The house was quiet, but the lights were still on as Frankie Stein entered her house, closing the front door quietly. She had just spent a totally voltageous night with her boyfriend Jackson Jekyll, probably their most intimate evening ever. After dinner in the shadowed corner booth at the Die-ner, he had taken her to a silent movie where they'd cuddled together on the loveseat in the theater. Frankie had giggled whenever Jackson's whisper tickled her ear, pointing out the historical inaccuracies that plagued early normie films portraying monsters until the melodramatic film played out more like a comedy to them than a tearjerker. As the credits had rolled, Jackson hung onto her hand as she sat back up to stand, and she'd glanced at him curiously wondering why he was holding her back. After giving her a long spine-tingling kiss on the lips, Jackson bit the bullet and told Frankie, once and for all, that he was in love with her and hoped she felt the same.
It didn't take much thinking for Frankie to come up with her response. Between his adorable smile, his deep blue eyes behind his glasses, the way he was always looking out for her, his support, his complete adoration, and the way he always put her needs before his own had made Frankie realize over the past several months that she wanted nothing more than to put his happiness before hers as well. She knew there were rough spots when Jackson clashed with his alter ego Holt Hyde, often the only thing they could agree on being that they both loved Frankie. Plus the fact that Jackson and Holt's upcoming graduation from Monster High would separate him and Frankie left both the quiet mad science student and his abrasive DJ counterpart plenty nervous. This time when he told Frankie of his unwavering devotion to her and asked if she reciprocated these sentiments, it wasn't just a fluffy exchange of sweet nothings in the darkness of a movie theater. He wanted, no, he needed to know if she was going to be in this with him for the long run, or if he should cut her loose and let her explore the world and decide who she would become without him. Frankie had just smiled, bringing a hand to his cheek as she looked him straight in the eye. It was true, there was a lot she still needed to learn, so much more beyond Monster High that she wanted to see and do, but she told him without a shadow of a doubt that she would be lost without those closest to her heart helping guide her to be the best monster she could possibly be - and that now and forever included him.
She sighed deeply as she pressed her back against the wall, closing her eyes as the breathless state their physical passions had left her in returned. They'd kissed before, tons of times before, but the touch of Jackson's lips and the feel of his hands on this particular night had left her far more invigorated than any bolt of lightning or electrical generator to her neck bolts had since the night she was created. And Frankie had loved it. She loved him. She couldn't wait to tell the ghouls. She was in love.
"Hi sweetheart," came a voice from the living room, and Frankie dazedly pushed herself away from the wall and felt her feet carry her forward to where her parents sat in front of the fireplace. It felt more like she was gliding.
"Hi…" she trailed off, her blue and green eyes unfocused as they met her mother's. Just as she raised her limp-wristed hand to wave it, her leg stitching caught on the corner of the coffee table. With an audible rrrrriiiiip, half of Frankie's leg came off in the middle of her calf and she stumbled until she collapsed into the recliner near the doorway to the front hall. "Oops," Frankie laughed, the large goofy smile never leaving her face as she watched the detached part of her leg fall motionless to the floor. "My good...I'm bad…" Her voice fluttered wistfully, not unlike Spectra Vondergeist's when she grew excited over a new juicy piece of gossip.
"Frankie, what's wrong with you?" her father asked alarmedly as both he and her mother jumped up from their seats and ran to her. "Is it raining out? Did you get wet?" he rattled of hastily, examining Frankie as she sat shaking her head at him in response with that silly grin still on her face. "Reverse your polarity? Forget to charge completely last night-?"
"Viktor, calm down," Viveka said absentmindedly, kneeling in front of her daughter as she busied herself with her sewing kit stitching Frankie's leg back together. "She'd be sparking out of control if she'd gotten wet or reversed her bolts." As she finished up knotting the end of the fresh row of silver stitches, she tucked the sewing kit under the coffee table and glanced up at Frankie's glazed expression of happiness. Viktor was shocked to see his wife's face split into an almost identical grin. "Had a good time with Jackson?"
"The best," Frankie exhaled, finally making genuine eye contact with her mother, grabbing at her hand with both of hers. "We didn't do anything special, but...he told me he loves me."
"Ah," Viktor's mouth hung open as he nodded slightly in understanding, clearly a bit embarrassed at his overreaction.
