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Maybe a stroll would do me some good.
Alastor mentally told himself as he quickly strutted through the town's boring, silent, dark streets, feeling the chilly evening breeze biting his sensitive nose. He knew he should have brought his coat with him, but he was in such a hurry to get out of that damned hall, out of the damned mansion as fast as possible.
He couldn’t help but let out an exhausted grunt as he looked back to the humiliating disaster he caused back at the mansion, in front of the strict priest, in front of his future in-laws, in front of his quiet fiance and worst of all; in front of his sweet, dear mother. Alastor still had that image of his mothers dreadful look stuck in his head, remembering her looking so disappointed and ashamed over him was the worst feeling he ever experienced.
All because he couldn’t practice his vows correctly.
Alastor didn’t know what was wrong with him, usually it wasn’t difficult for him at all to memorize things, and this was just a few simple vows. Vows that would seal his future forever, that would clarify his marriage to that woman he had never met, let alone had a proper conversation with before today. Just thinking about it made it feel like a knot was forming in Alastor's stomach as he dragged his feet further and further away from the luxurious mansion.
Feeling ashamed and hopeless,Alastor's tired, brown eyes trailed over the streets of this dull town, counting the multiple street lights that created a straight halo around each one of them, giving the boring surroundings a somewhat cozy atmosphere that reminded you of holiday lights. He got so lost in his own thoughts that he didn’t even notice that he had reached the end of the town and was now at the old stone bridge that connected this fishertown to the mainland.
At the other end of the bridge, there was the local, big church. The church that Alastor would marry that Evelgot woman tomorrow sharp. Furrowing his eyes, Alastor felt anxiousness rising in him, before he turned his attention to the woods right behind the church and immediately felt his muscles getting less tense. He has always loved the forest and nature, it always calmed him down. Maybe he can try practicing his vows there, some privacy and not having dozens of pairs of eyes observing his every move and word would be quite pleasant.
Something about the forest gave him such solace that no one could provide for him. Here he was alone, away from the controlling people in his life, away from the judgemental society & could say and act however he felt without the fear of getting criticized or silenced.
Entering the woods of long, thick trees, Alastor could already feel more comfortable and at home as he let himself disappear between the tree trunks and the misty air. Taking a deep breath of the fresh forest air, Alastor felt so much better already as he walked deeper and deeper into the seemingly endless, dark forest where crows sat at nearly each branch, their noisy cowling breaking the dead silence between the trees.
At first, he just slowly strolled, feeling as if he was in a dream or a creepy fairytale but soon enough he took a deep breath and then ran as fast as he possibly could into the forest. His dashing shadow silhouette, at some degree almost looked like a restless deer jumping carelessly through the woods at full speed with no intention of stopping.
He felt powerful, he felt unstoppable, but most of all; he felt free. And for a brief moment he just forgot everything. About the arranged marriage, about his mothers overbearing attitude and the dull and soulless townsfolk.
However, he only stopped midway when he came across a certain, hidden forest glade where an ancient tree had toppled over, seemingly a long time ago. Just then, the evening's moonlight streams in through the gap in the forest canopy. At the surface, it may look unsettling but to Alastor, it felt nostalgic somehow and he slowly felt his confidence coming back as he decided that this was the perfect place for him to relax and collect his thoughts if he ever wanted to learn the vows for tomorrow's ceremony.
He had to do this.
This was all for his dear mother after all. She was the only reason why Alastor agreed to be married off to a stranger in the first place. He knew that both he and his mother were struggling financially and the Evelgot family, who were long distance friends with his mother, were obviously desperate to get their young daughter married off to a good man so they could provide the parent Evelgot grandkids, specifically strong and healthy sons.
It was an agreement that would benefit both families, only that the ones that were actually getting married had no say in this at all. Although Alastor had not met their daughter until today, he could tell that she was just as uneasy as he was, judging by her strained expression and her body language. She couldn’t even utter a word to him when they were left alone, just averting eye contact with him, as if she expected Alastor to snap at her at any moment.
Alastor truly couldn’t help but feel sympathetic towards the young woman, and if they had to get married, he swore to himself to make the best of it for her sake too.
So sitting down on a stump, Alastor fiddled his fingers together, mumbling the vows to himself, but despite how much he went over and over again, he just couldn’t seem to get it just right.
Sighing, he reached into his breast pocket and took out the shiny, golden ring that glinted in the dimming moonlight. He stared at it for a moment. The ring was the symbol of marriage, a symbol of the vows that were said and the couples bond. in the past, Alastor has always gagged at the thought of being connected to someone like this but somehow looking at the ring and remembering young Ms Evelgot and his sweet mother, he stood up, gathering all his strength and confidence he cleared his throat,
Alright, one last time! He determinedly told himself as he stood with a theatrical flourish, as if he was the main actor in a play.
