Shadows Nipping At Your Nose

by Cassandra Telford

What if Jackson Overland had never fallen through the swiftly cracking ice over a pond in Burgess, Massachusetts? What if he had never become Jack Frost? Would there just never be a Winter Spirit or would the Man in the Moon have chosen someone else instead?

1. Prologue

The full moon hung low over a small colonial town where two particular children slept, children who would change the world, one sooner than the other.

Everything is in place now. Tomorrow will be the day. It is indeed a shame, but the world is going to need him, and he is going to need the motivation, the inspiration. I do not know what will happen to the girl. She will be devastated and this will change her life. But my concern cannot be with her. He has to be chosen, and in this way. He will not hesitate to save her. It is unfortunate, but he will have to find this memory later on. Remembering her, it will give him the strength he needs to return to the fight. She may never know it, but her existence will lend power to those who will protect the world from a new and vast darkness. Perhaps it is cruel for it to happen this way, but that I cannot change. Tomorrow will mark the death of Jackson Overland. Tomorrow night, Jack Frost will be born.

As the moon touched down on the west horizon, the sun slowly rose on the east, bringing with it a day that, unbeknownst to humankind, would eventually change the world.