They Were Tombmates

The mirror showed a reflection that wasn't my own. Other people, other lives that had touched mine, ours. Mourning, healing, making plans around the new, gaping, holes in their lives.

In the world of the living, a candle burned. In other circumstances, the candle would have been cause for a celebration, announcing the union of two families. On the ethereal plane, there was no celebration, but a storm of outrage and confusion. The storm did not abate as the specters slowly worked their way through the chain of events, but steadily grew stronger.

The residents of the nearby house were oblivious to the flickering of the newly lit candle, and would remain so for some time to come. They were about to have bigger problems; sepulchral wrath was not something to be endured lightly...

Alma was solemnly wrapping a black shawl around her shoulders, the final touch to her somber outfit, when the room suddenly turned as cold as ice, despite being high summer outside. She shivered, not just at the temperature, but at the feeling of malice that seemed to be directed specifically at her. "Who is there?"

In the hallway, something crashed, and someone else screamed. Alma's mirror fogged over, and behind it, there seemed to swirl and endless mist filled with shadowy figures. Slowly, two burning eyes appeared, a shade of green that would have been as familiar as Alma's own, had they not seemed to burn with an unholy fire.

Below the eyes a single word formed, like when her children had been younger and fond of spelling out naughty words on a misting bathroom mirror.

'WHY?'

"Your family started all this, I'm sure of it!"

"You don't know that! What can we do about it, anyway?"

"Make them regret it, obviously!"

The household was in chaos, both older couples running about in a panic as they came to the inescapable conclusion that something was both very much present, and in a world-class bad mood.

Li ducked a flying vase, which against all odds, settled gently back onto the mantle, "I called the priest, he hadn't left yet. He's on his way."

Alma caught a platter of dumplings before it could splatter against the family shrine in the corner, "I suppose we really should have expected this. Lord knows they protested enough before the accident."

Li scoffed, "I shall never know why. 'She's just a friend, Mama!', as if they weren't spending every waking moment together as it was!"

The front door opened, and the Priest came scrambling in, dragging a protesting Medium behind him. "I thought you said the couple would be happy to spend their lives and deaths together!"

The Medium went rigid, their eyes glowing un-naturally. "We are! It's the getting married bit we object to!"

Alma threw up her hands in maternal exasperation. Her daughter had been swearing off marriage since she hit puberty, despite being impossible to separate from her male best friend. They'd gone to dances together, out to parties, been plus-ones at weddings, yet firmly resisted any and all attempts to set them up together.

When they'd both died in a mass shooting, trying to shield each other from the one who killed them, the solution had seemed obvious to their grieving and despairing mothers: a Ghost Marriage.

Martino and Lao were both staying silent, as if they hadn't been all for it. Isabela had always been something of a Papa's Girl. There was an awkward pause, before the medium sighed, his voice and posture taking on a more conciliatory posture and tone that was so clearly Shen's. "Is there such thing as a Ghost Divorce?"

The priest looked offended, but didn't have the chance to respond before Isabela took over again the Medium again. "Why did you even think this was necessary in the first place? It's not like you'll be getting any ghost grandbabies out of it!"

Alma drew herself up imperiously, clutching her shawl against the ghostly wind that swirled around her. "You don't know that! Besides, I didn't want you to be alone in the spirit world, and you've always struggled to make close friends!"

Isabela threw up the Medium's hands in a familiar gesture. "That doesn't mean you had to marry us! I'm sure the spirit world is progressive enough to take co-ed room-mate requests!"

The Priest hesitantly interjected, looking as though he wished he had stayed home. "It can't be undone from this side, but perhaps you can find a Priest on your side of the Veil and consult with them?"

The wind died, with the faint impression of a young couple stalking away in a huff, and Li sighed, "Well, it's up to them, now. Perhaps they'll find they like being married. They were already domestic enough before we had to bury them."

Alma went to make a soothing drink. "It's 2022, we support all kinds of relationships, even Aromantic ones. Hopefully they'll have calmed down by the time we join them."

Inspired by the discovery that ghost marriages are an actual thing that exists, and is practiced world-wide...

My Beloved sent me the prompt, probably hoping that it would spark a short story, and it sort of fit the Campfire Challenge, so here we are.

If I have to live with that knowledge, so do all of you.

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