"Y'know, most people spend Christmas Eve with their families and close friends, sitting around a fire drinking hot cocoa. I'm spending mine bustin' my best ghoulfriend's boyfriend outta prison."
"I'll drop you off right here if you want out, Clawdeen!" Clawd shouted from the driver's seat as he and and an overstuffed truck full of teenaged monsters sped down the road towards the Salem prison by the light of a silvery half moon glinting against the snow-covered roadsides.
"Can't you go any faster?" Cleo complained loudly, groaning as she tried to shift in her seat sandwiched between Deuce and Frankie.
"There's a sheet of black ice on every main road, so yeah, I'm going as fast as I can without getting us killed," Clawd shot at her into the rearview mirror, his warm, forceful wolf breath fogging up the glass. He whipped his head towards Draculaura in the passenger seat beside him, "Time check."
"10:30!" the vampire announced, holding up her phone clock so everyone in the back could see. "The train leaves at 12:10, we officially have an hour and a half!"
"More like an hour twenty, the train station's at least ten or fifteen minutes from the prison!" Deuce yelled towards the front, and Clawd swore under his breath as he applied more pressure to the accelerator.
"Oh my ghoul, why didn't we leave earlier?!" Clawdeen howled to the car roof.
"Because someone just had to finish shaving her legs!" Clawd snapped at her.
"And then someone had to wait for his truck to warm up!" his sister shot back.
"Would you all stop shouting, I can't think straight!" Frankie finally exploded, pressing at her temples with her black gloved hands that matched the full black body ensemble she had thrown together into a very stylish stealth outfit. Not that she really cared how she looked right now, the matter at hand was at the forefront and center of her mind. Getting into the prison, getting Jackson out, getting him on that train that would whisk him away, and doing it all as quickly as possible. It was risky, it was borderline impossible, and she didn't even want to think about what would happen if any of them got caught. She wouldn't be able to unlive with herself, that's what, because it would be all her fault if they did. But there was no way that was going to happen, she had this planned out perfectly. It had to succeed.
"Deuce move over, you're crushing the amulet," Cleo grunted, yanking a woven bag with a scarab beetle clasp out from under her boyfriend. Opening it up, she pulled out what looked like a small golden scepter with a large sapphire at the top and showed Frankie the matching sapphire ring that complimented it.
"Cleo, are you sure this spell is going to work?" Frankie asked firmly, looking her friend straight in the eye almost confrontationally.
"Of course it is," Cleo trilled with a sophisticated air.
"'Cause they usually kinda don't," Clawdeen pointed out seated on Frankie's other side.
"Only once or twice...or…"
"Cleo, I don't have a Plan B if this goes wrong!" Frankie exclaimed shrilly, latching onto her arm. "Promise me it's going to work!"
"I promise it will!" Cleo yelled back sincerely, yanking her arm from Frankie's grip and brushing it off as if she had been dirty. "My Ra, Frankie, since when have you become so testy?"
"Since I became one very ticked off girlfriend," Frankie muttered through gritted teeth, sparks flying from her bolts as Cleo and Clawdeen exchanged a look that seemed half alarmed and half impressed.
"Don't sweat it Frankie, we'll get him out of there," Deuce said confidently. "This amulet was specifically given to Cleo way back in the day. She's got a better connection to it than anything of her dad's."
"Right, what he said," Cleo smiled, snuggling up to Deuce's muscled arm.
"Quiet down back there you guys, we're gonna pull up soon!" Clawd said in a stage whisper as he rounded the corner.
"Not too close!" Frankie hissed back as the wheels rolled up on the gravel road. "None of the security guards can see the truck, it'll ruin everything."
"Gotcha," Clawd replied, swerving a bit to park at the edge of the forest behind some very large trees. "Okay, so Clawdeen and I will stay in the woods and divert the outdoor guards and dogs away. Draculaura's gonna be up on the roof to distract them from above."
"Got it," Draculaura gave a curt nod, her normally sweet little face hardened into mission mode. "There should be plenty of creatures in those trees."
"Once you give the all clear, then Cleo, Deuce and I will sneak inside through the back," Frankie went on explaining the overview. "What about the security system inside the prison?"
