"He's gone, and he's not coming back!"
"No he's not! He's still here! Whether you like it or not he will always be with us!"
I rub my temples and close my eyes. The yelling was excruciating.
"Listen to your mother!" Another voice chimes in. "He's gone! Okay? Jackson is gone and he won't be back! So stop trying to talk to him, stop trying to go back to the lake; He's gone, Emma!"
It's been going on for a month, now. Become more and more often. I lean against a tree, sliding down. Manny still hasn't answered me. Although, when does he ever? It was useless to ask, but it's important. And I need an answer. A clue. Anything.
"Just because you let him go, doesn't mean I have to also!" Emma crosses her arms and begins to walk away.
"Come back here, young lady!" The father yells. He turns to the mother.
"She's too stubborn, just like him," She cries, and he embraces her.
"She'll have to learn."
"She's not going to forget though,"
"We're not asking her too,"
"Yes we are!" She looks up at him, eyes red and puffy. "Imagine if it were any different! You know Jackson would be visiting her grave and talking like she were still alive!"
"That's the scary part. They ar- were so close that they can't act like the other is gone forever."
"And- and- and- I'm such a bad mother! I shouldn't have let them gone ice skating! I knew spring was coming! I knew the ice was thinning, but I let them go, and I let him go, too!"
"It was either him or he-"
I stand up abruptly, hands covering my ears. I want to scream at that moment. The memories seem so realistic, it's like I'm trapped in them. I can feel their grief and sorrow. I can feel everything.
My ears ring, and I let my hands fall to my sides. Someone is around.
I scoop up a handful of snow, trying to form a snowball, but it falls apart. Summer is in a month and it's getting harder to find snow now. Nonetheless, I try again. It will break, but it's all I got.
All I got. I laugh at myself. I'm the most dangerous spirit and the only weapon I have is a snowball?
"Who's there?" I call. There's no reply, so I ask aagin.
"Come on, Claude! He's around here somewhere!"
I froze.
"How can you be so sure? We haven't seen him since, what? A week before New Years?"
"He's here! I mean, look at this snow. What other place would still have snow when Summer is a few weeks away?"
I looked around. No one was here. Maybe this is another hallucination.
"Florida, Californi-" I see a flash of brown hair run around, followed by a yellow baseball cap.
"Where Jack Frost is, that's where!"
Jack Frost? Why would two kids be looking for Jack?
Then it hit me.
Literally. I turned around and saw two boys running in my direction, but they past through me and I almost fell over. I hated that feeling that ran through me whenever non-believers past through me. It was the feeling of loneliness. And longing.
"Jack! Jack!" The more confident of the two called, cupping his hands over his mouth. "Hey, Jack Frost!"
I was about to tell them, he's in Europe, but decide to leave them alone. I turned to walk away, when I felt a familiar rush of coldness and I stopped.
"What are you guys doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in school?"
My mind yells at me to run, or hide behind a tree, but my feet don't cooperate. "It's Spring Break, Jack, duh," I can just image the eye roll the boy is giving him. Finally I sprint behind a tree.
"Sorry, because it hasn't been over 300 years since I've been in school," He finishes his sentence with suspicion in his voice. He knows I'm here.
"Well who's fault is that? Certainly not m-"
"Hang on, Jamie," He stops the boy- Jamie, I'm assuming- from talking, and I sense him walk toward the tree I'm hiding behind. I will myself to disappear.
Apparently, I can't. Out of the corner of my eue, I see Jack's blue eyes appear in front of me. "Hayley?"
I put on an embarrassed smile and wave. "Hi,"
Jamie and the other boy rush to Jack's side, being the nosy little kids they are. I give them a small smile, and start to wave at them. "Jack, who are you talking too?" I let my hand drop. Right. They can't see me. Awkward.
Jack scratches the back of his neck, and lays his staff on the ground. He mutters, "Give me a minute," before turning to the kids.
"Okay," He claps his hands. "What if I told you guys there was someone responsible for Death?"
They stare at him, dumbfounded.
Jamie shakes himself out of his haze. "Wait, so someone who kills-"
"No!" I yell, but they don't hear me. I cross my arms.
Jack glances at me. "No, someone who sends people away."
"Away to where?" The other- I think it was Claude- asks.
"Umm. . ." Jack looks at me for help.
"Where they belong." I say.
He scoffs. "Yeah, that's gonna help them. They're like eleven."
"Well that's what I was told," I shoot back. Jack rolls his eyes, and repeats to them what I told him.
"Where do they belong?" Claude scratches his nose.
"Uh, that's hard to explain."
