He'd been up for a while, since before the sun was out. Just lying in the darkness, thinking. He couldn't go back, and if they could just give him a month, he could figure something out. He could-
"Jack?" he heard Loki's voice hesitantly call out. He must have been on the spiral stairs leading up to the attic.
Jack inched over to the hatch and opened it. Loki must not have been expecting him to open the hatch right away because his face was right up to it. He met Loki's worried eyes and, in what must have been a trick of the light, he saw his friend's pupils...shift? From what looked like a horizontal slit bouncing back to a rounded pupil.
"Are you okay? I've messaged your phone a few times. " Loki moved back to allow Jack to make his way down the stairs with him.
"I, uh, don't have my phone." He whetted his lips and tried to avoid Loki's eyes as they stood at the bottom of the stairs.
"You're..." Loki worried his lips, tentatively glancing at him up and down. Jack was still in the same clothes he'd arrived in yesterday; his hair had spots of dirt in it; his eyes were bloodshot.
"you're in a really bad situation, aren't you? Like I know you said it was bad, but it's really, really bad, isn't it?" Jack's breath hitched. He felt like a dam was breaking. It was like everything that had happened was about to come oozing from his mouth.
A door opened in the hall behind them, and Pitch stepped out.
"Downstairs. Now." There was no room for discussion, and they headed downstairs to the living room. Jack hadn't noticed it when they walked in yesterday.
Jack sat down next to Loki on a long leather couch. Pitch stood, his back resting against a sturdy brick fireplace. It wasn't lit, but it looked like it was used fairly frequently.
"You reek of fear." Jack's eyes widened.
"I don't know what you've done or what's happened, but that amulet around your neck tells me you are not to be trusted." Pitch's fingers tapped rhythmically against the brick as he talked. His teeth gritted hard against themselves.
"My s-sister gave it to me. She found it at an antique shop and had my parents buy it for my birthday. " Jack explained. He's worn it every day for almost four months now. Pitch nodded. Pitch could sense lies and knew that Jack was speaking the truth.
"It is a protection amulet." Pitch's forehead wrinkled, and he took a heavy breath.
"Those are generally harmless, but that magic... I know it. Its creator was a twisted, powerful man. All magic comes at a cost-his is wicked and steep. " Magic? Did he just say magic? Pitch gave Jack a long look, and Jack realized he must have said that aloud.
"For that amulet to be activated the way it is, for the magic to be seeping off of it like that..." With how blunt and aggressive Pitch had been, Jack's stomach was tied into knots at the hesitancy the direct man was showing now. Loki shifted sharply next to him.
Jack looked over to Loki and saw that the raven-haired man was looking at him, eyes wide and horrified. What had he realized that Jack hadn't?
"That magic requires a human sacrifice." His sister's terrified brown eyes flashed into his mind. The burn of the amulet burned against him as he threw her towards the shore. The crack of the ice as her head slammed against it- as she slunk downwards into its frigid depths.
With a primal scream, he reached for the chain and yanked as hard as he could. It burned cold in his grip, and he felt his skin searing as he desperately tried to take it off. His sister, It had taken his sister.
Something tightly gripped his wrists and his hands were peeled off the amulet. Physical shadows were wrapped around his wrists and fingers. What in the fuck? He stopped moving in shock and followed the line of shadows to... Pitch. The shadows were stemming from Pitch's fingers, and he was moving them like puppet strings. Loki had jumped from the couch, away from Jack, and was now standing beside Pitch.
Magic. This was magic?
"I understand we've gotten off on the wrong foot here." It looked like it pained Pitch to admit that.
The man who made that amulet is well known in this town – and not for good reason. " Loki shifted nervously at that, as Pitch kept talking.
"I need you to explain everything that happened yesterday."
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It was a little early in the season for ice-skating. Usually, the weather doesn't get cold enough until January or February. December was still a day away and, so far, this winter has started off surprisingly cold and well, wintery. This whole week, the temperatures have been frigid, and the snow has slowly piled up.
Mary, having that morning noticed a koi pond thickly frozen over, had excitedly tugged at his hand, and he knew exactly what she wanted. Leaving a note letting their parents know what they were doing, Jack grabbed their skates from the garage and headed out.
Jack's car was a definite fixer-upper, but his parents had gotten it for him in August for his 18th birthday, and it was perfect.
His sister, Mary, sat next to him at the bank of the frozen lake. She was grinning like a fool. Her smile was missing in two spots where she'd recently lost teeth. Their smiling brown eyes met, and they both eagerly pulled on their skates, Mary with more eagerness than actual result, as she couldn't pull the tight shoes over her heels. As he reached over to help her pull them on, Jack realized with a soft fondness that she'd been growing so quickly that it was almost time for a new pair of skates. Her birthday was coming up in two weeks and he had about $200 saved up, so he might just have to get those for her. This was a favorite activity of theirs in the wintertime, so it would be money well spent.
Jack tested the ice first. stepping heartily right onto the bank. He wiggled around slightly and nodded to his sister. She was eagerly following him onto the ice. She zoomed onto the ice; she had made it just a few feet out when he heard the tell-tale signs of the faint sound of a... Star Wars battlefield? He looked at his sister and found a thin tail in the ice following her, the sound like a blaster echoing, a thin popping noise as the thin ice cracked.