"Ghoulia's got it covered wirelessly from her house, it's not far from here," Cleo answered. "She's hacked into it with her laptop already and will be cued by me to switch it off. I have her on speed dial in case we need to reach her, and she's been told to text 'ALERT' if she sees someone coming through the security cameras."
"Even she can't have her eyes everywhere, we're just going to have to take our chances when we get inside," Frankie said, unhooking her seat belt as Deuce and Clawd opened their car doors. "Remember, keep quiet, only talk if you absolutely have to and...well...I owe you all big time for this." She reached for her neck and fingered the lightning bolt pendant charm fondly for a moment, then set her face determinedly. "Let's do it."
"Be careful," Clawd kissed Draculaura on top of her head as they hugged tightly.
"They won't even see me," she assured him, snuggling into his embrace for a moment before breaking away to follow Frankie, Cleo and Deuce up the snowy lawn to hide behind some bushes just beyond the prison gates.
"Dude, that's a lotta guards," Deuce breathed as the grey concrete building came into view, surrounded on all sides by uniformed policemen.
"And that's just out here," Cleo's voice quivered. "Imagine what we might run into once we get inside."
"We won't run into anything," Frankie said in a low voice, the one that everyone there knew as her "I have a plan, don't question me" tone.
"How are you so sure of yourself?" Draculaura squeaked.
"Because this has to happen," Frankie replied bluntly. "This plan has to work and I have to get Jackson away from here before the unthinkable happens." She literally could not imagine a world in which this plan failed, it made her want to vomit.
"Do you hear that?!" called a voice from the line of guards, and the four of them ducked further behind the bushes as the flashlights came out. Two loud wolf howls came from the woods, stirring up the guard dogs beside the policemen. "Sounds like it's coming from out there!"
"Go, that's your cue!" Cleo urged Draculaura, who rushed along the gate to a shadowed corner of the building. As fast as her short limbs would carry her, the petite vampire scaled the fence and landed on the flat roof before disappearing out of sight.
"Whoa!" several guards exclaimed at once as their dog leashes launched forward, the hounds sprinting off past the now open gate and into the woods where Clawd and Clawdeen were hiding. But the werewolves had cleverly stationed themselves on complete opposite ends of the forest and kept moving extremely fast. There was no way any of them would catch up.
"That takes care of half of them," Deuce nodded, still glancing warily at the other half of guards that remained. "What exactly is Draculaura gonna do?"
"Watch," Cleo put a finger to her lips and pointed up to the roof where Draculaura's silhouette could just barely be made out. Closing her eyes, Draculaura pressed her fingers to her temples as she concentrated very hard on something, her fangs digging into her lower lip. Within moments, a faraway rustling noise grew louder and louder, snow flying from the tree branches as fluttering shapes burst from their trunks. Dozens, almost hundreds of bats hurtled towards the prison at an incredible speed, swooping right over where they crouched in the shrubs before circling the building. The cries of the remaining guards, both on the ground and the roof, confirmed their distraction was a success and their path was now cleared.
"Phase One, complete," Frankie exhaled slowly, watching the guards run off in different directions trying to escape the bats.
"Ghoulia, now," Cleo whispered into her phone, and in a snap the red lights dotting the outside walls turned off. They were in.
"We need to locate the solitary confinement chamber," Frankie hissed over her shoulder as the trio sprinted towards the side door, the only one concealed by the darkness. Pointing her finger at the security card key lock, a single zap of electricity rendered it useless and she pushed the door open carefully.
"Ghoulia's found it on the prison building floor plan, I'll tell you which way to go," Cleo whispered back. For the next several minutes barely a word passed between them, except for the occasional, "Right, Left, Straight," and "What is this, a maze?!" from Cleo. The late night shift at the Salem prison had even fewer guards inside than outside, which made things even more difficult. Every time they thought their way was clear, a flashlight would pierce through the shadows and nearly blow their cover. Even though Deuce had said he would stone someone if they needed him to, Frankie really only wanted to use his gorgon powers as an absolute last resort. If they kept turning policemen into statues along the way, it would no doubt turn into a path that would lead straight to them. As Frankie skittered around a corner to avoid a flashlight further down the hallway, Cleo's eyes widened as she pointed to a door at end of the corridor they just entered. "It's there!"
Frankie couldn't believe it, there was not one person guarding the solitary confinement chamber. "It's a trap," she shook her head. "It's a trap, it's too easy."
