Sleety flew a little bit closer to the Grim Reaper after Jessica finished her plea. He wanted to savour the moment of one of his biggest threats being killed. It was a feeling that he had felt before, when he zombified those that stood against him when he tried to take over the town several years ago. He always liked to savour this moment, and was now expecting the Grim Reaper to slice through the bodies of Jessica and Zach. The two rabbits were still huddled together with their eyes tightly closed. They were too terrified to resist the feeling of death. The Grim Reaper had made up his mind as to what to do, after hearing Jessica's plea. He had realised that the young girl was right. He gave an unseen glance towards Sleety. He then suddenly turned around and swung the Tarantaros at Sleety, who was only just able to dodge the blade.
"What are you doing?" Sleety shouted. This shout caused Jessica and Zach to open their eyes and look. The Grim Reaper was now constantly slashing at Sleety, who had to move quickly to avoid the blade. They were too shocked to do anything but watch. The Grim Reaper began to quicken the pace of his slashes, eventually catching Sleety in the shoulder. The vampire fell to the ground, clutching his shoulder and wincing in pain. It was only then he realised that the Tarantaros had a silver lining.
"No, how could a young rabbit undo what I have done?" Sleety asked. The Grim Reaper didn't reply. He went over to the vampire with the Tarantaros in his hand. It was now Sleety's turn to look at Death in the face. He then realised that this was his end. Because of the silver on the Tarantaros, he was now too weak to move. His son had been defeated and killed and, as soon as he was dead, all his magic would be undone. His dreams of creating a canary empire had come to an end, but he finally realised why he kept loosing because of Jessica's speech. Jessica had taught him the power of a pure heart, something that he had always underestimated. The hearts of all the Looney Tunes, their children and other relatives had completely overwhelmed him. He turned his head towards Jessica and Zach, who were still keeping their distance.
"I now understand the power that you all share. Because of you, my dreams have come to nothing. I am now forced to abandon my dream. I shall never return to this world, but don't think that our little game is over. Jessica, you and I shall finish this in the void, whenever you arrive there." Those were Sleety's final words before the Grim Reaper dealt the death touch to his head. As soon as the Grim Reaper's bony finger made contact with the vampire's head, Sleety's life ended and his spirit was taken from his body. The Grim Reaper then used the Tarantaros to open a portal to the void and he took Sleety's spirit into the void. Before going in himself, the Grim Reaper turned and looked at Jessica and Zach. The two rabbits still kept their distance but didn't speak, as they were quite shocked at what had just happened.
"Jessica, Zach, I thank you for setting me free from Sleety's grasp." The Grim Reaper said. Jessica and Zach were flabbergastered. They had no idea that the Grim Reaper could talk.
"I will ensure that Sleety will never return. You do not have to fear him any more. Now if you will excuse me, I have a job to do. I shall see you when it is your time, whenever it may be." With that, the Grim Reaper stepped into the void with Sleety's spirit. The portal then vanished, taking the Grim Reaper and Sleety's spirit with it. All that remained in the room were Jessica, Zach and Sleety's lifeless body. It took a few minutes for everything to sink into the two rabbits. Today had been the most terrifying day of their lives. But now, it had all ended right in front of their eyes. Sleety was now gone for good. The Grim Reaper took Sleety's spirit away to the void, never to return. Sleety himself said that he would never return. It was now all over.
"It's over…" Both rabbit's whispered. They then looked into each other's eyes. Both of them were almost crying, not of sadness, but of joy.
"It's over!" They both shouted. They pulled each other into one of the biggest hugs that they had ever shared. For a few seconds, they both thought that they were going to die. But they both survived the ordeal. It suddenly turned into one of the happiest moments of their lives.
"Jessica, you were great." Zach said.
"If you hadn't told me what you did, I would never have been able to come up with that plea." Jessica replied.
"But you came up with that speech by yourself."
"Zach, we both did it together."
"Your right Jess." The two began looking into each others eyes, sharing the same look they had done on numerous occasions. The most terrifying day of their lives had finally come to an end. Now they could continue with Aaooga's birthday party; hopefully without any more interruptions. That was, if Aaooga wanted to continue. But the hardest part for the rabbits was going to be explaining to everyone what had happened, but they would have to tell whoever they found first. They would also have to deal with Sleety's body. But first they had to find the others, and that wouldn't be easy. Before they did that, they had a bit of time to themselves. They both knew what they wanted to do now. They leaned closer together and shared a compassionate kiss. They held onto each other tightly during the kiss, which only lasted for about 5 minutes as they had to find the others. Jessica pulled away first and stroked Zach's cheek.
"Come on, let's find everyone. We can finish this tonight." Jessica said.
"Yeah, we need to get rid of Sleety's body." Zach added.
"Where should we start looking?"
"The entrance hall?"
"Ok."
In the entrance hall, Bugs and Lola were having a sit down. They had seen no sign of Jessica or Zach in the rooms they had checked and Lola was getting very concerned. She had her head in her hands and was quietly sobbing. Even though she knew that Jessica could take care of herself, she still had a sense of dread. He mind kept telling her that Jessica was dead, and she was finding it hard to ignore the feeling. Bugs had an arm around Lola, still trying to cheer her up.
"Lo, I'm sure that Jessica is perfectly fine. Try not to worry." Bugs said.
"Bugs, we don't know what lengths Sleety will go to kill Jessica. What if he succeeded?" Lola asked in between sobs.
"We won't know until we can find her. All we can do is keep searching."
"Bugs, I can't search in this state. My mind keeps telling me that she's dead."
"Lo, that's what my mind is telling me as well. We won't know whether Jessica is alive or not until we find her." Lola gave a huge sigh. She knew that Bugs was right. They wouldn't know whether Jessica was alive or not until they found her. She slowly stood up from where they were sitting.
