A Case of Frost
Chapter 10: The Calm and the Storm
Jack would have flown off the second Sam ended the call, but he couldn't leave the brothers stranded in the middle of the woods. So he was forced to take the slower route, with Sam and Dean sledding on the ice behind him.
Not them, he thought desperately, picking up his speed. Not him.
Not adorable little Sophie.
Not Jamie.
"Jack!" Sam called out. He shrugged his shoulders to show that he'd heard. "Don't worry so much! The Monster attacks at night. There's still four hours of daylight, at least."
Sam was right, of course. But he didn't understand why Jack was in such a rush. It wasn't about getting the Monster before it got Mrs Bennett. It was about being there for a terrified Jamie. It was about reassuring his best friend that everything would be okay.
Of course, getting the Monster was an added bonus. After everything it had done, all the lines it had crossed…
It was going to pay.
Jamie's neighbourhood seemed strangely peaceful when they arrived. It was as though nothing had changed at all since they'd left. The other children were still playing in the snow, making the most of Jack's snow day. A few adults who had finished work early were in the process of driving home. The afternoon was bright and calm.
Jamie was waiting on the bottom porch step for Jack and the brothers. He jumped to his feet when they came into sight, and ran forward to meet them at the fence. Without giving him time to brace himself, Jamie threw his arms around Jack's middle and held tight.
Jack stumbled backwards slightly at the force of the hug. As soon as he regained his balance, though, he knelt down to hug back. He thought that he was never going to get used to this feeling. He could only wish that it was under better circumstances.
Jack felt calmer at seeing Jamie safe. The visual proof that the boy really was alright made relief flood into his lungs, and he exhaled the breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding.
"I've got you, Jamie," he said, "You're okay."
Jamie sniffed into his shoulder. Was he crying? But when he pulled away, his wide brown eyes were dry. "I know. Thanks, Jack."
Jack squeezed his shoulder and gave him an encouraging smile.
"Where's your sister?" asked Dean, coming up behind them, "And your mom?"
"Inside," replied Jamie, "Sophie's watching tv and Mom's cooking dinner. They're okay."
"We aren't gonna let anything happen to them," said Sam. He smiled at Jamie. "You did the right thing in calling us."
"Of course he did," said Jack, "He's the smartest kid I know." He winked at Jamie and ruffled his hair. "C'mon, kiddo. Back inside. I'll keep an eye on Soph and your mom until it gets dark."
Jamie went back up the stairs into the house and Jack followed. Sam and Dean moved to join him, but he stopped them. They really weren't very bright, were they? Maybe he shouldn't have hit them over their heads after all. It had obviously done them permanent damage.
"And what's Jamie's mom going to think when two strange men barge into her house?" he asked.
"So you're just going to go alone?" asked Dean, "We have no idea what's in there."
"Aw, nice to know you worry about me." Jack smirked. "I know how to take care of myself, Dean. Jamie's mom can't see me, and we're not about to leave them unprotected. And like Sam said, the Monster only attacks at night. I'll keep an eye on them until then, and then we can catch it. Unless you have any better ideas?" Before they could think up an excuse, Jack was inside the house. "You guys wait in the car, across the road. I'll meet you outside Jamie's window when the kids go to bed."
He saw two frustrated faces as he swung the door shut behind him.
Just like Jamie had told him, Sophie was sitting on the floor in front of the television when he entered the living room. Her one visible, bright green eye looked up at him. "Jack!"
He took a seat next to her. "Hey there, Soph. What are we watching?"
She giggled and pointed at the brightly coloured shapes that danced around on the screen. Jack couldn't make any sense of it, but he grinned along with her anyway.
Jamie sat on the couch behind them. "Where did you go today, Jack? I was trying to call for ages, but Sam didn't answer."
"Sorry, Jamie. I'd say we were most likely out of range." Jack knew the basics of how cell-phones worked. It made him laugh when Jamie was surprised at his knowledge. In response, Jack would ruffle his hair and remind him that he was old, not a time-traveller. He had watched technology develop. He could keep up with it all.
Jamie frowned. "Around here? How far away did you go?"
"Deep underground," he said, "We went to talk to Pitch."
Brown eyes widened in alarm at that. "The Bogeyman? Did he hurt you?"
Jack waved off his concern. "He couldn't hurt me if he tried," he lied, "Don't worry, we just talked. He told us how to defeat the Monster."
"How?" asked Jamie, looking mostly reassured. His eyes were wide with awe now, rather than worry.
"We have to lure it out of its domain." Wherever its domain was, of course. Jack decided not to worry Jamie with that detail, though. He grinned instead. "Easy."
