Chapter 7

What is yet to come...

After North successfully managed to re-establish some sense of control over his workshop he wasted no time in sending up the signal to summon his fellow Guardians. Bunnymund had been the first to arrive and after a while he was followed by Toothiana and Sandman... and unsurprisingly Jack Frost would be the last one to arrive, although he hadn't arrived yet. However the order they arrived in was unimportant; what was important was the obvious urgency of North calling them together... something that was instantly understood the second that they laid eyes upon the hideous, revolting mess that the Yeti's and the Elves were still attempting to clean.

"Bloody hell mate, what happened 'ere?!" Bunnymund asked as he held a hand over his nose, trying desperately to block out the stench of rotten blood that filled North's great workshop like an unholy fog.

"I only wish I knew..." the Cossack growled as he continued to pace the area, hoping in vain that it might help to settle his nerves. "I have never seen anything like this before! It all happened so fast... but if there is one thing that I am sure of, Pitch is the one who is responsible for this!" At these words that Bunnymund's back went ramrod straight, Tooth placed her hands over her mouth and a golden exclamation point appeared above Sandman's head.

"I thought Pitch was still trapped down in his lair." The voice of Jack Frost suddenly stated as the others looked over only to see the young winter spirit entering the workshop through one of the destroyed windows. Although his sudden appearance had made his fellow spirits jump slightly, due to the overall severity of the situation... and that this revelation had set everyone's nerves on edge.

"Yes... I had believed that myself, until I saw him here." North grunted as he tightened his grip on his swords. "Only he wasn't alone this time, there was someone else with him! I do not know who, but I am guessing that whoever it was is the one responsible for making all of this happen!"

"You think Pitch is working with someone else?" Tooth questioned as she continued to look around the room at the destruction and havoc that had only happened a few hours prior. But it was the smell... the stench of death and rot made her want to gag. Tooth was definitely not one to let things bother her, but this... whoever had done this had a truly dark and sickened mind.

"Yes..." North said as he dipped the blade of one of his swords into a puddle of the coagulated blood that was still in a section of the floor. "Pitch is powerful, but I don't think he can make something of this magnitude happen... I also found this..." He said holding up that piece of paper with the words 'May the stains never wash out…' written on it. The Guardians took turns scanning the paper that North held in his hand; clearly it didn't mean much to either Bunny or Tooth... but when Sandman looked at the elegant letters written in the shimmering black ink, the little dream weaver's eyes widened in a mix of disbelief and utter horror... not that the others really got the chance to notice as Jack suddenly swiped the page from North and began looking it over a little more closely.

"Annnnddd Pitch is now trying to emulate Edgar Allen Poe?" The winter spirit said with a slight chuckle as he proceeded to fold up the page into a small paper-airplane and fling it into the irritated Australian Pooka's nose.

"Try to be serious for half a minute ya wanker;" Bunnymund growled in annoyance at Jack. While their relationship had definitely improved from what it was, there were still times, much like this, that he still got the occasional urge to throttle the Guardian of fun... "This isn't something to joke about! If Pitch is back then-"

"Then we'll take him down just like we did before." Jack retorted as he proceeded to balance himself atop his staff in a carefree sort of way. Before Bunny could respond to Jack's cockiness (Either vocally or by hitting him upside the head with one of his boomerangs...) Tooth interrupted by shrilly whistling... so loud that she accidently hurt Bunny's ears. Nonetheless it had been effective in getting the two to stop with their silly little squabble.

"You are forgetting one thing Jack; we do not know who his new ally is or what they are capable of." North explained darkly. "You were not here; you did not see what happened... I- eh? Sandy? Where are you going?" North asked as the short little man had rather abruptly turned away from the group and was seemingly leaving this emergency gathering. Sandman turned to look back at his friends... letting them finally take notice of his worried expression.

'I have to go.' The symbols above the Sandman's head translated to his friends. 'I have to check something.'

"Right now?" Jack questioned as any form of his good mood began to disappear. Out of all of the Guardians, Sandman was considered the calmest... so to see him suddenly become as nervous as he currently was acting was very worrying. Sandman did not respond to Jack as he hurriedly made his way outside the factory and into the frozen tundra where he used his golden Dream Sand to create a plane, one of his faster preferred methods of transportation, and with that he left the North Pole in a great hurry... All the while his mind was racing, trying to reason out that what he feared was simply not the truth. There was no way that Pitch could have found out about the one secret Sandman had kept hidden from his friends? A secret he had been sworn to never mention? A secret that was only known to him and one other?

