A/N: Hey everyone. This took me a very long time to write because the depth of everything going on was very intense. I don't think I got as...descriptive as I had formerly wanted, but it'll do. (It's the best I could possibly do, I was basically flipping my table over every hour as I wrote this.) Also, my beta is working on the chapter right now, but I decided to post it sooner just because I told everyone it would update soon. So there may be errors here and there.
WARNING: This chapter contains character death, Jack bashing, and plenty of cruel, sadistic Pitch.
Chapter 12: What is sin?
The hallowing sound that rose up from the hole was like none I'd ever heard before. It seemed to scratch and claw at my ears, as if it wasn't really just a sound and more so like a physical being. When my vision blurred, my head throbbed along with it.
"Jack…what—?"
"Shhh…" I quickly put a finger to my lips but my eyes never connected with his. "Don't speak…"
The air was heavy with smog. I had a severe urge to run away.
"Jack…I hear someone's voice…Someone is calling…my name…"
The anxiety infused features left my face and then I turned to the boy. He was subdued but something about the way he stood wasn't right. Green mist shadowed closely knotted to his feet as he took tentative steps in my direction.
I held a hand up in front of my chest, advising him to stop. "Hic…Who do you hear?"
"I think…" His eyes lost all control for a moment until he looked to the soggy floor then back up at me with fire quelling behind them. "It's my mom, Jack. I know it!"
In the next few seconds the boy pivoted on his heels and ran towards the bed. "Toothless! Come on!" The dragon followed and my hand attempted to grab onto his wrist but failed miserably. He was too quick. "Don't Jack…I'm going down there. My mom is—"
"Are you crazy?! Do you even hear yourself?" I spat into his face. "If you go down there, you'll die."
The ultimatum seemed to puncture some kind of wound into him, but that didn't stop his willpower. "She's in trouble…we have to help her, now! We can't wait!"
"I don't hear her, Hiccup!" I bellowed while he kicked the middle board with a shoe until it broke and shattered. He watched as it fell into the abyss and seemed to disappear from the world. "You're thinking too rationally. How do you even know that's your mo—?"
"Hiccup, my sweet boy, help me…" he seemed to mimic her voice, the one he heard at least. His stare was blatantly lost and confused, but the hope that shined within wasn't afraid. I knew that he was going to jump head first, right into the Boogeyman's clutches.
"Hiccup, stop this…Please…I don't know what you're hearing, but it's…it's not good! This isn't good, Hic…" I was begging him, which felt kind of strange. Begging usually happened in the bedroom…
An unwavering glare was set into his features when I looked at him in the next moment. It shook me like nothing had. I'd never seen him so…indomitable before. The strength overtook his uncut being and virtually had me rethinking a few things; like how I had basically seen this kid as someone who was incapable of taking care of himself. Perhaps I was horribly mistaken.
"Whether it's my mom down there or not, I have to know. And you're not going to stop me," he growled under his breath and then looked at his dragon. "Toothless…don't let Jack…" he turned pained as he finished, "get in my way…"
"HICCUP!" I cried and Toothless was on me, pinning me to the waterlogged forest floor. I struggled underneath scales and sharp claws, practically screaming out my emotions. And I watched as the boy began climbing down the hole, green eyes being the only thing left in my mind when he was gone.
"GET OFF OF ME!" I screeched as I began punching the reptile that was glaring just as forcefully. Each time my fist connected with it, ice shattered and the remains would litter across my face. I was starting to lose it, and by it I mean every last scrap of mentality that I possessed. "Toothless…Hiccup…" My throat was burning with fire and tears that were threatening the corners of my eyes. "Please, Toothless…He's going to die…" The dragon listened to me intently, showing some kind of sign that he really did understand, the way his eyes sparkled and his large head tilted to the side only slightly. I thought of the boy struggling through the darkness and coming face to face with his worst nightmares. "GO!" I shouted, "GO! Save him…please, Toothless, please. He can't die. Hiccup can't die…"
A few shattered moments passed and finally the beast removed itself from me. Only instants ago was he pinning me down, now he was wiggling his way into the pit.
I silently pleaded for the dragon to not be too late.
My hands clutched at the earth and I stumbled while standing up. With my fist tightly grasped around my weapon of ice, I instantly flew after the boy, into the dark depths of hell.
Blue eyes blinked in the effort to readjust to the major lighting comparison. Pitch black wasn't even the correct term. It was more like immortal obscurity.
The ditch had turned into more of a tunnel, I could tell that much. My cracked voice called out for him, the only person who mattered to me in the whole world. "Hiccup!" As I moved forward I could hear something, the sound of a struggle and shuffling that was eating away at my pained heart. It felt like my feet weren't moving fast enough. Like something was holding me back, trying to tempt me to go the other way. I was fighting it with all I had.
