[Previously: "Covering all the bases huh, Henry. Well, before I start asking how you know everything let's start looking for a journal. We've got a Jack to find." Jamie started to run, causing the little boy to bounce up and down in excitement and give a whoop of joy. "Next stop, the Guardian's library!"]
Jamie slowed down to a jog and then sped back up to a run when they got closer to the library. Henry complained quickly about this but stopped talking when he was reminded that he would probably never get to see the insides of it any other time. He Pop!-ed quietly off of Jamie's shoulders and in front of the door trying to tug at the handles.
"Dad! It won't budge, what's wrong with it?" Henry moaned as he pulled one last time only to fall flat on his butt. Sandy came over and quickly put him back on his feet as he put his hand on a random plank of wood poking out near the handle to the right of the door. It caused the door to slowly slide open. Jamie gasped in wonder as he slowly walked in and looked around. It was like looking at the biggest library ever, times two.
After Henry came in a second after Jamie, the door to slide back much more quickly than it had opened. The young boy ran through it and picked up a very big book from a nearby table then placed it on the ground. He smiled and started flipping through the book and laughed every so often at the pages.
"Whatcha looking at Henry," Jamie asked as he walked over. Henry quickly pointed to a picture of a giant beanstalk and a young boy climbing it, trying to get to a collection of clouds at the top. Jamie smiled and looked over at Sandy. "Well, that's cool. But how is this in here?" Henry flipped the page again and made a disgusted face when he saw the ogre.
"Dad said that this place will give anything to the people who come into it. But if you aren't a guardian or aren't with one, it'll suck you into this random universe or kill you," The child waved his hand in dismissal and continued to look at the pages. "Something like that. But we're with my dad, so we're fine and we get whatever books we want." The preteen stared in shock at the little one. He just said that like it was something that didn't matter but it actually did! He slowly backed away and tripped over a giant book.
"What the…" Jamie said quietly as he dusted off the cover to the old book. "The Diary of Joyceline…I can't make it , can you tell me what this says?" The elder walked over and inaudibly gasped at the cover as he took the diary from Jamie. He put it on a table and left it there then turned around to put up a few images. There was a tall man with a big beard—North obviously—and then a do not disturb sign—which probably means that they shouldn't look through it—and a question mark—wait, Sandy didn't understand something, most likely why the book was here since they both didn't ask for it. Jamie shrugged and continued to look for Ombric's journal. Mostly there were random things like, Tooth's diary or the occasional cook book, but it seemed like they were going nowhere.
Jamie slumped into one of the chairs at a table and looked at the diary again with small curiosity. A page of the book was poking out in an obvious fashion, literally asking for some attention. He looked around; Henry was still in some sort of trance, flipping through the pages and either laughing, gasping or very silent. Sandy was still looking for the journal but in a different section so no one was going to come out of nowhere and tell him not to do something. Just what he needed to look through something that he shouldn't.
He moved the diary closer to him and opened it to where the page was sticking out and smirked at the title. He pulled it out and looked it up and over for a moment. Henry Pop!-ed over next to him and pulled up a chair to stand on it and see what Jamie was looking at.
"Dad! We found it!"
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Jack walked around the park for a few moments before looking back at the nightmare behind him. It was still in its bodily form, which was really just a look-alike of him and was staring at the children playing a small distance in front of the two.
"You know, if you're going to stay like that forever, you need a name." The nightmare look alike turned to face him with a confused look on his face as he tilted his head slightly.
"What do you mean by that Master?" It asked him. Jack jumped over to the statue and stood on top of the man's head for a minute or two before jumping back down in front of the nightmare duplicate.
"I mean you need a name if you want to stay like," He gestured to the whole body of the nightmare. "That, you know? So….maybe James." He stood there for a moment and nodded with a small smile. "Yup, James will do."
The nightmare or James really, smirked widely and had to suppress a laugh as Jack did a backflip and got a snowball.
"Anything else Master, before you start throwing—" James tried to say before Jack flung the snowball straight in his face. He wiped the snow off to show a face of boredom and slight irritation, which Jack laughed at happily. Jack went down to pick up another when he was pelted with a few dozen snowballs and landed on his back.
"Nice job," Jack said quietly and raised a hand to give a thumbs-up. "Now, if you don't mind I'd like to make snowballs, not get attacked by them." James nodded and helped the teen up only shoved a handful of snow into his face.
"You never said anything about regular snow, just snowballs." Jack groaned and face-palmed looking around at the snowy-white surrounding and kicked at the ground in thought then stopped.
"I'm starting to regret giving snow this early. Well, let's just try to make the best of it so," Jack said slowly and knelt down to toss some snow at James when once again he was blanketed in snow. "You've got to be kidding me!" He laughed and stopped talking quickly when he saw a girl walking by. She looked oddly familiar even though she had a serious frown on her face like she was thinking about something important.
