~Ember's Story~
~Chapter 1~
Ember was an ordinary girl to the human eye, but she was not like the rest of the world. No, she was far from ordinary. She was very talented, artistic, and saw the world like no other. She could always see the magic in things that usually no one else could, but she could also see the darker side of things. However, Ember kept these things to herself afraid of what others might think of her.
Ember's family never seemed to notice her talents; they just thought she was a normal seventeen year old that liked to keep to herself. They never had much to do with Ember; they weren't exactly a tight nit family. They would usually ignore her and let her do as she wanted, most teenagers would be glad to have this kind of family but Ember wasn't. She wanted to be close to her family, and to do things with them. But that never happened. So she was left to herself, her only true friends being her books and the shadows. Sure Ember had friends, but they never seemed to take much interest in her and tended to ignore her.
So Ember went on with her life as usual, keeping to herself and her thoughts. Writing stories and dreaming of a new life away from her own. Ember loved to dream, it took her to happier places where she could be herself and explore new things. She dreamed that she could create dreams and know how to control them, that she could even create nightmares. She often dreamed of a new family that loved her, and friends that were close to her. She loved to think of a place where she could frolic through meadows and play with the woodland animals, where she could climb the tallest oak tree and swing from branch to branch.
But she knew that her dreams could never come true, and had to wake up to reality once in a while. So she tried to make the best of her life. Making extraordinary grades in school, and trying to lead up to a good future. But she felt her life was empty, and missing something. She tried to ignore the feeling but it always seemed to find its way back to the front of her mind.
One day though, things got even worse for Ember. It had seemed like a normal day to her, it was fall break and she had spent her entire day reading outside. She loved fall, it was nice and cold and the trees had an unnatural beauty to them. Ember would stay outside until it was past dark and the moon was high above her. She loved to watch the moon, she had always seen a magic about it more powerful than anything else. She would always talk to the moon, it made her feel relaxed and comforted. She knew about Tislar Lunar, the man in the moon, and always felt like he would listen to her many thoughts when no one else would. It was true, though Ember didn't completely know it. Tislar Lunar loved to listen to Ember, and knew she was more than an average child.
But this night Tislar Lunar was more focused on another force at hand, Pitch was about and looking for trouble. Ember was just about to go inside for the night after finishing one of her books when she heard a scream from inside her house. The scream sent a shiver down her spine, it was her mother's. Though her family might not have loved Ember, she loved them and grew concerned. So Ember cautiously walked up to her house, she couldn't look through the windows to see what was going on because it was too dark. So she took a deep breath and silently walked inside, trying to listen and see where the scream came from. Ember heard crying from her parent's room and rushed over to see what was happening.
What Ember found made her legs weak; she had to hold the side of the wall to keep from falling. What she saw were fearlings, there long ghostly figures over her parents. They were killing them, fearlings were known for giving nightmares but not usually killing their victims. Ember had to put a hand over her mouth from screaming, she wanted to do something but she didn't know how to fight off a fearling. She had read a lot about them, but never did the books mention how to fight one off.
One last shriek escaped her mother's mouth and both her parents where dead just like that. It took all the strength that Ember had not to collapse to the floor, her parents where dead. She would never see them again, the emptiness inside her grew. Fear flooded her body as she tried to get closer to her parents. But the fearlings smelt her fear, and turned to her. They had a bone chilling laugh to them as they crept closer to Ember and surrounded her, consuming her sight. She didn't want to die, even if her life was meaningless her worst fear was death.
"Please, I don't want to die" Ember sobbed. Her fear consumed her; she was terrified of the end. She didn't want to leave the world. But the only thing keeping Ember from being fully consumed by fear was her loss. All she had really wanted in life was to have someone who cared for her, a family. But know that was taken from here. The loss filled her, keeping the fear at bay. Ember fell to her knees, and put her head in her hands. She sobbed tears of sorrow and from the fear of death, they fell down her cheeks making her face wet.
Her sobbes caught someone's attention though, Pitch Black. He could tell that she wasn't crying from just her fear, but from her longing for a family. An idea instantly popped into his head making him smirk. He had watched Ember since she was a child, knowing she was different from the other children and that she could do great things. He had always wanted to make Ember his, but never had an opportune moment. But know he had one, and he wasn't about to let that chance go.
So Pitch let the fearlings close in around Ember, consuming her with dread and making her feel helpless. Ember tried to keep herself calm, but it was useless. She muffled a tiny scream through gritted teeth; she needed to get out of here.
"Help, someone please help me" Ember begged in a tiny voice barely audible through the shrieking fearlings. After another moment Pitch finally decided to help her, ready to make his move.
Pitch stepped out of the shadows making himself tall and menacing. As soon as he approached Ember the fearlings fled back to the shadows, cowering before their king. It took a moment for Ember to realize that the fearlings had stopped surrounding her, through tear stained eyes she looked around to see what had made the fearlings flee. Her eyes instantly found Pitch, freezing her to where she knelt. Fear coursed through her once more, making her shake uncontrollable. She knew he was a dangerous man and had the highest respect for him, but he was more terrifying than she had ever imagined. But Ember became confused, why did he stop the fearlings from killing her? Pitch usually wasn't the type to be merciful, so why was he saving her from a terrible fate? The questions buzzed around her head, taking her mind off her fear for a minute.
"Hello, Ember" Pitch said as he came to stand over Ember, a smirk on his face.
