I wonder who this friend of Jack is? Sandy thought as he followed Jack closely. Jack would sometimes ask for favors when it was important and Jack hasn't asked Sandy in quite awhile. This person had to be someone special. After a short flight they arrived at the log cabin house that was surrounded in the woods. Sandy took note of the place just like Jack did; its beautiful and had a warm aura to it. Jack landed softly on the balcony and pointed with his staff to the door.
"This is Arielle's room, let me see if she's asleep," Jack stated as he walked quietly to the balcony door.
There was enough room to peer into the window and through the opening of the curtains. Jack saw a form in the bed and looked like she was asleep. He turned to Sandy and gave him the thumbs up to go ahead and send his dream sand to her. Sandy skillfully formed his wispy, gold dream sand into the air and it crawled through the bottom of the door. It swirled and danced above Arielle's head and started to form into a young girl starting to form from a ball. Another large figure appeared and he started to throw a ball at the young girl and the ball exploded as it hit her right arm. Even though there was no sound, Jack and Sandy imagined that they were having fun and laughing together. Jack put the two pieces together as he watched the scene from the window, its Arielle and her father. Jack felt his device in the pocket of his hoodie and pulled it out, it was from Sandy.
"When did you meet her?" Jack smiled as he turned to Sandy and saw he was curious.
"I met her a little over a month ago, here on this balcony actually. She's been going through a hard time," Jack's voice was casted with sadness as he continued on, Sandy listen intently.
"She's ill and the doctors don't know what is wrong with her. She goes through these coughing fits and she's taking a lot of medicine for it. She can't do anything that stresses her body, so I have to be careful with her when we go outside," Jack finished. He could have told Sandy more about Arielle's problem, but felt it wasn't necessary. There's no reason to make Sandy worry.
Sandy looked back into the window and looked alarmed as he pointed into the house, not having time to explain to Jack through the device. Jack whipped his head towards the window and peered inside and saw some shadows moving slowly over the floor and crawling onto the walls above Arielle's bed. These weren't just any shadows either. Jack sprung into action as he knew those shadows from anywhere. He pointed his staff at the shadows that threatened to move above Arielle's bed frame and get closer to her body. Sandy was starting to cast dream sand over to Arielle to protect her dreams, until the shadow snapped forward out of the wall. A large black serpent like head came out and ate Arielle's dream whole. Like the dream was the bait and the serpent was the predator.
"No!" Jack shouted as he aimed his staff and fired ice at the serpent's head, but was too slow as the icy frost spread along the wall. The shadow moved rapidly around the room to confuse Jack and Sandy and soon crawled out under the balcony door. It moved so fast it was like it was never there. Jack and Sandy flew out the window and tried to spot where the shadow went, there was no trace of moving shadows anywhere. These odd shadows came at the right time of night to make its form less known, but this shadow wasn't like all the others that were created by you know who. Jack turned to Sandy.
"You contact North and tell him about what we saw, I'm going to go check on Arielle," Jack commanded. Sandy nodded and flew off. Jack didn't know what had happened to her good dreams, but like what happened last time with the children he wasn't going to take any chances and leave her alone.
He flew back unto the the balcony and walked into the room and shut the door as he made his way over to her bed. His worries became true as he saw the form underneath the covers thrashing violently. He ran to her bed and tried to pull the covers off her to find out what was wrong.
"Arielle, it's me, Jack!" Jack called out loudly to get her attention, but she still continued to thrash as if he was attacking her.
"No! Bring him back!" She yelled out as her arm swung out of the covers and hit Jack in the face. He stumbled backwards a few steps with a startled look on his face. His cheek on the left side started to become a very light pink color and he touched it lightly. He shook his head and ran back to her bed and tried another approach.
He used the top of his staff and touched the covers lightly and frost started to spread on the top and make its way to the top and end of the bed. If he froze the top of the bed without freezing her, the ice would make her stop thrashing. The thrashing of the covers began to subside as the ice was making it difficult to move the covers. Once he saw there was little movement, Jack sat on the bed and moved his upper body to hoover over the covered form.
"Arielle, please wake up and stop thrashing," he said gently as he started to pull the covers with some effort from the light ice. The covers were pulled down and his heart broke to see her form curled up in a ball and shaking. He wasn't sure if it was the coldness or because she was crying. He pulled the covers off her and tried to shake her awake.
