"Jamie Bennett is not the only child in this house who can get a nightmare." Pitch could no longer be seen in the darkened room, but the words were clear and unmistakable. Their ominous meaning turned Jack's blood cold. He gave a small gasp, looking to the guardians around him.
"My sister!" Breathed Jamie. Jack felt small fingernails dig through his pants and into his legs. Beside him, Bunny's ears flattened against his head, and a scowl tore his lips apart.
"There's no way I'm lettin' that slimy rat bag lay one finger on her!" he spit. He turned, hopping heatedly towards the door.
"The door is locked!" Said Jamie quickly. He ran over to Bunny, slipping between him and the door. He fumbled frantically with the lock until it turned. As soon as it sprung open, Bunny leaped through it, his powerful legs launching him halfway down the hall in one bound. He stopped, sniffed, then shot down the stairs. Sandy, Jack, and Jamie ran after him.
When they caught up with him, he was standing in the doorway of another room. Jack leaned over Bunny's shoulder to peek inside. Sophie lay undisturbed in the bed. She was sprawled out, one leg hanging off the edge, and the other on her pillow. The room was eerily calm.
Jamie rose on tip toe, speaking into Jack's ear. "I'll go distract my mom in case you need to fight." He said. Jack nodded in thanks. "I know she'll be safe with you guys." the boy added. Trust shone in his young eyes, and Jack fervently hoped he wouldn't betray it. Jamie ran back the way they had come.
It was quiet until Jamie's far away voice drifted to them from the living room. "Mom, come quick! There's a huge spider in my room! You gotta come kill it, it's ginormous!" Their conversation was the only thing breaking the silence,
Bunny's arm was rested on the door frame. Jack ducked underneath it, slipping into the room. Sophie seemed peaceful enough. Her breathing was slow, and it ruffled the red fur of the toy that lay near her open mouth. They could only hope that Pitch hadn't gone to work on her yet. Bunny entered the room, coming to stand next to the bed. His expression was that of a warrior, ready to do whatever was necessary to protect the sleeping child.
"Aww. How cute." A cold voice entered the room. Jack knew it was probably in his head, but the chill he felt run down his spine seemed all too real. From next to him, he heard a low growl coming from Bunny. "The guardians doing all in their power to protect the little child." The voice continued, growing harder with each syllable. By the last word, it was dripping with sarcasm. "Precious."
Sandy listened carefully. He knew what Pitch's objective was; rile them up. Distract them. While it had not coaxed a response from Jack or Bunny yet, Sandy could only assume it was working. He needed to stay calm, so he could find where the voice was coming from. He had a guess, of course. After all, where else would the bogey man be?
"Come out, ya shadow sneakin' viper!" Sandy ignored Bunny's exclamation, plodding past the irate pooka to the edge of the bed. He lifted the overhang of the rumpled quilt, peering underneath curiously. It was dark, that much was certain. But Sandy did not see any signs of Pitch.
A black chortle began softly, quickly growing to a crescendo of dark amusement as Sandy looked up in confusion.
"Did you really think I would be that predictable?!" The voice cackled. Sandy looked around, Jack and Bunny mimicking his suspicious expression. "There is darkness," the voice went on, "in places other than underneath beds."
Sandy only had time to widen his eyes before a slam from behind them made them all jump. A cold feeling spread throughout Sandy's body, and he knew that he had made a mistake. Pitch Black was not confined to the realm of underneath beds. Pitch thrived wherever there were shadows; deep corners, the darkness at the top of the stairs, and of course, in closets.
Sophie Bennett had a closet next to her bed.
A blow struck Sandy cruelly from behind, and as he turned, a flash of darkness crept up one of his short arms. A touch had been all it had taken for the corruption of the Terror Glove to worm it's way into his own sand essence. He stumbled forward, glaring at the black sand covering Pitch's right hand.
Pitch did not give any of them a moment to recover. Once he had dealt a blow to Sandy, he immediately made to attack Bunny. The pooka threw himself forward, embracing the challenge readily. Pitch clawed at him, raking long fingers down Bunny's soft fur. Terror sand got tangled in the strands, then morphed themselves into large bugs. They scampered over the rabbit's body, their pincers clacking chillingly.
Bunny hurriedly slapped at the bugs. He tried to focus on Pitch, but the pests that peppered his body had begun to pinch him cruelly. Each tiny bite stung with alarming pain, and Bunny winced.
A smile cracked across Pitch's face as he saw the struggle. A small chuckle bubbled through his dry, grey lips. Taking advantage of Bunny's momentary shift in focus, he made for the sleeping child.
"No!" bellowed Bunny. He quit slapping at the bugs. They could bite him if they wanted.
They did.
As he stopped brushing them off, the biting increased. The pinching turned from distractingly unpleasant to white-hot pricks of pain that elicited small cries and gasps as he threw himself protectively on top of Sophie. His body blocked any possibility of the Terror sand reaching her, but he was worried about the horrible bugs on his skin. What if they sensed another warm body and began to attack the child?
"Jack!" he cried. "Mate, help!' Jack looked up from Sandy. He had been helping the little man brush off the Terror sand, but the tainted grains were spreading with worrying speed. Any lapse in focus from Jack or Sandy could tip the balance in this battle of Black versus Gold.
