now presenting: chapter 2! hope you enjoy, i'm loving the feedback im getting, keep reviewing!
Although it was still a few weeks from spring, the people in the small town were enjoying warm weather after a brutal winter. The children played ball in the streets, their bare feet pounding against the asphalt still warm. In the distance he could smell someone starting up a grill, probably about to break into the supply of hot dogs and hamburgers.
Normally when the weather got this warm out, Jack Frost would start his trek to the other side of the planet and end their summer. However, he was finding it harder and harder to move out, or do much of anything actually.
At this particular moment he was perched in some tree, its leaves already budding. Dangling his feet, he leaned back against the tree and closed his eyes. A warm breeze danced across his brow, but sent shivers down his spine. His white hair was plastered to his forehead with sweat and dark shadows protruded from underneath his eyes and cheek bones. The spark in his ice blue eyes was gone, and replaced with other feelings, and darker ideas.
Guardians don't get sick or die, but they can have nightmares. Jack had been plagued with them for a few months now, but the lack of sleep had only just started to take its toll. He hadn't told the others, he didn't see a reason to. He had been on his own for so long, fending for himself that he didn't see the Guardians as friends quite yet, just acquaintances really. And besides, North and Bunnymund would just laugh at his concern, Tooth would dismiss it without a second thought, and Sandy was too busy to even notice him. He was used to being on his own, and a little problem like nightmares was nothing to bother the all-important Guardians with.
On a nearby branch birds chirped, and the shouts of children could be heard below, but these disturbances are not what kept Jack from falling asleep. It wasn't that he couldn't sleep, but that he didn't want too. The nightmares were unrelenting; sleep never came to Jack without them. As he closed his eyes and began to slip into the darkness, feelings of dread and despair would creep in around the edges of his mind. A mind numbing chill would take hold of his bones, making him shiver as sweat dusted his brow and made him colder. Flashes of pain and sorrow danced beneath his eye lids, and he felt as though a sack of rocks sat at the bottom of his stomach, like the feeling you get at the top of a rollercoaster, just about to go over the edge but you can't quite see the peak yet. He would toss and turn, cry out in pain, and when he woke he felt more alone than ever, there was no one there to hold him, tell him he was going to be okay, that it was all just a dream, because it wasn't.
He dreamt of never being seen as a true Guardian, just a tool the others needed to defeat Pitch. Now that he was destroyed, the others didn't pay any mind to Jack, they melted seamlessly back into their lives and duties, forgetting about the winter spirit.
He dreamt that although a few kids had believed in him before when they needed it most, that he would be forgotten. Eventually even Jamie would grow up, and he would be nothing more than a childhood memory. After all, no one else seemed to take notice to him after those fateful events.
He dreamt of a day when he was not only forgotten by the Guardians and the children, but also by the Man in the Moon. Only once did he ever talk to him, and he only told him his name, nothing more. When Jack cried out at night, trying to find out who he was, and why he was here, he would look into the face of the moon and beg for answers, yet nothing came to him. Eventually the Man in the Moon talked to the others, and made him a Guardian, but only as a last resort in defeating Pitch. Jack was forgotten by everyone else, why would the Man in the Moon be any different?
With a sigh Jack opened his eyes and looked down at the early spring he allowed to take hold on the town. He could surprise the children with a snow day, but what for? They still wouldn't believe in him, wouldn't thank him for working all night to bring them this joy and happiness.
He stood up on his perch and stretched his arms, yawning loud and wide. Grabbing his staff he dropped out of the tree and willed the wind to catch his fall. He set down on a rock next to his pond, setting his staff down beside him. As the sun began to set he gave into his exhaustion, allowing sleep to take over. He allowed the darkness to consume him, and the nightmares take hold, dark dreamsand swirling all around.
thanks for reading! also, thanks to all of you who are reviewing. i promise to thank some of you by name next chapter because your support is what keeps me writing. please keep reviewing!
also, check out some of my other stories, especially Without the Snow. that one is by far my favorite piece, and even if you don't like this story so much you may really enjoy that one.