~Chapter 2~
The cold is what aroused Scarlet from her deep slumber. A biting chill seeped through the protective covering of her gray sweater dress. As reality pried its way into her sleeping form, she tried to remember why her home was so cold. She kept her home at a warm 75 degrees so that no matter the season she was comfortable. She had not dreamed but slept heavily in the darkness of her own mind. She groaned as the itchy feeling of poor circulation pricked at her muscles. She made to sit up but realized that she couldn't move. Her eyes popped open as she tried yet again to move her arms then her legs. Scarlet felt panic grip her stomach as she realized that she was bound by an unknown force. She tried to fight through the fear fogging her mind long enough to figure out what was going on.
She could see that she was in a cavern. It was mostly dark, but light filtered in from somewhere above. The small rays of sunlight chased the shadows towards the earth clad walls. Stairs and pathways stretched this way and that. To Scarlet's horror birdcages hung from the roof.
"A dungeon?" Scarlet whispered to herself.
A light chuckle echoed through the shadows seeming to change direction on a whim. Scarlet felt fear of the unknown grip her insides.
"Yes, fear. The response I was looking for."
A man's velvety voice drifted past Scarlet's ear. "She shivered as a cold breeze passed her. Like a phantom had brushed past her trapped form. A man stepped from the shadows just to her right. Golden eyes gazed at his prize as she watched in confusion. Slowly memories of rooftop battles and a crying Tila filled her mind.
"Oogie. No. Pitch. Pitch Black!"
Scarlet stated she glanced around, but this was not the roof they were at before she blacked out.
"Where-" She started.
"We are in my lair, a cozy little nook in the ground. If you haven't already guessed, it." Scarlet turned her gaze back on Pitch as the shock started to wear off.
"You kidnapped me."
Pitch laughed openly flashing his sharp teeth.
"Kidnap? No, you are hardly a kid my dear. More like claimed."
Scarlet's eyes widened. "Tila. You left her on the roof alone!"
Pitch rolled his eyes as the woman thought more of the little girl than of herself.
"The Guardians were there they surely took her home. They would never leave a child in despair." Scarlet didn't know why but this comforted her.
"The Guardians." Scarlet repeated his words. "Who-"
"Surely you are at least wondering why I brought you hear Scarlet? Or do you usually wake up in the home of a strange man?" Pitch cut her off before she could dwell on the five heroes of children.
Scarlet just seemed to realize she may be in danger. Wiggling her arms and legs she noticed that they were encased in the shadows of the wall. She couldn't even see them. In fact, she seemed to be dangling from it by her elbows and knees. Panic started to rear its ugly head again.
"W-what have you done to me!"
Pitch chuckled as he slipped into a shadow, "I have encased your lovely limbs in my shadows."
His voice echoed everywhere, "Wouldn't want you to try and attack me again."
Scarlet felt fingers grazing the skin of her arms where they disappeared in the darkness.
"Do not worry though, they are still attached to you."
The fingers continued to trace her skin all the way up her arms stopping at her neck, "I would never let anything happen to my precious believer."
A shiver circled her spine at the feeling of his voice near her ear. She squirmed again still unable to detach herself from the wall.
"Don't touch me!" She breathed as his hand smoothed her gray sweater dress down her arms.
The treacherous appendages squeezed her lower arms before finally letting her go.
"My my. I almost smelt a twinge of fear."
Scarlet shut her eyes as if it would block out the sound of his haunting voice. She silently rebuked her nerves as Pitch continued to terrorize her.
"If I truly wanted to harm you, then I would have done so while you slept."
A cold prickling ran down her spine as hands gently pressed into her hips. Scarlet held her breath as they needed the flesh there. She was mostly muscle, but some fleshy places stubbornly remained giving her the curvy figure she had. She might have enjoyed the feeling under different circumstances. She could feel the threat of danger growing around her. Like a sixth sense it pressed against her minds eye. Warning her of what could come.
"A twinge of fear, yes but there is something else there. Mixed with your fear."
