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"Hey, Frankie..?" Jackson tapped the shadow ghoul's shoulder timidly, shaky fingers being met with a slight spark at the touch. He winces, but grins at the sting.
Frankie in response, turns around to face the normie, smiling down at him curiously. "Jackson! What can I do for you, baby?"
Despite being consumed by the darkness of shadow, she still finds the boy's presence quite welcoming.
"I..I jus'," He begins to speak, drawing his hand back in order to wring it out, crimson irises flitting from left to right, up and down. "..I wanted to know if ya wanted to..maybe, sneak away for a bit..?"
Her right eyebrow arches and her eyes narrow, lips twisting into an intrigued grin. "Hm?" She raises a hand to grab for Jackson's shirt collar, lifting the boy a few inches off the ground with ease. "And why would you want to do that?"
"Well, I—" Jackson falters, feeling his throat go dry as he's picked up. Their faces are dangerously close, Jackson catching a faint whiff of vanilla mixed with battery acid as his eyes look up into hers. "—I figured..or, like, I had this idea..that I could.." He clenches his fist and holds it up to his throat, yanking to the side as if to mimic the action of pulling something loose. "..that is..if you'd be okay with me tryin' it..?"
Frankie's opposite hand reaches for her own throat, tracing along the stitches with an indescribable look on her face before setting him back down.
Then it clicks.
"You want to tear out my stitches?"
Without hesitation, Jackson nods and reaches out to pick at the seam holding together her wrist, watching with a child-like wonder as her hand pops off and drops to the ground below them. It begins to scurry around mindlessly, and Jackson happily makes the first move to pick the detached hand up into his own.
"Jus' to see what happens.." He presses the cauterized end of her hand back against the nub of her wrist, pulling out a safety pin from his pocket and looping it around the loose string in order to securely sew her hand back on. "An' I'd put ya right back together again! See?"
Frankie flexes and bends her fingers once her hand is reattached, admiring the handiwork of Jackson's stitching. She then looks over at him, adoring his smile as he pokes at the safety pin's sharp point cautiously with his pointer finger.
"Oh, you know I can't say no to you!" She flashes him a grin before offering her hand for him to take. "I've been needing my stitches swapped out for a while now; makes sense to let my little mad scientist do the honors."
He places his hand into hers with a wide smile, feeling his cheeks flush up at the way her fingers intertwine slowly with his own. "Aw, really?! Awesome!" He starts to pull her towards the door but she quickly stops him, then looking over at the other shadow ghouls lounging about in the Headmistress', now Howleen's, office.
"Is it alright if me and Jackson scout the perimeter?" She asks sweetly, though her dark appearance adds somewhat of an edge to her words. Almost as if she's not asking, but telling them what's going to happen.
It makes Jackson's blackened heart skip a beat.
"Sure, jus' be back before the party is 'posed to start!" Clawdeen dismisses the two with a wave, and off Frankie and Jackson go into the empty hallway.
She can feel Jackson buzzing beside her and she laughs, soon enough tugging him along as they search for a classroom to occupy. Don't want body parts strewn about the halls, now do we?
They end up shutting themselves in the Mad Science room, Frankie letting Jackson go so he can rummage around for supplies as she herself takes a seat atop one of the lab tables.
The cool metal feels refreshing as she rests against the surface, listening with a smile as Jackson giggles to himself from the other side of the room. He's muttering something unintelligible, but he sounds happy and it warms the shadow ghoul's heart.
"And just what are you saying to yourself back there, huh?" She finally asks as his footsteps hurry back her way, sitting up for a moment as he sets down a box filled with various silver instruments. The one that catches her eye though is a large pair of scissors.
"Nothin' really!" Jackson can't hide the smile creeping onto his lips, looking Frankenstein's daughter up and down a few times before turning red once more. "I..may I..?" A hand goes for one of the seams around Frankie's thigh, his forefinger and thumb daring to pull at the string.
"Go ahead, baby." She lays back down, feeling as the stitch is pulled ever so carefully from her skin.
Her leg detaches, going stiff as Jackson picks up the appendage to examine. A few seconds pass and he sets it back down, tearing more stitches out that reside around her ankle.
