He had noticed her deterioration over the years yet every time he asked her what was wrong she had waved it off, merely saying it was nothing and that she would recover soon. Jack would always refrain from pursuing the subject, especially if one of their children were in the room, he let his fist meet the metallic wall of the doctors lab, his eye sockets brimming with tears, this was his fault! His Sally was in pain because of his own stupid carelessness, despite his best efforts he hadn't kept her safe. "Jack?" A soft, rasping voice sounded from behind him, the skeleton turned around, on the bed opposite him was his beautiful, broken rag doll queen, her wide eyes were drooped, almost as if she were asleep, the skeleton covered the area between them in three long strides, taking her hand in his own, he stood on her left side, looking down at her, he glances to their matching rings on their hands and can't help the sob that escapes him, his frame shaking in such a sadness that he no longer had the will to hide, he lowered himself into the chair beside her bed, not once breaking their precious contact. The pumpkin king looks at her face and forces himself to smile, for her sake, this was one illness she wouldn't recover from. "I'm here Sally." He whispered, touching her cheek with his other hand, relishing in the feel of her velvety skin, he felt the corners of her crimson, lopsided mouth pull into a meek smile before she coughed, her cloth body shook as a fit of them took over her. Jack could only look on as he waited for her to recover, all the while fighting the urge to cry, the pale blue girl looked at her husband, she saw how broken he was and let her eyes close as she thought over what the doctor had told her, she had awoken earlier when Jack was taking a nap in her old room, he had told her what she already knew, she was going to die, from her exotic eyes fell tears of hopelessness, she sniffles before asking "Where is Rebekah?" Her eyes glance to the door, looking for her only daughter, Jack just shook her head. "She is downstairs with the others, Jewel is watching them." He squeezed her smaller hand comfortingly, glancing at her face before standing up, suddenly he was full of rage, stepping away he let out his thoughts in a rush. "Why didn't you tell me Sally? We could have stopped this! I love you! Doesn't that mean anything?" He dropped to his knees hopelessly, burying his skull in his hands, his shoulders shaking with sobs.
Sally struggled to sit up, fighting back her own tears, she had to remain calm if she wanted to comfort her husband. "Jack, this isn't your fault, there is nothing we could have done, your love is everything I could have ever asked for, even though I only got two centuries of it, Im glad I had that time with you Jack." She sniffles, looking at the blankets for a moment as she waits for his reply, Jack stood and approached the bed again, he took her hand and kissed her head, closing his eye sockets, tears escaping the hollows, being absorbed by her yarn hair. "Oh Sally, my precious Sally. I'd trade places with you in a heartbeat if I could." He nuzzled her forehead gently, the rag doll enjoyed his touches, each one could be the last, she weakly raised her other arm to touch the back of his skull lovingly, burying her head in his shoulder, closing her wide eyes as she cherished the moment. She felt her calm front break down, she would be loosing her friends, children and her husband, this was the one journey she would never return from, she drew back, her chest heaving as she freed her tears, Jack felt his non-existent heart break even more at the sight. "Oh Sally, please don't cry, please." He pleaded, kissing her cheeks lovingly before pulling back, trying to soothe her somewhat. The rag doll looked up at him sadly and continued to cry, her words were mostly unintelligible except for the last phrase. "...I don't want to die..." She calmed somewhat before saying to her skeleton husband, "Jack... Will you lay with me?" She asked, looking at his sad expression, the skeleton meekly nodded and the rag doll weakly scooted over, the skeleton climbed into the small bed beside her, wrapping his arms around her, it was his turn to ask her something. "May I kiss you my Sally?" In response to his request the broken rag doll nodded, within a heartbeat the skeleton crushed his lips to hers, releasing all of his emotions and words to her in that single action, relaying to her just how much he cared. He felt her lips part and he let his tongue enter and explore the familiar territory for the last time, he pulled away and had to fight a fresh wave of tears, his eye sockets closed tightly, he reopened them when he felt her hand against his cheek. "Jack,Ill love you forever, Forever and always, Please just remember even if I'm not there, I'll always love you forever and always..." Her voice was becoming quieter with each passing moment, the rag doll closed her eyes, her breaths slowed, she had once again fallen asleep, the skeleton nuzzled her head and whispered softly. "I love you too, my Sally, my queen, my everything." Before he too, fell asleep.
When he awoke he was sitting in one of the lounge chairs, his children were all looking like robots, emotionless, Jack got to his feet, all but ready to run up to the lab when his youngest child, Rebekah, touched his arm, she held out a locket, it was the one Sally always wore, an anniversary present. "Mama is gone, the doctor didn't say where." The skeleton looked at the rag doll girl, she was a lot like her mother but from her head was a waterfall of ebony curls, natural hair in place of yarn, the same type Jack would have if he were human. He took the locket in his hand and clutched it to his chest, he wouldn't cry in front of his children, to them he was the fearless and brave pumpkin king, the one they all admired and respected. He turned and ran up to the lab, he was greeted by the doctor, the lab was back to normal. The doctor could see the pain in Jack's eye sockets as the realisation sunk in, he gruffly said. "She wasn't made to last my boy, she isn't like Jewel, This has happened to all of them, Igor is gone, so is Tidus and it seems even Sally is not immune. Cloth disintegrates over time, it becomes frail, and the living brain I gave her too was failing, she outlived the rest, except my Jewel." He coughed before saying. "I will miss her too my boy," he took off his glasses to rub them with his lab coat. "I'll let you see her body though, if you'd like." He offered, to which the skeleton mutely nodded, letting himself be led by the cripple. They entered Sally's old room, by the bed sat Jewel, it was what rested upon the bed that scared Jack, his Sally lay there, motionless, her once bright eyes were closed and her chest no longer rose or fell with the life giving breaths. The rag doll's hair had been pulled back into a single braid, her face stitches had been replaced and in place of her patchwork dress was a sleek, black dress that hung to her ankles. Jack reached out and touched her bare arm, shuddering at the coldness of her cloth skin. "She looks so peaceful, as if she were asleep." He whispered softly, he looked to her left hand and raised it, taking the ring from it, he opened the locket he still held tightly and placed the ring inside, he placed the locket around his neck, even in public view. He fell to his knees and kissed her soft head, his bony lips savoured the last ever touch of her skin before he pushed himself away, Jewel handed him a white cloth and said softly. "I'd prefer if you did it." Before stepping back, the skeleton took the cloth and laid it over her before heading downstairs, he too was now emotionless, it was like someone had ripped his world apart. He refused to accept her death, his Sally was at home, being the lovely homemaker she is, she definitely was not upstairs, cold and dead on her bed. Of course not, she'd be right at home, where she belonged.
