Author's Note: Thanks, I feel so much better now about the last chapter! Happy Thanksgiving! I'm thankful for my readers and your support. And that Jack Frost has been cooling off my neighborhood earlier than usual this time of year. Please review!
Chapter 6: Family
Jack Frost was lying on his back on the cold, hard ground; there was nothing but black as far as his eyes could see. He sucked in shallow breaths as he sat up, rubbing the side of his jaw that had hit the ground when he fell. "Hit your head on the way down, did you?" Nob queried, his voice colder than ice and sharper than a knife.
"Where am I?" Jack asked quietly, the darkness seeming to press against his skin.
Thousands of multicolored lights lit up above them, revealing a never-ending room full of piles of trinkets, garbage, and broken relics. "You're in the Void, a blank space of reality created by my portals. Go on, have a look about, Frost."
Jack stood. He did a slow spin to take everything in. He cautiously stepped closer to a pile of junk as tall as a mountain. Something caught his eye; a broken picture frame with a photo of a smiling family inside it. He picked it up to get a better look. "What is all this stuff?" he inquired.
"People's forgotten memories and discarded dreams. I collect the scraps of minds and hearts, the remnants of lives. I find them, and I bring them here."
"Why? You never struck me as the sentimental type, Mr. Twisty," Jack mocked.
"Of course, make your door jokes. But you won't be in such a mood when I tell you more."
"Oh, yeah?" he provoked, letting the picture frame drop to the floor and break.
"I don't like when people mess with my things," Mr. Nobody spat.
"That's funny, because you don't seem to care that you're messing with other people's lives."
"You are not wrong there." He paused. "Do you see that, behind you?"
Jack turned. Two ice skates were neatly propped up on top of a rotten cardboard box. His throat tightened and his chest became constricted. Those were his ice skates. He recognized the worn brown leather and the strings that were tied together. They look just like they had when he'd left them behind on the frozen lake. "She never went back out onto that lake after you fell in," Nob told him, "but she never got rid of your skates."
"What do you know about my sister?" Jack growled, his eyes starting to sting.
The lights above them pulsated, Jack's snow white hair reflecting their changing colors. "I already explained to you, Jack. I know everything about you . . . including your little sister," answered Nob.
Jack's fists clenched, his fingernails digging crescent marks into his palms. He wanted to blast Nob with his staff, but that was left behind at Jamie's house. "What else do you know?"
"I know she loved you. But she got over you. She got married, and had children, who had children of their own. When I stole your ice skates, she didn't even notice they were gone. I doubt she would have missed them, had she known."
"How do you know everything about me, or her?"
"Now that is the right question! I know because I was there. I saw you fall into that lake. I saw your sister cry. I watched her run home to tell your mother what happened to you. I watched you, in the town, and was glad that there was someone else like me—someone who was all alone, unseen, unwanted, unloved. I saw you walk right past your grieving sister the next day, completely oblivious to who she was! It was SO sad!" Nob sniveled, his tone disdainful.
"Why!? Why do you care!?" Jack shouted. "I don't even know you!"
"Ah, but I know you! Now, who's deepest, darkest secrets do you want to know next, huh? Sandy's, North's—"
"I don't wanna know!"
". . . Tooth's, Bunny's—"
"STOP!"
Jack clamped his hands over his ears. He didn't want to hear what Nob had to say. Not because he wouldn't believe what he said, but because he was afraid he would. A pair of invisible hands pried Jack's arms away from his head. He struggled against the pressure. "Let go of me!" he cried. "I don't care what you have to say about my friends!"
Nob released his grip. "Your friends? They're not your friends! You don't think they really care about you, do you?!"
"Yes, I do!"
"They immediately blamed you for what Pitch did to the Easter eggs! Some friends you have there!"
"Why do you keep bringing up the past?!"
"Because . . . If you do not know your history, you are doomed to repeat it! What makes you think their attitude toward you has changed, Jack!? Just the other day you said you didn't think North trusts you!"
Jack blinked back tears. "H-h-how do you know what I said?"
"I was there. Never think you're alone, because that is when I will be right behind you. You have NO secrets to me, Jack Frost. But I have a whole world of them that you'd be shocked if you knew!"
Jack screamed and kicked a pile of trash. "Just leave me ALONE!" His voice dropped to a whisper, "Please. Just give back the toys and the kids' parents. I'll do anything."
"Oh, I do love to hear you say that. Anything? Leave me be and I'll let you keep Jamie and Sophie to yourself."
"You know that's not what I meant!"
"I know, I know. But I'm not offering anything more. Take what you can get, or have nothing at all!"
"I don't want anything for myself. I want you to give back what you stole!"
"That's not true. Everyone wants something for themselves."
"That's it! We're done here. I'm leaving!" Jack retorted, storming off into the distance.
He could hear Nob's feet jogging to catch up. "We're not done until I say we are! Sit down!" Mr. Nobody ordered, shoving Jack to the floor. "Everyone always must put up a fight. Mrs. Bennett was bad about that—she and her ridiculous dog."
"Fine, tell me! I don't care anymore! Just say it! Just tell me what you wanna say! Get this over with," Jack caved, his jaw aching from being clenched so tightly.
