Chapter 3: Half Day
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He guys, sorry it took so long to post, but I have a good reason for it and it'll be at the end of the chapter
So I hope you enjoy!
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When Tessa first woke up, a large smile spread across her lips as she remembered the events of the night before.
"Good morning Pitch!" she greeted to her guest, brushing her tangled, sleep mussed hair out of her face as she sat up in her bed. But her smile slowly faded when she saw that she was alone.
"Pitch?" she asked, looking around her room. "Where are you?"
When she got no answer, she crawled out of bed and got on her hands and knees to peek underneath it. But to her disappointment, all she saw was a few toys and dust bunnies.
Sitting up on her knees, Tessa let out a heavy sigh; he must have left when she was sleeping.
She was crestfallen that he was gone, but there really wasn't anything she could do about it now, and she had to get ready for school. But, maybe after she got home she'd go out and try to find him.
Nodding at her plan, she went over to her dresser and pulled out her bottom drawer, taking a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt with large sunflower on the front before switching them out with her nightclothes.
When she was all dressed, she went to her closet to pick out a sweater to wear, only to find Pitch Black sitting inside and flinching under the sun light as she opened the door. "You little fool! Close that door!" he snapped, making her slam it shut with a quick apology.
Tessa stood there, a shocked expression on her face for a just a short moment before an ecstatic smile grew on her lips. He really hadn't left yet!
"I thought you'd gone away," Tessa stated, pressing her ear to the door, "What're you doing in there?"
"I am a creature of darkness and shadow, if you hadn't realized this by now, so I'm trying to stay out of the sun," she heard him say. "In the state I'm in now, it would be too much for me."
"Are you still hurt bad?" Tessa asked, "Do you need any medicine or something?"
"I'm not sick, and I'm not injured, I'm just very weak." Pitch explained from his spot on the closet floor, annoyance lacing his words. "All I need is a little rest."
"Okay then, um, do you think you can hand me a sweater, though?" Tessa asked, "I wanna wear the white one with the teddy bear ballerina's on it."
Pitch bumped the back of his head on the wall, but he spotted the sweater she asked for, and after a few seconds, he stood up and took it off the hanger before he carefully cracked open the door and stuffed it through the crack.
"Thank you." Came Tessa's voice as it was pulled the rest of the way through. Pitch suddenly heard the bedroom door open, and a male voice rang through the air.
"Tessa?"
"Good morning James." He heard Tessa say.
"Why'd you slam the door so hard?"
Pitch peeked through the crack of the door, seeing Tessa looking up to the right. "Um…the Boogeyman's in my closet?" she said.
"Really, a little early for him to be out and about, isn't it?" the man questioned.
"Yeah, that's why he's staying in there for now," Tessa said.
"Well, come on, let get your socks on, the cars warming up."
"Mamma's not taking me?" Tessa asked as she disappeared from the crack. There was a mirror on the wall that was by the door, so Pitch used it to watch as she walked over to her bed and was followed by a tall man with sandy brown hair and blue eyes. Pitch figured that must be her father.
"She had the morning shift today," he answered, placing the plate of toast and milk on her nightstand before he walked over to her dresser and tossed her a pair of socks. "I hope it's alright if I drive you to school."
"Yeah, it's fine, I think you're a safer driver than she is, anyway." Tessa said as she finished putting on her socks before she added in a whisper, "She speeds sometimes."
"Oh, okay," James said in a hushed voice, placing a finger to his lips, "we won't tell her I'm the better driver, then; it'll be our little secret."
Tessa then reached over and picked up the toast and started eating, but once she swallowed her fourth bite, she let out a large yawn.
"Feeling a little tired?" He asked.
"Just a little bit," Tessa told him, "I wanted to talk to Pitch some last night before I went to sleep."
"Pitch?"
"Yeah, Pitch Black, he's the Boogeyman in my closet!"
"You were talking to the Boogeyman?" James asked, sounding a little confused. "I thought you didn't like him."
"That's the other one," Tessa told him with a scrunch of her nose. "Pitch's way better than him! And he's nice!"
She said it again, the 'other Boogeyman.' Last night he brushed it off as a slip of the tongue, but he knew now that she meant to say it. What did she mean by that?
But that didn't bother him as much as her last statement. Nice?! If he wasn't as weak as he was, he'd walk out there and show her who was 'nice'!
"Oh, and Pitch even scared me last night, it was so cool!" Tessa continued after she finished her toast and milk.
"What did he do?"
"You should've seen it James! He turned into a shadow on the wall, and then he got bigger and made a scary face and roared," Tessa said, waving her arms about enthusiastically, "I got so scared, I fell off my bed!"
