Chapter 27
The Death Of Jack And Sally
Living Jack stared horror-stuck at Sally. She could hardly believe her own impulsive action.
"Help me," she strained to utter.
Living Jack rolled Diego's corpse off of him, and then rushed to Sally side. He stood before her for a few seconds of silence. Everyone was silent, then startled when Sally spontaneously hugged living Jack around his neck. He was at first clueless in how to respond to this unexpected gesture. He hardly knew this girl, yet he had a strong connection with her. Slowly, he brought up his arms around Sally's small back. She hugged him tighter, releasing a warm, fuzzy feeling throughout his body. The crowd stared in awe.
Living Jack whispered to her, "Why did you do it?"
He'd meant to say thank you, but it had refused to be said. Subconsciously he wanted to know, 'Why Tim over Diego?'
"Because I love you more than life itself…Jack," Sally whispered back.
Living Jack gasped, "How did you know it was me?"
"Because my heart told me."
Sally and living Jack held each other face-to-face. Living Jack's heart pounded in his chest. He felt his blood rush like never before.
Slowly, Sally drew her face close to Jack's. There was a moment of hesitation, and then he made his way towards hers.
"We should probably go now," Skeleton Jack nudged Sydney, but she was too into the moment. She nearly tore Jack's head off with annoyance.
"No! Let me see this! This is better than a movie!"
"Please Sydney, haven't you seen enough?-" Sydney pressed her hand hard against Jack's thin mouth.
Living Jack reached Sally's lips, the sweetest things he'd ever tasted. After a moment of true bliss, the taste in living Jack's mouth went from heavenly to bitter. He gently pulled away from her. Sally didn't protest. Instead, her lip quivered, and her eyes became glassy. Like some sick prophecy, Sally's blood began to stream delicately down her bottom lip. Living Jack placed a bracing hand on the back of her head. He gently rested her head on his shoulder. Her weight gradually became heavier to support. Her body finally went limp. Sally was dead.
Holding her up with one arm, living Jack used the other hand to brush the hair off the back of her neck. Untangled from the raven hair was a circular razor lodged half way into the back of Sally's neck. Living Jack could feel the blood from her wound trickle down back of her dress, and over his fingers. He looked to where Oogieous' corpse had been sprawled. Instead, Oogieous was looking directly at living Jack, laughing a crazed laugh. The veins in Oogieous' eyeballs had broken, causing his eyes to be a pure, blood red.
"Like I said, Timothy, you're gonna pay. One way or another," Oogieous began to chuckle a blood gurgled laugh. Then the laughter became louder, and louder, until his laughter was hysterical and booming.
Just then the ground began to shake. The foundation of the building started to wave.
"What the Hell?" Oogieous said after he abruptly stopped his laughing.
"OH MY GOD!" a man in the crowd yelled, "My hands! Look at my hands!"
The man held up his hands for the crowd to see. What were once strong, tanned, working hands were now skinny gray claws, with six inch yellow nails.
A woman in the crowd felt a tingling in her chest. She fearfully brushed her fingers down from her neck to her breast. She felt scales. The woman let out a blood-curdling scream that sent the entire room into a panic. People were ripping off their porcelain masks, and tearing away their clothes to examine themselves. Everyone was mutating.
Without any open doors or windows, a gust began to build in the middle of the room; an indoor tornado was brewing. The winds pulled people off their feet, flying some into the air like kites.
Living Jack had sat down on his legs with Sally's head resting in his lap. They were in the safest place in the building, the eye of the tornado. Yet, fear, anxiety, nausea, pain, heartache, and so many sick feelings flooded living Jack. He softly gazed down at Sally. Tenderly, he stroked her hair behind her small ear. The blood had drained from Sally's face, leaving her skin to be an ashy-gray tent. She was still just as beautiful as before. Only this time, Jack noticed it. Sweet melancholy tears of remorse ran from living Jack's eyes, over his cheek, and lightly dropped on Sally's lips.
The winds were drawing in closer with each second; they sent a magical, growing sensation through living Jack, one that he could just barely feel in Sally as well. Lifting her head, living Jack gently removed the razor from the back of Sally's neck. He looked at it with dull eyes. His emotions were too worn to have any expression.
With one finale glance at Sally, he pushed back a lock of her hair. He positioned the razor directly over the blue veins in his wrist.
In a monotone voice, living Jack uttered the last words he would ever speak…in this life.
"See you soon."
Living Jack slashed the razor across his wrist. His skin broke apart instantly. Red, thick blood poured from his cut, creating a puddle on the floor and on Sally. Living Jack could feel his life rushing away with his blood. Then, it stopped bleeding. Blinded by the wind that had just swallowed them up, living Jack missed the entire phenomenon that had happened next. The flesh around the suicide wound flaked into dead skin. It sluggishly started to peel away. For every bit of skin that fell off, bleached bone was exposed. The skin's peeling pace began to quicken. The skin peeled off everywhere. The shedding traveled up his body until the very last skin cell escaped his face. Living Jack was no longer living.