"Frankie, just go!" Deuce pushed her forward, "We're right behind you." Throwing all caution to the winds, Frankie ran on her tiptoes as fast as she could to the heavy door. "It's bolted shut," she said in a hushed voice, eyeing the lock.
"I got this. Cover your eyes, ghouls." Frankie and Cleo instantly obeyed as Deuce removed his sunglasses, staring directly at the door lock. A bright green flash of light flickered as the door lit up around the edges before crashing to the ground, completely encased in stone.
"That was loud!" Cleo gasped, clutching Deuce's arm as he slapped his sunglasses back on.
"They must've heard that, hurry!" Frankie cried, her legs flying down the hall to the lone cell at the end. She could faintly make out a figure in the darkness rising from the cot he was presumably sleeping on, aroused by the commotion. And as Frankie launched herself forward, hooking her hands around the metal bars of the cage, the person on the opposite side did the same.
"Jackson!"
"Frankie?!" Jackson spluttered in absolute disbelief. "Deuce?! What are you guys doing here?!"
"Saving you from a sentence you don't deserve," Frankie replied, feeling his freezing cold hands wrap around her gloved ones.
"You can't get me out," Jackson shook his head. "There an alarm on these bars that'll trigger the sheriff's alert if you open them or break them down."
"We won't have to," Cleo said hastily, yanking the sapphire scepter out of her bag and thrusting the ring into Frankie's hands. "Take off your gloves and put this on, it needs to make contact with your skin. Both of you step back from the bars."
"What are you doing?" Jackson asked, glancing between the two ghouls alarmedly.
"This amulet will transport Frankie inside the cell, then transport both of you back out," Cleo explained as Frankie placed the large gaudy sapphire ring on her mint green finger. "Remember Frankie, you need to be making physical contact with Jackson if I'm ever to transport the both of you together."
"Oh don't worry," Frankie said, her eyes never leaving Jackson's face, a smile spreading on her lips. "I will be." Raising the scepter, Cleo muttered some words under her breath in Ancient Egyptian that caused the duo of sapphires to glow brightly. In a wink, Frankie felt as if she were being lurched forward at lightning fast speed, until her feet hit the floor again. Only now, Cleo and Deuce were standing on the the opposite side of the cell bars. And as Frankie whipped her head to the right, she saw Jackson right beside her with not one obstruction separating them.
And within a heartbeat, they were in each other's arms, clutching so tightly as if to make sure neither of them were dreaming. Even under the best of these circumstances, Frankie never thought she would be able to lose herself in Jackson's embrace once more, and after tonight it would be a long time before she could do it again, if ever. She had fallen so deep that she didn't even notice Cleo had winked them back out of the cell again.
"Let's go, we're out of time," Deuce urged them, hearing distant voices shouting incoherently, and Frankie and Jackson regretfully wrenched themselves apart. "Good to have you back, dude," he grinned at Jackson as they clapped each other on the back. As the four of them raced back to the doorway where the heavy door had fallen, they could see flashlights waving wildly along the walls.
"They're coming!" Cleo hissed, holding up her buzzing phone where her glowing screen flashed Ghoulia's text message "ALERT." Frankie's eyes darted around frantically as she heard a chorus of three or four voices coming around the corner they had just come from. To the right were two sets of stairs, one leading up and the other leading down.
"Split up, we'll be harder to track down that way," Frankie concluded hastily, "You two go up, Jackson and I will go down."
"Are you sure?" Deuce asked, his eyebrows furrowing anxiously.
"Frankie, what if you can't find a way outside down there?" Cleo fretted, her hands pressed to her face.
"We'll find a way out, I promise," Frankie assured them. "Go get Draculaura from the roof and climb down the gate. Find Clawd and Clawdeen and get the truck ready, we'll meet you there as fast as we can."
"But Frankie-!" Deuce tried to interject again.
"Do it, I can't have you all getting caught because of me," Jackson hissed firmly, grabbing Frankie's hand and pulling her towards the descending stairs. As the figures rounded the corner, Deuce and Cleo just barely made it out of sight up the other staircase. As Frankie and Jackson reached the landing on the bottom floor, they heard the cops that were chasing them stampede into the now deserted solitary confinement chamber, shouting about what must have been the fact that Jackson was missing.
