X-x-x

Jack cried out in utter horror as he toppled out of a tree. The sensation of falling and hitting the ground gave him pause, before the pale realized that he was back to where he had fallen asleep. Jack let out a breath he had been holding, before he curled up at the base of the tree. Jack made himself as small as possible as he attempted to drag himself out of the fear and desperation and utter helplessness he had been feeling in that nightmare.

Jack choked back a sob at all that Pitch had caused him to do. Frightening the children was the worst thing that Jack thought Pitch could force him to do, besides harming the Guardians and Jamie. Jack couldn't keep himself together, no matter how hard he tired. The dream had been all too real, and with a soft sob escaping his lips, Jack crumpled further in on himself and began to cry.

It wasn't fair. Why was Pitch doing this to him? He wasn't really that evil, was he? Pitch just wanted to bask in fear, and Jack had given him a wonderful opportunity to do just that. The crying was partly in anger at himself for allowing Pitch to get such a tight hold on him in the nightmare. Why had Jack even attempted to confront Pitch in the nightmare? That's when everything had gone downhill. The winter spirit should have just avoided Pitch, and given the Guardians time to chase him away from this forest where Jack had fallen asleep.

Jack's soft sobbing continued for an undetermined amount of time as he desperately tried to get himself under control. Jack was failing miserably, because he couldn't stop thinking about what was going to happen if he fell into the nightmare again, and the Guardians weren't able to come to the rescue. What then? Would he be reduced to this in his waking hour? An emotionally destroyed Guardian who couldn't do anything because he was so terrified of what plans the Nightmare King had in store for him if he let his guard down?

Finally, something welled within Jack, and the crying finally tapered off, as the pale teen ran a frustrated hand over his eyes. A resolute look mingled with one of absolute devastation crossed his face. Jack was uncertain how long it would take to pull himself out of the swirl of emotional trauma that Pitch had inflicted upon him, but he just couldn't let Pitch win. He wouldn't let Pitch continue to do this. It was going to end, and Jack was the one that was going to end it. No free passes for his enemy this time. If Jack saw him while he was awake right now, the winter spirit was going to do what he did in the nightmare, and unleash a massive storm of frost and ice, making sure to finish the Nightmare King off this time.

A decision made on a course of action, Jack uncurled from the ball he had put himself into, and stood up, smacking his staff against the ground in determination. First thing was first. He was going to go visit each of the Guardians, and have them gather, to deal with Pitch once and for all. Causing fear in children was one thing, as that was just in Pitch's nature, and he needed a little fear to keep up his strength. It was another thing completely to put Jack through emotional hell and think that there would be no repercussions.

"Let's go, Baby Tooth. We need to get the others and make Pitch stop this game of his."

Jack expected to hear a peep of agreement from Baby Tooth, but he didn't. The only thing that greeted his hearing was silence. Jack's confidence in what he was about to go do wavered a little as he looked around the immediate area. "Baby Tooth?" No answer, and there was no flash of a blur that signaled her arrival, not her cheerful chirps upon seeing him. Jack felt a flash of fear race through him, and he quickly fought it down. Baby Tooth was fine. She probably just went to tell Tooth or one of the other Guardians what was going on, when Pitch had thrown him back into the nightmare.

Jack was about to go to the Tooth Place, when he wondered if perhaps Baby Tooth had gone to go and see Bunnymund, as the guardian of hope had said that he may have been able to find a way to block the nightmares for a short time. Jack decided to head there first. If nothing else, he could tell Bunnymund what had transpired, and that something had to be done now, before Pitch could render him a completely useless, emotional mess.

Jack went to the clearing near the pond in Burgess, and glanced up at the late morning sky, "Hey, wind!" Jack felt a weak breeze, and the winter spirit felt the first stirrings of unease, before a stronger breeze buffeted him. Jack let out a sigh of relief as he took to the wind and made his way to the Warren. That had frightened him a little bit. Jack was glad that he hadn't lost control over his powers while awake. That would have been a terrible loss. Jack was, however, exhausted, and he chalked it up to the how real the nightmare he had been having was, and that because of it, he wasn't feeling very rested.

