Finally! The long awaited part two is here! (thuderous applause is heard) Thank you, thank you. You're too kind. Lol! Enough from me, here's the rest of chapter 14!

It was late in the evening when the temperature dropped from mildly warm to very chilly. If there was one thing Amelia hated about fall was the fact that winter was just a short season away. She didn't like the cold at all and toward the middle of autumn, she always had a warm blanket around her shoulders. That's exactly what she did as she sat on the ground in front of the brilliant, hot flames of the fireplace in Jack's tower.

But it wasn't just the cool weather that aggravated her nerves, the thought of Halloween only ten days away and everyone's attention being on her. Well, needless to say she had a bit of stage fright. This, in itself, was odd because she was, after all, the heir to the scariest person of all Halloween Town. Even though today was her day off, being in charge of the greatest celebration to all the citizens had put a lot of stress on her to do a good job and live up to their expectations.

She heaved a deep sigh as she wished she could get her mind off of things.

"I hate the cold." She glowered at the fire and shivered a little.

"Would hot chocolate make you warmer?" Jack beamed as he sat down next to her and offered her a cup of the mentioned sweet beverage.

"Yeah! Thanks." She eagerly accepted the steaming drink. "There are even little marshmallows!" she smiled.

"Well of course! What's hot chocolate without marshmallows?" he arched a would-be eyebrow.

She chuckled lightly and took a sip, but the quickly moved the cup away.

"Ouch!" she waved her hand frantically to try and cool her burnt tongue.

The Pumpkin King laughed at the comical sight, but then was on the receiving end of a heated glare from the accident-prone sorceress. Once he had calmed and Amelia pretended to ignore him, they both simply gazed absentmindedly at the fire as the wood crackled and snapped from the flames.

"Jack?" the teenaged ruler broke the silence after a few minutes of quiet had passed.

"Hm?" he turned his head toward her.

"Would you mind if I asked you a question?" Curiosity shined in her eyes. "It's kind of personal though, so I understand if you don't want to answer."

One of his eye sockets elongated which implied that he raised an eyebrow.

"Sure." He said, though a little confused.

"What was your life like when you were human?" she asked a little fast due to nervousness and the slight awkward feeling that had overcome her.

To her surprise, he laughed.

"Oh well now, let's see." He grasped his chin in thought and narrowed his eyes as though he was trying to recall his past. "My memory escapes me at the moment." He joked.

"Oh ha," she said sarcastically, "quit acting."

"Alright." He chuckled and went into the tale of his "living" life.

Jack grew up as the only son of a wealthy, high-class, nineteenth century family in England. But being an aristocrat wasn't all it was cracked up to be. He hated all the rules and restrictions he had to follow during his childhood and his teenaged years. However, he tried very hard to be a model son for the sake of his parents, and he was rewarded one Christmas for doing so. He got his very own dog that winter morning, who he named Zero. His neighbor, which was another rich family, had a snooty daughter that absolutely despised his new best friend because she absolutely couldn't stand dogs. As it turned out, she was the owner of a pure-bred white cat and automatically assumed that Zero would chase her beloved feline, Ms. Snow.

When he was a young man and ready to set off into the world, he went to America to attend a university in New England. He followed in his father's footsteps of being a very smart business man and quickly rose to the high class in the American society. He was, after all, a natural born leader. But one of the many things he really enjoyed was the celebration of Halloween. It wasn't really celebrated where he had grown up and immediately fell in love with the holiday as soon as he had heard about it. Every year after that, the Skellington Company always sponsored and funded many of the Halloween celebrations in several towns, and eventually became so successful that it began to support all major public holiday festivities. Jack was the head of the committee that organized all of the events and he planned and organized most of them.

Unfortunately, he never married thus never had someone to take over the company once he had to retire. So he handed it to one of his trusted employees when the time came and the company name was changed, thus ended the Skellington reign over the holidays. Jack died of a tragic case of pneumonia shortly after retiring. Although he had hired some of the best doctors around to treat his illness, they couldn't stop it from taking his life.

"And that's when I ended up here. Although I do miss my human life, I wouldn't give up Halloween Town for anything." He beamed.

"Wow." Amelia really hadn't expected such a story from him. But another question nagged at the back of her mind.

"Um, I know you never married and, not to be extremely nosy or anything but…" She averted her gaze slightly. "Did you have any girlfriends growing up?"

"Er…" he became a little flustered at her question. He too avoided eye contact and looked at the fireplace, but he could understand her for she truly didn't know that much about him and she was just simply curious.

