Spring: Changes
By: Wilona Riva
Disclaimer: Don't own ROTG or DP.
103 years: College of the North/Pitch's Hole
"Why are the school nurses called 'Aunts'?" Sam asked Margaret a few days later, while they walked toward the portal which would take them to Big Root. "It's racist."
"It isn't," Margaret told her. "When you use it like in context of the Civil War era or the African-American folk tales, then yes, it is derogatory, but I'm using it in the context of say, the sibling of -oh, say-my mother, Jane. The Aunts take their names from historical nurses recorded throughout history, but they aren't spirits."
"Oh," Sam muttered, deflated. "What happened to Danny?"
"Daniel? Oh, they put him to sleep," Margaret said. "I don't know what happened. One minute he was there, the next- poof! Gone."
"Well, at least I'll have you and Tucker to talk to. Any idea what book Mr. Lancer wants us to read this semester?"
"Um, Sam," Margaret asked, biting her lower lip. "Hasn't anyone explained anything to you?"
"Explained what?" Sam questioned her
"Whoo, boy!" Margaret muttered, rolling her eyes upward. "We have a long way to go."
(Later at lunch)
"Where are my parents? I haven't seen them or even the A-listers anywhere," Sam murmured, eyeing the little boy in short-sleeved skeleton suit. "Isn't he a little young to be at a high school?"
"I see you have met Big Brother," Helen said, giving the boy another rice cake. "He's a new legend that appeared back in 1947."
"Does he have anything to do with George Orwell's book 1984?" Sam asked.
"Would have been the right time he first appeared," Helen mused, "His favorite pastime is shadowing Bunnymund."
"Jack's too," Maragret laughed. "That incident last spring with the carrots and the dye river!"
Helen laughed, while Big Brother hummed happily around the rice cake he was sucking on. "Quite the sight that was," she agreed. "So, Sam, how are you like the school so far?"
"Don't know," Sam grumbled. "No one will give me the time of day when I ask where my family and friends are, and Danny is missing!"
"Sam," Helen started, then stopping when Margaret shook her head.
"I'll take you over to see Pitch," Margaret suggested. "The Guardians don't have much to say about how the College of the North is run anymore. I mean, Jack is a student and all, but things are a lot different than when you last attended here, Sam. You going to finish your salad?"
Sam looked down at her lunch and for the first time since she'd woken up, she wished they had left her to die out in the snowy forest. "They are gone, aren't they?"
Helen nodded. "It's been a 100 years since you left to find the Star Witch, Samantha. Pitch Black can explain things a lot better than I can. I can promise you that the souls of your loved ones did not linger long in this world. Thana took them quickly."
"Thana?"
"Scythe swinging skeleton?"
"Oh, you mean Death? I thought you were Lady Death."
"I am the Lady of the Shadows," Helen corrected. "You girls had better hurry. Runes are next, and you are both in my class."
"Gotcha," Margaret chimed in. "Come on, Sam. Let's go see Pitch."
"Welcome to Pitch's Hole, girls," came the smooth voice of the Nightmare King. "Come to pay the piper, Mother?"
"No, shadow sneaking rat bag," Sam replied. "She brought me here because you knew all the answers. Where's Danny?"
"First, off, girl," the Boogeyman replied, gliding from the shadows that surrounded the cavern they were in, "tell me-did you find what you sought?"
"Why does everyone keep asking me that?" Sam groaned. "I don't know!"
"Watch your tongue, girl," Pitch cooly said, descending from the pillar he stood on. "Or I'll feed you to my nightmares. They are hungry."
"I'm so scared," Sam taunted.
"Sam," Margaret tugged on her sweater, "Don't. The shadows..."
"Wise words, Mother," Pitch said, looking down his nose at them. "Follow me."
The shadows pulled back to reveal a spiral staircase descending down into the depths of the cavern. Margaret looked helplesly at Sam, who squared her shoulder, and stalked off after the Boogeyman.