Chapter two Then she saw him

Darkness, yes she remembered that. Darkness, overbearing and oppressive stealing every breath in her body; killing every nice thought in her head; it even took the bad and scary thoughts. Leaving her as an empty shell; that's what scared her most that overwhelming sense of nothing.

"Yes Alice, feel your fear. Wonderful, unique; yes it started when you were four. Why Alice? Remember, why do you fear being empty?"

Alice shook her head. She didn't want to remember. Why was this happening; to her. She looked around wanting a way out, but all she saw was sand; black sand. She clutched her arms to her chest, but felt something else there. She looked down and saw the book. The book she hated as much as she loved. It was a gift from her grandfather. That thought succeeded in causing the tears that had been gathering in her eyes to fall. Alice hugged the book tighter. She leaned back against the tree that had trapped her in the first place; then she slid down to her butt. She was so tiered she could not stand any more. She sat the book in her lap then laid her head on top of knees. She hugged her legs closer to her body, and continued to cry.

"Beautiful." Pitch said almost in awe.

Alice didn't want to know what he saw. She just wanted to be home in her bed, and for this to not happen. Then the strangest thing happened. She suddenly wasn't so tiered any more. She looked up slightly she wasn't surrounded by swirling dark sand anymore. It was frozen black sand.

"What on earth?" Alice forced herself off the ground.

Why was there so much of it? So much darkness, was this really necessary to torment one teenage girl, or did this come from her? She didn't think about it too long; because something wet and cold suddenly plopped down on her head. She shivered and shook it off her head. Then she looked up. Was it snowing? Yes, it was, and quite a lot to. Where did this come from it wasn't supposed to start snowing until the weekend. That was still five days away. She heard fighting on the other side frozen sand, but she couldn't see anything past it. Who would be crazy enough to fight the boogeyman?

"Jack watch out!"

"Jamie get out of here!"

"Jamie?" The little voice; that was the boy at the hospital. But who was Jack?

Something landed on her nose and made her sneeze. It clicked then. Jack Frost, who else could freeze this sand but Jack Frost. Her heart began to pound it was him he was real. She laughed in excitement, but it was short lived.

"Jamie!" Jack shouted in a panic.

Alice heard the whimper of a kid right in front of her. He must be on the other side of this stupid sand. She had to get out, the kid needed help. She looked around for something she could use to break through the frozen sand, but all she had was herself; fine she could work with that. She tapped on the frozen sand and it cracked a little. This shouldn't be too hard.

"Jamie I need you step away from this stuff." Alice called from inside the black sand.

"Who said that?"Jamie said sounding scared.

"Don't be scared Jamie, it's me, you know the girl who told the stories at the hospital."

"Why are you in there?"

"Why are you out here kid?" she retorted

"I saw the snow and came to see Jack."

"Okay, well I'm coming out of here so you might want to stand back."

Hoping that the kid had listened Alice charged the ice and sand, and fell through rather easily; also rather ungracefully. After she spit out the snow and dirt that ended up in her mouth as she ended up on the ground she looked up and came face to face with…

"A horse; really?"

Okay it was the freakiest horse she had seen in her entire life. She stood up slowly trying her best to not spook it, but its attention seemed to be focused on something behind her. She turned her head and saw that the kid was still there. The horse leaped over her and went after the boy. She wasn't having any of that. Alice jumped up and headed the thing off before it could get to the kid. Then using the only thing available to her at the time; which would be that stupid book; she hit it as hard as she could. Much to her surprise it started to glow and then it was gone.

"Okay book, maybe you're not as stupid as I thought." She whispered then turned to the boy.

"Jamie get out of here." She said quickly.

"But Jack…"

"He'll be fine. I'm going help him." Alice said gently to the boy.

He nodded reluctantly and ran off toward his house. Alice knew this was her problem anyway. Once Pitch had her he should leave Jack Frost alone. Before she could figure out how exactly to test her theory she saw that Jack had fallen to the ground and Pitch was going in for the kill.

"NO!" she screamed as she ran toward Jack.

Before she could reach him Pitch grabbed her and pulled her to him. Pain ripped through her middle she looked down to see a dagger made of that weird black sand in her stomach. She gasped as he twisted it then pulled it from her body.

"This really was much more complicated than it needed to be." Pitch said sounding bored now that his goal was accomplished.

He then tossed her away. Before she could hit the ground cold arm were quickly around her. Alice looked up into the most amazing blue eyes she had ever seen. They were even prettier than she had always thought they would be. But they weren't full of that playful light she always thought they would have. They were worried and she could feel the tension coming off his body. She reached up to touch his face and frowned.

"This isn't right." She whispered

"What isn't right?" he asked confused.

"Jack Frost is supposed to smile." Then her world turned black.