Light gore warning for the ending.
"Jack?" Jerry called to him hesitantly, feeling a shiver run down his spine as Jack continued to stare ahead, unmoving.
He got no response from him, just the sensation of the air chilling even more around him, and Jack started to walk off in the direction Kim and Milton had disappeared down. Jerry caught on fast, eyes widening in shock.
He sprinted over to Jack to catch up with him, grabbing onto him and turning him around so he was looking at him.
"What are you doing?!" he hissed in confusion, trying to keep his voice down as some students walked past them.
"I have to, remember?" Jack reminded him, like there was nothing he could do about it. Truth be told, there probably wasn't; there was also a niggling feeling in the back of Jerry's mind that he actually didn't want to stop Jack at all, but he quickly squashed it down.
"You can't kill them," he said with a shake of his head, Jack looking at him in disbelief. "They're my friends," he offered as a pitiful form of defence, knowing that wouldn't be able to stop Jack if it tried.
"Some friends, Jerry," Jack said with an arched eyebrow, breathing out angrily. "They abandoned you because they couldn't handle it; you said so yourself," he pointed out.
"I..." Jerry trailed off, his argument turning to dust inside his head as Jack no doubt had an answer for everything. "They'll come around," he said, although he didn't sound at all confident. He just wanted to pretend like this whole day had never happened and he wanted to believe that Kim and Milton needed to blow off some steam, but when was he ever allowed any happiness?
"I don't think they will," Jack said in a gentle voice, trying to ease the words into his mind and make them easier to hear. "This happened to me before I died," he added knowingly.
"I'm not you," Jerry snapped suddenly, instantly regretting it as soon as he heard the words and his harsh tone. Jack's expression didn't change, but he could see that it affected him.
He sighed apologetically: "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that, I-"
"I know what you meant," Jack said, holding up a hand and cutting him off gently. "I'll try and hold off for a while, I'll need distracting though," he told him. Luckily, Jerry knew of just the place.
"Will the arcade after school work?" he suggested, not really going to take 'no' for an answer anyway.
"Do I have a choice?" Jack deadpanned.
"Not really, no," Jerry said, a little harsher than he meant it.
There was an uncomfortable silence between them as Jerry literally had nothing else to say. Jack looked at him pityingly, the latter being lucky Jerry actually trusted it wasn't an act.
"Do you wanna talk about it?" he offered kindly, stepping closer to him.
"What's there to talk about?" Jerry exploded suddenly, feeling his voice shake with every word. "My friends ditched me and the only person I have left to talk to is my Mum who doesn't understand and a ghost that..." he trailed off, hand coming up to his mouth as a pathetic sound came out of it, tears trying to come out of his eyes, but he wouldn't let them.
"Hey, come here," Jack murmured sympathetically, opening up his arms and enveloping Jerry in a warm embrace as he finally cracked.
He could no longer hold the tears back - whether it be the prospect of his friendships being a lie for all these years or everything suddenly catching up to him - Jerry let himself cry silently on Jack's shoulder, the other boy rubbing his back comfortingly. He couldn't keep doing this.
"Maybe I would've been better off if I'd killed myself," he wondered in complete despair, a gurgle of disbelief coming from his throat and another wave of tears falling down his face. He couldn't help but think he was right, then he wouldn't have had to be alive to witness Kim and Milton's betrayal.
"Don't you ever think that," Jack said in all seriousness, tightening his grip on him and leaning his head against Jerry's. "I'm dead and it ain't exactly a picnic," he reminded him and Jerry wanted to argue that Jack could now get the revenge he couldn't when he was alive, but he didn't have the strength to get the words out, especially as it instantly reminded him of Kim and Milton.
He pulled away from the hug with a heavy sigh, feeling the tears drying on his face. Jack reached out and dried them off, a sincere look in his eyes, and Jerry felt himself leaning up towards Jack's mouth, their lips meeting in a gentle kiss.
Jack made no move to push him away, and instead held onto him, just held him; like he was holding all the pieces of him together.
"Wow, you really are a fag, Martinez," a boy said snidely, Jerry feeling his stomach knot up at the sound of his laughter.
