Hey everybody! I'm very excited to upload the first chapter Finding the Light. Let me know what you think, leave comments and kudos, or if there are any errors i missed while editing.
The Guardians are very near and dear to my heart and I'm glad to finally contribute to this fandom. Enjoy!
-Cocoa
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Jack sat in the bough of a pine tree, stirred by a cool wind. It smelled fresh and sharp and Jack smiled serenely. it was only October, but winter was coming early it seemed and Jack was eager to help it on its way. He swung his staff and flurries of snow followed, coating the branches below. a snow day this early in the year, the kids would be ecstatic. Jack's believers might be few and far between, but usually one or two kids would see him in his mischief making wherever he might be. Feeling energized, jack leapt from his perch to catch a passing wind, and soared up laughing. A storm began in earnest following him as he headed towards the sleepy town.
Leaves rustled and fell in his wake. A bittersweet feeling rose in him, visiting the town where Jamie lived always did. Jack hadn't been around for a long while, after his first believers began to outgrow him it was too hard. But lately he'd been feeling a pull to return, to check up on them, on Jamie.
Fat snowflakes began to collect on rooftops, and windowsills iced as jack breezed past. Without any real destination in mind, he found himself at the window of a familiar house. Gently, he placed his hand on the glass and let his frost weave patterns over it. A smiled crossed his face, and he left for the next house. He frosted many a window and left a blanket of white, he played with the children, now free from classes. He would hang around the kids he used to know, now young adults and try to catch their attention in the most irritating of ways. Snow falling from tree branches, slippery sidewalks, an unexpected snowball. Funny as it might be however, Jack noticed something was off. He'd seen everybody, except for Jamie. After several days of his antics, Jack became uneasy.
'Am I missing something here,' he wondered.
Jack ran a hand through his hair in frustration. He felt a knot of worry form in his stomach and tried to ignore his gut.
Being the independent spirit that he was, Jack didn't often feel compelled to visit any one place, so staying in Jamie's town this long was a bit abnormal. With a wave jack dismissed the thought. He'd leave in the morning. It was nothing but nostalgia that kept him around.
'Maybe' thought jack 'He left for college or something'.
That made sense, Jamie was around that age anyways. That thought eased Jack's mind, and so he willed away his worry for the time being.
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Jack was sleeping on the roof of a house that night, when suddenly, his chest spasmed with pain. He coughed and clutched at himself desperately. Jack felt colder than ice, like a light inside him had gone out. Like he'd lost a believer. This was different though, more like something had reached in and stolen the light from inside him. He wheezed for a long minute, catching his breath, hands clammy and chest still heaving. Jack's thoughts were racing when suddenly he had a realization. Jack knew the light that left him.
"Jamie" he exhaled.
He never stopped believing in jack after all, it seemed. Still shaking he grabbed his staff and pushed himself up. Jack tripped as he jumped on the wind, he felt off kilter. Something was very wrong. He raced towards Jamie's house
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Within minutes, Jack was stumbling into the yard of the Bennett household looking around frantically. He could hear commotion coming from inside the house. He peeked over the windows ledge into the kitchen, where he could see a very tearful on the phone. Jack could make out some of the conversation, but not all of it.
"Yes, yes…okay, we'll be right there…What?! What do you mean gone?!" He heard her shout.
She became even more frantic, a hand covering her mouth in horror. Jack felt sick, he thought he was going to pass out. Jamie wasn't dead, he couldn't be.
"Oh god" he moaned aloud.
He buried his head in his hands and choked on his breath. Jack looked up to the sound of the front door slamming and the Bennett family minus one make their way as quick as they could into the car.
Jack thumbed away his frozen tears and made to follow them, he needed to know what happened to Jamie.
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Jack trailed after the car as quick as the wind would take him, around bends and turns as they made their way onto a lonely country road. Jack heard the sirens as they approached and his stomach jumped into his throat.
Car crash, by the looks of it. He kept himself at a bit of a distance, after all Sophie, Jamie's sister, was still young enough to see him (and she would no doubt, growing up with Jamie.) Jack stayed hidden behind their car and listened as Jamie's mother spoke to the police officer.
"Thank you for coming so quickly," said the officer. The portly man offered her an apologetic smile.
She leveled him with a look that spoke volumes and tearfully asked "What's happened to my son?"
Her hands wrung themselves and she looked terrified of what he would say. The officer, for the most part, looked sheepish, like he wasn't sure what to say.
"Well ma'am, we aren't exactly sure," he scratched the back of his head and couldn't meet her gaze, and continued, "He wasn't in the car when we arrived, and the eyewitness didn't see the crash happen, only happened across the wreck. We've got a search team looking for him as we speak. We don't think he's gotten too far yet, try not to worry too much. We're gonna find him."
The Bennett parents exchanged a look and continued speaking to the officer but jack tuned them out, he'd heard all he needed to.
Jack glided around the family and over to the car. It looked awful, hood all crunched in against a tree with smoke drifting from it. For a moment Jack feared that it was his own fault. Bad weather caused crashes all the time. But he shook away the thought, He would never intentionally make black ice. Jack was mischievous, not evil.
He peeked inside and saw no trace of Jamie. "Wait what?" Jack leaned his body through the window, looking closer now. There really was no trace, no blood, no torn clothing, no nothing. Just broken glass and dirt.
Jack pulled away, clutching his stomach, he couldn't remember the last time he'd been this scared. Scared of losing someone he cared about, scared for Jamie. Jack followed voices that shouted from the treeline. He could see flashlight beams waving back and forth through the trees and he looked with them, listening for any sign of his friend. He searched behind trees and scanned the ground for footprints to no avail.
Then there was motion in Jacks peripheral vision and he whipped his head around, hoping he'd found him. A shadow bounded away from him deeper into the forest and jack was in the air following it in a split second. His limbs grew cold with fear, if it was Jamie why was he running away? Could it be some kind of animal?
Jack cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted "JAMIE!"
He wasn't even sure he'd hear him anyways.
Jack felt a sense of deja vu, he'd done something like this before, chasing after shadows in the dark.
Jack lost sight of the thing around a sharp corner and he looked all around him but could see nothing. Dread filled him.
'No, there's no way, I can't lose him,' he thought frantically. "NO!" He yelled "No no no no no…" Jack fisted a hand in his hair and floated to the ground. He curled his knees to his chest and tears overcame him.
"This is my fault, I should have kept an eye on him. I should have visited him more often… I- I," Jack's chest heaved and he fought to remain calm.
A sudden wave of a deeper older fear washed through Jack's body leaving him icy. He didn't want to be alone anymore, and with Jamie's light so dim, he might as well be gone already.
Jack didn't know how long he sat there, but it must have been a while. He couldn't hear the people from the search party anymore. Slowly, jack picked himself up and dusted off his pants. It was like somebody gutted him, he felt so hollow. Staff in hand, he made his way back.
Jamie's family must have gone home, their car wasn't there anymore, and only a few people remained at the scene, the cleanup crew no doubt. Jack wasn't sure why he lingered but he felt like there was something that was there and he just hadn't found it yet.
He poked around the vehicle with his staff, leaving specks of frost here and there. That's when jack saw it, only a glint but he was on the ground in a second. His fingers trailed across the dirt and came away with a light covering of black sand and bits of glass. It had an unnatural sheen, like oil.
If jack was scared before, what he felt now was multiplied tenfold. His heart was thundering in his chest at the implication.
'I've got to get the guardian's.' He thought. Jack shot up into the sky on a gust of wind and made his way as fast as he could to North's workshop.
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