Jamie's assignment wasn't due until next week, which gave the six children more than enough time to hunt through every avenue that they could. When books and the Internet seemed to fail the kids turned to asking other kids about stories that they might have heard. It was Saturday afternoon when they all met at Jamie's house for a "study" session.
"Any luck?" Jamie asked, the twins shook their heads.
"Sorry, no luck here." Cupcake said.
"Same." Pippa replied.
"Well... I might have something..." Monty said. All of the children turned to him. He shifted nervously.
"I heard a story, from my brother who heard it from a friend of his."
"What's this story?" Jamie prompted when the other boy fell silent.
"Well, it's about a boy named Jake and his friends. Apparently they'd dared him to spend the night in the local cemetery on Halloween night. Saying that if he didn't do it he was chicken. Not wanting to seem afraid in front of them, he agreed. So they all went there, but things didn't feel right; it seemed scarier at night. Even worse, there was a low hanging fog that evening that just made things worse. Still, true to his word, Jake went in. That was the last anyone saw of him, the fog in the cemetery was so thick none of the boys could see and all they heard was a piercing shriek in the night. The boys left their friend in their fright. When they went back though an hour or so with more friends they decided to search the place, but not a trace could be found of their friend. Everyone searched and searched, but Jake was never heard from again." The others rolled their eyes, but Jamie had hung on to every word.
"Was it the Burgess Cemetery?" Monty shrugged.
"I donno, all I know is what my brother told me when he heard I was looking for stories that might revolve around the Pumpkin King. See, it was thought that Jacko snatched the boy up, but it's just a story."
"A very interesting one."
"Please, sounds like your typical ghost story." Cupcake replied.
"Maybe, but I'll take what I can get." Jamie didn't say anything else and neither did any of the others, the only one out of the group who knew Jamie stilled talked to Jack was Pippa; however, she had no idea he meant Jack Frost. He'd conveniently met a chat buddy online on the website they all had created whose name was Jack; Pippa was the only one who had made friends from when they'd all been on the website they'd created to help spread their story and get Jack more believers. That was years ago though and Pippa was the only one who had her own computer among them. So when Jamie mentioned Jack, she didn't think anything of it because she'd become friends with the same boy from another state who had heard about their story and had believed. So Pippa assumed that was who Jamie meant, the boy from the site, from a different state; he didn't have the heart to correct her and like the others, she'd stopped believing.
"Is something wrong?" Pippa asked, Jamie shook his head as he realized his thoughts must have been reflected in his eyes.
"No, was just thinking was all."
"So what now?" Cupcake asked.
"Well... ummm." Jamie was at a loss for a moment until an idea occurred to him.
"Find out as much as you can about Monty's story. Ask around, see if anyone else has heard it and if they know what it's origins are."
"Why do you need to know all that?" Caleb asks.
"Well, what's more believable? A ghost story from the brother of a friend or a story that you can trace back to its roots here in Burgess?"
"Good point." Claude remarks.
"Anything else you guys can find would be great. Thanks again for the help."
"Of course." Pippa says with a smile. Jamie returned it, he nearly lost the smile though when he saw Jack was hovering outside the window; watching them. Did he suspect? The look in Jack's eyes though made Jamie want to run out and hug him, to reassure him that he still believed no matter what the others thought or said. He didn't though. He didn't need them finding out about Jack and he could only sigh inwardly as the winter spirit touched the glass, leaving behind frost that curled along the windowpane before flying off. Jamie felt that he'd need to make it up to Jack some how. He wasn't sure how, but he'd figured something out. Later that night Jamie nearly groaned when he realized what had woken him. His mother was screaming again. This was the fifth time this week. Jamie decided maybe it was best for them all if he just slept in the same room with his mother. He grabbed his pillow and blanket and went to her room.
"I'm sorry Jamie, I hate to keep waking you up."
"It's okay mom. Why don't I just keep you company, it's worked the last times hasn't it?" He wasn't going to say that he was the only thing between her and the Night Terror things. She'd think he was nuts. She sighed.
"Maybe you're right."
"Get some rest mom, goodnight."
"Goodnight Jamie." She settled back down and once again Jamie saw another Night Terror. He had several cuts on his fingers now because every time he touched one, even though it turned into gold sand it would also manage to bite him or swipe a claw at him no matter how careful he was. He just hoped that Jack wouldn't notice. Not that a small cut was really going to hurt him. Worse come to worse he'd just say he didn't know how he got them. He hated the thought of that though. He didn't want to lie to Jack. It wasn't like he'd sought the Night Terror things out anyway. As he lay down he swore he heard a soft noise from the house next door... like someone was sobbing... It was getting worse, he realized. The more time this was taking the more and more people he heard about suffering from the Night Terrors; if this continued to go on without stopping than things were going to go downhill very quickly. Much as he'd avoided telling his friends about what Jack had told him, the kids in the school hadn't missed how tired their teachers were beginning to look and their own parents. Jamie was scared for them all. The adults were needed to run things, the kids couldn't do that! They weren't old enough... weren't prepared... Jamie wondered if Sandy could help.