Within minutes, Jack reached the Warren, and entered one of the tunnels, walking along it at a leisurely pace. He soon entered the main area of the Warren. Jack felt the sense of unease again, the feeling that something was wrong, when he found the Warren completely deserted. There wasn't any sign of the stone egg guards, or even any of the little eggs that were used for the Easter egg hunt. That was really strange. Had Pitch began to bother the other Guardians as well? Where was Bunnymund?

"Hey! Bunny! Where are you?" Jack flew along the drafts of wind lightly as he searched the Warren, checking every tunnel. Nothing. Not a hint of life, other than the lush landscape around him. As a last ditch attempt to draw Bunny out if he was there, Jack waved his staff and froze several of the walls near the tunnels, "Hey! Bunny! I'm frosting up your Warren. Better come and kick me out like you said you would!"

Jack started to get concerned when there was no annoyed scolding. Just silence. Something was very wrong, and Jack needed to find out what that was. Jack left the Warren, and headed to the North Pole, worried about what he was going to find when he got there. Even the cold weather of the North Pole didn't give Jack any comfort as he glided down on the wind to come to a light halt at the entrance to the castle in the mountains. Jack felt his anxiety start to rise as he didn't spot Phil or any of the other yetis that sometimes guarded the entrance. Jack hurried indoors, and what he found inside caused him to come to a complete halt, and just stand there for a long while to gawk at what he saw.

No one was there. The toys were strewn about on the work benches and table, as if the yetis had just decided to take a unanimous break. There wasn't even the telltale sound of the exasperated grunting and growling that the yetis let out on occasion. Most unnerving of all was that there was no jingling coming from the countless elves that lived there. Not even one odd chime. No booming laughter from North, or even any sign of the other Guardian.

Jack glanced up anxiously at the globe, and was relieved to find that it was still glowing with all of the children who believed in the Guardians. Nothing could really be that bad if all the lights were still there, but that didn't explain why there was still no one in the Warren or the North Pole. It was so bizarre, and Jack didn't like it one bit.

Jack left the creepily silent North Pole, and soared through the sky quickly to reach the Tooth Palace, a feeling of dread taking place in his gut as he wondered what he was going to find there. Jack arrived shortly thereafter, and wasn't at all surprised to find the place completely deserted, even though he had dearly hoped he wouldn't find it to be so.

Jack flew around in a slow spiral, until he finally landed near the mural. He shook his head in bewilderment. That was odd. Had children really lost a lot of teeth that day or something? Nothing seemed wrong with the Palace itself, as the structure was not decaying like it had when a lot of children had started to lose their belief in the Tooth Fairy. Nothing could be wrong then, right? Jack couldn't stand to stay very long at the silent Tooth Palace, as he was so used to finding it thrumming with activity. The fluttering of wings and the chirping voices of the many Baby Teeth.

With that feeling of dread slowly growing, Jack flew around in search for the Sandman. As he didn't have any specific home that Jack knew of, it was harder to try and locate the silent Guardian. After what seemed like hours of searching that took him all the way into late evening, Jack had no luck discovering the Sandman. The desperation within Jack grew. Had Pitch done something to the Guardians? After all, Jack couldn't find a way to the Boogeyman's lair this time around, and Jack supposed that Pitch would make it hard for Jack to locate the Guardians, if this was his doing. It would just figure that Pitch would do something like this in his waking hours. Maybe it had been to much to hope that Pitch would leave the rest of the Guardians alone after all. Maybe Pitch wasn't satisfied from his fear alone.