"So that was the thump I heard..." the older man stated.
"Yep!" Tessa said with a nod. "It was so fun! Maybe he'll do it again if I to ask him tonight."
James let out a laugh, "I hope Pitch realized what he got himself into when he became your friend." The Boogeyman rolled his eyes, he didn't become her anything!
James then stood, taking the empty dishes in his hands, "Such an imagination…" Pitch heard him add softly.
"Well, I'm gonna go put these in the sink and then get my boots on," James said, as he walked to the door. "Why don't you try to tame that Medusa hairdo of yours and come get ready to go when you're done."
"Okay!"
He suddenly heard Tessa's little feet run across the room, and a sliding sound, and then he saw her appear in the crack and pulled the door open wider.
"Hey!" Pitch yelled, didn't he just tell her he couldn't be in the sunlight right now?!
"It okay, I pulled the heavy curtains over my window, so you can come out." Tessa said grabbing his hand and pulling him to his feet.
"Let go of me!" He said, wrenching his hand out of hers. Before standing up and straitening his black robe. But Tessa didn't seem fazed by his brush off, and she just went over to her nightstand and pulled out a pink hair pick.
"And hey, what do you mean when you say other Boogeyman, anyway?" Pitch demanded, wanting to get it strait while it was still fresh in his mind. "I'm the only one that resides here in this world!"
"No you're not." Tessa said simply, as she went to the full length mirror on the wall and started combing the tangles out of her long dark curls, "You're better, and you're my friend."
"I don't have any friends," he stated in an exasperated tone. "I'm the blasted Boogeyman!"
"Yes you do, you have me." Tessa told him. "But the other one won't ever be my friend!"
"You-"Pitch started in a strain voice as he raised his hands, his fingers hooked like claws as he felt the need to strangle her, but he composed himself and took in a deep breath to relax himself.
"If you don't like this 'other Boogeyman' so much than why did you help me? The real thing?!" Pitch asked, "Why are you so set on becoming my friend?"
Tessa stopped brushing her hair, cupping the hair pick in her hands with a thoughtful look on her face as she tried to find the words to explain why. And after a few moments, she turned to him, looking up at him with those blue eyes of hers.
"Because I didn't know the real Boogeyman could get scared or feel sad." The little girl told him in a soft voice.
"…What?" Pitch asked, feeling angry and indigent at her answer, "Jut what are you talking about?!"
"When you woke up at the park, you were scared of bad dreams," Tessa started, leaving Pitch wondering what she meant by 'bad dreams', but after a second he realized she was talking about the Nightmares. "And last night, you seemed so sad because children didn't like you as much as Santa, or the Tooth fairy..."
"…I saw that you had feelings, just like me, and just like everyone else." She continued, "I don't think you're such a bad person, Pitch; and I don't want you to feel lonely anymore."
Pitch didn't know what to say at first, he knew she wasn't just saying that, she was truly being sincere. And at that moment, he felt something stir within him, a feeling he couldn't place but nonetheless startled him. As quickly as it came, he squashed it down; he wouldn't let this child get under his skin just because of a few, pretty little words.
"That has to be the most ridiculous thing I've ever-"
"Tessa, we gotta go or you'll be late!" James' voice suddenly called, interrupting him.
"Coming!" Tessa called back as she grabbed a large black and blue school bag from the floor beside her bed, but she stopped at the door and turned back to him.
"Hey, do you want to come to school with me?" she suddenly asked, "You can hide in my backpack, it's big, so I'm sure you could fit if you turned into a shadow again."
Pitch was about to say 'forget it' but then he stopped and thought about it. It probably would be a better idea to not stay in one place for too long, plus, if Tessa really was friends with Jamie Bennett, there was a chance he could get information. Specifically if Jack Frost or the Guardians knew that he was free...
"How thick is the material?" he finally asked.
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Pitch was glad that this school period was what Tessa called 'a half day', but while he wasn't entirely uncomfortable in Tessa's back-pack, he could only take so much being stuck in a small space. Especially when he wasn't even able to hear himself think while listening to the babble of many voices of students and lessons from the teacher that he had no use for himself.
He actually found himself slipping in and out of focus a few times because of sheer boredom until he finally heard the bell ring to let the students know it was time for lunch before he then felt himself moving as Tessa took the bag along with her.
Pitch was grateful that she was at least considerate enough to break away from her classmates to let him out in the darkness of the Janitors closet to let him stretch his legs. And after waiting about five minuets, he returned inside the bag so she could go to lunch, once again just listening to sounds and feeling the movements of outside.
