Flashbacks! Gotta love 'em!

Chapter 3 - The Good, The Bad, and Everything Else

Mary's round excited face full of relief.

"You did it!"

Jack grinned across the ice at her, but it was premature. He flung out his hands as the world tipped, a great cracking sound filling the clear winter air, and then the lake swallowed him up, jagged ice like teeth pointed up at the sky.

And then Jack felt his lungs filling with frigid water, and he knew he was dying.

Then, he was running into Burgess, full of adrenaline and excitement with his newfound powers. He turned to the nearest man and said, "Hello?"

The man walked past, ignoring him.

Jack saw a little kid running towards him, and he bent down. "Oh, excuse me, could you tell me where I am—" but the child ran right through him.

He stood for a moment, gasping in shock. Then, a woman walked through him as well. And more people. It was as though Jack weren't there.

"Hello?" he cried. "Hey!"

And then it hit him, a wave of harsh realization. They can't see me. It's like I'm not even here.

It scared him, badly. He turned and left the village behind, fleeing into the forest.

Suddenly, he was flying in the night sky, fighting Pitch with Sandy. And then, the darkness spread its way up Sandy's Dreamsand, engulfing the Island of the Sleepy Sands in dark Nightmare sand. Sandy's brow furrowed, as he fought, but it vain.

Then, his little golden body was blackening, the sand spinning around his face, and he closed his eyes and dissolved into darkness.

Jack was facing Pitch once again, with the children behind him and three of the Big Four beside him, as the bank of Nightmare sand rose higher above Burgess, the Nightmare King's taunts echoing out of the gloom.

Jack felt disconnected, somehow. It felt almost like deja vu. But wait. It is. These are my memories, all the worst ones.

Another voice spoke in his mind, a soft whispery one.

I HAVE SUFFERED AS WELL. SEE WHAT THE MASTER DID TO ME.

Another memory began, one that wasn't Jack's. He immediately recognized the location as Pitch's Lair, where he'd gone once before. It was gloomy, the faint light grey and cold on the rocky cavern walls. In the middle of the cave cages rose from the rock, connected with spiky tendrils to the ceiling.

Pitch stood near one of these cages, surrounded by Fearlings, two boys cowering on the stone at his feet. One was very small, and the other a young teenager.

The Nightmare King smirked down at them, and the little boy began to sob hopelessly.

The teen scrambled to his feet, his fists clenched. "You don't scare me, monster! My mother told me all about you!"

The black-robed spirit leaned down close to the boy and narrowed his eyes. "Not scared, you say. Then how can you see me?" he laughed. "No, Mark, you are very frightened. You will make an excellent addition to my forces."

The teenager named Mark paled, his eyes widening. "Wh-what do you mean?"

Pitch's smile spread. "Your young friend will be able to tell everyone, don't fret. Everyone will know what became of you."

He reached out and grabbed the startled teen and lifted him off his feet. One grey thumb touched his forehead beneath the mop of black curls. The boy's body blackened and morphed into a creature identical to the ones floating around them.

The little boy still crouched on the floor stared, his tear-filled eyes huge and horrified.

"Now, little one," Pitch whispered as he leaned close to him. "You will return home and tell your friends and Mark's family about the Boogeyman, and how he changed Mark into a Fearling. Spread the word: the Nightmare King has returned!"

The other Fearlings burst into hisses and chatters, and the frightened little boy was swept away.

HE MADE ME THIS. NOW I SERVE ONLY HIS WISHES. AND I WILL TURN YOU, JACK FROST, AS WELL. YOUR POWER WILL MAKE US STRONG. YOU HAVE MUCH FEAR.

Jack tried to focus on his breathing. Anything to stay connected to reality. He wasn't going to let this thing change him. What he'd just seen was so wrong, so twisted, it made him angry.

Kids are supposed to have fun. Not be terrorized and changed into fear-demons.

He thought of his own sister Mary's face, laughing at his tricks and antics. I died, but I saved her life. That matters far more.

He remembered the fun he'd had for three hundred years, making ice, huge snowstorms, and pretty frost patterns, and playing with millions of children.

He thought of Tooth, and all the good work she did, of Bunny's soft heart under all that Aussie roughness, North's delight in the world; and he remembered that the Sandman hadn't really become Nightmare Sand. He'd come back, and helped them win.

He thought of Jamie, and Sophie. And Pippa, Cupcake, and so many more.

Himself swearing the Guardian Oath on the lake in front of all of them.

And then Mary's face slid back into his vision, her brown eyes gleaming with happiness.

And Jack's eyes opened.

The Fearlings were gone. But he was falling, very fast, without his staff, and he was hanging onto a boy he'd never seen before, but recognized as Mark from the dream. The boy was unconscious.

Jack looked around, desperately, his hair whipping around his face.

In the dark, all he could see was huge dark mountain shapes all around, with a cluster of lights below, gleaming off the surrounding frozen body of water.

"Wind!" he yelled, "Help us!"

But his staff was gone. Without it, he couldn't control the wind.

It laughed around his face, taunting him.

The rooftops loomed, and Jack hit one, losing his grip on the boy, who tumbled out of sight. He bounced off and smashed his head on a balcony, then found a courtyard hurtling towards him.

He smacked onto snow-covered cobblestones, dazed and in pain, and just lay there, with no will to do anything.

Then the sky above spun, turned blacker than ever, and faded away.