Jack

"SNOW!"

There's two of them inside the house. They're the only one's awake, and they're both running around. They look a little old to be this excited, but I don't mind. It wasn't hard to give a few flurries and ice up the roads… I suppose they're probably excited because no school. I guess that's universal.

North'll probably be unhappy that it's this close to Christmas, but I think he's old fashioned. It's like Christmas morning here, so what if it's a little slippery when people go out to do their Christmas shopping?

I hover outside the window, staring in. A few flurries come out of my hair and fall, and the taller one shouts to the other. She can't see me, it's just the flakes that make her excited. Time for me to go.

I shoot up, dragging my staff behind me. Flakes burst from the end, and trees are ruffled when they're hit with my wind. A perfect little storm is forming in this town. Fog over the bay is thickening, and the sky is still mostly dark. The streetlamps are the only light, but it shows the road and rooftops enough for kids all over town to be at their windows, pointing. I've done well for these kids. I laugh a little, and turn South. If I hurry, I'll be able to get the next town by the time they're leaving first period.

The sky slowly lightens. I catch glimpses of ecstatic faces at windows as I zoom past. A few kids notice me and their jaws drop. It reminds me of Jamie, maybe I'll go visit him and his friends after this.

An impact in the small of my bag sends me spinning. "AGH!" I cry out, then manage to steady myself with my staff. I whirl around, sending a gust of wind outward to shake some snow off nearby trees.

"Tooth!" I shout. She's hovering about thirty feet away, forming another snowball and grinning like crazy. Tooth is my best friend. She's crazy, and I love it. She must have just finished a night run; there's a bag of teeth on her back. We tell each other everything- well, almost everything. She hasn't said anything about Bunnymund to me, but I can tell. I personally don't get it, since he's such a grump, but as long as she's happy, I'm happy.

"Don't even go there!" I yell at her, laughing. She pelts the second snowball at me and immediately dives down for more snow. I jump up and let the projectile sail under my feet. Then, with a flick of my wrist I knock the snow off of a tree over Tooth. With a dull whump, it lands on her, completely burying her.

Half a second later, her head pops up unscathed. "No fair!" she calls.

"Don't fight with the king of winter!" I tell her.

She scoffs. "Don't let North hear you saying that."

"He gets his day," I reply. "Snow is always around." I lower myself to the ground and help her dig herself out of the mound. Once she's free, I move the snow and uncover her bag of teeth.

"Get any interesting ones tonight?"

Tooth's face lights up. "There was one tooth where, I swear, it must've been an ogre tooth it was so huge! I think some big guy got in a fight and gave the remains to his little sister or something." I laugh, and she continues: "And then little tooth brought back one that was so adorable I couldn't stand it, it was so white and perfectly shaped, it gave yours a run for their money! Speaking of which, open up."

I dutifully open my mouth and let her poke her cold fingers in to feel at my teeth. "Perfect, as usual," she smiles.

"White as snow?"

"White as snow."

I bend down to try and discreetly shape another snowball, but then stop and straighten up. Rumbling. Bunnymund is on his way. But… why now?

The snow in front of us explodes. Tooth and I topple backwards, but I'm able to shield us from most of the snow. Bunnymund lands to the side and shakes his ears off, looking frantic and wild.

"You have to get out of here!" He says to us frantically. "Right now! Fly away, leave, go!" His eyes are on Tooth.

"What- why?" I ask, panic seeping into my body like the cold never does.

"There's been an alert! North picked up reading from here, magic that's out of our control, worse than Pitch-"

"Worse than Pitch?" I ask in disbelief.

"C'mon, we have to go!" Bunnymund isn't his normal aloof self. He looks scared. He darts forward and grabs Tooths hand, starting to pull her away. "Jack, we have to go!"

Sensing his panic, I lift myself in the air and I'm about to follow when Tooth gasps. She's looking at something behind me. "Jack, fly!" She screams.

I whip around. In the air behind me, there's a rippling. It's like a portal, and it's growing. All of a sudden a wind kicks up that I can't control. It grabs my shoulders and starts pulling me back, toward the portal. Desperately, I try to fly away, toward Bunnymund and Tooth. But the wind is picking up every second and I can't fight it. I yell and flail my arms, try to hook my staff onto a tree, anything to keep me from going through. My feet are already through the swirling, disappearing into darkness behind me.

Tooth tries to break free from Bunnymund. "JACK!" she screams.

"Keep her back!" I yell at the rabbit.

"Stay here!" he yells at Tooth over the roar of the portal, which started nonexistent and has grown to unbearable. Bunnymund starts to run to me, and Tooth immediately follows, but just before they reach me, there's a gust, and I lose my battle.

The portal closes in front of me.

"JACK!" I hear them scream.

I can't see anything but black. The roaring is still strong in my ears. My body is thrown about so violently that I can't even hope to control it.

I land on hard rock and my head thuds to the ground. My site comes back faintly, but it's shifting around. I must've hit my head…

Black.