"Let the Darkness come for me,
let it try to steal my soul,
as if I had a soul to steal
hold me tell me life is but a dream."- War by Formal Vandal, Wolves.
Autumn was acting strange for the past couple weeks; and it is really starting to worry Jack. Autumn acts like her usual self, happy and compassionate but there are times were she just stares at nothing in particular.
"Autumn," Jack tries to reach out to Autumn, as she is just sitting up, staring out at the window. Jack puts his hand on her shoulder, "Autumn?"
Autumn jumps to his touch and turns to him, "Oh, hey what's up?" Jack looks at Autumn with concern and takes his hand off. Autumn tilts her head in confusion, "Jack, is everything alright?"
Jack can sense something different from Autumn, but he doesn't know exactly what it is. However, when Autumn turned at look at Jack, he could swear he saw something change in her eyes. "I, uh, made you some pancakes; they are down stairs in the kitchen."
Autumn's face lights up, "Oh Jack, your pancakes are the best!" She jumps up and hugs him, giving him a kiss on the cheek. Jack smiles and hugs Autumn back, forgetting about his concern for her that he had previously.
The other Guardians as well noticed Autumn's unusual behavior. "Autumn, honey," Tooth called out when the two young spirits stopped by her palace to visit. "Are you alright, you look very tired."
Autumn looked over at Tooth, "I'm fine, I actually slept for eight hours yesterday and I had no nightmares!"
Tooth's put on a fake smile, "That's good."
"Yeah!" Autumn lightly chuckled.
Tooth was now extremely worried over Autumn. She saw Jack flying around some pillars, racing some of her fairies and went over to him. "Jack." She called to him and he stopped in mid flight making a few fairies fly straight into his back.
"Oops, sorry girls," Jack apologized as they rubbed their tiny beaks. One fairy, Baby Tooth, glared at Jack and started chirping angrily at Jack. He understood what the little fairy was saying and was slightly taken back by her, "rude, it wasn't my fault." Baby Tooth playfully rolled her eyes and landed on Jack's shoulder. "What's up Tooth?" Jack smiled at Toothannia.
"Jack, is everything okay with Autumn?" Tooth asked.
Jack frowned, afraid on how this is going, "Yeah, she's fine. She has been a little tired I guess, but she has been sleeping a little."
"Has she had any nightmares or night terrors?" Tooth asked.
Jack thought for a moment but then shook his head, "No she sleeps well."
Tooth sighs, "I want you to keep a close eye on her."
Jack glares at Tooth, "Not you too, Tooth."
"Jack, if she isn't having any nightmares that may be a very bad sign." Tooth explained.
"How?" Jack asked.
Tooth flew higher to be at Jack's eye level, "Jack, the darkness may be growing stronger."
"That doesn't make any sense –"
"Has she come to any contact with anything dark, evil or negative?" Tooth asked.
Jack flew a bit back, "No Tooth! She's fine!"
"Jack I don't think you see-"
Jack cut Tooth off, "I think you guys are crazy," Jack chuckled sarcastically. "Autumn is fine."
Tooth's feathers ruffled slightly, "Listen to me, Autumn may be getting worse. There is something diff-"
"I got work to do." Jack ignored Tooth, and handed Baby Tooth back to her.
Baby Tooth looked at her mother after Jack flew away from them and she was concerned for both Jack and Autumn.
"Autumn," Jack reached Autumn, who was sitting by Tooth's small lake. "Do you want to come with me while I make some snow storms over by Germany?"
"Nah," Autumn smiled. "I'm going to stay at home if that's okay."
"Sure, get some rest." Jack smiled.
Autumn laughed, "I plan on that!" She got up and kissed Jack's cheek. "Have fun!" Autumn winked and flew up and flew out of Tooth's palace. Jack was about to leave as well but turned to look and see Tooth, watching to two spirits with a worried expression. Jack felt bad for being rude to Tooth, but he knew Autumn was fine. Or, he really hoped so.
Jack yawned as he finished his job over by Russia. He planned to go home and make something for him and Autumn to eat. He smiled as he thought about Autumn during his flight home. Even though they have been married, it feels as though he is falling more and more in love with her everyday. He began to wonder what it would be like to have a family with her. It would be really nice to have children. Autumn would be a wonderful mother and Jack could only hope that he would be a great and loving father. Jack mentioned about having children to Autumn before, but he was afraid to really talk about it. Even though they are now married, they never really done anything.