"Hiccup!" I tried again but the waves of fear and grimness were holding me almost completely still. I collapsed and my shoulder hit the wall with immense force. I was being drained and fear was soaking every ounce of purity I held. "Hiccup…" I began to use the wall as a guide, trailing my way across it with nails digging into the dirt that stuck underneath them.
It seemed like ages until I finally saw something other than perpetual darkness. With my voice raspy and drawn out, I spoke his name yet again. The next few things I saw were etched into my skull for years.
Toothless was battling the tall, slender figure whom I knew to be the enemy. Purple fire spouted across the room in tangents, sparking wildly like something straight from the underworld. I recognized it to be the dragon's own fire, from when he had saved me that time before.
But it stopped shortly after I had appeared in front of them. Because when I did, that was the end of it.
The end of Toothless.
A cry of death was echoing in my ears and I collapsed, my knees hitting the hard ground and my fingers scratching at my skull.
I saw him, eyes opened wide with blood dripping down his scales. There was a large, black jagged rod sticking out of his side, his body tossed into a corner up against a dirtied wall.
No words could explain the dread that covered my face.
"TOOTHLESS!" My own voice echoed and so did another at the same point in time.
My eyes shot to that voice, locking onto the boy who couldn't have helped his friend even if he tried. His tiny hands were shaking the bars in which he was held behind, racking them in anticipation of freeing himself. Tears drenched his flush cheeks, the hope was ripped from his system and throw onto the floor with no regards—no concerns to where it would end up. Pitch had trampled all over it in the time it had taken me to reach him.
At that sight, I had a new sense of rage that I didn't even know I possessed. I brushed off every facet of sadness and stood up.
Pitch noticed then, turning from the dying dragon towards me. "Oh! Jack…what a shame. You've seemed to come in at such a terrible scene. It's too bad about the dragon…But he was getting very…annoying, you see. I had no other choice."
"You bastard…" My feet took me towards him, eyes narrowed and burning. I was going to kill him. I didn't know how, but he was going to die.
The nightmare smiled at me and put a hand to his ear. "Did you say something, Frost?"
"I'm going to fucking KILL YOU!" I used my staff to send a powerful blow towards him. It shook my insides, I could feel my bones vibrating and the aftermath seemed to crack a dent into my soul with the force I had used. Things were no longer silent as I hunted after his retreating form.
Laughter was pervading my ears and causing the thought of my hands around the man's neck to appear in my mind, extremely vivid and forceful like it practically was screaming at me to do its bidding. And it wasn't like I planned on holding back.
"Jack!" I heard him yell, "Why don't you help your poor Hiccup!"
As my nails dug into the wood of my staff, I became mindful of the fact that the helpless boy was just back the way I came. Without thinking, I receded and ran in the opposite direction, contemplating only one thing: getting him out of here, safely and alive. Even if I had to spill my own blood for him, I'd do anything.
When I reached him, I saw that the spaces underneath his eyes were purple and covered in salt water. His shaky hand outstretched and then our fingers connected. He was ice cold.
"I'll get you out of here, Hic. I promise I will…just…" The eye contact was devastating me; I had to turn away from him. I'd never seen a look like that—so pained, so hopelessly lost and terrified. The boy couldn't even form words, though his mouth was frantically trying to say something. I tried to calm him as I heard more laughter in the background. "Hiccup…shhh, it's alright…" I grasped onto the bars tightly and pulled, searching for a lock or a key or anything. All I could think of doing was freezing over the whole thing so that maybe it broke under the cold.
"Stand back, Hic…" I told him but he hardly moved. I wasn't going to waste any more time.
Before I could knock my staff against the cage, I felt something wrap around my wrists which in turn pulled them backwards, towards the ground, causing my staff to jerk and fall from my fingers.
Terror struck me instantly like a shot of venom poisoning my veins. It was as if I had been…cuffed. Sure enough, shackles formed around my skin resembling two black slugs, attaching themselves to my flesh and binding me.
I did the only thing I could think of: I tried to take them off.
That worked as well as anything else I seemed to attempt.
I could feel Pitch breathing down my neck as he spoke to me in a deeply seductive tone. "They're my own work. Completely ice proof, made with you in mind of course." He grasped my arm around bony fingers; I let him, the only reason being that I could hardly move. My eyes stayed focused on Hiccup, though I was biting my lip terribly hard. "Everything is going as planned…" he whispered.
My throat made a small noise that I hardly heard. I was enshrouded by fear and confined. Toothless had been killed, murdered in cold blood right in front of his best friend. Right in front of the boy whom I loved—the one captured and locked in a dangling, rusted cage. He was inches away from me but I couldn't even touch him. The manacles denied me of that little pleasure.
