Disclaimer: See previous two chapters. I refuse to type it up any more. It's been stated, and if you've skipped beyond the first two...you're a sad, sad little person.

Ch. 3 – How Could They?

"And then! And then," Laughter tickled the air as Jack giggled, barely able to continue his story to his captive audience, "he climbed on the woodpile and shouted 'I'm Lord of the Wood!' and the other kids started throwing snowballs at him, shouting that they'd never bow to such a bossy lord, but they kept missing! So I – you know what I did?" He crawled forward on his hands and knees, snowflake blue eyes bright with mirth, and nearly pressed his nose into that of his smallest friend. "Do you? Do you know?"

Silence met his questions, but in his young mind, there were answers. Clear as a bell, he heard Piper, a little female Snow Person, respond. "What, Jack? What did you do!? Oh, come on, tell me, Jack! Hurry, hurry, hurry!" If he closed his eyes, he could almost see his home-made friend bouncing in the snow, eager for him to continue the story. So Jack obliged.

"I threw my own snowball! Got him right in his nose, right there," He beamed and finally nudged 'Piper's' nose with his own, giggling again as the small body rocked back a little. "He fell off the woodpile and into a snow bank. The others, they piled on top of him, and everyone was laughing and rolling around in my snow, and I wanted to jump in, too, but…but…"

Suddenly, the story wasn't fun anymore. Jack sat back on his heels and pouted. "I wanted to, but…but they wouldn't have known I was there."

He had been for many, many years now. Tens of winters. Six or seven tens of winters, he thought. Or somewhere between them. And in all that time, no one played with him. No one spoke to him, or invited him to join in their games. No mother noticed him, alone and barefoot after a long day in the snow, and invited him in with her children to enjoy warm soup and stories. No father took him hunting, or taught him how to build a sturdy cabin. He had no big brother to wrestle with, or little sister to cheer with jokes-

-and there was an ache, a deep and crippling ache in his chest when he thought of that-

-or anyone else. He was just Jack.

Sure, there were the other spirits. The Sandman, who Jack knew was around from the golden dreamsand that drifted through the sky when the sun fell; Santa Clause, who preferred to be called Nicholas St. North and was as rough-and-tumble as he was kind and gentle, but who never had time for Jack, except one Christmas to inform the child-spirit that "I have no gift for you this year. You are on Naughty List. Perhaps if you are good, next year will be different!" before laughing jollily and clapping him on the back, then disappearing into a village full of good children; Taliesin, a Welsh deity who was known as the Prince of Song and often sang of by-gone days; Lilith, a Succubus with a serpentine tail who invited Jack to join her and her fellow queen-sisters, Agrat Bat Mahlat, Naamah, and Eisheth Zenunim (Jack fled almost before the words had left her mouth, the not-woman's seductive smile scaring the child-spirit back to the safety of Wind's embrace and his lake.) Other spirits, too, had crossed his path, but none of them seemed to like Jack.

He always ended up back at his lake, with Piper, Kayla, Ryan, William, and Emery. His Snow People were always there once he rebuilt them, and over the years they had started to take on more distinct features. Jack had gotten very good at building and rebuilding his friends. No longer were they shapeless mounds. Now there were always two girls, always two boys, and each year he would change the fifth's gender because he was never quite sure if they should be equally numbered or if there should be more boys. Emery had spent a few years has half a boy, half a girl. He/she hadn't let him/herself be bothered by it. Instead, the group had made a game of dressing their friend up and watching as he/she played hero and heroine during the group's make-believe wars. Emery's acting skills were the best Jack had ever seen…

…even if Emery never actually moved or spoke. It was all in Jack's head. He knew that, but it didn't stop him from dreaming and wishing with all his heart that his Snow People were real. That they answered and laughed with him, or soothed him when he was especially upset. Since Jack didn't have any friends beyond those he imagined, he felt he was allowed to believe a little harder that they were really real.

A fissure of pale light broke through the snow-laden tree branches. Turning his back to his friends, Jack looked up at the small crescent moon overhead. A petulant scowl set upon his young face. A snow ball was hurled with all of his might even though he knew it would never hit his target. "Go away!" He shouted, although the Moon never heard him. Whether a whisper in the deepest valley or a scream on the highest mountain top, the Moon never heard him. That didn't stop Jack. He didn't want the Moon to see him with his friends. He knew that they were just piles of sculpted snow that would never play with him for real, but the thought of the Moon, who gave him life and his name, seeing Jack in such a state…the immortal child didn't want to be seen by the Moon.

Not now.

So he waited, glaring, until the Moon slide behind a cloud and left him and his friends in darkness once more. Then, and only then, did Jack turn back.