Jack broke away upon hearing the boy's harsh jab at the two of them, turning to glare daggers at the boy, who looked unperturbed. Jerry just looked at him, too exhausted to feel angry, too exhausted to muster even a single, 'Shut up'.
"Damn, I owe Taylor ten bucks," he said in aggravation, Jerry's eyes narrowing.
The boy was suddenly tossed violently against the lockers, a blood splatter smearing there as he landed. He groaned, putting a hand up to his head and scrambled to his feet, looking at Jack in horror. He made to follow him, but Jerry grabbed a hold of him.
"Don't," he said suddenly, Jack no doubt making a face that asked why the hell he was wanting to defend that guy; Jerry wondered too, but he didn't care. He just needed Jack right now and not the angry ghost with an effinity for violence. "Please..." his plea tapered off into a whisper and Jack sighed heavily.
He turned back towards him, clearly struggling and wanting more than anything to be allowed to disappear and do what he had been denied earlier. "Distract me again," he said simply, clenching his fist by his side.
Almost instantly, Jerry grabbed the scruff of Jack's shirt and pulled their lips together again, this kiss completely different from their one a few seconds ago; tongues clashed and Jerry held onto the sides of Jack's face as he pushed him back up against the locker.
"Just when I thought I couldn't get any weirder," Jerry panted as they broke away for air, "I end up having my first kiss with a ghost," he smiled. Really, how many people could say that about their lives and think it was a good thing?
"At least yours is when you're alive," Jack muttered under his breath, Jerry not at all sure he'd heard him right. If he was, he'd swear Jack had just said he was his first kiss.
"What?"
"I mean, I'd kissed people before, but," he broke off to shoot him an impressed wiggle of his eyebrows. "Nothing like that," he finished with a chuckle, Jerry unable to help the loud burst of laughter, a brief blush tinging his cheeks.
"That's better," he pointed out fondly at the sound of Jerry's laughter, both their smiles increasing at the look on each others faces.
Jerry's expression dropped off his face and became replaced with a look of panic as he caught sight of the clock over Jack's shoulder. "Shit, we're late!" he said in shock, moving out from between Jack and the locker.
"It's only Science," he said with a look of confusion, furrowing his eyebrows.
"With Dr. Watts!" Jerry shot back, eyebrows raising knowingly.
Jack's face fell too. "Yeah, we'd better get going," he said, the two of them running down the hallway. Jerry didn't even need to guess that Jack had had him when he was at school here, and just hoped that Dr. Watts' eyesight was as shot as people said and he wouldn't notice one of his students had come back from the dead.
They burst through the door with several seconds to spare, everyone in the class turning to look at them, but for once, Jerry didn't have it in him to care. Dr. Watts' stopped writing on the board to raise an eyebrow at the two of them, not even giving Jack a second glance, much to Jerry's relief.
"Sorry we're late, Sir," Jerry apologised, the both of them standing in the doorway to - well, really just Jerry - catch their breath.
"Just take your seats, boys," Dr Watts said sternly, pointing his piece of chalk at them, returning to the half-finished symbol equation that he was writing on the board.
Jerry nodded and he and Jack walked to the two avaliable seats left at the back of the room. He caught sight of Kim and Milton's shocked faces - bulging eyes focusing particularly on Jack - as he and Jack took their seats, Jerry being unable to keep himself from shooting them a smug look as Jack sat down, making contact with the chair and looking real. Jack however, just turned and gave them a warning glare.
Sighing to himself, Jerry reached across the desk and placed his hand over Jack's, the gentle contact succesfully distracting him. He cleared his throat and turned away from them, allowing Jerry to lace their fingers together.
"Sorry," he murmured, looking down for a split-second.
"Just ignore them," Jerry said, throwing out the advice that had been given to him, that he had been unable to take. "Please?" he added, looking at Jack hopefully, but he gave no response.
A while later, Jerry was eyeing Jack unsurely as he held up another beaker of acid, looking from their experiment to the picture on the board. It looked so far off that Jerry was positive adding that acid wouldn't be good; everyone's solutions was supposed to be green, and theirs was somehow red.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" he asked nervously, not wanting to get too close to the solution in case it suddenly exploded.
