sorry for the late update! i've been very busy this past week u_u i hope you all enjoy this chapter!
Ms. Overland sat at the kitchen holding a cigarette in one hand and resting the other near a cup of coffee in the middle of the table. She tapped her finger on the edge of the cup repeatedly matching up with the sound on the clock on the wall. It read nine o'clock in the evening. She leaned over a bit to get a better view of the door. Nothing.
Today at one o'clock in the afternoon she had gotten a call from her son's school. They called to tell her that her son had gotten into big trouble and he was to be suspended for a couple of weeks. Immediately she went home to expect her son sitting on the couch waiting for her but he wasn't there. Instead of going out and searching for him, she decided to wait for his return and when he came home oh was he going to get it. This wasn't at all the first time her son has been suspended, but now she would make it the last. She was tired of this happening over and over and raising a troublesome son without the support of his father was beginning to be too much for her. Sure, she loved her son with all of her heart, but she just needed a break for once.
Suddenly she heard the door open and she rushed from her table and saw Jack standing there covered in freshly fallen snow and shivering to the bone. His dark brown hair was crowned with white snow making it appear as if it truly was white and in his right hand he was holding a worn out pair of skates, however she noticed that for some reason Jack wasn't wearing any shoes.
Being so relieved of seeing her son safe and sound she almost fainted but caught herself by leaning herself on the nearest chair. Jack dropped his things and went over to comfort his mother. He carefully grabbed her arm and walked her over to sit on the couch. After she sat down he slowly sat right next to her and put her head on his shoulder. When a couple minutes went by she lifted her head back up and shook her it in disappointment.
"I got a call from the school today. They told me you pulled another prank, and this time you got suspended for a good amount of time."
Now shifting around in his seat and avoiding eye contact Jack replied with a simple, "Oh?"
"Jackson you can't keep doing this. You've been acting strange for the past few months. Has something happened to you.? Come on, you can tell me anything, I promise I won't get angry.."
Jack didn't want to tell her anything, he couldn't tell her anything. He highly doubted that she would believe all of the strange dreams and events that have been happening to him lately. She would probably think he was making up some fantastic story so she could forget what happened today.
"Honestly Mom, I can't tell you and if I did tell you, you wouldn't believe me."
She nodded understandingly and got up, "Well if that's the case, then I won't bother. I'm much too tired to yell and I'll call your father about this later considering if he even picks up the phone. You can go upstairs and get ready for bed. We can talk more about this tomorrow."
Jack slowly went up the stairs watching his mother go over to the phone and call his father, and like she had predicted he didn't pick up at all. His mother cursed under her breath and slammed the phone.
Jack then kept walking up the stairs and went into his room. He took off his wet jacket and brushed off the remaining snow on it and went over to the bathroom to dry off his hair. After getting himself all cleaned up he put on his last clean pajamas, a black t shirt with baggy blue shorts, and saw that he had left his phone on his desk. Jack's phone was about 10 years old and it was a classic flip phone. His mother told him that phones were meant for calling and not for throwing birds at pigs and he never bothered to argue with her about that.
He had about 10 messages and voicemails all from Kaitlyn. They were all asking him where he was and how his mother had react. Jack texted back "she was too tired and overwhelmed to say anything, txt you back in the morning" and turned off his phone.
Jack gave a huge yawn and fell straight onto his bed. His soft pillow felt cool on his face and he liked it. For some reason he always loved the cold and embraced it. When he was little he would go outside during the winter without any shoes on and his mother would freak out and shout about how he would get frostbite. He chuckled at the memory and remembered how right now he even walked home barefoot snow.
Now he was tired and he deserved a well rested good nights sleep. Jack slowly dozed off and he lied there for a few good minutes until he heard a loud crash across his room. He quickly got up from his bed and looked across the room and saw a huge shadow in front him. Jack reached over to turn on the lamp and saw nothing there. He shrugged it off, turned off the light and went straight back to bed. Immediately after he lied back down he heard a loud noise again. This time however there were a few whispers.
"Are you sure that it's him? He has brown hair!"
"No doubt about it, Manny says it is him."
"I don't know mate, doesn't look like Jackie to me."
"I know what face! It is Jack's face!"
