She had already lost her last baby tooth and knew that holidays were centered around religions, not the childhood figures of the Easter Bunny and Santa Clause. She remembered having dreams once, both ones she had in sleep and ones she imagined of the future, but they were lost to her now. She had a family once, but it was broken years ago. Her brother was gone with her father somewhere on the other side of the country and her mother was hardly home ever since.
School was an escape from the drama of home, but it wasn't a very good one. The unsettling silence of her empty house was replaced with the meaningless drone of hundreds of people who were probably just as bad off as her - but better at hiding it.
And she felt bad for that. Certainly she must be weak to not be able to handle her life, but when those girls, skinny and pretty, would look at her and laugh not-so-discreetly - when those who were once her friends brushed her off - she decided she couldn't handle it anymore. She just wanted it to end. So, she'd end it herself.
Her mother took pills to help her sleep, so one night the girl snuck into her mom's bathroom and swallowed... she didn't know how many. A lot. However many were there. Just to make sure.
Just as she started falling into her permanent slumber, she thought she saw a snowflake land on her nose - but that was impossible. It was only September.
Jack hopped beside the girl as the snowflake melted. Her eyes were already closed, and her breathing getting slower.
He bowed his head, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I can't do anything for you," Silence answered him, "Please, Sandy. I know it's early for you, but give her one last dream. Just one. One where her life is happy. Please,"
Once again, silence answered him, but this time it was accompanied by the swirl of dreamsand above the girl's head. It formed into a family of four, and she held up her little brother as her father brought dinner and her mother laughed silently at something someone said.
It was a good dream.
Along with the girl's last breath, the dreams faded, and Jack turned to face the soul now standing at his side.
She breathed out a sigh, "It worked. I-I'm dead,"
"Yes," Jack replied simply, "You are,"
Silence stretched on, the girl staring at her limp body and pointedly not at Jack. Finally, she broke the hush, asking bitterly, "You probably think I'm stupid. I'm overdramatic. I should have tried harder, done better or something, don't you?"
"Honestly?" Jack said, looking at the girl, "Yeah, I would have appreciated if you didn't off yourself," Jack shrugged, "but I can't judge,"
Finally, she turned to look at him incredulously, "Aren't you supposed to be some sort of guardian angel? You're not supposed to say that! You're supposed to-to-" She waved transparent hands through the air, fruitlessly looking for what she was trying to say.
Jack smirked, "Comfort you? Well, while I am technically a Guardian, I'm not an angel by any stretch. Comforting's never been my strong point,"
She blinked at him before looking back at her corpse, "It's weird. I feel like I am detached right now. I mean, that's me I'm looking at. I feel like I should be some kind of emotional wreck right now?" Her voice raised in pitch at the last word, making it a question.
Jack shrugged, "You might be in shock. You did just die after all. When I first came to after dying, I couldn't even remember what hands were for a minute,"
A short pause, and then she asked, "Am I going to regret this later?"
"You might,"
"Should I have stayed alive?"
"Maybe,"
"Can I get another chance?"
Jack cocked his head, "Not for this life, no. Sorry,"
"But in another one?"
"Possibly, but you won't know anything about it. Reincarnation and all that jazz,"
She giggled softly, "You're right. You're horrible at the whole comfort thing,"
"You think so?" Jack cupped his chin in thought, "Well, then, let me try this again. Come on. I want to show you something,"
The winter spirit jumped onto the windowsill, the moonlight outlining his figure as he held out his hand toward the soul. She glanced at him skeptically before reaching out and grabbing the offered limb. Immediately, Jack jumped backwards into the open air, drawing a scream from the girl.
"Are you crazy?"
Jack just laughed as, instead of falling, they took to the air. For a while, Jack flew aimlessly about, just enjoying the carefree nature of tossing in the wind. Behind him the spirit was gripping his wrist tightly and trying not to fall.
"Put me down! Put. Me. Down," She commanded in a panicked voice, and Jack smirked at her before placing them both on top of a giant clock tower in the middle of the city, "Are you trying to get us killed?" She asked angrily, clutching one of the pillars decorating the roof.
He shrugged, "Well, that'd be hard, considering we're already dead,"
The girl was about to speak up again, but the clock below them struck nine, and Jack shushed her stating, "It's starting,"
"What is-" She trailed off as thousands of streams of golden sand started filling the sky. They illuminated the darkness with a glowing, gentle warmth as they twisted and swirled in a dance through the air.
Slowly, she let go of her death grip on the column and stretched out her hand to hesitantly touch one of the golden streams. A small unicorn formed and pranced around her before heading in the direction of the child it was sent toward.
She giggled and asked Jack, "What is this?"
He stepped up to her side, "It's magic. I know it seems hard to believe, but the world is a magical place, if you'll open your heart and let yourself be a part of it. I'm sorry that you lost this in your life, and I can't even guarantee that you'll keep it in your next one, but the possibility is there, and the world can be a wonderful thing if you let it," He turned toward his charge, "It's your job to rest now, recuperate. Heal the wounds inflicted on you from this life, but later you can decide if you want to come back and try again. So, what do you say? Think you'll give living a second chance someday?"
She looked toward the beautifully illuminated night sky, and then down to her wrists - once covered in a multitude of little white scars, even if now it was clear of all blemishes. Finally, she looked back up to Jack, "I-I don't know, maybe. Maybe the world isn't as bad as I thought it was, but what if the same thing happens again? What if I lose this again?" She gestured outward, indicating the sand and the magic that came with it, "I just - I'm tired of being disappointed all the time,"
Finally unable to handle it anymore, tears burst form the girl, and she ducked her head, covering her face with her hands.
"I know. I know, it's okay," Jack supplied, wrapping one arm around her shoulder, "No one's telling you to come back, but if you feel like taking that step off the edge and trying again. Well, you never know, you might find yourself able to fly,"
"No. I'll fall. Everyone always falls," She said through her tears.
Releasing his hold on the girl, Jack took one step back, then another, then another until he was floating on air and held his hand out to her.
"The choice is yours, but if you do fall, I'll be right here to catch you. So, what do you say?"
"I-" The girl's voice hitched as she stared at his hand. Already, she was becoming less and less visible, pieces of her dissolving into orbs, "I-" She took a step forward and broke into a run, leaping off the edge of the tower.
Just as she was about to grasp Jack's hand, she burst into a thousand lights shooting up in the direction of the stars until they disappeared altogether.
Jack stared after them for a minute before whispering, "See? I told you you'd fly,"
A swirl of golden sand distracted him from his thoughts. Sandy was floating on a cloud of his dreamsand just a few feet away. Jack flew up to join him on his cloud.
"Thanks for the help. Couldn't have done it without you,"
A thumbs up, followed by a question mark.
Jack shook his head, "I don't understand,"
Sandy huffed a silent sigh before pointing at Jack and forming a bunch of z's from his sand and remaking the question mark.
"Sleep? I - sleep? Am I tired?" Jack guessed and Sandy nodded in affirmation, "No. I'm fine. Perfectly fine. Besides I have work to do, people to see. I'll sleep when I'm dead,"
Laughing at his own ironic joke, Jack flew off toward the next soul in need. Someone, somewhere needed to be comforted.