I felt like maybe this was all some kind of bad dream. Perhaps Pitch had finally gotten to me and devastated my self-conscious, plummeting me into a very realistic way of showing just how much he hated me. Though the more I looked at the boy, blood oozing from a scratch on his cheek and the whites of his eyes so lifeless and disconnected from the world around him…
Well, the more I came to realized that this couldn't be anything but real life.
It was all happening—no matter how much it scared me to think about. Scared me to the point of denial.
My vision blurred as soon as his fist connected with the top of my head. I heard Hiccup shout my name, but it wasn't loud enough. It sounded more like a fuzzy ringing in my ear. Pitch knelt down beside me and lifted me up by the spikes of my hair. Short, exasperated sounds resounded from my throat and I winced.
"You're not very talkative today, Frost…Does none of this excite you?"
"I'm…going to kill you…" I managed to say. There was something growing inside of me. The urge to fight like I had been before was basically clawing its way out of my throat. My staff was just by his feet, I could almost...touch it.
I saw him sneer, like the snake that he was and his head shook back and forth, as if I was just so much lower than him. "You're going to kill me? How amusing."
"I will…" I craned my neck so that the pulling intensified but I was managing my way out of his grasp by a few inches. "I'll destroy you…"
The smile left his features then and without another glance, he let me go. I watched as he stood up and began pacing in front of the cage that held Hiccup. My hand shot out and my eyes became wide when he kicked the only weapon I had out of any kind of conceivable grasp.
"It's really too bad you feel that way, Frost. I was going to let you off easy tonight. But since you had to push me…" While reaching into his pocket I saw something else...Something that caught my eye and had me babbling out words that I didn't recall forming in my head.
"What…what is that? What's in your pocket…?"
"Now he speaks…" Pitch's unctuous hand went back into the confines of his pocket and pulled out a jar…full of teeth. Hiccup's head lifted up at this and he seemed to suddenly take the initiative to listen. "The boy wasn't crazy, Jack. He did hear his sweet mother's voice. Though it wasn't really her, of course, no. She's quite dead."
The brunet behind the bars had his arms wrapped around his chest and the petrified sounds escaping that mouth were completely excruciating to me. I snarled at the nightmare with my teeth grinding. "How would you know that?"
"Who…Whose teeth are those, Jack…?"
My eyes shot towards him—hearing his voice was like a sign from heaven, but it gave me optimism that I didn't ask for and that I knew, if it attempted to stick around, would only cause my downfall. I tried to speak as calmly as I could manage without chewing off my own skin.
"T-they're…yours…"
Shock didn't fill his expression; it was more like he began to further sink into the deep depths of tragedy and despair, as if he couldn't possibly do—or manage anything else. He didn't speak any more either.
But Pitch did. It always seemed like he could spit something out of his disgusting mouth. "You didn't tell him, Jack? That his teeth were missing? Surely you saw the empty container…" He began to circle me and I could feel Hiccup's wounded stare scorching into my flesh. "You see, the memories imprisoned inside these teeth were shouting out to him. You knew that his teeth were gone…but yet you still retained it from him." I didn't look at him but he was standing right in front of me, his golden eyes seemed to gleam in a streak of fire that was aimed towards me.
"I wasn't…I just…"
Hiccup spoke again, but his voice was so low I could hardly make out the words. "Jack…why di…ou—"
"Because Jack thinks he can do everything on his own!" Pitch's voice reverberated as he sang out his words, holding arms out to the ceiling in theatrics. "He thinks that no one is as strong as he is…and that he's just so grown up…" He turned and glared at me, hands now at his sides and one of them reaching back into his pocket. "Just so much better than everyone else…Right, Jack…?"
I don't…think that…I…
"No…" My lips parted softly as Hiccup's teeth disappeared and the dark, depressing hand brought out something else. It was a tiny glass bottle that revealed nothing to me besides for that whatever it consisted of was a deep color of red. I felt the mechanized need to ask him what it was, my mind wasn't really thinking of much else, and perhaps I just couldn't grasp the seriously dire need of the situation I was in. No matter what I told myself, my thoughts were in an utter state of disbelief and solitude, confining me and causing me to repeat the same words over again like water that was left to run, draining into anonymity.
I'm just so scared…I'm scared…I don't know what to do…
Pitch's answer to me wasn't what I had sought. No, he did nothing but approached the boy and then violently, without any thought it seemed, reached through the bars and dragged out his arm.
My body leapt forward on its own accord and I started screaming obscenities at the man who was putting his filthy hands on what was mine.