"What's a domming?" asked Sophie, tugging on Jack's sleeve. He hadn't realised that she'd been listening.
"It's like a home," he told her, "We need to get the Monster out of its house so that it doesn't bother you anymore. Sound good?"
Sophie smiled and nodded, her messy blonde hair bouncing into even more of a mess. "It lives under my bed. Will you get it out?"
"Of course!" he said, only partly in reply to her. The other part was in realisation. He honestly felt rather stupid for taking so long to realise. It was the Monster Under the Bed. What else would its domain be? Jack almost slapped himself for being such an idiot. He settled for merely sighing. He was getting old.
Sam held back a yawn as he watched the sun slowly, so slowly, go down, leaving a steadily darkening sky behind it. It had been a long day. No, scratch that. It had been a long weekend. Sam was starting to just want the case to be over so that they could leave Burgess for good. At least, if everything went well, they might be able to end the case tonight. They had no plan, but since when was a plan ever necessary? Running in with guns firing had only failed them a handful of times before.
The second that night fell, he was climbing out of the car.
"Time to roll," muttered Dean, following suit.
They loaded up with as many guns as they could comfortably fit on their person, which wasn't nearly as many as they would have liked. Luckily there was no one around to see them creep into the Bennett family's back yard.
Jack was waiting for them, as promised. He sat sideways on the edge of Jamie's slightly-open window, his legs squashed up in the small space of the window frame, and his stick leaning against the wall. He didn't look up when the brothers arrived, instead peering into Jamie's room and absently drawing frost patterns on the glass with his fingertip.
"All quiet?" whispered Sam.
Jack nodded. "Their mom's still up. She's the one the Monster will target."
"Which one's her window?" asked Dean.
"Around the side of the house, second along."
Dean nodded and after a look of 'be careful' at Sam, he went to go guard it.
Sam followed Jack's gaze, seeing Jamie's bed through the window. Two small lumps under the blankets were breathing evenly. It seemed that Sophie had opted to sleep in Jamie's room that night. Keeping the kids together - that would help matters significantly. Sam also thought he saw a hint of gold, but when he blinked it was gone.
"They're dreaming," Jack said quietly, "I can't quite make out the shapes, but it looks like a good one. Sandy must know something's up."
"Sandy?" asked Sam.
Jack finally turned away to look at him. His hood was pulled over his head, hiding the white of his hair and casting shadows over the sharp features of his pale face. He looked almost eerie like that, Sam thought.
"The Sandman," he explained, "The Guardian of Dreams."
Sam looked back into Jamie's room and, yes, there was the gold again. There was a string of it trailing in through the window all the way to the air above the kids' heads. Then there were moving figures above a swirling nest of gold. Sand, Sam realised.
"You never really mentioned the other Guardians," he said. It hadn't really crossed his mind before, but now he wondered about them. Jack Frost and the Sandman. Who else was there?
Jack shrugged his thin shoulders. "I don't see them all that often. A couple of times a year, maybe. They're always so busy."
There was a slightly melancholy tone to his voice. Sam saw, then, through his words and the strangely sad expression on his face as he watched the siblings sleep, that Jack was still lonely. Or, at least, that he was still recovering from three centuries of loneliness.
"What are they like?" Sam asked quietly.
A smile was on his lips when he answered. "They're great. Sandy's quiet, but he always knows what to say, and he's always so cheerful, too. Tooth's always working hard, she's so passionate about her job. Bunny's a bit of a pain, I guess, but he's fun to prank. And North is like an old grandfather or something. I'm pretty new to the whole Guardian thing, but he helped me adjust to everything."
"They all sound pretty great," agreed Sam. They sounded like a family. "And what about Jamie?"
"Jamie?" Jack sounded surprised. "What about him?"
"You care about him a lot. The way you act around each other… Like brothers." It was the only way he could explain it. It was the only way it could be explained. Jack and Jamie's relationship - it was familiar to Sam.
Jack seemed to let that sink in for a moment. He smiled. "I suppose you'd know all about that. You and Dean are lucky to have each other. You really have no idea how much."
Sam knew perfectly well. He didn't need three hundred years of loneliness to back up how lucky he was to have his brother. The death and destruction that had shadowed them throughout their lives was more than enough.
He glanced at Jack, who suddenly seemed so old. With the youthful face and ever-mischievous eyes, it was easy to forget that the small boy was really the centuries-old spirit of winter.
"You know, you really aren't what I expected," Sam told him.