Black ice. The center of the lake was only recently frozen; it was probably only two inches thick – if that. He should have realized it, but he thought because it had been cold all week...
Jack shot into action. Black ice was fine if you just kept moving. The second you stopped moving, your weight would fully break the thin ice. He was familiar with black ice. He was a boy and nearly 10 years older than Mary. He'd done his share of dumb things on the ice.
But... Mary was deaf. She couldn't hear the noise. It was black ice and Jack knew that if she just kept skating forwards it would be fine, but the loud vibrations from the odd sounds had caught her attention.
His legs reached Mary in a matter of moments. He reached out for her hand, and her eyes widened as she saw both his panicked face and the beautifully scarred ice behind them. He gripped her arm tight, but her short pause was enough for the ice to fully begin to break away behind them.
Adrenaline shot like ice in his veins, and he jerked her into movement. He was desperately attempting to drag her along with him. So long as she kept standing, they could beat the rippling ice, and he could pull her.
Fear seemed to turn her legs to jelly. Her legs shook and a knee gave way as the now rapidly breaking ice nipped at the back of her skate. He did the only thing he could think of doing. With all his might, he dug his skate down for purchase, feeling the ice give way even further below him.
Something burned against his chest, and he felt the metal of his necklace burning against him as he felt strength he didn't know he had. He flung Mary as far as he could, hoping that the momentum he could give her would give her enough speed to at least make it to the shallower water.
It seemed to happen in slow motion. She lost her balance from the push, and he saw her fall backward onto the ice several feet from him. Her head collided with a nasty crack. She didn't move again.
As the ice fell from under his feet, he saw the ice by her head give way. She slipped backwards into the icy water without a sound.
He awoke with a choking breath on the shoreline. Water filled his lungs. It took his muddled brain a moment to orient himself and register where he was. Where his sister was.
He screamed at the sight of the broken and choppy ice in the lake before him. His sister was in there. How had he made it out? If he hadn't thrown her... If she hadn't been knocked backward by him—would she be here next to him?
My God, he'd killed her. Agony ripped through him, and he couldn't breathe. A heavy weight against his chest made him clutch at the thick charm resting there. In his cold hands, the charm seemed to burn. He felt a wave of calm wash over him.
He needed to go home. He needed to leave. Leave town. They'd be after him. He killed his sister.
He felt these words wrap like smoke around his mind. Despite the icy cold clothes weighing against him, he felt his legs move forward.
It was nearly an hour and a half later when he reached his home. His parents were both still out — they'd gone into the nearby city to go Christmas shopping and would be gone a few more hours.
His limbs were so numb that he wasn't even sure if they were his anymore. They moved. They pushed forward and he found himself in the warmth of the house. He stumbled through the home to the bathroom. It became an Olympic event to even peel the soaked clothes off his body. He wasn't even sure if his fingers were working properly. He was numb. He caught a glimpse of someone in the round bathroom mirror. Who was...? Was that... him?
Hair made of moonlight was spun on top of his head and eyes... Suddenly, frantic, electric blue eyes stared back at him.
Leave. They know what you've done. His chest burned again.
He didn't have his phone—he didn't know where it was. It might have been in the lake or still in his car. He didn't know why he'd left his car. Why hadn't he called for help? His feet just kept walking.
He walked over to his computer and opened Discord. A short call later, he was greeted by his gaming buddy Loki. Someone he'd played games with almost daily since he was 16 and his parents bought him his first laptop.
His voice must have betrayed the situation, though he wasn't sure how. He felt no emotions. He felt numb even though the warmth of the house was settling back into his skin. Loki gave him his address and told him to come.
Go. You can't stay here. The amulet burned like cold ice against his skin.
He packed his bag, grabbing his money and a picture of him and his sister before he walked out the door. He called a taxi at the nearest payphone and waited in the cold.
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Loki had excused himself when he heard the direction the story was going in. Pitch stared intently at him as he told his story. When he finished speaking, there was a long silence, and then-
"It's not your fault, you know. You could go back if you wanted to. " Pitch's amber eyes held some emotion in them that Jack couldn't make out. And he couldn't bear the look any longer.
You can't go back. The amulet burned against his skin.
"I think... it talks to me," Jack admitted, his fingernails clenching in his fists.
"It may very well be."
"The amulet is trying to protect you, in the best way it knows how." The warlock, Manin, the being who had made the amulet, was a twisted and dark individual. His idea of right and what was actually right were likely very far away from each other. Still, the compulsion from the amulet was fierce to a fault.
"When you fell into that water, you likely died." His words took a moment to settle in Jack's head.
"The amulet used the sacrifice of your sister to resurrect you. Should you take that amulet off, you'll likely die. "
"What if I want to?" Jack shot back brokenly.
"You've already tried to take it off, haven't you? You're not strong enough to fight it."
Jack clutched his head in his hands at that. Pitch was right. He wasn't strong enough to save his sister, and he wasn't strong enough to save himself now.
He heard Pitch begin to walk away.
"You can stay here for exactly one month. On January 1st, you don't have to go home, but you will not be welcome here. "