Pitch's Revenge

Chapter 1

The Vanishings

It had been a decade since the Nightmare War. As it stood, much of Earth was still at peace, no worried to be had. At first glance, everything appeared to be fine.

Well, almost everything. In Jack's eyes, the only problem lay in the fact that Jamie had grown a lot older since then. At the age of twenty, attending college and seemingly excelling in the subject of technology, Jamie was clearly doing great in life. As unfortunate being in his home town only over the holidays was to Jack, that wasn't the problem. However, what was the problem was that his belief was slowly dissipating. Yes, he could have expected that. After all, Jamie had a life of his own and adults very rarely believed in spirits. This didn't make it any easier for Jack to see doubt starting to grow in his first believer's mind, telling him that perhaps all those spirits were only part of his imagination. It seemed that soon, Jamie might stop believing in Jack altogether.

"He's growing up. There is a time in every child's life when they need to face the world out of the one they've been living in. And we can't help them, Jack. Sometimes, you just have to let them help themselves, to forget," Toothiana had said to him at least a dozen times in the past two years. She was right of course, but it wasn't as though she had taken it any better.

"Cheer up, mate. You got yourself plenty of other kids to believe in ya, no need to mope around. You're the spirit of Fun, not the blimin' spirit of misery," Bunny had tried, not so long ago. For a while, it had worked, but lasted only briefly, before the sadness crawled back.

Jack decided to pay Jamie a visit. 'Now way I'm leaving Jamie.' Landing in the garden of Jamie's old house, he waited for the auburn-haired man to come out. Along with Pippa, he eventually did, although he failed to spot Jack. So the winter spirit decided to call on him. Nothing. Maybe a snowball would do? He threw one, managing to his Jamie in the forehead.

"Whoever that was, cut it out!" Jamie muttered grumpily, looking around. With his suspicions concerning the female at his side, he turned towards Pippa with an unamused expression on his face. A face which too betrayed his age and the changes that had occured. To the spirit of Winter, it seemed hard to believe that just a while ago, this had been just a boy and like any boy, Jamie had loved having fun and messing around in the snow. That trick should have worked.

Instead it left a frown of Jack's face.

Pippa smiled at Jamie, unpertrubed by his sudden change in behaviour. 'Well, atleast someone was left unafflicted by the Grinch syndrome,' Jack joked bitterly for himself, watching where this would lead.

"Come on, Jamie, you used to love snowball fights!" Pippa encouraged him, gesturing to the feshly laden snow. Jamie's only reaction was to frown. To no surprise, Jack was shocked when he heard the next man's next words.

"Yeah and I also used to believe in Santa Claus. All snow and ice does is kill," Jamie snapped. Pippa winced.

"Look, Jamie. I know what happened to your mother and I know that it was a terrible thing to happen, but just because of what happened you don't have to hang on to your anger. And you don't have to hate everything about winter just because it coincidentally was the season of your mother's death. Enjoy it, don't hate it. You've got to move on," Pippa tried.

Instead of listening to his friend, however, Jamie just pushed her away with his arms and walked off. Behind him, a lonely set of footsteps began to form, leading out of the garden. Where he was going was anyone's guess, and the source of Jack's misery. Away. His first believer, was no longer here. Not really.

Pippa looked back to were Jack was, with a remorseful smile. "I'm sorry you had to see him like that, but..." she muttered, still looking in his direction.

The winter spirit perked up, standing straighter now, as he looked back at the brunnette female. Could it be...?

"You can still...?"

"Yeah, sure can," she assured him softly. She let out a sigh. "It wasn't your fault, I know that... it's just that... maybe if his mother hadn't died..."

Jack gave her a quizzical look. "When did that happen?" he asked her.

"Actually, just a month ago. I'm not sure why you haven't heard about that accident, but she died in a car crash. Apparently her car slid on ice as she was about to turn. It got out of control and crashed into a van that was coming in her direction. Died immediately," she answered, looking down at the snow. A shiver passed down her spine. She would never forget that look on Jamie's face when he had learned about his mother's death.

"Oh..." Jack said, feeling rather awkward. Maybe he should have just stayed silent. It really did seem as though he was the spirit of misery right now and not the cheerful, mischievous, spirt of Fun that he used to be.

"I - I should go now. I have work to do and then I need to write an essay for tomorrow," Pippa excused herself, before walking off in the direction of her home.

"On earth?! What do you mean, she didn't return from school?" Pippa's mother questioned her daughter, as Pippa tried to explain what had happened. No one could mistake the startled look on her face. "Lucy would never..."

"Look, mum, I'm not crazy, or anything. I came up to Lucy's class and when I arrived, the teacher had said she had left already. I tried to find her, but she wasn't anywhere. Not even by the pond. So then, I tried to call Lucy's mother, but she told me she hadn't seen her either," Pippa explained, trying to stay calm. Oh, this was not good.

She had originally been asked to look after Lucy whilst her mother was working, but when she went to pick her up from school, she could not find the child anywhere. As though she had simply vanished into thin air. Pippa immediately feared the worst. After all, where could a five year old have disappeared? All alone, anything could have happened to her. She could be in danger.

Pippa's mother sighed, shaking her head in frustration. "Alright, you go and search outdoors again and I will call some of the people around here to see if they haven't seen her," she offered. Pippa quickly nodded her head before setting out once again in the dark of the night.

And yet, despite her best efforts, the darkness, mist and wind gave no clue as to where Lucy could be, nor did the street lights, or the people walking through the streets.

She walked up to the pond. As always, it was deserted and devoid of life. After all, the only person who came here for most part, was Jack. At night, it looked rather eerie and lifeless, especially with the ice covering the pond's surface. And of course, who could forget the tales of drowning that still ran through this town, haunting every child's mind. The cold wind hit her, making her supress another shiver. The branches rustled, in an unsettling manner. It forced a flinch out of Pippa at the thought of what creatures could lurk here.