"I want you to join me. Save yourself from the nightmare I will unleash on the world! I can use your help. You and I, we're like family. You could have whatever your heart desires!"
"NO! I will NEVER join you!"
"Fine, but know . . . Jamie Bennett is your distant, blood relative. I want you to think about that when I send you back. He's the only part of your sister you have left. And I'm going to take him from you."
Jack snatched the nearest sharp object around him and thrust it at Mr. Nobody, startled that it actually stuck. Nob grunted in pain, pulling out the shard of broken glass and tossing it to the floor. He shrieked in rage. He dropped Jack through a portal and back to Jamie's house.
When Jack landed on the now clean living room floor, he saw that Jamie was fast asleep on the couch. Tooth fluttered into the room, nearly jumping in surprise. "Jack!" she whispered. "What happened? You were gone for almost two days!"
"What? I thought I was gone for only about an hour. Where'd everyone else go?" he wondered, noticing how quiet and empty the house was.
"The yetis called North back to the Pole. It's getting worse, Jack. Mr. Nobody's returning all children's Christmas letters back to their homes. More and more kids stop believing in North every hour! He's trying to figure out another way to read the letters before their disbelief hurts him too much. Sandy's trying to help with dreams, but I don't think it's going to work! And Bunny can't collect all the letters before Christmas by himself!" she expounded so fast Jack struggled to keep up.
"Alright, calm down. We'll—we'll—" he couldn't finish his sentence.
Jack picked up his staff and sprinted from the house, collapsing onto his knees in the dirty, day old snow. Panic seized him like a disease. He was going to assure Tooth that they'd beat Nob, and that everything would be okay, but he didn't believe that himself. Tears gushed from his eyes as he sobbed into his hands. He could feel it—feel that every time Nob talked to him, it dug deeper under his skin. He didn't know why. He began to wonder if his own disbelief in himself would make him cease to exist. He almost wished he'd stayed at the bottom of the lake where he belonged. Jack's head was soaking up the lies that something in his heart was trying to protect him from.
He wiped his face on his blue sleeve when he heard Tooth come outside. "Jack, I'm sorry I babbled like that. I'm not trying to make you feel worse. It's—it's gonna be okay, I'm sure it is. Even if kids don't believe in us, we can believe in ourselves, right?" she tried to comfort him.
"I-I can't believe in myself. You shouldn't believe in me either."
"Jack, don't say that! I will never stop believing in you! We're your family now. What's wrong with you?"
The December wind whipped his face, but that didn't cheer him up as it usually did. A lump formed in his throat, making it hard to speak. "I—Nob, he—he said some things. The scary thing is, I think . . . I believe him," admitted Jack, his head beginning to hurt.
"No, no, no, no. You can't believe anything he says! You have to fight his words, fight them! He's a liar."
"He's not the only one."
"What's that supposed to mean?!"
"You know what it means," he snapped, all his anger bubbling to the surface. "North's lying to us by not telling us what he knows about Nob!"
"Jack! That's not fair—"
"And you—all of you—pretend like you're okay with me being a Guardian, but I know you're not! No one trusts me, not really."
"Stop, it's—!"
"No, you don't understand!" More tears came; this time he didn't try to hold them back. "Nob's going to take Jamie and Sophie! You're probably going to blame me, but I'll blame myself too!"
"Jack, he plants seeds of doubt in everybody he meets. You have to deny your doubt. Those thoughts are from him, not you. We love you, Jack. We wouldn't hurt you."
He took a deep, shaky breath. "But I've been lying to all of you. The other times Nob spoke to me, I told you he didn't say much. It was a lie. The truth is . . . he knows everything about me—about all of us. Whatever he's planning is going to be big, and we don't even stand a chance."
"You have to tell North what's going on."
"Me? What? I—no, I don't think I should—"
"Just go! We don't have time to argue!"
Without another word, Jack rode the wind up above the clouds.
00000
It was sunny at the North Pole when Jack Frost got there, and the light made him feel a little safer than midnight in Burgess just moments ago. He rushed into the toy factory, nearly being run over by the yetis that rampaged around the room in a hurry. Jack gazed in horror at the giant globe in the center of the room. A couple little lights went out every so often. "Jack! You are okay!" cried North, who hurried over.
North picked Jack up off the floor and gave him a rough squeeze. "Ow! You can put me down now!" Jack protested. When he was set back down, he checked his ribcage for damage. "I came here because we need to talk. Actually, you need to tell me something."
"What is that?" he asked, and set his knuckles on his hips.
Jack nervously ran his fingers through his hair. "Uh, I know y-you're gonna get mad when I ask you, but, uh . . . What do you know about Mr. Nobody?"
"Why you ask? I said I can't—"
"I know, you made a promise, but we deserve to know the truth! Nob knows everything about all of us. He said he was there when I fell in the lake, and because I told him I wouldn't join him he's going to kidnap Jamie."
North lowered his head with a sigh. "I never wanted to do this. But I see I must tell truth. Come with me."
Jack gave North a confused glance and hesitantly followed him into his office.