Chapter Four
Al's eyes widened "Wait so you mean- You're- You're telling me that- that- that the- the moon wants me to be a guardian?"
Jack smiled a snow white smile, at the spirit's reaction because he knew that sense of disbelief. When he was chosen, he thought that they were making some kind of trick, like the kind he would pull. He thought that there were so many other choices for a guardian. So many better choices. Jack knew her disbelief because he had felt it too.
"Well, yeah," Jack answered, with a pristine white smirk, "The moon kinda knows what he's talking about."
"I-it's just, I'm not r-really the-the best ch-choice" Al stuttered through. None of the others showed that they notice her speech impediment, and Al was thankful for that. She didn't stutter before, but now, with other spirits around, her chances of speaking normally were shot. She hadn't spoken to others in so long, and she didn't really have any reason to talk to herself, not often anyway.
"Well, the moon seems to think you are, so… yeah" Jack said.
"You know, I-I like y-you. A-and the w-winds s-s-seem to l-like you t-too" Al said as she pointed her finger at Jack. 'Man, I keep on stuttering. Why can't I stop stuttering?' She mentally screamed at herself. It was so obvious and she hated it so much. She praised the other for not making a big show about it.
Jack laughed at her statement little, earning a small rare smile from Al. She didn't smile. When you were alone for as long as she was, you did not have any reason to. She did not have any reason to smile, not often anyways.
Al looked down at her clothes, and noticed that she was still in her art clothes. She seemed disgusted by her clothes, but she was more disgusted at her lack of manners and chivalry towards the guardians. She saw her clothes as a chance to get away from all the people and compose herself. She needed to be stronger; she could not show weakness in front of others. She was trained and built that way. She could not show weakness, not her.
She looked up from her clothes and pointed behind her. "I'm g-going to g-get ch-ch-changed," she said. Al walk walked towards the small room in the far left corner, opened the creaky door, and walked in, leaving the current guardians alone in her home. It showed a lot of trust, Jack noticed, trust in total strangers.
Al walked into the bathroom. She didn't really need to take five long minutes to get dressed. No! She could get changed by simply using her powers to morph her clothes into whatever she wanted. Changing only took a matter of seconds.
Al only walked into the bathroom to contain her emotions and faint sense of nausea. She placed both hands on the sink and stared at the mirror intently. She hated feeling so weak and helpless, especially in front of others. Though it was only a stutter, it was a major weakness. To Al it was, anyway. She could not show weakness in front of other. Not the people in her current house or to the voices in side her head.
Yeah, that's right. The voices.
Every so often the voices echoed inside her skull, haunting her. They were not always there, but they had found a place to stay inside her mind, slowly driving her to insanity. They should up more often after the incident in Japan happened too. When she was questioning herself and the others inside her current home, they found a reason to speak up once more.
'You know they'll never trust you,' they echoed inside her head, as she clutched her ears and grasped her hair, in annoyance. When the voices came they brought headaches with them. They were not usually bad, or noticeable, but this one was strong enough to cause her to lean heavily on the sink. She would not sit down, no matter how much her legs wanted to give out. Al would not give the voices that satisfaction
'Shut up' she said quietly, inside her head, to the voices.
'If you tell them about us, they'll think you're mentally unstable. Too unstable to be part of their team,' they continued, not hearing Al.
'Go away' she thought a little louder and a little firmer. Still the voice did not stop.
'Even if you don't tell them about us, they'll think of you as too unreliable. Too unpredictable. After all you did cause all that damage in Japan.'
'Stop it,' she said in her head as two tears slid down her face, chasing each other down her left cheek. She quickly wiped them away. Crying was a sign of weakness, and she would not be weak.
'You are too weak to join them. You can't say two words without stuttering. No wonder you are alone. Your weakness is disgusting,' they continued.
That drew the line. Al prided herself on not being weak. It was all she had left. So when the voice said she was weak, something inside her snapped.
'I hate you! Go away!' she screamed inside her head. She bit back the tears that were threatening to poor down her face. Tears were weakness, and she would show the voice any signs of weakness. She would not give the voices that satisfaction. If she gave the voices that satisfaction, it would mean that the voices would have won. She could not let the voices win, she never let anyone win. Losing was a weakness, and Al could not show weakness.
After a few seconds, when she knew for sure that the voices would not return, Al changed her clothes and began to compose herself. She took a few shaky breaths, looked down at the clothes, and started to tug at the hem of her shirt. It was just a simple white t-shirt with words, in Greek, on it. The shirt said Enjoy the music. It was her favorite shirt.
When she stopped making choked sobbing noises, Al sat down and untied her shoes. Then she took them off, and she slowly took off her socks too. She realized she was stalling, so she wouldn't have to go out and face the people in her house.
Al sighed and stood up. She then turned and stared at the door, and took a deep breath. She reached for the door knob with a shaky hand, and slowly twisted. She pushed the door gently and the bathroom door opened slowly with a large creek. Al walked out with a fake smile plastered on her face.
While Al was in the bathroom presumably changing the others will still marveling at her beautiful paintings and marvelous sculptures. It was baffling on how such a young looking spirit could hold so much artistic potential. Though, age was deceiving in a spirit's perspective. After all, Jack was over three hundred years old, and he still looked and acted like a teenaged boy. These thoughts brought up the same question they've been thinking since the man in the moon chose her as a guardian.