"Master, is there something wrong?" But James was ignored. Jack quickly walked over to the girl and spun her around to face him. He didn't bother to think about how or why she could see him but went straight to the facts, even if they were vague and odd.
"Why do I know you? Are you with that James kid?" The girl looked up at him confused for a moment before the gears almost visibly turned in her head.
"First off, I would hope that you would remember me Jack and second, his name is Jamie." Jack scoffed and Jamest down to talk to her again, almost as if he was talking to a small child. The girl glared in his face and kicked him in the shin with a small smile on her face when she saw him hope around in pain.
"And my name's Cupcake since it looks like you don't remember the last time you did that. What happened anyway?" Jack stopped hopping around on one foot and looked at her quizzically, like she wasn't really being serious.
"What do you mean last time? There was no last time." James walked up to Jack and quietly gasped. This girl was with the young boy that was trying to talk to Jack, James thought slowly. Hopefully she isn't trying anything crazy, or there will be trouble.
"Serious," Jack almost yelled at Cupcake when she shook her head. "We've never met before and I think I would remember if you kicked me like this. Now, what's up with your friend Jamie?" He sat down quietly on the snow and he motioned for her to do the same.
Cupcake uneasily sat down and stared at him calculatingly before she actually started to say anything. "Well, I don't know what to say. He's a nice guy really, and he's really scared for you."
Jack quickly cut her off there and now it was his turn to give her a small stare. "Why is he? I don't know him and I don't know how he knows me," He paused for a moment and gasped quietly, eyes widened. "He isn't my stalker…is he now?"
Cupcake quietly laughed and Jack started to glare at her half-heartedly. He was starting to grow a soft spot for her but he didn't know why. It was like, and pretty much was, meeting someone and suddenly knowing them. Weird honestly, but he was starting to become use to all of the mayhem that happened in the past two days so this was something really normal.
"No…he's not your stalker. Really he's more your friend than mine. No seriously Jack, you guys were inseparable and you knew each other so well." Jack nodded slowly, remembering when the Jamie kid said that he went to the boy's house multiple times in the past. But if she knew about this, maybe she knew his past! It honestly made obvious sense, if she knew about where he went then she must have known dozens of things about him. Jack did always want to know about his past, she would obviously help.
"So you can tell me about it, right?"
"Tell you about what?" Jack huffed in impatience and went on, acting as if he was talking to a child; he started to explain it all.
"I want you, to tell me all about," He trailed off for a moment in thought. Should he tell her about Pitch or not? Then he remembered about Pitch always telling him not to leave a trail, so the answer was now very clear. "About me before I 'disappeared'."
She looked around slowly and saw it was already getting dark; no doubt Pitch would try to take Jack away when he was so vulnerable in a time like this without his memories. Maybe later or else something might happen, but it had to be played right or Jack might throw a fit, like the last time. "Alright, umm I'll tell you later, okay?"
The teen in front of her nodded slowly and looked around quickly to see if it was getting a bit late, and it was. James, who was standing up at the moment, crossed his arms and looked at the sky before nodding down at Jack.
"Okay, tomorrow yeah?" Cupcake nodded and stood up to hastily wipe the snow off her pants.
"Try not to make it snow so early, okay Jack? Some of us like to see the leaves on the ground for Thanksgiving." Jack thought about that leisurely. Thanksgiving was in a few weeks, about four or five give or take.
"I dunno. Maybe I'll get bored the day before and give you guys almost a foot of snow or just give you some frost."
Cupcake playfully shoved him and started to walk home.
"Don't even think about it!"
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
"So…you're telling me that we can only preform this if we're this talented wizard or something?" Jamie said quietly. Henry walked back over—his other nursery rhyme book; probably the third this hour was starting to bore him—and picked up the book. He sat down in the nearest chair again and sat the book down in his lap.
Sandy nodded thoughtfully and looked at the journal before bringing up more images. The pictures explained that it required serious concentration, and lots of skill. Sadly, they had a hyper active five year old, a twelve year old that had no experience in magic, and magic spells usually needed to be said and not put into charade and hand-gestures.
"Then what about North?" Sandy shook his head quickly and went to get Ombric's journal from Henry to place back on the shelf. Jamie eyed the other journal, or diary really and quickly took it before Sandy found out. Henry gasped inaudibly which made him look like he actually was going to tell when he gave a mischievous smirk flash across his face and he went back to his earlier books, nursery rhymes. He stuck the diary in his jacket pocket and stood up.
"Well, I guess we have to go now, huh?" Jamie said slowly as he walked over to where Sandy was. It was full of giant books on their own shelves and Sandy turned around as he got a book of his own. The man nodded and walked over to the main part of the library to finally pull the reluctant Henry away from the picture book.