Pitch's hands went from her hips to her shoulder blades as thumbs pressed into the gap between them and her spine. Scarlet's breath hitched.
Okay, now that feels good. She thought.
Her eyes closed in bliss as her initial fear was momentarily pushed away. Thumbs slid down either side of her spine keeping pressure on the muscles beneath. She involuntarily leaned into them. A sigh escaped her mouth before all her senses were set ablaze. The blissful bubble burst as his thumbs landed at the dimples near her ass. Scarlet's eyes opened wide in terror. The feeling settled back into her body as if it had never left.
"Let me go!"
She wriggled to escape the hands that now held her hips again. Those traitorous thumbs still pressed into her dimples. Her back arched as she tried to escape the wall. Pitch was undeterred. His shadowed figure reappeared in front of Scarlet. With hands still grasping her hips, he smirked at her arched form. Eyes widened on their new position before she made contact with the wall again.
"How dare you touch me without my permission!" Scarlet almost snarled as she was pinned with Pitch at her front and the wall at her back.
The boogie man snickered low and deep. He slowly removed his hands from her hips and placed them on either side of Scarlet's head. Leaning closer to her face he allowed the wall to support his weight. Guarded hazel peered into molten gold.
"Try as you may to sound brave, I can smell your fear. Like an aphrodisiac. Delicious and enticing."
Scarlet pressed back into the wall as Pitch inhaled her sent.
"Stop messing with me." She ordered while glaring at his leaning form.
His voice dropped into a husky smolder. "I am not messing with you Scarlet. It is you who are messing with me."
Scarlet felt her insides grip at the accusation.
"Such a temptress. Who would have thought that an adult's fear would smell so arousing? Like the most potent pheromone."
Pitch dipped down to Scarlet's neck where her pulse point was throbbing with her anxiety. He slowly inhaled again, his hot breath blowing past her ear. Scarlet stopped breathing as pitch removed his right hand from the wall to slide down her waist. She gasped as his hand abruptly grasped her outer thigh. The material of her dress sliding up inch by inch.
"W-What are you doing."
She was losing her voice as fright mixed with a burning sensation in her abdomen. The feeling gripped her stomach like a stress toy. Pitch didn't answer her as he pressed his body into hers. Scarlet's mind was fogging. Her breathing became erratic from the storm of emotions swirling inside her. His thumb rubbed at the exposed flesh of her thigh as the dress drifted threateningly past the point of no return. The burning in Scarlet's stomach somersaulted from the sensation.
Just when she was about to lose her mind, a black mare leaped out of the shadows wheezing urgently. Pitch visibly cringed growling in his throat as he turned to the nightmare.
"I do not wish to be disturbed."
There was a warning in his tone, but the mare ignored it shaking his head. Pitch had yet to release her thigh and his left hand had somehow entangled in Scarlet's hair. Pitch groaned as the mare related what was so important.
The man squeezed Scarlet's thigh possessively, "Perhaps this is more important at the moment."
He then turned to Scarlet smirking as he rubbed his thumb dangerously close to where her thigh met her pelvis.
"Duty calls but do not fret my darling temptress. I shall return soon, and we will finish this conversation."
Pitch leaned in as if to kiss her but in a breath he vanished leaving Scarlet petrified and...aroused? Scarlet shook her head losing the last shreds of her sanity. Abandoning all self-control she released a roar of frustration from the depths of her core.
The Guardians
The Guardians stood where the hole to Pitch's layer once was. During their former battle, the nightmares had dragged him beneath the ground. The entrance disappearing along with them.
"Now what?" Tooth asked looking about the area.
"We look elsewhere," Bunny stated glaring at the closed-off entrance.
"Where?" Frost asked slinging his staff up onto his shoulders.
"Everywhere!" Bunny yelled hopping towards the reddening horizon.
Dawn was fast approaching which meant their time frame in which to find Pitch was running out. North patted the Easter spirit's shoulder.
"You hold yourself responsible?"
