The grand finish of "Raptured in Re-Animation", retelling of "Bride of Re-Animator". Without giving away spoilers, it's a happy ending. And named after the movie itself. :D

Epilogue

Bride of the Re-Animator

Being back in the lab even after escaping was wrong, for once that Herbert could say in his life. Francesca and Meg were upstairs, not that he wanted to go there so soon. He decided now rather than later to get rid of the remains still lingering in the lab, in case the police ever did try to come and intrude. The incinerator was the best option, but no sooner did he begin to reenter the place did another voice stop him.

"I'm not leaving you."

"What?" He whirled around and glared at the unwanted sight of Meg, still filthy and in the same dress standing at the top of the stairs. That dress HE gave her.

"I said I am NOT leaving you," she repeated indignantly. He frowned; what brought on this sudden change? Was this a major epiphany or something? A sudden understanding that she believed things were going to be different now? Not so easy. "I understand why you did all of this for me."

Herbert scoffed. "Oh, do you?" He folded his arms across his chest and lifted his chin up as she began to descend the stairs. He didn't see Francesca anywhere; if she was outside the door listening in on them, then let her. This was between him and the woman coming to stand before him. "Would this really change anything?"

She ignored the question altogether and stood her guard. "Was all of this really because you loved me, or you simply used it to keep me as your unwilling sidekick?"

He felt as if the wind had been knocked out of his lungs altogether. How could she ask him this after they'd been in the open air of the cemetery and he was just blurting out his love for her as much as it hurt his already fragile heart? "Megan, did you not hear everything I said to you upstairs?!" he exclaimed. "I never thought you would understand me. Just go ahead and leave me; I don't want to keep you against your will any longer. I see it all now: you want a normal life as you've always spoken of. Just being here is preventing you from having it. That life is something I'll never have for myself either." He gestured behind him to the broken down lab door. "This will never make you as happy as you were before I arrived."

Meg shook her head. "That's just it. This IS my life now. I'm sorry I didn't see how you really felt about me. I always knew you had a heart under that cold shell of yours, but I was too afraid to get in deeper than I already was. I didn't think it was right."

"Oh, really? After everything we've shared together?" Herbert was sure his face was showing more of how he was feeling: wounded. "When I...joined myself with you, I felt more alive than I had ever been in a long time. Was I really just a...substitute until 'Dan' was finished?"

He could see that he struck a chord in her; her jaw was dropped wide enough for him to see the back of her cavern. "S-substitute? Herbert West, do I look like I would use anyone as a replacement?"

"Well, was I?"

"No, you weren't! I – I don't know how to describe it, but you are better than no one at all!" she exclaimed, reaching for him, but he recoiled. He didn't want her to touch him, not like this. He could see that he was hurting her; well, she should be, because she'd done it to him. Love hurts, he recited.

"If I remember correctly, that Halloween, when it was just the beginning, you asked me if I enjoyed it with you, and I wasn't lying when I said yes. But perhaps I was right all along that it was a mistake, since all along I loved you so much it hurt to know you didn't."

"I DO love you!" she shouted, and he couldn't help but smile slightly. "It hurts so much, as much as I lost the other men of my life. Maybe I never thought of it before, but I was afraid of losing you if this became what I used to have with Dan. I didn't want to get serious in case it ended that way again. I never stopped dreaming of the perfect life I always wanted: a husband and a family, my career taken off. I wanted it, but you were too engrossed with the work to even think about those things." She looked down and put her hand on her stomach, where their child had begun to grow inside her. "I want this baby, but I was afraid you wouldn't. I never saw you taken an interest in raising a child."

Herbert allowed his eyes to rest on where her hand was, considering. "I want this child, yes. And you're right; I don't know how to do this, but you also know that I'll grow to it." He looked back up to see the shining streak down her right cheek. It was a tear of happiness and sadness together. It made him want to release his own, as much as he didn't want to show it. "I love you both and I want to make us work, no matter what."

The hurricane of emotions washed over them with more force than any natural element of the earth when they frantically joined together in a soul-crushing embrace. Lips smashed together in a sealing motion that made all the difference, resolving the conflict without any further discussion. He decided then that there was no further need to talk about Dan or anything else, but there was one thing he wanted to ask her; it scared him as he feared she would say no, that it was too soon. Drawing back, he looked down into her eyes. "Meg, I've been wanting to ask you this for a long time..." He paused and cleared his throat, feeling the unwanted awkwardness he had not felt since he began to discover his primitive desires and everlasting love for her. "I'm not good at this, but..." Get it together and ask her, fool!

