Chapter 10 – Why Big Brothers are Born First
Previously
Jack's eyes widened as he realized the darkness was bearing down on all four of them.
"No!" Jack yelled. "Leave them alone! Don't—"
That was all Jack got out before the darkness engulfed him.
17 years in the past
"No. No, no, no," the man ranted at the object in front of him.
Pitch stalked around the globe, glaring at the little lights that shone out at him in mockery.
"Jack should be dead by now," Pitch growled. "And with his death… The children should have stopped believing in him. Why do they still believe in him?"
Turning away from the globe, Pitch glared at the scroll spread out on a stone table. Pitch scanned the contents of the scroll, which had been meticulously copied from an ancient tome.
It was the fifth time Pitch had reread the scroll since his battle with Jack almost three days ago.
Pitch had felt vaguely annoyed when Jack's belief had not vanished by the end of that first day. By the second day, Pitch was concerned. By the third, Pitch was furious.
"It was perfect," Pitch snarled at the scroll. "I did everything right. So why do the children still believe in him?"
A sharp whiney echoed off the stone walls of his lair, and a herd of nightmares stormed into his main hall.
The lead mare trotted up to Pitch.
The Nightmare King did not miss the way it would not meet his eyes and skittered nervously.
"Well?" Pitch demanded. "Any sign of Jack?"
The mare shook its mane.
No.
"What about a sign of his passing? He should have left something behind."
The mare hesitated before shaking its mane again.
Pitch roared in frustration and slashed a hand through the nightmare, dissipating its essence.
The other nightmares screamed their rage and fear as they felt their master's unrest.
Pitch turned back to the globe.
"Where are you, Jack?" Pitch growled.
A flicker caught Pitch's attention, and the man frowned as he narrowed his eyes at the globe. It happened again.
Lights—particularly lights in the northern regions—winked on and off as if they were malfunctioning.
They did it once more before they stabilized and shone like nothing had happened, but Pitch had seen it, and it had been there.
"What was that?" Pitch asked the nearest nightmare.
The nightmare whinnied a nervous answer.
Storms. Out-of-control storms were appearing at random around the world.
"Interesting," Pitch mused. "So I'm not the only one who cannot find the frost child."
The nightmares shifted nervously as Pitch silently contemplated this new piece of information.
Suddenly, a disturbing smile broke over Pitch's face. It was crazy and crooked as if his face was not used to accommodating such an expression.
"Interesting," Pitch repeated. "Perhaps I can just wait this one out. Jack will show his face one day, and I'll be more than ready this time around."
Present
The darkness slipped away from his body like oil. It dissipated quickly, but Jack felt as though its touch had tainted his body.
Looking around, Jack easily picked out his friends all unharmed and rubbing at their skin as if they too felt violated by the darkness. They were in some sort of clearing, not anywhere Jack could really recognize although in this darkness it was hard to tell.
Jack was the first to get to his feet, and a dark figure appeared before him.
"I'm here," Jack announced. "I'm the one you want. Let James go."
The Nightmare King was not looking at Jack though; he did not even give any indication that he had even heard Jack.
Pitch stepped around Jack towards his three friends that still were huddled on the ground in a daze.
"No, don't!" Jack tried to grab the Nightmare King, but his hand passed through the man as if he were made of smoke.
Christina and Karla had recovered enough to notice the man's approach. They both shot to their feet and scrambled away from his cold presence. Kyle was not so lucky.
Faster than a snake, Pitch's hand shot out and grabbed Kyle by the front of his jacket, roughly hauling him to his feet.
"Kyle!" Christina screamed. She took a step forward as if to charge the dark man, but something dark shot towards her, and she shied away from it as it formed into a snarling form of a nightmarish horse.
The Nightmare King had barely glanced at her.
His golden eyes were instead fixed on Kyle.
"Still doubtful, child?" Pitch asked Kyle. "You can see me now, can't you? Well, here I am. The Boogeyman in the flesh."
With the last word, Pitch threw Kyle to the ground.
Kyle cried out in pain, but his eyes remained fixed on the dark man in an incredulous wide-eyed stare.
Pitch's gaze swept over the assembled teenagers, and he grinned coldly.
"Teenagers who believe," Pitch mused. "I never thought I would see that day."
"I don't believe in the Boogeyman," Kyle snapped although his voice quavered.
The Nightmare King seemed unaffected by Kyle's little rebellious spat and just pinned the downed teen with an unreadable look.