Jack was getting freaked out now. There really was someone in his room, and there was just one person, but a whole group. He wasn't sure if he should sprint towards the door and call 911 or if he should attack them first. Either way, they were just going to catch him so Jack decided to remain still in his bed until he came up with a better plan.
"Wait! I know how to tell if he's Jack or not."
"What is your plan Toothy?"
"I'll slowly fly over to him and see if he's fast asleep, if he isn't then Sandy here can just knock him out. When that happens I'll open his mouth and check his teeth."
Wait, check his what?
Jack felt someone slowly go over his bed and he felt something warm brush against his face. It felt like two small hands rubbing against his cheeks and move towards his mouth. That's when Jack came up with a good idea.
Before the person in front of him could open his mouth he gave a loud moan and stretch his arms and grabbed the person as tightly as he could. He then rolled over and held them tightly in his arms pretending that he was snuggling with them in his sleep. The mysterious person felt really odd though, they weren't very big, in fact they were incredibly petite and...feather-y?
At first they tried to struggle out of Jack's grasp, but then they calmed down and continued to go for his mouth. Jack tried to resist in his "sleep" by groaning, but eventually they managed to open up his mouth and examine his teeth.
"It's him! It's Jack!"
Suddenly Jack felt a strong pull on his ankle and someone pulled him straight out of bed and held him upside down in the air.
"H-hey!? What the hell is going on?" Jack kicked the arm holding him up in the air, but the person was much too strong and kept a tight grip around his ankle. Then, they flipped him right side up and gave him a huge big hug. Jack continued to struggle and finally pushed himself from the monster hug and fell right onto the floor.
Jack rubbed his back to soothe the pain and looked up to see four different shadowy figures in front of him. He reached over to grab a nearby flashlight and shined the light on the mysterious figures.
"Oh god, you have to be kidding me."
There stood Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, and Sandman. Jack couldn't believe it, he had to be dreaming. There was just no way that these four were breaking into his house in the middle of the night.
"Well, this has been fun, but now I think it's time I go back to reality now." Jack headed back to his bed, but Santa Claus stopped him in his tracks and turned him over to face him. Dang he is huge, Jack thought being inimidated by Santa's presence, even the Easter Bunny's, man he was huge.
"Jack! I am so happy! We finally find you as a human and you can see us! It is miracle! Manny was right all along!" Santa continued to cheer and kept hugging Jack while also breaking his spine. Luckily the Easter Bunny intervened and saved Jack from being suffocated.
"Calm down mate, don't overwhelm the poor fella here, he has no idea what's going on right now." Santa nodded and slowly put Jack down onto a chair next to his desk. Jack gave a huge gasp for air and shook his head to make sure he wasn't dreaming.
"What's going on, why are you all here, and why were you touching my teeth? I swear I lost all of them when I was a kid, these are all adult teeth now."
Santa laughed at Jack's questions thinking that he was just kidding around as usual, but when he realized that Jack wasn't kidding and he was actually serious he stopped. "Wait, you do not remember anything?"
"N-no! Am I supposed to remember something? Like, why you are all breaking into my room? Am I dreaming or something?"
"He's serious, he doesn't remember anything." The Tooth Fairy's enthusiasm from before shrunk down and she stopped flying. Everyone else began to look just as disappointed as her.
"Jack, do you know who you truly are?"
"Sure, I'm the infamous Jack Overland of Lakewood, Maine. Is there something about me that I need to know about?"
They all looked at each other with concern. The Tooth Fairy decided to be the one to tell him the truth. "Jack, you're not who you think you are. In fact, you're much more than that. You're one of us."
"Wait, I'm a kangaroo?"
"No you idiot! You're actually Jack Frost who's a blasted Guardian just like the rest of us and it's your job as the Guardian of Fun to protect the children of the world!" Man, the Easter Bunny was pissed.
"Are you saying I'm an old guy who eats people's noses?" The Easter Bunny slapped his head in defeat, there was no way he was going to bicker with this teenager.
The Tooth Fairy, being the only one who was patient enough to speak with Jack continued to explain. "You see Jack, you were Jack Frost and he was Guardian. Our job as Guardians is to protect the children of the world and we receive our power from their belief in us. However..."