"Megan Halsey, I've loved you from the very beginning, and I want to always be there for you and our child..." He placed his hand on her still-flat abdomen. "..and above all, I want you to help me continue to find a cure for death. I promise no more making monsters, if it makes you happy. Please marry me, Meg. Don't ever leave me alone," he begged, looking into her eyes.

They were shining again, like the three diamonds he remembered her mother's ring bore. He knew what she was thinking: he had picked a "perfect" time to propose marriage to her, after another trail of blood and death, after the grand escape from another near-death experience which involved finally getting rid of the past that had come back to haunt them, and above all, after they had shed more emotion than they did to each other before. Her face was a flood of positive emotion, tears of happiness that spilled down her perfect cheeks, leaving clean ivory streaks through the dust caking her soft skin. "I won't leave you, Herbert." She grasped his face with both hands and pulled him in for the sweetest kiss he'd ever recieved. A surge of emotion coursed through his system, and the tears in him were beginning to come forth. Breaking away, Meg breathed, "I won't leave you in a thousand years. I love you despite any more problems we have in the future. However..." His heart sank then. "...give it one month and ask me again."

He felt like he wanted to sink to the floor. "It doesn't mean no," she added, placing the pad of her forefinger to his bottom lip and tracing it. "We just have so much of this to fix up. One month, and ask me again. I promise."

That smile she gave him made him laugh and pick her up, spinning her around like in one of those clichéd romance movies she sometimes forced him to watch with her, but he was so happy that he didn't care. Here he was with her in the blood-stained white lace dress, surrounded by spare body parts and the hole to the crypt behind them blocked from debris that had fallen. Hill's corpse would rot there for years to come, but it would have to be incinerated soon along with the others about. Then they would discard the ashes about. "We do have one problem to deal with before we celebrate," he told her. "We must get rid of these things."

One month and ask her again. It doesn't mean no. He had the great feeling she would say yes to him by then, but for now, he would wait. He led her back into the room where all of this reconstruction of life began...and their eyes fell on the mess still resting on the lab table.

The mess had once been the man they had worked so hard to bring to life all these weeks, after so many months of careful planning and stealing parts from the hospital, in the end becoming what had been their vision. All the appendages were detached as their original state, strings of muscle and spilling gore onto the table's surface. The legs were still attached to the lower abdomen, split in half so that the genital area was still connected to one half only; the torso broken apart completely so the internal organs were spilled in a gooey, colorful mess; the arms laid distances from their companions altogether...and the head, with its handsome face, relaxed in a peaceful sleep it would never reawaken from, for sure this time.

But more importantly, the heart of Daniel Cain was still in the hand which had reached into its own chest and tore out as one last attempt to bring the one he loved back to him. It's still beating, Herbert thought in amazement as he neared the slab which all his hard work had been resting patiently; now he knew it all had been a mistake. A mistake he tried so hard to fix, but as it turned out, there actually were some things man was never meant to uncover.

He had been expecting Meg to make some move towards the still-beating heart of her former lover – what sort of move, he didn't know – but she remained by his side, holding his hand as they continued to watch the organ together, its pulsating rhythm drumming their ears to the point of wishing it would end soon.

And then, at long last, the heart stopped beating altogether. Forever.

"We're back to square one," Herbert said quietly, his voice breaking the silence of the room. "I have to make more re-agent, we need to clean up this mess so the police will never turn to us again...but then..." He paused to look down at her. "...we'll have to leave Arkham. Go someplace where we can reestablish."

She perked her head up to meet him. "I'd love nothing more. This place has too many memories. I want to bring the baby up somewhere like Boston. Be closer to Francesca, get away from this town."

He smiled down at her, leaning to accept a kiss from her. "We'll leave in a matter of days, but for now, we have to make sure the police don't question us twice. Chapham knew about us, but for all we know, he went behind the backs of the rest of the force. I promised you that you would be safe, and I will honor that."

He watched as she walked over to the side of the lab table. She picked up Dan's heart from the still warm but dead hand, holding it in both hands, her face devoid of loss and replaced with determination. It seemed the weight and memory of his death had finally set in, and it made Herbert swell proudly. He had done it; he helped her finally move past the tragedy. "I'll burn this myself," she said, looking up at him then, a small smile in place. "Then it goes with the rest of his ashes."

