Story Summary:
Two years after the defeat of Pitch. Jack has discovered that the Winter Angel, advocate for the season, has been killed by Pitch who is making his comeback. Without an advocate, winter will cease to exist and as a result, so will Jack. Lily Tanaka is a young, motherless girl who lives with her abusive father, living her life wondering if the next day will come. She is a candidate for the next Winter Angel and despite never actually learning of Jack's existence, is able to see him. With the help of her new-found friend, Lily takes on the challenge of becoming the new Winter Angel, experiencing a whole new side to life that she never thought could be possible.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or the story Rise of the Guardians. Purely fanfic.
Chapter 1:
Lily Tanaka sighed as she opened the door, closing it quietly behind herself before trudging towards the stairs to her room:
"And where have you been?" She froze as the lights flickered on, looking back over her shoulder:
"Hi Dad..." She gasped as a glass came hurtling at her head, ducking:
"I didn't ask you to greet me, I asked where the fuck you were!" She nodded quickly, coming back down the stairs towards him while digging in her bag:
"I-I was just at work...h-here's the money I made today..." She flinched as he snatched the money from her, wringing her hands nervously: "It's a little more than yesterday...Is that okay?" Brett Tanners plopped down on the couch next to his bottle of Scotch, silently counting out the money:
"$145...not bad kid, looks like I won't have to beat you to make up the difference." He tossed her a twenty, flipping on the television: "Go to bed, you're interrupting my quiet time." Lily bowed slightly, tiptoeing up the stairs:
"Goodnight dad..."
Jack chuckled as he flitted down the street, freezing a small puddle of water under a pedestrians feet. The man yelped, crashing to the ground in a pile of flailing arms and legs:
"Ha ha ha, that'll teach you to watch where you're going." He blinked as the faint sound of glass breaking reached his ears, turning to face that direction: "Who's breaking things so late at night?" He flew forward, looking around the streets as he did. He paused as a light came on in the attic of the house across the street from him, slowly floating to the porch of said light. A small girl walked tiredly into the room, her shoulders and head slumped forward. Jack could feel the sadness and grief emanating from her. But why?
His curiosity now piqued, he landed on the porch, quietly pushing the door open. He jumped as her head snapped up, quickly shimmying inside before she closed the doors. Well, looks like he'd be spending the night with this girl. He froze as she sniffled, taking a step closer to see her face; small tears fell from her almond-shaped eyes, staining her tanned cheeks with their trails. She wiped at her face half-heartedly, turning away from the doors towards a small desk in the corner. She sank down into the chair, pulling out a small picture frame from one of the drawers. Jack felt compelled to investigate as she stared at it emptily, moving behind her to get a better look.
STATE NEWS:
MOTHER RAPED AND MURDERED BY THE "BOOGEYMAN"
FACT OR FICTION?
32 year old Kikyo Tanaka was found brutally murdered in an alley this morning along with her 9 year old daughter Lily Tanaka who was fortunately unharmed. Upon further inspection it was discovered that the young mother was raped repeatedly, but by whom has not been revealed. Her murder was described as "gruesome" by the garbage man who found them, his description of the scene as thus: "There was blood everywhere and it was hard to tell exactly what had happened because there was so much of it and over such a vast area. When I found her, her clothes were ripped and torn and I happened upon a lump of something which I realized was her heart. At that moment I nearly jumped out of my skin as something grabbed me from behind, but I was soon relieved to discover it was merely a child. It was then that I realized what had happened. The poor kid had seen everything."
Despite several sessions with different psychiatrists, Lily Tanaka never said anything more than one thing: It was the Boogeyman. Now of course this type of reaction can only be expected of a child who witnessed her mothers murder and is trying to suppress those memories, but that still leaves one to wonder: who was it? Why would the child describe the attacker as the "boogeyman"? More to be revealed in tomorrow's special.
