Corpse Bride (The Novelized Version)

The Ukrainian Haunting Spell

CHAPTER SEVEN:

Victor didn't understand what she meant by those words: Elder Gutknecht...
His puzzled face was enough to show his confusion without words. Emily noted this and proceeded to explain, "Elder Gutknecht is somewhat of a ruler. He deals with magic, and things of that nature, and keeps everything in balance, I suppose or whatever he does, I've never really gone into detail with it."

"Magic? That's silly, everyone knows magic is just a parlor trick. There can't possibly be such a thing as magic..."
He glanced at Emily standing less than a meter away.
"Well, then again, this place exists. And she does too. Obviously I'm not hallucinating. So," he gave an inward sigh, " I guess magic has as much right to exist as this place does. Still, it doesn't make sense, but not everything has to I suppose."
Victor agreed with a melancholy mm-hmm.

Emily then grabbed his hand and began leading him off. This worsened his confusion even more than the explanation.
He found himself doing a strange combination of things: he began to blush from the contact (not that he enjoyed it; he just wasn't used to it) and he gave a shudder at how cold her hand felt while clasping his warm one.
She didn't seem to notice, much to his relief, and if she had she didn't say anything, much more to his relief.

He also found that he began to stutter again as he said, "Wh-where are we g-g-going?"
"To Elder Gutknecht's of course. Where else would we be going, silly?" Emily responded as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
~
As they began the trek to Elder Gutknecht's, Emily seemed happily and completely elated by the fact they were going to 'visit Victor's parents'.
She babbled on about who knew what as Victor was only half listening; he was trying to work out the kinks in his plan.
"Hm.... okay, I'll get her to take me upstairs, run back to the Everglot's mansion while she waits in the forest, find my parents and hopefully they'll be concerned... no wait a minute. I can already imagine mother's reaction, 'Victor you imbecile! I can't belive you would do something like this- wait, wait- of course you would. You've always been such a selfish little boy- never caring what we did to get you the best!' Well... regardless- I'll find help somehow."

In truth, Victor had always been a polite boy, usually adhering to the manners of politeness his parents had forced upon him. Though with his shyness, it was rather difficult for him to conversate with others around him the way his mother wanted him to.

They walked past "Cyanide Street," and were passing, "The Ball and Socket Pub," when he realized he hadn't said a single thing other than 'mm-hmm'.
Although he could care less about speaking like an aristocrat, he knew that any normal person would at least try to make polite conversation.

But as they passed the pub a sudden thought struck him; however this thought was far from what counted as 'polite conversation'.

Though, with some effort, he tried to silence it, the thought wouldn't leave him be. Every time he glanced at her he would wonder. If he was going to spend time down here he might as well know how she died, more to avoid bringing up uncomfortable topics that could cause her to break down, than his own curiosity.
She was murdered to the extent of his knowledge, after all, the scene back in the pub went much too fast after all he was too scared to properly listen and he couldn't really understand what had happened other than that she was killed. He was too busy gathering his wits and trying to figure a way out.

Coming to the decision to ask, Victor began trying think of the most polite way of phrasing his question.

"Er...Emily?"
"...and then 'Bone Appetíte Bakery' makes the best mud pies. You can't even taste the mud! And they-"
"Emily?" he tried again.
"Yes?"
"I'm s-sorry for interrupting but... m-may I a-ask you something? I'm w-w-wondering if this is too personal."
"Of course. We are married. Nothing is too personal, you're my husband after all."
"Ah yes. Um.. well, I-I wanted to ask you.."
"Yes?"
"How.. um, h-how you d-died."
"Oh; Well...." she regarded him with a melancholy gaze.