"Everyone knows fear," Pitch said finally.
A mad glint gleamed in Pitch's eyes, and the man laughed, insanity flitting at the edges of its harsh sound.
A scream echoed Pitch's laugh, which was soon followed by another. Out of the woods horses made of sand appeared, pawing the ground impatiently and eying the teens hungrily.
"Even adults are not immune to my nightmares," Pitch announced as a horse came trotting up to him. He stroked its neck. "You may not believe in me, but I am here."
Pitch struck the horse's rear, extracting a scream from the creature. The nightmare charged, its eyes glowing with senseless hunger.
Before anyone else could react, the horse fell onto Kyle's prone figure, and its body dissolved into a blizzard of deadly shards.
Kyle screamed as the sand tore at his clothes and exposed skin. He swatted uselessly at the swirling mass. His eyes went dark as they focused instead on some horrible world only he could see.
"No!"
Without thinking, Jack rushed forward into the miniature storm. Jack braced himself for the cutting pain of the small sandstorm, but it never came.
Whenever the sand came close to Jack, it bounced away as if some sort of force field surrounded him.
Not knowing if this was some sort of fluke or not, Jack grabbed wildly for Kyle and heaved the other boy out of the storm by the tattered remains of his jacket.
Kyle stumbled towards Jack like a dying man towards his last drink of water, and Jack found him supporting Kyle's entire weight.
Grunting, Jack swung the other boy around and pushed him towards Karla and Christina and away from danger. The black sandstorm did not follow, seeing that Jack now stood between it and his friends with his arms stretched out wide.
"How brave," Pitch grumbled in disappointment as if someone had just changed the channel from his favorite MMA show.
"Leave them out of this, Pitch," Jack growled out, his arms still upraised.
Behind him, Kyle was mumbling something in a daze. "Sorry, sorry, sorry."
The sandstorm had reassembled itself into a horse and now stood beside its master again. Its nostrils flared, and it gave a sharp whinny.
"It's rude to interrupt a nightmare's meal," Pitch stated as his eyes bore into Jack's.
"It's rude to ignore me when you're the one who called me here," Jack snapped back. "Where's James?"
"Quit your yelling, boy," Pitch sneered.
"Pitch," Jack growled in warning. He bawled up his fists as if preparing for a fight.
Pitch sighed in annoyance. "Oh, please. None of that now. You present no threat to me in your current condition."
The dark man waved a hand towards a group of nightmares. They swirled until a boy dropped out of their miniature twister.
"James!" Jack cried, taking a step towards his brother.
The nightmare next to Pitch whinnied and stomped its hooves.
Jack hesitated in his approach. James looked relatively unharmed, but the small twister still loomed nearby, and Jack knew his brother's condition could change in seconds.
"Jack?" James looked up at his older brother. Wisely, he stayed hunched on the ground. "What's going on?"
"It's going to be okay, bud," Jack reassured the boy. "Trust me. This will all over soon."
Despite the danger, James nodded his head with belief in his eyes.
"Okay," Jack said in the most agreeable tone he could muster. He looked back towards the Boogeyman. "My friends can take James, and I'll stay here with you. Just let them all go. They have nothing to do with any of this."
"Jack, no!" the voices of both his friends and his brother protested.
"Sorry," Kyle mumbled again.
"Oh, I would say they have everything to do with this," Pitch said.
"We had a deal. My life for James!" Jack wanted to throttle the guy, but he really wasn't in a position to take such liberal actions.
"Did you get that in writing?" Pitch asked. "Every good lawyer knows that things like this needs to be put into writing for… insurance."
"Pitch! Let my brother go! I will—"
"Do what?" Pitch smirked. "You're not in a position to negotiate."
To accentuate his point, the nightmare by Pitch's side whinnied although it sounded more like a scream.
James cried out and slammed his palms over his ears.
Jack looked helplessly from Pitch to James. A nightmare by Pitch's side, a twister by James, and who knows how many more black beasts forming a half-circle behind Pitch.
The teen was just about to succumb to his feeling of helplessness when a movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention. Trying not to bring too much attention to it, Jack glanced over to where he thought he had seen the movement, and two green eyes stared back at him.
Jack had never felt so relieved to see that overgrown rabbit, and he could have sworn he had seen a flash of a red coat ducking behind one of the bushes and an iridescent wing catch the light of the moon.
Bunny blinked once before he turned his gaze to where James was still under the mercy of the swirling nightmares.
