Hey, everybody! Sorry it took as long to update this as it did. First Fanfiction decided it would be a brilliant idea to update their copy and paste system to make it completely useless, and then my tablet broke, so I wasn't even able to pretend I could work with the copy and paste system. *headdesk* Had to wait until I could get access to an actual computer and whip out my old, abandoned flashdrive because apparently Fanfiction has decided that cloud storage does not exist. :P I am sincerely hoping this gets remedied soon, because this is ridiculous.
Anyway, here's the next chapter of Imaginary Hellos that I wrote a while ago. I was tired while writing it, so I apologize. The next chapter is written up too, so you'll get that one soon, but it'll take a little while to type up. Enjoy this one for now. :)
Disclaimer: Still not owning ROTG.
The Guardians had given me a lot of warnings about what I might face during my time in the human realm, but there was one thing they completely neglected to mention, though I'm sure they were aware of the problem.
"Well now, Frost, a little far from home, now aren't we?"
I would have known that voice anywhere, and he would just have to show up in the midst of a blizzard that was out of my control, wouldn't he?
I spun around and narrowed my eyes at the intruder. "What are you doing here, Pitch?"
"What am I doing here?" he said, gesturing mock-innocently to his chest. "What are you doing here, Jack Frost? I thought it was your new task to protect all the innocent little children of the world from the likes of me."
I threw my arm outward as the blizzard raged around. "What makes you think I'm not doing that?"
Pitch laughed. "Look at you: your colors are grayed a bit because you're confined to the human realm. You're not allowed to use magic in front of humans, and so you find yourself exiled here to avoid detection. Or is it to avoid harming someone? You and I both know that someone with such deadly powers as yours can never be a Guardian. Not really."
"Shut up!" I yelled. "Just shut up! This has nothing to do with you!"
Pitch cuddled his hands near his chest as he began to chide me. "Oh, how naive you are, Jack. Tell me, how long has it been since I was overthrown by the Guardians?"
I blinked. He sure seemed to be taking this in stride. He must have been up to something. "Two years," I said.
"And what was the one factor I didn't count on when I tried to defeat the Guardians?"
"Me becoming a Guardian," I said.
"Exactly," he said. "Now, tell me, Frost, if there was one person who had wrecked all your hopes and dreams, and then you suddenly found that one person vulnerable, unable to openly use magic, with no way to contact his comrades, what would you do?"
My hands clenched into fists, and I reminded myself to breathe slowly and keep calm. He was just trying to rile me up so that I would react in fear, but I wasn't going to give him that satisfaction.
Pitch seemed to notice my reaction, because he then let out a wicked laugh. "Oh, yes, Jack, I know about your year of training. Your comrades and I go way back, and yet they still haven't worked out how to protect their newest member."
I thrashed my arms, trying to show how peeved I was at this intrusion. "I'm not scared of you, Pitch! I can take care of myself."
He placed his hands behind his back and chuckled at my reaction as he strolled casually across the ice of the lake. "Perhaps you can, but what about those around you?"
My eyes widened at the implication of what he said, and I shook my finger vehemently at him. "If you lay one finger on them, Pitch."
"Who says I have to?"
I blinked. "Wait, what?"
He rolled his eyes. "Oh, Frost, you are such a naive fool. So long as you stay with the Bennetts, they are in grave danger, but at my hand and at yours. But if you leave them, I will spare them. And so will you. There will be no more worry about freezing them to death in their sleep, or of sending the mother of your favorite children into panicked hysteria. She doesn't want to know who you are, Jack, not really. Do her a favor and leave before it's too late."
What terrified me the most about Pitch's words were not the threats he gave, but the fact that he honestly made sense. I really was a danger to the Bennetts. No one had ever tried to make a winter sprite live among humans before. This was a bad idea from the start. I was an element of nature. I couldn't be constrained like that. Not for a whole year.
Seeing the look on my face, Pitch smiled with glee. "Think about it, Jack. You have until this storm passes to make your decision." He then faded menacingly into the darkness, leaving me wishing that I knew how to contact the other Guardians without being seen. I really needed some advice right then.
After a few hours, I had managed to calm my rage down to a gentle snowfall. It finally wasn't dangerous for me to walk among humans again. I wasn't sure whether that was a relief to me or not, since it meant making that awful decision that Pitch proposed. It seemed there was no choice I could make where I would feel like I'd won.
