Chapter 9 Mind Invasion
"Are you here about that stone again?" I questioned while trying to reach my crutches, maybe I could hit him in the head with one? Of course I know that it would only piss him off but maybe it'll surprise him long enough for a chance of escape.
"Partly." He responded.
The darkness curled further up my legs as black sand started to make the shape of nightmares all around. Some were heading off down the street while a few others hung around with menacing looks. I tried moving again but the darkness wouldn't allow it as it curled up to my waist. How the heck is it that this intangible substance can do something like this? What kind of darkness is this?
"Ja-
I was cut-off in mid yell, about to yell for Jack's help, him being the first guardian that comes to mind since I've only met the other four once, but Pitch's hand clamped over my mouth. I reached up to shove him away but the darkness had wrapped around my arms holding them back. I twisted and pulled but was having no luck at any kind of escape.
"It's quite foolish of you to have come out here, especially on the night when two of the Guardians are busiest, but it is very lucky for me. Now hold still, this will only hurt a little." He said while placing his other hand, which had tendrils of darkness lingering around it, at the left side of my face and head as the darkness spread across my face and into my eyes. Hurting a little was an understatement. Something shoving it's way under your eyelids and through your pupils into your head was probably the most unpleasant feeling I've ever experienced and it may not have been the most painful, but it still hurt a lot and was inflicting a massive headache with it. It spread through my mind feeling like lead spreading and expanding.
Immediately scenes and images started to flash before my eyes and I had a feeling that Pitch could see them too. Clearly he was looking for something and after several more memories flashed by one stopped. The day I gave Jack the onyx while we waited for Cameron and Lillian's bus.
I tried to pull away but couldn't move at all. The darkness had a firm hold on my body and was not letting go. The more I fought the tighter the tendrils wrapped around me, casing me to yelp in pain that was muffled by Pitch's cold gray hand.
"Let me see the necklace." Jack said. I pulled it out of my pocket and handed it over. He took it and by the look on his face I could tell that he understood what I meant about the bad feeling it gave when holding it.
"I'll take it to North, let him have a look at it."
"North?" I asked.
"Also known as Santa Claus; but for now let's have some fun." He said with a smile as Cameron and Lillian stepped off the bus.
Pitch pulled his hand away, yanking the darkness from my mind. I didn't realize what kind of effect it was having on my mind until it was pulled out. It felt like lead had been pulled from my head, my mind felt lighter and less painful as it started to subside and turn into a dull throb. I was nauseous, dizzy and exhausted. The darkness released me and let me fall to my hands and knees, which could barely support me like that.
"Sorry about that, the side effects can be severe since it uses your own energy." Pitch commented, not that he actually sounded sorry.
"Clearly." I breathed out while trying to steady my breathing. My arms started to shake with the effort of keeping myself upright so I forced myself to get up into a standing position, using the rail for support.
"I thank you for the useful information, with North and Jack away from the pole I should have no problem in retrieving the stone. But of course I can't have you warning them since they will be at your house soon enough." He said and suddenly there was just black until I fell into a cage that slammed shut and locked.
"Ow." I hissed while rubbing the back of my head where I had hit the bars and looked around. The cage was not really any different than a large birdcage, although it was more rusted-looking. I looked outside of the cage to find many more just like the one I was in hanging all over the large cavernous room. All around there were stairs and walkways cut into the walls at different angles, almost like that famous painting 'Relativity' without the upside down. Below was a globe of the world with gold lights all over it.
Floating around here and there were some of the nightmares, much calmer than usual so they were kind of cute like regular horses but I knew how frightening they could be.
There was one thing that made no sense to me, Why would Pitch want so many cages?
It was one thing having about a quarter the amount there are now for taking prisoners but there were too many to count. Hundreds of cages hanging all around like a prison, a prison that used bird cages. I couldn't help but laugh at the image of a plethora of giant evil birds being imprisoned here.