"Lucy," she called to the forest behind the pond in a meek voice. The adult's arms were placed at her chest, subconsciously defending her from the sudden draft of cold air that managed to get beneath her skin.

She blinked owlishly, shivering from the cold as she watched the forest at the other side of the pond. It looked almost forbidden, with a thin layer of mist on the edge of it, floating just above ground level. She felt reluctant to enter it, but at the thought of Lucy in danger, she forced herself to go on.

In her childhood, she was nervous about going anywhere near that forest, for the fictional monsters that were said to hide here. In her mind, it was about as forbidden as hell and just as perilous. Not that she had ever gotten over this childish fear. Yet she didn't quite believe that those monsters hid under beds and gave nightmares to children. Not any more. She knew that there was worse that lurked in the darkness, in the night. And this world had a lot of monsters that were much worse than the terrors of her childhood.

As she stepped inside the forest, Pippa saw a flickering, golden light in the darkness, hovering just above the ground. It looked so entrancing, so beautiful. Like the flame of a candle, floaring just above the surface. The vision was followed on by an unearthly, detached voice, as smooth as silk, it's voice like a lullaby.

"Children, children, come to play,

In this forest you can stay."

Pippa could not help but wonder where that voice, albeit a little creepy, came from. It lured her attention, so soft and quiet. Her eyes grew wide, as she took a step forward. She wanted to hear more. And she did. A continous repeat of those words soon made her halt in her steps though. Something in her mind had clicked, and she momentarily froze. Pippa had realised the meaning of those words. At first, she thought it was meant to be a cheerful rhyme, but hearing those words again, she knew it was anything but. Had she been a child, she would not be able to resist it. Which meant that if Lucy had heard it...

For the first time in a while, she was glad to be an adult, with the sense of one.

She gasped, realising that whoever had sung that song, had created those lights. Wide-eyed, she turned around and dashed back. The grass lay matted behind her, as her shoes dug into the ground. She wasted little time on getting back. Back to her house. Away from that... that thing. The thing lurking in that forest. That was all her mind could process.

When she finally reached the doorstep, she opened the door quickly, slamming them behind her, heart beating. Leaning against the door, she fought for her breath.

"Lights... forest.. voices," she immediately cried out, trying to take a deep breath and calm down.

He mother, who had just been on the phone, immediately looked up. Seeing her daughter standing there, frightened as though she had seen a ghost, she placed the phone down. Blinking, she asked her daughter to repeat what she had just said.

"I... went to the pond to see whether or not she was there. There- there were weird lights. F-floating lights... V-voices. Calling to me. Th-they began singing. B-but I don't know how. No one else was there. They... they were trying to lure me in..."

Her mother looked at her as though she were mad. "Nonsense, you probably were too tired to think properly. Your mind made that up," she said, having none of her daughter's nonsense. "Besides, you've always been afraid of forests. No surprise there, honey. Probably a figment of yoru imagination, created by your fears.

Pippa shook her head repeatedly. "No, I can- I can should it to you, prove that what I saw was real!"

She then grabbed her mother's hand and rushed outside, racing towards the forest. Though, when she got there, she froze, her mouth gaping open. There was nothing. No sounds. No floating lights. Not even the mist was there.

"I-I... I swear I saw it. It was right here. The lights. How...?" she stuttered. How? Where were they? She couldn't be crazy could she? It couldn't have been just adrenaline induced visions... or a figment of her imagination, could it?

Her mother sighed, looking at her daughter. She knew that her daughter was having a rough couple of weeks, but that such a thing could change her so? She just hoped her daughter would realise that magic did not exist before people would start to peg her for a nutter.

"Let's just go home and hope that someone found Lucy."

Oh, how could she have forgotten? Lucy! 'Oh, please be alright. Please,' Pippa prayed, hoping Lucy had simply gotten back home.

Only, she wasn't. Once they had returned home, they still yielded no success in finding a trace of the girl. It had only gotten worse. As Pippa's mother put on the television to see the evening's news, she got the unpleasant surprise of even more vanishings.

"And for the last piece of news this evening, we have yet another ten vanishings. Oh... is that so... sorry, I meant, eleven vanishings.

Eleven children, aged between five and twelve have vanished. Yet again, without so much as a trace. Three children from New York, two from Wyoming, one from Alaska, four from Pennsylvania and one from Louisiana. That totals to 33 child vanishing and all this happened in just a month! The governments of these countries are trying to search for the children, but so far none has been found.

If any of you watching the news sees any of these children, please contact us immediately using the telephone number shown below."

Pictures and details of the children appeared on the screen and it was then she realised that all of the child vanishing in Pennsylvania happened in Burgess. She immediately recognised those freakishly familiar faces. Smiles that now seemed empty and hauntingly bright eyes. It was hard to believe that this could happen in Burgess.

Children were vanishing all across the United States. But what if it wasn't just the United States? What if this was happening all around the world? And what if the same person was taking them? How could she convince anyone that maybe, maybe this was all linked, if even she doubted her crazy theory?

Pippa sighed. She had to do something about this. And there was only one person who would believe her. After all, she doubted the Guardians would believe her theory.

Her mother on the other hand, felt sceptical about this. After all, it could just be a coincidence that all the disappearances happened in a month. It wasn't exactly uncommon. After all, they could have just coincidentally been all kidnapped on the same days.

There was only one child whose safety she was worried about. Lucy.

[A/N - No, I do not own Rise of the Guardians, but I did make up that little rhyme. The news report along with most of this story remains fictional.]