Wide Awake
Rise of the guardian' fan fiction by TheNitemareDoll
I don't own nor take claim to Rise of The Guardians or it's character. Enjoy!
It was a cold December day, Jamie was returning home from school. He was excited because it was winter break, which meant he could hang out with Jack, well after he finished his homework, anyway. The sooner he finished his homework, the more time he'd have to have fun. Jamie was clear in his resolve, with a solid goal as he entered his home. He raced up to his room and set up all of his homework on his desk. Jamie popped his knuckles and pulled up his chair to start his homework.
It felt like it he had been working for an eternity on his homework. Jamie's face scrunched up in frustration. His door hinges squeaked as he heard his mom, Melissa, come in; she had brought him a plate of snacks up for him.
Melissa was proud of him, working so hard on his studies. He had been working a good solid two hours. It was understandable that he would get burned out on his work. She smiled at him and looked over his shoulder. "What are you working on that's got you so grumpy?' She asked, genuinely curious.
Jamie huffed. "An art project, Mister Jennings wants me to expand my ideas and try something new…" Jamie seemed miffed. "…he thinks I draw too many picture of Jack and the other Guardians." Jamie's mom looked around his room, the pictures of Jack, Santa, the Easter Bunny; a strange woman who her son believed to be the Tooth Fairy, and even the Sandman. Not many people really talked about the sandman as much as they used to. She always knew he was into myths, but his interest seemed to have peaked more in the last year or so. She sighed and ruffled his hair. "Maybe it's time for a break; you know all this homework can fry your brain. What fun would winter break be with a fried brain?" Melissa tried to coax her son; he usually would be outside playing with his friends right about now.
Jamie turned to his mom and shook his head. "I can't, I want to get this done so I don't have to worry about it later." Jamie said as he grabbed some celery with peanut butter on it, chewing the snack before going back to drawing. Melissa sighed as she sat down on Jamie's bed, watching her son draw vigorously. 'Well now how do I get him to take a break?' She looked around the room and down at her bare feet, her jeans barely covering them up. She scratched her medium length, curly brown hair. Melissa's attention was drawn to Jamie's frustrated groan and him hitting his head on the table.
"Hey, don't do that." She stood up and walked over to her son and put her hands on Jamie's shoulders. "See you need a break. If you're not inspired to do it, it won't be fun." Melissa smiled as Jamie looked up at her, his face kind of disappointed. "I wanted to be done by the time Jack showed up, I would be free to play." Her smile fell a little. Melissa felt like she knew something that might help her son. Her face lit up as a thought came to mind. "Hold on, I have an idea." She wandered out of her son's room and into her own.
Jamie pushed his chair out and followed his mom. She was searching through her drawers, mumbling about something grandma gave her. "Oh, here it is!" She said, wandered back over to Jamie and crouched down to his level. She held a flat stone; it was dark green and looked smooth. "Now I know this doesn't look like much, but my mother gave this to me when I need motivation, a muse if you would. She told me that whenever I got frustrated or stuck to just rub this between my fingers." Melissa gently rubbed the stone between her fingers, feeling nostalgia for the stone. "I thought it was silly, but every time I got upset and used this stone I felt inspired. So I'll let you have it for now." Jamie's face lit up at his mom. "Thanks, mom you're the best!" Jamie gave her a huge hug and took the stone, his mom affectionately ruffling his hair before leaving him to his drawings.
Jamie ran back over to this chair. He got as comfortable as he could and rubbed the stone between his fingers. The texture felt rougher then he thought it looked. As he rubbed, the green of the stone seemed to glitter for a moment. He stopped, blinking. 'Did the stone just change?' He started to rub it again, the green shimmered and he felt a sudden surge of inspiration. He knew what to draw for this project, in a fury of crayons and scribbles he drew. He'd never felt like this before, not with homework at least. He stopped for a minute to look at his drawing. It looked awesome! It was him as a super hero fighting a shadow figure; explosions of color filled the background. "Wow, why couldn't I have drawn that sooner?" Jamie picked up and held his artwork at arm's length, admiring his work.