The rabbit could get James out of harms way; Jack was sure of it. He just needed a distraction…
Jack relaxed his hands as he suddenly realized what he needed to do in order to ensure James's survival. His whole body filled with dread at the thought, but Jack could not waste any more time with coming up with a better idea.
Focusing on the cold spot in his chest that he had been trying to suppress for these past few days, Jack let it uncurl. He clenched his teeth as it filled his body with a biting cold as well as a rush of barely controlled power.
For the first time in days, Jack felt truly alive despite the pain crawling up his spine.
"You won't touch my brother," Jack said, more calmly than he felt. "You will not hurt him. You can't have him!"
Shouting out the last sentence, Jack thrust out his hands towards Pitch, and the effect was immediate. One blast caught Pitch and the nightmare at his side in an avalanche of ice, and the other flew past the man towards James. The second blast swirled into a small blizzard that attacked Pitch's sandstorm and neutralized its destructive winds.
The Guardians exploded from their hiding places. Bunny went straight for James and threw his body over the boy's. The Fairy Queen was a heartbeat behind the rabbit and slashed through the remains of the black sandstorm with twin scimitars. When she turned around to face Pitch, her purple eyes flashed in challenged as she protected the boy and rabbit. North and Sandy appeared at opposite ends of the clearing and began cutting down nightmares left and right.
Ice shattered next to Jack, and Pitch emerged from his temporary ice cage. He narrowed his eyes as he took in the action around him and murmured commands to the nearest nightmares. The next thing Jack knew, nightmares were streaming into the clearing, hungry for battle.
"Here take your brother," a voice said roughly.
Jack turned to see both Bunny and Tooth at his side. Bunny shoved James toward Jack, while Tooth still warded off attacks with her swords.
"James!" Jack cried with relief, scooping up his brother in a tight embrace.
"Jack! I'm fine!" James protested although his body shook under his brother's hug.
"Get out of here," Bunny commanded. His eyes flickered from Jack to behind him where his teenage friends huddled together. "Get them all out of here, Jack. The Guardians will take care of this."
"Bunny, look out!" Tooth called.
A nightmare slipped pass Tooth and charged at the rabbit. The warrior rabbit barely got his boomerangs up in time to block a blow, but his was pushed back a couple feet away from Jack.
"Bunny!" Jack cried. He took a step forward, his hand outstretched as if to help him.
"No!" the rabbit yelled back. "Don't get close! Get away!"
Someone grabbed him, and Jack was suddenly staring into green eyes except they were not the rabbit's.
"Jack, run!" Kyle said. The other teenage boy looked a little scratched up, but his green eyes were clear again and so piercing it jolted Jack into action.
He grabbed his brother's hand and called out to the girls before he took off running in some random direction.
Jack kept running until the sounds of fighting faded behind them, and then he slowed to a brisk walk to allow James to catch his breath.
"Are you all right, James?" Jack asked.
"I'm fine," James said.
The teenager frowned. "You were abducted by the Boogeyman. I hardly think you're fine."
James huffed in annoyance at his brother's pestering. "Well, I'll survive. He's really not that scary."
The boy was lying. Jack could see him shaking all over.
Instead of pushing the matter, Jack squeezed James's shoulder and left his hand there.
"Why is he after us?" James asked after a moment of contemplative silence.
Jack grimaced. "He thinks I did something to him in the past. It's complicated, and even I don't get it all. I'll try and explain it when we get out of here."
James nodded, content with that answer, and gradually, his trembling died away.
Squeezing his brother's shoulder again, Jack thought of how much he did not deserve such a trusting and brave brother.
"Jack," a small voice said off to his side.
Jack turned his head to look at the speaker and was surprised to find that it was Kyle who had spoken. In all his life, he could not remember Kyle looking so unsure and vulnerable.
"You okay?" Jack asked.
Kyle shook his head as if Jack's question disturbed him.
"How can you be so casual, dude?"
"About Pitch? Remember; it's not the first time I've faced him."
Kyle let out a noise that sounded half-exasperated and half-ashamed. "Not that. About us? I just… I just called you crazy. I questioned your sanity. And here you are all chill. I'm surprised you're still talking to me at all."
Jack was silent for a moment before responding, "If that was an apology, that sucked."
Kyle gave a weak laugh. "Okay, well then, I'm really sorry. Like you don't even know."
"Apology accepted," Jack replied immediately.
"What the heck!" Kyle exclaimed, running both hand through his hair. "It's not supposed to be that easy!"
