Sin with a Grin
Summary: An ancient darkness is drawing children into the forest leaving the Guardians to fight a creature that doesn't need to be believed in to exist. Sequel to Where there is a Flame.
Author Note: Woooo chapter 2, before my work week no less! We're getting a major storm this weekend while I am up at the barn. So excited! Shoot me a review if you deem it worthy!
Chapter 2
"Let me get this straight." Bunnymund deadpans from across the table, his arms crossed over this chest. North shoots the Pooka a withering look but allows the guardian to speak his mind. Jack glares over at the grey furred warrior from beneath his hood, expressionless but tense.
"You." Bunny emphasizes by pointing one clawed toe over at the high backed chair Jack is curled up in "sensed some ancient evil lurking around in the woods after a little girl disappeared?" the tone and huffing laugh that accompanies the statement causes Tooth to wince and glance over at the youngest member in sympathy. She had been the source of Bunnymund's irritation and laughter early on in her career as a guardian until she proved herself someone to be listened too instead of mocked. Jack curls even further into himself, the hood falling further over his eyes as he simply stares out.
"Bunny, Jack is elemental spirit. He can sense when something is wrong with nature." Tooth tries but the Pooka scoffs and leans back in his chair, propping his long feet up on the carved table.
"Pooka's can too Tooth, we're animal spirits. I haven't sensed anything." He retorts while settling back further into his chair only to be startled out of his cocky position when Jack leaps from his curled up position to stand on the table top, his curved staff slamming into the polished wood with enough force to produce an angry spark of icy frost that skitters across the top, curling in tight angry patters as the teen snarls.
"When was the last time you came out of your hole rabbit?" Jack growls aggressively, his body coiled and tense while the teens formerly ice blue eyes turn a dark midnight blue. North can clearly see the change from his position and feel the air temperature drop drastically. Tooth gives a shiver and glances over at Sandy who is making quick signals above his head.
"You got something to say to me mate? A bone to pick perhaps?" Bunny jibes a sneer to his words even as the tall warrior stands to his full height and flexes his own muscles for a fight.
"Just stating the facts Bunny. You don't go to the surface during winter, much less spent time in Burgees beyond dropping eggs. There is an evil there." Jack seethes the temperature dropping rapidly as the curls of frost turn into a thickening layer of ice.
"Bunny, Jack. Sit down." North orders, his blue eyes narrowing and tone leaving no room for argument. Neither of the two guardians move, their attention focused solely on each other.
"I SAID SIT. DOWN. NOW!" North roars, slamming a burly hand down onto the table top with enough force to crack every bone in the immortal's hand. Tooth and Sandy remain silent, watching as the three enter into a battle of wills. Jack remains standing on the table top, his staff raised and waiting while Bunny is equally prepared to fend off an attack. North slams his fist once more, this time causing the table to shudder violently and throw Jack's tightened frame off balance enough to break the eye contact between the Pooka and elemental.
"SIT." North snaps, shoving the Pooka back into the chair and keeping him in the position with a single arm. Jack retreats several steps, moving backward cautiously as his narrow shoulders tremble slightly with anxious energy. Sandy moves to guide the teen back off the table with a stream of sand but the teen twitches away from it, slowly stepping back onto his chair and curling up once more as if nothing had happened. The temperature in the room returns to a normal level and Tooth relishes the warmth, her body absorbing the heat quickly.
"I will not be present for such a display of violence between two guardians." North stresses, disappointment clearly visible on his face as he addresses the two.
"Jack, give us facts. We need more than you simply sensed something." Tooth pleads; reaching out a hand to touch the teen's forearmed but withdraws it quickly when he flinches away. A thick silence falls on the group as they wait until finally Jack licks his lips and pulls down his hood.
"I can't explain it. I saw something, a shadow in the forest beyond Jamie's grandmother's yard." He begins and runs a pale hand through his silver hair before continuing. "It was a few months ago, back around Halloween I guess." He stops as Bunny moves to put his elbows on the table, his green eyes narrowing slightly but he remains silent with ears attentive.
"I didn't get a good look at it, but I could sense it." Jack states softly, picking at the hem of his cuff and staring at the tabletop.
"Could it have been Lantern?" Bunny quietly asks, drawing Tooth to look over at North who is looking elsewhere. Beside her Jack gives a firm shake of his head, bringing his eyes up to gaze across at the Pooka.