"T-Thank you…" That was all Ember could manage to say. The sound of her name sent chills up her spine, how did he know her name? Pitch let out a little laugh and extended his hand to her. She hesitated before excepting his hand and he helped her up to her feet, still a little shaky she grabbed the side of the wall she was closest to for support. She wanted to run, but she didn't have the strength to make an attempt.
Suddenly her eyes caught sight of her parents, the longing flooding her once again and tears spilled down her cheeks. She leaned against the wall, her head in her hands.
"Come now Ember, they aren't worth the tears you shed for them. They were heartless people who would have traded your life for theirs in a heartbeat." Pitch taunted as he moved closer to Ember. Ember felt a jab at her heart, she knew Pitch was right. She was wasting her tears on people who never even loved her, but they were still her family.
"I know that you want to be a part of a loving family, Ember. I know what it's like to long for a family to love just as you do. I can help you; I can take you away from this place. You have always wanted to get away haven't you?" Pitch lifted Embers chin so that she would be looking him straight in the face, with his thumb he wiped away one of her tears.
Ember knew that Pitch was right; she wanted to get away from this place and be with a loving family. Pitch was offering her the chance to be with one, and a chance to chase a new dream. Ember nodded yes, she wanted to get away desperately. Pitch smiled, looking Ember up and down.
"I can make your life so much better, and grant you your wishes. I can be the loving father you never had, and you the daughter I never had. Consider it Ember, we could be happy together." Pitch pulled his hand away from Ember and stood looking down at her, waiting to see if she would answer.
Ember couldn't believe she was actually considering Pitch's offer after he just killed her family. But what did she have to loose, she had no friends and no family. If she didn't accept she would be all alone, and probably would be killed by a fearling. Ember went through the offer one more time, and made a decision.
"… Take me away from here." Ember felt a pang of guilt for accepting his offer even after he just killed her parents, but she had a family again. Pitch grinned; it looked eerie on his face. He strode forward and took Ember in his arms.
"This will only take a moment." Ember felt almost safe in his arms, but she was grew scared. Pitch was about to blacken her soul, and there was no going back after that. The darkness enveloped them; she could see nothing but blackness. Her veins throbbed, the blood turning black. She grew cold, like she would never feel warm again. It felt as if someone was ripping at her soul, the darkness was starting to consume her. The pain was so bad she had to cling to Pitch just to keep from falling back down to her knees.
"It hurts." Ember gritted her teeth trying to ignore the pain and focus on the life ahead of her, but it was too much.
"Change always does my dear." Pitch said, kneeling so that Ember wouldn't have to stand. After another moment, Ember was completely blackened. Her soul had been corrupted, and some of her memories forgotten. When she opened her eyes they were no longer in her old house, but in Pitch's lair. The pain was gone, but she felt different.
Ember even looked different; her eyes had gone from green to a silvery color with hints of gold. Her skin was no longer a dark tan, but pale and shadowy. Even her cloths had changed. Instead of wearing shorts and an old band T-shirt, she now wore a long black dress. The hems looked like they disappeared in to the shadows, and the sleeves looked like it was a part of her arm and not a piece of clothing. She even wore a black corset with silver felt like she was in a dream, she never thought that something like this would ever happen to her.
Pitch held out a hand to help her up, and Ember took it. It suddenly hit her that Pitch was now technically her father; she was the daughter of the nightmare king. She could now even make one of her old dreams come true, she could create and control dreams. Excitement filled her as she began to realize this. She quickly sized up her surrounding; it looked to be a cave where an old castle had been sunken into the ground. Random flight of stairs and old crumbling parts of the building stuck out of the ground and walls of the cave, giving the feeling of discord. There were fearlings hiding everywhere in the shadows of the cave, making the gut wrenching screeching sound. Next to Ember was Pitch's globe, tiny lights shone brightly across the face of almost every continent.
Ember brushed off the dirt on her dress and paced around the globe, staring thoughtfully at each light. From each light she looked at she could hear the dreams of each one, some of them happy and some repulsing making her cringe. She remembered being one of the glowing lights, wondering if she was still one of them. But she wasn't sure if being with Pitch had changed anything.
Meanwhile Pitch watched her pace around the globe, reading her every expression. He knew that she would make a fine daughter when it came down to it, but she needed to be trained. Pitch was also concerned about how the Guardians might act when they found out about Ember, surely they would try to fight. But he wasn't completely sure. He walked over to join Ember, sizing her up as he went.
"I can hear there dreams..." Ember didn't truly realize she was talking, she meant for it to be more of a thought than anything. But she ignored it and continued to stare at the light.
"Naturally. Just like the fearlings, you can hear anyone's dreams. You can hear a dream from across the world if you tried hard enough." Pitch turned his gaze to the light, there numbers had grew in the past year. He would be needing Ember's help to get them back down again.
"When will I start to learn how to control their dreams?" Ember tried to nonchalant about it, but inside she was bursting with excitement. She wanted to learn how to make nightmares, and to learn how to shadow travel. Words couldn't describe how eager she was to start learning. However Pitch saw right through Ember, her eyes gave it away. Just like Pitch, her eyes grew golden when they thought of power, when they felt in control, or even just thought of something evil. Her eyes grew a mixed color of silver and gold as she glanced up at Pitch. Pitch merely grinned.
"Darling, we can start this very moment if your so eager." Pitch grinned, he never realized Ember would be so eager to learn. Ember's eyes shown ever brighter at his answer. She returned a grin and nodded her head. "Very well, your first lesson will be shadow travel." Pitch's eyes started to turn gold just as Ember's, he finally had someone. He was no longer alone.