"Actually no, I didn't have any per say…but there was one girl." He gave a half-smile, "who was as close to one as I ever had. Before she met her untimely death, that is."

When he was sixteen, three years after he had gotten Zero, a new family moved into town. It was a middle-aged father, Marcus, who had been unemployed for a while. A mother named Rosemary, who was a seamstress, and their sixteen-year-old daughter, Elizabeth. They were in poverty and had been looking for a place to call home for some time. Mr. Skellington, Jack's father, let them rent the small guest house he had that wasn't in use so long as Marcus came to work at his company. Since he hadn't been offered a job in several months, the father of the small family eagerly accepted. The newcomers were greatly overjoyed and felt that they were forever in the Skellington's debt.

When Jack met Elizabeth he fell immediately head over heals.

"I don't remember quite what she looked like, but I do remember her stunning blue eyes and her bright, warm smile." he seemed to be a little lost in her memory for a moment before he continued.

Although she came from a poor family, she was considered one of the most beautiful young ladies in the neighborhood, much to the jealousy of many of the rich, snobby women. She had a kind heart and always thought of others, especially her family, before herself. Though they were neighbors, Jack always had the hardest time trying to manage to speak a comprehensible sentence around her. But she always thought he was simply being funny, much to her amusement of course.

It was November when Rosemary became stricken with an incurable illness. So being the good daughter she was Elizabeth took on the responsibilities of taking care of the house and her mother. As a result, Jack never got to see much of her unless she had knocked on their door to ask for blankets to borrow or medicine that would possibly ease Rosemary's pain. Both Mr. and Mrs. Skellington were more than happy to help for the two families had become good friends. As a token of the wealthy family's appreciation to Marcus's work as a loyal employee, they hired a special doctor to aid his sick wife and give Elizabeth a chance to attend a big social event that was coming up, the annual Christmas Ball. She thanked them for their generosity but wanted to stay at her mother's side. But Rosemary, although weakly, encouraged her to go to the dance for she had made a dress for her that she had hoped she would one day be able to wear for such a special occasion. Elizabeth decided to go for she wanted to respect her mother's possibly last wish.

Thrilled at the fact that she would be attending the ball, Jack tried continuously to build up the courage to ask to be her escort. But then, tragedy befell the small family. One night mid-December, Rosemary had passed on in her sleep, the illness finally won over her worn and frail body. The Skellingtons's paid the entire cost of the funeral for they felt it was the least they could do for their friends. The beloved mother was buried in a local cemetery near a willow tree.

A few days after, in hopes of cheering the depressed Elizabeth up, Jack finally felt confident enough to ask her to the Christmas Ball which was to be held that night. He got up bright and early for he knew she was always out and about at that time doing chores and anything she could do to help her father in their time of grief. When he knocked on the door to their home, no one answered. He tried again and waited a few minutes but again no one came. He went back inside his family's estate and was surprised to find Marcus, trying to hold back tears, at their front door as he tried to tell Mr. Skellington something that apparently awful had happened.

Elizabeth was found dead that morning on her mother's grave.

Marcus assumed she had snuck out in the middle of the night to pay her respects to their recent dearly departed and never returned. When he had realized she was missing, he had gone out to look for her, only to find his daughter's cold, lifeless body beside his wife's grave marker.

It was the morning of Christmas Eve.

Snow silently fell onto the cold ground at Elizabeth's funeral where she was buried beside her mother. It was believed she died of the same illness that had befallen Rosemary, although she didn't have any of the symptoms. Mr. Skellington promised to help Marcus in any way that he could for the poor man was so shook up from having lost his entire world in such a short amount of time. But the poor father was just too deep in grief to probably even comprehend anything at that moment.

Jack was in despair as well for he never got to tell her how he really felt for her. Even though for the past few weeks she was alive he had tried. He greatly wished that there was something, anything, he could do to bring her and her mother back. But no matter how much he willed it, it never came true.

"Jack…I-I had no idea! Y-you didn't have to tell me if you didn't want to." Amelia felt horrible for the skeleton man next to her and regretted ever asking him about his past in the first place.

"No, no. I wanted to and you deserve to know a little more about me and my previous life." He smiled, "Besides, I know that Elizabeth wouldn't have wanted me to dwell on the past. So even though it took quite some time, I eventually managed to let go and move on." He then continued with the rest of his life's story.

He visited Elizabeth's grave as often as he could, especially on Christmas Eve. Her father eventually re-married, to Rosemary's sister, who had come to his aid as they both grieved over their family losses. They had a few children together, but Jack didn't really care too much for the new couple and their kids living in the guest house. But he was of course polite and neighborly to them, especially since Marcus had developed a liking to him.