I weighed out several options in my head, and finally decided that the safest method for all involved would be for me to go get my staff and then leave. I knew I had promised Mrs. Bennett I would come back, but I wasn't entirely breaking my promise to her. I did have to come back to get my staff. No one had said anything about staying.
Still, I knew she would try to get me to stay at least long enough to answer her questions if I just waltzed right in the front door. I was going to have to be more sneaky than that if I didn't want to get caught.
I crept around to the side of the house, opened my bedroom window, and climbed into my room as quietly as I could. Thank goodness the guest room was on the first storey or I couldn't have snuck in like that. All the other bedroom were on the second storey.
I looked over at the wall where I usually leaned my staff, but it wasn't there. I scratched my head. That was odd. I had been sure I'd left it right there, but maybe I'd kicked it somewhere while I was roughhousing with Sophie that morning.
I looked around the area to see if it had fallen, but I couldn't find it. I looked in the closet, behind the dresser, and under the bed. Nada. There was no trace of it anywhere. What had happened to it?
There was some commotion just outside my bedroom in the kitchen, and I slunk over to the door and pressed my ear against it to eavesdrop on what everyone was talking about.
"Well, the snow has lightened up," said Jamie. "That means Jack should be home soon."
"I hope so," said a guilty-sounding Mrs. Bennett. "I said such horrible things to him. What if he doesn't come back?"
It takes a lot more than a few rude words to get me not wanting to come back, but I wasn't sure how to explain that to her without betraying my presence there.
"He'll at least come back for his staff. He can't fly without it."
A shocked Mrs. Bennett then replied, "Wait, he can fly too?" Great, Jamie, just go and tell her all of my secrets.
"Yeah," he said, "How else would he bring winter everywhere?" Mrs. Bennett didn't respond audibly to that, so I assumed that she was either processing that information or uncomfortable with it.
"But that's why I told you to put his staff in your room and to lock your window. Jack sometimes runs when he gets scared, and he might just sneak into his bedroom, grab his staff, and fly off. This way, he'll be forced to talk to us."
I cursed silently under my breath. Having a best friend who knew you in and out was usually the best thing in the world, but it sucked when they pulled tricks like this. Couldn't Jamie understand that I was only trying to keep them safe?
I flopped onto my bed to think for a few minutes so I could come up with the best possible strategy. Jamie had put me in a bind where it would be very difficult to not get caught. Was it worth it to try anyway, or was it better to just accept defeat and go out there and demand my staff? I would just wait until Mrs. Bennett went to work and the kids went to school, but Jamie already knew to expect me back really soon. I didn't think I could get away with hiding that long.
I decided that it would just be better if I faced the music. Mrs. Bennett would no doubt drill me with questions, but maybe that was for the better. It would give us both a chance to say goodbye.
I stood up and reached for the doorknob, taking a deep breath before I opened the door.
The Bennetts were sitting around the dining room table, Sophie passed out in her little corner, and Mrs. Bennett on her laptop, with papers scattered all around the table's surface. I crossed my arms, trying to retain some sense of dignity, and said, "Alright, Jamie, what did you do with my staff?"
Mrs. Bennett jumped at the sudden intrusion, but Jamie just pointed at me and laughed. "See, Mom? I told you he'd sneak in through the bedroom."
"Hardy har, Jamie, very funny. Now where is it?"
Mrs. Bennett's shoulders drooped dejectedly, and I realized what she must be thinking. I couldn't just leave her like that. I rushed over to her and grasped her shoulders. "No, no, Mrs. Bennett, this is not because of you. This is because I'm too dangerous to live with you. Why, I nearly froze you to death today!"
She looked up at me with a solemn expression on her face. "But you didn't."
"Well, no, I didn't," I said. "But that doesn't mean there won't be a next time. I can't always control my powers. I'm not supposed to be living with humans. I must have been crazy to think this would work."
There was an awkward paused as I plopped into an empty chair and buried my face in my hands. That was that. Regardless of what Fae and Human Relations said, once I got my staff back, I was going to have to fly up to the North Pole and tell the Guardians that this wouldn't work. Maybe if I had been the spirit of spring or autumn it would have been okay. But winter? That had to be the worst season to coop up.
"Jack?" said Mrs. Bennett, finally breaking the silence between us. "Why did you come here?"