"Don't TOUCH him, you fucking bastard! Don't fucking tou—"
"Quiet, Frost!" he yelled back just as firmly while sliding his thumb over the soft flesh of the boy. I could see terror in Hiccup's eyes as he tried drawing himself away from the man, his lips speaking unheard words. It seemed that I was way too far away, too out of his reach. The shackles were attached to a wall not far behind me and became taut when I heaved hard, trying to get closer, struggling to be freed from the binds. I fought them with extreme force; I thought maybe my wrists would crack and break under the pressure. One thing I knew for sure was that they were burning hot even though ice was covering my fingers and forming them into statues as they hung, suspended in the air behind me.
I scrutinized Pitch as he brought the arm further out of the cage and drew the brunet's sleeve up, revealing skin. My eyes were watering at this point and I couldn't help but spout horrible words of hatred towards the cloaked man.
He seemed to be getting tired of me because the next thing I knew, I was lying on the ground, curled into myself and coughing up saliva. He had sent some kind of massive blow to my abdomen which in turn had me in the sorry state I was. I certainly couldn't yell anymore, so his goal was probably fulfilled.
But I could still see them.
Pitch jerked Hiccup forward so that his face was close to the others. I swear I was going to vomit.
"Such a cute boy…A disgrace that this had to happen to you…Jack just really has a bad habit of…" I saw his snake like eyes shift towards me and I cringed, "making a mess of things…"
I instantly told him to shut up, basically the only thing I could do at that point. And of course he just laughed at me.
"Please…" My head tilted when I heard Hiccup's voice. "Please don't hurt Jack…"
Something mind-numbingly painful was piercing my heart as he said those words.
He…he still cares.
Even after he found out that I was keeping secrets from him, the boy still wanted my safety, and he feared for me. Stupid, idiotic, reckless me. Jack fucking Frost, the immortal show off prankster that did nothing all his three hundred years besides produce dreadful blizzards and make angry adults slide and slip on the ice. And it was like nothing mattered to him. As if he didn't care about any of that, only…me. After losing his best friend to the man, it made a lot of sense that he'd be scared of losing me as well.
I felt the same way…towards him. Even if Hiccup was shy and sometimes impulsive, it didn't make a difference. Hiccup was and always would be my best friend and perhaps…maybe that was okay. My love for him wasn't something that could just disappear as soon as he made a mistake. We each wanted nothing more than for the other to be happy and free from harm. It was such a wonderful feeling.
And what a terrible time to think of something so important.
When Pitch spoke he leaned into the boy, nose almost touching his. I was completely still. "I'll do all that I want to Jack, and there will be nothing you or anyone can do about it."
Tears welled in my eyes and my head wouldn't stop shaking from side to side, as if I still couldn't understand anything, at least, I didn't want to believe it.
I blinked and then Pitch stuck something into the boy's arm, something sharp like a needle that formed from his finger. Hiccup cried out in pain.
My feet brought me up from the ground and I forgot about the chains for a moment. As I tried once again to go to my friend, they stopped me abruptly and brought me to my knees. All I could do was scream, "Stop! PLEASE! You're hurting him!"
Pitch cackled, looked at me with a malevolent grin and then pushed the sharp point further into the boy's soft skin. He was bleeding and crying and all I could do was sit there, fruitlessly trying to reach him with blood still crusted over my eyelid and tears streaming down in lines on my dirtied cheeks.
When Pitch drew back and observed the damage, he then uncapped the glass bottle and began pouring it over the deep cut. Red clashed with blood and in moments the liquid absorbed and crept into the opening on the boy.
Confusion took over and I expressed quickly, "What is that? What are you do—?"
"You're so loud, Frost…Why don't you just sit back…and watch?" Pitch sneered and then dropped Hiccup's arm, allowing the boy to recoil and shield himself in the farthest corner of the cage.
That damn laughter once again echoed through the dark corridors of the underground den. I saw him pick up my staff; flipping it around in his hands he then resumed his evil grimace on me. Only seconds passed before the man disappeared into the abyss. But not before placing a chilling hand on my neck, fingers sliding underneath the cloth of my hood, saying, "I hope this…pleases you, Jack. I will come back later."
And then it was just Hiccup and I once again. Though of course, this feeling was far from any that we'd experienced. I would have given anything in the world to be in that forest again, back before he had climbed down here, only to watch his dragon die and get locked away in a cage like some animal.
I had no idea what to say to him.
So I didn't utter a word. I only just hung my head, arms still balanced and dangling behind me. I kept trying to tug on them, though they never budged and the more I did the more worthless I felt. But I couldn't just…stop attempting to get out of there. I would never, for as long as Pitch held us here; I'd under no circumstances stop fighting.