A nightmare immediately charged at the cage with an fearsome angry whinny. I scrambled away from it and said, "Okay, not laughing, chill out."
Pitch let out a soft laugh that easily echoed through the room and sounded like it was coming from one direction but he appeared on the other side of the room.
"I should tell you about one little mistake you made." I said.
"And what would that be?" He asked mockingly.
"At whatever time that Jack and North show up at the house, if they decide to check on all of us it will be apparent that I am not there, not very surprising but I did leave a note saying when I planned to be back. So they will know that something is up." I explained. He scowled but it immediately changed back to his calm expression and said, "It doesn't matter, by the time they reach your house I will be at the Pole. See you later."
He disappeared as did most of the nightmares. The rest stayed behind. What? Do they expect me to try and escape? The cage is hanging at least fifty feet off the ground so no survival there and it was hanging too far from others for me to jump to the lower ones not to mention the broken ankle and lack of energy from the mind being invaded and probed.
At around eleven at night the sleigh landed on the roof of the West mountain house. Jack was the first to go down with North right behind. He considered waking up Cameron and Lillian so they could see North again but Nix would probably kill him because they would never get back to sleep so instead he went to wake Nixie up but immediately noticed that her room was empty and Nixie's pajamas were still laid out.
He wandered back to the living room and noticed a note stuck to the wall for their parents reading, Gone on a walk, should be back no later than ten. Love, Nixie
No later than ten meant that if she wasn't back yet then something was wrong.
"Didn't you go to wake up Nixie?" North asked quietly.
"She went on a walk and didn't plan on being back any later than ten." Jack replied.
"Something's wrong. Why don't you go look for her, I'll go on, thanks for the help." North said before flying back up the chimney. Jack followed but flew off looking for his friend and noticed that some of the streetlights up the hill were out, in fact all of them in that area were so he flew over to investigate. It was very dark but he could see okay and almost missed them but noticed a pair of crutches on a bridge that sat over a large creek that separated the neighborhood from the ski slope.
He landed on the bridge and picked them up knowing that they were Nixie's by the blue handles, and the fact that no one else with houses around were here over Christmas, especially not someone with a broken body part.
He found remnants of black sand on the ground as well.
Why would Pitch kidnap Nixie if he just wanted to know where that stone was? He wondered before taking off to find Sandy who would likely be the closest. He followed the dream sand until he saw a small island in the sky made of golden sand.
"Sandy!" He called to get the little man's attention who turned with a smile and waved but noticed Jack's worried expression and a question mark appeared above his head.
"You remember Nixie right?" Jack asked. Sandy nodded.
"Pitch kidnapped her." He answered. Another question mark appeared with a worried expression. Sure Pitch had fun in using fear but even for Pitch kidnapping is different.
"I don't know why. But I need to find her before morning." Jack admitted.
A shape of the onyx necklace appeared above Sandy's head.
"What about the stone?" Jack asked.
A replica of North's toy factory appeared.
"Yes the stone is safe there." Jack said, Sandy shook his head and made a replica of Pitch, then the stone and then the North Pole.
"Pitch going after the stone at the North Pole?" Jack guessed and got a nod in response.
"But he doesn't know where it i- Oh wait, Nix knew I was taking it to North. If Pitch got it out of her that I handed it off to North then he would know where it was, and North isn't even there and the Yetis may not be able to keep him out for very long. This is bad." He said. The image of a rabbit and an egg appeared of Sandy's head.
"Bunnymund? Can you find him and tell him to get to the Pole? I'll go on ahead." Jack asked. Sandy nodded and flew off. Jack flew off towards the Pole.
My eyes started to feel heavy and the itchy, burning sensation that comes with sleep trying to overcome the body. I shook my head violently to stay awake. There was no way I was going to allow myself to fall asleep in a giant birdcage in Pitch's lair. I decided that I was never going to have a pet bird. I was feeling too much like one and did not like it in the least. Once I had enough strength I stood and walked around the cage and looking around the cavernous place to try and find some way of escape before Pitch returned but the walking around only confirmed my earlier observation. I am simply a human and even with my gymnastics abilities there was no way I could get out safely.
