I absoulutely love this story and Im actually reviewing it which is amazing because I never review. I love the way its so morbid and beautiful and the ending was amazing. Also the piece was really well written and I loved some of the similies like "beautiful,crystal-blue eyes like the skies over Heaven itself".

Chilling and sublime! What a story! BRAVA!

Brilliant, as always.

Horrible, genius ending. (When I say horrible, I mean most wonderfully macabre, which is good...haha)

Reminds me of Corpse Bride. Wait, don't tell me...Tim Burton read this and was inspired. :)

Damn right that's morbid! (And it also made me think of the Corpse Bride. If you haven't seen that movie, GO, because I know it's just your taste, Christine.) But the point of this is to say... effective. And creepy. And, once again, morbid.

Absolutely morbid and wonderfully well done. The images of red . . . the blood and wine . . . you, my dear, are an exceptional writer. Even if this is creepy as all get-out; that's the point, rather.

Aha! Thought you could post this without me finding out about it, eh? Boo for you. How could I possibly live with myself if I wasn't falling all over you, telling you what a fantastic writer you are and how much I adored this story?

At first, you may take my sentiments a bit insincerely, given that as one of my most favorite authors of phantomy-fiction, I am a bit biased towards your work. (Humor or otherwise.) But if you are so inclined to doubt my affections, let me assure you that THIS marvelous little morbid cupcake was DEFINITELY numbered amongst my top ten favorites.

You bet your sweet cakes it was! Hoo ha!

To begin with, the writing was just terrific. There's a very playful and unnerving quality to it, kind of like when you read some of the Scorpion's love scenes. It made me so nervous the entire time I was reading it. It was an overwhelming impression of, "No, no, no. SOMMETHING isn't right here. Not right at all."

Lovely darling.

The supernatural aspect of it, as I mentioned to you earlier, was confusing at first... but it in no way took away from the thrilling morbidity of it all. If anything, it made it even more disturbing. Erik feeding Christine blood? Yeeha! Now THAT is some serious E/C romance. The kind that reduces me to a puddle of whimpers and sighs. Yay!

But how much more can I gush? Maybe a little more.

((Christine drew back in horror, her voice a thin, trembling sob, and the tears that had been gathering in her luminous eyes finally spilled over. Erik hated it when she cried; nothing was more ghastly than her tears, like jewels of blood, sliding one by one down her flawless cheeks and staining the white of the wedding-dress she still wore.))

PHANTASTIC, my dear! Simply and utterly fantastic. *mwah*

Gets the phantomy-cookies 10 out of 10!

Oh my...phenomenal! This is terrifying, yet stunning. You really had me confused there for a second, and then it clicked. Fantastic!

This was, without a doubt, the story I enjoyed most of all the entries as piece of literature (which would be why I voted it for the Enjoyability Award, and why it was firmly in my top 10 :D). I think one of the most amazing things is that it doesn't actually rely on the twist, the way many short stories tend to do: the twist is there, but it adds to the tale, rather than acts as a crutch. That's something that is very difficult to do, and it serves to make the story very re-readable.

The first time I read it, I started out thinking there was some kind of vampiric thing going on, and then I got to the twist (Christine's body) and was delighted by how cleverly you'd woven everything together: one of those "of course!" moments. It's just so beautifully done, the ghost imagery, the air of bitterness and regret, and most importantly - character development! That's one of the rarest things of all in such a neat, short piece. I love that Erik learns that he can't keep her soul, that he has to let go. In a way, he learns to love, even though what he loves is a shadow of the woman whom he himself drove to suicide.

I also wanted to compliment you on your style: it's such a pleasure to read, and the mythology references are subtly done (I certainly missed some aspects, but I caugh some too) and add a richness to the writing as well. Beautiful story.

Tango

Oh, Christine!

What does it say about your writing that you can render even a story like this absolutely beautiful? I love all the jewel imagery (Faustian references?) and the use of the wedding dress; and, of course, the twist at the end. Oh, and the line about having dropped the wedding ring *again* - just oh! Heaven and hell, angels and demons - and Christine somewhere in the middle ( love that ;)) the whole thing is just beautiful and ridiculously sad.

Now where's Reflections?

that was a beautifully dark story. i really loved it i have to admit. bravo!

So...was she already dead?

I think I mentioned that this was one of my favorite ghost stories from the contest. This one surprised me - I knew something strange was going on, but I really had no idea that Christine had been a ghost all along. I think it might have helped if I knew about mythology. ;) Because I seriously thought it was some form of cannibalism that was keeping Christine alive. (Drinking Erik's BLOOD? Who woulda thought! ;) ) The imagery was so vivid - even though initially I had no idea what was going on, I could see it all. I liked the play on words with living vs. dead bride. And she really did become a living dead bride. :)

What a tragic, sad phic this was. Your idea of E/C, eh? I loved your summary, btw. It's such a good warning. Hahah. :)

OMG. That is so creepy. So WONDERFULLY creepy. Like, chills. I knew there was a twist hehe. It was really lovely...well, I don't know if lovely is the right word for it. I love those stories where you really have no idea what's going on until the "big twist" and that really did it for me. I was surprised. Poor Erik. Poor Christine. Good luck in the contest! I know it's a onesie, so I won't ask for more, but, again, I really enjoyed it! My favorite line:

"He reached across and took the wine away from her. It had a tendency to make her wax poetic, and he wasn’t in the mood for it to-night." I dunno why. I just loved it.