"So, will we find a way out?" Jackson asked, holding Frankie's hand tighter as he watched her breathe rapidly through her mouth, just barely making out her worry-lined face in the darkness.
"I have no idea," her whisper wavered, and they both jumped as they heard the footsteps start again, moving all across the floor above them. Getting away from the stairs, they dashed across the open, deserted floor space of the prison basement looking for any sort of escape. Along the cement block walls just below the ceiling were several windows leading outside. Glancing around, Frankie's bolts sparked as she spotted one cracked open slightly to let in some air. "Up there!" she exclaimed, pointing excitedly.
"How do we get up there?" Jackson asked. "There's nothing to climb on."
"Oh c'mon, there has to be some-" But as Frankie looked this way and that, she realized he was right. There was nothing, no tables or chairs or furniture of any kind. The basement must have just been refurbished or something because it was completely vacant. Frankie felt her heart drop into her stomach. This had just gotten a lot harder.
"Taking our heights into account," Jackson peered up at the window, adjusting his glasses as if he were calculating the distance up the wall, "if one of us stands on the other's shoulders, they should be able to just reach the window sill and hoist themselves up."
"Then how will the other one get up there?" Frankie asked slowly. As soon as Jackson tore his eyes away from the window to look at her, his mouth opening hesitantly, she already knew the answer.
"They won't," he said grimly, shaking his head. Frankie stared up at the window, then at the ceiling where the cops had the area above them surrounded, then back into Jackson's fearful blue eyes. They were literally cornered, and as far as Frankie was concerned, there was only one way to solve this. Leaning forward, she grabbed Jackson by the front of his shirt and kissed him fiercely on the lips.
"Go," she ordered him. "Get on my shoulders, now."
"What? No!"
"Jackson, I did this for you and I won't let it all be for nothing," Frankie exhaled in one breath, holding him by the wrists desperately. "Just get up there and get out of here."
"What about you?!"
"Don't worry about me, it's you they want."
"Frankie no, you don't get it," Jackson grasped her wrists just as tightly. "As far as they're concerned, you're just another monster. Not just that, but a monster who helped a fugitive escape. They'll do whatever needs to be done to 'take care' of you, and they won't show restraint just because you're a girl."
"It can't be worse than what they were going to do to you!" Frankie exclaimed.
"Care to wager on that?' snarled a voice from the shadows, and the two of them leapt a foot in the air, clutching at each other protectively. Stepping into the moonlight shining down from the basement windows was the sheriff, for once not smiling smugly but bearing down on them both furiously.
"How did you-?"
"I will give you some credit, girlie, you almost got away with it," he let out a chuckle. "Someone took out the alarm system and cameras, sure, but they didn't take the security cam app into account." Frankie's eyes widened as he held up his smartphone before flicking it off. "Your little accomplices managed to escape, but I'll let that slide. I've got everything I need right here, and all because you just couldn't leave well enough alone. You just couldn't accept what fate dealt you today in court."
"I couldn't accept it because it's wrong," Frankie snapped. "I'll never understand how people of the law could just write off a teenage boy's life like it was nothing."
"Oh you thought that was the judge's decision?" the sheriff was grinning now, mocking her almost pityingly. "Man, and I actually took you for intelligent! You could break into the city prison no problem but you were too naive to recognize a rigged court conviction when you saw one?"
"A - a rigged-" Frankie's jaw hung open as hot bubbling anger rose up from deep inside her, filling her chest until it exploded from her throat."You did this!"
"Did you really think I was going to let a Salem Justice of the Peace, not to mention a courtroom full of grown adults, be swayed by the words of a lovesick fifteen-year-old girl?!" the sheriff shouted back, advancing towards them. "I have proof that he's dangerous, and no matter how you slice it the blood will always be on his hands. Monsters like that need to be dealt with."
"Yes," Frankie agreed. "A lifetime in prison would have been acceptable. But not killing him. It won't serve as a warning to us, it'll only make us angrier. The more of us you convict, the less we'll be willing to live in peace with you. Don't make us believe normies aren't trustworthy."
"Whoa whoa, are you threatening me?" No trace of mockery or laughter was in the sheriff's dark eyes now. "'Cause the last time I checked, you two are the ones who are trapped like rats." He clapped his hands together in satisfaction, glancing from one to the other as if trying to choose which piece of cake to eat. "I just don't know which one of you to punish first, it's so hard. The murderer or the troublemaker?"
