A/N: This. Is. IT. I hope it was worth the wait. I have had drafts of this chapter done for years now and I can't believe I'm finally getting to post it. I look forward to your comments. Did it go the way you thought it would?
(Also, lyrics used at the end of the chapter are public domain!)
He blinked back tears and glanced at the Muses, as though looking for an answer there.
Chapter Eight: A Stranger Beginning
It was officially January 28th. In this time zone, anyway.
Jack had not slept, as anticipated, heart racing and hands trembling. He had crept out of the cabin, just past midnight, hiding high in the trees to watch the ghost enthusiasts comb around the area near the lake with their night vision goggles and cameras.
A year ago, at this time, Jack was still searching for her, unaware that she was already gone but with a sick feeling in his stomach as though part of him already knew.
A new batch of offerings had been left at the lake's edge. Flowers, crosses, messages, and candles that flickered dimly in the night.
Jack had barely begun thinking that this had to be enough, it had to be enough mortals keeping her story alive, before he smothered that line of thinking.
It was the eleventh hour. He couldn't start sincerely hoping now.
But maybe he had been hoping the entire time and simply pretending not to, simply trying to ignore it.
"Miss you, Sawyer," Jack said, eyes fixed on the lake. "It's… been a long year."
Hours, he still had hours to go. Apollo was not going off the calendar year, but rather the exact number of hours, minutes, seconds that it took the earth to revolve around the sun.
Jack was attempting to put off flying to Mount Parnassus as long as he possibly could without being late. He did not want to spend hours there waiting with the Muses and the sympathetic glances they had gotten accustomed to casting him the closer they got to the deadline.
He was not looking forward to the way they would gaze at him if Rowan stayed gone.
Five hours, forty-eight minutes, forty-three seconds to go until that half-hour window of time began properly.
Things were proceeding at the pole as they would on any other late January day, though at a reduced capacity. Armored yetis were already heading out to Tooth Palace, to the Warren, to Sandy's island, to the woods near Burgess, in camouflage.
Two of Bunny's massive, sentient egg statues were pacing outside of the North Pole. A handful of Tooth's fairies had been dispatched to each location to keep watch discreetly. Small birds made of dream sand did the same. The hope was that if something went very wrong at one location, the others would be quickly informed by at least one messenger.
This seemed an odd time for the Guardians, minus Jack, to gather in one place. But here they all were, on the main platform, having pulled over chairs near the grand fireplace, eying the nearby clock.
This had happened before. On the first anniversary of Yelena's death, Tooth, Bunny, and Sandy had gathered at the pole to wait for the news. It felt too intrusive to wait at Mount Parnassus with the Muses, but they wanted to know the outcome as soon as possible, and preferred to get the news together.
Cupid was here as well, not yet seated, eyes fixed on the snow falling out the window. He had also been present to wait for the news about Yelena. In fact, until recent events, that had been the last time he had spent time properly with the Guardians as a whole.
Arachne was here too, sketchbook in her lap, hands moving quickly across the page.
"I am nervous on his behalf," North said, eying the globe as it turned. "Is this how it was last time? It is unpleasant."
Sandy, who was floating near North, nodded at once.
"Yep," Bunny said with a slight shrug. "You run off and get attached to a Mortal Muse and the rest of us end up having anxiety on your behalf. It's a terrible system."
"I imagine it's even worse at the ruins," Tooth said.
"Yeah, it's always tense there, that's why I'm hanging out with you guys," Cupid said. He squinted as he gazed out the window. "The hell is that?"
The others approached the window to see what Cupid was referring to. Something seemed to be stumbling through the air in the distance, large and bulky and awkward.
"Looks like a bit of garbage," Arachne said with a shrug before returning to her seat. "You know how careless the mortals can be."
"Mm, we should check it out," Bunny said, brow furrowed.
"You and me?" Tooth said, glancing Cupid's way.
