Oh ho ho ho! How are my beautiful grandchildren doing today?" cried out Grandpa North charged straight towards us with his arms wide open. The ground seemed to shake with every step he took! I quickly picked up a surprised Arron and held him up in front of me for him to hug. I'm not exactly much of a hugger, so I usually tried to avoid them. It wasn't exactly because of my psychometry, how even with one hug, I knew what anyone was doing that day, or even the day before. The thing with Grandpa North was that with every single hug, it always felt like he was wanting to hug you to death.
Once Arron was in his arms, I then quickly grabbed Odette by the arm and practically threw her right in front of me.
"Hey!" She cried out as I pushed her in front of me.
I smirked as Grandpa North's arms quickly enveloped her in his hold. I tried to run around him and out of his reach, but I wasn't really fast enough.
"Oh no you don't! Come here!" he shouted, spinning around and grabbing me from the back of my shirt and lifting me off the ground. Soon, I was in his arms as well.
"Hey Grandpa. How are you doing?" I managed to say while I was practically being squeezed to death.
I heard mom and dad laugh and I turned over to see Odette sticking her tongue out at me and Arron giving me a toothy grin. I rolled my eyes at them but inside, I was laughing too.
"I'm doing great now that I get to see you beautiful children today!" He said to us as he put us back down. I popped my back and rolled my neck, trying to get loose.
"Oh! And how are the King and Queen of Arendelle doing today?' He asked, bowing down in front of them. He gently grabbed mom's hand and kissed it. "Elsa, you are as beautiful as ever!"
Mom giggled and dad rolled his eyes playfully at him.
"Uh, yeah. She's beautiful every day!" Dad said as he took mom in his arms and nuzzled his face against hers. She giggled and blushed as he did it.
"And you're about the same Jack." Grandpa said to him. Dad shot him a look.
"Ahaha! I'm just messing with you Jack!" He said, patting dad hard on the back. "Now, what brings you lovelies here today? Is it about Christmas?" He turned around to face Arron. "It'll be Christmas here next month! Have you been a good boy this year?" He asked as he tickled Arron. He laughed and laughed as he was tickled, his face turning red and grabbing his stomach as he did.
"Yes! Yes I've been a good boy this year grandpa!" he managed to say in between his laughs.
"Good! I'm glad you are not like your father who held record on Naughty list for years." North said as he quit tickling him. "But, anyway, you bring me a list of what you want for Christmas at the beginning of next month, alright?"
Arron nodded his head at him, his face now turning back to its normal color. Grandpa then looked up at me and Odette.
"I do hope you two have been just as good as your little brother."
"Yes we have been grandpa." Odette said playfully.
"Good! I too expect a list of what you both want as well by next month, okey dokey?" He said, pointing at the both of us. We both nodded our heads.
"We're actually not here to talk about Christmas." Dad spoke, glancing at mom. Unbeknownst to them, I knew why we were here.
"Oh?" Grandpa gave them a confused look.
"We're here to talk about something else." Dad said. It seemed to take grandpa a few seconds before he suddenly realized what they were talking about.
"Children!" He cried, spinning around to face us three. "How would you guys like to see how the toys are being made? Won't that be fun?"
"Yay! I wanna see!" Arron cried, bouncing up and down on his feet.
"Alrighty! PHIL!" He shouted. We turned and saw one of the brown yetis amongst the group of the yetis working approach us. "Phil will be your tour guide. I know you all have been in here tons of times but he will show you how we work each machine and make each toy. I gotta talk to your mom and dad, alrighty? Let's go!" He said, practically pushing us three at Phil. As we walked away from them, I turned around in time to see mom and dad follow grandpa into his office. I looked around and saw the entrance into his main study room was just above his office. I knew I had to find a way to get up there without Odette, Arron, or the yetis seeing me.
"Bowen! Look at that!" Arron tugged at my shirt and pointed to a machine that one of the yetis was working at. The machine was a long tube with a large squared mold at the bottom. The machine stood above a conveyor belt that extended about 35 feet long and about five feet off the ground so it was easier for the yetis since they were all more than seven feet tall. A yeti stood at the beginning near the machine. It then grabbed a long switch that had a button on top of it. He pushed the button, making the squared part of the machine touch the conveyor belt for about a few seconds before rising up as he let his thumb go off of it. With each push of the button, more and more what appeared to be robotic toys passed by us on the conveyor belt and into another machine in which they would come out wrapped tightly in boxes in which another yeti would inspect to make sure the box wasn't open at all and that they bows were on perfectly and at the very end of the conveyor belt was a large sack in which the boxes would fall into.
"Wow! Those are the Transformers!"Arron cried out with joy upon seeing his favorite robots. "I want one!" Then, with amazing speed, he quickly jumped on top of the conveyor belt to grab one of the robots.
"Arron!" Evangeline and I shouted. Phil turned around to see what all the commotion was and shrieked once he saw Arron running on the conveyor belt, trying to reach out for the Optimus Prime robot that was getting close into the other machine that wrapped them in boxes. Still surprised at the fact that a four foot tall eight year-old could jump onto a conveyor that was way taller than him, I quickly jumped on it too and ran behind him, jumping over every single robot so I wouldn't step on them and Odette ran alongside us, trying to grab at Arron with one hand while holding up her dress with the other so she could run.