"You can have me if you promise to let her go." The words were out of Jackson's mouth before Frankie could stop him, just the way he planned it. Frankie gasped at him in horror, but Jackson had already released her hand and stepped towards the sheriff.
"Fine," the sheriff grabbed him by the arms and twisted them roughly around his back. "Why wait 'til tomorrow? We'll do this now."
"No!" Frankie screamed in realization, watching dumbstruck as Jackson was shoved around the corner where another heavy door awaited them. As the sheriff kicked it open, they found themselves in an isolated chamber that contained an ancient chair Frankie had only ever seen in the movies. Loosely coiled wires curled from the top of the chair to the boxed generator beside it, operated by a giant red switch, and Jackson sucked in his breath.
"What do you say, should we get it over with quickly?" the sheriff asked casually, pushing Jackson down into the chair, clamping his arms down with the metal cuffs that materialized from the chair's arms. "Or should we draw the light show out for your little girlfriend?"
Light show. Frankie stared at the chair her boyfriend was strapped to, then the generator as it hit her like a ton of bricks. Jackson and Holt had been sentenced to the electric chair. In a flash, she was between the generator and the chair, grabbing hold of the wires with one hand.
"What are you doing?!" the sheriff roared, his hand at the switch ready to bring it down. Frankie breathed heavily as she stared him down, her finger poised directly over her right neck bolt. She hadn't wanted it to come to this, but he'd left her no choice.
"Let him go," she said hoarsely, her hand clamped tighter over the wires, feeling them vibrate in her grip.
"Or what?" the sheriff laughed. "I don't know what you think you're gonna do, this chair holds up to two thousand volts. Even if you disable the generator, you'll be killed in the process."
"That's where you're wrong," Frankie cut him off. "My body runs on two hundred thousand volts of electricity. That chair's enough to kill Jackson, any normie and even most monsters, but not me."
"I don't believe you, you little liar-"
"It's true," Frankie stated louder, her index finger over her neck bolt trembling slightly. "Now stop this or I'll blow it up and the chair will be useless." The sheriff let out what sounded like an inhuman growl as he grabbed her wrist holding the wires, catching her by surprise so her grip loosened, and yanked her roughly aside until she fell to the floor.
"Frankie!" Jackson shouted, but it was too late. The sheriff had already grabbed the switch and plunged it downward. And in that split second it took for the generator to kick into gear, a hand came out of nowhere and hit the switch to unclamp Jackson's arms. Frankie's disembodied hand, to be exact, which she had torn from her wrist and flung across the room in a final desperate attempt.
"Jackson, move!" Frankie shrieked, and Jackson leapt from the chair just before it began to convulse and glow from the electricity coursing through it. Getting up from the ground, she flung herself towards the generator, throwing her handless arm against it while pressing her index finger against her bolt. Just as she'd said, her high voltage threw the entire circulation out of balance. Waves of electrical lightning filled the air, zapping anything that made contact with the generator, including the sheriff whose entire arm was electrocuted and was blasted backwards where he crashed against the cement wall.
"Are you okay?" Jackson asked once the waves receded and crawled over to where Frankie had fallen, clutching her forehead as if she had a headache.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine," Frankie panted, pushing herself up with her elbows and brushing her hair out of her face. She smiled energetically, having just absorbed another two thousand volts to her system. "Never better! Told you it wouldn't kill me."
"You gotta stop saving my life so often, I haven't had a chance to return the favor," Jackson laughed lightly. He picked up her severed hand from the floor and kissed it gently before giving it back to its owner.
"Oh my ghoul!" Frankie cried out, glancing over at where the sheriff had fallen as Jackson helped her up from the floor. "He's not-!"
"No, he's just out cold," Jackson shook his head. "Though that much voltage might mess with his brain a bit." As his eyes trailed to the far left corner of the room, he gasped lightly. "Frankie, a back door!" Sure enough, a wooden door leading outside stood easily unlockable from the inside.
"Hurry, we're running out of time!" Frankie cried as they sprinted through the door and out into the chilly night air, her iCoffin clock gleaming with the digits 11:40.
"Time for what?!" Jackson asked as he rushed to keep up with her, making their way towards the woods where the barking guard dogs had retreated so deep into the trees that they could barely be heard.