Hiccup made a noise, something like a worn-out grunt and I lifted my head once again. "Hic…? Hiccup, please tell me you're okay…Please just—"
"Jack…" he whispered almost inaudibly. I saw him crawl his way across the cage and meet the front of it only to grip one hand around a bar and reach the other out towards me. His warm flesh was searing on mine, I would have collapsed if the shackles permitted me to. Our eyes connected and a new wave of panic hit me. Pitch had done something to him, something vile and disgusting. He would aim for me to writhe, just like he said he'd wanted all along.
My head collapsed into his palm and I nuzzled in his tiny embrace. "Hiccup…" I was still crying, but I hardly detected it. The fear and disgust swirling around inside of me concealed anything shown on the surface.
His dry throat spoke to me once again, "Jaack..."
But it wasn't the way he always said my name. It was so different, not normal at all. I'd never perceived it like this before but…I had wanted to hear it come from his lips for a very long time. For as long as I could remember I had longed to receive my name spoken that way.
Something clicked in my mind.
Pitch hadn't poisoned him or tainted his bloodstream with any deadly venom. He had given him some kind of stimulant—something like…a medication. I didn't understand how that was possible though. How had he acquired it…? Did he make it himself? Was there not enough for him to do, so instead he filled his time with making shit like this, maybe one day hoping that he'd catch me and, and—
"Jack…Jack…can you…"
I tried moving closer once again and when the chains rustled behind me I furiously growled and glared at the floor. Ice formed around my lips, I spat it to the ground. With my face as close to his as possible, that being a little less than two feet away, I said, "What do you need, Hic? Are you in pain? Tell me what's wrong, okay?" I wanted desperately to say that I was going to help and that everything would be alright and that this was all just…a bad dream…
"I…just…" I saw him wince a little and a tear fell from his watery eyes, "I want…you…"
My suspicions were proven right at that instant. Hiccup wasn't one to tell me when or even if he wanted me. He was way too shy, too shrouded in pride to even speak those words in my presence.
So the only other option was that he was intoxicated—with what, I had no idea. But Pitch wasn't like a normal person. He could create nightmares and conjure up deathly ways of negativity that would slowly rot you from the inside out. There was no doubt in my mind that he had figured out some way to make a vile concoction like this one just to push me past my breaking point. Just to fuck with me. That's all he was after anyways, right? He was just out to fuck around.
There was nothing in the world that I hated more than Pitch Black at that very moment. If I could have been let off the chains, I would have searched the whole lair for his grey face and without a doubt, I would…I would kill…
"Jack, please…I need you…it…hurts…"
My attention was brought back to the boy. I noticed his face was flushed and his lips were parted slightly, allowing air to escape fervently. And if this had been any other setting, it would have been such a turn on for me. He kept talking, even though I hadn't formed a single word. "Please…can you just touch me, Jack, please…? I need it…" Tiny hands went to the center of his pants and were placed across his lap. It pained me to watch, I almost had to look away. Pitch had gotten what he wanted, that was for sure. That slick, slimy, repulsive excuse for a living being had attained the pleasure of watching me at my weakest point. And on top of that, he had laid out something so totally unreachable and irresistible right in front of my reddened eyes.
Yet I still couldn't grasp it at all.
There's no way any of this is going to end well…
Yes…I knew that. But was I about to accept it?
Well, it's not really happening…
Probably not. Because well, there was no way to accept it. I was caught in a state of immobility. I was trapped in Pitch's clutches. And so was Hiccup.
We…we were…
Both as good as dead…
x-x
Hours passed by. Tears were shed. Hiccup asked about Toothless. It seemed as if he hadn't even seen what happened, either that or his mind was hindering the fact that he was dead. Though, it just made things seem that more surreal and…almost like a hallucination. In my head, I was back at the Pole, sipping on hot coco and laughing with the boy I loved. I was joking with Bunny and smiling at Sandy. North was grinning at me, the same one that had me feeling a little warm yet still kind of uneasy. Then he'd just wink and I'd smile back, shaking my head as I did. Tooth would be flying beside us, sharing cookies with her tiny friends and telling us stories about the kids and the many ways their teeth had fallen out. Some of the stories were funny, some were a little gruesome, but all in all it was a good time. Inside, I was smiling. Within the inner recesses of myself, I was actually happy. It was a false pretense that resounded and pulsated; soaking me in the light of what was untrue. I just wanted to leave…I just wanted to be…
Anywhere but here…
There was a ringing in my ears when Hiccup spoke up again for the hundredth time. I wasn't talking much though; I was too swallowed up in my imagination. "My arm hurts…"
"Pitch cut it," I told him curtly, "Then poured weird stuff on it…"
I was sitting on the ground, I'd scuffed holes into the knees of my pants and so they were most likely bleeding. The approach I had taken to break free from the chains probably wasn't the smartest. Though after spending ages trying to break them with ice or freeze my hands enough to slip out of them, I really wasn't thinking clearly enough to make the right decisions.