Jack's lips quirked up. "I can say the same about you," he shot back, "You and your brother? Full of surprises."
"Appearances can be deceiving, I guess."
"Very," he agreed, "Remind me to introduce you to the Easter Bunny sometime."
Sam laughed softly, the sound loud in the quiet night, but he had a feeling that Jack wasn't kidding. He didn't ask.
"How's this attack going to go?" he wondered aloud. Sure, a plan wasn't necessary. But an outline could be useful.
"Get Mrs Bennett out first. Then we need to draw the Monster out from under the bed," Jack replied, "Once he's in the open, we can attack."
"And…" Sam hesitated. "And if it doesn't work?"
Jack's look was sharp, but then his eyes softened into fear and he looked like a young boy again. "I don't know," he replied quietly, hugging his knees. He pushed back his hood and looked up at the sky, and his face was suddenly bathed in milky moonlight. His voice was firmer when he spoke again. "It'll work, though. We'll stop this thing."
Sam believed him. He nudged him in a friendly gesture and gave him a reassuring smile.
"Thank you," said Jack, and the firmness with which he said it made it clear that he wasn't just thanking Sam for the support. It was a final kind of thank you, the kind that was said before taking the risky leap into danger. It was a thank you for everything.
"Thanks yourself," Sam replied. Then, after a quick clap of a cold shoulder, he turned away and went after his brother.
Dean was around the side of the house, leaning against the wall. Next to him was a tall window. The curtains were drawn shut so they couldn't see inside, but orange light was streaming through the gaps. Mrs Bennett was still safe. For now.
"Good?" Sam asked anyway, sitting against the wall next to him.
"She's not Monster food yet," Dean replied. He nodded in the direction of Jack. "How's the snowflake?"
"Worried," said Sam, "Although he seems pretty sure that everything will be alright. He said to draw the Monster out from under the bed. I guess after that we start shooting."
"Right. When is anything that simple?"
Sam shook his head and shrugged. "Maybe this time it will be."
The lights through the window flickered off. Sam and Dean stilled.
The waiting began.
"Jack!" whispered Sam as loudly as he dared. The wind picked up slightly, but Jack didn't join them. Sam hadn't expected otherwise. There was no way Jack was leaving his post by Jamie's window until the Monster's exact location was known.
So until then it was just the two brothers, waiting in still, tense silence.
Sam was struggling not to nod off near midnight. That was when the first sound crept through the glass. Something inside the bedroom slithered and rustled and hissed. Sam jolted fully awake and scrambled to his feet.
"Is that..?"
A whoosh of air ruffled his hair. Jack was suddenly silently there, standing in the snow beside the brothers.
"What are you guys waiting for?" he asked urgently, pulling at the window. Unlike Jamie's, though, it was locked.
"Move!" ordered Dean. Jack stepped aside, allowing him to smash the glass with the butt of his gun.
The sound of crumbling glass woke Mrs Bennett. She bolted upright and scrambled to turn on her bedside lamp. Before she could scream at the two intruders, Sam saw a hand grab her ankle.
A loud thud reverberated when she hit the floor, followed by screaming.
"Help her!" shouted Jack, already in the room.
He blasted ice under the bed while Sam and Dean followed him inside and ran to grasp Mrs Bennett by the arms. She looked up at them with fearful tears in her eyes. But when she realised that they were trying to pull her out of the Monster's grasp, she clung to them desperately. She kicked and screamed at the Monster, and earned a set of sharp fingernails scraping down her leg for her efforts, drawing thick lines of blood. She screamed louder.
With much struggling, the brothers got her free and immediately pulled her to the door out of harm's way.
"Go get the kids and get out of here!" Dean shouted at her.
She looked dazed and confused and terrified, but she nodded and stumbled off, limping on her bloodied leg.
Sam turned back to the ongoing fight. Jack was jumping back and forth around the room, shooting more and more ice at the creature to the point that the room had become uncomfortably cold. The Monster Under the Bed's outline was visible in the dark, writhing against the attacks. Then it stilled.
"It's trying to run!" Jack yelled, "Oh no you don't!"
Sam opened fire on the creature, and Dean did the same beside him. But the Monster stayed hidden in the darkness.
"How is this not affecting it?" Dean asked over the loud gunshots.
"It's stronger in its domain!" Jack shouted back, "We need to get it out!"
"And how're we supposed to do that?"
Sam knew the answer immediately. He stopped shooting and instead yelled at the Monster. "You're not real!"
It roared at his words. Dean also stopped shooting, although he kept his gun aimed at the thing.