"Oh darling, of course he loves you," Viveka returned her daughter's hold on her hand, "I've heard him say it a few times-"
"No Mom, this was different," Frankie said in earnest, and Viveka stiffened suddenly, pressing her lips into a thin line. "It was like real true love, I felt it. Like the love you two have." Her parents glanced at each other quickly as Frankie looked at both of them admiringly, her hand pressed to her heart. "Remember when I was feeling confused about dating and boys and my feelings for Jackson and Holt, and you told me that if it was meant to be then I would feel it? Tonight I did, Mom...Dad." She smiled up at her father, who seemed stunned into silence. "I'm in love with him, and he's in love with me. And it's the most high-powered, lightning bright, mind blowingly voltageous feeling in the world!" She kicked her legs up suddenly as she let out a high-pitched squeal, sparks flying from her neck bolts and fingertips before she curled up in the chair, hugging herself while she giggled like a little girl at an amusement park. Neither of her parents were laughing.
"Oh my," Viveka uttered softly, deliberately avoiding looking at Frankie as she stared down at the carpeted floor. "This is getting...rather serious, isn't it?" She looked to her husband for help, but he remained quiet and still.
"Getting serious? I'm pretty sure we're there, Mom," Frankie said lightheartedly as her laughter subsided, oblivious to her parents' less than enthused reactions to this news.
"Frankie," Viktor said finally, his jaw set tightly, "do you think maybe you might be...overestimating these emotions you feel for Jackson?"
"Huh?" Frankie raised her eyebrow up at him, her smile faltering ever so slightly.
"What your father means is, do you think you're moving a bit too fast?" Viveka attempted to clarify, folding her mint green hands firmly together. Both of them were tense and hesitant, as if afraid they would blurt something out to their daughter. Something she didn't want to hear.
"N-no," Frankie shook her head, "I'm not. We've talked about this, a lot actually. You know, with him leaving Monster High next year, we needed to know for sure if our relationship was strong enough. If we were really sure we could make this commitment to each other, and...we can."
"Frankie, listen to me," Viveka said with sudden urgency, holding onto both of her daughter's hands now. "It's not that we don't love Jackson, we believe he's a wonderful fit for you - even though your father has some issues with Holt." Viktor cleared his throat deliberately and Frankie rolled her eyes. "But you're a very young girl-"
"I'm almost seventeen," Frankie wrinkled her nose, offended.
"You were only created less than two years ago," Viktor cut in with his booming deep voice. "There is still so much you don't understand. You don't know what it means for someone like you and for someone like him to make a commitment like that to each other."
"Yes I do."
"No, you don't!"
"Yes, I do!" Frankie shouted back, jumping up from the chair at last to face her father - or rather arch her head upward so she could scale his eight foot tall frame to where his eyes were. "It means we're gonna be together forever whether you want us to or not!"
Viktor closed his eyes, exhaling deeply as he bent down to Frankie's level, holding her by the shoulders as she continued to stare at him incredulously. "That isn't what I meant. It's not that I don't approve of you and Jackson being together. Your mother and I are very fond of him, and we see how happy he makes you every day."
"Then why are you doing this?" Frankie bit out through gritted teeth. "Why don't you want this for me?"
Viveka had sat down on the couch and cleared her throat, patting the seat beside her so Frankie would sit as well. Which she did, very stiffly, letting her mother run her hand through her long black and white hair while she frowned down at her lap. "Frankie darling, do you remember the stories I used to read to you before bed the first couple nights of your unlife? The scary tales, like Threaderella?"
"Uh-huh," Frankie's face lit up a bit, remembering the romantic story she always couldn't help picturing herself in.
"How she ran away from the ball, but the prince found her again and married her?"
"And they lived scarily ever after?" Frankie finished, leaning against her mom's shoulder like she was that two-day-old ghoul again.
"And you know those romantic comedy movies you like to watch?" Viveka went on. "Where the boy and ghoul meet, fall in love and overcome the odds-"
"So they can get married and live scarily ever after, too," Frankie nodded happily, hugging her mother around her middle. "Oh Mom, I knew you understood."
"Wait a moment, dear," Viveka pulled back, cupping Frankie's face in her hands gently. "The thing about those stories is that they always stop when the couple is most happy, when you're left to assume that they were together in that state of bliss forever. But in the real world, that just isn't how things work."
