A blinding flash takes over his vision.
Jack finds himself standing beside his lake again.
He studies his surroundings, nothing seems to be different, but instead of modern built houses, small clusters of cottages scattered around the field, the sunlight shined down on him in rivulets. Jack isn't really accustomed to the heat, the sunlight could normally harm him, but this kind of light gave him the warmth of love. He hasn't seen the sunlight in a while, he's been hiding away in darkness it felt so alien to him. He never thought he'd miss the sunlight so much.
The door of the nearest cottage opened. Jack squints and sees a tall brunette boy he recognized to be the boy painted on his canister of memories, it was him.
Memory Jack was wearing the same clothes he was raised out of, a white shirt, a vest and a woolen cloak, but no shoes.
Jack shrugged, perhaps it was a habit, even in his passed life, he was never comfortable with wearing shoes. A million questions start to form. Who is he?
He inches closer, studying his face. Memory Jack didn't look so rebellious, his cheeks were a little flushed in a light shade of red, and his maple eyes were gentle and full of kindness.
Jack watched closely as his memory self drapes a pair of ice skates over his back. Another figure emerged from the cottage, a little girl with shoulder length straight hair. She hastily ran outside and grabbed memory Jack's hand, "Come on! Let's go! I've waited too long already!" she says, bouncing with excitement.
His memory self laughed at the little girl's enthusiasm. "Okay, okay, just wait for a few more minutes alright?"
It was his little sister, he had a sister! Jack couldn't believe it, there was a smile forming on his lips.
A woman, who he guessed was his mother stood by the doorway, "Be careful now" she told Jack.
Memory Jack answers her with a smile. "We will" he says as he let the little girl pull him towards the pond. He looks back twice, feeling like he may never return again.
Jack bit down his tongue, he had a bad feeling about this, something was about to go wrong.
He shakes away his thoughts and watched the rest on the memory.
Memory Jack helps the little girl balance on the ice, keeping his hands on her shoulders until she is able to balance on her own.
He steps on the other side of the ice barefoot, his ice skates still in hand.
The most shocking thing happened after that, the ice beneath the little girl began to crack. Jack's head snaps up when he heard her scream, his heart rate increased, he reached forward to pull her but the ice beneath him began to crack as well.
He grits his teeth and stands still, deep inside he was afraid, he doesn't know what to do, but he has to be brave for her.
"It's okay, it's okay, don't look down just look at me." Jack coos, setting his skates down.
"Jack, I'm scared…." The girl whimpered, her voice trembling.
"I know" Jack takes slowly takes a step forward, but the ice cracks slightly under his weight. "But your gonna be alright, your not gonna fall in." he ponders for a moment, his mind scrambling. "We're gonna have a little fun instead." He managed to say, keeping his voice in a neutral tone.
"No we're not!" the little girl hollered, her eyes were beginning to water.
"Would I trick you?" Jack managed to smirk.
"Yes! You always play tricks!" The little girl snaps.
Jack chuckles, ""Well, not this time, I promise, your gonna be….your gonna be fine" he waits for her answer. She looked into his eyes; her expression told him she was reassured.
"You have to believe in me," he adds, looking down at the webs forming on the thin layer of ice. "Wanna play a game? Then we're gonna play hopscotch, like we play everyday, it's as easy as one" he counts, and takes a step side ways towards the thicker part of the ice. "Two, woah!" he tumbles forward comically, making his sister giggle.
"Three!" he makes it safely to the other side. "Now it's your turn" he picks up a long wooden stick he spotted before. "One"
She skates forward without hesitation, but when the ice began to creak, she gasps, her breathing grows hitched.
Jack ignores it and continues to count, "Two"
She skated forward again, the ice creaks louder.
"That's it that's it…" he murmurs, "three!"
She got close enough to him. Jack uses the crook to hook her over to the thicker part of the ice. He was too overjoyed to notice he had carelessly flung himself over the other side, where the ice was the thinnest.
He stood in his full weight and smiled at his sister, he was just about to move to the other side when the ice finally gave away.
The aguish loud crack pounded through his head, the last thing he heard was his sister screaming his name.
He saw the sun go down, and the moon taking it's place, and everything went dark.
Jack snaps back to reality, breathing heavily from shock, he stares wide-eyed at the baby tooth in the cages hanging above him. "D-did you…did you see that?"
They shook their heads, some chirped the word 'no' nonetheless they were happy for Jack.