As she allows herself to rest, Frankie listens to Jackson's labored breathing, noticing as it grows more desperate with each string he rips out of her.
Soon enough her body is in pieces, both arms and legs scattered across the lab table.
"You look amazin'." Jackson allows himself to say, red eyes wide as he beams down at Frankie. "Jus' one more to go! If..if ya trust me."
He walks around the table until he's right behind where Frankie rests her head, hands running through her black and white streaked hair as he awaits her response.
"Of course I trust you, Jackson." She cranes her neck back in order to look up at him, red and orange heterochromatic eyes glittering in the luminescent lights. They beckon him to continue and one of her disembodied hands starts crawling its way over to the normie, hopping up onto his shoulder.
It caresses his cheek, causing the boy to flush a deep red, almost matching the shade of his lenses. "Go ahead."
"As ya wish!" He laughs a bit madly, letting go of her hair so he can unscrew the bolts from her neck. They spark as he does, sending sharp, fuzzy tingles up his spine through his fingers. It felt somewhat energizing, how strange.
Goosebumps form and before he can stop himself, he's yanking at the stitch that keeps Frankie's head on, closing his eyes for a split second as she hisses in pain.
"Shh..shh, it's okay.." He lowers his voice, running a thumb over the stitches across her face. He wanted to take those out too, but he'd decided they'd be too much trouble to sew back up. "You're doin' great, Frankie."
Within a few moments, her head is detached, disconnected from her body without much trouble. Her entire body goes stiff now and lays lifeless against the metal surface of the table.
"How extraordinary!" Jackson begins to muse, lifting up Frankie's head by cupping her cheeks with his hands, turning her to face him as he grins sadistically. "You're so beautiful, broken apart like this."
Her eyes have fallen shut, her breath ceasing the moment her head was torn away. She's not dead, but she's definitely not conscious. He's tempted to keep her like this. Tempted to use this as an opportunity to rip her chest open and dissect her from the inside out.
But unfortunately his affection for the shadow ghoul wins this battle, and he sets her head back down gently, as well as plopping the hand that is now limp atop his shoulder onto the table.
The first thing he reattaches is her head, tightening the stitches now sewn back around, cutting the loose thread off with those scissors Frankie's eyes had singled out.
He then screws back in the bolts, making haste with restitching the rest of her body parts back together. It pains him to do so, but he'd rather Frankie not be mad at him when he wakes her up.
Once that's all done, he goes to cut away all the excess thread, soon putting the box of tools back into the cabinet he'd grabbed them from. A bit of a waste, seeing as he hadn't gotten to use the really fun ones.
Now for the final touch. He picks Frankie's body up, holding her close as he brings her to the back of the classroom where an electrical chair resides alone in a corner. Mr. Hack usually used it to scare students, and thankfully it was fully functional.
Sitting her down, he then straps her in and hurries over to the lever, where he firmly grasps the handle, forcing it down with all his might. Electricity surges through the wires hooked up and with a loud pop of the lightbulbs, Frankie is jolted back to life, her eyes flashing open wide.
She looks over at Jackson with a loving smile, feeling like a brand new monster.
He promptly turns off the chair and goes to unstrap her, immediately yelping when he feels her arms around his waist, lifting him up off the ground into a tight hug.
"That was really fun! We should totally do this again sometime. I feel good as new!" Frankie exclaims, giggling at the red faced normie in her arms.
"I..I wouldn't mind that—" Jackson begins to say before he's cut off by black painted lips crashing into his. He doesn't object, instead melting into the embrace as his legs kick around in giddy.
When they part, he can't help but turn to absolute mush, resting his head against her chest as she then sets him back down onto his feet.
"Wouldn't mind doin' that again either.." He grins bashfully, all murderous intent now just an afterthought. Who in their right mind could resist her charms? Well, technically he wasn't in his, so maybe that explained it.
Black lipstick stains his own lips, and Frankie makes no move to tell him so as she takes his hand into hers again.
"Maybe later, if you're lucky." She winks, dragging him into the hallway on their way back to the others.
Jackson wants to protest, wants to stay with her alone just a little bit longer, but goes along with her without question. Later sounded nice.