"It is pretty neato, huh?"
Jamie's eyes went wide, dropping his piece of art. That wasn't Jack's voice and it wasn't his mom's voice. Slowly he turned to his right, where he had heard the voice. A strange woman was standing behind him, holding her thumb just below her lip. Jamie's eyes got wider as terror tried to seep into him, but the woman seemed to sense this. She quickly bent down to his level. "Woah, woah calm down. You called me." She pointed to something on the table. Jamie turned carefully, keeping one eye on the woman. For all he knew this was some sort of trick, unsure of this woman's intentions. He saw what she was pointing to, it was the stone. "So no need to worry, little guy I'm not here to hurt you." Her voice was friendly, but had a bit of gruffness behind it. Jamie turned back to look at her; he had been too terrified to notice anything about this woman before. She had white skin, splattered in different colored paints; her light green hair pulled back by a headband. Oddly, she had piercings at either side of her mouth and one in her eyebrow. And her eyes, it caught Jamie off guard; they were a bright translucent green which felt like they held some mysterious secret. "You okay, kid?" She asked worried, Jamie was transfixed on her eyes, but still nodded slowly. "Well if you're not going to introduce yourself I will. I'm Muse." Muse extended her hand out to him. Jamie snapped out of it, shaking her hand. "Oh, I'm Jamie!" He could've sworn she was some stranger that got in the house by the way she was dressed: in jean overalls and a t-shirt, which were also covered in paint. "It's wonderful to meet you Jamie. Funny most people can't see me." Muse said her eyes shimmering for a second. Jamie cocked his head in confusion. "What does that…"
Suddenly a cold breeze blew open the window. Jamie looked up to see his favorite guardian, Jack Frost. "Hey Jamie!" He greeted excitedly. "Jack! You're back." Jamie ran over and hugged Jack and Jack of course hugged back. "Oh, Jack look what I drew!" Jamie smiled while jumped up and down, excitedly. He ran over and grabbed the picture off the ground, where it had fallen.
Jack looked at the picture that Jamie drew, it was pretty good. Jack looked at super hero Jamie fighting, who he could only guess was the super villain version of Pitch. Vivid colors that resembled building and explosions littered the scenery. "That's awesome, Jamie." Jack smiled at Jamie and Jamie smiled back before looking for Muse. It appeared she had lain down beside his bed while they had been talking. "Jack I want you to meet my new friend, she helped with my drawing." Jack looked interested to say the least. Jamie wandered over towards Muse who sat up and stretched. "This is Muse." Jamie gestured to the space beside his bed. "Why if it isn't Jack Frost as I live and breathe." Muse stated as she watched Jack out of the corner of her eye.
Jack looked confused at Jamie and then back at the empty space, not seeing this person he was talking about. "Uh, Jamie you feeling alright, there's nobody there?" Jack walked over to Jamie and put his hand on Jamie's forehead. Muse stood up quickly as Jack almost stepped on her. "Woah, watch it Jack I know you can't see me, but I wish you would consider that maybe his imaginary friend is real." Muse huffed. Jamie batted Jack's hand away. "I'm fine, you really can't see her?" "No I really can't see her…" Jack looked around to see what Jamie was talking about, but saw no one, human or otherwise. Jamie looked kind of sad and looked at Muse, who had moved to the other side of the room. "He can't see you, is it because no one believes in you?" Muse smiled and walked back over to Jamie. "Nah, that's not what it is. Don't worry about it; the guardians have never ever been able to see me. Not in the in all of the centuries that I've lived, have they been able to see me. Just means you are special." She gave a half grin. "You should go play with Jack, before it gets too dark. Also he's super confused." Muse pointed at Jack and Jamie looked over at him. Indeed Jack was looking at Jamie like he had an elephant's trunk for a nose and walked over to Jamie. "You sure you are okay?" Jamie nodded seeming to brighten up from whatever "this Muse" had said. "Yep, alright let's go play out in the snow." Jack looked worried, but was going to let it go. "Alright, then I'll meet you outside!" Jack's enthusiasm returning as Jamie ran downstairs. Jack nervously laughed. "What a crazy kid." That's when a rogue snowball hit him in the back of the head. Jack turned to where the snow ball came from, none other than the empty space at the side of Jamie's bed.