Would the Guardian of Dreams be able to affect adults? Jamie decided that something needed to be done soon... so he did the one thing he'd never done before. As soon as it was lunch time, he'd eaten his fill and then skipped the rest of his classes. Jamie knew he'd get an earful from Jack, and later on from his mother most likely once she found out, but this was more important. He could always make up the work he missed later anyway. He headed straight to the pond and wasn't surprised to see Jack there.
"Aren't you out a little early?" Jack asked suspiciously.
"I cut class."
"Jamie, you know how I feel about that." Jack said with a sigh.
"Yeah, but this is important."
"More important than your education?"
"There's not going to be much of an education for me if the adults can't stay awake in class!" Whatever Jack was going to say next died on his lips when he saw the concern in his friend's eyes.
"It's getting worse Jack, it seems nearly the whole town is affected now. Every time I see an adult all I see is one more person who's lost a lot of sleep thanks to those things! Adults run the world Jack, we can't have them falling asleep like that or something terrible might happen! Lives could be ruined or worse... Jack, I'm really scared here. Please tell me you've found something." Jack sighed and shook his head.
"We've searched the entire globe, we can't find any trace of Jacko or even where he's at. It's like he disappeared without a trace."
"That's not possib... le..." Jamie trailed off.
"What is it?" Jack asked when he realized that Jamie had thought of something.
"A few days ago I asked the others to help me do some research on the Pumpkin King. I know you said to not go looking for anything and we didn't, I just wanted some background information."
"And?"
"Turns out to be a bust, but then Monty heard of a story about a boy who seemed to have disappeared without any reason. No one could find him. It was like he was never there. I asked the others to trace the origins of the story if they could; we've been asking around, so far it's been just "so and so told me" as far as answers."
"I think I've heard of that story actually."
"Really?"
"Yeah... the one where the boy is dared by his friends right? His name was Jake." Jamie's eyes widened a little and he nodded.
"Yeah!" How had Jack known? Wait, that was a silly question, he could have heard of it from around a campfire or something.
"Thought so. That's a true story."
"Huh? How do you know?"
"Because I was there." Jamie gave Jack an odd look.
"It's not a modern story Jamie. I was one of those friends. Jake Timbron." He paused a moment.
"We all thought he was messing around though when he'd screamed because we knew him to be as good at playing pranks as the rest of us. Instead of fleeing though, we went to investigate; after all, we thought he was faking." Jack's normal smile fell, he seemed sad now as he leaned back against the tree he'd been sitting in when Jamie had appeared.
"We searched and searched... sent the dogs out too but they couldn't find him either. No one knew what happened to him. Rumors flew around the incident but no one really could explain it."
"Then... do you think Jacko got to him?"
"Hard to say. Whatever did though wasn't likely human and while there are ways to track magic I'm afraid it's not likely that there's any trace of whatever was used that night. It was too far back."
"That could be our answer though!" Jamie said, suddenly excited and it was Jack's turn to give him a funny look.
"What do you mean?"
"Well you said it yourself. Obviously something had to have happened that might have been magic. What if the cemetery was a portal? Sort of like North's globes, just waiting to be activated. All you have to do is just say the right thing or be there at the right time." Jack frowned thoughtfully.
"You might have something there kiddo." He grinned suddenly.
"What would I do with ya?"
"I donno." Jamie replied. It was something the two of them often joked about occasionally though both were aware that without Jamie things would be very different... Jack flew back the pole after giving his friend a hug and telling him that he'd be back when he knew more. He didn't want to involve Jamie in this but to him it was apparent Jamie didn't want to be left out whether or not Jack wanted him to be involved. The kid was smart; no doubt about that. He brushed the thought away as he went to talk with the other Guardians. Maybe... He was hoping that Jamie was right. That, like North's snow globes, a cemetery could act as a gateway to the place where North was. As he neared the pole another thought struck him, maybe he should have told Jamie to tell his friends to stay away from cemeteries... but then again what excuse could Jamie come up for that? If Jamie's hunch was correct then the population had been in danger for years of being snatched up on the whim of some holiday obsessed nut who got off on scaring the crap out of everyone. Yeah, that didn't go well in his mind. He figured he'd talk to Jamie about it when he got back, for now...
"Faster wind!" The wind picked up at his command and he shot like a rocket towards the speck in the distance that he knew was the Workshop.