Frankie blew a raspberry through her lips, narrowing her eyes. "Seriously Mom? You think everything I know about love, being in love, and couples who are together 'til the end of time only come from books and movies? For ghoul's sake, I'm not that gullible!"
"Oh good," Viveka sighed out in relief, "Then you see why-"
"I look at you and Dad, too," Frankie explained, gazing between her parents again, her father having sat down in the chair nervously twisting his overlarge hands together. "You've been together almost two hundred years and you're more in love than ever. And no matter what happens, no matter how difficult things get, you still will be for ages and ages to come." She looked right at her father now as she spoke, "Jackson and I will be exactly the same. I promise we will."
"You won't, Frankie," Viktor rumbled slowly, as if talking to the very little girl she still was in his eyes. "No matter how much you want it, no matter how deeply you and Jackson love each other, you will never be like your mother and I."
"But-!"
"Come with me, I'll explain," He stood, turning his face towards the door next to the kitchen. The one that led to the basement, and his various laboratories dedicated to mad science.
"Viktor," his wife whispered, wrapping her arms around Frankie. "It's too soon. She doesn't need to know-"
"If she's serious about this, if she is one hundred percent certain about the choice she's making, the existence she's pledging herself to, then she needs to know now more than ever." His weary eyes filled with a mixture of melancholy and concern now bore into his daughter's bright lively ones. "You are sure about this, aren't you?"
"I've never been more sure of anything in my unlife," Frankie replied without hesitation.
"Then come." He held out his hand and Frankie took it, shrugging her mother's hands off of her shoulders. Stopping at the door to the basement, she adhered to her father's "NO SHOES" sign and kicked her black and pink bolt heels into the corner before descending the steps to the lower level. Some of the labs were up to date with the latest technology offered to every branch of science imaginable, others still bore a resemblance to the early 19th century and what the lab Frankie's father had been created in must have been like. Viktor stopped in the vintage lab to pull a large container out from an icebox before leading his daughter back down the hall to one of the newer labs. His wife followed close behind them, barely making a sound as if holding her breath, and leaving Frankie clueless as to why her father looked so intense and her mother so afraid of what he was about to reveal.
"What are we doing down here?" Frankie asked curiously, eyeing the gleaming metal table and giant electrical generator before jumping slightly as her father set the container down loudly atop the silver surface.
"It's true that your mother and I have lived for decades and decades," Viktor began as tamely as he could so as not to scare her. "Advancements in science have allowed us to do so. In creating you, we were able to use artificial limbs to make fully functioning body parts. Some of which your mother and I use to replace our own when they become too old and too decayed to move properly anymore. Your ability to walk, talk, run, perform your Fearleading stunts and any and all things physical are thanks to these recent developments." Frankie examined herself as her father spoke, from the tips of her delicate fingers to wiggling the ends of her black painted toenails under her mint green nylons. "But we cannot rely solely on artificial parts to create life, and this is where the difficult part comes in. The part that kept us from having a child for nearly two centuries." Frankie heard her mother sniffle as she came up behind her, placing her hands on her shoulders again. Viktor released the straps holding the lid of the container in place and opened it, a stench so putrid filling the air that Frankie covered her face with her hands, feeling like she was going to vomit.
"The concept of reanimation is incredibly meticulous and beyond dangerous," her father went on, pulling a dead heart, liver, and what might have been a lung or a kidney from the foul-smelling container. "We must rely on the organs of the deceased to bring our creations to life. But not every heart wants to beat again once it has stopped…" He trailed off and Frankie followed his gaze to the generator. "Frankie, you know monsters live for a very long time. Some forever. The reason you and your mother and I do is because our life source comes from electricity. Our bodies have survived the ultimate test of reanimation, of bringing the deceased back to life, and as long as there is voltage in the world to fuel our life force, we will live. Your friends survive continuously by means of magic or other supernatural forces. It is the reason our legacies continue on and we are still here to tell our true stories."
"Dad," Frankie stopped him, biting her lip. "What does this have to do with me and Jackson?" Not that she wasn't interested in her father's font of knowledge, but they had gotten way off topic. Or so it seemed.
"I suppose I always assumed that someday you would create your own lifelong partner, as I did with your mother."
Frankie glanced down at the organs lying on the table and gave a small shrug. "I guess I could have. Remember Hoodude?" she recalled with a laugh. "I mean, of course I would learn a lot more about it than I knew then to make sure it was done properly. But I don't think I need to learn how anymore. I have Jackson and Holt now, so I don't need to create my perfect mate. Between the two of them, they just...are."