"Draculaura will explain it all in a-" She almost screamed as headlights appeared suddenly, and she shoved Jackson behind a bush as they sped up closer. The wheels squealed as they swung around, not from a cop car but from Clawd's monster truck.
"Get in!" the alpha wolf shouted, and the couple dove into the backseat once Deuce opened the door for them, slamming it shut as Clawd sped up the road away from the Salem prison. A great cheer rose up from the gang, the Wolfs howling their success loudly as everyone took turns hugging Jackson, alive and safe right beside them, holding Frankie in his lap in the cramped rear of the truck.
"I've never been so scared in my unlife!' Draculaura breathed, clutching where her dead heart would be in her chest.
"Really?" Clawdeen raised her eyebrow from the front passenger seat. "1600 years and this was the scariest thing that's ever happened to you?"
"Well okay, that might be an exaggeration," the vampire giggled before she reached into her purse and pulled out a sheet of folded paper. "Jackson, my father wrote down your instructions once you get off the train tomorrow morning. Read them over, they must be done precisely in that order, he'll have people waiting for you-"
"Wait, what train?" Jackson asked, completely bewildered. "What instructions? What are you guys talking about?" He looked at Frankie in his lap, her hands folded around his neck as their gazes met mere inches apart. "Frankie, why did you break me out?"
"To get away," Frankie replied. "Get out of Salem and never come back. At least not for a very long time. It's the only way to keep you alive."
"We're running away?" Jackson brightened up a bit, holding Frankie closer around the waist eagerly as if excited by the prospect of this adventure with her. Frankie's eyes grew sad as she shook her head.
"Not 'we'. Just you." Her heart broke as she watched his face fall, and she buried her head in the crook of his neck. "I can't. If we go together it'll be easier for them to track you down, even if we change our names." She brought her hand up to stroke his cheek as he lowered his head, nestling it beside hers. "I'm sorry," her voice tightened as she tried not to cry, "but it has to be this way." Normally she would have felt very awkward having such an intimate moment with Jackson crammed in a truck with five of their friends, but they didn't have much of a choice in the matter right now. Thankfully the others seemed to respect the privacy they wanted and didn't say a word, other than Draculaura who was attempting to stifle her sobs as Cleo and Clawdeen each brushed a solitary tear from their cheeks.
No one seemed to want to break the silence during the drive to the Salem train station, as if no one really knew how to feel at that moment. It was triumphant in that Jackson was free, but mournful in that his freedom meant he would have to leave the life he knew behind, and everyone in it. He and Frankie silently read over Dracula's itinerary as they held each other close in the little time they had left together. It was a huge sacrifice for both of them to make, but Frankie believed with all her heart that it was worth it. Somehow, someday a long time from now, it would be worth it to let him go tonight.
"Hey, it's midnight," Clawd announced, glancing at his clock radio as he pulled into the train station drop off lot. "Merry Christmas, you guys." There were quiet murmurs of season's greetings all around as they exited the car, friends exchanging hugs, couples exchanging kisses. Draculaura fished out a black hooded sweater and tossed it to Jackson as they heard the train roll along the tracks, coming to a stop. As he put it on with the hood nearly covering his face, she also gave him a pair of earplugs. "In case there's music on the train," Draculaura explained.
"Thanks," Jackson hugged her gratefully. "Thanks all of you, I...I pretty much owe you all my life now I guess."
"You don't owe us a thing, dude," Deuce said as he gripped Jackson in a fierce hug. "Just stay safe and - and good luck." Jackson got one final emotional goodbye hug from everyone before they went back to the truck, leaving him alone on the platform with Frankie. For a moment they just stared without a word, losing themselves in each other's eyes until Frankie moved forward first and they locked themselves in a passionate embrace, dampening each other's shoulders in silent tears.
"Don't let go," Jackson whispered, and Frankie sniffled as she pulled back, pressing her forehead against his.
"I have to," she said tearfully. How was this nearly just as hard and painful as several hours ago when she had believed he was going to die? But at least now she was able to give him a proper farewell. "Here, look," she said as she remembered something, and pulled the lightning bolt choker out from under her black turtleneck.
"You got it," Jackson said with a surprised laugh. "Did my mom-?"
"Yeah," Frankie nodded through her tears. "I can't believe it survived me taking out that generator back there."
