I named this after I wrote it. The Title is::
Yes.
During the course of his 300 years in, basically isolation, Jack Frost had learned of other spirits. Whispers on the wind, he liked to call them. He'd had very few interactions, most lasting only minutes, and then he would go years before seeing anyone who could see him in turn.
He had heard of the Easter Bunny, he had heard of the Tooth Fairy, he had heard of the Guardians. He'd met the Sandman maybe once, not even directly, and he'd made the Easter Bunny furious that one Sunday in '68. But other than that, all Jack ever really got were stories from people who couldn't see him.
When he first came around he'd heard of the Boogeyman a lot. He'd never seen him, just as he'd never seen the Tooth Fairy, but he knew they were there. It hurt him that none of them ever sought him out, or spoke to him when he sought them out.
He had never thought to try finding the Boogeyman. The stories he had heard were always bad ones. He was afraid to cross paths with someone that frightened people for, well, a living.
He had only caught a glimpse of him. Once. And that was pure happenstance. If he hadn't decided to watch the lunar eclipse that one night he would have never even known that the Boogeyman was, in fact, a man and not some horrible monster that tried to eat little girls. The stories certainly made him out to be so.
It had been oh, about one hundred twenty seven years after he had come to existence, and it was a very, very chilly night. He had heard people telling their children of the lunar eclipse to happen that night, and may of the young ones were scared. They thought the moon would never come back.
He had just happened to land on a hill to coat the grass in snow for sledding, when he stopped at a dark shadow passing over him. Blinking up, he saw the moon being shrouded by the shadow of darkness, and suddenly the world was black. It lasted only for a second, and the light returned, but when it did, Jack felt like he wasn't alone. Like there was… something there. He couldn't really figure out what.
He heard a girl crying and telling her mother that there was a man standing out there on the hill. At first Jack had gotten his hopes up and thought she meant him. But looking to the girl, he found her pointing to a hill a little ways to his left. Following her finger, Jack jumped backwards a few steps seeing a tall, sinister looking figure standing atop the hill.
He had stared at him- Jack remembered that. He had just stared, unable to believe that he was actually there. But that wasn't the most unbelievable part. What had happened next was what Jack would never ever forget.
The dark man called out, "You there… What's your name…?"
Jack blinked and glanced around, searching to see if he was addressing anyone else. His eyes fell on the little girl.
"No, not her," the dark man said, stepping down the hill a little ways. Jack still couldn't much make out his features, but he was indefinitely frightened. "I was talking to you," the man said calmly.
He had swallowed, but his mouth had still felt dry. Jack remembered that. He choked out an answer, he had to clear his throat once for his voice to work. "J-Jack Frost…" he replied.
The man scoffed quietly. "Ah, yes, I've heard of you…" he said. Jack felt like his heart had lit up he had been so overjoyed. Not only could this man see him, but he had heard of him! He knew him!
Bouncing a little on his toes, Jack called out, "Who're you? Where'd you hear of me?"
The man chuckled lightly. "You're new, aren't you…?" he had commented to himself, "I'm the Boogeyman, child, and I've heard of you from the shadows and the darkness…"
Jack remembered taking a step back out of fear. The Boogeyman. The one who kids ran to their mothers crying about. This was him! He remembered backing up again, and he remembered falling and landing on his butt. And Jack remembered hearing the Boogeyman laughing at him.
"And when did you come about, hmm?" the man called to him, offering him no assistance as Jack pushed himself back up, "How many years have to been in on this little game?"
"Game?" Jack repeated, looking thoroughly confused.
The man sighed. "How long has it been since you were first awoken, Frost?" he asked, making his question plainly clear.
"Oh," Jack said, smiling a little, "I've been here for a hundred and twenty seven years!"
Again, he remembered hearing him scoff. "You're still only a child…" he had said.
Jack frowned. "I am not!" he had shouted, "I've been here for over a century!"
The man laughed, shaking his head, and had turned and begun to walk away. Jack remembered being scared that he was leaving. And he remembered jumping forward to call him back.