"It's me, Jack Frost, wake up Arielle! Don't let these nightmares control you!" Jack couldn't take no more of seeing her suffer. She's suffered enough. He placed his cold hands on each side of her face and moved his thumb to wipe the tears off her cheeks. Slowly her shaking and crying started to stop and her eyelids started to flutter open. Jack felt a wave of relief when he saw those brown eyes open and met with his ocean blue eyes. She started to focus on the form in front of her and her eyebrows almost came together with confusion.
"Jack?" Her voice cracked out and this caused Jack to sit up straight and smile at her.
"The one and only," he said.
Arielle started to recollect what happen. She took her pills before going to bed and read about the Myths, especially of Jack Frost. She fell asleep and dreamed about winter; the snow, the icicles, having hot chocolate near a fire and soon her dad came into the dream.
As Jack watched Arielle recollect what was happening, he notice her expression went from recollecting to happy, but yet sad. Jack knew what she was thinking about.
Arielle's dream of her dad was a good dream. They played in the snow like they used to, throwing snowballs, sledding, making snowmen or snow angels. She could never, ever forget those fun-happy times. Then all of sudden a shadow loomed in from that snowy scene. A shadow that shouldn't have been there for it was sunny and bright outside. The shadow consumed her dad without him even realizing it and soon the shadow consumed her as well. She soon came aware of her surroundings as the shadows being to disappear, her vision was starting to come back and it showed her something that she tried so very hard to forget. Her dad in the hospital bed with the machines blaring that his heart beat had stopped.
Jack watched carefully as Arielle's form started to shake and her eyes started to water. Jack didn't want her to go back into that state again, so he reached out and grabbed her shoulders roughly.
"Look at me, Arielle," he commanded as he looked at her, wanting her to make eye contact with him. She was struggling to comply to his commands as her mind was still focused on her dream, or to say nightmare. She suddenly felt two cold hands on her cheeks and forced her head up to meet Jack's eyes. They were serious, but also held something else in them that she couldn't point out.
"Don't let that nightmare win, even if it was what happened or not," Jack said. Arielle knew that what she saw was what really happened, not the shadows, but her dad and her playing and him in the hospital bed. Dead.
"Jack, it's more than just a nightmare," Arielle's voice cracked as her strength felt like it was being zapped out of her. She was mentally worn out and wanted to fall into a sleep that she would never dream and never wake up. Jack understood more of what her dream was about, not so much the event about her dad and what happened that day and that he…
"I never wanted to remember that day or less dream about it, but seeing it again in a nightmare… to see it visually… real or not… it still-," she started to break down. She knew she wasn't strong enough to hold herself back as many times as she tried. Not this time. Especially when her mother was around, Arielle knew that if she broke down, it would be the end of her mother. Her mother needed someone strong, even if it was from someone that killed her father on accident.
Jack quickly gathered her frail body into his arms as she broke down in tears and silent screams onto his hoodie. Jack did the only thing that he could think of and that was to let her cry out her sadness. Even though he only got to know her for over a month, she was sensitive, but strong. From what he could tell, she never cried out for his death to anyone. Even though she did break down a little when she talked about her father in the living room, she never gave it her all to fully accept it. He felt her go limp in his arms as her sobs were lessening, he felt her shake a little and he realized that his cold body temperature could be making her chill. He gentle moved her unto her bed better and while he was still holding her, he tipped her until she was laying back down.
"Arielle?" He said gently as he looked down at her, her head was still buried in his hoodie and still shaking.
"Please don't leave yet," her voice went from cracked to raspy when she spoke and her hands gripped tighter around him. Jack didn't have the heart to say he couldn't, not now. Well, it's not like he would anyways. He had to protect her incase the shadows come again and take advantage of her weakened state.
"I'll stay here until you go back to sleep, but let me get you new covers before I freeze you to death," Jack tried to joke and laughed at the end of his sentence. He heard her chuckle slightly and loosen her hold on him.
"Sorry," she apologized as she shifted to let Jack move.
"No apologizes, it's the least I could do," Jack said with honesty.
Jack asked where another set of covers were, since the covers that were previously on Arielle were now wet from the ice melting. She told him that there were a few sets in the closet. He walked to her closet and grabbed a matching set and placed it on top of her. Jack laid on top of the covers, but still close to her. At least now I won't make her cold. He thought.
Jack laid his head down on his arm for support and looked at her face. The moon started to make its presence known and made the room lighter. He could tell her face were swollen and red and her eyes were still glossy, but her smile was what he was looking for. She had a great smile.
