I went ahead and wrote an epilogue to give Edward a break. It is a kind of "Curtain Call" for the characters in the story. I still hope to hear your thoughts about the story and hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Best,

Angelwriter84

Epilogue Edward's Reward

The Night of Elsa Mars' Death

The dark spirit of Edward Mordrake stood over the crippled body of Elsa Mars, tall and gentlemanly as ever. Unbeknownst to the panicked onlookers, who seemed under the impression she had suffered a heart attack of sorts, he and his comrades looked down at his newest victim until a crowd swarmed around them.

Edward grimaced when the number of living bodies around them came to be overwhelming and moved his group to an overhead balcony, where they could see the commotion from above.

"Behold, comrades, the first of my victims not to join us. But be glad of it. I feel for her, but she is an overbearing woman." He turned away from the crowd. "Come friends. I fear we will not find what we seek here."

"Where will we find someone like us here?" asked Twisty, the simplest freak of his coterie and the least likely to keep silent.

"Fear not, friends, the Demon will tell me exactly where to go." Edward listened, but heard nothing. For the first time in centuries, the fiend couldn't be heard. Edward looked around to see if they'd been dragged back to the depths of Hell, but they were still in the same place.

"Strange…" he said to himself. "I hear nothing."

It was highly usual that one of his old comrades spoke up, but Lewis was the first. "We have a job to do. If we do not complete our task by the end of the night, what will become of us?"

"Or why haven't we been dragged back to Hell?" the manager asked bluntly.

"Maybe this unusual turn of events set us free to walk the earth this All Hallows Eve, rather than looking for a soul to torment," Otto stated. "Maybe Edward killing that woman out of mercy was considered…a good deed…to be rewarded."

They all glanced at their leader as Edward himself thought it over. He pitied Elsa Mars in some ways, yes. He was undecided on whether or not she actually deserved the happy ending received in the end, but was somewhat relieved that he didn't have to endure her…demanding nature for eternity. The woman was, apparently, in deep emotional torment to have summoned him…again.

"What if we cease to exist…if we cannot fulfill our purpose?" the manager asked.

"Good," Bertha blurted out.

Edward looked at the large, pale presence of a woman. She, of all the spirits, hated what she was the most. She couldn't look at him, as she had probably not meant to say it aloud. Edward managed a small smile and delicately touched the tips of his fingers to hers because he felt the same.

"So we may visit anywhere we want…" Lewis trailed thoughtfully.

"Edward…"

Edward's face lit up when he heard a voice he hadn't heard in centuries. A voice he'd thought of every passing moment since his ill-fated punishment in the afterlife. Edward used his cane to stand.

"E-Emily…." His voice shook as he looked around for the source of the sound. She wasn't there.

"What?" Otto asked. "Edward, you've never mentioned her name once. Why now?"

"I heard her," Edward answered softly.

"Edward…" Even clearer this time.

"Emily Beth!" Edward called out.

"Minnie?" Lewis called at the same time. He took Edward by the shoulders. "It's Minnie. Minnie, they are where we buried them! London!"

"Who's Emily and Minnie?" an unknowing Twisty asked.

"People we've waited all our afterlives for a chance to see again. Will you come with us?" Edward asked.

Twisty hesitated. "I don't wanna not exist…"

"As much as I wish the opposite, dear comrade, they won't give up their hunters. Are you with us?" Edward offered his hand to the reluctant clown, who took it. With a puff of green smoke, the coterie found themselves back in London.

Only it was far from the Freak Show grounds they knew. The ground was paved over. Businesses with strange contraptions lining the windows lined the sidewalks. And strange carriages that drove themselves sped along the roads. The manager shook his head that his life's work was hardly even a forgotten memory.

But there, on the other side of the road, stood the old willow tree where so many of their fallen friends were buried. The tree was the only marker, as someone had pulled up the rotting wooden crosses long ago. But there, under the tree, stood their spirits. As soon as Edward spotted them, he and his comrades were there for the first time since their lives ended, to reunite with the friends that were fortunate enough to meet natural deaths.

