HI GUYS! I'm posting a second chapter right away because I already had it written out and edited. I honestly hope this story is enjoyable, because it really makes me happy to write a novel. In a way, this is just me fulfilling an aspect of myself which I expect to expand. It would be a plus for you, as the audience, to tell me how you think it's going, but that isn't a necessary factor. I won't stop writing if you don't tell me what's on your mind.
By the way, Finals are almost over at Tyler, so I will soon be able to upload multiple chapters per week. Give me two weeks, possibly? I will still upload one per week, or more if I get excited!
He sat on the metal steps, impervious to their coolness on his limbs. Brows furrowed intently. Completely focussed and unmoving. He nodded slightly, hoping the movement would help him understand.
"What." he said while simultaneously turning his gaze to hers. It wasn't a question, more like a statement to acknowledge that he'd heard her. This was not the question he was prepared to give.
Her eyes stayed glued to him, gleaming with their intensity.
"I don't show myself to anyone I don't want to." she explained, "Therefore, someone put you up to this, and I want to know who."
Jack continued to nodding, face filled with bewilderment and disbelief. "What the hell are you talking about? Of course I can see you."
She jerked forward, setting off a series of high pitched squeaks from the fire escape. "Aha!" she exclaimed, her face now pointed to the night sky.
"I knew it! It must be a part of Sandy's plan, I haven't visited him in a while." she rambled to herself, "But why would he send a human to me? Knowing his sense of style he would have sent a sand monkey, or even something more interesting than just a plain mortal..." she trailed off, hand clenched and pressed to her chin, in thought.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, there!" Jack threw in, "Who are you calling a human? It absolutely can not be me, Jack Frost." he stood up, gesturing to himself.
She glanced at him momentarily, seemingly taking him in as a whole for the first time. She let out a barking laugh.
"Ha! As if I could fall for that trick so easily! You're wearing a hoodie and jeans. You're about as close to Jack Frost as I am to being the Easter Bunny!" Jack stood up in disbelief.
"Really?!" he motioned to his feet, "A guy wearing no shoes," he pointed to his head, "with white hair, oh! And lets not forget about this," he thrust his staff forwards right in front of her face, "A fucking shephard's staff, which has the power to frost anything, all seem normal and human to you?!"
"Yeah," she answered lazily, "humans are weird, so it was something I just accepted. You dyed your hair," she leaned forward, "and you were so drunk out of your mind that you left your shoes somewhere outside where you found that stick." she pointed to his staff.
He stared at her incredulously. Lips pressed together, he swiftly took the pack of cigarettes he still had in his hoodie pocket. He tossed them in the air. While still on its journey to the moon, he raised his staff and froze it mid-flight. It came down harder and faster than before, coated in thick snow and ice.
He caught it before it had a chance to hit and crack on the ground, then held it out for the DJ. She looked at it warily, after having witnessed his performance. She glanced up at him as if to say there was no way in hell she was going to touch it.
"C'mon," he shook the pack in front of her, "don't you want your cigarettes back?"
She huffed, and reached out her hand. She gingerly touched the frozen box. Pulling back immediately, she gasped at the cold. Jack smirked. Maybe now they were getting somewhere.
"Just take it, the only biting I do consists of 'nipping at your nose'." The cocky retort left his mouth, urging her to take the box and believe him already. She glared at him, lips pursed. Her hand swooped up the box in a fast motion. The glare rest upon him for a few more seconds, then she turned her attention to the box. Jack leaned his back on the guard rail, hand placed inside his pocket. He puffed his chest forward, pleased with his demonstration.
She fiddled with the frozen pack for a bit, turning it over and seeing for herself that, yes, it was frozen now. She turned her face back to Jack. Eyebrows scrunched, she looked to the box again. Then to Jack. Then to the box. Finally, she angled herself towards Jack.
"It's frozen."
He chuckled, "Good observation."
She squinted her eyes in slight irritation. "Just a minute ago it wasn't frozen, then you used your stick," she motioned to Jack's staff with her elbow, "and now it's frozen?" the question left hanging in the air.
"Exactly."
"You did this?"
He let out a breath of air, partially exasperated with these obvious questions. "I am, after all, the spirit of Winter."
"With your stick?"
"It's a staff, and yes I froze it with my staff."
"It looks like a stick to me." Jack rolled his eyes, sighing.
"Look, that's not what I'm trying to prove right now."
She was quiet for a few beats, fingers turning the box over.
"You have white hair."
"Yes."
"And no shoes, despite all the glass on the ground."
He motioned to the air around him. "No need. I travel by wind."
"And you can freeze things."