Jack was comforted by those thoughts as he escorted the children home, he was the first to enter the house, the wave of disappointment that coursed through him was painful, there was no Sally, bounding down the stairs to greet him with a kiss, he mutely entered the living room, unable to stop the little hope he still had, his shoulders slumped, he was defeated, his Sally was never coming back. His five children stood in a huddle together, each one sad, Jack made himself smile, for their sakes, he opened his arms and all if them leapt for him at once, Rebekah clung to his chest as she finally let herself cry, they were all sad, They had lost their mother, the little homemaker they would run home from school to greet, Jack soothed them and cradled them, the oldest, Elijah, held one of his younger siblings and he too wept. Jack felt broken at their looks of heartbreak before he said softly. "My children, Your mother won't be coming back, she has gone away forever." He whispered softly, he couldn't exactly explain to little children about death, at least not until they were a century old. Elijah's eye sockets flashed with understanding, he knew a little about what had happened, curtesy of the storybooks his mother had given to him last year, Rebekah begun to wail and her brothers were quick to try and sooth her, the young girl was only a few decades old, it seemed immortal children aged a lot slower than children of the real world. Jack felt his bones rattle as a thought occurred to him, what if their children had inherited Sally's mortality? He would be alone yet again, he couldn't bear to have his children die before himself. With a lot of coaxing he managed to get them into their bedrooms, he tucked each of them in, lingering at Rebekah's bed, he gently stroked her hair and tried to remain composed when she asked softly, her voice lisping, both from crying and fatigue. "Why did mama go away?" The skeleton had faced millions of things, he had been hit by a cannonball, been attacked with spinning knives and shot at with guns, but he knew this would be his hardest challenge, how could you explain something like this to a child?
"She hasn't been very well lately Rebekah." He started, pausing to contemplate his next words, hoping she could understand. "She had to go, she couldn't have got better here Rebekah." He murmured, touching her soft, cloth skin with his bony fingers, wiping the remains of her earlier tears away, her mouth opened as she asked yet another question. "Will we ever see her again?" This was the only question Jack could answer somewhat easily, he lowered himself onto the bed beside her as he responded to her curious words. "Some day Im sure, but we don't want that day to come to fast now, you have to give mama time to heal." He murmured softly, casting his gaze around her room, it was full of dolls and on one side of the room was a sewing machine, the exact one Sally had kept in her time with the doctor. After yawning the little rag doll-skeleton hybrid said softly. "I want to see mama." Jack took her hand gently and said softly. "Oh no baby, its not time for you to see mummy yet, that day will come soon, but not too soon. Goodnight Rebekah." The king whispered to his princess, giving her head a bony kiss before walking out of the room, his ears barely caught her reply. "Pleasant nightmares papa."
Jack left the corridor of bedrooms before heading up to his study, he looked at the herbs he possessed and briefly touched the Deadly Nightshade jar, a strong enough dose in a short time would result in a peaceful death, much like Sally's had been, he then touched a few others before taking out the jar of poison, he put in a set of gloves before setting up some water in a dish above a Bunsen burner, when it was heated he placed the Deadly Nightshade leaves into the water, steeping the leaves to form a tea of sorts, after about ten minutes he strained the liquid, pouring the Deadly Nightshade tea into a vial, he threw out the leaves, putting away his equipment as he let the mixture cool, he had used many, many leaves, perhaps enough to put a ghoul of his stature into a coma for a few days, he browsed the shelves yet again, spotting a small glass bottle, inside was a ivory powder, he read the label and glanced back at the tea, he headed over and poured the bottle's content into the murky liquid, the powder was A form of arsenic, the one thing fatal to skeletons, it paralysed you, stopping your heart, you would die within a few minutes, but diluted with the tea the person to ingest it would die peacefully. He corked the veil, labelling it quite simply - poison. He tucked it into his inner suit pocket, he didn't want to think, didn't want to feel, he stood by his observatory window and his hand went to the locket that rested on his chest, he gently opened it and looked at the picture, his other hand caught the wedding band that had spent the past two centuries on his love's finger, the picture within the locket was of Sally and him, side by side on their wedding day. She wore a dress of white yet it was patch worked with oranges, blacks and greens, the typical Halloween colours, her hair was pulled back so the top half was tied back in a braid, the lower half had been styled into soft waves of rusted red, her eyes appeared a little more defined and her face more round. He was dressed in a white suit with black, red and green pinstripes, he was grinning goofily at the camera as the photograph was taken. The inscription opposite caught his eye after he had examined the image, he felt tears touch his eyes as he read the words over and over in his head.
"Always and Forever."
"So why aren't you here now?"