After what felt like hours, which was only no more than one hour, Pitch reappeared, but was in the middle of a fight and trying to pull Jack off of him. Jack was hanging on to Pitch by the neck and trying to wrestle something from him, which I could only assume was the onyx necklace. Bunnymund hopped out of a hole and was holding off the fearlings.
Immediately I burst out laughing at the scene of Jack and Pitch wrestling for the stone. I couldn't help it, it was just too funny and instinctively I pulled out my camera and put it on the video feature to film it. Hell I had nothing else to do stuck in here might as well make the most of the situation right? And honestly how many other people could say that they've videotaped Jack Frost and the Boogieman fighting like this? I don't think any of the spirits or Guardians could either.
"Nixie?" Bunnymund called.
"Up here." I said and waved my arm around so he could see from below. There was a clanging from cage hopping I guess until he grabbed onto mine and asked, "What're you doing shiela?"
"Hey being stuck in a giant creepy cage doesn't give you much to do and their fight is funny as hell so don't judge." I responded and stopped the camera, putting it back into my coat pocket while Bunnymund opened the door. Hesitantly I walked over to it, gripping the bars at the side I looked down to get a better view of how far down it actually was. I was wrong, it wasn't fifty feet, more like seventy.
"Come on. We need ta get you outta here." Bunny said and immediately wrapped a furry arm around me and jumped until we landed on the ground. The Pooka jumped into the fight, giving Pitch a good kick and sent the necklace flying in my direction. I jumped up and grabbed it, instinctively landing on my good foot but stumbled back into one of the nightmares. It swirled all around me and snapped at my hand, drawing blood and causing me to drop the onyx right as a hole opened up below me. I dropped like a stone and slid through the tunnel and heard Jack and Bunny right behind me.
The hole opened up right above my bed, dropping me on it and Jack on me with his bony elbows digging right into my ribs.
"Ow! Get your bony self off me Snow Cap." I said and pushed him to the floor.
"Ouch." He hissed and got off the floor.
"Damn it! It got it. That stupid nightmare thing got the stone and it ffcking bit my hand!" I exclaimed in frustration and pain while moving to the bathroom that connected my room to Lillian and Cameron's and started to wash it off and get the stupid black sand washed out.
"Watch the language there." Bunny said.
"Who cares about my word choice right now? Everyone's asleep and I effing lost the necklace." I hissed quietly and sucked in a sharp breath in reaction to the cold water but grit my teeth until my hand became numb. I inspected my hand and couldn't see anything wrong besides the fact that it was going to start bleeding again. I put some antibiotic ointment on it before wrapping it up in a bandage and left the bathroom going out into the hall to find that my note was gone.
"Looking for this?" Jack asked, handing over the note. I took it from him and just threw it out. I was home now so it wasn't necessary.
"It wasn't your fault." Jack added.
"Right, of course not." I said sarcastically.
"It wasn't. Don't think that it was, but if I may ask how did he find out about the location of the stone?" He asked.
"Used the darkness to, like, probe my mind or something, it was weird because he searched my memories like that and was able to pick and choose to find what he was looking for." I explained.
"I didn't know he could do that." Bunnymund said surprised.
"Guess everyone is full of surprises." I said with a shrug.
little corner of mine that I make: Thank you to all readers! Every time I see an email from fanfiction with notifications, weather reviews, favorites, subscribes and so on it just makes me feel good, especially with reviews because reviews just make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside! Unless it's a completely unnecessarily insulting one (thank god I haven't gotten one of those so far).
But yeah so Exam week at college is starting so there is little chance of there being another chapter out until the weekend or after exams...we'll just see...anyways let me know if any of you have any ideas :) I would love to read them and try to incorporate them.