"It's made from the most conductive metal in the world," Jackson said. "Monster jewelers sure know what they're up against. You can spark all you want and it won't melt." Silence for a few moments, then, "Frankie? We're not...we're not breaking up, are we?"
"I don't know," Frankie responded, cocking her head to the side curiously. "Is this the last time we're ever going to see each other?"
"No," Jackson answered without a moment of hesitation, shaking his head vigorously. "As soon as I know I'm safe, new identity and everything, I'll find a way to contact you. You'll know it's me, I promise."
"And I promise," Frankie said, pulling him closer, "that as soon as I graduate, I'll come and find you. It's a long way from now, but...I think if I've learned anything from all of this, it's that I'm in this with you for the long run."
"Me too," Jackson breathed, letting his lips meet hers softly as the train whistle blew warningly. "I gotta go. I love you, Frankie Stein. I...I always will."
"I know," Frankie tasted his lips once more. "I love both of you, too. It's not 'goodbye,' it's - it's 'see you later.'"
"Okay then," Jackson smiled. "See you later." And at long last, he left her arms, letting his hand trail away from hers as he walked briskly down the platform and hopped on board the last train car. Frankie simply stood and watched as the train lurched forward down the tracks, blowing it a kiss as it rounded the corner and out of sight. As happy as she was that her plan had succeeded just as she'd hoped it would, that Jackson would be far away from harm now, she still walked back to Clawd's truck with tears pouring down her face. Because in order for him to be far away from harm, he had to be far away from her.
"It's done now, Frankie," Cleo soothed as she and the other ghouls consoled her in the backseat. "It's all over. This will all wash away with the sands of time, and one day no one will remember this even happened. And on that day, it will be safe for both of you to be reunited."
"You're right," Frankie said after a deep breath, fingering the necklace again. "We had no choice. It had to be done this way. And it worked out, and...and I'm glad. I'm glad he's safe now, even though he can't be with me." She looked around at the ghouls as her face broke into a wide smile, and she drew them all into a very close group hug. "I did what was best for him, and that's all that should matter in the end."
The path back to some semblance of normalcy was a rickety one, particularly in the first couple of weeks following the Christmas Eve they'd sprung Jackson out. Frankie was more than half convinced that the Salem sheriff was going to bust down her front door at any moment to take her and her parents in for questioning or place them under arrest. But as the days and weeks came and gone, it never happened. From what she and the ghouls gathered from the spotty information Spectra had dug up, as far as the Salem police knew, their monster prisoner had simply broken out and was on the run, with no idea how he had done it. Frankie felt almost light-headed with relief when she was told this, because it meant Jackson had been right and the sheriff's memory of that night had been wiped from his mind when Frankie electrocuted him. She didn't even need to worry that the cops would someday find him, because if he had followed Dracula's instructions and met up with his men as planned, Jackson Jekyll and Holt Hyde didn't exist anymore according to official identification.
If only Frankie had gotten off completely scot-free like that. Unfortunately, Sydney Jekyll had called up Viveka Stein after Frankie had left her house in haste, concerned about Frankie's sudden departure and worried that she might do something drastic, which of course she had. So in addition to the gifts waiting for her under the tree, Frankie's howliday gift from her parents was the decision to ground her until Valentine's Day for her rash attempt at taking matters into her own hands. But even so, they couldn't help expressing their delight that their daughter's boyfriend was no longer on death row. Sydney had visited the Steins not long after that and announced that while she appreciated their offer to look after her, she truly felt that it was time for her to leave Salem and move on, and to be safe she, too, would hide her identity. She later told Frankie in private that she hoped somehow she could find her son along the way, to which Frankie promised she would pass along any and all information about his whereabouts to her once he made contact.
It was miraculous, but what Cleo had said to Frankie that night after they left the train station turned out to be true. Within a few months, it was as if nothing had happened. The monster community was no longer on red alert, Abbey and those raised abroad were allowed to stay, and the normie authorities seemed to be ignoring them, or at least keeping themselves at a distance. However, the few times Frankie had seen the sheriff when she went into the normie side of town, he had given her a very cold stare, narrowing his eyes at her as if to say "I'm watching you." She never gave herself away and had always feigned innocence, but she knew she was going to have to be very careful in the normie district from now on. She and Jackson and Holt would have to establish some kind of code or passwords when they communicated once more, to be sure that no one could track them. And in those next few months she waited for that day, checking her emails and Fearbook account and iCoffin for any sort of message from a strangely named young man, sometimes to the point where she would lay awake in bed sadly staring up at the ceiling of the lab, trying to talk herself out of the mindset that he was never going to find her again.
