We had come here because we heard rumours that pitch was building an army. We had entered a complex system of caves that had seemed suspicious enough, but knowing Pitch there was nothing overly strange about the setup. Dark, cold, dingy. But we were ambushed. Thousands of nightmares, including some winged and a few giants. They jumped us out of nowhere, as if out of the shadows. Literally, out of the shadows. And the place was all shadows.

The fight looked hopeless for the guardians, The Tooth Fairy sat slumped against a wall, head down. North lay unconscious on the floor. The Sandman was still in commission, but barely; he was desperately fighting the nightmares that tragically outnumbered his own remaining golden creatures. The Easter Bunny had fought valiantly, directly against Pitch, but a deep black wound in his side had put a badly impaired his ability to fight back.

I had stood next to Bunny through the whole fight and I could see he would, and was in the process of, continuing past the point of damaging himself terribly. I brushed a hand gently over his wound, freezing the blood to stop it from flowing. I let more magic flow into it, stretching the extent of my abilities to relax him, slowing his bodies process', almost to the point of unconsciousness. He sat, tranquil, staring up at me but not able to do anything. I looked at him guiltily, knowing that he would probably punch me after this: if I made it through the night. If I were in better shape he would probably be less peeved, but as it was I really wasn't any better of than him. No one of my wounds was really as bad as his but I had taken more hits, including several to the head, and I could feel my consciousness fading.

Pitch smirked at the pathetic sight the two of us made, myself struggling to stay on my feet and Bunny plopped down on the ground, immobile and uncertain. The Boogeyman then turned his attention to the Sandman, who despite his apparent difficulties, didn't seem to be any worse off than he had been. One of Sandy's creatures leaped at pitch and, smirking, he blew a tiny amount of black sand out of his hand onto it. It writhed on the ground momentarily then joined the ranks of the nightmares. Sandy stared in horror as Pitch blew more of his glittering black powder onto the golden ranks of Sandy's dreams. Bunny stared on and I knelt next to him. I watched his eyes droop and his jaw tighten noticeably. He turned away from pitch and I saw him sway slightly. I put a hand behind his back and guided him to the ground. He looked at me momentarily, before blinking once and closing his eyes. I panicked. He couldn't be dead right? I didn't kill him.

But what if I did? How could I live? I wasn't even thinking about how mad the guardians would be. I didn't think about the children who would never search for eggs again, or the future generations who would never experience Easter. All I thought about was myself. I couldn't imagine living without him now. He was the best friend I could ever have. And I might have just killed him. But it wasn't my fault. It was Pitch's fault. He made me do it. So really he killed bunny, right? Pitch killed Bunny.

I didn't try to confide in my best friend. He had gone cold in my arms. I almost started crying. I expected myself to cry. But I didn't. At first all I felt was a shocking sense of cold indifference. I wanted to be sad,. But I couldn't make myself cry. I let bunny fall out of my arms and I stood. I let my neck droop. As I stared at him I felt a sudden crushing sense of hopelessness. I had never felt so empty before. I stood for what felt like a long time and was finally distracted from the giant rabbits cold corpse by sudden silence from the other side of the cave we were in. I watched as the last of Sandy's warriors were struck down, but not without a few nightmare casualties. Pitch withdrew his nightmares and decided to take Sandy down by himself. North had awoken and was helping Tooth to her feet. They couldn't fight yet.

I looked at Pitch's smug face and narrowed my eyes. Had his face looked so funny before? He really had no eyebrows. And his hair was so dumb looking. I felt my bottom jaw start to tremble, almost as if I would cry. But I felt a sick smile tear a chasm in my face. My head swung back. I couldn't make myself hold it up anymore. I laughed louder. He was dead. He was an immortal spirit and he was dead. I could never explain how hilarious that seemed to me. I saw a skeleton mask flash over Pitch's face in my mind and I laughed louder. I was screaming now. Everyone in the room had taken notice. Sandy stared in concern, North in confusion. Tooth looked more confused and concerned than both of them. Even Pitch had turned to look at me. I felt all these eyes on me and suddenly it wasn't funny. I was angry. Why would they stare at me? I turned to them, rolling my neck in a circle. I yelled so my voice would carry across the room.

"He's dead. You killed him."

I felt a sudden rush of anger. Death was staring at me. Why would he stare? It was as if he was making fun of me for not being able to die with Bunny. Or with my family. Why was I alive? Why was he alive? If an immortal could kill an immortal, that meant I could kill him right? I felt a chill run through my body. A sudden rush of power, as if I could kill death itself. And I would. I would kill him this time.

Like he killed me

What? He killed me? No.

But I remember

It was back then

When I was the only one

The first immortal