Jamie Bennett dashes down the stairs eagerly, not even bothering to put on shoes or a coat to keep him warm on a cold winter's evening.
He doesn't look back, he assumes Jack was following close behind; he failed to notice that the winter spirit had already left the other way. He throws the door open, running full speed out in the lawn barefoot. Much to his disbelief Santa Clause and the Tooth fairy were standing right before him. His eyes were wide, his lips formed an 'O' he didn't know what to say.
Tooth and North were relieved to know that the last believer in the world could still see them. They were on their way to Burgess when the brightness began to waver and the light flickered on and off, like the child was unsure of what to believe, but something strengthened his belief, something convinced him that they were real, but who?
Jamie had been the lucky child to be able to see them all in his room, and now that he was sure it wasn't just a dream over night, his belief would be retained forever.
"Woah, it is you….I mean it is you!" Jamie felt so happy, he couldn't recall how many times he's tried to catch Santa Clause with his camera every Christmas and now he was standing right in front of him. He went over to shake North's hand and the Tooth Fairy gave her a shy but friendly smile. They were still unsure of how exactly they are going to explain all that's happening to a nine year old.
"I knew it wasn't a dream…." he spins around, his face contorts from joyous to confused. "Jack?"
Now it's the guardians' turn to be shocked, Tooth and North shot each other a puzzled look. They weren't quite sure if they heard it right or not, until Jamie said it again.
"Jack?" he calls, searching about, up in the sky, in the bushes, behind the trees, but the winter spirit was no where to be seen.
Tooth steps forward and crouches down to Jamie's level. "Jamie dear, who do you mean by Jack?" who knows, this 'Jack' may just be the name of Jamie's friends.
"Jack Frost…" Jamie says. "He was in my room just a minute ago; he told me you guys were real."
North and Tooth glances at each other again, they are still skeptical. They couldn't bring themselves to believe Jack was trying to help them, the last time they saw him, he was furious at them.
"You can see Jack?" Tooth asks again.
"Yeah, oh I know how it works, you can't see what you can't believe." He notices the tension between them whenever he mentions Jack Frost. "Why, what's wrong?"
"You see…." North tries to explain, "You see, he iz….sort of missing for the passed days."
"Oh...if he's missing, he was just inside my room a few minutes ago." He turns and peers through the windows of his room, checking if Jack went back inside, but there was no sign of movement, only pitch black darkness. Jamie couldn't just simply forget about the bringer of winter. There was this strange connection between them, like they knew each other long before. "Wait…why is he missing?"
"We don't know" North sighs; he couldn't tell Jamie that the winter spirit he's just met was actually against them.
"North," Tooth murmurs, "The frozen nightmares, Jamie seeing Jack, he's trying to help us!" she cheers, her amethyst filled with hope and happiness.
"We cannot be sure" North is still hesitant, but it was plausible. Jack couldn't brainwash a child even if he wanted to and he convinced Jamie to believe in them, not the Boogyman or anyone else, but them.
"Wait…where's the Easter Bunny?" Jamie brings up the question. He's been looking forward to seeing the tall Easter Bunny ever since the day he appeared in his room.
"Uh…Did Jack tell you we lose our powers when more children stop believing?"
"Yeah"
"Loosing Easter took it's toll among all of us, Bunny most of all" they direct their attention to the fallen sleigh, just as when a little rabbit popped out from the edge, hopping onto the wooden wing.
Jamie gasps in surprise; the Easter Bunny he saw back before in his room was now small regular rabbit. He couldn't hold back his giggle, especially when Bunny's little pink nose starts to twitch as he stares at them with his round eyes, crouched on the sleigh looking so innocent and defenseless. "That's the Easter Bunny?"
Bunny reacts immediately; he springs up in full height and clenches his tiny paws, trying his best to look tough. "Naw somebody sees me, well where were ya an hour mate?"
"What happened to him? He used to be huge and cool and now he's….cute" Jamie reaches out a finger and tickles the little rabbit on the neck.
Bunny seems to enjoy it, he lets down his defenses and thumps his foot with pleasure, but then he comes back to his senses. He was a mighty warrior, the last among the Pookas, he isn't supposed to do that.
He swats the child's hand away with annoyance. "Hang on, did he just call me cute?"
Tooth and North seems to be amused, they both snicker.
"Did jack tell ya ta say that? Why if I get my hands on that little traitor, I'm gonna…" Bunny doesn't seem so threatening when he was the size of a regular rabbit.
"No actually he told me you were real" Jamie interrupts his mumblings. "Just when I started to think that maybe you weren't.
"He made ya believe? In me?" Bunny's heart weighs with guilt. Jack, the laughing little traitor, the one that was furious at them before was helping him? After all he's done? After everything he said? After he blamed him for what happened last Easter? He looks around. "Well where is he now?" he asks North, but the old Cossack just gave him an unsure look. Oh, Jack hasn't confronted them yet.
Jamie replays everything Bunny said in his head. "But wait…." He catches all their attention "What do you mean by traitor?"
