Hopefully, you all saw the Rise of the Guardians movie! It was, I must say, amazing! In short, it inspired this little short story! It may or may not be continued. :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Rise of the Guardians. However, I do own the original characters and plot in this.
Merriment filled the air, as Pitch Black fell from his lofty throne, allowing the children to believe once more. Happiness spread to each and every home, lighting the fires with an inspired spark, a desire to warm the hearts of the children. Each Guardian was nearby, watching carefully, as things slowly went back to normal. Everything looked bright, cheery, sweet as could be; even the Easter Bunny and Jack weren't at odds for once. Way up at the North Pole, they all stared at a globe, filled with shinning golden dots, each representing a child; a child that believed.
Yet unknown to them, they were three children short…For as Pitch himself said, there was more than one way to snuff out a light.
They were a trio, left in the care of an incoherent uncle, that never quite found the time for them. He cared more for a smoke than he did for their well being, a habit that they had learned over their time of beings orphans. Each of them developed a little quirk from it, something that made them special, that set them apart. It was their center, the reason that Pitch had struggled with them so much; it was their downfall in the end.
The oldest girl was named Abigail. She was passionate, caring, and deeply in love with animals. She was nearing her college days, and yet still managed to find herself believing in the Guardians. Her light was a strong one, not very loud, but opinionated to the end. Abigail had often had a plan for everything, knowing that in the end, things would supposedly turn out okay. Her leadership was that of a mother, a bit of guidance that her two younger siblings often lacked. Blonde curls would bounce in the wind, as she danced during the Easter festival, delighting in each little egg that she could find.
The second sister, the middle one of the trio, was named Emily. A quiet soul, that's the way that people often thought of her, as she preferred to be seen, never heard. She would always be there, when you turned around, making no peep at all. Oversized clothes were her favorite, the ones that had been worn by her older sister; she didn't want to waste anything. She had dark black hair, hiding her eyes ever so slightly, as she was badly in need of a barber. Her blue eyes were sweet, filled with loyalty towards her siblings. She was a year behind Abigail, and also managed to believe, while feeling no fear towards Pitch Black. Sadly, no one tended to notice poor Emily in her lifetime.
As for the youngest sister, well, people called her Susan. She was the oddest one of the family, rarely spending time inside of the tiny cabin, hidden in the wilderness. Some people called her Snowflake, from how dozens of them appeared on her nose each day; none of them suspected Jack Frost to be the culprit. No, no, only a couple of children believed in the Winter Wonder, and they lived on the other side of the planet, practically. As for Susan, she lived in Alaska, playing in flurries of snow at all hours. She enjoyed reading, and wasn't the type of person one would expect to handle power well. Most often, they were dragging her home, patching up some new broken bone, and sighing, wondering if the girl would ever learn.
To this day, they believe that Susan never did, that she was the one that took down her sisters into the icy abyss of Death. They were ignorant of all the events that had occurred, how Pitch had blotted out all of the lights, one by one, spreading fear and darkness into each of their hearts. They didn't know about how the sisters were targeted by the Nightmares, surrounded by them, until there was no escape from their grand peril. They didn't know anything…All they could possibly do was…forget.
It had been quiet, almost eerily so, at the home of the sisters when the shaking started. All of the lights began to flicker, causing Susan—barely out of Middle School—to scream in alarm. Abigail instantly grabbed her, holding her, while Emily softly peered out of the window. All that was there was the darkness; they weren't able to understand what it meant. They were as lost as their uncle was, in ordinary events, from the liquid veil that separated him from the rest of the world.
"What's happening?!" Susan cried, screaming when her snow globe fell to the floor, shattering instantly on impact.
"I don't know…Emily, can you see anything?" the oldest sister, Abigail, murmured, smoothing Susan's brown hair frantically.
Emily pulled away from the curtain, allowing the blue threads to clatter against the smudged glass panes. She shrugged her shoulders hopelessly in defeat, stepping almost silently over to her sisters; it was hard to be noiseless in an earthquake.
"It's pitch black out there…It could be anything, really," Emily whispered, shifting awkwardly, as she was a girl of few words.
Abigail sighed, right when the thick wooden door began to creek. It was like a bubble, ready to burst, with the slightest agitation just begging to occur. All three of them gulped, practically in unison, as the oldest pushed the younger two behind her. Whatever this was, she decided, it would be up to her to stop it; she was a very protective person, after all. Of course, that didn't stop Susan from staring dejectedly at her broken snow globe, as it had been given to her by….Well, she couldn't remember, but that was beside the point. Susan was positive that it had been given to her by someone important, and as of such, she didn't want anyone to hurt it.
Right as she lifted her eyes off of the globe, however, the smashed pieces swimming in a solution of water, that's when the door finally gave. Wood flew across the cabin, hitting the window in a deafening crash, as all three of the girls, even Emily, cried out in sheer terror. Monstrous beasts, the Nightmares, approached them slowly, a laughing man riding on top of the largest one.
"Well, well, well…Don't you girls know that it's rude to leave a guest outside?" Pitch jeered, joking, a habit that was unusual for him, "You don't have parents, do you know? They abandoned you, hating you all from the very day you were born, Susan…I ought to put you out of your misery!"
Pitch laughed, watching the girls squeeze their eyes in terror, as his ferocious horses marched forward briskly. He hopped down from his mount, dust dancing up from the floor where he stepped, all the while smiling cruelly down at the three. However, one of his assumptions was wrong; one of the girls was not filled with fear. That was the center of Pitch, the thing that made him who he was, and somehow, it had failed him in this most mysterious case.