Little Minnie came through the crowd of spirits and reunited with Lewis. Everyone parted when they found Edward because they knew who he was looking for. There, directly under the tree and at the back of the crowd, stood Emily Beth in the same lovely blue dress he always remembered. In her arms, she held what seemed to be a newborn bundled in the baby blanket she'd made in life.

Edward gazed at them as he made his way through the crowd, dropping his cane somewhere along the way. Within seconds, he was standing face to face with his lost family. He gently placed reach out for one of her hands and placed it on top of the one cradling the baby's head, afraid that touching the child would pollute its pure spirit in some way. With the other, he grasped her elbow and took his first glance at the child.

It was the most beautiful child he'd ever seen. It had a small, pink face with Emily's dark blue eyes and his dark hair. He look at his wife then, fair and beautiful as ever. His face crumpled with overwhelmed feeling of disbelief and joy. "Em-Emily Beth?"

She did the same. "Edward!"

He kissed her then because he realized for the first time that this was real. He took her face in his hand in front of everyone and kissed her many times because, for once, neither of them could find the words. He thought everyone applauded, but blocked it out as he pulled away and cradled her face in his hands, struggling to believe this was a reality of the afterlife.

"You came for me…" his whispered in a shaky voice.

Her blue eyes brimmed with tears as she look deep into his own. "We always do, Edward."

Edward blinked back his own tears and pulled her close as he stared down into the child's face. "Look what we created, you and I… The most beautiful child I've ever seen."

"Your son." Emily Beth offered him to Edward.

Edward did so long to hold him, but drew back, pondering the consequences that may come of it. In the afterlife, almost nothing came without a price. Emily Beth saw his fear.

"You won't hurt him," she said reassuringly.

She sounded sure enough that Edward finally took the son he never knew in his arms and looked into his face. There was nothing dark about him: no demon attached to the back of his head. Only straight, dark hair and a serious little face. Edward slowly lifted him so that his head rested on his shoulder and held him in a kind of hug, dreading the moment that this would end and they would all be sentenced back to their places in the afterlife.

When he could speak again, Edward sniffed and turned to Emily Beth, still cradling their son's head. "We don't have long now, do we, my love?"

Emily Beth answered by briefly glancing at the ground with a heavy-hearted look. "No amount of time could ever be long enough. We've waited for you for so long, Edward."

Edward's face crumpled. "Why? Why would any of you want to see me again?" He glanced down at what would have been his infant son. "I could've been here all this time. If only I could have known then that a lifetime of torment then was all to be endured for an eternity with my family…"

"No human being could ever have endured the things you went through, Edward." Emily Beth embraced him. Edward held the small family he thought would never be together in his arms.

Edward became aware of his surroundings again when Twisty, who knew no one, approached and looked over his master's shoulder. "What's his name?"

Edward glanced at Emily Beth to see if she had given him a name, to which she shook her head and indicated she had waited for him. "We never had the chance to name him," Edward said quietly.

"You could name him Lewis," Lewis suggested, earning a smile from Otto and Bertha. It was the first time he'd seen them smile since their demise.

Edward smirked and glanced at Emily. "Matthew Thomas?" he asked.

"I like it," Matthew commented. Edward noticed for the first time he was amongst them and tipped his hat to him.

Edward and his comrades stayed with their family until the sun rose. Edward tearfully handed his son back to Emily Beth and kissed her goodbye. "I don't want to go, Emily."

"Me either," she kissed his cheek and sniffled. "Maybe try to sneak in another good deed once in a while and we might see each other again."

He could see his long-lost wife and son starting to disappear, right in front of him. He managed to smile through his tears and looked into Emily's face as she disappeared, trying to memorize every feature. Finally, he was looking at nothing and holding on to nothing but air.

He was left alone in the open field with the manager, Bertha, Otto, a saddened Lewis, and Twisty. Edward fell to his knees, but then realized he finally had a happy memory to hold on to as the whisperings of the fiend began to return, urging him to return back to the depths of Hell. It sounded displeased, and more hateful than ever.

Unable to resist, Edward used his cane to stand to his full height. "I'm sorry, my friends, but we must go."

Before the sun broke into the sky, Edward Mordrake led his coterie into the thick, green smoke and disappeared into the morning.