#((belittled and mistrusted and everything else you can think of on top of-in most cases-dying a violent death!))

[theheadlessgroom]

@beatingheart-bride

"I wish you could've too," Randall lamented, as he embraced Emily for a kiss-having watched her read these letters, having seen his old handwriting (looking hardly different from the chicken scratch he called his penmanship these days), he felt an ache in his hands as they seemed to remember penning each and every one of them, as well as an ache in his heart, knowing how long she'd had to wait to read them.

That was never the case: It was supposed to be a surprise that night; after their walk, he was leading them back to Minnie's, he hadn't told her he had a surprise waiting for her back at the shop, but he was eager to return, and present them to her-a sort of early wedding gift, in a way; something they could maybe put into an album, to look back on their courtship fondly over the years to come...

As much as he didn't want to remember, he knew he had to confront that particular memory of the woman in white, coming down the sidewalk as they walked along. He vaguely recalled being taken aback by her being dressed all in white (like a bride, he realized), but wasn't going to think anything of it when she reached out and grabbed him, and he saw her fangs...

He suppressed his shudder to the best of his abilities, and tried to stay in the present as he parted from the kiss, saying, "I...I'm so glad you've finally gotten to read them now, though. I always wanted you to, even when I was too scared to tell you how I felt, even in a letter..."

#((*pounds fists on table* let! monsters! be! happy! let! monsters! be! happy!)) #((and let's face it; if we go by our canon for the mansion as a whole; these spooks have lived lifetimes of pain and sorrow)) #((having had their lives tragically cut short; lost people important to them; been discriminated against)) #((belittled and mistrusted and everything else you can think of on top of-in most cases-dying a violent death!)) #((so i am very much a proponent of the denizens of the mansion having happy endings)) #((be it in au's like this one or in our canon; wherein gracey manor is a 'come one come all' kinda place)) #((for every wayward ghost in need of a place to haunt-no need to be a lonesome ghost when there's gracey manor)) #((and its happy haunts there to help one have a happy afterlife!)) #((and in the case of the graceys and the paces; just having each other is a happy ending in its own right!)) #outofhatboxes #beatingheart-bride #V:Dark Shadows