"But they are mortal, Frankie," Viktor emphasized, walking back around the table towards her. "Even worse, they are human, not even mortal by monster standards."
"Viktor, stop right there," Viveka's voice pierced in an echoing quiver. "She doesn't-"
"She does," Viktor growled, and his wife fell silent before he turned back to his daughter. Any trace of the pure joy Frankie had entered the house with was now gone from her wide blue and green eyes. "You will never be together with Jackson and Holt forever, Frankie. It will be a brief time, nearly a blink in the eye of a vampire or zombie or other undead creature. But whether by some tragic happenstance or the natural course of life, he will die. And be lost to you. Forever."
"What…?" Frankie's mouth went dry and she felt like the floor had given out underneath her. The only sound penetrating her ringing ears was her mother's whimpers behind her. "But what you just told me. About reanimation-"
"A long and tortuous process, draining of every last ounce of hope and spirit," her father shook his head at her. "The one and only thing that kept your mother and I going was our unfaltering desire to bring a child into this world, to love her and nurture her as only the best parents could. To protect her from the darkness and despair that penetrates the light. I would never wish any unhappiness on my beautiful, perfect little girl."
"W-what about you?" Frankie asked desperately, her chin starting to tremble. "You're a complete reanimated corpse, Dad! Once Jackson dies, can't I just bring him back?"
"No!" both of her parents shouted at once as Viktor launched forward, grabbing Frankie by the shoulders. "Never. Don't even entertain the thought of it, Frankie," he breathed out roughly, his voice sounding far more fearful than intimidating. "I was nothing short of a true monster when I first came alive. I did horrible, unimaginable things that will forever taint my past. Because my creator did not understand that a person's will is still contained within that deceased corpse. When a being is ready to die, they must remain dead, that is how they wish it once their time is up. Jackson would not want to have an unlife if you brought him back, even if it was done out of love. You would be forced to let him leave you, and there would be absolutely nothing you could do about it. You would go on living eternally, and he would only exist in a small fraction of that unlife. Normies, even half normies, are simply not meant to live as monsters do."
"No…" Frankie's whole body was shaking, tears clinging to the corners of her black mascara-laced eyes. "No, you're lying!"
"I'm your father, Frankie," Viktor said somberly, moving to wrap his arms around her, but she wrenched away from him. "I would never lie to you, especially not about something like this."
"He won't leave me," Frankie took several steps backward, holding her arms out as if to keep her father and the awful words coming out of his mouth as far from her as possible. "Jackson wouldn't leave me, he could never do something like that!"
"All normies die, Frankie! Far too quickly and far too soon!"
"Stop saying that!" Now she had clamped her hands over her ears as if she could shut him out, the tears streaming unrelentingly down her cheeks. "It's not gonna happen!"
"You think that now, but in several years you'll see-"
"Genug, Viktor!" Viveka exploded at last, telling him enough was enough angrily in their native German. Determined to escape her father's words, Frankie ran to her mother's open arms, starting to cry weakly into her chest as Viveka rocked her gently in place. "Sie quälen nicht. Das ist nicht etwas, was sie braucht, um über jetzt Sorgen machen." (Don't torture her. This isn't something she needs to worry about now.)
"Es wird schneller, als sie denkt, dass sein. Ich will nicht das Herz meines Kindes gebrochen." (It will be sooner than she thinks. I don't want my child's heart broken.)
"Stop it," Frankie cried in a sharp voice, raising her head from her mother's chest. "I know you're talking about me, so quit trying to hide it."
"I'm trying to protect her, Viveka," Viktor slipped back into English seamlessly.
"You can't shield her from everything the world is going to throw at her," Viveka retorted angrily. "No matter what we do, she will get hurt."
"He's lying," Frankie sniffled, looking up at her mother hopefully. "Dad's lying, right Mom?"
Viveka felt her heart break as she held Frankie even closer, kissing her hair. "I...I wish I could say he was, darling."
Frankie inhaled sharply, pulling back from her as she glanced horrified between her parents. She stood there breathing heavily, as if every last bit of innocence had been ripped from her, everything she had once believed compromised. Trembling from head to toe, tears spilled down her cheeks and trickled off her chin, brushing her mother's hand away as she attempted to wipe her face dry. And finally with a deep shuddering sob, Frankie tore from the lab down the hall to her bedroom. Viveka watched her go helplessly, hearing Frankie's door slam a moment later. She turned to her husband who wore an equally helpless expression.