"However what?"
"You...didn't have many people believing in you."
"Oh."
"And you kind of...gave up your job unintentionally."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Well..." The Tooth Fairy gestured to all of him and Jack realized what she meant by it.
"So, you mean that I was some sort of winter spirit that went around protecting the children of the world and I gave it all up because they all didn't believe in me and now I turned myself mortal? Does that sum it all up?"
The Tooth Fairy nodded happily. "Yes exactly! Do you believe us?"
Jack sat there in thought for a while. This would explain all of the weird dreams and events that have been happening to him lately. What if he was Jack Frost? How would his mother react to all of this?
"I don't know, I'll have to think this through some more."
"Well, until you do, we'll stay here and wait for your answer." Santa walked over to Jack's bed and threw himself onto it making himself comfortable. Jack furiously got up and tried to move him off of it.
"Okay, first of all no one said that you can stay here and I honestly highly doubt that she would be happy seeing all of you here!"
"Do not worry, she won't see us, we are invisible to adults."
"Then how can I see you?!"
"You are Jack Frost of course!"
There was no use arguing with him. Jack looked around the room and saw that the Sandman was already sleeping in midair and the Easter Bunny was examining his room and the Tooth Fairy was just flying next to Jack and whispered, "I'm sorry."
"Jackson? Are you awake?"
"Holy crap that's my mom! She probably thinks I'm going crazy right now."
"Your real name is Jackson?" The Easter Bunny snickered at that.
Shut up! Only my mom calls me by that."
"Oh you have no reason to laugh, Mr. Ernest Aster Bunnymund."
Everyone in the room giggled at Bunnymund's real name, but they all stopped once Jack's mother opened the door. They all froze where they were hoping that she couldn't see them.
"Jackson, why aren't you asleep right now?"
"I'm uhhh," Jack looked over and saw them all standing still and perfectly in his mother's view. She didn't notice them much to Jack's relief. "Sorry, I was watching netflix on my computer and you know how I always talk to the characters when I get really into it."
His mother nodded looked at him strangely and didn't bother to ask anymore questions. She closed the door and went back to bed and Jack sighed. "Okay, you guys need to go I can't worry about my mother eventually seeing you every time she walks in."
"But she won't!"
"She'll catch on, trust me. She always knows when somethings up and right now she could be standing at the door listening."
"But aren't you going to give us your answer?"
"Yes I will, but for now just go and let me sleep on it. I'll give you your answer tomorrow."
They all didn't like the idea of leaving Jack when they just found him but they had no choice. They didn't want to risk him getting in trouble by his mother, so they all agreed to go stay in their own homes for the night. Jack waved goodbye to them as they left and slumped back onto his bed. He was completely exhausted by what just happened and he needed to sleep.
What Jack didn't notice was that there was a fifth visitor that tagged along with the Guardians.
An uninvited visitor who decided to stay.
"Oh my, what have we here? Is this boy Jack Frost?"
It was Pitch Black, the sworn enemy of the Guardians who tried to make Jack join him, but failed miserably. He was here for revenge, not on the Guardians but for Jack. He wanted Jack to pay for not joining him and becoming allies. And here he was all defenseless and in no condition to fight. Mortality was a terrible thing especially for a Guardian.
"Oh my Jack, what a wonderful thing you have done to yourself. You look so peaceful and harmless in this mortal body, why it would be a shame if someone would try to take it away from you."
Jack couldn't hear or see Pitch. He was fast asleep and he had no idea that he was even there watching over him as he slept. Pitch loved his and put his hand on the boy's head. Jack winced at the cold hand as Pitch released black sand over Jack's head.
"I can't do anything right now, but this should do for a while. Eventually I will strike Jack, and you and your Guardians won't be able to stop me."
The black sand that was hovering over Jack's head was forming into terrible shapes and Jack moaned in his sleep as the sand was terrorizing him in his dreams. Pitch smiled at the image of Jack tossing and turning in his sleep. He could feel the fear seeping into his veins and it provided him with large amounts of energy.
After taking in a good amount of fear he flew off leaving Jack alone to deal with his nightmares.
uh oh looks like things aren't looking good for jack what will happen next?
