Chapter 23
Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires.
-William Shakespeare, Macbeth
Sandy began to realize something was wrong. He has been sparkling the gold sand above the child's head for far too long yet the kid did not even show any signs of fatigue and sleepiness. Instead, the child's strong calculating gaze turned into a smile that stretched wide cheek to cheek. But, there was nothing innocent about the smile. Sandy blinked. No, it was full of malice. Sandy withdrew his hand quickly and pulled Jack back along with his other hand. Jack stared at the kid as if the kid's head would explode any minute.
"Sandy, why is the kid-?" Sandy shook his head and glared. 'It' was not a child.
The thing with a child-like appearance suddenly darted forward and ran away with a giggle. Quickly, Jack and Sandy followed it until it stopped in front of the green cabin door at the main deck.
It opened his mouth and strange garbled sound came out. It cleared its throat and tried again.
"Greeting." It said. It had a mature baritone voice in contrast to its young child-like appearance. "I have been waiting for you. It was amusing for a while to have uninvited guests onto my ship. I was wondering when you will figure out you have been playing into my hand. It took you all awfully long time."
Jack drew his staff into a fighting stance. "Who are you?"
It cocked its head. "Mmm, I believe in human term, you wish to know my name? I have been wondering that also myself. So, I have given myself the name of Molten." It giggled. "I believe it suits me just right. A perfect name if I must say so-"
Jack propelled sharp icicles toward Molten. Molten did not bother to dodge and instead watch with ease as the icicles pierced through him painlessly. The icicles landed on the ship's deck with a sharp thunk. Jack paled; the creature was the same as the ones back in North's workshop and they did not have the moonlight shards.
"Didn't anyone tell you it's rude to interrupt others when they are speaking?" Molten's eyes narrow. Then, with a snap of his finger, they were surrounded by more black creatures. The dream pirates that lacked any physical shape have crawled out from the very shadow of the ships wherein each dark corner, the awakened eyes blinked lazily. Molten then whistled sharply between his fingers and the basement door slowly opened with a loud creak. Suddenly, sharp skinny spider legs wedged out from the darkness until a giant black spider climbed out from the entrance with black silky strings that were coiled around unconscious Tooth and annoyed Pitch.
"Tooth!" Jack yelled. Jack and Sandy flew toward them but he was quickly stopped by Molten on the path. "Oh no, I wasn't finished talking." Slowly, Molten morphed his child-like appearance into a tall teen with wavy black hair and a pale face with freckles.
"What did you do to her?"
"Nothing, yet." Molten smiled innocently. "If you entertain me, I wouldn't do anything to her."
Sandy tightened his grip around his whip. Pitch rolled his eyes and spoke up. "Hello? Anyone worried about me?"
"You wouldn't get away with this!"
Molten sighed with boredom. "I have captured your friends, the kids you desperately protect and the adults. I already have gotten away with it. There is nothing you can do."
Pitch hated being ignored. He slipped out of his restraint like an impressive magician as quickly as a snake. Then, he bowed toward silent Molten.
Molten looked on with slight amusement. Then, he creased his brows in concentration. "Wait, you look familiar." A lightbulb went off. "The Nightmare King!"
Pitch looked on silently. He had a bad feeling where this would go.
Molten chuckled. "Ha, make sense you wouldn't remember me. After all, I was just a voice in your head. Man, that feels like ages ago! And look where I am now." He gestured to his Dream Pirates. "I made my own crew. Like em?" Molten came up to Pitch and put his arm around his shoulder casually. "I'm sorry they couldn't give you a warm welcome. My pet spider can't differentiate between food and guest. Hope there is no bad feeling between us."
Pitch just grunted in reply.
Molten spread out his arms in joy. "Well, why don't you join us? It's your rightful place being with the dark side." He frowned at Jack, Sandy and Tooth. "Not with this ragtag of a bunch. They look like they are only good to keep me amused for maybe only a couple of centuries. I bet they are boring as hell."
"Well, you do make such a sweet offer." Pitch finally let out a genuine smile. Then he glared at Jack. "I have been thinking I should have abandoned this group a long time ago. From the very start, nothing ever worked out as I have planned."
Sandy shooked his head in disbelief and lost all fighting spirit. How could Pitch abandon them at such a critical point? Sandy couldn't understand.
Molten laughed until a black tear sprang from his white unseeing eyes. "That's more like it. Anything for survival. You never change. Still selfish to the core." At this remark, Pitch slightly grimaced.
Jack whispered. "Bunnymund was right. We should have never trusted you."
Pitch didn't look at Jack. "I never asked to be trusted."
Molten took the new friend by the shoulder and led him to the green doorway. "Well, let's take our time to chat in my private lounge old friend." He glanced at the rest of the group. "Take them to the dungeon. I will deal with them later."
Dream Pirates did not have faces. But Jack swore that each of them grinned like a Cheshire cat, ear to ear. They pounced one after another and soon, Jack and Sandy were buried in darkness.
In the dark damp cell of the ship, they sat unceremoniously amongst the flickering torchlight. Their plans have failed and with some heavy toll to their confidence, Tooth was holding back her tears, Jack was pacing endlessly, and Sandy anxiously created multiple sand figures to occupy his passing thoughts.
"It was my fault. If I didn't touch the black string Pitch told me." Tooth said sadly.
"It wasn't your fault Tooth. We were playing into their hand the entire time. They knew we were coming!" Jack exclaimed.
Sandy gestured to Pitch's figure. Then he formed a string like a connection to the new creature named Molten.
"Yes, Sandy. I think they are sharing the connection. Whatever Pitch does, Molten knows about it." Jack crushed ice in his palm in anger. "We know about it now, but what can we do about it now? We have no way to relay back to North and Bunnymund. Mick must be convinced something went wrong because we are taking too long. And most importantly, we are trapped in this stupid cell!"
Jack's voice echoed off the wall. The torchlight flickered and the shadow danced. However, within the shadow, a single chuckle echoed back.
"Do you really have such a little faith in me?" The shadow teased. "You don't actually think I have abandoned you all and taken the easy way out?"
Jack bolted up straight. He looked around once more but there was nothing beyond the light. But he knew the voice. He would know it even in his sleep. Jack sneered. "You left us to rot, you traitor!"
"No, no my dear frosty friend, what I did was to strategically lie."
"What?"
"Come on, we don't have time," Pitch stepped out into the torchlight. He glanced at Sandy. "If you are right, then it will be minutes before he finds out that I have double-crossed him."
Then, Pitch's black eyes twinkled mischievously against the shining orange flame. "I have a plan."