...it just couldn't be...


(Two Weeks Later...)

"Wow..."

"Is that a good wow or a bad wow?"

"It's just... well, wow..."

Artemis sighed in frustration as she put down her writing quill and rubbed her temples as she felt a migraine starting to form. It had taken her an entire week to sort out all of the loose ends with her publisher. Imagine his complete surprise when Artemis had called him shortly after their previous meeting and explained that she had suddenly overcome her writers block and that she also had a new book idea in mind that she was even intending to be read by younger readers. He had been skeptical at this, as he suspected that most parents would probably not allow their children to read anything that Artemis wrote, toned down or not... It had taken some convincing before he finally agreed to make up his own mind when he had read the first draft...Only once that was done did she write out a few basic character biographies, draft some plot devices, and do a bit of research into a few things here and there did she finally start the process of writing the actual book.

'About time!' Pitch had growled, aggravated that it had taken her as long as it had to start writing her promised novel. Of course Artemis had pointed out that she always took her time when she was beginning her work and what would he prefer in the long run? Something that she essentially rushed at writing that would turn out to be nothing but a piece of crap? Or something that took a little more time but was written well and was ultimately much more successful? Judging by the fact that the Boogeyman went silent and walked away, he saw her point. Of course that didn't mean that he had to be happy about it... In fact ever since she had gotten started writing her latest work Pitch had been an annoying little git. Of course this might not have been entirely his fault, as usually when Artemis was focusing on her writing she didn't exactly interact with people... in fact Dreary had once pointed out that Artemis entered what she had jokingly nicknamed 'Hermit Mode.' Although Artemis had never been particularly fond of the comparison she couldn't help but see her point and for this reason she didn't lose her patience at Pitch... not to mention that as had been demonstrated prior to this, Artemis had a high tolerance for whatever he could throw at her... cutlery included... Although she had discovered that Hot Chocolate would temporarily distract him; unfortunately she had also discovered that after he'd downed his fifth mug of the stuff Pitch acted a little bit... well... scary.

And what was meant by that was his pupils completely disappeared and he started smiling a creepy sharp-toothed smile... after which he had disappeared for several long hours before eventually reappearing passed out on Artemis's couch. Shortly afterwards on the news it was revealed that the local school had to close early on account of a supposed gas leak that had caused virtually all of the children to have vivid, terrifying hallucinations.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that these two incidents were very much related...

Still after a few failed drafts, a couple heated arguments over time management and seven dead chipmunks... (Courtesy of Nyoka who had found that hunting the small critters that inhabited the surrounding area most enjoyable... Although Artemis was far from happy with the sudden increase in animal corpses and found it to be annoying as hell.) Artemis had finished the final draft of her first chapter... (Unless of course she decided to go back and re-write something later on.) And now she was currently letting Pitch read it over... and apparently it was going quite well.

He had not been disappointed...

"I'm surprised that you put this kind of detail in the first chapter." Pitch commented as he put all the pages back in order.

"I like to paint pictures with my words, I've been writing long enough to know that with this I had to be detailed but in a way that a ten year old can still follow along." Artemis chuckled slightly as she began looking in one of the drawers in her desk for something or other. "Naturally your character won't actually appear in the story until the fourth chapter; but there will be a lot of things that will make the reader afraid of what is going to happen next. When I actually get to the fourth chapter it will really set the non-stop roller-coaster of horror in motion."

"It's already quite good. I'm particularly fond of the main character, a young twelve year old girl named Anne who by all means seems normal enough to those around her; but the sinister undertones are already in place. Such as the workaholic parents and the girls quietly displayed fear of her older brother... a sixteen year old boy named Jack Frost."

"I'll admit it, I am a vengeful bitch... I figured that if it will give even a few kids nightmares about 'Jack Frost' why not? Besides as the story advances this character is revealed to be a sociopathic menace that tortures and kills animals and leaves them in his sister's room. Of course the reader will be led to believe that it is the Boogeyman at first." Artemis said as she apparently found what she was looking for and she pulled out a thick pile of blank paper, a paintbrush and a bottle of what had now been named Nightmare Ink from the drawer just as Pitch started laughing hysterically.