"Sure," he said, though he seemed slightly thrown off at the invitation.
Sandy conjured up another dream sand bird, something he was doing a lot today, and sent it fluttering forward around Tooth and Cupid, the shapes above Sandy's head indicating that it would help light their way.
"Thank you, Sandy," Tooth said.
"Be careful!" North called as Cupid and Tooth shot out of the opening in the ceiling, Cupid's bow already in hand and the dream sand bird keeping up easily.
"Okay, we're getting down to the wire here—where are they going?" Erato said as she approached the platform, barely seeing her son and Tooth disappear from sight.
"Checking on something caught in the wind, do not worry," North said. "Is it time for you to leave?"
"Pretty quick here," Erato nodded.
"And you'll come back to let us know what happened?" Arachne clarified, not looking up from her sketchbook for a moment. Bunny still had his eyes fixed to the window, his ears turning and twitching, an indication that he was still listening to what was going on within the room. Sandy had settled into a spot beside Bunny to watch as well.
"Yes, as soon as I can leave," Erato said. "And that depends on how everything goes."
"How big is the window for Rowan?" Bunny asked, not averting his gaze from the window for a moment.
"Half an hour," Erato said. "It's better than some of them where we had to wait all day."
Bunny nodded in acknowledgement. Dark figures in the distance, trailing a small light, approached the unknown object. The smaller of the figures grabbed for it.
"I do not like sending you all there without protection," North said, brow furrowed as he watched the Muse.
"We'll be at the temple, worst case scenario we just duck back into the mountain," Erato said, setting a hand to North's arm and offering him a smile. "Besides, we'll have Jack there and we all have portals on-hand. We'll all be fine. Physically, at least."
North nodded. The day was sure to be emotionally exhausting. These anniversaries always were.
Cupid landed nearby, shivering and brushing snow off his person. Tooth was close behind, cradling a large book in her arms.
"Mr. Qwerty, I could have given you a lift," Bunny sighed upon recognizing the book.
"Ah, I must have misread the weather reports! I was not expecting all the wind and snow," Mr. Qwerty said through a shiver. Tooth set him down on the rug near the fire. "I didn't miss anything, did I?"
"No, but Erato is about to leave," Arachne said.
"Oh, how nerve-wracking," Mr. Qwerty said, reaching his arms forward to try and warm his small hands. Sandy approached and brushed a bit of snow off the top of the odd book-butterfly. "Good luck to you and the others, Erato."
"Thank you, Mr. Qwerty. I think Jack's the one that needs the luck," Erato said. She glanced at the clock. "I need to go."
"We will be here, be careful," North said, leaning down to give her a quick kiss in farewell.
"Hope everything goes well," Cupid said, giving his mother a quick (and somewhat cold due to the weather) embrace.
"Me too," Erato nodded, kissing Cupid's cheek. Pulling a portal from her pocket, Erato tossed it forward and in a flash of light was gone.
All nine Muses had not started their morning at Mount Parnassus, but all had gathered this afternoon, speaking amongst themselves in the main meeting room. Jack was settled into his chair, staring at the cup of tea that was on the table before him.
Polyhymnia had set it there, saying that the tea would be better for nerves than caffeine, and poured him a cup before he could object.
Jack had barely touched the cup. Several of the other Muses had barely touched theirs either. Some were on their third cup, eying the ruins and filling the room with nervous chatter and energy.
Jack was doing his best to keep his own emotions in check, to keep an anxious blizzard from crashing down upon them all as soon as they reached the temple. A gentle snow was still falling outside the windows despite his best efforts.
Thankfully no one had brought this up.
Clio re-entered the room, out of breath, as she had run out a few minutes earlier upon realizing she had forgotten something.
"Okay, regardless of what happens, I don't think you're gonna want to stick around very long after," Clio said to Jack, setting an armful of portals onto the table's surface before him, some of them bouncing and rolling to other parts of the table, clanking against tea cups.