"Jamie! Jamie!" Came Tessa's call.
the bag bounced slightly as she jogged over to where she must have seen the young boy.
"Hey Tessa, do you wanna sit with us for lunch today?" he heard the voice of Jamie Bennett ask.
"In a minuet, I need to tell you something first, come on!"
The loud crowd of voices then began to die down as Pitch felt them move into a slightly quieter area, and after a few moments, he heard Tessa speak again. "I have a secret to tell you, but you can't tell anyone, not even Jack Frost."
"Well, you don't have to worry about Jack, I haven't seen him since last Easter, but I promise Tessa."
So, the winter spirit had gone back freezing windows and bringing blizzards while staying out of sight? That was odd, Pitch knew that the Guardians where big on hiding themselves from children, but he would have thought that Jack would show himself at least to Jamie every once in a while since he was the first child to ever believe in him.
"Pinkie swear!" He heard suddenlyTessa say, breaking him from his musings. Now that he knew that he wouldn't really get any sort of solid information from Jamie, he was a bit interested to learn of this secret Tessa wanted to share.
After a short pause, and a giggle from Tessa, he felt her clutch the top of the back with her little fingers.
"Last night I found someone and brought him home with me." Tessa whispered, he could practically feel that there was a wide grin on her face as he felt alarm flare within when he realized what the secret was. "And you'll never guess who it was!"
Oh she wouldn't…
"Who?" Jamie asked with eagerness.
No, no, no…
"Pitch Black!"
If he was in his solid form, Pitch would have slapped himself in the forehead. Why, oh why did he think coming here to school with her was a good idea again?
"What?!" came Jamie's loud shout of surprise.
"Yeah, actually, he's right here in my back pa-Hey!" Pitch nearly let out a yelp when the back was violently jerked to the left.
"Jamie! What're you doing?!" he heard Tessa angrily cry before the bag jostled once again to the right. "You're going to hurt him even more if you shake the bag around like that!"
"He's hurt?" Jamie questioned.
"Yeah, he told me so!" The little girl huffed.
Pitch fought to let out an irritated sigh, he only said he was weakened, not hurt!
"Tessa, why'd you help him?!" Jamie demanded, "Don't you remember what I told you?! He's a bad guy! He tried to make all of us stop believing in the Guardians!"
"He was only sad that everyone stopped believing in him, Jamie!" Tessa defended. "How would the Guardians feel if they had to go so long without being believed in like he did?"
"It's not the same Tessa, and you know it!" Jamie told her in a firm tone.
"Why not?!" Tessa asked, frustration in her voice, "Kids don't like him only because he's scary and that made him lonely and angry, it's not fair! I'm sure if any of the Guardians were in his place they would have done the same thing he tried!"
"No they wouldn't!" Jamie insisted firmly, "Give me the bag Tessa!"
"No way! You wanna hurt him!" Tessa said, and he heard little feet slapping the ground and felt the bag bouncing as she began to run.
Pitch could hear Jamie calling her name, but she ignored him and kept running until he heard a door open and then slam to a close.
"It's okay now Pitch, we're in the janitor's closet," He heard Tessa said, trying to catch her breath. "I've locked the door and he can't come in."
A loud banging suddenly filled the air, "Tessa, he must have you under some sort of mind control!" Jamie said through the door. "You don't know what you're doing!"
Pitch would have laughed at that absurd accusation if he was under any other circumstance. Mind control? He could show and manipulate their fears, yes, but he could never place a child under mind control.
"Yes I do, Jamie, you just don't understand!" Tessa told him.
"I'm trying to help you!" the boy insisted, "If you don't come out on your own, then that'll just prove that he took over your mind!"
Tessa gave a short 'hmph!' but said nothing to that. And after a few seconds, Pitch heard Jamie race away calling his teachers name.
"Pitch?" Tessa asked after he was gone, "Are you alright?"
"…Let me out..."
He must have sounded angry because he felt her hesitate, and he was! Because she didn't have the common sense to keep him secret from the one person he that he couldn't afford to know that he was back.
After a few seconds, the back was zipped open and he slithered out of her bag. As soon as he was in his solid form, he rounded on her, rage glittering in his pale eyes. "Are you really that much of an idiot?!" He yelled. "How could you do that?!"
"W-what did I do?" she asked, tightly clutching her back-pack and her jacket tighter in her hands.
"What di- You told Jamie Bennett that I was here!" Pitch stated, "If that boy knows that I am free, then word will spread to Jack Frost and the Guardians, they will all come looking for me and who knows what they'll do!"
