Jackson Nickolasovich Overland had a very normal life. He was a normal 13-year-old in 7th grade. He remembered when all his worries were a science project that he procrastinated on for a few months1. He never had to worry about the different ways he can die; starvation, murdered, and bitten. He never had to fully take care of his little sister. His mother and father were always there to help. Even when it seemed like only one of them was there for him. He never had to walk for days, only eating a can of food per day, and starving for the rest of the day. Nor had he ever felt this pressured and anxious from all the bad things in the world, since he always had his parents blanketing and comforting him from worries like these. That didn't even seem to exist back then.

He misses that point of time. Now he walks by the ghosts of the past. Either it be a toy left in the middle of the road or a name tag still attached to one of these "ghosts." They're called ghosts because they reflect how people once were like, but even that feels like it was a decade ago, when children walked with parents to the park, and people traveled to work and school. All living their own separate and unique lives, yet almost hum a similar rhythm to one another.

So much has changed since then. And so much was changing before then. He's always reminded about when he felt like his world was falling apart in spate halves, and being torn in two different directions. Than when he thought he thought the worst thing that could happened, happened. Now though, he realizes, that those problems, those mountains he had to climb helped him today. Even though each problem left him feeling less complete. He realizes that after each problem, he grew. He grew and adapted. He adapted to a better version of himself, or what he believes is a better version.

Now though, he feels like he pushed himself too far. He doesn't know feel like himself anymore. And he doesn't know how he survived, and how anyone would've survived what he went through. Now here he is, walking, walking away from a very dark place…

He does know that, that whatever were to happen he'll keep adapting. If not for his survival than for the last person in his world. Emma, his little sister. She, like him, like every little girl was like back then. Now though, she has seen so much in the last few months. Even she is different, and hurting. He can't even get her the help she needs…

She was an adorable little girl. Just like him, a child with no care in the world. Nothing to fear with her older brother and parents to care for her. Than all that changed. And it changed drastically in a short amount of time. No longer do they have a mother, and their father was already too far for them to lean on, before this hell started. Than her brother wasn't there for a while.

In that moment of time. Emma finally processed that the world changed. It became a living hell. No longer is it safe enough to walk outside. No longer will she ever see her mother. Even her brother, Jack, is different. He no longer looked like her brother. His hair changed to shockingly white color, and his eyes, they became blue. A color that seemed to haunt her family before. And he became a hauntingly pale color. He no longer gave her the warmth that she craves for in this new world.

She still knows that she can always rely on him, but for how long? Will he disappear again? Will he be like Papa, and leave willingly? Will he no longer be around like Mama? All these questions pop-up in her head. Always there haunting her like the ghosts that walk. A reminder that this world has changed.

Forever she'll be a little girl haunted and tormented in this new hell of a world. And she'll forever have to live with the war going on in her head. She has these new emotions and new feelings that she has to get used to. Like hunger, and fear that eats at her soul. Than the memories. The memories that are always present. She's not like her brother. She can't adapt as proficiently as he does. Her only option is to keep living as she had before, even when living is a hard thing to be done... If not for herself, then for the hope of her brother. The hope that he'll be the same person as he once was. A child, like herself. With eyes that shone wonder, and NOT one of fear. She dreams that he will get better and be himself again. Not this ghost of himself.

That one day he'll be as he once was. Both of them will be as they were. Children. With filled with hope, dreams, new happy memories, and wonder. That one hurt them, and not filled with this amount of anxiety, and fear. To once again have a family, that they can lean on and learn from.

This was a reference to /Xr30elcjhVE it's a Rise of the Guardians crack video. I saw it years ago. And thought it would be funny to mention it on here.

Okay it's been years since I've last posted. Or for some this is the first time that I posted. I wrote this fanfic years ago. And now at my more matured age, and with my better known literature. I came back to re-write this story for a third time. Yes, third time. With this new re-write I'm actually happy with what I wrote. It's going to be a bit more different than what I first wrote it as. Different doesn't mean bad, and in this case it's better than before.

To the people, I'm going to be taking off the story and putting this one up, and with new chapters coming soon, and this time I'll keep on trying to update, and not like last time. I actually have more of a plan on what to do.