Dark Valentine (Monster High; Book 1 of the DV Duology)

Chapter 34: Wherever You Will Go

Jackson

The next few years of our lives were both peaceful and hectic at the same time. The first September after graduation was my first semester of college and I had chosen Monster/Normie Relations as my major, which was a four-year program (though due to having to balance both Holt's schedule and mine, I had to drop a course or two each semester, which led to taking an additional year to complete whichever courses I'd dropped). 

Holt had always known his path would be music, so the way he saw it he didn't really need to do the whole college thing. He did have many gigs though and he regularly posted his music online. On a similar note, Kieran began working with animals again, going on to graduate from a vet tech program right here in Oregon.

With all three of us so busy with everything, a fair bit of strain was put on our relationship with Kieran for a while, even leading to us breaking up at one point. But if our time apart taught us anything it was that life without each other, to be perfectly blunt about it, sucked. It didn't take us long to find our way back to each other after that. We worked through everything and in the end, it only made our love for each other that much stronger.

Things got much easier for all of us when I was finally finished with college, since I managed to get a job in my field surprisingly quickly and my hours weren't bad. Even with Holt's gigs, it still left plenty of time for Kieran and I to spend together.

I also made sure to study my great-grandfather's journal from time to time; he had written about a lot of interesting things in there—and I don't just mean the serum that had created Edward Hyde and the results of it. As it turned out, though, what really happened all those years ago seemed to differ greatly from the events of Robert Louis Stevenson's book.

From what Dr. Jekyll wrote, it seemed that someone had helped him a little bit with getting the serum to work using a bit of magic and then convinced him to test it on himself after he was denied membership to a scientific academy run by someone named Dr. Lydgate. Hyde had somehow gotten Lydgate to grant that membership later that night (the entry didn't go into detail which meant they hadn't had a shared memory). The same man from before also convinced Dr. Jekyll to have Hyde tell Lydgate's daughter, Mary, of his feelings for her (since he was much like me in terms of anxiety and would have been too nervous). Hyde did so but apparently, it didn't go well because the last of Dr. Jekyll's entries was a pretty rushed one explaining that Mary was dead and that he could not allow Hyde to surface again.

The very last entry written wasn't one of Dr. Jekyll's, but one written by Mary. I found this odd at first since she was supposedly dead, but as I read further she revealed that she'd survived whatever happened and was pregnant with Dr. Jekyll's baby (which obviously lead to the rest of our family tree coming into existence) while Dr. Jekyll had disappeared. She hadn't written anything else beyond that one entry, so I had no idea where he could have gone and the rest of the book was blank. Besides that, he was most likely dead by now regardless of where he wound up.

Kieran found the whole thing pretty interesting to read about as well, and since we both knew many other realms existed, we both came up with theories as to where he went and why he'd left the journal for Mary to find. He probably didn't even know she'd survived, or that the rest of my family even existed.

And needless to say, the journal also inspired me to continue dabbling in Mad Science, something I was quite proficient in to begin with.

It was about eight months after I finished college that Kieran proposed to Holt and I. It was on a day where neither of us was working, so he was able to make plans with both of us, keeping both of our interests in mind. The day turned out to be nothing short of perfect for all of us and by the time we returned home later that night, I had regained control and Kieran handed me what looked like an artificial rose.

I was a bit confused after I took it from him, because it felt like a box of some sort rather than just a flower. It also proved to be a bit of struggle to get it open and Kieran ended up having to help but when I finally managed to open it, what I saw made my heart begin to beat much faster.

Inside the rose was a ring, a silver band with a stone in the center shaped like a yin-yang symbol. The white bits of the symbol were made of quartz, the black bits made of jet.

"Kieran..." I was speechless. I knew already what he was asking me and I could not have been any happier in that moment. As he took my free hand in his, his rose garnet eyes met mine and I could tell he was nervous.

"I'm not going to lie—I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what to say in this moment...but words can't describe how much I love you, Jackson. You and Holt have both made me happier than I ever thought I would be over the last few years and I couldn't even begin to imagine life without either of you. Will you marry me?"

As he spoke, I found myself fighting back tears of joy and my response to the question was immediate. "Yes, Kieran, of course I will!" I threw my arms around his neck, pulling him into an embrace. I happened to hear someone make a small noise of excitement when I gave my answer, and after letting go of Kieran I turned to see my mother standing in the doorway holding her iCoffin.

"I told her about this and asked if she could record," explained Kieran, "I didn't think you'd mind."

"Hey, Mom," I greeted, "So—so how long have you two been planning this, exactly?"

"At least a few weeks," replied Mom, "We figured you wouldn't be comfortable with being proposed to in an overly public setting."

"Good call," I said, "I should probably ask, though, have you asked Holt yet, Kieran, or...?"

"No, not yet," replied Kieran, "I wanted to ask you first."

I closed the rose-shaped box for the time being and grabbed my headphones from where I'd set them down on the coffee table earlier. "Well then, I think it's Holt's turn to be proposed to," I said and waited for Kieran to nod in agreement before sliding them on and hitting 'play' on one of Holt's playlists.

HOLT

I was holding what looked like an artificial rose when I woke up, with Kieran standing in front of me, my mom in the doorway holding up her iCoffin. Was she recording me?

"Hey," I said to Kieran, "What's goin' on? What's this?" I asked, holding up the rose. It felt heavier than it should have, like a small box.

He smiled. "Open it," he replied simply, and I did so (for some reason I had an easier time getting it open than Jackson had before, don't ask why). Inside was a ring with a stone shaped like a yin-yang symbol. Like Jackson, I knew exactly what it meant and Kieran confirmed it by asking, "Will you marry me, Holt?"

My heart felt like it wanted to break free from my chest as I gave my answer. "Yes!" I couldn't help but laugh a little bit as I spoke, mainly out of sheer joy, before bringing my lips to his in a passionate kiss that seemed to last for an eternity—though it was only a few seconds before we broke apart. "Hey, Kieran, you want to know somethin'?" I asked, as Mom stopped her recording and put away her phone.

"Anything," replied Kieran softly as he gazed into my eyes, clearly as elated as I was.

"I was planning on askin' you the same thing," I told him, "although I hadn't really planned any ideas out well, so I'm kind of glad you beat me to it," I added, stage whispering the last part which made him laugh. "Awesome choice, by the way," I gestured to the ring as he slid it onto my left ring finger, "Very fitting."

"I thought so, too," replied Kieran, "Oh, and you'll be glad to know that I put a spell on it so that it won't be contained to just you or Jackson; it'll carry over to both of you."

I wrapped my arms around him in a hug, as Jackson had done earlier. "Thanks, Kieran. Jackson'll appreciate that, too, I bet."

"I know he will," replied Kieran, "I love you, Holt."

"I love you, too."