'Sup guys. I know it's been a while since I've posted anything, but I'm over halfway through the next chapters of about three different stories, as well as another oneshot and I have a full blown plot for a short, five or six chapter fic swirling around in my head and constantly bothering me, but I have writers block for it all and I refuse to start the short fic until I've started Breaching Asphodel. Unless you guys ask, anyways(for those of you who don't know, I've recently finished another Rise of the Guardians fic called Cold Insanity featuring my OC Willow Bronwyn and a race I created called the Creatures).
But, this oneshot has kind of just been sitting in my Google Drive from where I wrote it one day when I got bored in class(my school went paperless, and we operate with Google Drive and other Google stuff). I figured I'd post it in the meantime.
So, this is on the darker side, as I am actually a sadist at heart with a macabre sense of humor.
Very strong T for blood ad language.
At first glance, one would think Jack Frost's years before becoming a Guardian were, indeed lonely, but just that. Watching the world pass by in solitude, feeling only that crushing loneliness.
In a sense, they are right.
But, there was more to his time unseen than loneliness. Yes, he watched the world carry on around him, but it wasn't always snowballs and fun times. In fact, they frequently weren't.
The world isn't quite a glamorous as you think.
(*)
Jack closed his eyes as the wind picked up again, ruffling his snowy white hair lightly and making the branch he was perched on sway in the draft. The brisk December air was unusually cold that year in El Paso, the usual Texas heat having long since abandoned the dusty city.
His eyes opened to peer at the waning crescent moon with a crystal blue gaze, over two centuries of unanswered questions brimming in their cerulean depths, but they were pushed into silence. Questions were rarely asked anymore. Why bother, when there would never be an answer?
He started when a high shriek filled the air, eyes darting around to pinpoint the distant noise. He was met with nothing, pushing him to leap from the high branch in search of the owner of the scream.
A few minutes later, another cry rang through the frigid night air, much closer. He looked over to see a young woman cowering against the dead end wall of a heavily shadowed alley, two men cornering her, and a third standing guard at the mouth of the alley.
The wind whistled in his ears as his altitude dropped. He landed in front of the woman, glaring at the lust filled eyes of the men, his stomach churning at the stench of alcohol.
"Aw, don't be like that!" one slurred. "You might wake somebody up."
"Just g-get away from m-me." she said, her voice quaking. Her heel caught a crack in the asphalt, causing her to fall back and scrape her palms on the rough ground.
"Don't worry, sweetheart. We'll leave you alone as soon as we get what we came for." the other said with mocking gentleness, his lip curled into a sneer.
"No, you'll be leaving now." Jack whispered, his voice deathly quiet, despite the fact none of them could hear them.
The woman squeezed her eyes shut, prepared for the worst. After several long seconds of silence, she cracked one eye open to see both men unconscious and... frozen to the walls of the alley? She huddled herself together more, the air having taken a significant drop in temperature. Her eyes pivoted as they searched for her unseen savior
Jack knelt down beside her, scanning her terrified face with a detached eye. Seeing no other injuries on her besides her slightly bloodied palms. Once she had regained enough composure, he would follow her home to make certain there wouldn't be any other surprises that night.
There was a light shuffle behind him, then a soft gasp.
"What the fuck did you do, you crazy bitch?"
Jack turned just in time to see the third, forgotten, man pull the trigger of a small caliber pistol.
The bullet passed through his body, as everything did when no one could see him, but the sheer speed of it brought a sharp burn of pain with it.
Another gasp from behind him, this time wet and choking.
He turned back to the woman, who now lay on her side. Deep crimson dripped from her lips and she struggled to breathe, despite the fact she was drowning in her own blood. Her petite body convulsed as the ragged hole in her chest took its toll.
Eyes burning, Jack whipped around to the man, who brought the gun to his side with a cocky smirk, confident he had won. Jack began walking slowly towards him, the ground icing over where he stepped.
Though the man could not see Jack, the ice was another story. His eyes widened at the slick pools formed closer and closer to him, almost as if someone was walking…
Some kind of invisible wall slammed into his, pinning him to the ground with a freezing touch. He felt his wrists be pinned behind his back and his hands became very cold. The unseen pressure vanished, but he quickly realized that his hands had been frozen behind him in a block of ice.
Jack was back at the dying woman's side, her eyes glassy as the fought to take another breath. More blood sprayed from her mouth as she violently coughed. She gasped as Jack pulled her head onto his lap, but she thought little of it. For her, it may have been an angel trying to console her in what she knew were her final moments.
Her eyes lifted to the sky, the moon growing curiously bright behind her clouded gaze, and, in that moment, the fog was lifted.
A gasp sounding more as a gurgle, her hand reached oh-so-slowly up to barely brush Jack's cheekbone with her fingertip.
"Thank you."
His own eyes blurred as the shining light drained from her eyes, a single drop of salt clinging to his cheek as he lay her head gently back onto the ground.
Gripping his staff, he leapt into the sky, not looking back as he left the dismal city behind, memories locking away to join the sliver of the world's strife he had witnessed.
The snow began to fall furiously as he flew, wind whistling once again through the silent night.