"No, I've been around Jack Lantern, I know how his power feels. Also, he tends to be loud when he's stumbling around the woods, laughing his drunken head off. This thing wasn't stumbling, it wasn't laughing and what I was sensing was anger and hatred." Jack argues back and the others nod. They had all met Jack Lantern the happy Irishman who moves through the mortal world swinging his turnip- which holds the lump of hot coal the Devil himself threw at him- as children go from door to door and wander about towns gathering candy and treats during Halloween.
"Alright, let's say something is lurking in the woods and it is luring children into its clutches… does anyone have any idea as to who or what it could be?" Bunny questions, still not believing there is a reason for them to panic. Bunnymund doesn't mean to sound so callous and he does understand that when a child goes missing from the world it is a tragic event and for someone like Jack, who is new to his position as a guardian it is a hard lesson to be learned.
Not all children can be saved
It's not because he slacked off in his duties or wasn't attentive enough to what was going on; it is simply a matter of the mortal world that they've all come to accept. Bunny can clearly remember the day Tooth sought him out in hysterics because she gathered a freshly lost tooth from a child who was terminally ill in the hospital.
The child had passed on just as Tooth was leaving her a gift under the hospital pillow.
The realization that althou gh she was a guardian and it was her job to protect the children of the world she was and still is unable to protect them from everything. That was a harsh lesson and the fairy has since hardened herself to the fact and has taught her baby fairies how to handle the inevitable.
"We can ask some of the other spirits." Tooth suggests and North gently strokes his long beard thoughtfully, his large fingers tapping at his chin occasionally.
"We could, but that would take forever. Besides, I don't know where to find half of them in the off seasons anyway." Bunny states and Sandy casts a few symbols above his head, announcing that he could possibly ask a few while on his rounds that night. Out of them all Sandy typically sees more spirits than the others, his work taking him all over the world on a consistent basis.
"I think I may have an idea as to what it might be." North suddenly states, turning on his heel and walking away from the table to the writing desk the toy maker works at. He rummages around for a few minutes, mumbling to himself as he searches. Small chimes announce the arrival of a band of elves who move amongst the chairs offering plates of cookies and mugs of cider and eggnog to the waiting guardians. Tooth shoots Jack a stern look when the teen refuses to take anything, threatening the persistent elf with an instant freeze if it didn't leave him alone.
"When was the last time you ate?" she questions, eyeing the thin teen. Since becoming a guardian the fairy has picked up on some of Jack's strange habits, one of which happens when the elemental is focused on something he forgets to give his body nourishment. He attempted to tell her once when he was visiting her palace that he didn't need to eat, that his body didn't work the same as the others did. She called bull on that one and guilt tripped the younger spirit into eating a whole plate of grapes and a grapefruit at one meal.
"I had something a few days ago." He returns as he freezes the elf that hadn't taken the hint and continued to offer the elemental a plate of frozen fruit treats. The small creature gives a small gasp and freezes to the floor, his eyes bugging out of his small head comically.
"Jack. Eat the frozen banana." Tooth orders in her best motherly tone and looks over to see Sandy also signing the same demand. With a suffering sigh the teen takes a frozen kiwi slice off the plate and pops the tart fruit into his mouth, crunching loudly before returning his attention to tracking North's movements.
"Do you need help?" Bunny asks, cocking one long ear to where the large toy maker is crouched over one of the desk's massive drawers, papers and various items being tossed aside carelessly.
"No, no. I know what I am looking for-ah haha." He announces happily, pulling up the small book. Tooth's eyes narrow dangerously at the sight of the object as she hisses softly.
"Why do you still have that?"
"Believe it or not, it holds many good things. We have been over this Tooth." North states firmly, his accent becoming thicker as he stresses certain words. Jack switches his attention between the two and then cocks his head to the side slightly in a silent question while looking directly at Bunnymund. The Pooka makes a few hand gestures that Jack can read as 'wait' and 'don't ask' before turning his attention back to North.
"I was translating the last few pages and came across this." He informs, sliding an aged and thin piece of parchment across the table top to rest in the center. Sandy and Bunny dart forward to examine the rough sketch before sitting back down, unimpressed with it. Tooth refuses to look at it, her violet eyes growing dark at the idea of North translating the words from the evil book. Jack takes his time as he examines the sketch, the squiggly marks around it distracting him for a second or two before he shrugs them off as unimportant. With a shaking finger the elemental brushes his fingers along the paper, the icy cold that is always at his command threatens to ruin the antique document but he clamps down on it painfully.