"I wish I could have introduced you to my friend under different circumstances, he had to leave though," he didn't want to mention the shadows to her yet, he just got her to calm down and didn't need her scared again.
"Your friend? Is he one of the myths too?" She then laughed at that. Jack's not a myth, so his friend isn't either.
"You could say that, his name is Sandman, Sandy for short," Arielle's eyes beamed brightly at the name. So he exists too! Arielle thought as her mind went back to the books she read and came across Sandman's name a few times.
"If Sandy exists, who else?" She asked as she propped her body slightly with her arm to look at Jack better.
"Easy there spit-fire, I'll tell you more later, you need to rest before that brain of yours gets fried with too much information," Jack grabbed her arm that was propping her up and pulled her back down, he laughed at her frowning expression.
"Promise?" She asked with seriousness. Jack thought her expression was cute when she's serious.
"I promise. I'll also promise you another thing, there is another friend I want you to meet when we have another get together to have a snowball fight," Arielle was so excited that she didn't want to be in her bed anymore. For her to go out and enjoy the outdoors was what she wanted to do the most during this season and to be invited to snowball fights or to do any activity at all with others sounded wonderful enough.
"I can't wait!" Arielle snuggled deeper into her covers as well as snuggling closer to Jack. Jack placed one arm around her and smiled deeply at her form that should be the way it should; warm, cozy, and safe.
The connection he has with her is different than any other and it felt wonderful, but also frightening at the same time. He never dreamed of finding someone like her, who is full of emotion and fun and yet someone that needed care and understanding. This was something I was looking for, the answer was here all this time. Jack thought as he closed his eyes and thought back to when they first met. Even though their encounter wasn't that long ago, he had a strong feeling that she was his answer to his loneliness. Though he wasn't sure about how she felt about him, she seemed pretty happy and has a great time when he is around. At least that was good enough for him… for now.
As his thoughts carried him away he was pulled back to reality when he realized that Arielle was deeply asleep. He stroked her hair out of her face and whispered to her, "I'll be back soon, have pleasant dreams."
He got off the bed and stretched as he grabbed the staff that was on the ground from when he tried to wake up Arielle.
He walked quietly to the balcony door and opened it, he took one glance back at Arielle and then made a quick look over around the room to make sure she was safe. He shut the door, walked onto the balcony, and looked at the moon as his eyes flickered seriously.
"Please watch over her," he asked with thoughtfulness. He wasn't for sure if Manny would listen to his request since he didn't have much luck making contact with him. But if Manny is for protecting the children as well as everyone that walks this earth, Jack hope he would try.
As Jack called the wind and flew up into the night, he thought back about his promise to Arielle.
"Wind, take me to Burgess!"
Jack wasn't for sure if Jamie would be up at this hour, it had to be early morning as Jack flew into Burgess. He found Jamie's house with ease and floated by the window to Jamie's room and peered inside. He saw Jamie's bed a mess and a few clothes scattered here and there, but no Jamie. He floated down to where his kitchen would be and soon enough saw Jamie at the kitchen table eating cereal. Jack laughed out loud when he saw how horrible Jamie's bed head looked. As soon as that thought left him Jack saw Sofie walk into the kitchen and Jack almost landed on the ground. He laughed so hard, he was for sure Jamie and Sofie both heard him outside. Sofie's hair was always crazy, even when she was a child, but her hair this morning was sticking up EVERYWHERE. Like she stuck her finger into a electrical socket.
"Did you hear that?" Jamie asked tiredly, but alert enough when he thought he heard something.
"Hmm….no… I didn't," Sofie's voice dragged out as she was still fighting sleep. She hasn't been getting good sleep lately.
"I'm pretty sure I heard someone outside," Jamie got out of his seat and walked towards the window where Jack was at. Jamie opened the window and looked outside to see that it was quite and still outside, until Jack flew down quickly and faced Jamie face to face.
"Hey kiddo!" Jack yelled out, which caused Jamie to scream and fall backwards from the surprise.
"Jackie's here!" Sofie called out, clearly awake now. Jamie stood up slowly, rubbing his sore behind as he eyed Jack, not happy about the surprise attack this early in the morning
"What a greeting, Jack," Jamie stated sourly.
"I try," Jack said with his trade-mark smile, knowing Jamie would get over it soon enough. Especially the announcement he's going to make.
"What brings you here this early, Jackie!" Sofie asked as she jumped up and down from her spot excitedly.
"What do you think of having that snowball fight with that friend of mine?"