"C-cold?" Victor stuttered. He made no sound, but hugged his daughter silently. The doctor came over to Victor and felt the little girl's pulse. He nodded his head sadly.
"The woman is right. I'm sorry." And with that the doctor left. Emily felt the tears streaming from her face. She had only known this girl half an hour but already she felt so attatched to her. She hid her sorrow from the others by rushing upstairs. Andrew watched her run. The constable sighed.
"We'll head over to the hospital, Mr Van Dort. To tell your wife. Goodnight." And with that the officers left. Victor sat by his daughter, strokinng her hair. He began humming to her (although more to himself) a soft, melancholy tune he had once played on a skeletal piano in a distant memory. Emily listened from the top of the stairs. She knew the song all too well. She whispered to herself through sobs.
"If I touch a burning candle I can feel no pain, in the ice or in the sun it's still the same. Yet I feel my heart is aching, though it doesn't beat, it's breaking. And the pain here that I feel, try and tell me it's not real, even though that I am dead, it seems that I still have some tears to shed." Emily sniffed quietly and climbed into her bed, weeping softly.
****In the Underworld, everyone had taken the body back to Elder Godknecht's tower. They were quickly summoned back to the bar when the bell sounded.
"New arrival!" Miss Plum cried. She went into the kitchen, and came out with a little girl, no older than four, with silky brown hair and a torn dress. But where rosy cheeks bloomed a paleness resembling death shrouded her innocent face.
"Hello sweetie," cooed Miss Plum. "What's your name?" The little girl smiled sweetly at Miss Plum. "My name is Emily. Emily Van Dort." A silence fell over the room. Mayhew thought he was going to faint.
"Van Dort?" he said. Emily nodded happily. Mayhew lifted her onto the bar. She chattered to Mayhew happily, her legs swinging. Scraps jumped onto her lap to investigate, and she stroked him lovingly. She seemed not to have noticed the party of corpses around her. She told everyone about how she had got lost in the forest and then fallen asleep for a long long time.
"And then you woke up here." The skeleton boy finished. Emily nodded.
"So where is here?" she asked. Miss Plum sighed. Thiis was going to take a lot of explaining. So distracted was everyone, nobody noticed a sinister shadow creeping by, up to the currently empty tower.
****
Emily dreamed that night. She dreamed of little Emily in the Underworld, of her meeting all the residents. She knew she would be safe there. Yet she could not help feeling sorry for Victor. His life was falling apart. He had lost his daughter, and his wife was in hospital. It looked like things couldn't get any worse.
The morning was bright and sunny. It was beautiful, and if the circumstances were different Emily would have taken the time to enjoy it. Instead, she and Victor sat at home preparing the funeral. They hardly spoke during the process, and on their break they visited Victoria. She would not speak to anyone since hearing the news. She would not eat. She could not sleep. She sat bolt upright in bed for all hours of the day. Emily brought her flowers. And Victor chatted with her, but it was no use. Eventually they had to leave. In the evening Andrew, Victor, and Emily went to the graveyard. Victor searched for where his daughter would be buried, while Andrew showed Emily the gravestone he had been talking about. It was a reasonably clean, smooth gravestone. Some long dead flowers drooped in front of it. On the grave it read.
EMILY GREEN
A Loving daughter.
So cruelly snatched from us.
Emily sighed sadly.
"I thank you for coming today Andrew" she said. Andrew bowed his head.
"No trouble at all, miss Eleanor. Always of help." Emily could not help but giggle a little.
"It's a gorgeous night" she said.
"Indeed it is. Mid spring is always so beautiful."
"It feels so new, like I have not seen it for years. It's like I've been locked in an eternal winter."
"The winter always has that effect." Emily bent down to place some poppies over the grave.
"Miss Eleanor."
"Yes?" She gently placed the poppies over the grave.
"I was wondering if-" he was interrupted by a blood curdling scream. A mould covered arm had shot out of the grave and grabbed her arm. Andrew yelled and grabbed hold of Emily's other arm, pulling with all his might. Victor dashed over and pulled too. The arm gave way, and Emily was pulled free. But she could not scramble away in time. A corpse emerged from the earth and grabbed her leg, dragging her back. Victor ran to her aid. But stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the corpse.
"Mayhew? Mayhew! What are you doing? MAYHEW!" Victor screamed and made a dive for Emily. But it was too late.
"ELEANOR!" Andrew screamed as he ran to her, but he too was too late. The two men watched in horror, as the screaming Emily was sucked below the earth.