"Viveka...I just..." He watched his wife's eyes sparkle with tears as she shook her head at him almost pityingly.
"And she was so happy..."
As Frankie slammed the door to her room shut, her pet Watzit leaped up from her lab table bed to greet her, wagging his stitched-on tail. Scooping him up in her arms, Frankie fell onto the bed and curled her knees up to her chest before she let loose and wept openly. How could she have been so stupid? How could she not have known that normies lived so much shorter than monsters? How did she not put two and two together, knowing that she was going to live forever but not realizing that Jackson wouldn't? Maybe she was still a very young ghoul, so naive, viewing the world with curiosity rather than fear. None of this had ever occurred to her before, and now it was all falling down around her in one fell swoop. The thought of losing Jackson, even years from now, hurt so badly she thought her chest must be malfunctioning. She buried her face in Watzit's fur, the part dog whining at her distress as he licked her tears away.
How in the world was she going to face Jackson after this?
"It's all over Spectra's blog!"
"We are so happy for you, ghoul!"
"Good on ya, mate!"
"Also customary congratulations."
"I can't believe you and Jackson are pinned!"
"Pinned?"
"Oh whoops! That is so sixty years ago. I mean, exclusive. Off the market. As serious as you can be without actually being engaged-"
"Hey Frankie, you okay?"
"Huh?" Frankie looked around at her ghoulfriends who had surrounded her by her locker the next day at school. Apparently she had been staring at the inside of the coffin-shaped metal shell vacantly for several minutes while the ghouls gabbed around her. It was only after Lagoona placed a hand on her shoulder that Frankie snapped back to the world of the unliving. "Oh uh, yeah I'm fine."
"Aren't you happy?" Cleo asked, checking her perfectly made up latte-colored face before closing her compact. "Not everyone can have a relationship as flawlessly solid as mine and Deuce's. You should count yourself incredibly lucky."
"Oh of - of course I feel lucky," Frankie forced a wide smile that didn't reach her eyes. She had thought her and Jackson's relationship was solid, until the realization from last night threw everything out of balance. Now she didn't know what she thought anymore. She still loved her boyfriend with all her heart, but that was the problem. When she saw him in the hallway, all she could imagine was him getting old and grey while she stayed perfectly young, her dreams last night filled with her sobbing at his grave, kissing his dead freezing lips as he lay in a glass coffin but he never woke up. And now the next day, with everyone telling her how wonderful it all was, it made Frankie want to scream that she wasn't happy, that nothing was okay, that nothing would ever be okay again after Jackson died and left her alone. But no, she didn't want to alarm the ghouls that something this serious was bothering her. So she kept her smile painted on and replied, "Jackson and I are voltageously happy."
"Sorry mate, we must be botherin' you," Lagoona apologized, pushing Clawdeen and Abbey down the hall away from Frankie. "You probably wanna spend the morning with your beau. We'll see you at lunch."
Frankie froze. Spending time alone with Jackson was the last thing she wanted to do. If he showed up in the hall again, she didn't think she could-
"Hey Frankie." She gasped as she whirled around, and there he stood. Smiling at her. Holding a bouquet of spring flowers and a box of her favorite chocolates. Oh no…
"We'll leave you two alone," Cleo winked, pulling Draculaura and Ghoulia by the arms the opposite way down the hall as Frankie simply watched them go with her jaw hanging open.
"I thought maybe we should celebrate a little," Jackson said cheerfully, handing the gifts to her. He looked happier than Frankie had ever seen him before, and it absolutely tore her apart. He had no idea what was going on in her head right now, and she just couldn't rid herself of these terrible thoughts her nightmares had fed into her mind. If she closed her eyes, she was afraid he would vanish when she opened them again. She just couldn't be near him right now, it made it feel like her chest was caving in on itself.
"Thank you, I love them," Frankie said hastily, taking the flowers and candy and shoving them into the top shelf of her locker before slamming it shut. "Now I have to go."
"Frankie, what's wrong?" Jackson asked, catching her by the arms before she slipped around him and escaped down the hall. "Is everything alright?"
"Everything's fine, I-I just need some time to think," Frankie stammered out, pressing her hands against his chest to somehow push him away. She didn't think her composure would hold if she stayed with him much longer. "By myself."
