This is pretty much a one shot that I decided to write after reading the second book in the Guardians of Childhood series. I. Cried. So. Hard. Just to let you know. If you liked Rise of the Guardians READ THE BOOKS. They're amazing.
Anyways, just... Don't hate me! This does contain spoilers, so if you don't like them and read on don't complain to me.
I almost cried writing this. The feels... The feels... I don't even know anymore...
Pitch Black stared up at the mattress. The springs in it creaked above him as the fourteen year old girl tossed and turned in her sleep.
He smiled. Her fear was radiating around him, and he crawled out from under the bed eerily.
He saw the black sand swirling above her head. Her brown hair was plastered to her forehead by a thin coating of sweat. Her eyes were closed tight, a look of sorrow and grief on her face. A book lay fallen on the floor, the other three in the set on her nightstand where she had dozed off reading. Her reading light had long-since turned off automatically. Her hands were clenched tightly into fists, her nails digging into the flesh of her palms.
"Don't open the door." she murmured in her sleep, her covers falling to the floor. Her face twisted in horror.
"No, she's not in there! It's a trick, don't do it!" she exclaimed, and Pitch barely had time to dart into the shadows as she bolted upright, gasping for air. Her hand flew to her chest to steady her heartbeat and her breathing. She took a few deep breaths and closed her dark brown eyes a moment, calming herself.
"It was just a dream. It was just a dream." she whispered to herself as she bent down to pick up the book on the floor, placing it in her lap. She gazed sadly at it. Pitch frowned at the title. Bunnymund and the Warrior Eggs at the Earth's Core. What? He saw the other titles as well. Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King. Toothiana Queen of the Tooth Fairy Armies. The Sandman and the War of Dreams.
His frown deepened as she opened the pages of the one with the roughly drawn Pooka on it.
"He opened the door... And the Fearlings consumed him... And he left her behind... Poor Seraphina. I couldn't bear to lose my dad that way. Or any way." she sighed to the air and closed the book, but Pitch caught sight of the picture, a photograph of a locket with a girl inside it. She shook her head and padded softly into the kitchen, her socked feet making no sound.
She fixed a cup of hot tea and sat at the table. The steaming liquid seemed to give her some comfort as she wiped the remainders of her tears from her eyes.
"I still have to wonder why." she said softly, resting her head on her elbow. She traced meaningless patterns on the table as she thought.
"Sometimes the greatest people meet the worst fates." she concluded.
Pitch's shadow flickered as she walked past and she stopped, dropping her book with a thud. Her bookmark skidded across the floor.
"Who's there?" the words flew from her lips. She looked like she could slap herself for asking the question. Pitch decided to step out, sneering slightly. She backed up a step before leaning down and picking up her book. She gulped slightly.
"Pitch." she greeted stiffly, seeming to know nothing else to do. The fear she felt... Wasn't of him. He couldn't tell what she was scared of, really.
"What are you afraid of?" he asked softly. She straightened up and squared her shoulders.
"I'm not afraid." she said defiantly. He chuckled.
"I know you're afraid of something." he said. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.
"You just can't tell what." she said, and he felt his temper flare at the amusement in her voice. He stepped forward but she didn't flinch.
"I'm not afraid of you, Kozmotis." she said softly. He recoiled as if she'd lashed a whip at him. She held the book close and the teenager gazed at him with the innocence of a child. She looked saddened, with a spark of gentle understanding in her eyes.
"Do you remember anything? Of before you were Pitch Black?" she asked. The confusion on his face answered her question and she opened the book.
"Will you let me read you a story?" she asked, and didn't stop to wait for an answer- she started reading aloud.
Pitch was transfixed as she read Chapter Eight of E. Aster Bunnymund and the Warrior Eggs at the Earth's Core to him aloud, the emotion in her voice so real, as though she were there.
When she voiced the part of the fearlings imitating a little girl her voice changed to match, taking on a terrified tone of voice that chilled Pitch's already cold and cruel heart. It stirred something in the back of his mind, memories that he hadn't known for centuries.
She looked up at him as she finished.
"I don't think you're all that bad. There has to be a bit of the real you in there somewhere." she whispered. A look of anguish crossed his face and he backed away, turning to leave. She darted forward and wrapped her arms around his middle, in a tight hug. She pulled back, tears swimming in her eyes as she stared at his fleeing form. The last thing he heard before melting back into the shadows was
"Good luck, Kozmotis. You can defeat who you've become. I believe in you."