I looked up from my hands to her, then turned and stared at an uninteresting point of wall for several minutes, trying to figure out how to answer that. "It's part of my training."
She blinked. "Training for what?"
I sighed and looked back at her. "I just took on a new job."
At this, Jamie chuckled and interrupted our conversation. "'Just' took on a new job, Jack? That was two years ago!"
I raised an eyebrow and regarded Jamie for a long second. "It seems you have no concept of how long fae live, Jamie. Two years is nothing to me."
Mrs. Bennett nodded. "He's right, Jamie. If he really is a fairy, though it embarrasses me to entertain such a notion, then he's either immortal or will live so long that he seems immortal to us."
I nodded my agreement to this, surprised that Mrs. Bennett had been able to work that out on her own.
She then turned back to me and said, "So, Jack, you're what… an ice fairy?"
I shrugged. "More or less."
She took a lock of her hair and started twirling it between her fingers. "What new job could you possibly get besides bringing ice? And that you need to train with humans for?"
I wrapped my arms around my chest and bit my lower lip, not entirely sure what to say that would make sense to an adult. Not to mention, just about everything I was saying lately made it sound more and more like I was on the verge of an emotional breakdown, and I hated showing that side of myself in front of Jamie.
As luck would have it, Jamie was the one who came to my rescue. "Jack's a Guardian now. I saw him take the oath a couple years ago."
Mrs. Bennett looked confusedly between me and her son, and then she shook her head and brushed it off. "What's a Guardian?"
Both me and Jamie started talking at the same time, then chuckled awkwardly as Jamie motioned for me to continue on my own.
"A Guardian is supposed to protect the children of the world," I said, "And inspire hope, dreams, memories, wonder… and fun."
"You mean, you're supposed to protect the human children of the world? Not the fae children?"
I nodded. "The fae children have plenty of people looking out for them. The human children could use some more help. These are dark times."
"Indeed they are," said Mrs. Bennett. "And your new job sounds wonderful, Jack. I'm honored that you chose us to help you train."
I hung my head in shame. It seemed that if I left, Jamie and Mrs. Bennett would be crushed. But if I stayed, I would very likely cause them harm. I had to find a way to get away from them somehow without hurting their feeling too much, but I couldn't fathom how to do it.
I must have stayed in that dejected position too long, because Mrs. Bennett reached over and took my hand, then said, "What's wrong, Jack?" How was I supposed to answer that?
I slowly raised my eyes to look up at her. "I-I just don't know how to do this." I shook my head. "Who in their right minds would choose a winter sprite to be a Guardian? My powers are lethal. How am I supposed to protect anyone?" My voice trailed off behind choked sobs.
"Oh, Jack." Mrs. Bennett got up from her seat and came and threw an unsolicited hug at me for the second time that day, and I flinched from the contact. "It's not about your powers, or what kind of magic you can wield. It's about who you are inside. If you were picked for such an important task, then whoever picked you must think you can learn how to do your new job, regardless of your powers."
Mrs. Bennett did have a point, and I was surprised that it was she, of all people, who ended up giving me such a pep talk. Wasn't this the same person who had previously been panicking every time I accidentally let a fae trait slip through?
"I-I suppose so," I said. "But even if I did manage to control myself somehow, there's still…" My voice trailed off when I remembered who I was talking to. She didn't know anything about the Guardians and their battles. Should I really be dragging her into this?
"There's still what?" she said as she inclined her head closer to mine. I flinched again. She was just getting too close. If my anxiety got the best of me again, she would be the first thing affected.
"Oh…" said Jamie all of a sudden, and Mrs. Bennett and I turned to see a look of realization on Jamie's face. "...It's Pitch, isn't it? He's come back."
I shivered, and Jamie nodded knowingly, while Mrs. Bennett looked between the two of us and said, "What? Who's come back?"
"Pitch Black," said Jamie. "He gives kids nightmares."
"He gives everybody nightmares, not just kids," I said. "He just finds it especially amusing to watch innocent souls suffer."
Mrs. Bennett pulled away from me a bit so she could read my face, a look of revulsion on her own face. "That's just sick!"
She then looked to Jamie, who nodded his agreement with his mother's assessment, and then she looked back to me. "This honestly sounds like one of those scary fairy tales parents tell their children to make them behave."