"About last night?" Jackson asked.
"Yes, about last night," Frankie said without thinking, and Jackson's smile melted off faster than snow on a hot roof.
"Frankie, whatever it is-"
"I can't, I...I'm sorry, I need to be alone," Frankie's voice broke as she began to lose herself in his clear blue eyes. Instead of making her feel warm and contented, it felt like a thousand knives were stabbing her through her dead heart.
"Okay…" He gave her a soft kiss on the lips, and Frankie's eyes brimmed with tears when he pulled back again. Without a word, she pushed him backwards to break herself free and took off around the corner to Study Howl. I'm sorry, Jackson. She threw herself into a desk at the back of the classroom and propped a book up to hide the gleaming salty streaks on her face. I'm so sorry.
"Frankie?" She tensed as she whirled around in her seat. Draculaura was sitting in the desk beside her, worry lines creasing her little pink forehead when she saw Frankie's tears. "Whatever's the matter?"
"It's complicated," Frankie said under her breath, swiping at her face. "It's majorly awful and I just don't-"
"You just don't what?" her vampire friend asked, sliding closer to her. "Is it Jackson?"
Frankie nodded.
"Did you two have a fight?"
She shook her head.
"Then I don't understand," Draculaura cocked her head confusedly. "Jackson looked so happy, Clawd said he was 'over the moon' when he came into school today, but you've been anything but since this morning." She looked closer at Frankie, who was staring into her lap dismally. "You don't want to break up with him, do you?"
"No," Frankie answered with utmost certainty, "It's not that at all, I love him."
"You can tell me, Frankie, it's alright," Draculaura rubbed her back soothingly. "Try me, I've seen it all." Frankie glanced over at her as a sudden idea hit her like a bolt out of the blue. Draculaura, of course! She really had seen it all. Who would know better than her?
"Okay, but not here," Frankie gave in. They looked toward the front of the room, where their supervisor Mr. Rotter was engrossed in his next lesson plan for Dead Languages. Slipping their heels off their feet so they didn't make noise on the tiled floor, the two ghouls slipped as quietly as they could around the back desks and out the classroom door. They made it halfway down the hall towards the Creepateria before they detoured under the spindly staircase leading to the second floor, a perfect private place to talk.
"Even the bats don't fang out under here," Draculaura assured her as they put their shoes back on. And after a deep breath, Frankie told her everything that had happened, every word said between her and her parents, and how much the thought of Jackson's ultimate death had been tormenting her since the previous evening. Draculaura's mouth shaped itself into a giant "O" of understanding. "You've come to the right undead ghoulfriend," she said as she gave Frankie a long and much needed hug. "I know exactly how you feel."
"I'm glad someone does," Frankie's voice started to quiver again as she hung onto the embrace. "Every time I think about it, my chest hurts really bad."
"That's called heartache, Frankie," her vampire beastie explained patiently as they broke apart. "Our hearts don't beat, but they can still break and feel pain. Mine did the same when Clawd was forced to choose between his pack and me." Frankie rarely heard Draculaura sound so wise, so much older than she appeared. But being 1600 years old, it shouldn't have surprised her that much.
"How do you stand it?" Frankie asked hushedly. "Why is it so hard for me to?"
"You've only just now understood what death means for normies and mortal monsters," Draculaura went on, holding her hands firmly. "Of course this would be traumatizing for you. I have hundreds and hundreds of years watching people I love pass on. You've never experienced loss before."
"What's it like?" Frankie inquired timidly, afraid of the answer.
"Honestly?" Draculaura bit her lip, swallowing hard before replying with great emotion, "It's worse than you think it will be." Frankie gasped softly, her hands flying to her mouth as tears sprang back into her eyes. "I'm sorry!" the petite vampire cried out, "I know I'm supposed to be making you feel better."
"No, I need you to tell me the truth." Frankie hung her head, feeling like a huge shadow of despair had just cast itself over her. "I've done enough lying to myself."
"But Frankie, there's nothing wrong with how you felt before," Draculaura said, trying to crack a smile for her sake. "Your father has you worrying about a future that is very far away. Clawd and I have talked about our future, and yes, we've talked about the inevitable. And if Jackson loves you as much as Clawd loves me, he will tell you to not worry as well. He will want you to continue to smile and be the wonderful positive ghoul that you are."
