"Jack!" The girl cried out as her brother fell through the thin ice. She scrambled helplessly towards it, forgetting the danger and plunged one hand into the icy depths to try and reach for the boy who had saved her from this fate. It was in vain, she cried out loudly for her mother who appeared at the door in an instant. She rushed over to her daughter, pulling her back from the frozen pond even as the girl struggled.
"We have to help Jack!" The girl cried out in anguish, but the woman knew there was nothing that could be done. Her son was gone, beyond help that anyone in the village could offer...
300 Years Later
The winters were always bitter cold. Especially in Burgess, a town that was said to be haunted by the vengeful spirit of Jack Frost. Jamie Bennett, a young boy of eight who lived in said town, was fascinated by the story. Most adults shrugged it off like they did tales about the Boogeyman, but Jamie had heard the tale from one of his friend's older siblings. The boy had been trying to scare the eight year olds and had managed, but since that time Jamie had spent his time at the library and online trying to research everything he could about the infamous Jack Frost... or as most called him, Jakoul. Jamie had spent nearly every waking moment trying to find out more and more, much to the irritation of his skeptical friends who were doubting that even the Easter Bunny existed much less Jack Frost. Jamie sat in his room, a book on myths and legends clutched in his hands; it was specifically one that held the tale of Jack Frost. He'd read it so many times he knew it by heart, the fact that so many books held the same story, despite not all of them were published by people who had lived in Burgess at one time or another, was what made Jamie believe that Jack really did exist. After all, how could a town nearly five thousand miles have the same sort of tale about Jack Frost that was known around Burgess? Sure the Internet made transferring information fast, but there were so many different tales of Jakoul, sometimes called Jack Frost, that Jamie didn't think it was a coincidence. As far as he knew, Jakoul's real name was Jack; a boy who had drowned one winter in the pond that Jamie lived by. Local legend said that the town's local prankster had died saving his sister, but that when he'd come back as a winter spirit he had retained only his love for playing pranks. Pranks that had started out innocently enough but had progressed over the years to become more and more malevolent. No one knew why that was. No matter how many tales he read or heard, no one had an answer for the question that circled the youth's mind. Why had Jack gone from a playful spirit to one that caused death and destruction? Jamie pondered this as he glanced over to his window. It was snowing again, which meant that no one would be out after dark... well, no one who either wasn't facing a real emergency of some kind or who didn't have a death wish. Anyone who was foolish enough to venture outside after dark when it snowed was never heard from again. Some people said it was because Jack killed them, others said it was because he kidnapped them; the truth of that was just about as far from Jamie's reach as the answer as to why Jack had become Jakoul.