"This is… very old." He states off handedly and blows a puff of air up as his bangs fall into his eyes.
"Yes, written well before any of us were born as mortals I would figure." North remarks idly, watching as the teen crouches awkwardly over the document. Bunnymund also regards the stance but brushes it aside as Jack's usual elasticity. Without warning the teen slams his hand down into the parchment, his pale fingers splayed over the sketched image. The reaction is terrifyingly quick and before the other guardians can react the hooked staff is thrown from Jack's hand and the teen shudders violently.
"Jack!" Tooth shouts her wings pumping rapidly as she bodily shoves the teen away from the paper, Sandy's golden whip lashing out to remove the parchment from underneath the elemental's fingers while North bodily removes Jack from the tabletop. Bunny is up and beside North within a second, his long legs taking up the distance.
"Whoa…" Jack breathes quickly, his narrow chest heaving for air as North restrains his shoulders. Jack breathes deeply for a few seconds before gently tapping the thick arm.
"Y-you can put me down." He tries but the larger guardian shakes his head as Bunny checks the teen over. Jack dangles limply from North's arms, his blue eyes searching around frantically while Bunny gently checks his heartbeat by pressing one toe against the artery in his pale neck.
"Seriously, I am fine. I wasn't sure if that was going to work or not." Jack states irritably as Bunny nods to North and the teen in released, his bare feet hitting the floor with a thud as he fixes the sweater and pulls up his pants, which have a bad habit of falling low on his narrow hips.
"Alright, I'll bite. What exactly where you trying to do just now mate?" Bunny asks, crossing his arms over his chest once more and cocking an ear, waiting for an explanation. Jack licks his lips and accepts his staff from Tooth as the fairly moves restlessly about, her worry for the younger member causing her to hover nearby.
"The paper is actually made from bark. I thought… that since it was once a living thing in nature I could somehow hear it. Maybe get some information from it." Jack states and Sandy makes a few symbols over his head in the shape of rock formations, waves and then a large pointed star.
"Yeah, kind of like that Sandy, but I dunno maybe trees and leafy green stuff don't have voices." Jack muses and the others can only stare at him, silently wondering what is wrong with the child. Jack, sensing their stares returns their looks before shrugging his narrow shoulders and gesturing towards the paper.
"It was worth a try!" he justifies half-heartedly and Bunny can only snort in response and shake his head, uncrossing his arms and gesturing towards Sandy to give him the parchment. The golden sand pushes the sketch over and the Pooka runs a curious eye over the sinister drawing.
"What exactly is this?" he demands, resisting the urge to pick the offending thing up and place it in the fire but settles for looking over at the larger guardian. North is staring down at the drawing, his thick eyebrows knitted together in a deep frown.
"The translations say—for what I can decipher and yes Tooth, I know I should have asked you but I know how you feel about it—it is a creature formed from the sins of its creator. It is a timeless entity that was formed by the- uh.. Experiments." North stumbles and Tooth gives a loud hiss then, her fingers clenching and unclenching in anger as her usually vibrant feathers ripple. Bunny gives a suffering sigh as the fairy continues to move back and forth with anger, spitting curses at them in various languages but mostly at North who keeps trying to interject.
"I missed something didn't I?" Jack asks quietly, inching away from the spitting, hissing fairy and over to where Sandy is standing watching the whole seen unfold silently. The two settle back, Sandy with a mug of eggnog and Jack with a frozen banana, their legs propped up on the table top.
"This isn't helping us." Jack remarks softly, chewing on the frozen morsel but more than willing to let the three other guardians duke it out before he gets involved. Jack is use to finding out about things after the fact and over the years he's learned to enjoy the show because usually the situation goes quickly downhill after that.
Author Note: Ramble, ramble, ramble, ramble. So, yeah. That was chapter two, not a whole lot going on. As for Slenderman, the 'lore' was actually created in an online forum and the images are fake, but there is a Native American story of tall, spindly, pale man like creatures that would abduct and eat people. I dunno, looks like everyone is going to have to wait and see where this story is going 'cause I don't even know. I am off to work till Friday night, so don't expect an update till the weekend! Thanks for reading.