"Oh that would be priceless! The little twerp wants to be seen so desperately; it will be a riot to watch him as children run away from him in complete terror!" After snickering wickedly for a little longer he managed to get a grip on himself when he noticed that Artemis was quite literally painting an entire sheet of paper with the ink. "What are you doing?"

"I've had this idea for a while now. My godson likes this one videogame called Ookami, where you use a paintbrush to affect the world... I was wondering if I could do the same if I had mirror-like reflective surface on one of these pages." Of course by the time she had finished painting the page all she had was a soaking wet mess of Nightmare Ink and paper. "Although something tells me that I should have given this a bit more thought."

"Or you could have just voiced this request." And with that Pitch dipped his finger into the ink that was now getting all over everything on the desk and the dark glittering Nightmare Ink began to merge itself to the paper, changing it into something else... and within moments there wasn't a pile of paper anymore, but there was what looked like a small chalkboard that quite literally reflected everything that it was facing.

"Um... thank you?"

"It was a surprisingly good idea, although I think I have to actually see whatever it is you're actually trying to describe. Care to demonstrate?" In a moment of what could only be described as perfect timing, Nyoka slithered into the room a dead rabbit tightly clamped in its jaws. He slithered up and deposited the fresh and bloody kill at Artemis's feet, as if making an offering to its master before slithering out of the room once again. While this was equally disturbing and creepy, Artemis saw it as an opportunity to test out her new device. She picked up her quill from off of her desk and after quickly dipping it into some of the remaining Nightmare Ink; she made a quick and clean slash over the reflective image of the rabbit... only what happened wasn't quite what Artemis had intended.

Namely the dead rabbit exploded...

And it sprayed blood everywhere! All over herself, Pitch and the first chapter of her new book. There was a long awkward silence as Pitch reached up and wiped some of the blood off of his face while glaring angrily at the author.

"What was that supposed to do?" he hissed irritably.

"I was trying to make it disappear. Apparently I still have to work on controlling these powers... eww this is so gross..." Fortunately however a thought occurred to her and she pulled out a clean sheet of paper and quickly scribbled something on it. In an instant all of the blood and bunny gore seemed to evaporate off of everything, leaving nothing but the uncomfortable feeling of knowing that just a second ago they had been covered in blood. "Ah, that's much better... Geeze I'll bet that this is a handy trick should I ever have to hide a body."

She had absolutely no idea why that thought occurred to her right then...

"Not exactly, you can't just write something out of existence. Hence why the rabbit exploded." Pitch explained as he flipped through the pages once again. Just as Artemis was about to say something along the lines of 'You could have mentioned this earlier and spared us an exploding big eared rat!' her phone rang. So with a sigh she answered it with a slightly aggravated hello... but after a few minutes Pitch watched the writer's expression undergo a disturbing change. A blind man would have been able to tell that whatever this phone call was about it was far from good... very far...

"When?! Is she alright?!" Artemis asked as she suddenly stood up and began to frantically pace the room. "Yes! Yes I'll be right there!" And with that she slammed the phone down and began zipping around her house while grabbing her coat, scarf and then began rapidly searching for her car keys.

"What is going on?" Pitch asked whilst holding up the keys the young woman was searching for and also finding that he was surprisingly concerned about whatever it was that had visibly left Artemis in such a state.

"My friend Dreary is in the hospital! It was something... oh dear god, there was something... something happened a-and no one will tell me anything!" She explained as she snatched her keys from his hand. "I'm sorry, I have to go!" And with that she raced out the door at full speed, not even bothering to close the door on the way out... But Pitch did as he stepped outside and watched as Artemis's Jeep tore out of her snowy driveway at a breakneck speed. Even though he had currently been left behind, he had every intention of following her... Although he didn't want to admit it he found himself somewhat concerned for her well-being, even if it was only because of their little arrangement... or the fact that he would deny even to himself, that he might actually be enjoying her company even in the slightest.

However...

No one could guess that before this day was over, the festering darkness in Artemis's heart would begin to rise to the surface...

I'm gonna say it now and I swear that I am not making excuses... my computer is on its last legs and keeps dying at random times and won't work at all unless it's completely charged. And the battery is all screwed up so it takes forever to actually charge... So... yeah, until I get a new one updating has become a bit tricky for all of my stories... and I also apologize for my crappy Australian... playing Bunnymund was harder than I expected it to be and I'm sorry if I did a poor job, I do promise to improve it in the future though... well that's it for now, and as always Please remember to Read and Review!