Muse couldn't help but smirk at her perfect head shot. The freaked out expression on Jack's face as he searched the room for the snowballs origin was frosting on the cake. She didn't normally get to haze the guardians, but when she could it was always priceless. Like the time Bunnymund had awoke to his fur being dyed a fetching color of chartreuse. Bunnymund had ranted and raved for weeks after the small prank. He had been the ugly yellowy green color for a day. Muse wandered towards the window as Jack cautiously left the room, seeming to not trust his back to anything but the window. All Muse could do is chuckle as she watches him join the children in a snowball fight, Jack seeming to forget about the whole imaginary friend hitting him with a real snowball.
Muse leaned on the railing watching the guardian of fun. A strange longing coming over her, wishing that she could be as carefree as the guardians, well as calm as a life style they had. At least the Guardians could affect the children directly; while Muse could only guide them along indirectly. She huffed, but was pulled from her thoughts as the oppressive atmosphere began to build. It didn't take much to guess who was causing it. Muse turned around, eyes locking onto a Black robed figure with gray skin. The figures intense golden eyes scanned the room, as Muse had worried Jamie's fear beforehand might awaken the king of nightmares, Pitch Black. His sneer said it all, like he had just walked into a sewer and he couldn't wait until he could leave.
Pitch's eyes looked around the room of one of his most disliked humans. Pitch's life had gone downhill since this little snot and his friends had stood up to him with the help of the Guardians. Pitch's sneer became angrier as he looked around the room, pictures on the walls. Every one of the drawings was of those wretched Guardians. He wanted nothing more than to shred every last image in this room. Pitch stormed over to the wall, slashing at the images with his sharp nails. The images were left undamaged much to Pitch's rage. It was close to a year since his defeat and he couldn't even affect these infuriating pictures.
Muse watched as Pitch slashed at the images. Her face serious and holding concerns, although not for the drawings. Only the artist could destroy their work, as long as it was in her presence. Had Pitch not been in such a rage he would've seen that the wall was littered with fine scratches behind the pictures. Muse rose up from her spot and carefully walked towards the other in the room. He had always been the angrier of the spirits. She stood in front of Pitch, staring into his spiteful eyes. Pitch had stopped slashing at the walls; Muse would have been insane to stand in front of the fuming king of nightmares. "Oh Pitch when will you realize that anger will only get you so far." Muse's voice was soft and held no roughness to it as she reached her hand out to cup Pitch's face.
Pitch huffed heatedly, wanting to destroy everything in his sight. He had run out of energy with his little slash-fest, as it was he had very little energy. Without children to fear him, Pitch's energy source was lacking to say the least. He focused on just the feeling of his labored, livid breaths. A warm prickling feeling took over the left side of his face and brought him out of his mind. He hated the feeling, it happened every so often at random. Often times the feeling would come when he was alone. Pitch brushed his hand across the area that tickled. The feeling leaving him, Pitch huffed. "Nothing left for me to do here…" Pitch swept himself around, walking towards the closet. One of the many ways he could travel back to his lair easily.
Muse stood there biting at her lower lip piercings, her hand crumpled but still held in the air. Her face reflected sorrow as Pitch retreated to the closet, disappearing to his world of darkness and fear. Lowering her hand, she turned and walked over to shut the window. The sound of the children's laughter seemed to float on the frosty air. Suddenly white hot pain filled Muse's senses; blood dripped down from her lip. She forced herself to stop biting her lip. Of course, just her luck, she stared down at the blood on the floor. The blood contrasted with the wooden floorboards, as it seemed to glow a dull red color. After all these years, Muse was still attached to Pitch. The first of many of …of his creations…she looked up at the sky, the moon stared back at her. His voice slowly filtering through the open window, Muse cringed at the carefully worded sentences. She frowned. "No, You know why I can't…You know why….I...I….c-can't." Muse slammed the window shut. She knocked on the wall and a portal opened and swept her to another part of the world where she didn't have to hear Manny's words.