"I don't think I need this many," Jack said, catching one of the golf ball-sized portals that rolled back his way, courtesy of Thalia.
"Just take them, you'll find a use for them," Clio said, turning to eye one of the clocks nearby.
Jack sighed, setting the portals in his hoodie's front pocket. Much like North's portals, they seemed to disappear as soon as they were placed there, the pocket still appearing flat. This was lucky, as they all would not have fit otherwise.
Jack's hands were still shaking throughout this task, for the nerves had not gotten any better as the hours slowly passed.
"We're almost done," Euterpe said from his right, smiling nervously, attempting to provide comfort.
"What are we waiting for anyway? When we go out there?" Jack asked.
"I've never seen anyone come back," Euterpe said, shaking her head. She was, of course, the youngest of the Muses.
"I've only seen Euterpe come back," Terpsichore said, speaking low. "But, it's this big burst of light, and there she is. It's not subtle or anything."
Jack nodded, setting the last of the portals into his pocket.
Clio turned from the clock to face the others. "It's time. Let's go."
Artemis made her way quietly through the dense trees and bushes, her footsteps light, her eyes focused. Even the birds did not notice her as she crept by, ever aware of her surroundings, controlled breathing fogging before her.
She paused only when she reached the edge of the trees, careful to keep in the shadows. She had a clear view from here of the ruins that used to be a grand temple dedicated to Apollo.
It was typical that Apollo would declare this site the birthplace of the Muses, even as the temple became little more than stones that hinted at something great in the past. He needed it to be about him in some way, shape, or form. Artemis could not help but roll her eyes at the thought.
Her brother was so predictable sometimes.
Carefully crouching down and getting comfortable, Artemis eyed the shadows cast by the trees. Judging by the position of the sun, things should be getting started shortly, and Artemis was not going to wait for a messenger to tell her how things had gone.
The Muses appeared from seemingly nowhere, a portal perhaps, and approached the ruins to formally begin their waiting. Near the back of the group was Jack Frost. It was clear even from here that he was fidgeting and tense.
It would seem that he was as attached to the recent Mortal Muse as everyone kept saying.
"Come on, Apollo," Artemis mumbled, eyes still fixed to the scene. "Don't fuck this up for me."
Everything ahead was bright.
The colors were vibrant and ever-changing, the shapes were abstract. It hurt to watch, but she could not look away.
The light seemed to call to her, to reach out until it met her cautious fingertips, sliding up her arms in ribbons, gentle and warm.
She closed her eyes and leaned forward, allowing the light to consume her until she was a woman-shaped star, bright and ancient and eternal.
For a moment, there was no sky, no ground, nothing to tie her to any plane of existence.
And then that moment ended.
The light dimmed, and suddenly she was falling.
She stumbled to her knees on a hard, worn surface, her eyes bursting open, gasping for a breath that, once released, fogged before her in the frigid air. There was snow covering the stone she had landed on. Her hands had landed in the stuff while attempting to brace herself, and her fingers were now turning pink in response to the cold.
She was naked. Why was she naked?
"Here," someone nearby said, handing her a simple black dress. She didn't look up to see who it was, grabbing for the soft fabric and pulling it over her head at once.
Scrambling to her feet, she found the person that handed her the dress to be Polyhymnia.
Erato was here, too.
Calliope, Urania, Clio, Euterpe, Terpsichore, Thalia.
Melpomene.
"Rowan…"
The voice was soft, disbelieving. She almost didn't hear it.
She turned and saw him, standing a bit further back than the Muses were, with wide blue eyes looking as though he had just seen a ghost. The snow that had been gently falling came to a stop as they locked eyes.
"Jack?" she said, and by simply speaking his name, remembered all at once what it was that she was doing.
The snow globe portal.
Running through Burgess.
Calling to the Shadow People, daring them to follow her instead, a desperate attempt to spare Jamie.
