Chapter 6 – Where is Jack?
Sorry guys it's been so long but many things have been happening, so yeah, it took me a while. Plus I have to write at night cause I am busy most of the day. So, not bothering you any longer, lets get on with the story :)
A little summary!:
Pitch is ready to rise again. But he knows he first needs to deal with Jack Frost in order for his plan to work. Now he is going to pay him a visit.
Jamie is 16 years old. He meets up with Jack on the forest and have a snowball fight. When Jamie was about to leave he think he sees a black sand cloud approaching. Jack tells Jamie to go home, he'll take care of it.
Jack fights with pitch, but he got tired and didn't notice Pitch behind him. He stabbed Jack on his left side. He looses consciousness and Pitch leaves him for dead taking the knife and Jack's staff.
Jamie never left and went to Jack's aid. They took Jack to the hospital. Some changes are happening to Jack. Jamie is worried for him. Still Jack hasn't woken up.
Ever since the incident with the nightmare king the Guardians had grown closer to each other. Jack specially. He was the one that grew closer to them all. After all now he had a whole new family. And he liked it. After being alone for so long all by himself he really enjoyed having people around that he could count and rely on.
He started visiting each one of them at least once a week. He even liked spending time with Bunny, but most of the times it would end up with Jack flying away with Bunny, a very angry Bunny, chasing after him behind with his boomerang on his hand ready to strike.
He visited all the Guardians. First on the "list" was North. He enjoyed visiting the North Pole the most. He had a lot of yetis and elves he could mess around with. Plus, the place was huge and he could go and explore by his own. It was like a never-ending factory and every time he went there, he discovered something new.
He even helped North with the toys, checking the lists, and sometimes he would even help deliver the toys on Christmas.
On the next day or two, he would go and visit Tooth. It was not that exciting since Tooth was always working. He could not finish a sentence that Tooth was already giving orders to the other tooth fairies. Instead he would have fun with baby tooth. Since he saved her 6 years ago, they have been best of friends. He would always enjoy her company.
Then, the Sandman. He enjoyed keeping Sandy company. Plus, he loved watching as the streams of gold sand make their way into the children's rooms and come alive with different shapes and figures. As soon as that happened, the children's face would lit up in happiness. They were having the best of dreams.
Even though Sandy never spoke he was just glad to be by his side. He had been the only one of the Guardians to ever check on him the first few years after he woke up from the lake.
Last but not least, Jack would go and visit Bunny. By "visit" he meant "making Bunny loose his temper". Now Easter was near the date and Bunny was getting ready with all the preparations. After the time Pitch stroked he made sure to start the preparations way before the actual day just in case some catastrophe happened.
But he sensed something was different. No something was missing. He thought what could that be. Then it hit him. Jack hadn't come bothering him. And that was weird. Jack always liked to play mischievous, although harmless, pranks on him. And now that it was almost Easter, he would be more annoying that ever.
But nothing happened. He tried to just shrug it off and focus on the last details but something inside of him told him that something was wrong. Very wrong.
So he decided to head to the North Pole. That was more like Jack's home. He would sleep most of the nights there. He liked it the most there because of all the snow and how cold it was (apart from all the toys). Not to mention that he always saw North as a "father" figure. Plus it was the North Pole. It was the coolest place on Earth.
Tapping his twice a black hole appeared on the ground and he stepped inside it hopping all the way through until his destination came.
The hole reopened and he steeped outside. He shuddered at the sudden temperature change. Why does it always has to be so bloody cold here!?
He hopped all his way until he went to the entrance of the enormous factory.
He stepped inside the building and was surprised to see all the toys flying around. He could never get used to that. In the Warren everything was so calm, so quiet.
He went straight to the globe not wasting any minute. He saw in the distance the man he was looking for.
North had just finished a new toy made out ice and was in the process of handing it to Phil so the others yetis would start the production while the elves just messed around thinking that they were actually building something. There were a couple of elves holding a plate filled of cookies while following North around. Bunny never understood why North would eat out of the same plate that the elves carried. They always ate and licked the cookies but he didn't seem to mind. Or maybe he never realized it.
Going back to business, North just turned around in time to see Bunny approaching.
"Hey Bunny! What brought you here?"
"Well, believe or not it has to do with Jack" At this statement North just frowned in confusion.
"Jack?"
"Yes. The thing is that I haven't seen him around. You know how he always comes and mess around with my eggs? Well this time he didn't show up. And you know how he is. He always messes around. Have you seen him these days?"
"Now that you mention, no. I haven't seen Jack for while now. It is very strange. You think something happen to him?"
"I don't know mate. But there is something going on here. I'll go talk to Sandy and Tooth just to check if they haven't seen him."
"Good idea! Tell me if there any news"
With that said. Bunny made a new hole and went inside. When he came out the first thing he saw were thousands of tooth fairies working full time. Carrying teeth to their assigned tooth box and others collecting the coins and preparing themselves for a long trip.
He thought that Tooth would have seen him by now but as always, Tooth's mind was somewhere else. He looked for her on the enormous tooth palace and after 5 minutes he finally found her. He made his towards her.