"Come on Bugs, we need to find our daughter."
"That's the spirit." Bugs climbed to his feet and held onto Lola's hand.
"Well, we've searched most of the rooms now."
"Where else haven't we searched?"
"Why are you asking me?"
"Because I have a poor sense of direction, remember?" Lola gave herself a mental slap on the head.
"Oh, right. We've yet to search the kitchen. Let's go there."
"Or you could try looking over here." A voice from the other side of the room said. Both Bugs and Lola recognised the voice.
"That sounded like…" Bugs began. Both Bugs and Lola turned to where the voice had come from. There, in a doorway on the western side of the house, they saw both Jessica and Zach, perfectly ok. Somehow they had avoided running into Tweety or Aaooga. Zach was holding Sleety's dead body in his hand while Jessica was waving at her parents.
"Jessica!" Lola exclaimed. Jessica began running towards her parents while Zach just walked along behind. Lola opened up her arms and Jessica jumped into them. Lola immediately caught her daughter, nearly falling backwards but was caught by Bugs, and gave Jessica a big hug.
"Hi mum, hi dad." Jessica greeted.
"Jess, you're ok."
"Yes mum, I'm fine."
"Jess, what became of Sleety?" Bugs asked.
"Dead." Zach replied; showing Bugs the body of the dead vampire. Bugs hesitantly touched the body. It was icy cold and completely lifeless.
"It's not like you guys to kill someone."
"We didn't kill him." Jessica said.
"Then who did? Tweety?"
"No. It wasn't Tweety." Lola let Jessica put her feet back on the ground. She and Zach sat down and told Bugs and Lola what had happened. While he was listening, Bugs was texting everyone, saying that Jessica and Zach were both ok and asking them to come to the entrance hall. When the two young rabbits finished their story, Bugs and Lola looked absolutely shocked. At the same time, they were relieved that Jessica and Zach had survived their encounter with the Grim Reaper and that Sleety was gone for good.
"Jessica, Zach, I never knew that Sleety would get that desperate." Bugs said.
"We didn't think he'd do something that drastic either. I'm just glad that we're both ok." Jessica replied.
"What are we going to do with Sleety's body?" Zach asked.
"We'll burn both his and Cheesy's." Lola replied.
"When were we going to do that?"
"As soon as the others arrive."
"Ok, the sooner we can get rid of their bodies, the better."
A few minutes later, the rest of the group had arrived at the entrance hall. Once they were there, Jessica and Zach explained what they had been through and how Sleety had been defeated. Everyone was horrified as to what had happened but were relieved that the two rabbits were ok. After explaining what had happened, the group decided to burn the bodies of the two dead vampires. There was enough firewood in the shed outside and enough dead foliage to make a reasonable sized bonfire in the backyard. The bodies of Sleety and Cheesy were in the very centre of the mound of firewood and dead foliage. The group were gathered around the bonfire and waiting for the fire to be lit. Jessica and Zach were standing next to each other, holding each other's hand tightly. Sylvester Jr. was in the arms of his mother. He wanted to spend a bit of time with her but she had said that there was stuff she needed to do. She did promise to call him more often though. Becky was in her mother's arms. She was no longer scared of anything, as there was nothing to be scared off. Tweety had placed the silver dagger on the very top of the bonfire. He was holding a lit match and was ready to light the fire.
"Sleety and Cheesy pie. You were our enemies, but you were still living creatures. It's such a shame, had we met under different circumstances, we could've been friends. But you chose the path of darkness. It was your choice, but we hope that you now see that you were wrong in choosing that path. May you both rest in peace for the rest of eternity." Tweety said before he threw the lit match into the bonfire. Within a couple of minutes, the whole thing was alight and burning brightly. Everyone held hands with their respective partners and watched the fire burn.
"Tweety, what did you mean by if we'd met under different circumstances?" Sylvester asked.
"I meant that if they hadn't been evil vampires." Tweety replied.
"Oh, I see."
"But it's water under the bridge now." Penelope added.
"I'm just glad everyone's ok." Miss. Prissy said.
"I'll dr-dr-drink to that." Porky added.
"I think we should head home after this." Petunia said.
"I agree. It's getting, I say, it's getting late." Foghorn added.
"And I think I'm right in saying that we're all tired, aren't we dears?" Granny asked. Everybody nodded, although Jessica and Zach still had plenty of energy left.
"Aaooga, I'm sorry that your birthday ended up like this." Tweety said.
"Tweety, it wasn't your fault. You don't need to apologise." Aaooga replied.
"She's right. We did all we could to try and prevent this." Sylvester added.
"Be thankful that it's over." Sylvia said.
"You're all right. At least it's over." Tweety replied.
"Tweety, thank you for organising this, even if it did go wrong." Aaooga said.
"Aaooga, I'd do anything for you."
"I know you would." Aaooga gently out Becky down so she and Tweety could hug. They continued to hug for a few minutes before coming together and sharing a compassionate kiss. Everyone awed at the sight. The two canaries were deeply in love, and would protect each other to the death. Eventually, the two broke away and looked into each other's eyes.
"Happy birthday Aaooga." Tweety finally said.
"Thank you Tweety." Aaooga replied. Everyone then turned their attention to the bonfire, which was now steadily burning away, burning the bodies of Sleety and Cheesy with it. The whole thing was now completely over. they could now use the mansion for whatever they wanted without fear of Sleety.
TH-TH-TH-THAT'S ALL FOLKS!
I thank everyone who read this story. You guys really make my job worthwhile. I really appreciate it. This will be my last upload for a while, as I'm back off to college fairly soon. I'll see you when I see you.