Then one morning in late April, a letter arrived via snail mail addressed to her from a "Peter Ripper" in "Winnipeg, Manitoba CA." Her brow furrowed, convinced she didn't know anyone by that name. Suddenly her bolts sparked excitedly. She didn't know anyone by that name. Tearing into the envelope, she found nothing but a small slip of paper with what looked like a phone number scrawled on it. Clutching the paper to her chest, she tore down to her laboratory room and shut the door for her own privacy. Curling herself up on the bed, she dialed the number into her iCoffin, praying she would recognize the voice on the other end.
"Hello?"
"J...Jackson?" She could practically feel the person on the other end smiling as the voice she had missed for so long greeted her back.
"Hey, Frankie Fine."
Two Years Later
It was awfully chilly for July, but he had gotten used to it as he pulled up the woolly collar of his coat, rocking his feet back and forth on the snowy train platform. Northern Canada wasn't exactly known for its temperatures anywhere above forty degrees fahrenheit, but it sure was known for its beauty. Turning to face the sky, he barely noticed the train pulling into the station as his eyes caught the hypnotizingly breathtaking Aurora Borealis lights from the mountains. Hardly anything about this sudden transition had been easy over the past two years, living on his own, changing parts of his appearance, adopting an entirely new identity, but finding some peace in watching the northern lights had become a sort of solace for him when he felt like giving up. But he had never given up because she had never given up on him, and he owed it to her and to himself to live to the fullest. He heard the sound of a rolling suitcase behind him, and he turned to see who had left the train to approach him.
"Peter Ripper, I presume?"
Where he had changed so much, she had barely changed at all. Her facial features looked a bit more mature, perhaps altered by her father so she could look her age. Her hair was shorter, just below her shoulders, and she had a yellow streak in a few of the white strands. He smiled, knowing it was the same shade his bangs used to be before he dyed his whole head jet black. That streak, and the necklace with the lightning bolt pendant she still wore around her neck were her ways of keeping him with her after all this time. Straightening his shoulders, he nodded and held out his hand formally. "That's me," he said in a charming voice he'd picked up from his other half.
"Frankie Stein," she replied cordially, shaking his hand firmly. "I'm glad to finally meet you face to face."
"I've heard a lot about you." He trailed off and they held the handshake steady, staring at each other just for a moment, their hearts about to burst with a torrent of emotions. And finally they both broke the stillness at once, caught in a whirlwind of kisses, laughter, tears, sweet words of affection, any possible form of expression of the words "I've missed you so much."
"Jackson…" she whispered ever so quietly in his ear, and he felt the tears roll down his cheeks. No one had called him that in two years, and it felt so freeing to hear it again that he lifted her off the ground and spun her around in his arms. Even in what he often called this "frozen wasteland," he had never felt more warm than he did holding her again after so long.
"Abbey told me once how beautiful these lights were," Frankie sighed contentedly, rubbing her cheek against his stubbled one as they glanced up at the lights, cuddling as close as they could. "And all I wanted then was to be able to watch them with you someday."
"After everything you've done for me," he kissed her cheek, salty and soaked in joyful tears, "I'd be more than happy to do this for you."
There would be time to talk later. He would tell her about his journey away from Salem, his internships with several top mad scientists, Holt's clean record since the manslaughter case that tore them apart and his DJ career picking up again, the experiments he'd been working on in his own time, meeting up with his mother once a month in different locations, how he'd gone on with life. She would tell him about Monster High, how they won Fearleading Mashionals two years in a row, how she went to prom with Andy Beast as a friend and had a great time, how at graduation she'd cried a little when they got to the H's and J's and no one called their names to get their diplomas, how Headmistress Bloodgood had offered to take her under her wing as a sort of apprentice, how she also had gone on with unlife. They would talk later about how they never ever wanted to be separated from each other again, and would achieve that by any means necessary. And they would talk about whether or not it was safe for him to return to Salem.
But for now, they just kissed and silently looked towards the sky.
The End