Herbert returned the smile. "Then we'll save the best for last. Separate from the others." With that, he began to move about the table, gathering the legs first and carrying them over to the incinerator, the fire blazing to life at once, ready to have its next meal. He still did not believe in God, yet he couldn't help but recite one of the most commonly used passages:

Ashes to ashes...dust to dust...and may Dan rest in peace.

~o~

After all this time, I never thought I would make it to this day, Meg thought with a little laugh, almost eight months later. Starting medical school, falling in love with another medical student but under a low radar because of her strict father, losing both of them when another man entered her life – a man unlike any other she'd known in her life, who introduced her to a world far more dangerous than her own. In spite of the long road of loss and mayhem, she was still with him.

She stood with him in the middle of the old cemetery, wearing a long and flowy dress; free-formed and mermaid-shaped in one, the skirt plain but immaculate white, the bodice lace with a sheer, illusion bateau neckline and sleeves, the back opened, and a bejeweled belt at the waist. Her mother's three-halo ring was ready to be joined by its companion. Her hair was in an elegant updo craftfully done with Francesca's help, intricately woven with delicate flowers, pearls and crystals, and in her hands was a bouquet of silk flowers and brooches. Herbert was in his usual smart black suit and crisp white shirt, his dark hair shining under the late afternoon sun; he never took his eyes off her the whole time, which were shining with a light that was beginning to come out. There was also Francesca in a shimmering, sexy satin dress with Éclair in her arms, who had survived that night in the crypt and remained hidden throughout the whole ordeal. And a local minister had been brought out to bless them even though religion wasn't Herbert's cup of tea, though Meg was still balanced between their research and the beliefs of her forefathers.

Eight months passed; they were now living in Boston but still in an isolated area far from inquisitive eyes, still continuing their work in secret. There were a few times Meg almost lost their baby in the struggles with their subjects. Improvements were made so far; they were regaining their intelligence, but it would always end with them dying because they did not appreciate being brought back, suffering the pain which they had died from. It was also to protect their secret.

This was her life, and she embraced it. She saw herself so much like the man who would become her husband now; she made her decision in choosing this life with him. They lost people who had been involved with their labors, even though the one witnessing still remained, but death was part of living and moving forward. Someday it will be different, she promised. No more fear of death.

Meg found herself looking down at the eight-month swell that was her child; she and Herbert were having a baby girl they already named Elizabeth, after two women they knew in particular: one being Herbert's mother, the other Victor Frankenstein's bride whom he lost in the end. The latter seemed silly, but appropriate as their story paralleled to the classic tale.

"I do." Herbert's voice brought her back to attention; she looked down and saw him take her hand and slip the twinkling band towards its dazzling partner. She didn't have to worry about losing him, because Herbert West survived anything, from strangling entrails to collapsing crypts. She could have left him when she had the chance, but no. Nobody knew him as well as she did. He had been just as alone as she had been, both of them losing everything they cherished, and in the end had each other. People scoffed at them both, namely at her for being linked to such a cold-hearted man, but oh, how wrong they were. They failed to – and never would – see that Herbert West possessed a passion to conquer death, the disease of the world that took people away from their friends and loved ones.

Now that the vows were spoken and the minister left them alone, surrounded by nature and death under the earth – once more, the irony – and witnessed by the only friend they had left, Herbert leaned down and captured her lips with his. She melted into the warmth and security that held her together, for the first time relishing the transformation from Megan Halsey, daughter of Dean Alan Halsey and former girlfriend of Daniel Cain, both of whom long since dead but never forgotten, into Megan West.

She smiled against Herbert's lips and withdrew to look into his eyes, keeping it in place to match his. Meg West...bride of the Re-Animator.

This story was quite the dream to work on, and I'll never get tired of saying it, and I hope you all loved it as much as I. :) I really hope someone else out there can find it in them to do a story involving the Herbert/Meg pairing as I have - as long as no one steals the story ideas in here without asking me first. ;D As for the stories of other authors I was inspired by, love so much, and tried my hardest not to make too much like, I hope you feel honored. It was a challenge, but worth it, I also hope.

Up next is a retelling of "Beyond Re-Animator", which is my boyfriend's favorite out of all three of the movies. It is titled "Beyond the Boundaries", in which I have made Howard Phillips a woman and paired with none other than our favorite mad scientist. I will have it up sometime soon, and thank you for reading this gem I know I made. :D