Ok this is past tense, as it is basically a flashback. Please enjoy~!
"I'm leaving in a week" Jamie said, a mix of excitement and nerves in his expression. He fiddled with the sleeves of his sweater. Next to him, I smiled in response.
"You must be excited!" I said half heartedly, knowing that was only partly true. I didn't know much about this college stuff, but I know its a big deal to young adults like Jamie. He just smiled in response, before he looked back out to the suburban skyline. The sky was cloudy, with strips of stars peeking through. It was cold, because I was there. I gave the town their usual snow day around this time of year, as I always did when I visited Jamie and the others.
"Are you going to visit me there?" He asked quietly.
"Aren't you staying in those crowded buildings?" I asked, sceptical.
"At the dorms? Yeah, but you can still visit…" He paused, probably wondering how well it would come off with him getting caught talking to himself by his new college friends. "I mean, I can always go outside too, I wouldn't have to be sneaky about it like here. I'm an adult now after all."
It's true. Jamie was an adult. I mean, not like a total adult, but like basically an adult. Adult enough to move out, which was a big deal for people. Way past the point that most people believe in things like Jack frost. Over the years I have watched him grow up lanky and tall, I've listened to his childish voice become deep and booming. The day I came by and he was taller than me was a very strange day indeed. It's the first time I ever spent so much time around someone enough to watch them age. Before I met Jamie I would hang around people once in a while, but I always moved on quickly. Gets boring hovering around people who don't know your there.
I was told not to visit Jamie after everything happened by the other guardians, and I kind of understood why. But… I found myself coming back. Even when I didn't show myself to Jamie, or even intend to talk, he would always notice I was there by the frost on his windows, or the biting cold in the air, and he always was so happy to see me. I know it was selfish to keep showing up… He needed to grow up and move on… but after so long being alone…. Someone not just acknowledging me, but actually greeting me, seeing their face light up when they saw me. Just someone BEING ABLE to see me, it was hard to resist.
So I came back every year to visit him around the winter. I visited the others a few times as well, but eventually I just ended up seeing Jamie. The others, I could tell, would begin to forget me as they grew. They would remember once I showed myself, but if I didn't, they wouldn't notice the difference. Now they probably all forgot entirely.
But Jamie never did. Not even once did he seem surprised at my presence. But now he was an adult. It was time for him to move on with his life. It was an exciting time in his life!
For some reason, there was a sadness in the air tonight though.
I didn't respond at first, but I noticed him peeking over at me expecting an answer. "Of course adults need a snow day once in a while too" I finally said. I smiled at him, and he lifted his head and smiled in return. I didn't really say yes or no. Of course I would visit, but whether I'd let him know I was there was a different story. I'd want to, obviously, but I know how things are when adults move on in life. He'll be distracted with friends, with stress of adulthood, and whatever else it is adults do. I've learned a lot about how adults work over my years of spectating. I always was turned off by adults, so I preferred to stay around kids and enjoy the snow days with them, but I always noticed the behaviors adults had. As much as I want to keep Jamie as a friend like this forever, I know that's not an option. And I think he does too.
But I'll always try and visit him, whether he remembers me or not. He will always mean a lot to me. Maybe I'll visit his kids one day, like peter pan or something.
Yeesh… sometimes it's weird being immortal.
"I'm not going to forget about you, you know." He said, interrupting my train of thought. I pause, caught off-guard by the seriousness of it.
After a second, I laughed it off. "Well of course not, who could forget someone as cool as me!" I say, reaching over and roughly tossing his hair. I dunno why I kept up that habit, being that he was already bigger than me, but he always responded like a kid, swatting away my hand with a laugh.
Though I played it off, what he said ment a lot to me. More than he realizes.
Or maybe he does realize. He is a smart kid after all. Over the years I've told him about myself, so he knows what that would mean to be forgotten. I hope he really could remember me.
It would be nice if some adults remembered spirits like me. Maybe-
"What's that..?" Jamie suddenly asked, staring at something in the distance. In a small area, a patch of pale snow clouds were unusually dark. Almost black looking, darker than the sky. That was odd, I had never seen clouds like that. Certainly not snow clouds. Curiously I stood up, using my staff as an unnecessary support. Jamie followed, squinting at the spooky clouds.
"Is that a thunderstorm?" He asked, cocking his head.
"I don't think so?" I had never seen clouds quite like that. I pondered for a moment, before lifting myself in the air to get a better look.
"You gonna check it out?" Jamie questioned, looking up at me. I could tell he had a bit of envy in his expression, clearly wanting to check it out too.
"Yeah, I'll let you know if it's anything exciting." I smirked. He pouted at me before I flew off towards the dark clouds. It wasn't very far away, only a few blocks away in a close by forest area near Jamie's neighborhood.
As I flew close to it, I stayed relatively low to the ground, a bit hesitant. I ended up floating just above the trees of the forest as I got closer. The clouds above still just looked like clouds from what I could see, only too dark. Cautiously I approached until I was almost directly under it. But it wasn't the clouds that really surprised me. It was directly under them, in an opening in the forest.