"What harm could it do?" Jack wondered in disbelief, bringing the beaker closer to his face and swirling it around, some air bubbles fizzing up precariously. If he wasn't already dead, Jerry would swear he had a death wish.
"Explode and kill us!" Jerry hissed incredulously, a smile tugging at his face as Jack raised his eyebrows. "Uh, me," he corrected sheepishly, Jack rolling his eyes.
"Which means I have nothing to lose," he said bravely, holding up the beaker of chemicals.
Jerry squeezed his eyes shut as Jack poured the chemicals into the beaker, having to open them at Jack's cry of laughter. The liquid turned a bright blue and bubbled straight to the top of the beaker, foaming over onto the table. They burst out into laughter, stepping away from the table as the puddle of 'foam' began to spread across the table.
Dr. Watts immediately bustled over to the table, spewing out angrily incoherent words as he pulled several paper towels out of his pocket, looking back in surprise as the mystery solution burned a hole straight through one of them.
"He made me do it!" Jack said immediately, laughing and pointing a finger towards him that Dr. Watts wasn't paying attention to.
Jerry looked back at him with a mock-affonted expression, hitting Jack in the shoulder and pushing down his arm. "Did not!" he argued back.
"Idiots..." Jerry heard Milton mutter in annoyance, rolling his eyes, Kim briefly looking up at them before they returned to their experiment.
Jerry glanced over to Kim and Milton, Jack trying his hardest not to glare at them. If looks could kill, and Jerry hoped Jack couldn't do that, they would be dead already.
Thankfully, the bell rang, providing Jerry with time for a distraction as everyone began packing up their experiements, a cluster of people walking in front of Kim and Milton and breaking Jack's murderous glare.
"Let's get out of here," Jerry said in a low voice, grabbing hold of Jack's wrist and getting his attention.
"But death by chemical explosion would be so entertaining..." Jack said, his eyes darkening as his head spun and they landed on a beaker of acid that was very close to where Kim and Milton where.
"Jack!" Jerry hissed at him indignantly, completely ignoring their own mess of an experiment, all-but tugging Jack off his stool.
"I'm coming, don't get your panties in a twist," he grumbled, gently prising his fingers off his arm.
Jerry didn't fail to miss the look that Jack shot at Kim and Milton, shoving him out the door and into the bustling hallway, propelling him towards the exit's double doors.
He had no idea how they managed to get to the arcade so quickly. He figured it had something to do with him wanting to at least try and salvage his friendship with the people he'd known since he was eight years old, but at least it worked. When they walked through the doors, Jack was looking around with a completely different look in his eyes, smiling fondly.
"Don't think I've been here since before I died," he murmured to himself, a soft chuckle coming from his mouth.
"They fix that machine yet?" he asked suddenly, pointing over to the coin-ticket exchange machine over in the corner.
"Still swallows all your coins," Jerry said proudly with a smile, Jack snorting in disbelief. "You any good at air hockey?" he asked, looking to him from the table suggestively.
Jack looked thoughful, studying the game table, before he raised his eyebrows. Challenge accepted.
"I still say you cheated," Jerry muttered bitterly a half-hour later, Jack's score board showing a clear '10' while his own showed a measly '4', before it reset themselves. They placed the pucks back into the center and walked away from the table,
"I won fair and square!" Jack argued back, throwing his hands up in the air.
"You hocus-pocus'ed the puck into your side!" Jerry shot back, Jack's side of the argument no longer standing as he burst out into laughter. "I saw and that's against the rules," he pointed out, poking Jack in the chest and turning his chin up.
"There is not, nor will there ever be, a rule in air hockey that says you can't give yourself a helping hand," Jack said with a chuckle of disbelief, looking at him with a grin.
"Well there should be," Jerry huffed, folding his arms.
"Someone's a sore loser," Jack teased, nudging him in the side, Jerry mockingly taking a swipe at him, only to have his hand go straight through him, Jack becoming solid again with a triumphant smirk.