They all filched, for a spirit he just newly met, Jamie seems to have strong belief in him, they didn't dare to tell them that Jack was actually with Pitch, it would break his heart.
They were all cut of as the loud lighting strikes again, sending a bright flash of light across the sky that it seemed like day was trying to break.
Bunny's keen sight spots Pitch on his cloud of nightmare sand, drawing closer and closer to them. "Crikey, we betta go" he tells the others and breaks into a full sprint across the street.
Tooth and Jamie follow after him shortly, although North seems to be having a little trouble keeping up with their gait. Tooth was having a hard time too, she's always used to flying, her feet seemed to have grown weak from the years of not touching the ground.
"Wait…" Jamie skids into a halt as he realized they weren't going anywhere if they keep this up. He remembers what Jack told him about their powers, as the number of believers decrease, they grow weaker. "Let's go to my friends, if they start believing again maybe you guys would have less trouble going around."
Each guardian nods in agreement, "which way?"
"Here" Burgess was a small town, all the houses are so close together and almost all their neighbors knew each other. Jamie takes them across the street to two story high house that belonged to Pippa. All the lights were out and there was no significance of noise anywhere. Everyone must be asleep at a time like this. Jamie stops at their doorstep and stares blankly at the door, wondering how he would be able to call Pippa without waking her parents.
He makes a sideways glance and notices the window wasn't locked.
Then he lights up with a brilliant, but crazy idea….
He pulls off a 'Rapunzel let down your hair' stunt, except he climbed up the pipe line. He could hear the guardians protest.
"Crikey! Mate are ya trying ta kill yerself?"
"Wait, relax I've got this…." He makes it high enough to cling on the window sill while the guardians were gathered around below, prepared too catch the child in case he falls.
Jamie wipes away the fog from the cold snow and knocks on the glass window, waking Pippa.
The girl rolls around her bed to find the direction of the noise, she was shocked to find Jamie clinging outside his window.
"Jamie what are you doing?" she says in a scolding manner, opening the window to let him in. "Are you crazy, what are you even doing here in the middle of the night?"
"Hey come on Pippa there's no time for that, this is about Santa Clause, The Easter Bunny and the Tooth fairy!" he explains as quickly as possible.
She sighs in disbelief, "Seriuosly, grow up Jamie, their not real"
"They are! And remember when I told you they were in my room? It wasn't just a dream, it really happened!"
"And how are you sure of that?"
"Jack Frost just came by my room just a few minutes ago."
"What? Seriously Jamie? That's just an expression" she still refuses to believe his world of fantasy.
"Jack Frost is real, and so is the Easter Bunny and the others, their called guardians, and they protect us from nightmares."
"Well they sure aren't doing a good job at it, I've been having nightmares for the passed three days."
"They can't because you stopped believing in them, if you don't believe in them, you won't be able to see them, even if they were right in front of you!" he repeats what Jack has told him about their immortality.
Pippa bites down her lip with an angry scowl and crosses her arms. "Jamie Bennett, just go back to bed." He walks away.
Jamie just wouldn't give up. "Who do you think brings you gifts on Christmas."
"My parents, their just fooling us with the idea of Santa Clause, he's not real."
"Then where do those eggs come from huh?"
"There are probably…." She hesitates to think of an answer "They're probably from the sponsors who host the Easter egg hunt."
"And what about the snow?"
"Jamie, that's a part of the weather…"
"How bout the Tooth fairy, didn't you always say that you wake up whenever your parents enter your room? So why don't you wake up when your Tooth is being replaced by a coin?"
"I must be sleepy that time…."
"And how many times have you hidden your tooth under your pillow?"
"I…a…few" She begins to stammer and Jamie is determined to bring back her belief.
"Look out the window" he commands and Pippa does. "I don't see anything"
"Believe that their real, come on"
Pippa rolls her eyes at that, but she began to believe. There were just some things that didn't have any explanations.
"Now look out the window"
She does, peering over the edge. Her eyes widened as she stares at Santa Clause, The Easter Bunny and the Tooth fairy, all gathered around her porch, smiling at her. She couldn't take her eyes off of them as the joy builds up inside of her, she nearly cried out of joy and whips around to give Jamie a big smile.
"See? I told you so!"
"Oh my gosh you were right all along, Jamie that's amazing! They visited you? I can't believe I nearly stopped believing."
"Come on, let's go tell the others" he heads across the room, where they could see Monty, already awake from the noise Jamie and Pippa were making.
Perched on top of a high building, far away from the guardians, Jack watches everything unfold as Jamie gathers his friends around, retaining world belief.
Victory seems to be dawning closer for the guardians, but they were suddenly met by Pitch Black's army of nightmares. For a heart beat Jack doesn't know what to do again, he wanted to stay out of the way, but Jamie and the other children were standing in front of the guardians attempting to stop the flow of the nightmares. Jack prepares to attack, but then something took him by surprise. The nightmare sad was converted into golden dream sand the moment it met Jamie's fingertips.
They were all stunned, unsure of what to do next, but the North suddenly regained all his energy, Tooth's wings were lively beating again and Bunny grew back to his normal size.
