First off, I'd like to apologize to anyone who didn't come to comprehend the second half or more of the last chapter. It really was supposed to lead into this chapter like right after it ended, but now the newest chapter is here.
Also, if you haven't read any of the books you may not understand the beginning. It's kind of stating Pitch's past and his history about past vengeance he tried to take.
So it's the continuation from the last chapter of this here story from where it is supposed to pick up from.
His mind was now twisted with thoughts of vengeance…
There was no turning back to the past life he once had...
No returning to the people he loved with all his heart…
His heart stopped beating once the shadows parted. His ocean blue eyes turned into that of an eclipse while his skin turned into an ashy grey.
Kozmotis Pitchiner was dead.
Pitch Black was born.
From that point on he, the Nightmare King, set out to destroy the Lunanoffs and the Golden Age by turning all good, sweet dreams into complete and total nightmares.
He plundered planets, extinguished stars and scuttled airships, replacing every innocent dream with a truthful nightmare.
He hungered for children's sweetest of dreams the most and would not stop to rest until every child had experienced the fear of nightmares. Sometimes even killing the pure children of heart and leaving the survivors (if any at all) feeling misery and true despair. For some of those children, they were ultimately changed for all eternity.
Even after ravaging every outpost he could, Pitch Black went after the Constellation Lunanoff, determined to turn their young son, who had never had a nightmare in his life, into his Prince of Nightmares.
However, in the end Pitch Black was defeated and sent to earth. There he vowed to return to his power by making all of earth's children come to fear him and believe in nothing but fear itself.
The Nightmare King sat straight up on his bed as sweat began to trickle down his grey face. His pure black hair was now sticking up in every direction it could. He had been grasping his pillow so hard that his hands were now cramped as a result.
"A- accursed…" Pitch gasped. "Nightmares..."
It only took a few minutes for his breathing to even out but even then he felt slight paranoia. Pitch examined his surroundings and even though he was all alone in his own room, he felt like someone or something was watching him. This was proven correct when a Night Mare approached him.
"What is it"? Pitch questioned somewhat sleepily.
The horse let out a faint whinny and stomped its feet on the floor.
"What do you mean something's wrong"? He questioned the beast. "If it is just another fight that has broken loose amongst the rest of you then I am fairly certain that you can handle such an insignificant matter".
The Night Mare just stood there looking at its king with a blank expression and refused to move.
Pitch tried not to glare at it. "If it is that important then I will be out to handle it in a few minutes. Now leave me be". He waved his hand at the creature and it vanished through the wall.
Of course, Pitch couldn't just stay there if something really needed his attention so he threw back his obsidian covers and threw on one of his multiple robes. He was just about to leave the room when a tiny piece of paper on the floor caught his eye. Right as he picked it up he recalled what he had been doing before he had fallen asleep.
"Soul's birth certificate," Pitch sighed deeply before placing the paper in his pocket. Now he recalled what he was trying to get to before sleep overwhelmed him.
Once Pitch had this piece of paper filled out and found a family that wished for a child to come into their lives, this nightmare would just be a faint memory.
In spite of what he called all that has occurred a nightmare, Pitch would never admit from deep within his non-beating heart that he has enjoyed the company of this tiny child and enjoyed having company in general. True it might've been the fact that she was close to the age his own daughter was before Pitch Black existed, but his daughter was long dead and probably wouldn't see any traces of Kozmotis Pitchiner in the Nightmare King.
He shook his head at old thoughts and old memories; they were all just past history now and nothing could be done to change what has happened. His focus was the present time at the moment and that was dealing with Soul and keeping the Guardians from taking her away.
Although, first a slight problem having to do with some Night Mare had to be dealt with.
Walking out of his room and through the darkness, Pitch found himself in front of Soul's bedroom with hordes of Night Mares standing and neighing outside the room wanting to investigate what was inside.
"I told you miserable beasts to stay away from her". He scolded them. "Why aren't any of you out there spreading fear and just standing here? Get away from Soul and get back to turning dreams into nightmares". He waved his hands at the lot of them and they cleared out almost instantly.
"Next time I'm going with Hell Hounds," Pitch mumbled as he opened the door to Soul's room.
Silence rang throughout the room as he entered; it was only when he approached the bed in the center of the room that a small moan was heard. The covers of the bed might have covered the child but Pitch could see her outline by the way that she was gripping the blankets.
"Soul," He questioned. "Is everything alright"? There was no question that he could feel the fear emanating from her but this kind of fear was one that he hadn't felt in literal ages.
"P- Pitch"? Soul whispered and poked her head out from the covers. "I… I remembered what happened the day that I lost… my old life".
His eyes slightly widened at such news about the worst, horrid past memory for this child. Although, his curiosity was peeked. "Is this something that you would wish to tell me"? He asked her.
She gave a little nod and Pitch then sat on the edge of the bed. Soul crawled towards the Nightmare King and sat as close as she could to him.
"M- My parents left me alone in the backyard of our house to go inside for a second… to make lunch". She explained hesitantly. "I was scared without t- them but I knew they would come back. Pitch, I thought w- wrong. A car slid off the icy road and ran right into the front of the house, and there it suddenly exploded. The fire consumed everything and my parents but after that everything went dark".
Soul looked down at her necklace for a second and saw the black figure staring right into her eyes. She took off the necklace and set it down upon the bed. "I'd hate to admit that I caused everything that occurred to happen". She whimpered slightly.
