AN: Thank you for staying with me :) This chapter will be of Nora's memory of how to summon Pitch Black and how she knew of the process. Because it's a memory, all of it will be in italics.

Enjoy!

Jamie invited me over to his house after I got suspended. I thought his mom wouldn't like me (since I'm suspended from my new school) but she was super bubbly and fixed me a grilled cheese and milk. Since then, she left to go pick up Jamie's sister from pre-school and went grocery shopping.

"Stay here," Jamie's mom told me. "I'll be back by 4:30 PM so I'll drive you home."

It was 4:28 PM. The sun was going to set within the next hour. I was a bit nervous returning home because I dreaded Dad's reaction to my suspension. The school couldn't reach Mom or Dad, so Jamie's mom volunteered to take me back. The people in the office didn't pay too much attention, since they were dealing with the fat kid's angry and dramatic mom. She was yelling about how she was going to sue the school. When we left, she was arguing with the principal and throwing papers around.

Jamie and I were sitting at the dining table. He was telling me about Jack Frost and Pitch Black.

Jamie showed me his sketch of a dark silhouette of a man.

"See? This is the Boogey Man. He feeds off of fear and nightmares and stuff." Jamie took a blue color pencil and started to outline a boy with a staff.

"And this is Jack Frost. He can fly and control snow and he does like snow days for everyone but no one can see him, well except for me and Cupcake and Claude and-"

"Why can't people see him?" I interrupted.

" 'Cause not a lot of people believe in him. You see, in order to see the Guardians, you have to believe in them."

" 'The guardians' ?"

"You know, Santa, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, and the Sandman. They protect children from Pitch, who's evil."

"They protect all children?" My mind whirled of all the times when I needed to be protected from Dad.

"Weeell, noooo, only kids who believe in them and stuff. They don't go to some countries because of that." Jamie scrunched up his face. "And I think it's just against nightmares and Pitch."

"So they only protect you against a guy that doesn't exist," I rolled my eyes.

"Hey! Pitch does exist and he's dangerous!" Jamie looked around his kitchen nervously. I turned about to find what made him nervous.

"Be careful," he whispered. "The Boogey Man can travel by shadows."

Jamie shook his head and straightened up.

"But you can't be afraid of him!" he warned me urgently. "Because he can only hurt you if you believe he can."

I disagreed. "You can be hurt by anyone, including the Boogey Man, at any time. It doesn't matter if you believe in him or not."

"But if you're scared, then he'll use that against you!" Jamie said. "The more fear that you have, the more it'll power him up."

"So you're basically saying, the more I'm scared, the more likely I'll summon the Boogey Man?"

"Yeah."

We looked at each other in silence. Then I started to laugh harshly.

"What's so funny?" Jamie asked.

I shook my head as I kept laughing humorlessly. It makes sense I guess, how often I was beaten because Dad saw my fear and fed on it. When I realized that, I stifled any and all strong emotional reactions. I've learned to control my facial features into a blank look.

"Pitch Black the Boogey Man, a being who feeds on fear, is not a person," I thought to myself. "It wasn't as if your fear could summon him. It was that your fear was him."

I looked straight into Jamie's concerned face. "I think me and Pitch have known each other for a long time," I smiled but it didn't reach my eyes. "And I think that if I ever meet Pitch, we'll probably be friends."

"What?!" Jamie was aghast. "Why?!"

I shrugged. I couldn't very well tell this bright and happy boy that it was because I've always held fear in my heart, and because of that, the Boogey Man didn't live in my shadows or under my bed.

He lived in me.

I felt my heart and body thrummed in agreement.

"I'm home!" sang Jamie's mom from the front door. A little girl with a stuffed bunny ran into the kitchen. Her blonde hair was in tangles. She was speaking excitedly in gibberish to me.

"Uh, hiya?" I said as she kept on squealing and bouncing up and down.

"This is Sophie, my little sister!" Jamie yelled over Sophie's squeals.

"Nice to meet you, Sophie!" I laughed.

Jamie's mom picked Sophie up. She beamed at me. "Sorry, Nora, Sophie gets really excited when she meets new people. Are you ready to go home?"

I nodded.

"Okay, let me make take care of Sophie and I'll drive you home." Jamie's mom turned around and walked to the living room.

As I was getting up, Jamie stopped me.

"Nora, I know that you don't believe me when I said Jack Frost is real," he put his hand up when I tried to interrupt him, "But Jack Frost, and the other Guardians, are real."

I couldn't look at his earnest eyes.

Jamie continued, "Please believe in them, Nora. They can protect you from Pitch if you do."

"But I thought you said that if I don't believe in Pitch, he can't hurt me?" I questioned Jamie. When he didn't answer right away, I looked at him. I couldn't read the emotion in his eyes.

"I know that you already believe in Pitch." Jamie got up and started to leave the kitchen. Right before he left, he turned to me.

"What I'm asking you is to believe in Jack and the Guardians, too."

...

That night, right before I went to bed, I left a crack open between my curtains. After talking about the Boogey Man, I felt paranoid in the dark. A streak of light from the full moon slashed the shadows in half. I crawled into bed. The moonlight streaked across my chest, over my heart.

Right before I fell asleep, I swore I heard a man talking to me.

The man spoke of his sorrow and remorse of how I was to take on a fate worse than death and of how I was going to swallow the power of darkness.

"Don't let the darkness take over you, Nora," he whispered gently. "The darkness may provide you the results you want, but it is not without its costs. I know that you feel most comfortable surrounded in pitch black, but you will find peace in the arms of the pure white."

I grunted in disagreement.

"You may be the container of nightmares, but do not let the nightmares consume you. There is more to life than pain. Find the joy in life, Nora. That will save you."

The last thing I remember was the man telling me how to absorb power while gently smoothing my hair.

AN: Thank you for reading! Next chapter is coming out really soon.

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