The room around Jack spin and swirled, glowing in a pure snow white, before shutting itself back into a deep black. Jack no longer felt as if he were in a room or anywhere else for that matter. He could feel the ground beneath his feet but he could not see it or actauly register it was there. Around him there was only a deep abysmal darkness, that neither had a beginning nor end. Jack himself didnt move, but he felt as if his hand was rising, trying to grasp onto any thing it could desparetly trying to find a life line to pull itself from the blackness. When Jack blinked he opened his eyes to a terrible scene. He found himself on the outskirts of a small town, standing on a chilled dirt path, freashly cleared of a winters snow. In front of him lay a concrete foundation of what once was a home, now reduced to nothing more thana few charred logs of wood, and ashed remains of ones personal belongings. Jack could see a few pieces of cloth and silver under a blanket of ash, dotted with a few specs of white as it began to snow slowly.

Jack didnt know what to make of it all. There was nothing left here for him, or anyone else. He ghasped as a pile of ash began to swirl against the light breeze, twisting faster and faster, rising up from the earth a few small feet. A palehand shot out from the blurred cyclone of ashes, and slamed on the ground, looking desperetly for something to grasp. After clinging onto a large root of a fallen tree, a figure began pulling itself up from the ash. A mess of long black hair fell forward, followed by a pale, naked body of a girl. the ash around her began surrounding her once more, flowing over her skin like water. The girl stayed as still as rock, breathing hevily as the ash settled, forming a strange black cloak that covered her almost compleatly. She stood on her knees examining her hands as if seeing them for the first time, tuning them over and over, slowly moving her fingers, grasping at nothing. Her nails were a darkened blue and purple, matching her almost dead looking felt the new fabric encasing her body, ghosting over herself gently as if the wrong move could hurt herself.

The root she clutched began twisting and slithering like a snake, pulling itself free of the ground and straitening. A trickle of frost on the tip of the branch began to shimmer and shine, almost gem like. It burried itself into a small knotch on the end of the staff, glowing a magnificent white.

Her arms began to shake, and she clutched her forehead as if in great pain. Her breathing became labored and fast and she fell over, bent over in a bow amoung the snowy ground. She became almost illuminated in pale, almost devine white light. Jack didnt need to look to know what it was. Black turned her face to the sky, and almost instantly her breathing steady. Her crimson eyes glew like embers in a fire. She stared for what seemed like hours, lying on her back unmoving, compleatly absorbed in the moons light. It wasnt until a faint voice calling did she ever stir. " Kida?" She whispered. The call came again, just barely louder than the first. " Agatha!" Black smiled. " Kida! " She yelled. She stumbled to get up, and began fighting the snow, running tword the voice. A small girl running the opposite direction down a small hill called frantically. " Agatha! Aggy!" " Kida!" Black laughed.

The small girl was dressed in a thin white gown, Jack guessed it was some kind of nightwear and wondered how such a little girl could brave the cold in that. The girl, ' Kida' Jack figured, had waist leangth brown hair, and shimmering blue eyes. Black fell to her knees, arms wide open for the girl. Jack knew what was coming. Long before it happened. Kida ran strait through Black, as if she wasnt there. for a second, Blacks arms just hung there in the air, unmoving. Blacks red eyes were open wide, not understanding. Her dead like lips slightly open,revealing four sharpened canines. Blacks arms droped and she spun up to face kida, her cloak flowing outwards, sending a single wave of smoke over the snow. They both watched, Jack and Black, as Kida dashed to the burnt remains of the house, tears flowing down her face that matched Blacks.

" Kida, Kida im here!" Black called. Black ran to her, and Jacks heart broke, knowing it was useless. He knew Kida could no longer see her, Black didnt exist to her anymore. She was no longer ' Agatha'. She was Black. Black Plague. Black fell to her knees beside Kida, choking on quiet, confused sobs." Kida!" Black placed a hand on the girld shoulder, and to Jacks Amazment, it stopped. It didnt go strait through like it should have, like it did a few moments ago. Jack didnt understand. At the touch of Black's hand, Kida began to cough, slightly at first, but then fell in am all out fit. Black recoiled her hand as if it burned her, and Kida's coughing stopped. The poor girl breathed hevily, trying to regain her breath. Jack heard an older voice calling Kida, but the scene began blurring and morphine itself before his eyes.

Jack found himself inside a small cottage, lighted dimly by a few candles. A small wood framed bed sat against the wall, close to a fire burning in a large hole in the wall. Two nightsands on the end of the bed held a few glasses and bowls of water, some tainted a light pink. a few bottles of multi colored liquid covered shelves on the walls. The bed was compleatly covered in two quilts, much too large for the bed itself. Jack thought it was empty at first, but soon the mass of fabric began to stir, and he heard a few weak coughs. The quilts parted to reveal a small paleish face, cheek bones showing and eyes surrounded by a sickly green substance. around the lips were small abrasions, and some of her flesh looked dead and rotting.

Jacks heart caught in his throut. It was Kida! the little girl was barely able to move, and the smell of the room was almosts to much for Jack. A dark shadowy flash appeared on the wall behind the bed, slowly crawling down onto the floor. The blackess rose in a blurred haze of smoke, and settled to reveal Black, knealing by Kidas bed. She held her hands over her mouth, tears streaming down her face." Kida...I am so sorry!" she whispered through sobs. The door crashed open and an angry heavy set man in filthy overalls pushed a torch into the room. " BEGONE WITCH! LEAVE THIS CHILD ALONE!" Black vanished into another cloud of smoke as the scene once again becan to twist and change again. What was going on? Jack wondered. Black said she was sorry? Did she do this? He remembered when Black touched her shoulder, and sent the little girl into a fit of coughs. That man called her a witch, can she be seen now?

The image changed, and he saw Black running through the dirt paths of some village, kicking up puffs of whispy black smoke in her path. He could hear angry shouts from further down the path, and see a soft glow of firelight. He heard things like," Witch" and " Deviless " and other vulgar things being shouted. Black clutched the staff in the hand, and Jack wondered why she didnt just, shadow herself away again. She ran until she hit the outside of the village, and weaved her way through the trees of the forest, going as far away from the village as she could. She began climbing the side of a large hill, loosing footing here and there, but refusing to stop or even slow her pace. Jack could see the heat of her breath show in the frozon air around her, and see her fingers were being dug raw, trickling small scarltdrops of blood.

When she reached the top, she found a rock legde that juts out, just far enough to overlook the village. She collapsed there, sobbing into her smoky cloak. She watched the far off lights of torches dance within the village, dissapearing inside various buildings. Jack felt another presence, and a dark shadow that riveld Blacks approched from behind, He knew who it was, and it sent shivers down his spine. A swirling mass rose from the ground behind Black, slowly forming itself into the shape of a man. Pale faced, dark, unruely hair, cruel eye, and a sadistic grin. Pitch.