He didn't bother responding, realizing that she was bordering on a breakthrough. She mumbled something that Jack didn't hear.
"Speak a little louder, missy, I couldn't quite hear that."
She continued to stare at the ground. A whisper escaped her lips.
"You're Jack Frost."
He laughed aloud.
"Bingo!" He hopped up onto the railing, moving his feet in excitement.
She turned to look at him, eyes wide as saucers. They sparked and Jack couldn't help but think how closely she resembled an owl at this moment. Come to think of it, his perch on the railing made him resemble an owl also.
"Holy shit, you're Jack fucking Frost."
"I'm pretty sure my middle name would be 'trouble', but I'm flexible." He smirked nonchalantly. She raised her hands and put her fingers through her curly hair. Jack hadn't noticed before, but her hair was so curly and red that it looked like a huge burgundy puff of cloud around her upper body. A weird cloud of blood, put in generic terms. She pulled back the wine colored curls away from her face, in a smooth motion. Her mouth was ajar and her eyebrows were sky high.
She shook her head slowly. "This can't be happening."
Jack held out his hand, as if to stop that thought. "I know what you're thinking, but you're not crazy. I am real."
A sound of objection escaped her lips. "If you knew me, you'd know that I really am crazy." she said, voice riddled with disbelief, "And of course you're real." Jack blinked. "I just didn't think you'd be you."
"Hold on, wait a second." Jack motioned for her to halt. "Ok, now, it's my turn to ask you a few questions." he argued, thinking back to all the events that had transpired just before, "First, you were on fire when you were DJ-ing." She made a motion as if she was about to speak, but Jack cut her off.
"Nope, my turn." he resumed, "Second," he held out his hand, "when I grabbed you to let you know that you were on fire, a bunch of electricity went into my hand making it all numb and tingly." he took his hand and made the number three with his fingers. "And third, you know the Sandman? Since when has a human your age still believed in Sandy?" She moved forward, brows furrowed again.
"But I'm not-"
"Lastly!" Jack interrupted again, "Lastly, you believe that I'm real, but you didn't believe that I was actually me." He paused his rant for a moment. "Please explain, because this is insanity."
She was quiet, waiting for Jack to interrupt her again. Jack almost felt guilty. But he didn't. His questions were finally going to be answered. "Oh, right, I almost forgot about the whole 'I don't show myself to anyone I don't want to' deal."
She bore a hole through his head with the glare she was giving him. "You done yet?" He pressed his lips tightly together in a half grimace, half smirk. "Yep, I think that just about covers it." She inhaled deeply.
"For starters," she began, "I'm not human. Well, technically I was, but then again, Jack Frost, you were, too." his name was said in emphasis, as if to say that he should know how these things worked.
She backtracked, and looked to the ground. "Holy hell. I knew you'd joined that Guardians group, but I didn't expect something so soon." Jack looked at her quizzically. She shook her head, and got back on track with the questions.
"On fire? You might have seen my power at work. You know, energy?" her hands motioned to him. "They should have told you about them." Jack wanted to ask her more questions that seemed to be exploding in his brain left and right, but for once, he kept his mouth shut, waiting for more answers. After that, then he could freely ask more. Patience was hard, Jack didn't enjoy this.
"Tingling hand? You must've experienced some type of harmless electrical shock from me. Powers of energy, again." she huffed, like he was a small child she was explaining to. "And Sandy? Me and him go way back. We're old friends."
Her brows scrunched in intense thought. "I still don't understand how you can see me." Jack raised his brow. "I only show myself to the people I want to be able to see me. Which includes being invisible to spirits and the Guardians." she glanced at him, "You shouldn't be able to see me right now."
Jack couldn't be patient anymore. "Why would you want to be invisible?"
"Because, Jack, I'm the spirit of Inspiration. No one wants to think their ideas don't come from themselves."
Now it was Jack's turn for his eyes to become wide with disbelief. He'd never heard of a spirit of Inspiration before. In all his lessons with North, the man had only ever mentioned a few more spirits. There were a few that Jack could list off the top of his head; Mother Nature, Apollo, and Pele, the goddess of lava and heat. North told Jack to stay away from Pele, and everything in the world would remain peachy keen. He'd never seen any of these so-called spirits yet, though technically Apollo comes up every day. They were figures in his life that he didn't interact with, and there was no problem with that. All three of them were said to have major attitude problems, anyways, so Jack didn't take any offense to their lack of involvement. In fact, it made his life simpler and less complicated. North had told him that Bunny had bickered with Mother Nature about a hundred years before. Bunny had complained that it had rained on Easter for five years in a row, and told Mother Nature to 'Lay off a bit, will ya?'. So, naturally, it rained on Easter for a good fifty years. Jack wanted to stay out of that.