"You're not real!" Sam repeated, "I told Jamie that, and I'll tell the rest of the kids. I'll go tell them right now! You aren't real!" There was silence. "So come and get me."
It did.
First there was a pair of arms, bony and thin and covered in rotting yellow flesh. The nails were more like claws, and they dug into the carpet to drag the rest of the Monster's body out. Its head was down, revealing small clumps of dusty hair surrounded by more yellowed skin. The rest of its body was just as bony as the arms, and naked apart from a filthy loincloth around its waist. It stank, too, like rotting flesh. Sam almost gagged at the stench that wriggled its way into his lungs. Dean and Jack didn't look to be faring any better.
The Monster looked up. Beady black eyes were sunk into its face over a chunk of a nose and a mouth full of browned and crooked, but very sharp, teeth. Bits of what looked sickeningly like flesh and sinew were stuck in its gums. The teeth were currently bared up at Sam.
"Mustn't tell dirty lies to the little kiddies. You'll get punished."
Sam and Dean didn't wait to hear more. They continued shooting, and Jack joined their attack, too. The Monster was surprisingly agile, though. It dodged the bullets and frost, swinging around the room and jumping onto furniture. Sam saw one of the bullets hit, sinking into the Monster's thigh. It didn't bleed, nor did the wound slow it down.
"Can't kill me! Can't kill me! Jack Frost should know. We're all immortal, silly Guardian."
Sam gritted his teeth together and kept shooting. More bullets hit the Monster, but not even the one to the chest stopped it.
"Nothing's immortal!" snapped Dean. If there was one thing they'd learned during a lifetime of hunting, it was that.
"Legends come close!" Jack said, swinging his stick at the Monster when it jumped right by him. "However we're going to stop this thing, it has to be some other way. Just try to hurt it enough to slow it down!"
"Well it would've been great if you'd mentioned that earlier!"
They ran out of bullets before the Monster slowed down.
"Crap!" exclaimed Sam, throwing his guns aside, "Now what?"
Jack was the only one left fighting. He threw ice and snow and frost at the creature, seemingly everything he had, but it dodged all of it. It started advancing on him, and he stumbled backwards against the wardrobe. His attacks grew desperate.
The Monster cackled. "Poor little Guardian! Jack Frost, all scared and in danger! Where's your little friends to get you out of trouble this time?"
Sam charged forward and did something stupid. He punched the Monster as hard as he could. "We're right here!" he shouted. Well, if they didn't have guns… He started pummelling the Monster before it could recover from his first punch. He hit and punched and scratched every inch of sallow skin he could find.
The Monster fought back. It was strong for its size, and its nails were sharper. Sam yelled out in pain when he felt the nails drag down his side, digging and tearing through his skin. The Monster laughed. Then it choked.
Dean had come up behind it and had caught it in a headlock. But the Monster struggled, kicking at his knees and biting his forearm with its sharp teeth. Dean somehow kept hold of it, and Sam pulled out his knife. The Monster went still at the glint of silver, but it didn't stop laughing.
"Jack Frost does have friends! Poor, silly Jack Frost. Doesn't think that I do, too."
Sam glanced at Jack, who was still backed against the wardrobe. The boy's eyes widened. "What-"
The wardrobe doors swung open, and a hand reached out. Before Jack had time to react, it had taken hold of his hood and dragged him backwards. Arms held him at the front of the wardrobe, and a face identical to the Monster Under the Bed's peered out of the darkness above his head. Sharp teeth gleamed and claws pressed against Jack's throat, drawing blood. Jack winced and stilled his struggles. Sam realised that Legends might be near immortal, but they were far from invulnerable. Who knew what a slit throat would do to the boy? Probably even he didn't.
"Jack!" Sam yelled.
The Monster took advantage of the brothers' distraction to break itself free from Dean's hold. It leaped over to the wardrobe and examined Jack, who glared back but didn't dare move. Sam and Dean started forward to attack, but the Monster held up a bony finger.
"No, no, no. Don't want your little friend to get hurt."
The two Monsters had a hostage, and Sam and Dean had nothing.
"You've got me. Let them go," said Jack, watching the brothers with anxious eyes. Sam wondered how he could possibly be worrying about them. The Monster laughed.
"Spoken like a true Guardian," said the one holding Jack.
"The Monster In the Closet, I assume," said Dean slowly, "Man, the jokes write themselves."
"Mocking me?" It gave Jack a little shake in its anger.
"You two quiet," said the Monster Under the Bed, "We want the little Guardian only."
"Why do you want me?" asked Jack, "Were you targeting me all along?"