When he moved to America and rose to high society, he didn't bother too much with socializing with his fellow aristocrats, but instead devoted his extra time and money to aiding the poor people of the town he had moved to, in honor of Elizabeth's memory for he knew that's what she would've done. He even gave his entire fortune to the poor people of the community as written in his will for when he passed on.

While he was still alive, Jack did go back to England every so many years to visit his mother and father, and of course Elizabeth's remaining family. Marcus was always happy to see Jack for he was one of the few people left who really knew his beloved daughter and wife. Jack was happy to see they had a brighter future ahead of them that hopefully wouldn't be stricken with tragic losses.

"So you never met another girl that you developed feelings for?" Amelia asked out of the blue.

"I didn't really meet a special someone after Elizabeth." He explained, "It wasn't that I didn't let her go, it was just that none ever caught my attention like she did, or even remotely close for that matter." He then smirked and crossed his arms. "Though I was quite the catch according to the women of the town I lived in here in America."

She just looked at him in disbelief with an expression that flat out said, 'You're kidding right?'

"Honestly, I was quite the handsome bachelor back in the day." He grinned as he boasted about himself.

"Right." She said sarcastically and rolled her eyes at him.

She looked at her now half-empty cup of hot chocolate which she had sipped during his spoken autobiography, and had made extra sure not to burn herself like before. After a minute or so of serene silence had passed, she decided to speak up once more.

"I'm sorry that I don't have a bittersweet story to tell." She gave a small, sad half-smile.

"Oh but you do." Jack grinned, "Once there was a little girl who had unknowingly wandered into a city full of her worst nightmares that had come to life! And she somehow managed to befriend the scariest of them all, the horrible Pumpkin King!"

Amelia laughed and it was followed by yet another brief, quiet moment.

"Actually, I do have a rather sad story to tell," She set down her mug of cocoa then dug into her pocket, "though it's not a tragedy."

She brought out a small gold, heart-shaped locket that had been a little tarnished from its age.

"When I was little and just beginning school, I didn't have any friends and no one really wanted to be my friend." She began, "But there was this one boy who was my age that somehow knew I was a good person. He actually took the chance to get to know me and didn't judge me like all the others had. His name was Eric, my first real friend." A soft smile graced her lips as she seemed enveloped in the memory.

"We grew up together and went through good times and bad like all friendships do. But as time went on, my feelings for him began to change. For me, I thought we could be more than just friends. Even though I was only in fifth grade, I was certain I had fallen in love with him." She clutched the locket close to her heart. "But it wasn't until three years later did I actually have enough courage to tell him. When I went over to were he lived, there was a for sale sign with a 'Sold' sticker across it in the front yard of his home. Eric had moved to a far away town and I would probably never see him again."

She held the locket in front of her and opened it to reveal a picture of a very young teenage boy inside. He had light brunette colored hair with dark brown eyes. He didn't really have a handsome face, but when it came to true love, that didn't matter much now did it?

"I ran home in tears. I cried my eyes out until they were dried up, and even then I still sobbed. Later, I found a picture of him that he had given me on picture day at school a while back and I put it in this locket." She stared at his picture with sad eyes that obviously longed for the young man. "On that day, I swore I would never so much as have an interest in any other guy until I could see him again and find out if we were truly meant for each other or not." She closed the locket and stared at the ground ashamed.

"I don't really know why I decided to be with Alucard when I still had yet to fulfill my promise. It's just that he reminded me so much of Eric somehow. Yet they don't even look remotely the same nor have similar personalities. But whatever it was, it was strong enough for me to say yes." A tear rolled down the side of her face and her watery eyes glistened in the glow from the fire. "I guess I wanted Eric to come back so badly that my mind tricked me into relating Alucard to him so I could fill that gap in my heart." More salty drops of water slid down her cheeks.

"I feel like such an idiot." She stated not just for the fact that she was crying, but also because he had told her one of the most tragic tales she had ever heard and he didn't even weep once.

Suddenly she felt a cool, bony finger wipe away her tears.

"Don't cry Amelia." Jack said caringly, "The mind can play tricks on you if you really believe in something strong enough. You have nothing to be ashamed of." He offered a comforting smile.

"Thank you." She sniffed and her lips curved slightly upward into a smile of her own.