How long have they ignored her?
When Al walked out of the bathroom with a fake smile plastered on her face, the guardians saw nothing wrong with her. They could not tell that she was crying bathroom. They could not tell that there were voices in her head, tormenting her. They could not tell how broken she was. Come to think of it, they did not even notice her walk out of the small room in the back corner.
She walked silently behind Bunnymund and Jack, who were too absorbed in a painting to notice her. The large bunny and pale boy were admiring a piece painted directly on the concrete wall. It was a painting of a girl, with long black hair, and kaleidoscope eyes staring up at the night sky. She wore a blank expression on her face, and her hands clasped above her stomach, which was mostly covered by long, dry grass. The moon shone in an array of yellows and whites. Its moon beams cascaded down, enveloping her in an embrace, not that the girl seemed to notice. She stared into the sky, with an almost dead expression on her face.
"That my favorite," Al said, making sure she did not stutter. Stuttering was a weakness, in her eyes, and she would not give the voices that satisfaction. When Al said that Bunnymund jumped a little; no one has ever been able to sneak up on him.
"What?" he asked, still a little jumpy from Al's sneakiness.
"That painting you're looking at, it's my favorite," she stated.
"Does anyone want tea?" She asked, happy with herself because she did not stutter. The others turned to face her. "I'm making some tea to calm my nerves, do you guys want any?"
Everyone shook their head no, everyone except Jack. Jack just simply shrugged and asked, "What kinda tea?"
"Uh, I dunno. You wanna come up stairs and check with me?" she asked as she walked towards the stairs in the middle of the room.
"Sure," the winter spirit said as he followed her up the stairs. The guardians looked at each other and asked with their eyes if they should go with them. Sandy decided for them as he floated up the stairs. The others went up after.
When they got up there they saw a very funny sight. Jack was on the floor, a little dazed, and covered in various boxes and bags of food, while Al was dangling from a pipe running across the top the ceiling. Obviously the shelf holding all of Al's food supplies, toppled after they tried to reach something at the very top. They came up with that conclusion because the shelving unit in question was teetering, only held up by a small rope, and was threatening to fall on Jack.
Sandy and Bunnymund chuckled a bit, while North tried to reach Al and Tooth helped Jack up. Jack was fine, but Tooth had to check every molar to make sure. Al, however, was not out of her predicament just yet. The ceiling was too tall for even the large Russian to reach, so Al was left dangling.
"Hold on, let me go get a ladder, dah," North exclaimed.
"There's no time, she going to fall!" Jack said, because he knew there was no time for him to grab a ladder. He went to go grab his staff, but before he even got to his staff, Al did something unexpected. She started to swing. Swing back and forth, back and forth, until she was satisfied with her momentum. Once got enough height she let go. She sailed forward, did a flip, and she landed on the floor doing a small summersault, so she would not break anything.
Everyone was amazed with her gymnastic skills. She was amazingly graceful doing that, and she landed without a scratch. They all wondered what other talents she held.
"Show off," Jack mumbled. Jack looked down at his feet, and picked up a box not far away. He made a show of picking it up and raising it above his head. "I have found the tea!" the winter spirit exclaimed. Then he tossed it towards Al.
She giggled when she caught it. "Thank you my brave companion, but this is a box of bandages. And I think you need them more I do," She answered as she tossed them back to Jack. When she tossed them, Tooth caught sight of something on her right arm.
"What- what is that?" Tooth asked Al, who immediately stopped smiling immediately.
"What is what?" Al asked, hoping Tooth didn't see what Al thought she saw. Man she wished she wore a different shirt. It wasn't her favorite shirt anymore.
"The- the thing on your arm," Tooth answered. Darn it. It was what Al feared the guardian saw.
"Oh this, it's just a tattoo I got from before I was a spirit," Al said, hoping they wouldn't ask more questions. The tattoo was burned into her skin. It consisted of ancient Greek letters, and five small lines below the letters.
"I looks burned onto your skin, mate," Bunnymund stated. Sandy then made some symbols above his head, but they went by too fast for Al to comprehend.
"What?" Al asked the sandman.
"He asked 'when were you made a spirit?'" Tooth translated, as Sandy nodded.
Al was dreading this question. Jack, sensing her unease, attempted to change the topic. He was the guardian of fun, and he noticed that Al was not having fun with this conversation.
"How about that tea?" Jack asked, in an attempt to change the subject.
"Yeah, I could use some tea," Al answered, desperately wanting a way out of the conversation about her past. However, the older guardians did not give up that easily.
"Al, we won't leave, we just want to know when you became a spirit," Tooth said in a kind voice.
"Besides, mate, it can't be much worse than Jack," Bunnymund stated guiltily. At least that's what he thought.
'You want to bet' Al thought, but admitted defeat. She could not shake the guardians, and didn't want to argue. This defeat, however, was weakness, and that was a satisfaction she had to allow the voices to have.
She then mumbled something that even Bunnymund's supersonic hearing could pick up.
"What? I couldn't hear you," Tooth said "We won't judge, I promise."
"I became a spirit in the ancient Greek era, ok! That was about two-thousand-seven-hundred years ago," Al yelled a little louder than she wanted to. "Was I loud enough that time?" she whispered.