“With this hand, l will lift your sorrows.” Alastor spoke in a loud tone, his voice echoing through the forest.
In the distance the crows cawing became more intense as some of them landed on the fallen oak, looking at Alastor in pure interest.
“Your cup will never empty, for l will be your wine. “ Alastor continued, putting his hand to his chest for a dramatic gesture, “With this candle, l will light your way in darkness.”
Just then before he went to the next line, Alastor noticed something beside the fallen oak, a small twisted root that extends from the ground, that looked identical to a hand. Smiling widely, Alastor got down on one knee in front of it, gently caressing it with one hand as the other took out the ring again.
“With this ring, l ask you to be mine.” He finished off perfectly, sliding the ring onto one of the finger-like sticks on the branch.
With that, a faint wind rushes through the forest, brushing the tree's leaves.
Standing up in disbelief, Alastor couldn’t contain the joyous chuckle escaping his lips as he looked at the branch in triumph. He did it, he actually did it! Oh, he couldn’t wait to get back and proudly boast to his in-laws that he wasn’t an useless embarrassment!
As he celebrated, Alastor didn’t even notice that the crows suddenly felt dead silent and stared at him.
And the root twitched….
Finally, the smiling Alastor reached down to retrieve the ring, feeling quite restless to go back.
But then the branch moved again and this time Alastor saw, making him stop midway, letting out a confused sound as he looked at the branch intensely. At first, he thought that it was just his mind or the darkness playing tricks on him, but then another wind rushed through the glade, this time a violent one with the crows fluttering above like they had gone mad.
Alastor simply stood there, frozen in place and completely confused. But he only had a second to think before he felt a shake in the ground and heard a loud break, then quick as lightning, the branch shot up from the ground and latched onto Alastor's slender arm.
A loud gasp was ripped out of Alastor’s throat, both at the sudden physical touch and by surprise as he looked wide-eyed at the hand-like branch that was gripping on him like everything depended on it.
Gawking, Alastor felt stunned,. too horrified to even scream but still tried to rip the branch off his arm, but to no avail. If anything, the branches grip onto Alastor tightened, making him wince in pain as it held him there. It wasn’t until the branch attempted to pull him down into the hole that Alastor finally gathered all his strength and pulled himself free from the iron grip with such force that he stumbled, falling to his butt hard.
Still in pain, Alastor gasped for air with his heart beating rapidly. But the relief was short lived as he stared at the still-moving branch in pure terror on his face, feeling numb and unable to move and flee away from here.
A rumbling and thumping sound came beneath the ground as spine-chilling breaking noises emitted from the hole. Just then the hand-like hand clawed on the ground as if it belonged to a person who was trying to pull themself up from the hole. A few more rumbling and shaking in the ground came before a box-faced head emerged from the hole, followed by a masculine torso, then arms, and finally legs.
As the silhouette stepped out of the hole and into the dimmed moonlight, Alastor's breath hitched in horror upon what he saw,
The creature's head that he first mistook for a box was actually just an old TV with a blank screen. The creature's body clearly belonged to a man and it was wearing what looked like an old wedding suit but it was torn and dirty.
Blinking, Alastor stared at the creature in disbelief, though had no time to process or react as the creature's screen-like face suddenly turned on, displaying a digital sharp face with huge eyes that looked down at the shivering form of Alastor in what looked like love.
Meanwhile Alastor looked at the creature and the ring it had on his clawed hand in terror,
“l do.” The TV-man whispered, sounding overjoyed as a huge smile stretched on his lips.
He had just proposed to a corpse.
Finally snapping to his senses, Alastor stood on his feet, attempting to flee, only for the creature to react faster than him by practically body slamming him to the ground. Alastor let out a shriek in pure horror, grunting and squirming, trying desperately to push off this TV-head man, but it was clear who had the most physical strength. Still, the terrified Alastor did not give up and continued to struggle in the creature's grip.
But strangely enough, the monster didn't seem to have any malicious intentions with Alastor as it used its hand to keep the arms above his head and trap him in place. Meanwhile the other hand with the glinting wedding ring, caressed Alastor’s face with such gentleness as if his face was made of glass. As it did that, the monster's red,demonic eyes were completely fixated on Alastor's face, studying every feature of it, finding him very, very beautiful as his dead heart somehow fluttered.
Cupping Alastor’s face, the monster looked at him with nothing but pure love drawn in his look.
“You may kiss the groom!” He said softly, leaning closer to him and without warning connected their lips together, giving him a deep, passionate kiss.
At that, Alastor's eyes almost popped out, as his resistance immediately stopped and laid there stunned, letting the monster kiss him but didn’t kiss him back as he started to feel lightheaded. He felt confused, he felt scared and then, with the monster still kissing him, the darkness fully took him, losing conciousness
With the poor young man having no idea of what was in store for him…