"Should be thanking Jack Frost," it said, "Giving us belief back. So nice."
"But then taking it all for yourself," growled the Monster In the Closet, "Not enough belief to go around."
"That's what this is about?" Jack sounded incredulous. "You think that the kids believing in me is stopping them from believing in you? You're both crazy."
"What makes Jack Frost think he's so special?" asked the Monster Under the Bed angrily. It reached forward suddenly and wrenched the stick out of his hands. "This bit of wood?"
Jack had been careful before, keeping still and calm so that the claws pressed against his throat didn't cut deeper. Now, though, he was panicking. His face was paler than white, and his eyes were wide. He struggled, tugging at the arm around his chest.
"Give it back! Please! Don't-"
The Monster held the stick with both hands over its bony thigh. Sam realised what it was about to do, but he was powerless to stop. Neither he nor Dean could do anything while the Monsters had their hostage.
"No!" yelled Jack, too late. The wood splintered slowly, so slowly, before finally snapping, and Sam almost winced at the sight. A wince would have been better than the choked scream of agony that Jack let out. It was only a short scream, but no less pained than if it had been Jack himself torn in half. Then he went slightly limp in the Monster's arms.
The Monsters laughed, and Sam felt sick at the sound.
"Not tough any more," said the Monster Under the Bed, "How fun that was! Don't you think, Jack Frost? Does the Guardian of Fun agree?"
Sam stepped forward, shaking with anger. Jack had never seemed more like a child as he'd pleaded for mercy and then been quickly but effectively tortured. The Monsters had crossed the line. "Put him down. Now."
"If you say so," said the Monster Under the Bed, and the Monster In the Closet threw Jack aside like a rag doll. Jack grunted when he hit the wall and slumped on the ground, curling in on himself. He looked exhausted. Sam knew he was officially out of the fight.
No more guns, no more ice. What else did they have?
Dean nudged Sam while the Monsters laughed. "I have an idea," he said quietly, "Distract them."
Trusting his brother's words, and without a second of thought, Sam launched himself forward and started swinging his fists at the Monsters once again. It was two against one, and he was overpowered before he knew it. His lip split and his body bruised and he held back sharp cries with every hit he took. But as he was beaten without mercy, he fought back, lashing out blindly and sometimes even making contact.
The smell of gasoline filled the air, and a metallic clink reached Sam's ears. The Monsters noticed it, too, and halted their assault to look up. Dean, forgotten by both, stood beside the bed, his lighter held over the gas-soaked mattress. The Monster Under the Bed lunged forward, but the lighter dropped faster, and it stopped with a shriek of pain and terror. Flames engulfed the bed, growing higher and higher until they touched the ceiling. The ice from Jack's attacks melted quickly, steam rising up and filling the room like a sauna. Sam was sweating in the sudden heat.
The Monster Under the Bed continued screaming, and then fire engulfed it, too. It flashed white hot, and then it was gone.
The Monster In the Closet wailed at seeing its brother disappear before it, and it withdrew into the wardrobe. Sam caught its wrist before it could flee completely, though, and held it tight. "Not so fast," he growled.
The same fate followed. Another inhuman scream, another blaze of flame, a wardrobe burning into ash. And it was over.
Except, of course, for the still burning bedroom.
The brothers ran to where Jack had been thrown, and found that the boy was faring badly. Winter Spirits and fire did not mix, apparently. When Sam pulled him off the ground, his eyes had gone raw red and, although he was still cold as ice, his face was worryingly flushed. His fingers grasped weakly at Sam's jacket.
"My staff," he croaked.
Sam looked at Dean, who quickly rescued the two pieces of broken wood before they could burn. Perhaps it could be mended, although Sam highly doubted it.
The window was blocked by flame, so they escaped through the door instead. The fire was spreading. Sam dragged Jack through the house, away from the heat, with Dean following. They didn't stop until they were outside on the snowy lawn.
Thankfully, the Bennett family and their dog were already outside, watching the flames erupting from Mrs Bennett's window with terrified expressions. The sound of sirens approached.
Jamie's face turned to relief when he saw the brothers and Jack exit the house. He hugged Sophie tightly to his side. Then he caught sight of Jack's condition and he looked worried.
"Jack!" he yelled, running forward before his mother could pull him back.
Jack pulled out of Sam's supporting arm and he stumbled forward. "You okay, kiddo?" he asked dazedly.
Then he collapsed into the snow.
A/N: Only one more chapter to go! I think I might cry when this is all over.
Thank you again to all my lovely reviewers! Your support for this story is absolutely incredible!
Thanks for reading!