"What? Do you want me to be mad?"
"No, but… I don't know…"
Jack sighed. "Okay, yes, I'm still kind of mad at you, but we've been friends since like ever. I can't believe that you would out of the blue say stuff to me like that unless you were really concerned for me. I get it, Kyle. You really thought I was in trouble psychologically and wanted to help out. Am I right?"
Kyle nodded sheepishly.
"Well, okay then," Jack said. "I would appreciate a little more faith in the future, but that's that except I might punch you again later just for good measure."
"Fine," Kyle said. "I think I could live with that."
The two older boys shared a look. The discussion was not done; they both knew that, but it would have to do for now since they still were not out of the woods yet—literally.
They stumbled around in the thick underbrush until it eventually thinned out into another clearing. Jack looked out over the space and relaxed a tiny bit in its familiarity.
"Where are we?" Christina spoke up.
"It's the pond," Jack said. "I used to come here a lot when I was little. I can get us out of the forest from here."
Jack started towards the direction of the exit. Hope was just beginning to warm his chest, but suddenly, something dark reared up from the shadows.
Christina gave a sharp scream of surprise as the shadows solidified.
Pitch stood before the group of children with nightmares streaming out behind him.
"Going somewhere?" the Nightmare King asked.
Jack herded his friends and brother away from the darkness.
"The Guardians took care of you," Jack said as if to deny the dark man's presence.
"Oh, please," Pitch snorted. "These past years have been deliciously full of fear what with the Wind bringing its terrifying storms. I have your current state to thank for that, but the Guardians won't be joining this particular party. My nightmares have not been this strong since well…"
Pitch trailed off and eyed Jack as something dark flashed across his golden eyes.
"And we are only going to get stronger from here on out," Pitch announced. "I wonder how much terror the Wind will bring once I dump its winter child's body before it."
"Guys get back!" Jack managed to yell before Pitch moved with a weapon materializing in his hands.
Jack struck first, surprising both sides.
Ice shot out of his hands, freezing the first row of horses, but Pitch deflected any cold that came near him with a flick of a wrist.
The dark scythe went up, and Jack dodged to the left. Rolling with the momentum, Jack came up and shot ice at Pitch's exposed side. It hit Jack's target, and he was just about to feel proud of himself when Pitch brushed off the frost like it was nothing.
"Weak," Pitch taunted. "You're not even half the person Jack Frost was."
Jack gritted his teeth and mustered up whatever energy he could. Cold, he had to think cold. With a yell, Jack released another attack, and this one definitely had more power behind it, but Jack did not have time to enjoy its results.
As soon as the ice left his hands, his breath froze up in his lungs, and all his muscles screamed in protest at this foreign magic. The boy fell into the snow, shivering and coughing up mist.
Something wet hit the ground, and when Jack's vision focused again, he realized he was spitting up his own blood.
"Something wrong, boy?" Pitch stood over him, looking a little chilled, but not at all cowed. He grinned maliciously. "Don't play with winter's powers. You'll end up getting burned."
A foot flashed out, and Jack felt himself being kicked across the clearing. Someone screamed. Maybe it was him.
The crunching of snow alerted Jack that Pitch was coming, and the boy forced himself to stand and face his attacker just as the weapon came towards him.
Jack ducked the swing of the scythe's blade, but something (later he would realize it was the butt end of the scythe) slammed into his stomach and sent the teen flying.
Jack landed hard on the ground, and something beneath him went crunch. The teen tried to stand, but his feet slipped beneath him. His eyes widened as he finally realized that he had landed in the middle of the frozen lake.
Fear closed his throat and froze his limbs. A phobia of water he had never been able to explain rose to the surface.
"I think it's quite poetic that we come here again where you had humiliated me," the Nightmare King said still on the edge of the lake. "The last thing you will know is fear."
Jack gasped, trying to spit back some sort of retort, but the terror was overwhelming. Just below the ice, water churned, cold and deadly. He needed to get up—to run away. His voice instead made a choked scream.
"What's wrong, Jack?" Pitch sneered. "Afraid of a little water."
The man swung his scythe around and dragged it across the lake's frozen surface.
Jack could only watch in horror as a spider-web of cracks appeared, racing their way to where he crouched in a paralyzed daze.
"Jack!" James called.
"Move, Jack!" Karla screamed at him. She swung at a nightmare that got too close with a fallen branch, and the horse snarled at her.
"Leave him alone," James shouted at the Nightmare King. "My big brother isn't afraid of anything, least of all you."