Jack smiles heartily, the warmth sprouting in his chest. He sets all the painful memories away and just watches them fight. Everything would be back to normal soon.
The most remarkable part was when the golden dream sand gathered at the very center, seemingly encompassing something inside of it. A familiar figure of the Sandy formed, the guardians cried out in joy. The great figure emerges, smiling at all of them.
Pitch's plans were going haywire. The nightmare king summons his stallion and orders them to go back to his lair to get Jack.
"Sorry" Jack stops the nightmare horse by blocking its path. "But you're gonna have to be frozen off." With that, he tapped his staff of the horse's forehead, freezing it solid within minutes.
Jack's keen eye sight spots Pitch morphing an arrow out of nightmare sand, the same kind he used to kill Sandy. He pulled back the arrow and directs his aim at Bunnymund, who has his backed turned, busy fending off one of the nightmares.
Adrenaline pumps through his veins, he could yell and give Bunny a warning, but he was too far away for the Pooka to be able to hear him. Even his acute hearing wouldn't be able to pick up the sound of his voice under all the noise the nightmares were making.
Jack acts quick, gathering the strongest force of wind around him, rapidly propelling himself forward. Voices came muffled, the sound of the violent wind deafening. His morbid murky surroundings suddenly disappear in a tunnel of light. There were bright streaks of sunrays shining down from the clear blue sky, free of angry clouds. Around him, children were running, laughing, filled with belief, it wasn't a perfect world of darkness but it was a world of light, that's what his heart really desires. His delusional world suddenly shatters back to reality, everything around him seems to be moving in slow motion. Jack isn't able to move his staff under the hard blowing zephyr. Instead he outstretches his arms, leaving himself wide open for an attack, he intercepts the arrow, just inches away from Bunny. The black arrow protruded through him, the impact slams him hard against the ground.
A pained heart rending scream rings clearly and they were all shocked even Pitch Black himself.
It was like seeing Sandy getting struck by an arrow all over again, except Jack wasn't made of sand, his blood continued to flow from his open wound.
Jack shot a strained glance at Pitch, silently apologizing. He never forgot anything he said, but just couldn't let him kill the guardians.
But to Pitch it was utter betrayal. After all he's done, Jack is just going to turn on him.
He sees Jack's blue eyes glow through the thick mist, he could often tell Jack's emotions just by looking at his eyes, before they were hurt, filled with hatred and hunger for revenge, but now there was fear and innocence. He was just a child, he had nothing to do with this and yet she shot him with an arrow…..
He takes a step back and calls off his attack, gathering his nightmare sand and disappearing without a trace.
"Jack!"
"JACK!"
"Jack!"
Everything all around him seemed nothing more than buzzes. He could hear the blood pumping in his ears.
The snow gathered around the paths drank the blood greedily, quickly reddening as more hemorrhage spilled.
His breathing came in the form of short gasps, flashes of white danced around his eyes, his vision clouded, like mist besieged all around him.
The cold wind screeched loudly as it surrounded Jack like a protective barrier.
The winter spirit made an attempt to move, but only a moan escaped him. The black arrow suddenly dissolves, sand particles mixing with the blood. More pain seared, he clutched his wound with both his palms, trying to stop the bleeding. His heart beat painfully fast he felt like it had been sliced in halves. His breath grew short, his eyes wrenched painfully shut.
"Jack!"
"JACK!"
"Jack!"
Electric pulses ran through his veins, causing him to shiver violently. It was cold, colder than usual and he was Jack Frost, Why was he feeling cold?
He began to think that this was the day he was finally going to die, then he'd no longer have to suffer the feeling of being walked through like a ghost. He no longer has to be alone; he no longer has to be the outsider of everything.
He felt like he was going to pass out. He willingly gives in.
"Jack!"
"JACK!"
"Jack!"
It was those voices again that kept him awake, but this time they seem to real to be happening in his head.
He felt a set of fluffy paws slide under his back. It suddenly felt so warm again, not because he's bleeding out, but he was feeling the warmth of kindness and love.
Bunny lifts him off the ground, causing the winter spirit to yelp unwillingly, clutching his wound even tighter. Tears ran down from the corners of his eyes, freezing into crystal tear drops midway down his cheek. "I'm sorry" he sputtered "I'm sorry"
"Shhh…hang on there mate" Bunny's voice was gentler than usual, providing him comfort after all the pain he cause him. Aw he does care Jack thought, even at the time of pain he still had room for jests. Although he couldn't stop the tears from falling, the pain was searing, his chest felt like it had been set on fire. He could feel his heart been growing weaker, he was unaware of what was happening all around him again.
The guilt weighed inside of Bunnymund, Jack was dying and it was his entire fault….
Originally I wanted this chapter to end in a cliffhanger, but since you guys are so awesome I didn't want to make you guys wait :D besides cliffhangers make my head explode haha and it's probably gonna take a while till the next update. I AM SORRY, IT'S JUST THAT I PUBLISHED A LITLLE TOO MUCH AGAIN!
Er….i'll just reply to your reviews next chapter….feeling sooo lazy :(
