I sit on the steps, staring down at my clasped hands. "I'm sorry you had to remember this way Hayley." Pitch said.

"And I'm sorry you had to do that. I should've stopped you. And it might seem scary, but I can teach you to control it. To free from it-" He continues.

"How?" I let out a bitter laugh. "What power do you have to stop me?" I glare at him.

"None, but we can figure it out together-"

"If you think a memory is going to make me turn against Jack, you're mistaken, my friend."

"Well I'm sure he wouldn't be happy learning the truth,"

"That what, you're a monster?" I snap. "I'm sure he knows that."

"And you're no better."

My glare hardens. "Leave, now."

"We're not finished here-"

"I said leave!" I shout, and abruptly stand up. And the unthinkable happens.

As soon as I stood up, Pitch went flying backwards and hit a tree. He grunted and fell to the ground. I considered helping him, or turning away. "How did I. . ." I muttered to myself.

Pitch stood up with assistant of the tree, and leaned against it. He smirked and said, "Your powers are growing stronger. It's only a matter of time before they are out of your control, and your fear will swallow you. Join me, Hayley."

"No,"

"Fair enough," He walked toward me. "This isn't the last you'll see of me," Pitch disappears into his shadows, and fades into the darkness.

"Don't hurt him!" I scream.

Pitch Black chuckles and says, "I don't have too. You will," his voice echos, followed by a bitter laugh.

. . .

It's getting harder and harder to find him, considering Summer is a few weeks away. But you would think, this being his home town and all, he'll be here in his free time. I bite my lip. Jack does have another life. He's a Guardian for crying out loud. But still. . . I want him to be here. I need him to be here.

"Jamie!" Someone screeches, and I wince. "Jamie!"

"What, Soph?"

My heads whips around, and I see a flash of brown hair. "Jamie!" I yelled relieved.

As soon as his name exits my mouth, I see a small blur of blonde whip their head in my direction.

"What wrong, Soph?" Jamie asked her.

I walk towards them, tugging on Jamie's arm, but my hand passes right through him. The little girl next to him, though, grabs my shirt, pulling on it. "What are you doing, Sophie?" Jamie asks her.

Sophie looks up at me with big green eyes, and I have to suppress a gasp. "Death," She said, her voice sweet as chocolate.

"What?" Jamie asked, bewildered.

Sophie turns to him, clapping her hands in excitement and pointing at me. "Death!"

"Tell him it's Hayley." I tell her. She turns to me and smiles. "The Spirit of Death."

"She says it's Hayley. The Sp-spi-sprit of death" Sophie struggles on the word 'Spirit'.

"The Spirit of Death?" Jamie asks her, and she shakes her head eagerly. He becomes alerted. "Is Mom okay?" He asks me, but looks directly at Sophie.

"Yes," I say.

Sophie smiles at me, absent-minded. I nod my head in Jamie's direction and reality slowly dawns down on her. "Oh! Yes, she says mommy is fine!"

"Then why is she here?" Jamie asked slowly.

"I need to know where Jack is," I tell Sophie, and she repeats it to Jamie.

"He's usually in the North Pole this time of year,"

"Santa!" Sophie squeals, and claps her hands.

"Then I have to wait until he gets back," I say out loud, just as Jamie asks Sophie is everything okay, but I'm already walking away.

"She's going away, Jamie!" Sophie says.

I kept walking until someone called my name.

I let out a sigh of relief and threw myself in Jack's arms. He stumbled backwards, but caught me nonetheless. He uses his staff to keep his balance, and wraps an arm around me. "Is something wrong?" Jack asked as I pulled back.

"No, just- nothing." I say, and fake a smile.

He's not convinced, but he still looks at Jamie and Sophie questionly. Jamie shrugs and Sophie squeals, running up to Jack and hugging his legs.

She giggles and breaks out into a smile, looking up at Jack. "Cold," Sophie laughs and shivers.

I grab Jack's wrist, but pull back quickly. Now that I think about it, he was always cold. I guess I was too selfish to notice. He laughs. "What did you expect from a white haired teenaged boy named Jack Frost?"

"Too be the controller of the sun and heat," Jamie says sarcastically.

"Lighten up, Jamie." Jack says.

"Yeah! Lighting up, Jamie!" Sophie mocks, and tackles her brother, catching him by surprise and they both fall to the ground in a fit of laughter.

Jack smiles at them, and somewhere along the way I do too. But as I glance at Jack I see his smile is happy, but his eyes are full of sorrow.

"You okay?" I ask quietly, breaking him out of his trance.

"Huh? Oh, yeah?" I give him a look and he sighs. "Actually, I need to talk to you."

"About what?"

Jack looks nervously at the kids. "Later," He says. "I want to enjoy the moment."

I nod understandly, and watch as Sophie grabs a handful of grass and throws it in Jamie's face.

. . .

"So how'd you find this place?" Jack asks, as I sit on the porch of the Abandon House. I shrug.

"I don't know. It was a long time ago, but I came across it and kind of made it my place, if that makes any sense. Kind of like your lake,"

"I like it," He sits next to me, resting his staff against the steps.

"So what did you need to talk about?" I ask after a moment of silence.

"Uh, the Guardians." At the mention of them I tense up. "I might have mentioned you and they got mad for some reason,"

"Well I am pretty ferocious," I joked, making a growling sound.

"Oh yeah, no doubt are you dangerous," Jack laughs. "But they seemed angrier then usual, and I began to wonder if there was some past between you and them? Of course, I would've asked them, but the state they were in, I decided against it."

"Look, Jack," I wiped my palms on my pants. "I'm not gonna lie to you, there is some tension between me and the Guardians, and I want to tell you, I do. It's just, I feel like today would be perfect if there was nothing to worry about-"

"It's okay if you don't want to tell me. I mean, there's still some things I haven't told you. I just wanted to know if there was something between you guys. That's all. No pressure, just a simple question."

Jack intertwines our hands, and I instantly feel the rush of coldness run through me, but I don't mind it. It feels wrong, but feels so right. "Do you ever wonder if things would've been easier if we weren't immortals?" Jack asks.

Read my mind, I want to say, but bite my tongue. "Maybe. I mean, I can think of things I'd rather be doing than draining the life out of people, but being immortal does have a few advantages,"

"Yeah, but if you could go back, and change one thing, would you?" I stare into blue eyes.

"Possibly, but some things are out of our control."

"You're right. It was stupid, anyway." He sighs.

"Jack-" I begin, but have no idea how to speak to that.

"Sorry, it's just, I can't stand not knowing things. It killed me when MiM wouldn't let me know who I was. I guess I just really want to know what ever happened to my sister. Did she miss me? Did she move on? Obviously she died, but how?"

I close my eyes and take in a deep breath.

"Jack. . . . . there's something I need to tell you,"

(A/N) I am SO SORRY about the long wait. I just been so busy with school and studying and life and everything. But I made a promise to finish today.

I wrote a new story for the Divergent Trilogy called Scars Unseen. It might be a little intense for some, so. . . .yeah.

And please, please, PLEASE, I would appreciate any reviews. I would love to know how to make my writing better and some requests for future chapters.

-Julissa