Bright. It was waaaaay too bright.
Pitch let out a whining moan. Prying his eyes open, he realized that he had fallen asleep, slumped against a wall in the main cavern of his lair. Odd. He didn't usually sleep.
Oh yes. And what in the world was making his lair so bright? It was brighter in there than it was in some parts of the world at high noon!
Pulling himself off the wall that had been supporting him, Pitch stared around at his surroundings. His face was a mix of extreme astonishment and horror.
There was bright, colorful light everywhere! And it moved!
Snapping out of his state of shock, Pitch cautiously began to walk forward. Strangely enough, though annoying to his eyes, the light wasn't burning Pitch.
These small neon blue, yellow, red, pink, green, white, orange, and purple dots were spinning and hopping around on everything!
Pitch lunged at one, trying to catch it, but it somehow evaded him. How? Pitch had been certain his aim was true!
He continued to slowly make his way through the cavern of his lair, walking below the cages. He looked all around himself, and saw that there were little lights on literally everything.
It wasn't until Pitch had nearly reached the center of this enormous room that he noticed something else very... strange.
Sitting atop his globe of belief was a round, silver ball, practically burning with the light dots. It was slowly spinning, too.
What was this thing, and how had it gotten into his lair? And on top of his globe, of all places.
That was when Pitch finally spotted the small piece of white paper laying on the ground by the base of his globe.
Quickly, he strode over, stooped, and picked up the note.
As he read it, his face quickly twisted into shock–and then white hot fury.
Dear Pitch,
How are you? I hope you're doing okay. You've been sleeping a lot lately, which is kinda strange for you.
How would anyone know that?!
Oh yeah! It's me, Jack.
Of course. The brat had been spying on him. Pitch growled, mentally swearing he'd get his revenge. And he didn't even know half of it yet.
So, I'm sure you're wondering about the new decor I've donated to your lair. See, I really thought it needed work, so I asked Jamie if he had any ideas. You remember Jamie, right?
Of course he remembered the twit who caused his takeover of the world to fail! How foolish was Jack? Actually, he didn't want to know the answer to that question.
Jaime had the greatest idea ever! It cost him all the money he had had saved up, though, so you totally owe him. Anyway, he thought to get you a disco ball!
A what?
It's this awesome human contraption that spins and shines bright, colored little lights.
That ball was causing all of this?!
So yeah! You can thank me later!
Sincerely,
Jack Frost
Pitch was furious. He quickly turned on his heel and disappeared into the shadows.
He reappeared a few minutes later, holding a large rock in one hand. He pulled back his arm, and threw the rock at the disco ball with all his strength.
It hit the shining ball straight in its center, smashing it into hundreds of pieces which then flew to the floor on the other side of the globe from where Pitch was standing.
"Good riddance."
The next morning, Pitch was just finishing his work on designing a new type of nightmare. Very pleased with himself, he decided to take a break.
He slowly meandered around in the main cavern of his lair, eventually making his way to his globe.
His rather peaceful expression turned to a hateful snarl when he saw the little golden lights, reminded once again of all the Guardians had that he didn't.
And, for some reason, he decided that now was the perfect time to begin ranting.
"Those utter imbeciles! They are given all of these believers. All of these beautiful little lights. And do they go out and enjoy it? Enjoy being seen? Interact with their faithful little children? No!
"They sit inside their respective homes and busy themselves with bribery! They bribe those children into believing! And then they don't even leave to meet the children and appreciate it!
"Why, they almost try to be invisible! They never allow children to catch a glimpse of them!
"And then they deny me the right to be seen at all!
"Not all of us have cheerful attributes! Yes, I would much rather see all of the children turned into fearlings and have them destroy this useless planet. But still!
"I'm not asking for that, am I? No! I just want to be seen! To not be a ghost! How can they possibly justify denying me that?
"Because I scare children? There are thousands of children who love to be terrified! Certainly, I find it annoying, but don't they prove anything?
"Or when a child gets scared of going into the dark forest by themselves, thus saving themselves from being eaten by wolves?! Now, I do enjoy the fear a child makes much more when they are about to be eaten... And their screams during the process are delightful...
"What I bring is important! It is embraced! Encouraged by parents!
"Why must I be doomed to be less than those foolish Guardians for all of eternity?! To only believed in for a few minutes after seeing a horror film, or when in a haunted house?
"Is it too much to ask for, just to be seen?! To be known?! To have what I want?! I try far harder than any of them to get what I want! Why must it always be out of my reach?
"I am meant to be feared! And how can I be feared when I am INVISIBLE?!
"They know what it is like now! To not even exist! To be walked through! Why are they still so opposed to allowing me to not have to live in that? Fear is needed! They must accept that–"
Pitch's rant was cut short as something bumped against his foot and he jumped several feet in the air.
Now, the Nightmare King does not scream. Luckily. That would have been very embarrassing.
Looking down sharply after he landed back on solid ground. Pitch blinked several times.
On the floor at his feet was the strangest thing Pitch had ever seen.
It was bright red, and moving, on what appeared to be wheels. Four little wheels. Actually, it slightly resembled those things humans used to get around now, instead of horses. Don't get him started on those horrific machines adults had replaced such beautiful animals with...
What in the world?!
He watched the thing begin to slowly maneuver around his feet, before zipping off into another part of his lair.
Then, just as he was wondering what this creature could possibly be, Pitch saw him.
Jack Frost was hanging onto one of the cages in Pitch's Lair, not even looking at Pitch. His attention was fixed on the creature.
In his hands Jack held a strange black box. After staring at the strange sight for several moments, Pitch decided that Jack must have brought in that creature, just as he had brought the globe of light the day before.
So, Pitch chased down the 'creature': A toy car. After half an hour of running, and being outmaneuvered by the thing multiple times, Pitch caught it and threw it against a wall, smashing it into hundreds of pieces.
Pleased by the satisfying destruction, the removal of that annoying little pain, and Jack Frost's gasp of horror, Pitch left to go back to his scheming.
Every day for the next two weeks, Jack brought a new toy to torture Pitch with.
One day, there were several thousand brightly colored helium balloons Pitch had to pop and dispose of. Though he thought they were some form of sorcery, not understanding what a balloon is. It took him forever to discover that they could be reduced to strange pieces when you poked it with something sharp. He had thought them to be more gas-like in composition.
Another time, it was a radio loudly playing Justin Beiber. Jack didn't stick around to see Pitch's reaction that day, wanting to save his own hearing. Pitch himself ended up having nightmares about that horrid sound never turning off. Not that he'd admit he had nightmares.
Pitch's least favorite day by far was when Jack covered everything in pink sparkles. There was nothing to break, and no way to get rid of them! Luckily, a storm blew in that day. Whereas normally the flooding problem in his lair was beyond annoying, Pitch found it very useful then. It washed almost all of the horrendous stuff away.
After the two weeks, Pitch's Lair was a toy graveyard. There were smashed bits of toys, electronics, and much more littering the ground everywhere.
The only reason Jack stopped this particular escapade was that Pitch had managed to get his hands on some hot pink hair dye and threatened to use it on Jack, should he catch him bringing any more toys.
Jack was daring, but he wasn't stupid.