"It was me!" Jack says happily, "I had a family! I had a sister!...I saved her!" he paused and glances at the faint moonlight above. "That's why you chose me….I'm…I'm a guardian." His blue eyes danced around wildly. There was only one light left, shining brightly and unwavering. Jack ran up the steps to get a closer look, his pupils dilates in recognition. "Jamie!" he exclaims. There was still hope.
Jack has traveled to different countries, he's been to thousands of cities, but for some reason he was most fond of this boy.
There was no time to lose. Jack took his staff and flew out of the dark nightmare cove. Everything he was doing was wrong. How could he have been so stupid?
Jack darts behind a tree, keeping himself out of sight as a nightmare passes by. He pokes his head out to peek. There were nightmare horses scattered around every corner of town.
Everything seems so morbid, dark gloomy clouds hung over the sky, nightmare wisps floated everywhere, securing children's peaceful sleeps with nightmares. Jack blames himself, if he hadn't set off that alarm clock, Jamie's groundhog wouldn't have attacked Bunny, Sandy didn't have to knock them all out and he would still be here. If he hadn't wandered off in the middle of Easter, he would still have the guardian's trust. If he hadn't helped Pitch, none of this would be happening. All he does is make a mess of things.
But now's not the time to be guilty, there was no time left to lose. He came out of his hiding place and takes a sharp turn around a brick wall.
Honestly he doesn't even have a plan; he has no idea what he's doing. He couldn't imagine what would happen if a nightmare horse spotted him.
He has to be careful, or it'll all be over. Pitch might be lurking around somewhere, he must be after Jamie, he has to get there first.
Another nightmare horse blocked the exit to the alleyway. Jack flattened himself against the brick wall, hoping his ebony skin wouldn't stand out of the darkness.
He managed to slide passed the nightmare horse unnoticed. He takes off high up in the sky and looks down.
Nightmares were scouting every inch of the town, he definitely has to freeze something.
Silently, he lands inside a bush. The nightmare horse near by switches it's direction and made it's way towards the bush that rustled slightly.
His wooden staff suddenly sticks out, taking the stallion by surprise, before it was able to give a screech, it was encased in ice.
Jack crawls out of the patch, dusting off the dirt from his hoodie. "Well that was easy…"
He spoke too soon, two groups of nightmare horses happened to hear the screech, they were charging towards Jack in different directions.
Jack slammed his staff on the ground, creating a rim of ice that froze the horses' feet to the ground. Since the sand particles were solid, the ice crawled up their legs until the entire figure is frozen solid.
Jack glances around, making sure Pitch wasn't here, when the coast was clear Jack ran, the wind seems to have read his mind, it picks him up and takes him to the Bennett family's home which was not far away.
"Look at that North," Tooth lightly pats the Russian's shoulder, "Those nightmares, a-are they frozen?"
North takes his eyes off of the route and follows where Tooth is pointing. He spots a ring of ice with more than a dozen horses frozen on spot.
"Could Jack be trying to help us?" Asks Tooth
As of now North wasn't sure, Jack might be helping Pitch eliminate the last light "Perhaps he has come back to his senses."
"Okay, you and I are obviously at what they call a cross road, so hears what's gonna happen."
His voice came muffled from the thick window glass between them. Jack appears beside the wooden frame and sees Jamie on his bed talking to his stuffed rabbit.
He crouches down, gently pushing the window open to hear him better.
"Okay, so if it wasn't a dream, and if you are real, then you have to prove it, like right now, you don't have to do much, just a little sign so I know okay?" he picks up the toy rabbit and stares into it's button eyes, "anything…anything at all."
The room was silent for a few minutes, Jamie waits and waits for something to happen, but nothing did, it was just silence.
The child's shoulder slumps as he heaves a sigh, "I knew it…" he lets go of the stuffed rabbit, not even bothering to pick it up when it fell to the ground.
Jack could see the hope dying; Jamie was the last light, if he stops believing then that means the guardians were done. He pushes the window winder and slips himself in. He pressed his fingers over the glass, fern patterns of frost iced over the surface; he draws a picture of an Easter egg on the glass.
It managed to catch Jamie's attention. The child stands on his bed, tilting his head in interest. "He's real" Jack hears him murmur.
He smiles, and draws the figure of a small bunny, focusing all his energy on his ice creation, he brought it to life.
The snow Bunny dashed across the room in mid air, making Jamie laugh.
Jack laughs too, watching his creation travel around them. Seeing a child smile, it makes him feel so light hearted, like a huge weight has been lifted from his shoulders.
The blue bunny then erupted into frost. Snowflakes showering down on the child, a small snowflake lands on his nose, sending a chill across his face.