"But Jamie said that he hadn't seen them since last year..." Tessa started in a small voice.
"That doesn't mean that they're not still watching over him!" Pitch growled. "What were you thinking?!"
"I…I'm sorry Pitch, I just thought that if I told Jamie that you were only lonely before, then he'd understand…" Tessa started looking at her feet, her lower lip trembling. "I thought he'd want to be your friend too, and you'd have more people that liked you and believed in you."
She sniffed, and tears started to pool at her eyes. Seeing them, he once again felt something stir within him, but he dismissed it as tired annoyance. If there was one thing he couldn't stand, it was crying children when he wasn't even trying to scare them.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry, alright? That's enough!" Pitch said, forcing himself to say an apology as he stood down and placed his hands on her shoulders, "I didn't mean to snap at you; you were only thinking of me, after all..."
Inwardly sighing with relief when she started to calm down, he continued on. "But we do have a serious problem," He told her, taking his hands away and standing upright. "I take it that since Jamie's gone to get your teacher; you're really not allowed to be in here, are you?"
"No…" she mumbled, using the sleeve of her sweater to wipe away the tears from her eyes.
"Right, and I just can't stay in your back-pack, that's the first place Jamie will try to look."
Tessa looked down at her bag, then glanced back up at him with a gasp as she remembered something.
"Oh wait, you can go anywhere that's dark right?" she asked, "No matter where it is?"
"Yes…" Pitch said, raising a brow at her sudden enthusiasm, "Why?"
"I think I have an idea..." she told him, setting her bag to the ground.
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It wasn't long before Tessa's teacher, Miss. Hicks had come to the door.
"Theresa, you know that students aren't supposed to be in there," Miss. Hicks stated firmly. "Now come on out."
A rustling sound came from behind the door before Tessa answered her with a soft, "yes Miss. Hicks..." And the door was unlocked.
When she stepped out, she was wearing her large winter coat and holding her backpack in one hand.
"That's a good girl," Miss. Hicks said, guiding her further away from the door so she would be able to close it. "Now, let's all go back to class and clean up, the final bell will ring very soon."
Jamie looked down at her backpack, and seeing that it was opened up and empty, he met Tessa's eyes. And he silently mouthed, 'where is he?'
Tessa held his gaze for a second, and then turned to look in the darkness Janitors' room just as the teacher closed the door.
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No one was there to pick Tessa up from school, but that was alright, she knew how to find her way home just fine.
But today, she was getting lots of odd looks by passerby's, though, who could blame them for their stares when they see a little girl with her arms far out from her sides as she stiffly continued on her way down the sidewalk.
"…It feels really weird with you in my jacket." Tessa finally commented after she passed someone.
"Well I'm not exactly having the time of my life here, either!" Came Pitch's voice from the collar of her jacket. "Do you have any idea how humiliating this is?"
"And you reek of overly sweet frosting and stale gingerbread!"
"Sorry, we had to make gingerbread houses in class today," Tessa explained. "And Billy accidentally dropped his on my cloths when he tried to show the teacher."
"He had to make a new one."
Well, that would explain the commotion of laughter he heard earlier in class along with a boy's voice apologizing to Tessa just before her teacher had told her to grab some napkins to wipe off her sweater before the lunch break...
"Well, whatever, just hurry up and get yourself home; let me out the moment we're in your room." Pitch ordered.
Tessa gave a nod and the two of them fell silent as she kept going. "…And…thank you, Tessa." The Boogeyman suddenly said in a softer tone.
Tessa stopped, feeling a bit surprised; Not from the 'thank you' Pitch gave her, but from the fact that for the first time since they met, he had actually said her name.
"What for?" she finally asked.
"For not letting Jamie take me away..."
A smile grew on Tessa's face, and she happily continued on her awkward walk home. "You're welcome, Pitch."
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"…It's a good thing Christmas break starts tomorrow," Tessa suddenly added after about five minutes of silence. "'Cause I don't think you should come to school with me anymore."
"You can certainly say that again." Pitch stated.
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I apologize if this chapter seemed rushed, I just wanted to try and post it before I left.
Alright, so the reason why I took so long was because I was preparing to visit my family for the holidays, and I was also trying to plan out what I wanted my next chapter to be like, I was thinking about Pitch and Tessa having a little bonding moment, but I don't know if my idea will work out.
I was thinking about having them share a dream, I thought that since Pitch could look into someone dream/nightmare, why couldn't he actually go into one? but I'm afraid that it might be inaccurate...
so yay, or nay, I'll let you decided if you want to see it.
be sure to tell me what you think. :)