Jack walked back from Jamie's house. Night had fallen and Jamie needed to return home. The cold night air feeling amazing on his skin and the crunch of fresh snow under his feet made him miss the North Pole. North had become very busy what with Christmas coming up. Jack couldn't really blame North for asking Jack to not bother him for the next few weeks. North was behind in making presents and couldn't handle any distractions. Since Pitch was defeated, there wasn't much for Jack to do. An idea came to mind why not spread his wintery fun across the state. Jack laughed at the idea. "Oh man, this will be the best few days." A strong wind picked up around him and he jumped into the winds letting it carry him to his destinations.
A few days passed, Jamie had deemed this one of the best breaks he had had in a while. Best part of all, tomorrow was Christmas! He had wanted Jack to spend Christmas Eve with him, but he said he had a duty to help North deliver presents. Jack did promise he would visit on Christmas day at least. Jamie was happy enough with that. He sat at his desk; looking at the picture he drew the beginning of break. While gazing at his drawing something caught his eye, Muse's green stone. Jamie had totally forgotten about her.
Jamie felt bad that he had forgotten about her, after Muse had helped him with his homework. He picked up the stone and rubbed it between his fingers. He waited a few minutes and Muse was nowhere to be seen. Jamie knitted his eyebrows in worry, where was she? He rubbed the stone again. It felt smooth and he didn't see the glimmer like before. Maybe the stone was broken or something happened to Muse… Jamie's worry turned to fear.
A hand grabbed his shoulder, his whole body jolted from the sudden touch. He turned quickly to see a very tired and disheveled looking Muse. "Hey you called?" Her voice sounded tired. All Jamie could do was jump up and hug her tightly. Muse blinked a few times, confused as to why Jamie was so excited to see her. They had only worked together once before. Most humans became more attached after the sixth visit. "I thought something bad had happened to you and I wouldn't get to see you again." Jamie exclaimed. Muse relaxed and patted Jamie's head. 'What do you expect from the one who helped save the world with the Guardians? Of course he would get attached to you, he became attached to Jack quite easily too.' She mused to herself, looking down at the young boy.
"Here's the thing Jamie, I'm not like the Guardians. I will never disappear or become invisible. Once you can see me then you will always see me. I don't need believers, but sometimes it nice to have a few. I'm a different kind of being than the others." Muse's voice dipped quietly as she tried to explain to Jamie. Jamie just listened to her talk, still holding on to Muse. He felt like he understood, but her explanation seemed off, like she was avoiding something. "I...I… I am an older entity, but I am also the spirit of creativity. B…but more of a d…d…divinity than spirit and it's hard to exterminate a being of that caliber." Muse stumbled across the words, unsure of how to explain this peculiar concept to young child.
"I can't say for sure I understand it myself, but I…i…it's the best explanation I have come up with." Jamie looked up at Muse, unsure of a few words. "So you're de vente? Not a spirit?" he asked unsure of what she was trying to say. "Er…ummm, yes, but at the same time no. Let's just call me the unofficial Guardian of Creativity and make this whole thing easier on both of us." Jamie scrunched up his nose, but nodded. "Alright, I think that would make more sense than what you said." Muse blushed a bit looking out the window. "Y…yeah, I'm not the best at explaining that, it's still kind of n….n…new to the whol…" Muse shuddered, but noticed it was ten at night. "….Oh Sh….iiii….ooot! Would you look at the time, it late and Santa won't come if you are up." Muse said, barely saving her from her own bad habit of cursing. Jamie looked at the clock, she was right it was late. Jamie let go of Muse and hurried around, starting to change into his sleepwear.
Hey, hope you liked this. This is the beginning of my first fanfiction ever, Hopefully you enjoyed. Sorry if the my grammar is off or something doesn't sound right, not the best at writing and got a friend to read through it with me. I want to feel out the waters, i might update with another chapter for fun. This was just an idea that came along with seeing so many Original characters pop up with this series. Thanks for reading, Drop me a review and a rating. It's much appreciated!