Prologue: Pitch

250 years ago...

Pitch walked along the darkness of a cave. He found comfort in its great chasm - in its darkness. The chasm was so hollow and felt like there was no end, just a deep and lovely abyss. Not too long ago the cave was, in fact, lit. The cave was not lit with light from miners holding torches but children; children too fearless for their own good. They crept into the cave with lanterns in hand, ready to explore as well as hunt for riches. The careless children did not know just how fragile the cave was; how one rock out of place could cause disaster. And so, the cave betrayed them.

The Nightmare King sighed disappointedly at the memory as he continued his pace through the rocks and rubble, a hand lightly sliding on the walls as he made his way through. Pitch was here for a very special reason: an innocent child had died in the shadows. He knew this when he heard the sound of young screams echo in the darkness when the cave started to shake. The two kids who ventured inside, a boy and a girl, were certainly frightened by the darkness and how the cave had started to cave in. Their lanterns had been crushed by a fallen rock when they had foolishly set it down for just a moment which left them to be covered by darkness. The boy and girl called out for help in the direction they had come from. Soon after the screams had hushed, the cave in had ceased and the rumbling had quieted, leaving solemn silence. Pitch lurked in the shadows, accepting their inevitable death. He searched through the cave, and so far, he found no trace of the children.

This is peculiar… The bodies of the children had vanished and now I have nothing to use to turn into fearlings with. But I know someone had died, they were in the darkness – I sensed it he pondered looking around. The light from the moon had shone down from a shaft in the ceiling made from a fallen rock. The light was immensely brighter this time, he recognised the intensity. The moon had never shone so brightly at one specific place for a long time… not in fifty years at least… Pitch thought and the realisation had come to him. He backed into the shadows and reappeared further below. Pitch found a young girl, but not the one he was looking for - she was too young, this one was a teenager. As he looked up to the moon he recognised his old friend was doing what he did fifty years ago: raising a child from the dead.

Pitch turned in disgust at the sight of the moon taking another one from the darkness, his darkness. He started to wonder if the moon even accepted death to anyone lower than the age of twenty anymore. But putting that thought behind, he had a new plan: to take back the Man in the Moon's latest reincarnation. Pitch had already seen him take a young boy, he now knows is Jack Frost, from his darkness and was not about to let the moon take another. But rather than transform what could be a very powerful individual, he simply waited for the right time to interrupt; preferably when she has already received her powers.

The light from the moon was shimmering; it acted like an enchanted spotlight for the girl who was slowly coming back to life. Her chest was gently beginning to rise and fall as she started to breathe once again. Still lying on the ground, her head began to shift and turn to face the sky. Lightly, her eyelids started to flutter and faintly open as if she is waking from a dream.

To the right of her arm was a rod that was connected to a short chain that was attached to a …lantern? The lantern rod seemed to be simply crafted but sturdy. Pitch observed at the way her arm and hand were positioned: it seemed that the rod was knocked out of her grasp. All of a sudden, the girl's fingers to twitch; absentmindedly, her right hand tapped the rod that was beside her. The lantern was immediately illuminated.

Pitch stepped back abruptly from the unexpected brightness. He realised that that the lantern lighting up was not some sort of coincidence, but a sign of what the girl was capable of: she could control and bestow light. The Boogeyman sneered at this display of power, of all the beings to abduct… Pitch thought as he stared at the moon in spite. I should've expected that you'd do something like this to me, old friend. But worry not; there are other ways to snuff out the light.

He turned his focus back to the girl – she was beginning to float towards the sky. The winds howled and made its way down into the chasm where all this was taking place. All the dust and dirt were blown off from the teenager's olive skin as the ruble and rocks slipped off her hair and body. Pitch knew that the time to strike was coming fast; he just had to wait a little while longer. Finally, her hair was about to change its colour: what used to be dark, chestnut brown roots had begun to transform into light blue. That was when Pitch had decided to interfere.

"Fearlings! Nightmares!" Pitch called out, summoning his monsters. They appeared in swarms from the shadows that surrounded the young girl who was still basking in the spotlight.

They covered the moon's light from entering as well as putting out the light from the lantern, leaving the girl to be gently placed down on the cave floor in their shadows. She shut her eyes tight as if she was a child suffering from a nightmare. Her hair's light blue hue, turned into jet black and her skin from her original olive to pale beige. Fear intercepted the moon's radiance and it was physically taking its toll on the girl. Pitch smiled at his work: successfully overwriting what used to be an entity of the Man in the Moon's magic into something of his own creation. The nightmares and fearlings observed the young girl who was starting to regain consciousness.