A large, dark pool of some kind of liquid was present. It looked like a tar pit of some kind, only different. I hovered closer, and I could feel a tension in the air that made my hair stand on end. My instincts told me not to get too close, so I hovered a few feet from the edge of the pool before setting myself down in the grass, out of reach of the strange liquid, but close enough to examine.
The forest was way too quiet, and the air around me was still. It was like there was some kind of fog, because it was hard to see anything too far away. I stood silently and curiously examined the strange phenomenon. In my 300 years I had never seen something quite like this. The black pool liquid was still, not shifting or moving, almost making it look like a hole in the ground.
After a few more moments of looking, I decided to investigate further. I took the end of my staff and very cautiously tapped the surface of the black pond with it. For a moment nothing happened, but before I could blink, a cluster of black goopy looking tendrils quickly slithered out from the water and began rapping themselves around the edge of my staff. I quickly jerked it back and staggered back a few feet, startled.
'What the-!" I yelped. As though alive, the black strands of liquid retracted to the surface of the pool slowly, before disappearing back into the blackness.
I thought it was some kind of natural phenomenon, but now I had no idea. What on earth…? I kept my eyes on the edge of the water, making sure no more movement occured, before taking another moment to look around for some kind of clue as to what this was. Nothing was around; it was too quiet and still, the dark forest trees looming ominously. I reached down near me and grabbed a small stone, before chucking it in the water. I saw a brief bit of movement where it sunk down, but nothing like the weird tendrils. I scratched my head curiously.
For a few minutes I circle around the pond, avoiding getting too close, but avoid flying above it for fear of how far this thing could reach. At one point I decide to huck a snowball at it, and watched as it quickly fell inside like the rock did, not before melting slightly. Next I pointed my staff at it and gave a gentle burst of ice at it in attempt to freeze the surface. For a moment it seemed to work, but my ice quickly melted away and it returned to its original state. Was it hot? I didn't feel any heat off of it. Perhaps the humans made some kind of new oil spill or… toxic sludge?
"Jack!" I heard a voice yell my name in the distance. My heart jumped at the sudden sound, not expecting it, but quickly recognized it was Jamie. I spun around and saw him approaching from the middle of the forest, with his bike in hand.
"Don't get too close!" I yelled at him, and he stopped in his tracks.
"What is it?" He asked, setting his bike on the ground, but not getting closer.
"I'm not sure.." I say, turning back to face the pond of blackness.
"Well it's about time." I hear a different voice whisper, echoing hauntingly around us. I immediately recognize it.
"..Pitch?" I turn around back and forth trying to locate the source. It had been years since we faced Pitch, back when I joined the guardians. Relatively speaking it wasn't long at all, given how long I have been around, but it felt like a lifetime ago; everything was so different sense then, so much had changed, I had all but forgotten him.
A chuckle was my response, before I saw the surface of the water start to shake and tremble. A mist of dark fog began to emanate from the pool of blackness, and I floated a bit backwards away from it. I could see those strange tendrils begin to creep their way out of the edges of the pond, and I lifted myself a little higher to avoid them.
"What the hell?!" Jamie suddenly yelped behind me. I almost forgot he was there. When I turned around to tell him to run, I notice the black tendrils suddenly scurry under me and race toward Jamie. They quickly slithered through the grass like snakes, so quickly it was hard to follow with my eyes. I heard him scream as they wrap themselves around his legs and yank him towards the pond.
"Jamie!" I dove down to grab him, but he was dragged so quickly he slips right under me. In desperation I pointed my staff at him just before he is dragged into the water and shoot ice in that direction, just missing Jamie and hitting my target. The tendrils are momentarily paused as they are quickly covered in ice. I dove over and grabbed his arms as they reached out to me desperately and tried to pull him free, but the grip of the black tar like liquid arms wouldn't release Jamie even in their frozen state.
"Get it off of me!" Jamie screeched in panic, thrashing about and looking back at the pond trying to consume him. I hopped over him and pointed my staff at the now thawing tendrils and shoot a powerful burst of ice at them. There was an explosion of snow and black dust, and I struggled to see through it and reach Jamie again, this time pulling him away without resistance. I didn't make it far when I felt my staff yanked out of my free hand with a force so strong it knocked me back a few feet away.
I looked back quickly for my staff, but I was unable to see well enough, and before I could figure out where to even look I hear Jamie scream again. I jumped towards the direction of the scream, but by the time I am able to see Jamie, he was halfway submerged in the black pond.
"JACK HEL-" He choked out before being pulled down entirely.
"JAMIE!" I scream in return, launching myself towards the liquid. I fell to my knees just at the edge of the pond and threw my arms inside, reaching around inside the thick liquid for Jamie. "Jamie!" I yell again, thrashing around in the water, feeling for anything. All I could feel was the strange texture of a sand-like liquid, and the wrapping of slimey tendril arms making their way around me. Before they could fully pull me in, I burst an explosion of snow from my hands and push myself apart from the blackness that was consuming me, falling back into the grassy edge of the pond with a hard thud.
I could hear Pitch's laughter echoing through the forest.
"Let him go!" I raged out in any direction, pulling myself back up to my feet. His laughter only got louder in response.
"You want him…" He began, his tone cool and casual. "..Go get him."
As he said that, I felt hands roughly shove me from behind and I fall face first into the dark pool. I feel myself immediately submerge below the surface.