"Really?" Frankie looked back up at her. "You can do that, even though someone you care about is gone and never coming back?"
"It takes time, but yes you can," Draculaura genuinely smiled now. "What I've learned after losing many, many lovers is this: If you go through unlife only focusing on what you've lost along with them, you will remain sad and bitter. But if you remember what you gained by knowing them, loving them, letting them into your heart and making them yours, then you can move on. You will never be as whole as you were again, but you will be happy."
Frankie thought this over for a moment, remembering all of the things she had gained from knowing Jackson. His love, his friendship, his kindness, his loyalty, his overcoming of adversity, his strong will to be the best person he could be and encouraging her to do the same. And for the first time that day, she was able to think about him without falling apart at the seams.
"There's a smile!" Draculaura called out cheerfully, and indeed the corners of Frankie's mouth had turned upward in spite of herself.
"Thank you, Draculaura," Frankie hugged her again. "I really do feel better now." She was still incredibly sad, and she would be from time to time, but at least she could smile again.
"And now the next thing you must do," Draculaura gave her a knowing look, "is talk to Jackson. Nothing is more important than honesty, and he needs to know this is on your mind."
Jackson made his way back to his locker later that afternoon after the final bell rang. The spring in his step had died down considerably since that morning when he first woke up, when the memory of his night with Frankie left him feeling like he was on top of the world. After last night, he had been sure she felt the same as him, even said so herself. So why was she so upset this morning? Why was she pushing him away, literally? He had voiced these concerns to his best friend Deuce, who had far more experience in these areas of relationships than he did, and he guessed that maybe after sleeping on it - or rather an overnight charge - Frankie was having second thoughts. That only made Jackson feel worse, especially after Frankie had told him that she needed time to think about last night on her own. And when he received the text to meet her by the fountain out in the school courtyard once classes ended, he knew it was over. He had moved too fast for Frankie and he'd blown it. Again. He must've been the only guy in the world to wreck a relationship with the ghoul of his dreams twice.
His stomach churned heavily as he made his way to the fountain, convinced he was going to throw up in it once he reached it. He wasn't going to be able to bear it if she stood there and broke up with him to his face. Not after nearly a year of things going so well, of all the progress he and Holt had made, how in sync all three of them were now, and how splitting their time up so they could each be with Frankie had become almost second nature. Not when he knew more than ever that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with the beautiful, sweet, feisty, green stitched ghoul. As he rounded the corner and saw her sitting on the fountain edge, her head bowed, her face hidden behind her long silky sheet of black and white hair, he wanted to freeze time right there and stay in it forever, if only so he didn't have to hear whatever she wanted to say to him.
"Hey," he squeaked out like he was on his first date with her all over again, and Frankie's head shot up as if startled by him.
"Jackson," she said quietly, the neutral somber expression on her face evolving into something between elation and grief-stricken. Contrary to anything and everything Jackson was expecting, she jumped up and flung her arms around his neck. Stunned, he just stood there for a moment feeling her bury her face in his neck before returning her embrace.
"Frankie, what's going on?" he asked softly, stroking his fingers through her hair. "Tell me."
She shook her head against his shoulder, "Just hold me." Jackson sat back down with her on the fountain edge, cradling her shivering lithe frame as close to him as he could. Something was really bothering her. Something that probably went beyond any of his worries, and it made him relax enough to hold her in his steadfast arms as she wanted, not saying a word until she was ready to. He thankfully became thoroughly assuaged when Frankie resurfaced from his shoulder several minutes later and met his lips in a lingering kiss. "I'm sorry about before."
"It's alright," Jackson said, brushing his thumb over the scar on her right cheek affectionately. "But I wish you'd fill me in."
"It's not you," Frankie assured him. "It's nothing you said or did. Last night after I got home from our date, I told my parents what happened and I got in a big fight with my dad." Jackson listened as she explained about their conversation involving normies and monsters, mortality and immortality, and once she was done he almost laughed in relief.
"That's what all of this is about?" Jackson said a bit too candidly for Frankie's expectations, and she pulled back sharply.
"What do you mean by that?!" she snapped, wearing a deeply pained expression. "I've been agonizing over this for hours and hours and that's all you can say?! This might not be a big deal to you or Draculaura, but it is to me! I can't imagine losing anyone I love because it's never happened to me before. Just the thought of it makes me feel like my heart's come unstitched. You know you're supposed to die someday because that's what normies taught you! I never had that! I'm only two years old! And to have to find out about it like this is just-!"
