Chapter Nine

Everyone knows Nathan isn't quite right. He's always had a temper, though a brilliant mind. He's seen Jamie Bennett around the campus, and resents him. He sees the way the younger boy interacts with everyone else.

"It's not fair!" he shouts, kicking a trashcan in a little alley between two buildings in town. "He's stupid! He's just a happy idiot! Why does everyone like him so much!"

Nathan takes his anger out on the trashcan, not caring that it doesn't belong to him. All he cares about is venting his anger.

Being drawn to the dark alley by the anger simply radiating off the young man, a shadow crawls it's way across the ground until it wraps it's way up his body to rest against his temple. It forces images into his mind: Jamie Bennett losing his spotlight; Nathan rising in popularity; Jamie begging him for forgiveness for his insolence.

"Simply remove him from the equation," it whispers. "If Jamie is gone, no one will ever ignore you again."

Nathan grins. It's an ugly, twisted smile of the insane.

"That's it!" He shouts, stopping suddenly. "I have to get rid of him."

It doesn't take Nathan long to think of a plan - he's a genius after all! Or at least that's what he tells himself. With a dark chuckle, he leaves the alleyway to procure his weapon of choice - a semi-automatic gun his father had always kept around at home. He never bothered keeping it in a case anyways. He'd never even notice it was gone.

Satisfied, the shadow slinks back into the darkness, an eerie chuckle echoing in the small space the only evidence anything was there.


Since finding out where Jamie went to college, Jack had been visiting him every evening. When the boy was free, they'd chat. When he was busy with homework, Jack would simply sit and watch. The Winter Spirit is fascinated, though very confused by all the work Jamie has to do.

Stretching as he places his pencil down and stands up, Jamie looks over at Jack, thankful his roommate had gone off to a party for the night. "How about we get some fresh air?"

"Yes!" Jack exclaims, having begun to get bored of watching his friend write equations he had no idea as to what they meant. "If nothing else, a walk would be wonderful."

Jack jumps up from his place on Jamie's bed, like a puppy ready to go on his walk.

Chuckling as he grabs his coat, Jamie can't help but agree. His brain feels as if it's going to explode after his hours of homework, and he sighs when he glances at the unfinished essay still waiting to be written for his Children's Literature class. At least he got to pick Jack Frost as his topic for Folklore...

"I could really go for a coffee right about now. You want some ice cream or something?" he throws behind him as he heads out of the building toward the local café.


The weapon glints in the low light of the streetlamps, Nathan's hand steady on the gun. He doesn't bother to hide the gun as he moves through the deserted streets, making his way to the college.

Nathan glances into a few of the buildings as he goes, and is pleased to find Jamie sitting in a café at a table by himself. Without a care to his own safety, he enters the shop, his gun drawn. He aims the barrel at the cashier, hoping to make the whole thing look more like a burglary instead of a plan to murder the boy.

Jack is horrified when he sees someone enter the building holding a gun, thoughts of ice cream forgotten.

The whole place is silent as Nathan shouts to the frightened woman, and a shot rings out. Her face is frozen in fear as she falls to the floor, blood pouring from the hole in her chest. Panic ensues.

Jamie jumps harshly at the loud noise, eyes widening in horror as he watches the life fade out of the cashier's crumpled form. He's surprised to see his friend, Nathan holding the smoking gun.

Sharing a glance with Jack, the young man slowly stands, carefully making his way to the other student, hands raised non-threateningly. "Put the gun down, Nathan. You don't need to do this."

Nathan spins around to face Jamie, the muzzle of the gun trained on his chest. His eyes are wild, a wicked grin on his face.

"Jamie, you idiot, stop!" Jack says, grabbing Jamie's sleeve to try to get him to stop. "You're going to get yourself killed!"

Jack jumps through everyone and tries to take the gun, knowing he can't be killed by it, but passes right through him instead. Jack swears under his breath.