"Hey Tooth" Tooth was taken aback by the sudden voice
"Bunny!" Tooth smiled. "What brings you here?"
"Believe it or not it's about Jack"
"Do you where he is?" Bunny was surprised by this comment
"Actually no. I was going to ask you the same thing."
"Well, I was expecting him to come the day before yesterday. He said he was going to help baby tooth with the tooth collection. I was really surprised when he didn't show up. That's not like him. Do you know what happened to him?"
Bunny was serious now. Something was definitely up.
"I don't know Tooth. North hasn't seen him too. I think something happened. Let's meet up at the Pole to see what we can do"
"Ok. I'll meet you guys in a while"
With that being said the Guardian of hope tapped his foot twice and entered the black hole on the ground and disappeared, only to reappear on the Pole again. He still wasn't used to such a cold weather. He went and told North what Tooth had told him.
"Mate, I don't know what's going on but this is serious". Wasting no time, North called the remaining Guardians with the Northern Lights. Some minutes later, all the guardians stood in the middle of the Globe Room.
Sandy didn't understand anything. Bunny explained him what had happened.
"What we do now?" Asked North
"I don't know. He could be anywhere!" Said a slightly paranoid Tooth.
"Well, we can cross out all hot places. You know how he can't stand the heat"
"Good idea. We split up. Cover more ground, we find him faster"
Everyone nodded and headed out in different directions to find their newest member.
Day after day had passed. And still, Jack wouldn't wake up. Actually he couldn't. He was really weak after the attack. It had drained him of all his energy and the cold weather didn't help him either. He lost a great amount of blood in the process too. He could go into a comma if he didn't wake up soon but Jack was not one of those who would give up easily without a fight.
Although Jamie knew he was a fighter, he was really worried. Jack hadn't made a movement since he was placed on the hospital. That was five days ago. Five days since his eyes were closed. Five days and still counting. He was glad that he was recovering. He no longer had the oxygen mask, which was a good sign and his breathing was normal. He had some blood transfusions and was recovering slowly.
But he never gave up. He just waited. Jamie made every attempt he could to go and visit him. He could only be at the hospital for an hour or two. With all the school homework, that was the time he could afford to go. Plus the hospital was very strict with the visiting time.
He also didn't want his mother to worry. Most of the times, he would say that he stayed a little later at school on some project or studying with his friends. He hated the fact that he lied to her but he was afraid she would start asking too many question as to who was Jack, what happened, where was he from, etc.
Jamie was already tired. He had been there waiting on the same chair for the last hour and a half. So far he was glad he did everything he had to do for school. But he was already tired. He started to feel his eyelids heavy and close slowly.
He glanced at his watch. This late already? He had to be heading home again. He picked up his stuff and put them on his backpack. Since he told his mother he was doing homework on school, he had to finish it in the hospital. If not, she would notice. After making sure he wasn't forgetting anything he looked one last time at Jack. Jamie still wasn't used to his dark brown hair.
On his way home, he was till worried. Not only for the fact that Jack was not waking up, but also why his hair had changed. The only explanation for him was that he was somehow "injected" with black sand. He just hoped that was not case. He could think of Jack being evil or even being at Pitch's will.
Although he highly doubted that would happen, he would help Jack in any way to be how he was before. Jack had never lost hope in him and he wasn't to give up that easily.
After searching for a few ours the Guardians regroup at the Pole. All of them with a sad expressions on their faces because they had no clue as to where Jack could be.
Each one of them were wondering what could have happened. Or could he just have banished? What if everything had been a lie and he just decided to run off? No, that didn't sound like Jack. Not at all. Something was definitely up.
Then Sandy got an idea. After getting everyone else's attention, which took almost 10 minutes of his time, he started "speaking" his mind. He showed a sand picture of Jack. Then the sand started drawing the image of Jamie.
"You think Jack might be on Burgess?" Bunny asked. Sandy smiled and shrugged as if saying it's worth a try.
"But it's not winter over there" Tooth said.
"And we know just how much Jack hates heat" Bunny said.
"But last time I checked, Jack would go to Burgess this time of year. He would go to give the kids on Burgess an early snow day"
"You are right. Even if we don't find him, we can at least ask Jamie if he knows something." The Guardians agreed and, to North request, the got into the sleigh, much to Bunny's disappointment. Taking a snow glove out of his over sized jacket, North spoke their destination and soon enough a portal appeared in front of them transporting them to the town of Burgess.
It was already late and dark when they appeared on Burgess. They were lucky that it was dark enough so most of the kids would be asleep or at home. They didn't want to risk children seeing them. The made their way slowly until they finally recognized Jamie's house.
I'm sorry this story a little "slow" but please bear with me, cause it's my first story :S so I'm still new to all this. (Plus writing it in another language doesn't help either). But the good news is Jack is waiting up next chapter! :D
And I just wanted to ask you guys what do you prefer: waiting like 2 weeks for every chapter update or wait a little longer (maybe a month and a half for example) and I'll be updating sooner. It's up to you guys ^^
Thanks a lot for keeping up with this story!