"I'm sorry - I'm sorry, Frankie," Jackson whispered, shushing her gently as he brushed away a tear rolling along the stitch in her cheek. He sometimes forgot just how young she really was, and in doing so forgot how fragile that left her in some situations. "You didn't really get it, what death actually means. It's something I think about, yeah, but it's not something I really dwell on."
"I only pushed you away this morning 'cause I was scared," Frankie's hands wrung anxiously together in her lap as Jackson kept his arms around her waist. "I kept having nightmares about you being dead. My dad thinks it would be better if I created my own partner instead of being with a normie or mortal monster."
"Because he doesn't want you to feel loss, or the heartbreak that comes with that loss," Jackson nodded in understanding, then shook his head with a grim smile. "Parents have weird ways of trying to protect us." He immediately thought of his own mother keeping his dual personality a secret for the first sixteen years of his life, all to safeguard him.
"Tell me about it," Frankie agreed. "I love my dad, but I just don't think he gets this romantic stuff like dating and courting and relationships. But I guess he means well, and…I guess I was a little hard on him last night." She fiddled with the hem of her skirt a bit before sighing deeply, leaning her head against Jackson's shoulder. "Having an unlife isn't all it's cracked up to be."
"Listen," Jackson finally said, pulling her closer against him as she hugged him around the middle. "I don't plan on going anywhere anytime soon. I mean yeah, I could get in my car now and drive off and die in an accident within five minutes." Frankie hugged him tighter, burrowing her face deeper into the crook of his neck as Jackson realized maybe that wasn't the best way to start this out. "Look, even if that did happen, you'd still have all our months together to look back on and remember me by. That's what I care about the most. Since we can't be together forever, I want to be with you for as long as I possibly can. I want us to make the most of all these years we will have together. I want you to be happy when you look back on your time with me. I want you to be happy, period." He placed his hand under her chin and tilted her head up, kissing both of her cheeks and her forehead. "If I live to be a hundred or only seventeen, don't waste your time crying over me. Go back out there and be Frankie Stein. Go shopping, hang out with your friends, stop a mob of angry normies, meet someone else and fall in love. I want you to." He swallowed hard over a lump in his throat as Frankie's face scrunched up, her shoulders beginning to convulse with quiet sobs. "Just...don't cry."
"I can't help it!" Frankie burst out, her nails latched onto the front of his sweater vest as her tears soaked the thick fabric. "I don't want you to leave me alone."
"I might die, but I'm sure not leaving you," Jackson smiled despite his own tears in his eyes. "Not as long as you love me."
Frankie smiled back, somehow her emotional state working itself into a perfect combination of joy and sorrow. She nodded as she half laughed, half sobbed in response, blubbering out a nearly incoherent "I love you so much." Anyone looking at them right now would have thought they were insane, clinging to each other and kissing fiercely while Frankie tried to stop crying, but she didn't care. Somehow she was even more sure of her feelings for Jackson now than she was the previous night, even with the assurance of death separating them hanging over her like a dark cloud. But like the sun always penetrated the sky even when it rained, their love and the ways it would grow in time would overpower any grief in her heart, even long after Jackson's would stop beating.
"You know what, Jackson?" Frankie said eagerly once her voice had steadied itself again, "I think this is the beginning of a voltageous adventure. I can't wait to go on it with you."
She tiptoed across the floor of the basement in her bare feet, dressed in her pajamas and ready for a full recharge. But she had one last thing she needed to take care of before bed.
Pushing open the lab door, Frankie saw that her dad had fallen asleep over the lab table he was working on again, beakers and test tubes filled with liquid littering the metal surface. She unfolded the blanket tucked under her arm and placed it over his shoulders tenderly. Viktor's thick heavy eyelids fluttered open slowly, grunting as he was aroused from his power nap. Seeing that it was his daughter rather than his wife who had made him comfortable, his eyes grew sad and weary as his gaze found Frankie's. And at the exact same time they said "I'm sorry." He cupped her face in his large hands and kissed her forehead lovingly, Frankie wrapping her arms around his neck and resting her head on his shoulder.
"I just want you to be happy," her father mumbled quietly as he held her close.
"I am, Dad," Frankie whispered, kissing him back on the cheek. "I really am."
The End