The lights flickered back on.
The ghost bride was gone.
"...Okay," Aiden said, voice low. "This is getting old."
Luna clung to his arm again, now with real tension in her grasp. "I don't like this anymore. This doesn't feel playful. It feels... sad."
Ivy's voice was unusually small. "She said he never came…"
Lysandra, who had been unusually quiet, stepped closer to the photo. Her fingers brushed against the glass.
"This wasn't just a wedding," she said. "This was meant to be perfect. And it wasn't."
Aiden nodded slowly. "Something went wrong. The question is... what?"
Luna narrowed her eyes, still holding Aiden's arm tightly, her tail flicking behind her. "Wait…" she murmured, her ears twitching as her gaze locked back onto the wedding photo. "That girl… the one we saw dancing with the boy in the passage…"
Everyone turned toward her.
"She looked like the bride." Her voice was steady, but laced with suspicion. "Her face, her smile—it was the same. But the boy… he didn't look like the groom."
Aiden blinked, his brow furrowing. "You're right." He stepped up beside her, studying the photo again. "If that little girl resemble the bride this much then the boy should too. I mean his hair color and eyes looks different in the photo."
"Almost like a different person entirely," Luna said, her gaze narrowing further.
Lysandra folded her arms, her expression tense.
Ivy's face turned pink. "W-We weren't supposed to see that, right?"
Luna smirked. "We saw it. And it was hot."
Lysandra made a small scoffing noise and turned her face away, but not before anyone noticed the faint red blooming on her cheeks.
"L-Luna…" Ivy covered her face with both hands. "W-Why would you say that?!"
"Because it was." Luna leaned into Aiden, her voice lowering just for his ears. "And I'm imagining kissing you like that in the dark right now. Just me and you, swaying under dim lights…"
Aiden cleared his throat, tugging at the collar of his coat. "Let's not lose focus."
"You started it," Luna teased.
"I did not!"
"Your heartbeat's saying otherwise, Master~"
"Will you two stop flirting for one second?!" Lysandra hissed, glaring. "We're in a cursed something. A something! With ghosts!"
"A haunted honeymoon something," Luna purred.
Aiden coughed. "Okay, okay—focus. If that girl was the bride, and the boy wasn't the groom… then who was he?"
"And where is the groom now?" Lysandra added.
Aiden's eyes slowly moved back to the dark corridor behind them—the same one where the boy and girl had danced moments ago.
Luna's grip on Aiden's hand tightened. "She was happy. That wasn't guilt on her face. That was love."
"They knew each other," Lysandra agreed. "The way she moved with him… they weren't strangers."
"And yet," Aiden added, turning back to the wedding photo, "She married someone else."
The group went silent again, the soft hum of the ghostly train echoing beneath their feet.
"Something happened here," Aiden said. "Something painful. We've seen the bride twice now. But the groom…"
"Maybe he never got on the train," Luna offered.
"Maybe he did," Lysandra said darkly, "And that's the problem."
A hush fell over the carriage.
A loud ding echoed from the carriage door ahead, followed by the hiss of ancient, rusted metal.
The door creaked open on its own.
Luna sniffed the air suspiciously. "Do we go toward the terrifying noise or stay in this haunted bridal suite and wait for more ghost ladies to show up?"
"We follow the plot," Aiden muttered. "Come on."
The next carriage was vastly different.
Rows of pews, as though they'd stepped into a chapel. The aisle was lined with flower petals that hadn't aged a day. An altar at the far end. And at the center… a book. A wedding registry.
Ivy skipped toward it with a child's fascination. "Ooh! Names! I wanna see names!"
Lysandra and Aiden moved slower, scanning the rows.
There were dozens of illusory people in the pews, unmoving. None of them had faces. Just vague shapes and blurred silhouettes. Like echoes of memories too faded to hold detail.
"Creepy," Luna muttered.
Luna tilted her head toward one of the pews and whispered with a grin, "Lysandra, you sure you don't want to get married here? Pretty romantic for a ghost wedding."
Lysandra shot her a glare over her shoulder. "Keep talking, and I'll marry you to one of those faceless silhouettes."
"Oooh," Luna purred, leaning into Aiden. "She's jealous."
"I am not—"
"Don't worry," Luna cut in sweetly, "I'll save you a dance. And a honeymoon."
Aiden stifled a laugh. "That's a big offer from someone who was just whispering about kissing me two minutes ago."
Luna turned on him with a sly grin. "Don't act surprised. You liked it."
He smirked. "I did. But now I'm wondering what other guests at this cursed wedding you're planning to kiss."
"I have a list," Luna said cheerfully.
Lysandra groaned. "You're both insufferable."
"I try," Luna said, brushing imaginary dust off her chest.
Meanwhile, Ivy stood at the altar, flipping carefully through the pages of the registry. "Um… Onii-Chan?"
Her voice was small, barely cutting through the playful jabs.
Aiden straightened. "Find something?"
"I… think so," Ivy said, her brow furrowed.
They all gathered around her.
The registry was beautifully handwritten, each name adorned with flourishes and care. Dozens of guests were listed. Notes scribbled beside them: "Brings the best wine," "Don't let him near the cake again," "Can't hold her liquor but always dances."
Toward the end of the list, the handwriting got more serious. Cleaner. The names had fewer comments. It looked like the names were building to something.
Then… there they were.
Bride: ____
Groom: ____
But the lines were blank.
Lysandra's eyes narrowed. "They didn't sign."
"No," Ivy said, voice hushed. "All these names… but theirs are empty."
Aiden ran his fingers over the parchment.
"They got this far," he said. "Everyone else signed. The witnesses, the priest, even the damn drunk uncle."
"Cousin Jared," Ivy corrected automatically. "He cried. Twice."
Luna leaned in again, gaze narrowing. "But the bride and groom… nothing. That's not cold feet. That's a broken moment."
"Or stolen," Lysandra said softly. "Something stopped them."
"Or someone," Aiden added.
The room fell quiet again.
Even the ghostly air felt heavier.
"They had every intention," Aiden said. "But something… got in the way."
"Or someone," Luna repeated Aiden's words, but with a darker tone.
She stared down at the empty signature lines, her eyes drifting from the paper to the altar. To the unmoving faceless guests in the pews.
"They were waiting," she said. "All of them. For something that never happened."
Lysandra crossed her arms again. "So either they never made it here… or one of them did. Alone."
"That would explain the ghost bride," Aiden said. "She's the only one we've seen."
"And the boy she danced with?" Ivy asked softly.
Aiden turned his head. "Doesn't fit. Unless…"
"Unless he wasn't the groom," Luna whispered. "Unless she wanted him. And not the man she was about to marry."
Lysandra's jaw tightened. "A wedding that wasn't supposed to happen."
"Or wasn't allowed to," Luna added.
Ivy hugged the registry close to her chest. "That's… really sad."
"Yeah," Aiden agreed, his voice low. "And we're still only seeing pieces."
The lights above them dimmed. The petals on the aisle rustled faintly again, as though something unseen walked through them.
The pews creaked.
But none of the silhouettes moved.
Not yet.
Luna brushed her hand down Aiden's back slowly. "What now, Master?"
He stared ahead at the next door—its brass handle glinting beneath the flickering lights.
"We follow the path," he said. "And hope it doesn't lead to a wedding that ended in blood."
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END OF CHAPTER : 30 : THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE MYSTERY : ECHOS OF MEMORIES!
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A/N: Sorry for the late.
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