Disclaimer: I wish I may, I wish I might, but damn the truth is going to bite. It ain't happenin' anytime soon folks.
Second Snowfall
Jack found himself to returning to that small house almost as often as his trips to Burgess from that point on. He couldn't be there every day, as the world was big and there was always winter and snow to bring somewhere, but it was often enough.
Days then Months rolled by and soon, it was nearly an entire year later. It was definitely the longest year Jack had ever experienced, seeing how 300 had rolled by so fast when he thought back on it. Winter had just fully set in for that small village where that strange teenage girl resided.
Jack had just arrived that early morning, bringing another layer of ice and snow with him, intending to stick around for the night and see if he could catch any more stories from the girl. The moment he alighted upon the rooftop of the small one story house, he immediately spotted the girl and her little ones.
"How about today, seeing as none of us have school or work thanks to good ol' Jack Frost and in the season of the holidays, I tell you about Nicholas St. North and his troupe of outlaws," the teenager offered.
Jack grinned. Perfect timing and this would surely turn out to be a good story to interrogate North about later- though he still hadn't gotten a chance to ask about that Katherine girl yet. His gaze softened a bit when the children cheered and ran into the house to get their storytelling circle ready.
The girl was about to step inside as well when something caught her attention and she turned around. The teenager frowned a bit as she gazed up at the sky and tried to figure out the spectacle before her. "The Northern Lights?...Can be seen in the morning?"
Jack blinked in surprise and followed the girl's gaze. He sighed in disappointment, not wishing to leave before he got a chance to hear the story, but dutifully left to see what North and the others wanted.
"Ah Jack!" North called out upon his arrival. "Good! You come. We can begin."
"So what's going on?" Tooth asked. "Why'd you call everyone together?"
"I did not call," North corrected. "Bunny did."
"Indeed I did." The gray furred pooka nodded and stepped forward. "We've got a bit of a problem."
"What be problem, old friend?" North encouraged.
The giant bunny reached into his pack and pulled out a handful of dead plants.
"Wait, wait, wait," Jack jumped in. "You called all of us together because of a few wilted flowers?"
"You don't get it mate," Bunny argued. "These are from the Warren."
"But Bunny," Tooth chimed in, "Your Warren is set in eternal spring."
The gray hare nodded. "Exactly. Something was lurking around and everywhere it went, my Warren suffered. And I'm not the only one who thinks something's off." Bunny nodded toward the open skylight where Mim was shining through.
Jack gazed up with the others, only to blink and look away a moment later. He rubbed his eyes and blinked a couple of times, trying to clear the black dots that had entered his vision so suddenly. He sent a reassuring smile toward Sandy to tell the other that he was alright, then turning back to the others to try to keep up with what they were discussing. But for whatever reason, his head felt like it was spinning and their forms were starting blur out along with their words. Then his body started to feel heavy and he couldn't seem to be able to hold himself up.
"Jack!"
Everything faded into darkness.
xXx
Jack blinked and looked around. This wasn't North's workshop. No…This was that little house with the strange teenager.
"Hey mom," the oldest little girl called out, her siblings standing behind her. "Can you save the story for night time?"
"Oh?" The teenager quirked a brow up, her eyes taking on a teasing light. "And what occasion brings my most awesome of storytelling times to a halt so abruptly?"
The children obviously couldn't tell if their motherly figure was joking or not- then again Jack might not have if he hadn't visited as often as he had by now- and the oldest girl seemed to falter as she fidgeted before the young woman. "W-we, um…We want to go play at the lake and save your story for nighttime. Please?"
"Yeah! Please, please, please!" The kids chirped one after the other.
"Well…" The girl trailed off while stoking her chin- as a man would his beard- in an overly dramatic way before breaking out into a huge grin. "Eh, what can I say? I'm a crowd pleaser, so go ahead."
The cheered and gave each other high fives, running off to collect the gear they needed for their little adventure. Jack couldn't help but smile as well, happy that the kids were so excited to enjoy his little gift.
Their group made their way to the lake- the same one the girl had run off to that first night he met them Jack noted- the children immediately went off to do whatever it is they wanted. The teenager contented herself with playing with her two year old little girl and the youngest boy, working with them to build a snowman. It wasn't until they had almost finished building their icy friend that something happened.
Suddenly the teenager looked up and glanced around, Jack joining her search when he saw her discomfort. She frowned a little. "Something doesn't feel right…"
"Mommy!"
The teenager gasped and whipped around. Out in the middle of the lake was the middle of the three girls in her family, standing precariously on cracking ice that had definitely been a great deal thicker just seconds ago.
"Susie," the teenager breathed in horror.
"Mommy!" The child cried out again, trying to take a step forward only to freeze again when it cracked some more.
"Susie, stay right there!" The young brunette woman called out frantically. "Michelle, Jeremy! Get off the ice!"
The winter spirit rushed ahead of the oldest of the family, not chancing landing on the ice, instead floating above it and tapping his staff on the surface. He intended to freeze the lake over as much as he could so that they wouldn't have to worry and it would have worked, if his staff hadn't passed right through.
Jack gasped in shock. Never once had his staff become unable to touch inanimate objects. People, yes, but never something like a lake. He could only watch in growing horror as the winter guardian realized that he may have to watch someone repeat his past, and there was nothing he could do about it.
"I want you to stay calm, do you hear me Susie?" The teenager instructed the young girl as she crawled out on the ice. "Remember the polar bears?"
"Yes," the girl replied with a shortly, her breathes coming in short panicked gasps.
"Do you remember how they get across thin ice?" The teenager pressed as she inched forward.
"O-On their bellies."
The teenager nodded. "That's right, can you slowly do that?"