Jack hesitated in midair. If Pitch had done something to the Guardians, did that mean…did that mean he would go after Jamie too? He wouldn't. The avalanche that had happened in the nightmare had been devastating and Jack didn't think he could stand Pitch tormenting the child while he was awake. It would be horrible. Jack rushed to Burgess as fast as he could through the sky, and found, as he arrived at Jamie's home with a stumble out of the sky, that no one was home. Jack rested a hand against the house windows as he peered inside. Nope. Deserted. Were they out for the day, maybe, on a family trip? A quick check around the rest of the town made Jack's spirit fall quickly. No one was in town. There was no sign of anyone. No one getting food during a break from work. No one out shopping. There weren't even people wandering aimlessly around the street, and Jack could spot no children racing about and playing.

In fact, as far as Jack could tell, he was the only person around. What was going on? Pitch couldn't make an entire town disappear just to scare the hell out of him, would he? Before Jack could think abut the implications of this idea, he heard the soft laughter of Pitch sound close by. Jack whirled about, staff at the ready. No one was there. The chuckle sounded again, but Jack couldn't find the source, as he turned his head this way and that. Where was Pitch?

Pitch's laughter died down, and his voice was quiet clear as it resounded around Jack, "As entertaining as I find it that you created all this to escape from your troubles, I'm going to have to insist that you wake up and stay awake this time. It's rather tiring how you're trying to avoid reality. I didn't quite realize what you were up to for some time."

Jack tried and failed to locate Pitch, and the winter spirit laughed in response to the Nightmare King's words, "What are you talking about? I already am awake."

Pitch chuckled delightedly, still unseen, "Are you serious? Did you honestly believe that you were in a nightmare with me pulling the strings the whole time? How mistaken you are, Frost. I didn't realize that you still truly believe that that was only a nightmare."

Jack felt a thrill of foreboding at the seriousness in Pitch's voice, "Stop it, Pitch. I'm tired of you messing with my head."

Pith sounded absolutely beside himself with unrestrained mirth, "Messing with your head? The only thing I've done to you is cast that spell of enslavement. You're the one who has been deluding yourself by running from the truth and burying yourself from facing it head on."

Jack swayed a little, as he realized that the evening in Burgess was darkening, and that shadows were starting to creep toward him. Jack took several steps back, but found that he was starting to feel weary, like something inside of him had broken. Dimly, Jack heard Pitch speak again.

"I won't let you traipse here for respites anymore, Frost. It defeats the whole purpose."

"The whole purpose of what?" Jack demanded, but there was no response from Pitch, and Jack gasped as darkness suddenly came crashing down to envelope him in its shadowy embrace.

Jack felt his eyes open, and there was a stab of dread in his chest. He was back in the nightmare again, as he found that he couldn't move his body. The spell...Jack's eyes darted to Pitch's, demanding an explanation for this, as the pale teen was incapable of speaking now, due to the spell.

Pitch chuckled as he noted the look in Jack's eyes, "Think you're back in the nightmare, Jack? No, I assure you, this is quite real. It seems you took it a bit hard from killing your friends while under my control, so you've been retreating into your mind this whole time." Pitch grinned as horror sparked in Jack's eyes, "I could understand the first time you went off to that dream of yours. It was an odd reaction to such a violent day. So, I had a Nightmare go to your dream to spy on you a little, and then have it come tell me what was going on. I figured you were reeling from what you had done, so I didn't really pay it any mind. It was just a harmless little dream of trying to reassure yourself that I wouldn't possibly go so far as to follow through on my threats."

Jack gulped, realizing that when he had first woken from the nightmare, that he had seen a Nightmare, and had fled from it. And then again, when he woke up in Pitch's lair, where the Nightmares were watching him, but not attacking. Jack hadn't thought too much about this little detail before, as he had dismissed it as unimportant.

Pitch began to slowly circle Jack, his grin slipping into something more dark, "It was only after that avalanche and I saw you fall asleep again that I wondered what could possibly be going on in that little mind of yours, so I sent more Nightmares to find out. Once I realized what was going on, I had quite a bit of fun." Pitch smirked at the immobile winter spirit, "You do realize what that means, don't you?"

