Survival
Chapter 2: Begin
The pure darkness dispersed as Jack felt his feet hit solid floor once again. He was in a room with stone walls, floor and ceiling with no door. Next thing he noticed was that his hand was empty. His staff! Movement in the darkest corner of his room caught his eye and a pair of glowing amber eyes were boring into his, malice so strong Jack shivered. Pitched slinked out of the shadow, grin widening, staff in hand. Cold fury enveloped Jack.
"Give. It. Back."
The bogeyman's grin should not have been able to fit on his face. "No." And with that, he snapped the stick in two yet again as Jack lunged for it. "And I won't be making the same mistake as last time." Pitch elaborated as he transported the pieces though the shadows to a different location so Jack would not have a chance to try and repair it as he had the last time.
It felt like his soul had been split. His staff. Not again. Not like this. He collapsed to the ground clutching his chest. No kick into a cliff came this time to distract him from his spiritual pain. Pitch let out a maniacal laugh at the sight. This was too easy!
"Now Jack... We can't have you spoiling the fun now can we? Now, shall we begin?" Jack looked up just as Pitch's boot came down on his right arm, centered between the shoulder and elbow with a sickening crack. Jack bit back a scream as he felt the ends of the bone grinding together as Pitch shifted his foot back and forth. Time for Pitch to complete the set up.
"Get ready Jack." Pitch whispered as he knelt by the frost spirits curled form. He punched Jack in the temple with a knuckle for extra measure to make sure he wouldn't be able to move too much for a minute or two but to still be conscious. Stunned, all Jack could do is loll his head to the side to keep a bleary eye on Pitch. "Now, lets see what your worst fears are, shall we?" Pitch taunted. "You lived on your own with virtually no contact for over 300 years. I wonder if you have adjusted to being touched yet after this comparatively short time of being accepted... Not completely invisible..."
Jack shuddered as he felt a hand slide against his taut stomach underneath his frosted hoodie. It was warm. Jack was terrified of heat. The fingers splayed and Jacks oversensitive nerves were on fire. He was almost never touched by anyone. Most people just walked through him, or stuck their fingers in his mouth to admire his teeth. He felt the hand rise on his skin taking the hoodie with it exposing his entire stomach. Fear gripped him. This was a new experience and the fact that it was Pitch doing it meant that there could not possibly be any good intentions behind the movement. Pitch could feel the fear and arced his head back in ecstasy. 'So marvelous! I haven't felt another's fear in years!' Jack's head lolled again as he tried to struggle against the foreign, prickling sensation. He felt Pitch's knee in his back propping him up into a sitting position so his head was straight back, staring into those disturbing eyes as Pitch leaned forward.
Now both hands were under the hoodie slowly sliding it up so now his chest was exposed. Jack's good arm was worked out of the sleeve leaving only the broken one encased in the blue fabric. Without mercy Pitch yanked it off the rest of the way earning a repressed, pained groan from Jack.
"Time to string you up." Pitch rose and let the boy fall back to the ground with another head-splitting crack. Shackles of nightmare sand carved with ancient ruins formed around Jack's wrists and ankles followed by chains which connected to the ceiling and floor. They tightened until Jack was strung up in the center of the room spread eagle, upright in mid-air. Jack could not hold back the small scream as his arm was pulled and the bone segments separated, jaggedly catching on the surrounding muscles and tendons. As Pitch circled Jack to inspect his handiwork his eyes caught on Jack's wrists. Poking out from behind the new bindings were scars. Straight white lines that criss-crossed and overlapped trailing up half way to Jack's elbows. Jack shuddered as Pitch ran a finger over a few.
"Oh Jack, what have you done?"