Hades' Garden, Chapter 1
I swear I'm going to kill Pitch.
The demon took Jamie. That is a serious offense in my very small rulebook. Nobody messes with my little brother.
I found a note on his bed from Pitch, and after reading it, I was really disturbed.
Dear Jack Frost,
I currently have your favorite believer.
He is currently bleeding one drop of blood per second, after losing a fourth of a cup. By the time you'll have this, he'll only have a couple pints of blood left.
Nothing I can't fix… For a price.
I'm afraid that you'll have to hurry, Jackson, before he dies and then nobody can help the child.
Devil's speed.
Pitch
I was officially pissed after reading that.
There were no other options then to go to the bastard.
No one else could help me now.
North is incapacitated combat wise (I swear he's manic-depressive, and that his depressive mode is from one month to two months after Christmas), Bunny's working on Easter (it's early this year), Tooth's busy as always, and I don't want to jeopardize Sandy's health… Not after last time.
I have Baby Tooth to help me, at least. She can always get the others if need be. Tooth was able to get Baby Tooth to become almost like my personal assistance, my ever-present sidekick. I'm forever grateful to Tooth for that.
I look at Baby Tooth, grinning with an adrenaline high coming on.
"Are you ready?"
She looks at me with this exasperated look, her eyes glaring accusingly.
"I know, I know," I say, chuckling slightly.
"You're always ready."
With that, I take off into the sky.
I eventually stumble upon Pitch's lair when I realize something. My eyes open wider at the scene.
There are flowers there.
Gems and magic permeate the air with weird exotic smell. I shake my head to clear my sinuses of the heady air making its way to my brain.
I continue wandering around the garden when I realized I almost forgot about Jaime.
With that thought I scramble around the garden frantically to find Jaime.
When I finally see Jaime I'm afraid I'm too late. There is so much blood on the ground. Then I see that as each droplet hits the ground, the flowers come skyrocketing out of the soil. The sight makes me sick.
The beauty of the flowers is great, but it's not worth anyone's blood. Especially Jaime's.
I see restraints going around Jaime's hands and waist and I start to break them when I hear a deep throated laugh.
Pitch. Just the man I was wanting to see.
Pitch just stood there, and called out to me.
"It's no use Jackson, only I can undo those bounds."
I decide to ignore him and continue anyway.
Then a twinge of pain begins to travel up my body. I grunt, and continue. The pain continues to get worse and worse. It's so bad now I can barely breathe.
"Pitch, what did you do?" I growl through clenched teeth.
"You should inspect your postage more, Frost." Pitch's voice remains neutral. Devoid of anything.
"What did you do?" I scream, hormones getting the better of me. I'm swept in the moment. I needed that release of pain.
"I believe that you failed to notice that the ink in that letter was infused with nightmare sand."
I gasp. With a discrete gesture I ask Baby Tooth to contact North to get a room in the medical wing at the Pole ready for Jamie.
I lean on my staff, blocking Pitch's view of the fairy leaving.
Success.
Then, I realize that Pitch is still talking to me.
"Every breath you take will enhance your pain. Until you die or do as I say. Besides, I have a deal for you Frost."
I'm willing to do anything at this point, but I don't want Pitch to do that.
"What?" I spit. Venom is etched in the simple interrogative. Just how I wanted it.
"You just need to eat these seeds." Pitch holds out ten pomegranate seeds. They were blood red.
"No!" I say. "Jamie's blood is in that!"
"He'll die if you don't!" Pitch hisses.
With a reluctant air, I take the seeds and eat them. I feel the ten of them go down my throat with fire burning my esophagus.
"What did you!" I scream once more.
Pitch doesn't stay around to answer and melts into the blanket of shadows surrounding his lair.
I ignore him, vowing to kill him later.
Jamie is my first priority right now.
I hurry over to the place where he's bound. I freeze his bonds, then unfreeze them, breaking them. I pick up Jamie and fly with him in my arms to North's. I don't have the equipment here to treat him.
I look at his skin, looking for where his blood was bleeding from. Then I see his wrists. There were tiny prick marks from his bonds. I gnash my teeth, mad at Pitch.
Then, I travel to the North Pole.
"North!" I yell, hoping the Guardian of Wonder will be alerted to my presence.
He comes, bumbling out of a random room in the Workshop and sees Jamie.
No questions are asked and he immediately helps me with a new aura of kindness surrounding him.
"Thank you," I mumble when he gets Jamie hooked up to all the medical equipment. I move over to a rocking chair and sit down. I don't realize how tired I am until a fall asleep.
I can hear North distantly picking me up and tucking me into a spare bed in Santoff Claussen.
He smoothes my tousled hair. I can envision him smiling.
"Good night, child."
I don't remember anything else as the lights in my eyes are killed.
I wake up at midnight with an ache in my stomach.
The pomegranate seeds!
Oh my gosh.
I completely forgot about them.
I start retching up some of them in a toilet, quietly as not to disturb anyone else. Besides, I don't need help. This is private. I don't want people worrying over me.
I wretch up seven seeds. I didn't see how many seeds Pitch force-fed me, I just have to hope I got them all.
I trip my way over to my temporary room and fall asleep, exhaustion from barfing taking over me.
-One Month Later-
I wake up in the morning, my head still a little warm. Hey, that's normal though…
Wait, what?
I go hurry to a mirror and scream.
Although my eyes are the same color, my hair is brown. Streaks of white are fighting to stay, while the brown is overtaking it.
I put my hand slightly away from my face. I can feel heat emanating off the skin of my cheek.
I look and see that my skin is lightly tanned; my cheeks look a little flushed, but nothing is uncomfortable.
Now is not the time to hold on to pride. I can see it.
I storm into the globe room looking for North and some explanations.
Maybe he can tell me.
A/N: FILLER CHAPTER ALERT! Haha! Sorry. This story is picking up really fast. Hehe! I have so many surprises.
