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Searching for Jack

Warm sunlight beat through her closed eyelids, patches of red dancing in front of her vision. With a sigh, she stretched her tight muscles, her limbs sprawling across the bed. Her hands migrated towards her face, and her knuckles rubbed harshly against her eyes. A yawn pulled her jaw as she slumped forward into a sitting position. Green eyes blinked blearily as they lazily scanned the room. The bed next to her was empty, the sheets thrown haphazardly across it. The clock blinked 11:18, and her mind jolted awake at the time.

Marie threw the covers from her legs and jumped to her feet. She pulled out a pair of jeans and a shirt. Quickly, she peeled her pajamas from her skin and replaced them with her new clothes. Leaning forward, she gathered her hair into a tangled bunch and stood upright again. She paused a moment to allow the blood to rush from her head before she searched for a hair tie. Once she found one, she yanked it around the mass of curls, slipped on a jacket, snatched her keys and bag and darted out of the door.

Her stomach growled menacingly in the silent hallway as it twisted in protest. She had forty minutes until class: she could risk swinging by the cafeteria. As she pushed the door open and stepped out into the bitter cold, memories from the night before flooded into her. Her body flinched in shock as she stood terrified at the events that she had hoped to only be a bad dream. Her eyes scanned the black that dusted the white, eating away at its innocence and purity. Biting her lip, she stuffed her hands in her pockets and trudged towards the cafeteria.

The young woman fell in step behind a pair of upper classmen who were discussing a forest fire nearby. Strong winds last night had blown ash all the way into town, and it now littered the snow. She felt a pit forming in her stomach as she heard the rumors flitting around being accepted as the truth. It only made the truth more worrisome to her.

What happened to Jack? she thought for the umpteenth time as she paid and began searching for something edible that might surpass her loss of appetite.

All she could remember was his collapsed form, his anger, his fear, him leaving her in the cold. She had shuffled her way back to the college after that, getting turned around countless times until she finally found the street and the campus lights in the distance.

He wouldn't leave me like that, she tried to convince herself. So why did he? I have to find him. After class…

When no food stood out to her, she snatched a packaged sandwich, a bag of chips, some fruit and a bottle of water. Stuffing all but an apple into her bag, she looked over the faces that occupied the seating. She spotted Laura and Jeff amongst a couple other familiar faces at a table nestled in the back. They sat talking in low hushed voices that snuck under the regular din of the cafeteria. Double checking the time to reassure herself that she had enough of it, she made her way to the table and squeezed into the only available chair that was partially sat in by Laura.

The table quieted down and turned their eyes expectantly to her.

"What's up?" Marie asked as she took a bite of her apple, catching stray droplets of juice with the back of her hand.

"You haven't heard?" Laura asked, her eyes wide.

"Heard what?" the black haired woman asked around the chunk of apple in her mouth.

"You were out late—I thought you had run into it. It was pretty bad," her roommate rattled on.

"What?"

"There was a crash on Main," Jeff interrupted. "A severe one. Two dead. Three life flight. One has near zero chance of survival. One survival but with mental damage easily. The last—a child—thankfully should make it out just fine."

The young woman gulped, struggling to keep the apple from sticking in her throat as it fought to stay up. Her hand fell onto her lap, and her grip loosened on her apple. "What happened?" she choked out.

"Black ice," Laura jumped back in with. "No one was expecting a freeze—at least nothing that bad. It just took one car going too fast..." she trailed off.

Marie fought to keep air in her lungs. Black ice. Flash freeze. A child surviving fairly unscathed. "How—how old were the others?" she choked out.

"Not including the child?" Jeff asked.

She simply nodded, not trusting her voice as her heart sank deeper and deeper.

"One car had an elderly couple. The other had the kid's parents. I guess that gives you—"

"Yeah, I got it," she stumbled out.

Jack.

It has to be Jack.

Oh God, what happened to you, Jack?

"I've got to go," Marie announced as she jumped from her seat, nearly knocking Laura over.

"Where the hell are you going?" her roommate questioned. "Don't you have a class in twenty?"

"Yeah, but I—I have to find someone. Tell Donalds that I'm sorry!" Tossing her apple into the nearby trashcan, she readjusted the strap on her bag and ran out of the door. She had a Guardian to find.