"Such bravery," Pitch sighed as if disappointed. "Unlucky for you boy, you remind me too much of a certain thorn in my side. I'd like to see you dead."
Pitch turned towards the trapped group of children, and the horses around them pawed the ground eagerly.
Jack's mind cleared for a moment, and he managed to stand.
"Hey! It's me you want!" Jack yelled. "Don't you dare turn your back to me."
His yelling caught Pitch's attention, and the man looked over his shoulder as if Jack's words meant something to him.
"You're right," Pitch murmured, his eyes glowing with his sadistic power. "I won't make that mistake again."
Pitch snapped back around to face Jack, something flashed in his free hand, and suddenly Jack found himself on his knees again.
His whole body shuddered, his chest feeling heavy.
Someone screamed, and it echoed around the clearing as the rest of the noise seemed to stop.
Jack looked down, and his vision blurred, but not before he saw the dagger hilt of solidified black sand sticking out of her chest. Jack fell forward, but somehow his left hand stopped him from hitting the ice. His right hand came up to touch the hilt as if to confirm it was really there.
Strangely enough, he felt numb except for burning in his hands.
His mind whirled, trying to come up with some desperate solution. Did it hit anything vital? Was his heart still beating? You're supposed to leave weapons in the wound in or else you bleed to death, right?
More screams joined to first, but it was distant and unimportant.
A breeze brushed his cheek and rustled through his hair.
His hair was white again. When had that happened?
The place where his hand touched the ice was mended of all its cracks that the Nightmare King had previously made. It was so clean and clear like glass, Jack thought.
He was sure that he could make out the bottom of the lake.
Then the voice came.
Look.
Jack's hand burned like it always did when he used his powers. Stupid, he was not supposed to use his powers.
Look.
Jack focused back on the ice, and the bottom of the lake that he could see below that.
He was looking.
Look.
Jack squinted and made out a long, dark shape. Straight and strong, except for the bend at one end.
Strange, Jack had never seen such a thing, but it filled him with a sense of home.
I have protected it for you.
He was dying, Jack knew. Hearing voices and seeing bright lights meant you were dying, right? He felt strangely calm.
Claim it, my winter child.
It was his. He stared at the dark object at the bottom of the lake and was thrilled that it was his.
Ride on my currents once more.
Jack frowned. He was dying, his right hand tightened on the hilt of the dagger still stuck in his chest.
Claim it!
The trees danced wildly as the wind began to howl.
Quiet, Jack thought.
The trees ceased their movement, and the voice did not come again.
There was something important… He'd forgotten. What had been so important?
Remember Jamie.
Jack was suddenly years younger, walking hand in hand with an older man.
The elderly man smiled at him, and they arrived at this very lake.
The man had… he had…
Heart.
His heart had been stabbed; it was bleeding. No… it was missing. Where was his heart?
…beneath the ice.
A young voice sobbed brokenly and cut through Jack's blurry memories.
"Jack, Jack! Get up! Please," James begged, tears streaming down his cheeks.
Jack looked up, his vision going in and out of focus.
An impatient nightmare snapped at James, and the boy flinched away from the teeth, crying out. Jack's brow furrowed in confusion.
Jack was the big brother. He was supposed protect.
"I have tired of your interference and blubbering, child," a dark voice said. "It's about time I finished off the remains of Jamie's legacy."
A black figure loomed over James and Jack's friends, and James cowered away.
"No!" Jack screamed.
His right hand moved on its own accord, ripping the dagger from his chest and freezing it at the same time.
Suddenly, Jack could feel all the pain he was supposed to be feeling, and it was as if lightning was coursing through his entire body.
"Help me, Jamie," Jack whispered desperately.
Jack almost blacked out right there as a pool of red collected beneath him, but with his last shred of strength, Jack slammed the dagger straight down into the surface of the frozen lake.
The ground beneath him shattered like glass, and Jack fell.
Other reviews shall be answered probably next week because I'll be traveling again this weekend.
Answers to anonymous reviews:
JFunderburker: Your wondering shall be put to rest in about two chapters… Thanks for the review
Bonca: Here's your update! And thanks for the review :)
Devil Angel: This past chapter is as gory as it's going to really get. There is one more sort of scarier chapter (but not too much). Thanks for another review!
Pippalina: Bwahaha another cliffhanger because I can. Thanks for the review!
ArcAngelCrystal: Thanks so much! And your reviews make me smile :D
~playing-in-the-mud