"Well, he is fae himself, though he doesn't obey any of our laws. And he has made it into some of your fairy tales under different names, since humans who encounter fae frequently make up their own names for them."
Mrs. Bennett grimaced at that and looked like she was thinking. I couldn't pick up on what she was thinking about, but I would have bet a pretty penny that she was wracking her brain for stories that may have been about Pitch.
"So what did Pitch say to you, Jack?" said Jamie.
I shook my head. "You don't want to know, kiddo. But that's why I have to go. You're not safe while I'm here." I sighed and started to look back down at the ground, but Mrs. Bennett's face caught my eye.
"Wait… you mean this 'Pitch Black' character threatened you by threatening us?" I said nothing and merely sighed and looked at my feet. I had hoped neither of them would figure that out, but they had. "And here I thought you trying to run off had something to do with me."
She stood up and started pacing, muttering stuff under her breath that was half directed at me and half directed at herself. "You're vulnerable while you're training. Most people are. I'm sure that's why he's targeting you now. But your Guardian group should be protecting you while you're vulnerable. Why aren't they doing that?"
I interrupted her rant with a sign. "I'm sure they would if they knew. They're not used to the tricks he pulls nowadays."
"Then why don't you contact them and tell them?" she said.
I threw my arms up in a helpless shrug. "How? We don't exactly have phones and internet access in the fae realm, and I'm not supposed to use my magic publicly."
We all lapsed into silence as Mrs. Bennett continued pacing, getting increasingly more worried with each step. I couldn't tell whether she was more worried for their welfare or my own. It honestly looked like it could be going either way, and I was puzzled by that.
Then Jamie stepped into his mom's path, stopping her frantic pacing. "Um, Jack?"
"What's up, kiddo?" I said.
"I've um… kind of got one more baby tooth to lose."
"Wait, what?" I jumped to my feet, startling Mrs. Bennett, but this was no time for tact. "At your age? Is it loose?"
"Yep," said Jamie, and he pulled back his cheek so I could see the one little tooth out of place among all the big teeth. It was loose alright. A good tug might make it come right out. "I'm kind of embarrassed about it, since a couple of my classmates have gotten their wisdom teeth in and I'm still on my last baby tooth."
I chuckled and ruffled his hair. "Don't sweat it, kiddo. It happens to the best of us.. I was even older than you when I lost my last baby tooth."
Jamie laughed. "Really?"
I nodded. "Yup. And we could take care of that sucker right now if you'll let me yank it out."
Jamie flinched a bit. "Will it hurt?"
I shrugged. "Probably, but it'll be over before you know it." He hesitantly looked at me and then at his mom, who just shrugged. She obviously had no idea what was going on, but she wasn't going to interrupt us for now. Either that, or she was hoping I'd just yank that sucker out so that Jamie would stop whining about his late bloomer of a baby tooth. Either way, I respected that she chose to keep her distance.
At last, Jamie took a deep breath and consented to letting me have my way with his tooth, so I carefully gripped it, slightly freezing his gum line so it would hurt less. Then I counted, "One… two… three!" and yanked the sucker out before Jamie could change his mind.
"Success!" I chanted, then handed to tooth to Jamie. "Make sure you put that under your pillow. Hopefully it's okay with you if I stay in your room tonight."
Jamie's eyes lit up with joy at that thought and he bounced on his heels a few times in excitement. "You're staying in my room? That's so cool!" He then rushed off to clean his tooth and put it under his pillow, not to mention get his gum to stop bleeding.
I was left with a very confused Mrs. Bennett. "Okay, what just happened here?" she said. "What does Jamie losing a tooth have to do with dealing with that nightmare guy?"
"Everything," I said. "One of my colleagues will be showing up tonight to pick up the tooth. I'll explain everything to her then, and she can tell the rest of the Guardians that we need help."
I turned to go and head up the stairs to get to Jamie's room, but she stopped me. "Wait, are you saying one of your colleagues is the TOOTH FAIRY?!"
I chuckled and turned back to face her. "I'll explain after she leaves, but I don't want to miss her. This is my one chance. You understand, right?"
I didn't wait for her to confirm her understanding before I bolted up the stairs, but I was pretty sure of one thing: I had just left a very confused Mrs. Bennett downstairs.
Hope you all liked that, though I apologize for being tired, haha. Some reviews would be lovely if you're up to it. I'll get the next chapter up as soon as I'm able to.
See you soon!