That had been eight years ago. Jack gritted his teeth as the small girl sobbed once, wanting so badly to reach out and comfort her as she covered her mouth to stifle her cries. Pitch kept becoming more and more despicable to him as he continued learning of his deeds and their actions of banishing Pitch back to the dark hell-hole he had crawled out of pleased him more than anything at the moment. He snapped out of his angry mental rant as she opened the back of the picture frame, smiling as she stared down at a picture. The woman in the frame must have been her mother they looked that similar. The woman had large, almond eyes and long flowing brown hair. She smiled up at the camera, a small child giggling in her arms. That must have been Lily. He glanced down at her softly as she sniffed, backing away a little bit as she placed the frame back in the drawer. She inhaled deeply, pulling something else from the drawer. Jack smiled at the small diary, floating above her as she began to write. He normally didn't eavesdrop but this girl most certainly had his attention.
December 12th, 2014:
It was most certainly an interesting day today. At work I got a small raise, just $40 but something is better than nothing, right? The day went fairly well, I got lots of complements about my eyes again and how it's good to see a foreigner every now and then. I also got a complement from this younger guy who said I looked really good in a waitressing outfit and that I should come "hang out" with him...I think he thinks I'm ignorant enough to not understand that by "hang out" he means have sex.
Jack chuckled as she drew a smiley face with it's tongue sticking out next to the last sentence, yawning tiredly as he continued reading:
On my way home I had to go pick up some tests at the school I test at since I don't go to school but am still getting credits through self study. I got all A's so I guess that means I'm doing something right. Finally when I got home, Dad actually said "not bad kid" which is basically the equivalent of "good job". Even though he did throw a glass at me I feel like he's starting to not hate me as much anymore. Mom, Do you think that he will finally forgive me for not saving you? I hope so, If there was one thing I wished for right not it would be that Dad would say something like "I love you" or what he says to Jeff down the street "I'm proud of ya kid, you're doin a good job". Maybe we'll get along better and we can be a happy family again...anyway, gotta get to sleep so I can get up to cook for dad. Goodnight!
(p.s. Dad's drinking has gotten better, he hasn't gone into a drunken rage since last week)
Jack looked around awkwardly as she got up and put the journal away, feeling like a total jerk for invading her personal space. He nearly fell over a she began to undress, quickly trying to look away. He stopped as something caught the corner of his eye, slowly turning back to face her. She had her bare back to him, revealing the bandages that wrapped her entire torso. Jack watched wide eyed as she began to peel them away, wincing in sympathy as she had to tear part of one off. Immediately he felt sick at what he saw: her whole back was covered in scars and fresh whiplashes, blood and puss oozing from her wounds. She quickly pulled them all off, setting a towel on the floor beneath her. Jack watched in horror as she jammed another towel in her mouth and pulled out a bottle of disinfectant, nearly lunging forward to take it from her as she began pouring it down her back. He squeezed his eyes shut as she screamed through the gag, slowly opening them again to witness her self-inflicted tortures.
The wounds hissed and bubbled, cleaning themselves of any infection. She finally set the bottle down, shakily picking up yet another towel to dab her back dry. She then continued to re-bandage herself before redressing, stumbling to her feet. He moved out of her way needlessly as she shuffled to the small mattress laying on the floor, shaking his head angrily as she sank down into what little comfort it could offer. How could anyone do this to someone as seemingly sweet and honest as this girl? All she wanted was to be loved and accepted. The mere thought of someone laying a hand on her angered him and he found himself thinking: why was he getting so angry? Sure it wasn't right to abuse someone like this but he didn't even know her and she wasn't a believer...so why did this have such an affect on him? was it because Pitch was involved?
He shook his head again, floating down to the floor beside her. she curled up under a small, ragged blanket, closing her eyes before quickly drifting off to sleep. Jack laid beside her, staring mindlessly at her sleeping face. As she began to relax, Jack began to realize how cute she was. Once the stress and pain left her face she had smooth, golden skin that seemed to glow and her lashes were long and slightly curled. He turned the light off with his staff, turning to lay on his back. If he could somehow get her to believe in him, maybe they could be friends...and he could help her escape all the torments she suffered now. Jack smiled at the thought, closing his eyes as sleep overcame him.