And now, here was this girl, a DJ/spirit, telling him she has the powers of 'energy' and that she brings 'inspiration'. Jack laughed breathily, not believing his luck that day. She shot him a questioning glance.
"Shouldn't the Guardians have told you all of this? If they wanted me that badly they would have prepared you better."
Jack was taken aback. "No, what? No, they didn't send me. The Guardians don't have anything to do with this."
"Yeah right, Sandy put you up to this."
"No!" Jack exclaimed, "It's just me. Literally, I came here by myself. You can go check around; North, Tooth, Sandy, Bunny, none of them know that I came here."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "Then why are you here?"
"I don't know," he pulled his hand through his hair, "I just felt like it, you know?"
"In Florida? One of the warmest states?"
"I just haven't been down here in a while." he continued, "This club," he pointed to the back entrance with his staff, "used to be a big hangout of mine, before the whole guardian thing." he laughed, "And it's been a while since these guys have gotten any snow. I figured I'd come and cause a bit of trouble and mayhem."
She was quiet for a bit, and Jack was somewhat thankful for the silence for once. The bass of the club could still be heard clearly, based upon the fact that they were sitting mere feet away from the back entrance. He could see small movements from her out of the corner of his eye. He turned and quietly watched her fiddle with the frozen box of cigarettes that were once again in her possession. She faced upwards towards Manny, catching rays of moonlight on her face. Jack didn't know how he kept missing details about her, maybe something about the ruckus and horrible lighting of the club. But now, with the moonlight glinting off of her form, Jack couldn't help but notice how ethereal she looked. Her features were angled, high cheek bones and a strong, square jaw. Her eyebrows were determined, giving her face a very intense feel. The faint light seemed to make her glow, like a bioluminescence of some sort. She didn't look just plain human, and he didn't know why he ever thought she was. There was no question now if she was a spirit or not. Jack made a note to himself to look more closely at all the spirits he knew to see if there was a connection with luminosity. Because this chick was positively glowing right now. The small amount of aura around her seemed to shimmer and flicker. It reminded Jack of the stars at night, or even the way an ember looks after the fire was gone. It was a very, very pale yellow, almost white.
She looked back down to the box and chuckled lowly. Her right hand hovered above the cigarettes. A soft white glow began to emanate from her palm, intensifying in brightness. After a second or two, small drops of water fell rhythmically from the box and onto the metal stairs. Jack could feel a warmth on his face radiating from her hand. This must be one of her powers, he mused. A sound barely made it to his ears, but once Jack focussed on it, he realized it was a very quiet humming, made up of notes he couldn't quite put his finger on. He noted with no small amount of wonder that the box was rid of the ice he had previously cast upon it.
"You got to show off, so I figured I would, too." she smirked up at him, "And I'm pretty sure that if you had actually opened the pack," her hand stopped glowing, and she motioned for Jack to take the box again, "you would have been entertained."
Jack took the cigarettes, wondering what in the hell she was talking about now. He glanced at her, then opened the flap of the now dry pack. He peered inside.
A deep genuine laugh escaped his throat. Inside the pack of cigarettes, were in fact cigarettes. But that wasn't all. The contents of the box included three cigarettes, four joints, and the rest of the space was filled with various sticks. Jack took out a stick and realized they were all sparklers.
He looked at her, "What the hell?"
She grinned a toothy smile at him, "They're for the people I work with. Sometimes they just need a breather." she reached out to the sparkler with her hand. Her fingers snapped, and a small spark lit the sparkler in his hand. "If they don't want a cigarette, I got a few joints." Jack watched the sparkler sputter to life. "If they don't smoke at all, there's a bunch of sparklers in there just for the fun of it."
Jack held the sparkler out in front of him, keeping the sparks away from their clothes. He didn't think anything would happen to either of them, but he did so out of habit. He watched the sparks fall onto the metal railings and concrete below them. This was the real deal. There was so much he wanted to know, now.
"Do they all see you?" he asked lowly, still mesmerized.
"Not all of them. But most of the time I let them see me if they need to." she answered, staring at the sparkler as well. "Small interactions can go a long way."
"What about that other DJ dude? Martin?" he motioned to the club with a nod of his head.
"You mean did I let him see me?"
"Yeah."
"I did once," she reminisced, "he had finally gotten out of his studio, and I met up with him at a diner." she chuckled, "I masqueraded as an old man, and made friendly conversation with him about how I beat up a gang of thugs."
He stared at her, one eyebrow raised. She met his gaze.
"Muses aren't always gorgeous babes, Jack."