She didn't know what possessed her to do so but she suddenly found herself throwing her arms around him and hugged him tightly as though he would disappear if she let go. Jack returned the warm embrace, holding her protectively. He rested his head on top of hers as he comforted her. Even though he had gone through so much more grief and depression than she could ever imagine, he couldn't help but feel sympathy for her. He understood the pain of unrequited love, and no matter what shape or form it was in, it still hurt the same.

"And by no means are you an idiot." He stroked her hair, trying to soothe her, "Don't you ever let someone else, or even yourself, convince you otherwise." He said calmly.

She nodded with her head against his shoulder and tried to stop the tears that continued to fall. They stayed like that for a while, neither one of them wanted to let go. She felt safe in his arms and he felt that he could protect her from anything that would ever cause her pain or misery. After several minutes had passed and her crying had ceased, Jack released his grip around her, albeit a little reluctantly.

"I know exactly what will make you feel better." He beamed at her, grasped her hand and pulled her up until they were both standing. He released his hold on her then waved his hand. A box appeared in his grasp, wrapped in orange and black Halloween paper with a black bow.

"For me?" she asked, a little surprised.

"Happy Birthday Amelia." He smiled his signature grin and handed the present to her.

A faint blush appeared on her cheeks as she gratefully accepted the present. She looked at him questioningly, silently asking permission to open it. He gave a curt nod and she delicately began to unwrap it. Once she got the paper off, what she held in her hands was a beautifully carved wooden, black box.

"Do you remember when Doctor Finklestein was over and we were going over some plans that I didn't want to show you?" Jack suddenly asked.

"Yeah." She nodded. She had always wondered what they were really up to that day.

"Well, he was actually helping me improve the designs for that special box since he was going to make it for me." He stated. "Go ahead and look inside."

Curiously, she opened it and soft music was heard from within it. She easily recognized the tune of This is Halloween. Inside the box was a small, black rose with a green stem and thorns that slowly turned around in a circle in front of the mirror in the lid as the song played.

"It's amazing!" she smiled in awe.

"There's more," he moved to stand beside her then pointed to the moving piece, "press down on the rose."

She gently pushed on the beautiful flower and the stem slowly sank into the box. The small mirror split in two down the middle and moved apart. A secret compartment was revealed behind the reflective glass and in it was the most stunning pendant she had ever seen. It was a blue gem in the shape of a teardrop like the one on her circlet crown. The stone had silver wire elegantly crafted to cross over the gem and form a spiral at the top, all together on a silver chain.

Amelia gasped in amazement. "I-it's beautiful!" She picked up the breathtaking piece of jewelry and carefully held it in her hand. She stared at the gem that was the same color as her eyes, absolutely mesmerized.

"Here," he gently took it out of her grasp, "let me."

He placed the silver necklace around her neck as she held her hair out of the way so he could clasp the ends together. Her cheeks were splashed with a tint of pink as she felt his fingers lightly brush against her skin. She wasn't sure if it was just her imagination or if it really happened, but she thought that his hands lingered on her shoulders just a split second longer than they should have. But he moved away before she could really think about it. She let her ponytail fall back into place and touched the gorgeous pendant lightly with her fingertips. She turned to face him, a light blush still painted across her cheeks.

"Thank you Jack." She smiled warmly up at him.

"You're very welcome Ami." He beamed and suddenly the clock in his room began to chime. "Huh, ten o'clock already?" he yawned, "I guess it's time to turn in then."

"I'm not sleepy," Amelia stated, "I slept like twelve hours today!"

"Well I haven't and sleep sounds good right now." He placed his hand on the small of her back and started to guide her toward the staircase that led downward.

"Oh, alright." She crossed her arms and reluctantly began her descent. But she gave one last glance back.

"Goodnight Jack. Thanks so much for such a wonderful birthday." She beamed happily.

"Goodnight Amelia, and it's the least I could do." He returned her smile with one of his own. He watched her go down the spiral stairs until she entirely disappeared and her footsteps faded into silence.

With a sigh, he plopped himself down on his bed and held his chin in the palm of his hand as he pondered over something.

"So young yet she's already been through the heartbreak from someone she loved. She is definitely not anymore the little girl I once knew." He let out another deep sigh and stared at his reflection in one of the windows. "She's growing up to be quite the young woman."

A slightly awkward feeling overcame him as he spoke those words. To get his mind off of things, he put out the remaining fire in the fireplace, changed into his night clothes, turned out the rest of the lights, and went to bed.

(A/N): I hope Jack's past sounded believable enough. I kind of just put it together within a few hours and I know it's not grand but I hope it's good.

How sad, two tales of unrequited love, though one more tragic than the other. After this interesting twist, what on earth is going to happen next! Reviews make me type faster! Thanks!