Jamie stops in his tracks, trembling fiercely, but determined to prevent any more bloodshed. These people don't deserve to die; none of them.

He shoots a glance over at Jack, but doesn't dare linger there for fear of Nathan doing something when he's not looking. "I can't just stand back and do nothing."

"You think you're so perfect, don't you, Jamie Bennett," Nathan sneers, spitting out Jamie's name, his voice low so only the boy can hear him. "Well, you're not."

He looks directly into Jamie's brown eyes as he squeezes the trigger. He pulls the trigger twice more before turning the gun on himself and sending a bullet through his own head, a twisted, satisfied smirk on his face as the light leaves his eyes.

The gunshots seem so much louder than they are to the Winter Spirit, his ears ringing as the holes are ripped through Jamie's chest. His eyes are wide as he rushes to Jamie, gaze glued to the red blooming on his chest, the ring getting bigger and bigger.

"Jamie!" Jack screams, wishing there was something he could do.

The café is sheer chaos, with people screaming and shoving to get out of the little building.

Time seems to slow as Jamie feels a pressure in his chest. He doesn't realize he's falling until his body crashes to the floor, and it's only then that the pain registers in his foggy mind. His eyes are wide and unseeing as he frantically searches for Jack, silently praying he wasn't harmed. Breaths are nothing more than gargled gasps as his lungs fill with blood and bubble out of his mouth.

Jack sobs as he cradles Jamie's head on his lap.

"I'm sorry, Jamie, I'm so sorry," Jack whispers, not caring that he's getting Jamie's blood on his clothes. His sobbing intensifies as Jamie's head slowly begins to faze through his arms and legs. With the boy's life, also goes his belief.

"Not...your...f-fault..." Jamie manages. He feels a sudden build up in the back of his throat and coughs painfully, blood spewing from his mouth. He looks over in the direction Jack seems to be and gives the boy a small, gentle smile. It says so much more than he can get across with his words: "Please don't be sad," "Look after Sophie for me," and last of all, "I'm sorry, Brother...goodbye".

As his head softly lands on the cold, tiled floor, his eyes slowly drift closed and the air rushes from his lungs in a final breath.

Jamie Bennett dies with a smile still on his face.

Jack keeps trying to grab Jamie, becoming more and more distressed every time his hands pass through him.

"Jamie, no!" When his tears finally dry up, Jack curls up beside Jamie, his body shaking with dry sobs. He stays like that until the police arrive along with an ambulance.

When they take Jamie away, Jack stays just long enough to watch them take both Nathan and the innocent cashier's body as well. With the little café empty save for the police, Jack takes off, flying as fast as the wind will carry him to his home in the woods.

To be continued...


A/N: Ghost here! And that's it for Hold Me Now! Watch for the sequel, Hold Me Forever, which will be posted next week, same as always. It's all finished as well, so updates will be just as frequent as they were with this one.

As for this chapter, we love our characters, we really do. And writing Jamie's death had both of us in tears, but we didn't want to just end things there and where we wanted to take things, it kind of had to happen. But! Since you all have been absolutely wonderful at encouraging us throughout this whole story, I'm not going to leave you hanging.

Enjoy. ;)


Hold Me Forever preview:

The Man in the Moon, MiM for short, watches from his place on the moon as the young Bennett boy selflessly sacrifices himself to try to save the rest of the people in the café from the boy with the gun. The little round man is pleased with Jamie, and wants to do something for him and for Jack, the Winter Spirit he wished he'd been able to help more.

With a smile, and the snap of his fingers, MiM resurrects Jamie Bennett in the image of nature. When the boy rises from his new resting place in the woods, not far from Jack Frost's cabin, he alters the boy's appearance. He no longer appears as a normal human - Jamie now has a pair of brown wolf ears and a tail, plus sharper teeth and clawed hands and feet.

"You are Jamie." MiM tells the confused and frightened boy. "And you are the Beast Spirit."

As a last gift, MiM makes sure to leave a bow and quiver of arrows where the boy will find them.