"Please Dad! It's just going to be this one book! I need to know if Jack goes down the beanstalk with the goose or not!" The young boy said as he tried to go back and pick up the book, but he was restrained from doing that when Sandy grasped his arm quickly. Instantly, Henry turned around and gave both him and Jamie the puppy-dog eyes. To Sandy it was probably nothing much but Jamie could see the obvious look that was thrown to him as a threat that he was going to rat him out, which couldn't happen, he wanted to see what that diary was about. So the only thing he could do was support the sneaky child in front of him.
"It's okay Sandy, I don't think he'll mess it up, you know, hopefully." Henry's face visibly brightened and he beamed at Jamie and mouth "You're okay now." Sandy looked between the two with confusion written all over his face but he nodded slowly and went to the door and out the door before anything else confusing happened.
"You're tricky, you know that?" Jamie said, voicing his thoughts. Henry nodded happily and walked over to his new favorite book.
"I know, it's one of those things that make me timeless, you know? I think yours could be courage…or determination that could also be called crazy awesome stupidity."
"What? There is no way you could think that I'd let you say that." And those words were one to regret, as when Henry picked up his book, the little boy flashed a wicked grin.
"Try me." And walked off, leaving Jamie to think that he was walking around with a person with a possible split personality.
"What are you waiting for," He asked waving his giant book a bit too quickly. "We have a Jack to find!" And opened the door to join his father in the hall. Jamie nodded absently and pulled out the diary from before. It must have lost a bit of its grime from when it was inside his pocket but it was still very hard to read. He'd have to figure it out sometime soon most likely, but it was obvious that he would. Because like Henry said, he had some crazy awesome stupidity.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
It was obvious that Jack was anxious, but he was never anxious about anything. It was as simple as that because the teen didn't do much of anything whatsoever. Pitch made sure of this to keep Jack as easy to follow and understand as possible. It wouldn't be easy to have the usual Jack Frost running around Burgess, and maybe even the world. There would be complication in that plan if such things happened; it would have been over years ago.
So adjustments were made, things happened, and here he was now, acting like the father of a teenager. He had been back for almost an hour and there wasn't even a gust of wind around. Hopefully the nightmare that tagged along with the spirit would keep him in check...but he hadn't seen it in a long time, hopefully Jack didn't do something wrong. Pitch had something for that nightmare to do but for the mean time he couldn't piece him in. But it wouldn't mind if this kid didn't figure out that there was a time when people were supposed to go home and at the moment, he was off that time with flying colors!
And when the first few arriving snowflakes came, it was amazing they didn't instantly melt under his angry glaze.
"That was so cool James!" Well, who was James? "Maybe we'll even…oh, hi Pitch." If looks could kill, it was certain that Jack would have fallen to the ground seconds ago. The teen floated to the ground and lowered his head instantly with the hope that nothing might happen. But considering the few days so far, it obviously wasn't going to happen for a while.
"Where do you think I should start with this topic," He asked Jack with highly noticeable anger yet he looked quiet calm. "Oh, I know who on earth is James?"
"Nothing, h—"
"Nothing? Then why were you talking to him? On second thought, where is he?" The man's sneer grew much more irritated which unnerved the spirit slightly, now giving him boredom instead of fear like it used too. Pitch quietly noted this and decided it was just of the moment and nothing more.
"He's right here, c'mon James you use to be better at talking before, what's up now?" There was a small laugh that came from a dark corner that made even Pitch jump a little. Of course it was concealed to anyone, but the younger person next to him was not just anyone, so he obviously saw it, and was very surprised.
"You made Pitch scared, never mind, just stay there for a while and make noises at random moments, okay?" The laugh now increased in sound and a form started to come out of the shadows which now started to gain detail after detail as it slowly came through. Clearly it was almost exactly like Jack but there wasn't a staff being held securely in his hand and there was a thick seriousness that hung in the air around this one quite easily, but other than that, they definitely looked the same.
"Pitch, this is James, but you already know him because he's Lion." The Boogeyman understood quickly and gave a hard stare to 'James' waiting to see a response. James only fidgeted slightly but kept his seriousness with not a bit of fear detected. So it really was who Jack said he was. Not even in the slightest caring for the reason why 'James' looked like this he nodded and turned around to go to bed and get away from what ever was going on…here.
"Alright, I believe you…but you are grounded until further notice." Pitch said quietly yet his voice echoed through the room. He was only doing this for Jack's own good.
A/N: *Dodges random tomatoes and gets hit by an anvil* Umm, ouch?! I understand the food...but the anvil was a bit uncalled for...meh, it's been almost a month. Well, first update in 2014 and its not even that long...but we get some thoughts! Lion is now James but why isn't Jack fainting from James using all this energy? Will Cupcake get ticked off from Jack not coming, will Jamie find a use from that diary? Will we know why I'm asking questions?
Guest- Thanks a million for that, although I think the stories alright and I'm a bit of a...urm, what do they call people that seem to think they're a bit...oFf their rocker perchance? Thanks again anyway. :D
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With Love and Cookies,
:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.~Miss Mischief~:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:
Updated on: January 22nd 2014