"No fair," he said with a pout, rolling his bottom lip out.
"I'm not letting you hit me just 'cause you suck at air hockey," Jack said incredulously, chuckling at him.
Jerry rolled his eyes. "Well can we do something I have a chance of winning?" he asked dryly. "Like eating?" he suggested sarcastically. "I'm starving," he added in all seriousness, rubbing his stomach.
"Seems fitting the only thing you'd win at is something I can't do," Jack reasoned, getting a bewildered look from Jerry.
"You can't eat?" he asked in surprise, although it wasn't really that surprising; and it would probably blow Jack's cover as a ghost if food started floating to, and being swallowed by, an invisible mouth.
"That sucks," Jerry commented bluntly, looking at Jack with sympathy, who just raised his eyebrows. "I don't know if I'd be able to live without my Mum's cooking," he added, appalled at the very idea.
"That's the point," Jack said with a grin, gently hitting him on the arm. "I'm dead," he stated with an obvious roll of his eyes.
Jerry chuckled at him, realising he didn't even have his wallet with him. "Man, I forgot to bring money," he said in annoyance. "It was kind of a rush-decision we're here in the first place," he reminded Jack, trying not to go into too much detail incase that had him disappearing again.
"No problem," Jack said simply, shooting Jerry a devious smile.
He cracked his knuckles and turned towards the food counter, Jerry having no clue what he was doing until some food from the trays started to float upwards, happening behind the back of the till worker as she flicked through a magazine with a bored expression on her face.
Jerry continued to watch as the food started to reassemble itself; the bottom half of the burger roll was placed down on the counter and then the burger patty, some ketchup squirting itself onto it, then the cheese, lettuce and tomato joining it, before the top half of the burger landed neatly ontop of it.
"How'd you do that?" Jerry asked in amazement, his jaw nearly dropping off as the burger - very perfect burger - floated towards Jack's hands, the till worker none the wiser.
"Perk of being dead," Jack said brightly, chuckling at Jerry's expression; it wasn't fair that you could only do cool things if you weren't alive to fully appreciate it. "But you won't want it," he added seriously, turning away and making to throw the burger in the bin.
Jerry caught him hastily by the arm, catching a brief smirk from Jack. "What? Why not?" he asked in confusion. Of course he wanted that burger; he was starving and would kill - bad choice of words - for that thing.
"'Cause I 'hocus-pocused' it," Jack reminded him in a mocking tone, making air quotes with his free hand. "Against the rules, remember?" he said teasingly, waving the burger in his face, Jerry thinking that - if he didn't know any better - Jack would eat it just to piss him off.
"Rules, schmules, I'm hungry," he said, slightly childishly, snatching the burger from Jack and taking a large bite that smeared ketchup over his lips and chin, making Jack laugh. It was a rare occurance these days for them alone, he noted silently, but not for the two of them together.
A half and hour after his burger, Jerry had decided to take a crack at the claw machine, while Jack had gone to play one of those shooting games. For a guy who had had a pretty violent death, he had no problem doing the same, to real people or virtual ones.
Jerry sighed loudly in annoyance as the pikachu slipped through the hook as he got near the drop box. He smacked the machine in annoyance.
"Stupid machine!" he hissed under his breath, seeing Jack's reflection walking up to him in the glass - and trying to get the sudden image of that thing that had leapt out of the mirror and sliced Eddie to pieces. "It's rigged, I tell ya," he complained, Jack smiling at him.
He looked around suddenly, checking to see if anyone was watching, then leaned forward and extending his arm, it going straight through the glass machine, much to Jerry's amazement.
After rifling around, and simiulatenously looking for any shocked passerby's, he pulled out a large blue bear, the toy coming out of the plastic along with Jack's arm. He handed Jerry the bear, who felt a huge grin spread across his face.
"Where were you when I was five and had a Pokemon obsessesion?" he asked in disbelief, holding the bear up to the light so he could check it was actually real. It felt real - the "I wuv you very much" that played when Jerry accidentally squeezed its stomach - and looked real, especially as he played with the fluff on its head.
