Pastor Galswells himself just told you the dead rose!”
“At your command! Obviously you scared the poor man literally out of his wits by digging up half the village graveyard to attend your ‘wedding!’”
“Be reasonable, Nell – if he’d dug up that many graves, he wouldn’t have had time to set things to rights before we came home,” William said, putting a hand on her shoulder.
“All right, perhaps,” Nell allowed. “He must have just had the one and told Pastor Galswells the others were coming, which cause the poor man to snap. Always seemed a bit on the edge to me, poor fellow.”
This was mad. This was completely and utterly mad. Victoria was gone, Pastor Galswells thought he was the child of the devil, and his own parents still refused to believe that last night had actually happened. “Ask the others in the village then!” he begged. “Please! They’ll tell you what happened!”
“All they’ll tell us is the same thing Pastor Galswells told us – you tried to marry a corpse,” Nell said, waving her fan dismissively. “I don’t want to hear any more about your – proclivities.”
“Then ask Barry!” Victor cried, grabbing the butler’s arm as he tried to leave. “Please, Barry, you were there, weren’t you? At least you must have seen the dead walking through the streets! Tell them it happened! Please!”
Barry looked at him – and to Victor’s shock, he saw fear in the older man’s gaze. “I – the pastor said--” he whispered. “I w-wasn’t at the church, but I d-did hear about you t-trying to commit suicide for a corpse. . .” His eyes flicked to the elder Van Dorts. “I don’t know anything. . .”
Victor stared at him for a moment. Then he released him and moved back a step. Was – was it going to be like this all throughout the village? Would the others be intimidated into believing Pastor Galswells’s version of events? Would they agree that he was some evil being who’d brought the dead back for some sinister purpose? Or would they be more like his parents, and convince themselves the whole thing hadn’t happened? If there was one thing he knew about Burtonsville, it was that it loathed excitement. And having to acknowledge that the dead had risen was definitely excitement.
“Now, really, Victor,” his mother scolded. “Keep scaring the servants like that, and they’ll all quit their positions.”
“We can get you help, son,” William said, reaching out to touch his arm. “Someone to talk to, show you why such things are wrong--”
Victor pulled away from his father and darted up the stairs, running back to his room. He locked the door behind him, then fell onto his bed. This isn’t happening, he thought. This is all a dream. Some horrible nightmare I’ll wake up from soon. And then my parents will be waiting for me downstairs again, and I’ll explain, and this time the villagers will speak up and they’ll believe me and Victoria will be at her home ready to try our wedding again –
“PASTOR GALSWELLS DECLARES VAN DORT BOY DAMNED! SAYS MASTER VAN DORT IS EVIL INCARNATE!”
Victor forced himself to get up and go to the window. Down in the square, the town crier paraded around, ringing his bell and spreading this latest bit of news. The people in the square looked at him, then over at the Van Dort house. Their expressions, from what Victor could see, appeared to be mingled worry and fear. Victor turned away, resting his head against the nearby wall. They’ll never speak up for me – not now. Everyone’s too scared of Pastor Galswells – and even if they weren’t, Mother would never listen anyway. I’m – I’m alone.
He remained that way for a moment. Then, slowly, he clasped his hands and looked up at the ceiling again. Please, God, he prayed, closing his eyes. Please let us find the Everglots – and quickly. I need Victoria back in my life. If – if only because she’s the only one who understands anymore. Please – bring her back to me.
Thoughts appreciated!