My traveling eyes lingered on the ground and then trailed up to the boy, evanescent but they held still for a few moments.
"Where…are we…?"
Maybe some of his senses were coming back. I wouldn't be surprised if the one who'd made him so screwed up appeared shortly either.
"Pitch lives here…The Boogeyman, Hic…" I said with disdain in my voice.
I noticed him swallow, but my eyes were too busy glowering at the specks of dirt to see anything else. "Where's Toothless…?"
I hated when he asked that. Because I hadn't even given him an actual answer to it yet. I usually just brushed it off and told him to breathe calmly—that he needed to relax and focus. But what did those words really mean…? I should have listened to myself, since I was basically doing the opposite. Even though I told him such strong words of encouragement, I still took none of them into contemplation. It was all so hopeless…
Once again I just shook my head, expecting that would sedate him for a while.
But it didn't. Of course it didn't.
"Jack….Where is Toothless…?"
Bloodied knuckles wrapped around my knees and I closed my eyes tightly, breathing quickened and my heart beat started to race. "He…he's…"
"Never mind…" he whispered slowly, "I don't want to know anymore…"
The air was silent and I wanted to die. For once in my never ending life I actually sought for its termination.
I heard footsteps approach me from behind and I braced for some kind of harsh impact. A strict hand fisted itself into my hair and jerked me backwards, my neck exposed and arched in order to accommodate to the force. I winced harshly, one eye closed and my mouth wide open with painful noises creaking out of it.
Pitch spoke to me, the utmost glee saturating his tone. "Are we having fun yet, Frost?"
"Fuck…you…" I snarled. If his hand would have been anywhere near my mouth I would have bit it off.
He just laughed and lowered his lips to my ear until they touched my flesh. "I'll take that as a yes, then." His hand pushed my skull forward and I buckled until my hands hit the floor and scraped against the rocks. Pitch then approached Hiccup and positioned a finger under his chin, scratching it with a dirty nail. "Seems the effects have worn off already. Perhaps I didn't make the serum strong enough."
"Let him go, Pitch…" I heaved upwards and glared forcefully in his direction. "You want me, don't you? Just let him go and—"
"If I let the boy go, then what will I have as leverage?"
My eyes narrowed then widened in seconds, the hard truth hitting me like icy wind. It wasn't just me that he wanted to toy with. He was going to use Hiccup as bait, as something to keep me there and possibly force me to do as he pleased.
I watched as my hands began to shake uncontrollably and tears fell beside my knees.
The only thing left to do at that point was beg. Beg for mercy. Beg for freedom. Beg for anything.
"Please, please don't do this. Please…he hasn't done anything wrong…He—"
"You're right, Jack," Pitch told me while balancing himself against the cage. The boy was pale and shivering in the bend of it. "He's done nothing wrong. Nothing at all."
"Then let him go!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. "PLEASE! Let him go…please…"
"I can't do that."
"WHY?! WHY NOT?!" I knelt at his feet, the nearest that the chains would allow me to.
He raised one eyebrow at me and kicked my shoulder so that I was on my hands and knees. "Because…" he sneered, "the boy must be the atonement for your sins, Frost."
My chest heaved up and down in alarm. "What…?"
"You're the one who fucked everything up, Jack. This is your entire fault. If only you would have just stayed out of the mortal's life, then he wouldn't be here. He would not be in any kind of danger. He would probably be at home, with his dragon and his friends and that girl he loved. He would have had a pleasant future, without you." Time was frozen as he continued to speak, the words floating inside of my head like gnats, feeding on my brain. "This is your doing. Your fault. It's all because of you that his dragon is dead. For in the end…it's your downfall…right, Jack?"
"You're wrong!"
Both sets of eyes landed on the small boy who had shouted. The cage creaked and swayed as he clutched the bars in those hands and scowled at the Boogeyman. "Jack is my friend! This isn't his fault! He…he's…I love…"
"I should have shut you up when I had the chance…" Pitch growled and in seconds he had waved a hand, dark sand draping around the brunet. Before Hiccup passed out I locked eyes with him and his mouth moved without sound, shattered broken words trapped within his lungs. I feared that I would never get the chance to hear them.
Though I understood what had been mouthed. It couldn't have possibly been anything but
"I love you."
x-x
I stumbled backwards and almost tripped over my own bare feet when Pitch locked the door of the bedroom after himself. My eyes searched the room for any kind of escape, though I still had the shackles on, he wasn't holding onto them. This could be my only moment to really free myself. I couldn't waste it.
"Quit looking, you won't find a way out. And I have this," he said while seizing my staff from a small alcove in the wall.