"You do realise it was a Pikachu that you were trying to pick up, right?" Jack said teasingly, smirking at him.
Jerry rolled his eyes, playfully shoving a hand into Jack's face to wipe the smirk off his face, his own smile threatening to betray him. "Shut up..."
"Take it you're feeling better?" It wasn't a question, more of a statement. But Jack was right; he never failed to make him feel better, even if his methods were... slightly illegal at times.
"A little," he said with a nod, for once not needing to lie. Truthfully, it hadn't been so much as just a distraction to keep Jack's mind off what had happened earlier; it was for Jerry as well.
"I'm glad," he responded with a smile, and Jerry found himself wrapping his arms around Jack, feeling a cold breeze for a split-second, before Jack's arms wrapped back around him. He felt brave enough to nuzzle his face into the crook of Jack's neck, feeling him ruffle his hair fondly.
"Aww, the fag's on a date!"
The vicious holler, acompanied by laughter, broke Jerry's slight trance, bringing him back to Earth. He couldn't ever have one tiny moment where people didn't try and make him feel like shit? Clearly in agreement, Jack went rigid in his arms, Jerry knowing what he'd be faced with if he broke away from the hug. Could he never have just one moment?
"Careful kids, your inner sanctum has been breached," another boy called around the arcade, thankfully the only kids that were there, being wheeled away in their pushchairs by their parents, who had a lot more sense than whoever was taunting him.
"That's not gonna be the only thing being breached if he doesn't shut his mouth," Jack hissed, more to himself than Jerry, fingers curling around Jerry's shirt before he withdrew from the hug and spun around to face them.
"At least the kids have a working braincell and can think for themselves," he shot back, raising his eyebrows and watching the surprised reactions of the group. "Funny you're all in a group, isn't it?" he went on, Jerry's mouth dropping open at Jack's bravery; he was the voice he desperately needed, the one that would, and could, say the things he wouldn't dare to.
"Oh, and he's a white knight, too," one cooed mockingly. "How adorbable," he snickered, Jerry feeling his fist clench by his side.
"Still doesn't change the fact that you're both disgusting and should be lined up and shot," another snorted disdainfully, folding his arms.
With an eerie screech, a light fixture above their heads shattered, sparks and glass shards raining down, but not being close enough to injure them. They didn't even look deterred in the slightest.
Jerry returned Jack's look of malice with a sympathetic look as he growled out, "Give me an excuse," his demeanour now completely different from a few seconds ago.
The air lowered to a deadly chill and Jerry shuddered. Jack started forwards to the group, who remained oblivious to what was about to happen, but Jerry grabbed his wrist impulsively.
Grimacing, Jack looked back at him imploringly, Jerry feeling ever-tempted to let him go as the group started bursting out into laughter.
"You gonna get your boyfriend to kick our ass or something, Jerry?" the ring-leader teased him, snorting with laughter as his friend grabbed onto his arm, unable to hold his own laughter back. They had no idea who they were dealing with, so they were literally laughing in the face of danger.
"We'd love to teach the both of you a lesson," another said, stepping forwards and smacking his clenched fist against his palm. "Maybe go a couple rounds on your heads with a baseball bat," he suggested, the group's laughter becoming raccous, Jerry then realising that that insult wasn't so much going to piss him off at it was-
A resonating growl rumbled from Jack's throat and several light fixtures exploded at that, the shower of glass and sparks intensifying, the remaining lights bathing Jack in a way that cast frightening shadows onto his face. Some windows also cracked dangerously near some group memember's heads, making them yelp and jump back.
"Maybe it'll sort Jerry's head out."
"Yeah, he's so desperate for a friend, his only option is to talk to dead people."
Ice slammed full-force into Jerry's bloodstream. As much as he didn't want to recognise those two voices, he did, along with the faces that accompanied them. For a split second, he thought bitterly that he should have let Jack kill them earlier, but then it gave way to a gut-wrenching feeling in his stomach that nearly had him throwing up. At least the group was now having the decceny to look scared, Kim and Milton even more so, as they could see Jack now; not the boy from the police photo, but the deadly ghost that could kill them without blinking.
