Don't You Ever Forget About Me

Chapter 2

Strange Boy

It was mid-January when Jack stumbled across the land of Corona. Before then, he didn't even know that such a place existed. He'd traveled around the world what felt like a million times over and yet he'd somehow missed the kingdom of the sun every time.

But this time, the wind had something different in mind.

Jack had never seen this place before, and it was obvious to him that Corona had never seen snow before. The winter spirit chuckled to himself as he soared over the hills and valleys towards the sun kingdom. Oh, they had no idea what was coming for them.

Feeling no remorse for whatever trouble he was about to cause the residents of this strange land, Jack unleashed a powerful blizzard. He hollered along with the wind as its speed picked up, the snow and ice thrashing aggressively around its creator. The storm that he had whipped up was definitely a good one, and he was quite proud of himself.

"Hope you like the cold!" Jack called down to the kingdom's residents, who stood dumb-founded in the middle of the frozen mess he'd created. Some slipped and slided on the ice that now covered their usually clean walkways, while most of the children excitedly dived into snowball fights and snow angels. The people of Corona couldn't hear Jack's mischievous laughter, but the looks of utter confusion painted on their faces were good enough for him.

"Ah..." Jack's laughter started to calm back down to quiet chuckling as the main city of Corona faded into the cloudy distance. He sailed on the wind's breath, lying on his back, arms tucked behind his head, staff in hand. He grinned up at the clouds above his head, "Now that was fun."

As Jack sailed along, the snow that trailed behind him gradually faded from violent frozen assaults into peaceful flurries. Curious as to where he had sailed off to, Jack flipped around so that he could see what was below him. The wind had led him into a huge forest, with some of the tallest trees and biggest hills he'd ever seen before in his existence. But Jack's attention was quickly stolen away from the forest scenery by the structure he could just barely see out in the distance.

"What in the world...?" he narrowed his eyes, trying to get a better look. It kind of looked like a tower. A huge tower, at that.

"Wind," Jack commanded, his voice unusually stern, "take me over to…that," he pointed to the strange structure, which was rapidly drawing closer.

The wind did as it was instructed, picking up beneath the boy and carrying him faster through the cloudy afternoon sky. As he flew, he slowly descended from the sky, his bare feet hitting the grassy ground of a small valley.

"Wow..." Jack breathed. Quite possibly the tallest tower he had ever seen before in his life stood just a few yards away from him, climbing towards the sky. The snow he had brought with him fluttered around the structure, making it appear to be like something from one of the many fairy tales he'd heard during his travels.

Jack crossed his arms, staring up at the tower, eyebrows knitted together in befuddlement. What was a huge tower like that doing out in the middle of what seemed to be nowhere? It didn't make any sense to him whatsoever.

"Oh my gosh!"

The voice took Jack by surprise. He whipped his head back and forth, trying to figure out where the vocalization had come from. He didn't see anyone, and he was just about to shrug it off when he heard it again.

"I can't believe it!" Jack suddenly realized that the voice was coming from above, not behind, and looked up toward the top of the tower. His eyes widened and his mouth fell slightly open; there was a girl standing at the window.

"It's snowing!" she cheered excitedly. Jumping up and down, "it's really snowing!"

Jack couldn't help but smile at the girl's reaction to his handiwork, "you're welcome," he stated simply, knowing full well that she couldn't hear him.

The girl lingered at the window for a few minutes, watching in marvel as the snow slowly danced passed her window and floated to the ground, where it was beginning to stick. Jack couldn't help but smile at the look of absolute wonder on her face.

But just as quickly as she had appeared, she was gone, retreating back into the tower from which she had come, closing the window behind her.

Jack stared up at the window for a long while after her departure, lost in thought.

So not only was there a huge tower out in the middle of what seemed to be nowhere, but somebody lived in it. Jack twirled his staff as he thought. The situation struck him as being incredibly strange, and he wanted to get to the bottom of it.

Or at the very least, he wanted to try.

The wind lifted Jack up into the air, and he soared towards the window, his feet touching the wooden ledge within seconds. There was just enough room for him to crouch down and look in through the window, seemingly unnoticeable.

His eyes widened at what he saw, and his mouth fell open in astonishment.

Hair. The girl had a lot of hair. Liquid gold fell from her head and pooled onto the floor, spilling around her feet and into living area, finally stopping at the foot of a mirror on the other end of the room. Jack couldn't believe his eyes. He would have never thought that it was humanly possible for someone to have that much hair. The sight was simply incredible.

He watched the girl as she scurried around the small kitchen of the tower, weaving around the counters, humming as she mixed whatever was in the bowl she carried in her arm. Her movements were light and elegant, like a feather dancing in the wind.

Jack leaned in a little closer to get a better look, and before he knew what was happening, he lost his balance and crashed to the floor of the secret room with a loud yelp, landing flat on his face. The window hadn't been closed properly, and his just barely leaning against it was enough for it to fly open, dumping him on the floor below. He groaned and got up onto his hands and knees.

A loud shriek hit Jack's ears, and he looked up to see the girl staring at him fearfully, holding up a cookie sheet as if to shield herself.

The window opening up like that must have startled her, Jack thought to himself as he got back up onto his feet, not even considering that he might have been seen. He dusted himself off and looked back over at her, shocked when her moss green eyes met with his December blues.

They stared at each other for a few seconds, neither one of them saying anything. Jack raised an eyebrow and turned to look behind him, wondering if there was something outside the window that had scared her.

"Who..." the girl stuttered, her tone fearful, "who are you?"

Jack whipped his head back around, shocked. Was she talking to him? No. She couldn't be. He knew for a fact that no one could see him, so what would make this weird girl up in a tower any different?

The girl cleared her voice and her posture changed just slightly as she puffed up a bit, "I said," her tone was still shaky, but firmer, "who are you?"

Jack's stomach started to flip, and his breath caught in his throat. No way. There was just no way.

"Who are you?" she repeated a third time, voice no longer trembling.

"You...you can see me?" Jack stuttered, flabbergasted, "you can really see me?"

The girl looked at him strangely, but nodded. The butterflies in Jack's stomach intensified. He couldn't believe what was happening.

"I can't believe this," Jack laughed excitedly, running a hand through his snow white hair, "you can see me. You can actually see me," his eyes met with hers again, and she flinched, her back against the wall and cookie sheet shielding her.

Jack cocked his head to side and slowly walked towards her, as if he were approaching a baby deer. She could see and hear him, but there was one very important thing he had to know.

Would she just phase through him like everyone else had for all these years?

Jack cautiously reached his hand out towards her as he approached, hoping, praying that he could touch her. That he could feel her skin against his, instead of being walked through like a forgotten ghost.

But before Jack could reach for the trembling girl, she let out a cry, and something hit the winter spirit in the head, knocking him out cold.

((AN: yeah… I meant for this to be a lot longer than it ended up being ._. but I wanted to get it out today, so here it is. Originally I was going to update with short chapters on Mondays and Thursdays, but now I think I'll just update on Thursdays with longer chapters.

Anyway, I hope that this lived up to expectations! I feel really lucky to already have so many people as excited about this as I am, and we're only on chapter 2. Wow!

I listened to Kerli while editing this, which is where the chapter title came from. I'll be doing this with other chapters as well ;P

Favorites, follows, and reviews are greatly appreciated!

Brandy~))