Running.
She was running again, now, bare feet across the snow and nearly crashing into him, fingers gripping the fabric of his jacket. "Jack, listen, Pitch is going to double-cross everyone, he's going after Jamie, I tried to lure the Shadow People away, I—"
But… this wasn't right.
Jack had dropped his staff, wrapping his arms around her as soon as she made contact and nearly lifting her off the ground, trembling slightly as he went. She tightened her grip on him in return.
But it didn't make sense, was he even listening?
"Jack!?" Rowan said, confused as he pulled away to look at her, his eyes wet with tears. "Jack, we need to check on Jamie, he's—"
"Wha—? Oh. Oh, Jamie's fine," Jack said. "Jamie's safe. Pitch is gone. The Shadow People are gone."
Rowan sighed, her knees nearly buckling in her relief. "You're sure?"
"Yes," Jack said, nodding, a tear slipping past one of his eyes.
"Then what's wrong?" she asked. Jack was acting so strangely. Had something else gone wrong in the battle? She reached forward to brush away the now-frozen tear, her brow furrowed.
There wasn't much closer they could get but somehow they managed, her forehead touching his, hand still on his cheek. "Jack?"
He didn't respond, instead pressing his lips to hers, sloppy and desperate.
Rowan kissed him back, almost as a reflex, frost twisting down her chin as always.
He had never kissed her quite like this before, trembling and holding on to her so tightly. She could feel his rapid pulse. When he pulled away, watching her with those sad eyes again, she said, "Jack, what is it? What happened?"
"Rowan, do you remember what happened after you tried to lure the Shadow People away from Jamie?" Jack said, his voice soft again.
"What do you mean? It just happened a little while ago," Rowan said. It felt odd that Jack wasn't asking how she knew Jamie was in trouble, that he already seemed to know about what had happened. It had just happened, after all.
Another tear slipped past those blue eyes. It occurred to her that this was the first time she had seen Jack actually shed a tear rather than expertly holding them back, and it broke her heart every second to see it. She reached forward again and paused.
Something was wrong.
She stepped away from Jack, out of his arms, her left hand still raised and eyes fixed to it in confusion.
There was something about it that wasn't right.
Her nails. Didn't she have chipping nail polish on them before? They were clean now, perfectly manicured. The lines of her knuckles seemed softer somehow, like someone had touched them up in a photograph.
She turned her wrist to examine the two stars tattooed there.
They were gone.
"Rowan," Jack said gently, stepping toward her.
She stepped back, her hands going to her hair, softer than it had ever been, and pulled at the strands so that she could see the color. Brown, her natural shade, not the burgundy she had been dying it since the summer before her sophomore year of college began.
Her body didn't ache the way it had when she was running from the Shadow People just a little while ago. Her head wasn't throbbing. Her vision had improved.
Her hands were trembling now and she checked her right thumb for a scar she had from a matte-cutting mishap freshman year and found that it wasn't there.
The bruises that had coated her arms and her legs from the attack during the new moon, marks like ghoulish fingerprints, were all gone.
Her skin was smoother. It seemed younger somehow, and suddenly very foreign.
"I'm dreaming again," Rowan said, meeting Jack's eyes.
Jack shook his head, his expression still sad.
"I have to be, my tattoos are missing, my skin feels wrong, I don't know where we are, I—I was naked, the Muses are here. Give it a minute and my teeth will fall out or I'll have to take a test I didn't study for," Rowan said, suddenly very aware of her teeth. She ran her tongue along them and they felt an odd sort of smooth, like they had felt when she first got her braces off.
The back of her front teeth didn't feature the permanent retainers she had been stuck with ever since the braces were removed.
Even her tongue didn't feel right.
"Rowan, I'm so sorry," Jack said. The cut on his forehead that had still been bandaged the last time she had seen him was gone, healed. "But you're not dreaming."