The girl was finally waking up. She wearily tried to make out her surroundings in the darkness before she touched the lantern, causing it to illuminate brightly once more and even cause a bit of harm some to the monsters she didn't know were around her. The sudden illumination made her jump but she soon eased into picking up the rod with the dangling lantern. She looked curious by its light. Realising that the lantern seemed to have lit up at her touch, she poked at the air and a glowing sphere of light appeared where her finger had poked, floating. Excitement and wonder welled in the girl's unnatural, white eyes at the sight of her own capabilities.

"Ah, you've awaken." Pitch said stepping out of the shadows.

The girl stood up and hoisted the rod up on a slant with both hands, as if it was some sort of flail; the light she had just created extinguished and vanished quickly. "Who are you?" she said cautiously, the happiness disappearing from her. The lantern was bright enough to show that she was wearing very simple clothes: a white cotton shirt and a cloth, ankle-length, pale, pink skirt.

"Now, now, no need to be hostile." He said with his hands slightly raised in a surrendering manner to reassure her. "My name is Pitch and who might you be?"

"Uh…" she looked to the ground, a little unsure as she eased the grip on her lantern's rod and let it rest on her shoulder, "My name's Willa. At least I'm pretty sure that's what my name is."

Pitch tilted his head in an almost worried confusion, "unsure of your own name?"

"Well it's the only thing I can remember up until now; just a voice calling out that name, but really nothing else besides that." Willa answered.

"No family or home?" he asked as his eyes started to soften.

"No. I… I don't remember anything besides a voice. It's almost like I haven't existed until now. Do you know what I'm even doing in a place like this?" she asked as she looked around the chasm they were both standing in.

Pitch started to slyly smile at how he can use this girl to his advantage. He just had to choose the right words, "Well, I should introduce myself more clearly. I am, to put it shortly, fear." He saw Willa step back but continued anyway, "Wait, I'm not going to hurt you. In fact, I can protect you."

"Protect me?"

"Of course, many young children do foolish, foolish things because of how 'fearless' they are. If children could learn to be a little more cautious, accidents can have been prevented. A touch of fear never hurt anyone."

"I guess that's true…" Willa replied half-heartedly. "Sorry but, what does this have to do with me?"

"Willa, because of who I am I've come to know many people and many unfortunate calamities that have occurred - mostly ones from lack of fright." He looked down on her solemnly. "Oh, if only they knew to be more careful."

Willa was very curious at that statement, "They? Who's 'they'?" she asked taking a step closer to the Nightmare King.

Pitch took a deep sigh, "Willa, I'm afraid to tell you this but," his voice was low, "You're here because you died."

The girl holding the lantern stepped back in shock and disbelief. She was absolutely stricken with surprise and sadness. Regaining some strength, she looked back up at Pitch. "I- I died? But how did it happen? How am I even here in the first place if I died? How would you know that?" questions spilled from her like an avalanche.

"Slow down!" Pitch alarmingly commanded. After returning to his calm composure he continued, "I am fear remember? I know everyone and know when someone has been left in the dark. Fear will always exist but unfortunately for your situation, there wasn't enough to save you. It was truly tragic, so, I decided bring you back."

"You? You brought me back from the dead?" a glimmer of gratitude appeared in her eyes. "But wait, if I was dead, then I obviously had a life! I was a person who existed before all this! That's why the only thing I know is someone's voice calling out to me. That could have been a friend or a relative I had. Do you know where they are?" she asked eagerly.

The Nightmare King sighed deeply, "I'm afraid to tell you this but, they won't be able to see you. No one will."

The bright emotion that spread across Willa's face dimmed down as a look of pain took over as she heard the heart shattering information. "Wh-what? Why not?"

Pitch's long, thin face expressed genuine sympathy towards her for he knew what it was like to no longer have anyone to care for or be cared by. He reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder, "There's a lot I'll have to explain to you, but I suppose you long for a family, a father, now don't you? I've come to know that longing for quite some time. I've felt how existence could be so empty. But, it doesn't have to be that way for us. " He took his hand off her shoulder and walked in front of Willa to face her, "You can help me spread fear and prevent accidents like yours from happening. In return I can give you a home and neither of us will be completely alone. Would you like to join me?"

Wills considered the grey man's offer. She looked up at those shining, yellow eyes that appeared to be almost pleading at her to follow him.

"All right, I'll go with you."

[1982 words]