Pitch scoffed, "Do not let North, the Sandman, or anyone else try and get that ridiculous idea into your head, Soul. You causing such an incident to happen would never happen-"
"It happened because of fear"! Soul suddenly interrupted him. "I caused it to happen with fear"!
"I already told you that is impossible for someone like yourself to do such a thing". The Nightmare King stated once again.
"No," Soul said. "I knew that the driver was feeling uneasy about driving home on such an icy road and was afraid of running off the road. My parents were scared about leaving me outside but they assumed that they would come right back out in a few minutes, but their assumption was proved wrong. One snap of my fingers and I caused everything to happen even though I didn't know what I caused at the time".
"Soul stop with all of this nonsense," Pitch warned her. "It is not good for you to think that you actually could have caused such…" His voice fell silent and his eyes instantly widened as Soul's hand turned into nightmare sand and then turned back into flesh.
She kept staring right at the darkness on the wall ahead of her but sighed at Pitch's voice falling silent. "That day I was infected with something that made me something else, but I'm not sure how or why. All I know is that my powers were only awakened when I met you and they now work whenever I allow fear to consume my emotions".
Soul turned back to face the Nightmare King. "Please tell me whatever you know about... about my… condition, Mr. Boogeyman".
A few moments passed silently as Pitch tried to decide to tell her or not to tell her. For one thing, Pitch couldn't fully grasp that he still able to perform this old power that had been lost to him ever since his defeat at the hands of Nightlight.
However, when had he done this to her? Surely he would remember doing something like this. Maybe it was one of his minions' doing. The exact memory of this transformation would have to wait until later but something was definitely wrong with the change that was occurring within her.
With that in mind, would he still tell her?
Unfortunately for him the answer was a yes.
Pitch Black looked into her silvery eyes before looking away from them as if they felt somewhat ashamed. "Soul… you are a Fearling or at least half of a Fearling and half mortal at the time being. You are what you are because of my power".
Soul's eyes lit up. "I'm going to turn into a horse, Pitch"!? She panicked.
"No- Wait, what"? Pitch questioned her.
"Ah," She shook her head. "Never mind. You were saying something about your ability".
Pitch nodded, "Soul, I mean to say that my power must have tainted your very being at a time before you lost your old life and has only began to change you from the moment that you came to me. I used to turn all children into Fearlings all the time after all their dreams had been extinguished and then turned into nightmares. When I came here I thought that that ability was lost, but now I see that I have either indirectly cause this or directly cause this to happen to you".
"I thought you said that you kept track of your minions' power". Soul brought up. "You didn't sense me"?
"No," He stated. "Your change only started when we met one another. However, I still did not sense your power since I have been kept focused on keeping the Guardians away from you…" Pitch lowered his head and raised a hand to his forehead like he had a headache. "Oh damn it all".
"What is it"? Soul asked. "And who are these Guardians you keep talking about"?
The Nightmare King had to think up a quick way to sum up the Guardians without cursing every other word. It might've taken a couple of minutes but he eventually thought of a way to explain it all.
"North, or Santa as you call him, the Sandman, the Tooth fairy, the Easter Bunny, and Jack Frost are all Guardians of the world's children". He explained. "They give children wonder, dreams, light, hope, and fun and manage to protect them from the truthfulness of fear in order to insure that they grow up innocently without knowing danger of the world around them".
"Sounds like they're kind of lying to us, but in a nice way at least". Soul said.
Pitch nodded, "Yes it does seem that way does it not? Either way, they protect the kids from me, mainly, and if something major happens like a certain Nightmare King trying to take the world back to an age of fear, they take action and try to stop him".
"So they're after me just as for the fact that you are involved"? She asked.
"Yes," He replied to her question.
Soul shook her head and frowned, "That's stupid, but have you tried explaining the truth to them…" Her voice fell silent as she caught the Boogeyman's glare.
"They want to keep fear out of children's lives but when they do that they then wish to keep the truth away from them as well"! Pitch now seemingly ranted. "They will never understand anything unless it is too late or they have already stopped it from happening! They… They just… Grr, forget it"!
Then he stood up from the bed and walked towards the door of the room. Soul got up and followed right behind him with no signs of letting him vanish this time.
"Listen you told me that you would finish explaining things," She told him as the shadows began to surround him. "So please finish up, Pitch".
He stopped from where he stood in the darkness and turned back towards her. "I… I guess forget it is what I meant". He sighed.
"I don't understand," Soul stated. "What do you mean by that"?
Pitch looked straight at her and told her, "They do not have a reason to return you to your home. Your home and your place in life is now and forever with me, Soul Black". The Nightmare King said as he finally filled in the blank for her last name. "You are now a part of my life like I am apart of your own life".
A Night Mare then came up from behind the little girl and gently placed her necklace around her neck without a sound or word. She turned around just in time to see that it had already vanished but she then turned right back around to see a hand extended towards her.
"Come with me," Pitch Black smirked slightly. "If you want to learn about what you are and what you are capable of achieving in life".
It did not take but a second, but silently a little hand was placed into the Nightmare King's grey hand. After that the shadows surrounded both of them and everything went pitch black.
And so the explanations are completed… for these two anyway. The Guardians still have yet to find out any of this information but all will be revealed in due time.
So until the next chapter my readers.