"Almost. Got. It." Arron struggled to grab at the robot while trying to make sure he didn't step on the other ones too. I was so close to him before I was suddenly hit in the side of the head, knocking me off the conveyor. I landed flat on my face on the floor next to the machine. I quickly got up and looked around to see what it was that hit me. It was one of the dozens of toys that Grandpa North constructed to fly around the workshop. I got up as fast as I could and ran along the conveyor. Arron was not about a few feet away from the machine now.
"Odette! Get out of the way!" I shouted at my sister.
I then made a dive towards Arron just as he grabbed the robot. I quickly grabbed Arron and held him tightly as possible to me as we both fell back on the floor.
"Are you okay Arron?" I asked worriedly, helping him stand up and inspecting him to make sure he didn't have any bruises or cuts.
"That was fun! Let's do it again!" Arron squealed, waving Optimus Prime around in his hand. He turned to Phil who was still trying to recover from the near cardiac arrest he almost had. "Do you guys have Megatron in there somewhere as well?" He asked. Phil looked at him with wide eyes and shouted in some garbled language that none of us, except for the other yetis and grandpa, could understand.
"Phil, I can't really understand you when you yell like that." Arron said to him. He looked back up at the conveyor belt. "Oh look! I see one right there!" He ran towards the conveyor but I ran after him and caught him before he could jump on it.
"How about no." I said, placing him back down on the ground. I took the robot out of his hand and handed it back to the yeti working on the machine.
"Hey! But that's mine! Do you know how hard it was to get it?" Arron whined, crossing his arms and sticking his lower lip out at me.
"Believe me, I do." I said to him. I grabbed his hand and led him down to the other machines, following Odette and Phil.
"Do you have any idea how bad this could've all turned if you had gotten hurt?"Odette said to him.
"I don't care!" He continued to whine.
"Arron, listen to me." I said, kneeling down in front of him. "Remember that you're on the Nice List. Don't you think Grandpa North will be upset if he finds out he has to put you on the Naughty List for trying to go back and get your toys that you know you're going to get for Christmas?"
I looked at Arron and saw he was biting the inside of his cheek, something he does when he feels bad. He closed his eyes and looked down at the floor, thinking. After about a minute, he looked up and sighed.
"I'm sorry." He said. "I'll be good."
"Alrighty then. Come on." I held my hand out for him to hold. He hesitated for a moment before taking it. The three of us continued on with our tour. I kept looking around desperately, trying to find something that could distract them while I was gone for a few minutes. We finally ended up stopping at a machine that helped wrap up the presents.
"Hey, Odette." I whispered, nudging her with my elbow.
"What?" She whispered back.
"I'm going to go use the restroom really quick alright? Take care of Arron and make sure he doesn't get on any of the machines or anything."
"Okay, sure. Go on."
With that, I slowly and carefully walked away from them, making my way towards the study. As I did, I would look at each machine, acting like I was interested in what was going on, and make my way to the next one. I finally neared stairs that led up to the study and quickly made my way up them. I kept looking down to make sure no one was looking. All the yetis and elves were too busy with making the toys and operating the machines that they didn't notice me. I looked out more and saw Odette and Arron making their way down with Phil. I looked around once more and when I saw no one was watching, I quickly bolted up the rest of the stairs and made my way towards the main study. I looked back down to make sure no one saw me and then quietly slipped into the study.
"Whoa!" I exclaimed out loud as I looked around the study. There were books everywhere! And by everywhere, I meant everywhere! There were tons of them jammed tightly into the overflowing bookshelves that were up against the walls, there was books piled up on one another on the floor and the piles went up to the ceiling! There was a bunch of books on North's desk, on the floor next to his desk, and even some on the window sills!
"Looks like I got my work cut out for me." I said to myself. I went up to the nearest bookshelf and started skimming the titles. I had to find this Pitch guy. Maybe he knows something about me. The true me.
"No, no, definitely not, not." I muttered, skimming through the titles. I skimmed every book on each bookshelf in the room but I couldn't find anything related to him. I then started with the book piles on the floor. I'd get down on my hands and knees and skim the titles on those. I looked at every single pile on the floor, even the ones next to the desk. I then went to the windows and looked at those. Nothing.
I finally finished looking after I skimmed the last book on Grandpa's desk and still nothing. Frustrated, I threw the book I had in my hand back down hard on the desk.
"Why can't I find anything?" I yelled in frustration. I then sat down hard in front of one of the bookshelves. "You'd think grandpa would have something on him, but there's nothing at all!"
I threw my head into my hands, tired.
"Forget it. I'm never going to find anything on this man. I guess it's best to give it up." I began to stand up when I noticed something under the desk. I crawled over to it and reached out for it. I grabbed it and carefully pulled it out from underneath the desk. It was a book. I flipped it over to the front and read the title; "The Creator of Nightmares, Pitch Black."
I gasped. This is it! I found it! I smiled as I held the book in my hands. All the questions that I had asked myself for a long time where in this book!
I looked over at the clock that hung above the front door to the study. It was 12:30. I had been gone for almost 45 minutes. I quickly tucked the book into the pocket of my black hoodie and quietly exited out of the room.
Hey everyone! I'm deeply sorry for the long hiatus! I was just so busy during the summer with my move and work, but I'm back! I'm going to do my best to keep updating this and my other story on here. Thanks to all of those who favorited and followed this story. It really means a lot to me! Thank you!