"Sorry," He reached out and pretended to brush a lock of hair behind Kayla's ear, "I'm sorry. You shouldn't have had to see that. I just…I don't want the Moon to see you and…" He paused. What, exactly, did he think the Moon would do to his friends? The Moon had only ever told Jack his name. He never interfered with Jack's life, so why did the Winter Spirit feel such dread at the idea of the Moon judging him?

It was irrational, he eventually decided. The fear was irrational, like being afraid of monsters under the bed. Jack had seen monsters: the Nordic Dark Elves; the Sedu, human-headed winged bulls; the Jinns; and the Lilin, the terrifying offspring of Lilith. They were all at least the size of a full grown man or bigger, and would surely not fit underneath any child's bed that Jack had seen. So his fear that the Moon would do something to his friends was silly.

Knowing that, however, didn't stop Jack from moving them away from the lake's edge and into the sheltering alcove of a grouping of rocks nearby. Just in case.

Once that was completed, the not-child climbed into the branches of a nearby tree and closed his eyes. Jack didn't need to sleep, but it was nice to, once in a while. Especially since the Sandman would sometimes send him sweet dreams of those funny fish and snow games with his long lost sweet girl.

***********************Upon Sleep's Cloud, Dreams are Birthed**********************

The joyful shouts of children woke him in the morning. Older children, boys who were almost men, who found less fun in Jack's snow but he liked them for the games they played with the smaller children. Smiling, he slipped over the side of the branch so he hung from his knees, eager to see what made them laugh so close to his sleeping form.

What he saw wiped the smile from his very soul.

There were three of them, shouting gleefully as they jumped around in the snow. Normally that would have made Jack happy. But they weren't just jumping in snow. They were prancing in the remnants of his friends!

A boy with hair red as fire was kicking Emery to snowdust. One of the two brunettes had William's arm, specially crafted to be strong with a thin layer of ice over the top so William could hold Kayla above him when they climbed trees. The youth was using the limb to destroy Ryan and Kayla. And Piper –

-No no no! Not my sweet girl! NOT AGAIN!-

-Piper's head was the only thing left of her, head aloft by the third boy above his head. Her grey-blue river stone eyes stared in horror into Jack's own before he fell out of the tree and landed painfully on his side. He scrambled to his feet and tried to grab Piper's head, or William's arm. Tried to stop the blonde from kicking his friends to death. Tried with all his might to catch all that was left of his sweet Piper.

Tried…and failed. Piper's head broke apart on the frozen lake, bursting with a puff of snowflakes several feet from where Jack had been born.

"Noooooooooo!" The mournful howl erupted from the frozen child and was taken up by the Wind. Black clouds obscured the sky as hail rained down on the scene. The boys screamed in pain as they were pummeled, turning and running from the carnage they had caused with their arms thrown over their heads. Jack ignored their fleeing forms. He crawled across the ice and gathered the snow pile that was Piper into his arms.

The Wind calmed. Wispy tendrils carded through his hair as he was wrapped in its embrace and lifted from the frozen lake. Jack clutched what was left of his friend close as he was deposited on the shore by the pile of broken Snow People. The clouds did not move although the hail stopped. Jack hunched over his lost friends. His eyes were wide with anguish, his mind empty but for one question that eventually found its way past his lips in a broken sob.

"How could they?"

No one answered him. As always, Jack Frost was alone, left with only snow and ice to embrace his dispirited form.

*********************Let Us Weep, Now, With Our Broken Boy*********************

A/N: I don't particularly like this chapter. But it's necessary to move the story forward. Hopefully chapters 4 and 5 will be out a lot faster than this one. I do apologize for the wait, my dearlings, but this chapter just would not be written!

Special thanks to –

My sweet Favs: Crazy-insane-original-person45, Liberty-Chan-123, RinzlerIsTron123, Whisper119, and lurkerlaine.

My dear Followers: Kaylessa, Rose O' Sharon, The Sapphire Dolphin, and ieatlorriesforbreakfast (whose name sent me into a fit of giggles. My word, dearling, but that's quite the breakfast!)

My wonderful Reviewers: WordsMusic (I shall be reading that fic soon! So much to do, so little time), Rose O' Sharon, The Sapphire Dolphin, and Me (whomever you are!)

Oh, and because I believe is giving credit where credit is due, there will be inspiration taken from a wonderful writer, Esse, who has this brilliant fic called "In The Silence" that's just full of FEELS! While I can't really pinpoint what inspires, as sometimes it's more just a sentence that sends my brain off on a tangent that ends up having nothing to do with the original inspiration, there is inspiration to be had! Esse, dearling, if you ever see this *HUGGLES* I love you!

And I love you all for your reviews, favs, and follows! It feeds my poor starved soul. You're all fantastic.

Also *waves enthusiastically* Hi, Kaylessa! Glad you were finally able to read this!

Next chapters are going to be better than this one. Because, again...I really don't like it, but it was necessary…