"No…" Jack managed to mumble, so in shock that he had forgotten for the tiniest instant that he was still under the control of Pitch's spell. Jack was currently more concerned with trying to find some way, any way, to deny what Pitch was telling him. It had to be a nightmare. It couldn't be real, because that would mean…that would mean that he had actually…had actually…

Pitch saw the look of terrified realization in Jack's eyes, and the Nightmare King clapped his hands in a mockery of applause, "There, you finally get it now, don't you? The reality you thought you were waking up to was in fact a dream world your mind made to escape from this 'nightmare', as you so foolishly continued to believe it to be, when in fact, it was your true reality." Pitch bared his teeth, "And now that those dreams are done with…" Pitch trailed off, loving the look of slowly dawning horror that was now taking place in Jack's eyes.

Jack wouldn't have been able to speak even had Pitch not had him under the spell, as his mind was currently buzzing and going back over the nightmares. If Jack had been in control of his body, he would have dropped to the ground and started to scream in denial. But he couldn't do anything, and Jack could only begin to realize that now that Pitch had total control over him, that he was going to be forced to endure more of the 'nightmare' he had believed himself to be in. And that there would be no escape until Pitch decided to be done with him.

"Come along now, Jack. I've fallen a bit behind schedule with your little trip away from reality." Pitch turned away, knowing that he didn't have to worry about Jack running off on him now.

Jack was unable to do anything other than follow along after Pitch with no protest. Jack was still numb with disbelief. He couldn't believe it…there had to be some kind of mistake. Pitch had to be stringing him along somehow…but…then Jack remembered all of the subtle warnings that he had received from his fellow Guardians. Especially from North and Bunnymund. Why hadn't Jack listened to them? Their warnings made perfect sense now, even if they had been a little vague.

As Jack felt Pitch's hand drop down onto one of his shoulders, Jack could only regret that he didn't listen to the warnings he had recieved. That he should have done something before it came to this.

A living nightmare with no hope for escape.

X-x-x

Pitch's triumphant mood over the next several years seemed to be so much more worse than when Jack had gone through them half aware.

Jack knew it was likely because Pitch was so pleased that the winter spirit had finally realized the truth. The terrible truth that what Jack thought were his waking hours had in fact been the dream all along. Now that that had sunk in, Jack found he could no longer come up with any reason to deny it.

However, at this point in time, Jack was beginning to become aware that he was starting to feel a bit drained. It was as if Pitch was siphoning too much fear from him lately. Pitch had make it quite clear that he found Jack's fear to be the best that he had ever encountered in his long years of existence, especially after Jack' misconceptions about reality had been cleared up. However, between that drawing of fear, and the mentally taxing toll on his mind of scaring the children, Jack started to realize that his body just couldn't keep up. The physical weariness of always being on the move, and doing something so distasteful as frightening children sometimes made Jack wish he would just fade from existence so he wouldn't be forced to endure it any longer.

Jack's energy was finally at an end, as a couple of months ago, the last few children that had believed in him and the rest of the Guardians had been extinguished, and the pain of no more belief was a massive backlash to Jack's whole body. What made the pale teen's fear rise even further was the fact that he was unable to communicate just how much of a toll the lack of belief had taken on him, and Jack was unable to tell Pitch that he needed a break to try and attempt to recover. He might have recovered a little, had even a few people believed in him, but Pitch was the only one being believed in now. All of Jack's deeds done under Pitch's direction were thought to be caused by the boogeyman himself. No belief and no rest was wearing the pale teen very thin, and Jack believed that without the spell, he would have already collapsed by now.

The weariness also stemmed from the fact that Jack could no longer retreat to the back of his mind to the actual dreams he had been having of his friends. Now that he didn't have that to fall back on when things became too much to handle, Jack was drawn further into despair as he was forced to live his nightmare with the realization that it had been his reality all along.