"Boogeyman!" Susan, startled, shouted out, "Em, Abby…It's the boogeyman! Look!"
"He's real?" Emily whispered, slowly opening her eyes as well, to find that Pitch Black was staring gleefully at her, only a mere foot away.
"Oh yes, he's very real," Pitch chuckled, enjoying his game of cat and mouse, "He'd also appreciate it for you to believe in him! To fear him! Is that too much to ask, precious little Emily?"
Small tears started to brew in Emily's eyes, much to the despair of her two sisters. It was very rare for things to scare her, as she was always so quiet, so silent, that nothing seemed to ever affect her. Not even the drunken tirades of their uncle, a man who never believed in anything, had been able to shake her too much…Or so they had thought.
"Leave her alone!" Abigail shouted, trying to stare Pitch down, to no avail.
He simply laughed in her face, a cold cackle, that would send chills running down the spines of the strongest men. Pitch enjoyed these three girls, so much that he would decidedly love blotting out their lights, taking away some more power from the Guardians—them and that so called neutral party, Jack Frost. Once he was done—once fear ruled the world—he'd remember this moment fondly…After all, it brought joy to his heart, the one that beat for no man, any man but himself, of course.
"And what are you going to do about it, Abigail?" he taunted, twirling a strand of her blonde hair around his cold fingers, cackling with wicked delight, "I know what you're afraid of! You're afraid of the truth—everyone hates you! No one is going to remember you, girlie! Silly child! Why else do parents abandon their young, besides not wanting them?"
Abigail's eyes watered, as she stared at the floor, feeling utterly defeated and helpless. Her sister, Emily was too fearful to comment, wordlessly looking ahead, and wishing that this was just a very bad dream. Her wish would be granted, no doubt, but it would certainly never end; or so, that is what Pitch believed. Already, the lights of those two sisters had started to dim, as Pitch dragged their worst fears to the forefront of their minds. His laugh escalated, feeling more power being drawn towards him, while the Guardians grew weaker by the minute. Victory, Pitch believed, would soon be in his grasp; he didn't think that the Man in the Moon could do anything now to stop him.
But alas, the third sister had not yet been broken. She was staring down, towards the shattered snow globe, trying to remember just who had given it to her. While Pitch thought it was a look of dejection, suggesting that her light would be soon to fade as well, it was more of a look of determination. Had the Tooth Palace still been bustling with activity, someone would have let her remember what she needed; sadly, that was not the case…
"I'm not scared of you," Susan announced, stepping aside from her sisters stubbornly.
Pitch paused, as Susan stared him straight in the eye, her deep blue eyes showing no sign of deceit. He growled in fury, shoving Emily and Abigail roughly aside, not caring as they were hurled into the rough wall of the cabin. All he wanted, now, was for this girl's light to go out; he couldn't truly be content until it was.
"What did you say, Susan?" Pitch spat, starring her down with the most monstrous of glares.
Susan faltered for a moment, staring down at the snow globe once more. She knew how easy it would be to stop believing right now, to give into Pitch, and be left alone. Yet unlike her other sisters, she, she was stubborn; she wasn't going to let herself be pushed around. And in the end, some would say that the neighbors were right—that it was Susan's fault for Pitch killing the three sisters.
For Susan did what no one else in that room could; she stood up to him, truly, and forced him to come to a horrible conclusion. If he was to be able to take off these three lights, he would have to kill these children. It was the unthinkable, something that one would only threaten, yet the general public didn't believe that Pitch would ever be able to do. After all, it's just the boogeyman, nothing to be afraid of…Nothing at all.
"Sweet dreams, girls," Pitch muttered, before doing just that.
Three lights dropped off of the globe, forever…
The three sisters were practically forgotten, as all in the world continued on with the celebrations. Mainly, it was the children that knew what was going on, why the golden dust in the air seemed so delicate that night; all of the adults, spare a select few, were rendered clueless. Including the uncle, who had not yet returned home from the bar; it was probable that he never would, alas.
From all of the chaos that had occurred that day, the little ones had been exposed to the cold, the roof of their house being ripped off by the thunderous forces of the Dark. Not that anyone would have noticed, as people seldom traveled to see them, fearing that one of Susan's famous accidents would occur in their presence. It was only one person, one kind soul, who actually learned of the fates of the girls, and decided to do something about it.
He was none other than the Man on the Moon.
Taking pity on the girls, he knew that they were one of the only deaths caused by this catastrophe. He knew that it was not fair to leave them there, lying in the softly falling snow, with no family even acknowledging that they'd been alive. He then took their final moments into account, remembering the center of each one of them, before affirming his decision. If he was to make the wrong choice, it would turn from a reward to a punishment; that wasn't something that he was fond of doing.
It was fairly easy for him to place Abigail and Emily, whispering to them their new names, before sending them off to their respective homes. He didn't need them around anymore, and wished that they would get started as soon as they could. There was a high chance that one of the three would become a Guardian one day, as the threat of Pitch, he knew, would always be there. It was the same as the balance between good and evil; he couldn't dare disrupt it anymore, without having harmful results to fear.
However, the Man on the Moon wasn't sure what to do with the third sister…He couldn't find a place for her to fill, somewhere where her center would be able to truly shine. While in other cases, he might have just decided against transforming her, he still felt guilty for the end to her life. He owed it to her, or at least, that's what his heart told him; it must have been true, alas. Glancing at the ground, in which the crippled form of Susan rested, he finally saw the answer. Smiling to himself, he began to do his work, remaking the girl into someone else….Someone new…
Someone named Blitz…