"So you're saying that he's-" Jamie begins , but Jack corrects him.
"She,"
"Sorry," Jamie apologizes, and looks to the side of Jack I'm not on. But I still smile a little. "She's here?" Both me and Jack nod.
"Well, since we don't believe in her now, Jack, you're gonna have to help us." Claude and Jamie sit on the ground, and Jack chuckles.
I sit down across from Claude. Jack gives me an 'are-you-serious?' look, and I shrug. "Might as well," I explain, and he looks surprised.
"What?" I ask.
"Just thought you weren't fun," He sits next to me.
"You of all people should know whether or not I'm fun,"
Jack raises his hands in surrender.
"Uh, two people are trying to believe over here." Jamie says.
"Um, okay. Jamie, Claude. What do you want to know?" Jack asks them. Claude speaks first.
"What's she look like?"
Jack smiles, and I know he's gonna have fun with this.
"She's beautiful," He whispers, looking at me, and I shift uncomfortably, but smile anyway.
"Uh, lover boy," Jamie teases. "Be more descriptive," He snaps his fingers in Jack's face and the Guardian turns red. Claude laughs and rolls over on his stomach, digging his elbows in the ground and resting his head on his hands.
"She has brown hair," Jack tells them. "And these unique, grey eyes. Her button nose is so cut-"
"Woah!" They say in unison.
"First of all, how can a nose be cute?" Claude says, surprising very interested in an answer for his question.
"And we just wanted to know the basics. Not every single detail on her face. I'm sure she's very pretty, but Jack: we're eleven years old." Jamie points between him and Claude.
"How can a nose be cute?" Claude asks again.
Jack rolls his eyes. He stands up and grabs his staff. "Isn't it time to go home?"
Jamie stands up also, crossing his arms and staring up at Jack. "Aren't seventeen year old boys supposed to have a girlfriend?"
I laugh.
"Okay, that's not funny," He scolds me. Then he glares down at Jamie. "And I'm like three hundred years old."
"Then you should really have a girlfriend, Jack."
"Jamie, go to sleep." He playfully shoves the boy, and Jamie grabs a handful of snow and throws it in Jack's face.
Jack is taken back by his action, and doesn't do anything at first. Then, as he tries to grab Jamie's collar, said boy helps Claude to his feet and runs away laughing. I can't help but laugh too. Soon enough, Jack joins me.
Claude looks around confused, before asking once again, "How can a nose be cute?!"
. . .
Jack kicks a pile of snow awkwardly. "So," He says.
"So," I repeat. I push a strand of loose hair behind my ear. "Those are some really nice kids." I smirk. He looks at me and gives a lopsided grin.
"Yeah, they can be really annoying. Jamie especially, but they come through in the end. And are some really good friends. Probably my only friends."
"What about the Guardians?" I duck to avoid a low branch.
"Don't get me wrong, they're there for me, but they just don't understand me,"
I keep walking beside him, but slow my pace. "What do you mean?"
"They're all about hard work. They know who they are, I'm just starting to find out. They are all grown up, but I'll always be a teenager. They are all serious, and have control. I'm just a lost cause that is too naive to take a hint. I knew I was different, I just didn't want my past life to affect any of it."
He stops walking when we get to a lake. The sceneary is beautiful. It's like a winter wonderland. Trees frame the edge of the frozen lake, and icicles hang off the branches. Snow rests in piles around the lake. Somehow, I feel his past and the lake are connected.
"What past?"
"You know, the life before this tragic immortal one." I nod my head in understanding. "If you were to judge how my past life had ended based on my personality, you'd be far from the truth." He laughs.
"What do you mean ended, Jack?" I tense up. I knew something was different about him.
"We went ice skating. It was turning Spring, in a couple of days, and the ice was starting to thin. We walked to the lake, and started skating. She did a spin, and then stopped. I had turned around and saw why she stopped." He over looked the lake before continuing, as if he were playing the moments in his mind.
"The ice was cracking, beneath her feet. And she was scared. I told her let's have fun, so I suggested hopscotch. So we played, and I grabbed my handy staff here, and pulled her off the thinned ice. She flew to the other side, and somehow in the moment, I ended up in the same hot water as her. I didn't know until I stood up, and we smiled, and I fell in."
"Jack, I'm sorry-"
"I promised her it was going to be alright. But it wasn't." He smiled and started to walk on top of the ice. "Enough of my sad past, how did the famous Spirit of Death, become, well, Death."
"It's a long story, actually." I said.
Jack looked into my eyes from across the ice. "I've got nothing but time."
He wanted to know. He wanted me to tell him everything.
So I do.
All of it.
Except who killed me.