I hurdled towards him but before I could reach it, he cracked it in half over his knee, sending me into an agonizing state of penetrating torment. Tensed hands reached at the pit of my stomach which felt as if it had been ripped open and my guts were spilling out inside of me. I coughed up blood into my palm and looked up at him with hazy eyes.
"Take off your shirt," he commanded while he tossed the broken remains of my rod to the floor. I shook my head, lurching in reverse. He approached me slowly, like a predator advancing on its prey. "I said…take off your shirt…Or would you rather I go out there and cut off each one of the boy's fingers? I could bring them back in here for you to see, too. How would that—"
My head couldn't take this anymore. I grabbed at it in pain. "Stop it! STOP IT!"
"DO AS I SAY!" He was gripping my arm so tightly I couldn't feel it anymore.
I emptied my mind and obeyed.
The chains disappeared for a moment and my jacket dropped to the floor. Pitch's authoritative gaze was urging me to continue. I wanted to die. I wanted to retch and die and burry myself under a mountain of snow for the rest of eternity. That's all I deserved. I'd…gotten Hiccup messed up in all of this. I had caused Toothless to die.
All you do is make a mess of things, Jack…
"Yeah…" I voiced with a small, contemptuous laugh. My eyes were drawn to a mirror, which revealed me, shirtless, bloodied and bruised. I squinted at it, maybe hoping that it would change my appearance somehow. All I could do was hope anymore. I thought of Bunny for a short fleeting moment in time—the Guardian of hope…How I wished he was there to help me.
Pitch signaled a hand and the restraints reappeared, this time they were bound to the wall just above the bed which I was only a few feet away from. When his long fingers draped over the skin on my shoulder I stood completely still and continued my staring contest with myself in my reflection.
"You will call me master from now on, Frost. Is that clear?" He played with a piece of my hair.
There were no more tears to cry. I had hardened and solidified within in the past few hours. I finally accepted the fact that I was trapped and there was nothing I could do to free myself anymore. And if I wanted to keep Hiccup alive, I had to bow down to this man.
If that was the cost of compensating for my sins, then I would submit.
When I looked in the glass, my mouth didn't move. The likeness showed what I fabricated. But words drifted from my lips, unwillingly and entirely without any sentiment.
"Yes, master."
x-x
I think a few days passed by, though they seemed like hours, even minutes. Short seconds that loitered on and dragged their feet through the large expanse of time. The hours hardly seemed to really pass down there; it was more like they just…existed. Kind of like I did.
Pitch hadn't really given me the time of day. Sometimes he would touch me, but I tried to block out those moments. I tried so hard.
Though he didn't go any further than that. Every time he strove to, I would stare emotionlessly at the mirror and he'd hit me or give me another bruise somewhere on my body. I was tired and hungry and totally useless.
I worried about Hiccup. I wondered about the Guardians. I had told Pitch they would come for us. That they would save us eventually. He managed to shut me up by threatening physical harm on my significant other.
Sometimes I could hear the boy just outside of the room, shouting words to me. Asking me questions that I couldn't possibly answer. He told me that he was eating, but not very well. Pitch gave him enough food to keep him alive. I feared that when I finally saw him again that he'd be emaciated and surrounded in his own urine.
I was still so scared…but no longer for my own wellbeing. I was terrified that Hiccup would die and it would be all my fault. I could just picture Toothless' rotting remains in that corner and the boy's joining them, the smell of death wafting through the air, suffocating me.
I started to cry for the hundredth time.
That's when Pitch entered the room. He looked fatigued and worn out, as if he'd just come home from a tiring job that had put terrible strain on his back.
Well I wasn't about to fucking massage it.
"Welcome back," I spat out. He made me say those words whenever he returned. The man glared at me, as per usual. I asked him if he had fed Hiccup but he didn't answer me. "I need to see him…" I spoke quietly, bowing my head and tugging on my chains which icicles dangled from, they'd been there for a while.
"Nice try, Frost. But no." He sat on the bed, close to me and I scooted away from him.
"He's…he's alive…right? Tell me he's alive. Please…" I began to tremble and juicy tears were forming in my rough, reddened eye sockets.
The nightmare shot his gaze in my direction and collapsed on the bed. "He is alive."
I let out a sigh of relief and swallowed hard.
Thank god…
"Jack…I'd like for you to relieve me of my stress today," Pitch spoke to me and curved his wicked lips into a small grin.
Repulsion settled into my gut. It was telling me to get out, run away. But I couldn't. That was impossible. I had to do as he commanded.
"Y-yes…master…" I grimaced and ordered my body to move, it fought back with perseverance. I reached out my shaking hand towards him and drew a finger along the exposed part of his chest.
He shivered and smiled. "Come on, Jack…A little more than that, shall we?"