The little girl shook her head, tears springing from her eyes. "I can't move mommy. I'm so scared."
"Shh. It's okay, it's okay. You're going to be alright. Mommy's almost there. I need you to trust mommy, okay?"
The small girl nodded, trying her best to remain brave.
"You're such a good girl," the teenager encouraged, stopping a couple of feet in front of her little one. "Now I want you to listen closely, alright? I want you to take my hand and then mommy is going to throw you as hard as I can over to thick ice, and then I want you to get off right away? Okay?"
"What about you?" The little girl demanded, her voice wavering.
"Mommy will be okay. Remember, mommy can swim?"
Jack shook his head slowly. If that girl fell in with all that clothing, which would suck up the frigid water and weigh her down immensely, even if she could swim there was no way she would make it out. And that wasn't including the fact that even though the water seemed to have heated up a bit, it was still below freezing.
"You trust mommy, right?" The teenager asked the child with a confident smile, getting up onto all fours and reaching out her hand.
The little girl nodded and grabbed the offered limb. Not a moment later, the girl was flung to the other side where she skidded across the thick and safer ice, and the ice beneath the teenager melted away.
The kids cried out for their mother in despair along with the invisible Jack, who reached into the water to try to grab the girl, even though he knew it was impossible to touch her.
The teenager surfaced from the hole, trying desperately to pull herself up, but the ice continued to crack and break with her attempts. The young woman paused to catch her breath, already shivering violently, glancing around and trying to think of a way out of her predicament. Abruptly, she threw her weight at the ice once more, barely managing to grasp the next edge. She repeated this process several more times and Jack watch in amazement as the girl continued to do so until she reached a part of the lake where (luckily) the ice was thick enough and there was ground to push off of.
The kids and Jack breathed out a sigh of relief. That would never work again in a million years, but that was just fine with them, just this one time was more than fine. The teenager waved her children away, warning them of hypothermia and telling them that she needed to get to a hospital as soon as possible. The girl was knowledgeable enough to know that even if her clothes were soaked through, she needed to keep them on to stave off the cold that would surely kill her in minutes otherwise.
She glanced around quickly, counting off her kids and freezing in place when she realized there was one missing. "Oh no…No, no, no. Where's Alex?"
"Mama!"
"Alex!" The teenager yelled with fright when she spotted her youngest little boy on the middle of a fallen tree perched between the two cliff faces. The fall wasn't hundreds of feet, but it was still high enough to bring someone to their end.
Why is this happening? Jack screamed in his head. One thing after the other, why? This family didn't deserve any of this. He watched as the wood started to splinter. In this case, even if he tried to freeze the fallen log, it would have only ended up in making the dead tree explode due to the expanding water content.
The teenager tore off her coat and other extra layers as she ran over to her child. She was racing against time, so she didn't bother to stop and raced onto the decaying tree. She grabbed her child and kept moving forward.
It was then that Jack noticed it. A small shadow reached up and latched onto the top of the teenager's foot, not enough to completely trip her but enough to make her stumble a little. Suddenly there was an ear-popping crack. The young woman tossed the child in her arms just before the wood broke up from beneath her feet. The group could only watch in horror as the mother grabbed at the icy wall, barely managing to find a ledge to hold onto. The young group ran around the long way as fast as they could so that they could be on the same side as their parental guardian.
"Mom! Grab our hand!" The two oldest children called out, reaching down.
The teenager shook her head. "Find someone and call for help."
"No! You have to come up with us!" The boy yelled, trying to reach farther without falling over.
"Go!" The teenager commanded. "I'll be alright. If I can't climb up, then I'll climb down. But I'll need a hospital. Can all of you do that for me?"
It was a lie and Jack knew it. He could already tell by the bluish tint that had settled over the girl. Her breathes were coming in short and weak, and her pupils were dilated. The girl wasn't even shivering anymore. It was a small miracle that she was still hanging on, but it was more than clear that she would not last much longer.
The girl nodded and stood up, but the oldest boy remained. "You promise you'll be alright?"
The teenager smiled. "Mom's going to do her very best to keep you smiling, remember?"
Tears started to escaped the corners of the boy's eyes as he moved to get up. "You have to be here when we get back!" The boy shouted before grabbing the hands of two of his siblings and running of for help with the others.
Only Jack remained.
The teenager heaved a small sigh and attempted to move, but a numbness was settling over her and her vision was steadily growing dark. Tears leaked out, even as she smiled a little. Her gaze trailed over the wall, oddly, landed on Jack's sorrowful figure, and remained there.
"P-Please," she rasped. "P-P-Please t-take c-c-c-care o-of th-th-th-them."
Jack nodded. "I'll do my best, I swear it."
The girl smile and fell.
xXx
Jack sat up with a start, gasping for air. He could feel a light layer of sweat, but wasn't thinking about any of that right now.
"Jack, are you alright?" Tooth demanded as she fluttered over the boy worriedly.
"Sit back down," North instructed. "You collapsed suddenly."
Jack shook his head and pushed through the group, though a bit unsteadily. "I have to hurry, she might still be alive!"
"She who?" Tooth asked, trying to get the boy to return to the couch. "Jack, what are you talking about?"
"Calm down mate," Bunny jumped in. "It could have just been a dream."
"It wasn't! She fell and there was nothing I could do about it," the winter spirit told the group. "I have to hurry, there could still be time!"
"Jack!" Tooth called out, but the boy had raced out the window and was flying away as fast as possible. "But what about…"
"What should we do?" Bunny asked the others.
Sandy shook his head and pointed out the window where Jack had disappeared.
North nodded. "Seems important. We should follow."
"I hate to say it, but," Bunny shook his head slowly, already dreading the idea, "get that sleigh of yours ready."