Bunny sighed shrugging North's hand off, "I know it must seem strange but yes I do. Scarlet Flare represents something I lost when I became a guardian."
This grabbed everyone's attention. Sand man made a question mark above his head.
Bunny turned to them all sorrowfully, "Freedom."
They all glanced at each other wearily. Everyone but Frost, "Freedom? What do you mean?"
Tooth took the time to answer him for Bunny, "Jack, before we became guardians it didn't matter if the children believed in us or not because no amount of belief could change who we were just how strong we were. Now that we are Guardians-"
North took a step forward as Tooth's voice faltered, "Children stop belief. We stop being."
Jack's staff fell to the ground, "Wait. So, you're telling me that if all the children stopped believing in us then we would disappear?"
Sandman nodded and Bunny finally joined the explanation, "That's why we fight Pitch, Frostbite. To protect the children who in turn give us life. Watching Scarlet Flare and all the other Kickboxing sheilas make me feel normal. Free. Without it, I just got the Guardianship and the Easter eggs. That's great and all and I love the children but it's all responsibility."
Jack looked at the ground in disbelief. He was not told this when he took the Guardianship. Would he have excepted had they told him? After a little thought, Jack agreed that he still would have taken it. For Jamie, Sophie, and all the other children who believe.
A burst of laughter surrounded them as the sun started to cast shadows around the forest. The Guardians gathered in a circle back-to-back gazing out at the shadows for the source of the voice.
"The Guardians fight for belief and for life. Yet here they are trying to rescue someone who doesn't even believe in them."
Bunny pointed his boomerang threateningly, "Don't need her to believe in order to protect her Mate!"
Pitches eyes and sharp teeth peered out from a shadow between two trees, "Oh? But she does believe."
The Guardians felt a ray of hope lighten their hearts. "She does?"
Tooth seemed gitty at the idea as Jack grinned but North remained neutral. He seemed to be thinking of something. Stroking his beard and patting his belly. Pitch chuckled as the Guardians did their metaphorical victory dances.
"Oh, no great Guardians. She does not believe in you. She believes in me and I will protect that belief just as you protect the belief you get from those impressionable children."
The Guardians tightened their hold on their weapons as he continued.
"Unlike the children, adults don't forget so easily and I plan on making a lasting impression on my dear Scarlet."
Pitch's laughter echoed through the area vibrating off trees.
"Don't you touch er mate. Or I bloody swear I'll rip you to shreds!"
Frost was taken back by Bunny's tone. He sounded like he meant it.
Pitch's golden eyes moved from one shadow to the next looking at each guardian in turn. "Touch her? Well, there's a thought."
Bunny grit his teeth in irritation.
"I've never desired to touch a filthy child. Those who's beautiful nightmares and fear were my greatest gratification, but Scarlet…" He allowed the Guardians to squirm under his gaze, "She brings me a greater pleasure then any child's nightmare."
"AH!" Bunny lunged at the shadow housing Pitches gold eyes and sharp grin.
Pitches laugh died as Bunny fell through his shadow.
"Pitch!" Bunny growled as all signs of the boogieman disappeared.
Bunny ran from shadow to shadow looking for any sign of the bastard.
Tooth held both hands over her mouth fearfully, "You don't think he would?"
North shrugged rubbing his tummy as if to soothe it. "Pitch is bad, but he would never actually hurt Scarlet...right?"
Sandman was glaring at nothing with sand steam coming out his ears.
"We can't give him the chance," Bunny stated just above a whisper.
"Tracking de woman will not be so easy. She is not child. Our powers do not work to find those who don't believe in us."
Bunny cut down a tree with his boomerang. Probably pissing off Mother Nature in the process. His anger was palpable in the dusk light.
"I know someone who may be able to help." Everyone turned to North.
"Who?" Tooth asked curiously.
North smiled, "De Pumpkin King. Master of Al' Hallows."
~FIN
I'm trying to get the ball rolling but it all seems so rushed. Tell me what you think.
-Sisery Perigrin