The Boogeyman had stopped. "What is it?" he asked, as if he knew Jack was about to call to him.
Jack froze up. Swallowing nervously, he asked, "Where… Where are you going?"
"Away," the Boogeyman replied, turning a little ways towards him, "I'm going home." Jack shifted a little nervously. "I suggest you do the same…"
"Oh, I don't have a home," Jack said, bouncing onto one foot and spreading a little snow over the hill, "I just go wherever the wind takes me… Well, no, I guess my pond is my home… But it doesn't have a roof, so that's not technically a home…"
He blinked up and noticed the man was just standing there. Jack laughed awkwardly, only one single laugh, and cleared his throat uncomfortably. He had said too much.
"So… So, uh, is the Boogeyman like, your actual name, or is that just what they all call you?" he asked, going on after, saying, "Cuz, cuz sometimes people call me Old Man Winter, but that's not my name, but it's still nice, cuz they know I'm here, sorta…"
He coughed nervously again. He had said too much, once more… He smiled weakly. "So is Boogeyman your name?" he asked again, hoping he wasn't making a terrible impression, though he probably already had.
"No," the man had replied, "Boogeyman is only one of the many names I've been given…"
"You have other names?" Jack asked, sounding too excited. He remembered feeling stupid after asking that. He sounded so eager to know.
The man took a step toward him. "Yes…" he said, hissing it out slowly. Jack had felt like he was contemplating him, like the Boogeyman had been trying to figure him out. "But you asked what my actual name was…" he said, pulling Jack's train of thought back to his original question.
"Oh, yeah," Jack said, "What is it?" He leaned on his staff a little, smiling hopefully.
"It's Pitch," the man said quietly, "Pitch Black…"
Jack grinned brightly. "That's cool! It's like, like a play on words!" he said, hopping a little, feeling oh so proud of himself for getting it, "Cuz, cuz you go around in the pitch black of night and give kids nightmares and, and you're all dark and mysterious and scary and stuff!"
He remembered stopping after that, because now he could see his face. He remembered stopping when he saw that the face was human, and not gargoyle or monster like he had always pictured. He remembered blinking and looking over his face a couple of times.
He remembered that Pitch was staring at him as if he were some puzzle that he just couldn't figure out. Jack worried that he was making an idiot of himself.
"You really are young, aren't you?" Pitch had said. Jack blinked back, feeling his cheeks frost over in embarrassment. Mostly because he didn't understand the question, or er, statement. He had no way of responding to that. And he remembered feeling embarrassed about that.
Pitch blinked at him, whispering, "You're just a child…" Jack shifted nervously, moving his staff from one hand to the other.
"How did you come about?" Pitch asked, "Where were you born?"
Jack shifted, leaning on his staff. "I came out of a lake," he said, "Well, pond, really… But I just... floated up out of the water… And then the moon told me my name was Jack Frost… And… And that was it…"
He remembered Pitch had looked up at the moon when he had mentioned it. He remembered Pitch looking confused when he looked back at him. "The moon chose a child…" he had whispered, looking at him.
"So… so you're the Boogeyman, huh…?" Jack had said to ease out of the silence. He remembered how quiet it had been. He needed to break that quiet. And that was the best he could think of.
Pitch had straightened out, and Jack could no longer see his face. He began backing away, into the shadows, and he had simply said, "Yes…"
Jack had offered a small smile, and he had said, "Well… See ya, I guess…" And Pitch vanished. And that was the first time Jack had met the Boogeyman.
Over another hundred years later Jack had been taken to the North Pole, supposedly as a Guardian. North had been telling him about how he was chosen.
North said, "Now, no more wishy washy. Pitch is out there doing who knows what!"
Jack had felt a sting of recognition at that name. It had been ages since he had heard any of the humans talking about the Boogeyman. This was probably the first time since their meeting that he'd heard anyone mention him.
And he found it kind of funny. He thought maybe North was kidding. Nobody had talked about him. He thought that maybe the Boogeyman was dead. So he had questioned with a light chuckle, "You, you mean the, the Boogeyman?"
And North said yes.