When Jack got home, he expected Autumn to be waiting for him on the roof, but she wasn't. "Autumn?" Jack walked into their bedroom and found the lights on. Autumn's jewelry, the necklace, bracelet and wedding ring that Jack made her were sitting on the counter where she usually puts them when she lays down for bed. She wasn't anywhere in the house. Jack was slightly concerned, she would usually tell him if she was going to go out or a least leave him a note in the kitchen. He felt disappointed as well because he had a lot to talk about with Autumn...
Jack decided that maybe Autumn got bored and went over to North's. Jack flew over there as fast as he can.
"Ah Jack, perfect timing!" Jack met a frantic North in the Globe Room, "Autumn's not with you?"
Jack stared at North with concern, "No. I thought that she would be with you." Jack watched as North pulled the Northern Lights signal. "North what is going on?"
"Big trouble, Jack." North said as he grabbed his swords. "There's a swarm of Nightmares and Fearlings over in Massachusetts, many children are waking up screaming and crying."
Jack eyes widened, "How are the Nightmares so powerful? No one is controlling them!"
North looked at Jack, "I don't think the Nightmares and Fearlings need to be controlled, however I believe they are stronger with a leader... A host."
"A host?" Just then Tooth, Bunny and Sandy came in the Globe Room.
Bunny spoke first, "What's going on?"
"There's no time to explain, we have to move now!" North started rushing out the door and the others followed.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Jack flew in front of North. "What about Autumn, she's not here!"
North walked past Jack, "We don't have time to wait Jack!"
Bunny put a paw of Jack's shoulder, "It might be safer for her, mate."
Jack frowned, he hated not fighting with Autumn by his side, but Bunny was right, it may be better for her not to be near danger.
The Guardians arrived in Massachusetts and North told Jack to go ahead and search for Nightmares. Jack did was he was told and saw many Nightmares and Fearlings over by a dark forest. He lead the sleigh over to the forest right away.
Jack flew down and started blasting the enemies with his ice and froze a couple. However, the ones that weren't frozen didn't react to Jack being there. Jack stopped and sensed that something was off. "Uh guys?" Jack called over. The sleigh pulled up next to Jack. "Something is going on down there, they aren't reacting to us."
When they flew down closer, they could see that the Nightmares and Fearlings were looking at someone. A large Nightmare was in the front walking towards... Autumn! She was just standing there with a weird look in her eyes like she was hypnotized.
"Autumn?" Jack heart sank, what was she doing there! The other Guardians were surprised and confused as well. "Autumn, what are you doing, run!"
As if hearing Jack call her name, Autumn snapped out of her trance. "Where am I? W-what!?" Autumn didn't know why she was here or why so many Nightmares and Fearlings were surrounding her. She looked up and saw Jack, his worried eyes fixed on her terrified ones. The Nightmares and Fearlings charged at Autumn. "JACK!" Autumn let out in a piercing scream as she had no time to defend herself.
"NO!" Jack raced down there as fast as he can, blasting at the Nightmares and Fearlings. However, the Nightmares and Fearlings weren't attacking Autumn, they were going inside her! Jack and the others stopped and stared with horror. Jack never saw anything so horrifying in his long life and seeing it happen to the person he loves the most, made his heart shatter. It only took seconds, and the girl standing there looked nothing like the Autumn Frost they knew. Jack landed in front of the girl, her whole appearance was different. Her beautiful auburn hair was now black and her blue jeans and orange jacket was also black. "Autumn?"
Autumn opened her eyes, it wasn't her gorgeous emerald green eyes that Jack fell in love with, they where cold, bright yellow. Jack stepped back as Autumn gave him a threatening look. She gave him a smirk, "Autumn's not home right now. She is looooong gone!" Autumn took out her chakrams which were solid black as well. She was going to attack Jack.
"Autumn, wait!" Jack jumped out of the way as she threw Rowan and Elm which barley missed his torso. She caught her chakrams and proceeded to charge at Jack.
"We're leaving!" Tooth grabbed Jack and flew him up to the sleigh. He didn't even fight her to let him go, all he did was stare at Autumn.
"Go!" North told his reindeer and they starting dashing through the sky. Jack continued to stare at Autumn, and watched as she laughed menacingly.
When she was out of sight, Jack turned around and saw the other Guardians watching him with concern. Tears started forming in his eyes, "Why did that have to happen?" Jack started sobbing. The others started crying as well, they couldn't believe what happened. The Guardians knew there was nothing they could have done to save Autumn, but Jack blames it all on himself.
Hey, everyone sorry this took so long. I've been super busy in school, and honestly I lost some motivation. It took a lot out of me to finish this chapter. I hope you all like it. Please, follow and review.