"Rick, maybe we should get out of here," one of the boys said nervously, tugging at his friend's jacket.
"What and let the fag's win this round?" the ring-leader, now known as Rick, said incredulously, looking at Jack and Jerry in disbelief. "Nah," he said with a shake of his head.
"'Sides, think of the kids," his friend cut in, the tag-along backing up slightly and flinching as the boy threw an arm around him. "D'you think they want their games contaminated by 'em?" he snickered, rallying everyone else, even Kim and Milton, to join in.
The air was now turning Jerry's breath visible and fogging up every transparent surface in the building; a very thin layer of ice even spreading along the carpet from where Jack's feet began and the doors behind the gang ended.
Swallowing the lump in his throat as he saw Jack's hardened glare, he managed to catch Jack's attention: "Jack?"
He didn't say anything, the brief look on his face under the angry mask threatening to turn the lump in Jerry's throat to tears.
"Do they mean it?" he found himself asking, his voice strangled and quiet. But he needed to know, Jack had the the answers he couldn't figure out, whether they were the one's he wanted or not.
And they weren't; Jack gave a pained-looking nod, like he really was trying to hold himself back for Jerry's sake, the latter disolving the lump into tears, that only seemed to enrage Jack further.
Without thinking, or realising he did, he saw himself let go of Jack's wrist, like he was detached from his body and just watching. In a way, even more so as Jack flickered out of sight, he supposed he was.
Several of the boys were tossed violently against the game machines as Jack reappeared behind them, Jerry guessing Jack was now invisible to everyone except him, since the till worker ran screaming from the room.
One of their heads went flying and most of the taggers on made the smart decision to scurry out the door, leaving those that truly deserved it behind. Another boy gave a pained yell as Jack shoved a hand into his chest, pushing his entrails up his throat and crushing his bone; all this happening in front of everyone else's eyes with no apparent culprit.
The boy finally lurched as Jack pulled his hand away, vomiting up shards of blood and entrails in his dying breath, something - his heart - clogging his air pipes and suffocating him. Behind him, Jerry heard something being carved into the wall behind him.
'YOU THINK IT'S FUNNY NOW?'
Milton stupidly tried to dart for the door, Jack appearing and grabbing him around the throat. He chuckled eeriely, allowing Milton a brief glimpse of his evil-looking face, before he threw Milton forwards, slamming his body through the window. Pieces of glass embedded themselves into his face, keeping his struggling body trapped in the window.
Jack raised a hand and Jerry jumped from where he was stood - bile rising in his throat - as Milton's entire mid-section was ripped away from him, his legs contining to kick for a brief moment as they crumpled to the floor, the upper half of the body giving a twitch before he stopped moving forever.
Kim was thrown against the wall and then pinned to the ground, her arms trapped outwards and her sleeves rolling themselves up. Her ear-piercing shrieks of pain as the skin over her wrists began to split open like ripped stitches couldn't cover up Jack's distorted hiss of, "You should have believed him."
Jerry finally closed his eyes as blood started to squelch in his ears.
Later that evening, the news seemed more horrifying than it ever had been, the reports of the deaths leaving another large lump in his throat. He felt it quickly dissolve into tears of regret as the images of the brutality Jack had unleashed flashed across the screen. The brutality that he found himself regretting for only a split second, but found himself blaming himself for.
"Seaford High Students, including Kim Beulah Crawford and Milton David Krupnick were amongst the deceased..."
Well, we all saw that coming, didn't we? Since Halia just couldn't have made a chapter containing a good ol' ghost/human date, without adding some gore, could she? xD (I wasn't gonna go all out on it, like in Stir Up the Beast Inside, 'cause this stories more about Jerry and how he deals with it, rather than how Jack rips everyone apart like an overprotective boyfriend ;))
Sorry I took so long to update this, I get waylaid pretty easily. xD I hope you all enjoyed it; review with your thoughts and I'll see you with the final chapter. :)
And anyone else hate those claw games at the arcade? I've managed to get something three times out of the dozen times I played 'em. But I prefer them shootin' games anyway, like Jack. xD