"Sister," Polyhymnia said, the first Muse to speak since handing over the dress for Rowan to cover herself. Rowan stepped away from the Muse, closer to Jack.
She was confused enough without the Muses interfering.
She reached for Jack's hand, his grip cold but familiar, soothing.
"Try to remember what happened after you tried to lure the Shadow People away from Jamie," Polyhymnia said gently.
Rowan turned away from the Muses, choosing to focus on Jack. Though the sad look in his eye was not comforting, it was better than the oddly sympathetic looks the Muses were giving her.
Why was it so important she try to remember this? Was she missing something? What was there to remember?
"I ran from the house," Rowan said, supposing she would humor them if it meant she would get some answers. "I wasn't really paying attention to where I was going, I was just trying to lead them away from the house. Then… I slipped."
It was starting to come back now. She hadn't remembered that part before. "I slipped and I skidded across the ice because I had been running. I landed on my face and gave myself a bloody nose."
She set her free hand to her face, finding no blood there. She continued, "I tried to stand up and I kept slipping. Then I finally did stand up and realized I was on the ice covering the lake. The Shadow People tried to follow me onto the ice, but when they tried, there would be a flash of light and they'd disappear. I think it was too much Lunar magic for them."
Yes, that image was clear to her now.
She paused, considering what came next. Jack frowned, eye contact faltering.
"And then?" Polyhymnia said.
"I don't know," Rowan said. "That is, I don't know… how or why, but there was a flash and suddenly I was… I think I was under water."
A shock of cold.
Darkness.
Gasping, swallowing water.
Reaching for the surface, only finding more water.
Sluggish movements.
Rowan's grip on Jack's hand tightened and her heart raced, her breath becoming shallow as the memory rushed over her.
Gasping, swallowing more water.
A pain in her chest, the sad knowledge that she couldn't breathe but trying desperately to do so anyway.
The moment when she stopped trying to swim.
A strange sense of peace.
Her life flashing before her eyes.
She wasn't quite sure when Jack let go of her hand, but he was gripping her shoulders now, seeming to try and fall into her line of vision as she trembled and gasped for air, tears blurring her vision. She was terrified, absolutely terrified, that at any moment the air she was breathing would disappear and cold water would fill her lungs again.
"Hey… hey, it's over, you're safe. Breathe with me, okay?"
She watched him, still trembling, as he forced a deep, slow breath, clearly still upset himself. She tried to match her breathing with his.
They hadn't done this long before Rowan had to stop to say, "Jack, how did I get out of the lake?"
He blinked back tears and glanced at the Muses, as though looking for an answer there.
This, too, didn't make any sense.
Jack had never looked to the Muses for anything reassuring.
Rowan turned in time to see Calliope give Jack a short nod.
"You didn't, Rowan," Jack said, his voice soft.
What?
"But I'm… But I'm here, aren't I? So, I had to have gotten out, I just don't remember," she said, wiping at her eyes. "Did someone else get me out? It's not like I'm dead."
Jack took a breath and Rowan wasn't sure how he managed to look even sadder than he had before. "Well, not anymore."
Not anymore?
"What?" Rowan said.
"The night of the full moon, the night you fell through the ice in Burgess, it's been a year since then," Jack said.
Rowan shook her head. No, no, that couldn't be right. It didn't make any sense. She was just there!
It occurred to her again that this unfamiliar place, the snow, the trees, the mountain, this was not Burgess. As she looked around properly, tears rolling down her face, she found that they were surrounded by the ruins of something.
And then there were the Muses. All nine of them, watching her quietly.
"No," Rowan said, turning back to Jack suddenly. "Jack, I'm not—I didn't—You're not telling me that I—I'm not—"
The ability to articulate anything had completely escaped her but as her panicked eyes met his sad, sad ones, part of her already know what he was going to say and prayed she was wrong.
"You've been dead for a year," Jack said. "And now there are ten Muses."