Her nose was numb. Her fingers were stiff. Her feet were at the point beyond soreness and feeling. She had been walking around town for the past two and half hours, and she had yet to spy the young man in the blue sweater who she suspected was behind the turn of events in the small city.

But, she had passed by the remains of the wreck three times and each time splintered her heart a bit more. Marie firmly believed that if her eyes spied the twisted and warped metal once more, her heart would finally break.

With a sigh, the young woman collapsed onto a bus bench and stretched her legs out in front of her. She arched her head back and rested the crook of her neck on the cold metal of the back of the bench. Closing her eyes to the glare of the afternoon sun, she allowed her mind to drift into a state of semi-consciousness. She hoped with every fiber in her being that Jack was alright, that he was safe—that this atrocity wasn't his fault.

A mumble of young voices entered her, but she shoved them off as she tried to empty her mind. However, two voices stubbornly refused to accommodate for her.

"Think about it. The weathermen should've seen it. If they would've known—" a teen on the ending cliff of puberty stated.

"They can't predict Jack," a young girl piped up.

Green eyes flew open. Jack.

"Soph, stop it. You're sounding like a child. He's not real," he reprimanded.

"You used to believe, Jamie," she responded in a weak whisper.

Marie sat up and looked behind her to see a gaggle of teens leaving a young, blond girl—who she assumed to be Soph—dejectedly looking down at her boots in their wake.

"Excuse me," the young woman called gently.

The girl perked up and flashed her brilliant eyes towards Marie. She raised a finger and pointed to herself.

Marie nodded and patted the seat of the bench next to her. "C'mon here for a moment. I want to ask you something."

The eyes peered warily out behind the strands of blond bangs that fell in a tousled mess over her forehead. Tentatively, she took a step forward and slipped onto the bench next to the black haired woman.

"Did you just mention Jack Frost a moment ago?" she asked curiously.

Young eyes widened, and she whispered fiercely, "Do you believe too?"

"You bet I do."

"I'm Sophie," the girl introduced as she shifted onto her knees and leaned forward, staring intently at Marie. "Do you know what happened to Jack?"

"What?" the young woman stumbled out.

"He came to see Jamie yesterday. He left pretty depressed 'cause he can't see him anymore. Jamie was his first believer."

Pink lips fell into a soft "o" as he young girl continued her story.

"He came back a bit later to take his old sled. Don't know what he used it for, but he hasn't brought it back yet. I know he can be forgetful but not with things like that. Then there was that crash last night, and it had to do with ice. I don't think Jack would've done that on purpose, do you?"

The young woman shook her head as her jaw clamped shut, her mid whirling around the innocent tattling of the young Sophie.

"Whose Jamie?" she asked as a starter.

"My brother."

"And he used to believe in Jack?"

"Uh-huh," Sophie said with an over exaggerated nod.

"Why doesn't he anymore?"

The young girl shrugged. "He grew up, I guess. Just like adults—he can't see him anymore. He probably won't see any of them anymore." Her eyes lightened as she asked with glee, "Have you met Bunny yet?"

"Who?"

"The Easter Bunny!"

A small smile tugged at the corner of Marie's lips. "No, not yet."

"Oh," the girl trailed off sadly. "Have you seen Jack?" she asked hopefully.

"Yeah, last night." She raised her hand meekly as she said, "Guilty of using your sled."

"What happened to Jack?!" the girl blurted out.

The green eyed woman jumped back, startled at the energy and desperation in Sophie's voice. "I—I don't know. I've been trying to find him."

"Are you friends?"

"You could say that."

"Well, I have to get home. You keep looking for Jack," she ordered as she jumped from the bench and began jogging down the street in the direction her brother had taken. "Tell him Sophie says hi!" she called back over her shouldered.

"Okay!" Marie yelled in response.

With a huff, she fell back onto the bench. As her mind began whirling through the story Sophie had told her, things Jack had said, things Jack had done, they all began to make sense. He was scared. He was afraid of what happened when people grew up. He was afraid that when they stopped believing it was because of something he did. He was angry at himself that he did something wrong.

Sitting up, she swung onto her feet and set off towards the college with renewed vigor to find Jack. She had one more idea—well, two, but she really didn't want to walk that far. And, she didn't even really know where the lake was. That settled it. She would try her tree, and if he wasn't there, Marie truly had no idea of what to do next. She had no idea of what to do next even if he was there.