My fingers inched southward, but stopped before I connected to the swelling in his dark pants.
I hadn't managed to touch him before and everything in my soul was telling me to stop. I couldn't…I just couldn't. Hiccup was the one I loved! I loved him and I wasn't going to touch another man. I wasn't going to place a finger on anyone else. He could…he'd have to kill me first.
I withdrew my hand and when I did, he became infuriated and immediately crept on top of me, jamming me into the bed. I gasped as he pressed his hips into mine, tears dripping down the side of my face to land in my hair.
"Stop…please…" I looked towards the door, "Hiccup…"
He slapped me and I quieted.
"Don't say that name! I've told you before never to say that name in this room, Frost!"
I turned from him and apologized with silent lips.
He leaned into me and licked my ear. "You are mine now, Jack. That boy will soon disappear from this world and then it will be just you and I—forever."
Everything was over. My life was finished. At least, what I had remembered of it. Hiccup, Toothless, North and the Guardians…It seemed from that point on that I'd be incessantly cursed to dwell in this place, being tortured time and time again. Used and abused for all perpetuity.
My mouth spoke words without any kind of consent from my common sense. It was like they were working on their own agreement, detached from my body.
"I will never be yours…even when Hiccup is gone from this world. I'll always hate you."
In his rage he stripped me of my pants and scratched my chest, leaving bloodied pathways in their wake. I screamed and writhed.
Hiccup's voice was yelling to me.
"Jack!"
"Hiccup!" I shouted back to him as Pitch snarled above me.
And in that moment I knew that it was better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.
I could accept everything.
And I was dead to the world.
If only I could take Pitch with me.
My eyes connected with his and an epiphany struck me like lightning. It seemed so simple, suddenly. How had I not thought of it before? Both Pitch and I were immortal beings. Perhaps I had the power to…obstruct him from the human world.
Can you even do that…?
Pitch's hand slid up my thigh.
I don't know for sure…
He began inching his way into my underwear.
I have to try…I have to do something. I'm…I can't…
"JACK!"
The man's eyes widened and he leaned up, away from me. Hiccup's voice was shouting loudly in our ears.
"That boy has been enough of an annoyance! I think it's about time to get rid of him…"
"NO!"
"The Guardians! They're here!"
What…?
The door burst open and my prayers were answered.
Is this a dream…? It…is this…?
A boomerang was launched into the air and it struck Pitch in the side, causing him to scream. Our eyes connected for a second in time and I smiled.
"I told you they would come."
He growled and tried to escape but North was in the doorway, eyes gleaming with accomplishment. "You are not going anywhere, Pitch Black."
The Tooth fairy appeared as well and Sandy wasn't far behind. I couldn't believe my eyes.
How did they find us…?
That was basically the only question in my mind, everything else was obstructed by their faces.
North used a large hand to pin Pitch to a wall, as easily as that, he was captured. I was nervous that he'd escape somehow. He was squirming like a rat caught in a mouse trap.
Bunny was at my side and I was crying my eyes out.
"Mate…Jack, how do I get these off of you..?"
"Bunny…" I whispered through my tears. When I turned to the door I saw Hiccup, standing there, clothes dirtied and eyes outwardly hopeful. "Get Hiccup out of here, please you have to—"
"You cannot defeat me! I am Pitch Black, do you hear me?! I will always be here, just like all of you! I'll never disappear and I will have Jack Frost for my own!"
Everyone looked to me and I hurriedly put my pants back on. I turned to Bunny as North started yelling at the Boogeyman. "The chains are ice resistant. I can't break them. But they might come out of the wall if pulled hard enough…I just don't have the stren—"
"I'll get you out of here, mate, promise," he told me with a small smile.
I'd never been happier to see the rabbit—I could have kissed him.
He went behind me to try and yank the chains out and I looked to Hiccup. I tried to smile but it came out as more of a huffed, twitch of my lips. I could tell he wanted to run to me, but Tooth was holding him back as Sandy and North tried to keep Pitch under control. He was still shouting and I saw him punch North a few times. It was disgracing to watch, like a child throwing a tantrum.
"North," Bunny spoke slowly and he regarded him, "the chains won't budge."
The man in red pounded Pitch into the wall once again and demanded, "How do we release him? Tell us!"
"He is bound to me! Only I can free him. You're wasting your pathetic time, Guardians," he said with scorn.
My eyes were searching the bed sheets; perhaps they would show me the answer. That was when Hiccup broke free from the distressed looking fairy and appeared next to me. He laughed something like a choked giggle and then threw his arms around my neck. Sobs bubbled up from his lips and I wrapped my chained hands up his back.
It's…Hiccup…he's alright. He's alive and…and the Guardians are here and…
Everything was going to be alright.
And I accepted it instantaneously.