His tone was as gentle as he could manage, and at first that seemed to work. The simple statement, you've been dead for a year, seemed to settle into her softly, as though he had reminded her that she was forgetting her keys or something else equally mundane.
Saying there were ten Muses meant nothing, because at the moment, numbers didn't seem to mean much.
For a few moments, she watched him blankly, feeling nothing.
And then those moments ended.
The full meaning of every word hit her squarely in the chest.
This couldn't be happening.
This couldn't be real.
It had to be a dream, a terrible, terrible dream.
"No," Rowan said, shaking her head, stepping away from Jack's grasp, cold air chilling her face, wet with tears that wouldn't stop. "No. No. No. No. No. This doesn't make any sense!"
"I know," Jack said.
"Wh—What the hell am I supposed to do with this? What do I do? I can't—how can—what am I supposed to do?" she said, in hysterics now. The Muses were whispering amongst themselves and Rowan barely noticed. "This isn't my skin, this isn't my hair, I don't know where I am, what am I supposed to do?"
"Breathe, okay? Breathe," Jack said, taking a cautious step her way. He waved a hand and one of those joyful snowflakes tumbled through the air between them, hitting her cheek and leaving her with hitched breath.
She closed her eyes, forcing herself to breathe deep before opening them again.
"What do I do?" she said again, still trembling as she watched Jack.
"We'll figure it out," he said.
Erato approached the two, her steps careful. She set a comforting hand to Jack's shoulder. "Perhaps you should take Rowan to your cabin, Jack."
Erato turned her attention to Rowan. "You can try and get your bearings there. Jack knows where to find us if either of you need something."
Rowan didn't know what she could possibly need that the Muses would be able to provide her. But getting away from here, wherever "here" was, sounded much better than standing here, in and out of hysterics.
"Fine," Rowan said.
"Okay," Erato nodded.
Jack scooped his staff from the ground with one hand, pulling a portal from his pocket with the other. Even the portal didn't look right, much smaller than the snow globes that Rowan was used to. Before she had much of an opportunity to consider that this was strange, Jack had whispered their destination and tossed the small orb forward.
A swirling, intimidating portal opened before them, just as it did with the snow globes. Jack offered her his now-free hand.
Rowan took it, finding that although her skin didn't feel right, holding his hand still did.
She took another breath, and they stepped through the portal.
Commotion was to be expected the moment the bright burst of light took shape and a new Muse touched ground for the first time. But Artemis was unconcerned with the careful gestures and statements as the girl inevitably fell into panic.
She was even unconcerned when Jack Frost took her through a portal and departed, for that was to be expected as well.
Ever since the girl appeared, Artemis' smile had been fixed, her heart had felt light, her strange silver eyes bright and glistening.
Rowan's presence was not necessarily required for Artemis' victory to be as sweet, as satisfying as it was going to be.
But it would add a magnificent insult to injury, to more than just Apollo.
"Welcome back, Dear," Artemis said, her tone of voice sounding odd with the present grin.
Things at the North Pole had been tense ever since Erato had departed, everyone's eyes fixed to the clock.
There were a few scattered attempts at conversation that all ended as quickly as they began.
Yetis moved about in the background, pretending that it was any other day at the pole, though any of them that had to pass by the main platform seemed to do so slowly, hoping to be nearby if anything happened.
The elves were up to their usual mischief. If they understood the significance of the date, they did not show it, still eagerly seeing if they could break the prototypes that had been completed for them to test.
"Well, there's the window. They should know by now," Bunny said, breaking the silence as the second hand on the clock ticked past the top of the clock's face.
This did not ease the tension at all, nor did it start a new conversation.
A few more minutes passed, quite slowly.
"I do not know how you all did this before," North said, shaking his head. He had been pacing for the better part of the last half hour, unable to sit calmly and wait on even the least interesting of days. "Thought it would be easier on this side."
"It's nerve-wracking, knowing your friend might be getting hurt," Tooth said with a nod.
