"Snow day!" Julie enthuses, hoping onto Cassandra's bed.
Cassandra quickly pulls her robe around her body to hide her damaged legs. Her palms ache and she knows they are scratched as well. A yellow Labrador prances is after Julie and curls around the small girl.
"Summer," Julie says to the dog, "Mommy said we don't have to go to school today. We can stay and watch movies and make s'mores…" She continues to babble, petting the soft, short furs on the top of the dog's head.
"Great," Cassandra murmurs. As tired as she is, school would have been a comfort with its boring routine, with its normalcy.
"Maybe Mommy and Daddy will take us shopping." Her voice is high and happy, making Cassandra cringe. It's far too early to be so peppy.
"Lovely, snowflake," Cassandra says off-handedly.
Only barely awake, Cassandra moves about her room looking for clothes.
"Where are you going?" Julie inquires, eyeing the items Cassandra has laid on the bed.
The brunette glances at the clothes. A cream-colored thermal, thick jeans, her dark blue snow boots, and her heavy green jacket pile at the foot of her bed. She holds her blue gloves in her hands gingerly.
"Apparently somewhere cold," Cassandra mutters to herself, then looks to Julie. "Now shoo. I have to change."
The little girl flashes a toothy smile before dragging the dog from the room.
Cassandra decides not to tag along on the shopping excursion, much to her step-father's dismay.
"C'mon, Cassie, I'll have no one to mope with," Justin whines. Cassandra smiles good-naturedly and pats his arm. They both hate shopping and usually spend the time playing I Spy in the mall.
"I'd rather stay home this time. I didn't sleep very well last night." Cassandra yawns for emphasis.
"The Boogeyman under your bed again?" her mother teases.
Cassandra watches them pile into the old Subaru and drive off, the chains on the tires crunching against the icy driveway. Her heart strings pull when she shuts the door. The over whelming feeling of needing to be somewhere makes her anxious. She tries to sit and watch Christmas specials on the Hallmark Channel, but she can't sit still. She quickly loses interest in reading or studying of any kind.
"A walk ought to calm me down," Cassandra mutters to herself as she dons her jacket and boots.
Outside, the sun is just above the horizon. Snow and ice on the ground refract the orange sun, sending long shadows across the front lawn. Cassandra sets out without a destination in mind. The cold air chills her face and flushes her cheeks, brightening her eyes. She loves the cold- always has. When she was younger, she lived in Southern California, just a short walk from the shores of the Pacific Ocean. After her father's heart attack, her mother dragged her to the other end of the continent. Cassandra does miss the mild, beachy California winters sometimes. But she adores snow and the brisk, refreshing feeling of stepping outside into the cold.
Lost in thought, Cassandra doesn't realize where she is until she almost trips over a thorny bush. Shocked into reality, she turns in a small circle, taking in her surroundings. She stands barely a foot away from the icy surface of Lake Ivy. Entranced, Cassandra takes a few small steps forward. The early evening sunlight casts dark shadows across the vacant lakeside. The surrounding forest is dark and in the distance, Cassandra can hear children's laughter from the park. It's eerily still. No birds, no people…no foxes.
Cassandra blinks her wide brown eyes. Her dream flickers back to her. Her pulse begins to race as the bush to her left begins to move. She turns, eyes narrowed. Her jaw unhitches as she meets a golden gaze.
He is incredibly tall and thin. Sickly, Cassandra notices by the hollows of his cheeks. The golden hue of his irises are the only color on his body. His skin is a grey pallor, the thin lips almost black. He wears a slim, floor-length trench coat that matches the black of his stringy hair.
"You see me," he muses, his voice pleasant and lulling. It puts Cassandra on edge that such a nice voice can come from someone so strange.
Pitch Black takes a step forward and Cassandra takes one automatically back. He smiles, revealing his crooked and discolored teeth. Pitch is genuinely joyous that this will be so easy. He didn't even need the Nightmares. Not that he has rebuilt his army yet. He is still very weak and only has Onyx, his favorite, with him now.
"Thankfully," the girl mutters sarcastically, her tone fierce but trembling slightly.
Pitch's smile broadens. She is afraid.
"Where is your Winter Spirit now?" he says, his words full of contempt.
Cassandra steps back again, the heels of her boot crunching against ice.
"Don't do it, Pitch," a voice echoes in the small area.
The creepy man tilts his head back and laughs. There's his challenge.
Cassandra takes the moment of distraction, turning away and running. She is highly uncoordinated on the surface of the frozen lake and skids about haphazardly. Gracelessly, she crashes on her rear so hard her teeth jar. The man is suddenly on the other side of the lake, leering in her direction.
Confused and disoriented, Cassandra glances over her should at where the man had previously been standing.
"How-?" she breathes, her words laced with panic.
The other male voice shouts, "Leave her alone!"
"What are you going to do, Jack?" Pitch taunts. "She can't see you."
Cassandra clenches her fists, her hands shuddering with fright. Not only is the creepy man able to move quite quickly, but he has an imaginary friend with a name. Just her luck.
"Don't do this," Jack Frost pleads, standing on the bank opposite of Pitch. The Nightmare King is right, Cassandra can't see him. But Jack can't dwell on that at the moment.
"What?" Pitch tilts his head with an eerie smirk. "This?"
He holds out a boney hand in Cassandra's direction, slowly uncurling his fingers from his palm and blowing. A cloud of black, glittering sand settles in a circle around Cassandra who is still sitting on the ice in the center of the lake.
Sweat begins to bead at her temples even though it is below thirty degrees and rapidly dropping.
The Nightmare Sand melts through the ice until Cassandra glimpses the shine of water beneath.
Jack, who had been trying to coax Pitch away from the girl, leaps for Pitch. He disappears in a cloud of black and Jack wraps his arms around cold air. Cassandra clambers to her feet, only to slip and land hard on her right knee. The ice spiders out around her with a harsh crack. Jack whirls around and glides across the ice after her as the ice begins to break apart.
As quick as the Spirit of Winter is, he cannot reach her before the water swallows her up.
Cassandra remembers when she was little and would go on adventures with her father. She had always wanted to go ice fishing but her father wouldn't allow it. He said it was unsafe, that the ice was unpredictable. Cassandra's heart sinks as the water covers her head.
Jack can't help it. He dives in after her, praying that he can get a grip on the girl. He yanks her from the water and lays her on a nearby snow bank, holding her upright and pounding on her back.
Her eyelids flutter and she won't stop shivering. Frost already coats beneath her nose and her lips are a pale blue. Jack knows his close proximity isn't helping the situation, but he can't leave her until he knows she's alright.
"Wake up," he whispers, brushing her dark hair away from her pale face.
Suddenly, she jerks onto her side and coughs. Icy lake-water spews from her mouth and onto the snow. Jack holds her, rubbing her back between her shoulder blades as soothingly as he can. She attempts to stand, but pitches forward. Jack swings her effortlessly into his arms.
Cassandra cranes her head back. Jack notices with relief that she isn't slipping through his arms, and wonders briefly if she can see him.
She can. He's beautiful, she thinks. He doesn't appear much older than her, maybe eighteen or nineteen. His hair is a shocking white that sticks out around his unblemished face. There are dark marks under his eyes, like he hasn't gotten a good night's sleep in a long time. His eyes -those eyes- are a brilliant, ethereally blue.
"So cold," she manages to stutter before her head tips back against his shoulder.
Her pulse slows and Jack can't think of anything else to do. He can't take her to a doctor; the only person who can help her now is-
"Wind," Jack commands, "take me to North."
Well...here's the second one! I hope you liked it!