Jamie blinks a couple of times, something about it feels so familiar.
"We don't want Jack Frost nipping at your nose"
Jamie silently gasps when he realized he was being visited by Jack Frost. "Jack Frost?" he calls in a low whisper.
Jack moves closer, "did he just say…?" goose bumps runs down his arms. Could it be? After 300 years could this be the day? He thought it might just be another hallucination, until Jamie calls him again.
"Jack Frost?" he turns slowly.
"He said it again" he tells himself. "He said….you said…"
Jamie seemingly hears him and follows the direction of the voice and came face to face with him, his eyes grows as wide as buttons. "Jack Frost" he says awe-struck.
"That's right" Jack would have cried of joy. "But that's me, Jack Frost that's my name…you said my name…." he says stupidly for that was the only thing he could think of. "Wait…can you hear me?"
Jamie nods, keeping his eyes locked on him, his mouth forming an 'O'
Jack moved a little closer. "Can…you see me?"
The child nods again.
Jack lets out a breathless laugh, "he sees me…he sees me!" So this is what it felt like to be believed in. He does a small back flip and lands on the wooden table behind him, he isn't sure if he could take this all in at once, he isn't even sure if this was real anymore.
"You just made it snow!"
"I know"
"In my room!"
"I know!"
"Your real!?"
"Yeah!" Jack jumps of the table. "Who do you think brings you all the blizzards and the snow days…..and remember when you went flying on the sled the other day?"
"That was you!?"
"That was me!"
"Cool!"
"Right!"
"But what about the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth fairy?"
"Real, real, real" Jack picks up his stuffed rabbit off the floor. "Every one of his is real"
"I knew it!" he snaps loud enough for his mother to hear.
Jamie, who are you talking to?"
"Um…." He turns to Jack, silently asking for an answer.
Jack beckons him to tell, since he was practically his imaginary friend.
"Jack Frost…"
His mother giggles, "okaaaay…."
Lightning suddenly rattles, making them both jump in shock. Jack pushes open the window and peers outside. A black cloud of nightmare sand covered the sky, Pitch was here already.
Jack turns to the boy, "Jamie, whatever happens, just don't be afraid alright?"
Jamie nodded, "Wait….how did you….know my name?"
A smile crawls across his face, "I've been in Burgess since the day you were born, I've learned your name somehow, in fact I was there when your dog attacked the Easter Bunny."
"But why didn't I see you?"
Jack shoots a glance outside the window checking if there were any fearlings around. "I'm not human Jamie, I'm the bringer of winter, it's the same as Santa clause, The Easter Bunny and the Tooth fairy, their called the guardians of childhood, only those who believe can see us, which is why adults can't. If you did stop believing just now, you wouldn't be able to see the guardians, even if they were right in front of you, your belief would be lost forever."
Jamie was flabbergasted, just because you can't see something doesn't mean it's not there.
"You know you're the first human to see me kiddo, in 300 years…" Jack adds.
His mouth hangs open, "300?"
Jack pushes away the horrible memories "So that's why I want you to keep believing in the guardians, so they can continue protecting the children from nightmares."
"Of course I will" Jamie states enthusiastically "but wait…are you a guardian too?"
Jack purses his lips, he doesn't know what he is right now. He was a guardian, but he doesn't know if the others would ever accept him for what he has done. He made this mess in the first place.
A loud crash outside disturbs his thoughts. Jack looks outside to see the sleigh had crashed on Jamie's yard.
"There's no time to explain," Jack nudges the child out the door. "Come on the others are outside, why don't you go see them."
"Really they're really out there?"
"Yeah, go"
Jamie bounces happily and runs down the stairs.
Jack was about to follow but his feet suddenly roots themselves firm on the ground. He is afraid of what the guardians might say, would they tell Jamie about what he did? Would the child just stop believing in him over something like that? Everything would just be ripped away from him again.
Instead of following Jamie to meet the guardians, he turned around and left through the window.
Sorry guys, I had to end it here XD apparently this chapter was getting a little too long.
I know, I am doing a terrible job with fast updates. I am an incredibly lazy person and the summer heat is just making it worse, I mean I have fallen asleep on my keyboard before XD
So yes, I own nothing, as usual leave a review and tell me what you think of this chapter.
Sad to say this story is close to the end, I'm not sure how many more chapters they'll be but it's almost over, although I have a set of new chaptered stories, they will be published after this, or maybe after I complete just another story one of my in progress stories.
Thanks for all your reviews and support guys, your critique is very much appreciated.
Oh great, now I have grown too lazy to reply to reviews too Q_Q