"On the other hand," Mr. Qwerty said, his voice with a forced, cheerful quality, "He may have gotten wonderful news."
"Even the good news in this situation is explaining to someone that they've been dead for a year and all the shit that comes with that," Cupid pointed out. Sandy nodded in agreement.
A swirling portal opened up. North ceased his pacing and everyone's eyes fell to the portal, some standing from their seats expectantly.
Erato stepped through, her hands to her hair to keep her roses from falling from place.
"Well?" Bunny said before she had a chance to properly greet the others.
Erato smiled softly, holding up all ten fingers. "Ten Muses."
A collective sigh of relief was released. A yeti appeared from seemingly nowhere with a tray full of glasses of eggnog, which Sandy immediately took part in.
"How is she?" North said.
"Terrified," Erato said at once, shaking her head at the offered eggnog. "Absolutely terrified."
"Well, that's pretty standard," Arachne said, taking a glass which she tapped against the one in Sandy's hand before taking a quick drink. "Where is she now?"
"Jack took her to his cabin," Erato said.
"Good," Tooth said. "We should check on them at some point, maybe in a few days?"
"We'll figure something out. For now, we should probably head home soon," Bunny said, glancing at the clock again. "Just in case someone still pulls something today."
The others murmured in agreement.
"If it's not too much trouble, can you drop me off at Ganderly on your way back to the warren?" Mr. Qwerty asked Bunny, taking the glass that Sandy offered him, though it was much too big.
"Sure," Bunny nodded.
"We should be okay for a few minutes," North said with a smile, taking one of the glasses and raising it. "To our dear friends, reunited."
"To my new aunt," Cupid said, lifting his glass.
Mr. Qwerty, unable to lift his glass, for it was too heavy for him, added, "To having a storyteller among us once more."
Pleasant music filled the room, playing on an old gramophone.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder, that is why I long for you. Lonely thro' the nights I ponder, wond'ring darling if you're true.
The Moon Clipper was often a quiet place, a solitary one. Manny did not frequently get visitors, and he did not often invite guests either. Moon mice used to wander freely, but for centuries now had mostly avoided the Moon Clipper's master, sticking with themselves.
Manny sat at one of the chairs near his globe, eying it carefully, hands folded before him.
The music played on, though Manny didn't seem to be listening, a song that was only old if you were mortal.
Distance only lends enchantment, tho' the ocean waves divide. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, longing to be near your side.
Manny set a hand to his pocket, pulling out a watch and eying it with a frown.
No sooner had he considered that his moonbeam was running late than the little beam of light, dim and weak due to the new moon being only two days away, appeared in his peripherals.
"Well?" Manny asked.
The moonbeam gestured up and down, as though nodding.
Has the love that once was dearer than all else to me grown cold?
"Thank you, that will be all," Manny said. The moonbeam seemed to nod again before exiting the room.
Or has absence drawn us nearer to each other as of old?
The moment that the moonbeam was out of sight, the chair that Manny had been seated in crashed sideways into a bookshelf, books tumbling forward, at the impact. A string of obscenities in a language that was of another world and hadn't been uttered in millennia came tumbling from the small man's mouth.
Odd instruments that might have at one point been useful to navigate the stars were thrown across the room, crashing into old picture frames, into small knickknacks, into other antiques.
He could fix any damage with magic later.
Promise then, you will not sever from the ties that bind us two.
A telescope was flung across the room, smacking one of the blank spaces on the wall among the portraits of the Guardians, leaving a noticeable mark on the wall at impact.
Say you will be mine forever, tell me that you still are t—
The telescope hit the gramophone's horn after bouncing off the wall, knocking it to the floor, the song abruptly ending.
The outburst was short, and Manny was pacing the room now, brow furrowed as his mind raced.
"It won't happen again," he said sternly, pausing only to eye the blank spaces on the wall. "It can't."
