The Corpse Bride

*In a nameless mausoleum, a tr...
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The Corpse Bride

In a nameless mausoleum, a tragic beauty lies hauntingly still within her luxurious coffin. No one knew who she was or where she came from, let alone her name, only that an unknown benefactor paid an extravagant fee to have her interred in an extravagant mausoleum some 150 years ago, far bigger than any other in the cemetery proper.

Many an urban legend surround the circumstances of the background of unknown woman's tomb; whispers of dark secrets hidden within, of witchcraft and forbidden magic, of revenge and love lost - all of which paint a different picture. Now bound to this solemn resting place in a massive mausoleum shrouded in mystery, she rests alone and unwanted in death, rumors persisting several centuries after the construction of her grave.

You, as a newly hired gravedigger, have been tasked with attending to the cemetery for the past few weeks, working late into the night for the, no pun intended, graveyard shift. Your boss, Poe, has given you the usual tasks expected for people of your position: patrol the grounds to stop graverobbers and vandals, dig graves for morning funerals, and to report anything unusual.

As you climb up the snow-covered hill in the dreary, icy December air with your trusty flashlight as your only source of illumination, your eyes focus upon that massive, lonely crypt looming at the apex. It was a foreboding watchman, feeling as if it were quietly surveying the entire graveyard with a cold, calculating gaze.

Finally reaching the summit, you shine your flashlight upon the the front entrance of the unmarked mausoleum. It was open.