The sudden blurriness that appeared before Jack's vision that particular day was a welcome development, as he and Pitch had been about to terrify some children who had just gone back to cabins after hearing a scary camp fire story. The darkness that followed was also appreciated, as it meant that Jack had a break from seeing all the terrible things Pitch had been forcing him to do to scare the children. Freezing their feet with a thin bursts of frost. Making scary patterns appear in windows drawn in the frost. Causing cool breezes to scare those unaware of his presence. Causing chills to go up people's spines.

Jack could hear that there was some kind of muffled speaking overhead, likely from Pitch, which made Jack wonder if he had fallen over after all. The muffled speaking increased in its intensity, and Jack assumed that it was more than likely about how he was interrupting Pitch's schedule yet again. Jack, however, was deaf to whatever words the Nightmare King was saying, as something sounded in the haze of his mind that Jack hadn't heard in years.

The jingling of a sleigh. It was a distant but clear sound, and it slowly drained the fear from Jack as a warm feeling took its place. Jack felt the first stirrings of hope; of the thought that somehow this terrible thing he had been enduring would soon end.

Jack found himself plunging into complete darkness.

X-x-x

A/N: Here is a glimpse into the way my mind works aka how I came up with this travesty:

I have run across a few fics where terrible stuff happens to Jack and then he wakes up and it really was just a nightmare, and that was that.

I wanted to write something with a twist, where the character has the nightmare and wakes up, but doesn't realize for the longest time that the nightmare was actually the reality. I actually don't know if anyone has done this before, because I haven't had the chance to go through a lot of the other stories.

I did drop some subtle hints throughout the story, but subtle enough that people would more than likely overlook them:

Number One: Jack only ever sees Pitch in the 'nightmare' and never while 'awake.' This only changes in chapter 11, when dream and reality blur. Jack also never sees the Guardians drive Pitch away when he 'wakes up', but Jack's mind is telling him that the only logical way that he could escape from the 'nightmare' was if one of the Guardians had driven Pitch away.

Number Two: The same thing applies above for the Man in the Moon. Jack only ever looks up at the moon in the 'nightmare' and never looks at the moon when 'awake.'

Number Three: Jack sees Baby Tooth every time he 'wakes up' until chapter 11. The reasoning behind this would be that Jack thought that her death in the 'nightmare' had been cruel and utterly unnecessary.

Number Four: Jack only ever sees the Guardians one at a time when he is 'awake.' He tries to distance himself from reality by finding ways to help/hang out with/talk to the other Guardians, and eventually believes that the 'awake' state is obviously reality, because the 'nightmare' was just too terrible to ever be real. The Guardians were also trying to warn Jack to be careful.

Number Five: A little tidbit is when Jack is in the 'nightmare' and wondering how long he had been asleep had been a very, very tiny hint, but Jack immediately explains the feeling away, so it isn't as suspicious. Pitch realizes what is going on after the avalanche chapter, and tsks when Jack is trying to escape from the 'nightmare' at the end of chapter 10.

Number Six: In the text it is only stated in chapter three that he 'wakes up', and that is only because Jack truly believed that he had just had a bad nightmare. In chapters five, seven, nine and eleven, I think I avoided typing that Jack woke up, and that he only cried out or something, as a tiny hint that something was off.

Another small note is that this chapter is supposed to read a little shakily, as Jack is out of sorts at this point in time.

I don't know if my reasoning above makes much sense, but… this twist is the real reason why I was really horrified and 'crawling to hide under a rock,' so to speak, for writing the second (ch1) chapter of this story. I am actually on the edge of my seat wondering what all your reactions will be to what I've just done with this story, and whether I've made it make sense or not. I appreciate the reviews I have gotten, as it makes me feel a little more bold about posting each new chapter. But this one...I don't know...

And as an FYI, I'll be posting the epilogue after work tomorrow, because my eyes litterally can't focus on the computer screen anymore tonight. Prepare for some tears, because I think the epilogue might potentially cause a few.

And with that little cliffhanger, I will digress and allow people to either love or hate the direction this story has suddenly taken.