"I can't!" Jack choked out. He saw the direness of Bunny's situation as well, but knew that if he left Sandy on his own, the dream spinner might not make it. He returned to furiously brushing blackness off of Sandy's back. Already his pause had allowed the darkness to eat away worrying amounts of his friend.
Underneath Bunny, Sophie had woken up. After all, the weight of someone as big as him could hardly be ignored, even when asleep. She came around, thoroughly confused. Much of Bunny's weight was resting on his arms as he created a protective shield around her. She had just enough room to wriggle out from underneath him, not understanding the situations she was putting herself in.
Sophie had recognized Bunny's familiar voice and silky fur, and all she knew was that she couldn't say hi to him from under here. Also, if Bunny was around, maybe the others were too. She wanted to see Santa, the pretty fairy, the sparkly yellow one and Jack.
Bunny felt her stir underneath him, then recognized her intention. "No! Ya listen ta me, ya ankle biter, ya stay down!" Sophie, being Sophie, paid no thought to his desperate words. She popped out triumphantly from underneath his safe cocoon. "No!" Bunny shouted, seeing her blonde mop of hair disappear over the edge of the bed.
Jack heard the despairing cry from his friend, and looked over. He froze as he took in the new aspect of Sophie's danger. Pitch had seen her push herself away from Bunny, and immediately slithered underneath the bed. His form poured onto the other side, grabbing hold of the squirming girl as he formed himself again.
"Hey!" cried Sophie indignantly. "No!" she wriggled, twisting and turning in the nightmare king's grasp. Pitch only chuckled. He snapped his fingers, the click loud in spite of the glove covering his fingers. It only took a fraction of an instant for Onyx, his chosen nightmare steed, to appear. He morphed from the cracks in the floorboards, and Sophie stopped moving as she took in the sudden proximity of the steaming, coal-like eyes of the stallion. Black sand blew from his large nostrils as he huffed a stinking breath.
Sophie did not like this horsey. It was big, and scary. Not at all like the ponies she loved to watch on TV. She looked at Bunny, who was standing stock still only a few feet away. Surely her friend would never let the horrible monster hurt her.
"Bunny." she whimpered quietly. "No horsey. Please no horsey." Her large green eyes with Bunny's. The pooka felt something inside him tear. This emotion... it was some strange mixture of despair and fury. Sophie's eyes were filling with tears as she took in Bunny's lack of activity. Why wasn't he helping her?
"Hey. Sophie." Her gaze shifted to face the voice from her right. Jack was there. He smiled at her fondly. She was slightly comforted, but could still recognize the tightness in his eyes. "Sophie, that horsey isn't going to hurt you. I promise, okay? That horsey... that horsey is a good horsey. He likes you!" Sophie peered again at the stallion in front of her. Could this possibly be true? How could something so horrible not be bad? But if Jack said it...
"Oh?" asked Pitch, quite interested in Jack's chosen method of soothing the girl. "A good horsey, is he?" Pitch held Sophie closer to the nightmare. "Maybe for me. But you're right on one account. He definitely likes little Sophie here." Onyx snorted in reply, pawing a sharp hoof to the ground. Sophie shied away from those burning eyes, which were now closer to her face than ever.
"But he's not going to hurt her!" Jack cut in angrily. He glanced at Sandy. He was still desperately trying to fend off the terror sand, but it was obvious that he was fighting a losing battle. Bunny, facing away from Jack, was showing him an excellent view of the blood clotted fur that marked where the terror insects had ripped his skin open with their pincers. He assumed they were still at their horrible work, judging from the occasional twitching of Bunny's paws and the short, quiet gasps he occasionally gave. Bunny's substantial pride was probably the only reason he was not rolling on the floor in a panic as most people would with things like that scouring their body.
Lastly, he looked at Sophie. She was nearly trembling in fear. Such a state was so different from her usual adorable, carefree self that Jack could feel his heart climbing into his throat. "He's not going to hurt her…" he tried to say around it, "Because…"
Pitch's voice echoed from the night before and into the present. "Are you really going to let him suffer because of your selfish desires?" he had asked.
Jack carefully placed a stone wall between himself and his emotions. No. He would not let them suffer for him. That was not an option. "…Because if he does, you can forget about me joining you. For good."
Pitch raised an eyebrow. "What are you saying, Jack?" he asked. The question had self-satisfied under tone. Pitch knew what Jack was saying. He just wanted him to say it out loud, in front of the two present guardians. Jack bit back a curse.
"I'm saying," he replied, working to keep his voice level, "that I think you and I would make a great team. But not if you're going to hurt children. Not physically." Black sand had crept up to Sandy's sparkling neck, sucking the light of his own grains out of him like some kind of fiendish parasite. He didn't have much longer. "Now put her down. And stop the black sand."
"Those are your conditions?" the silky voice purred. Jack hated him in that moment. Pitch was stalling on purpose, toying with him.
"Yes!" he yelled, clenching his eyes shut. "Stop the sand! Now!" Jack slammed his staff to the ground. He controlled the frost and wind that so desperately wanted to burst from it, but only just. In the ensuing silence, only one sound came. A click. Jack cracked open his eyes. He watched in relieved wonder as the dark specks flowed from his friend and back into that revolting glove. Sandy was slowly turning back to his own healthy shade of metallic yellow. The look on the mans face stopped Jack's relief in its tracks, though.
Hurt, and Confusion. Sandy looked downright betrayed.
He looked disappointed.
Jack averted his gaze. His choice had been made. His lowered eyes didn't save him from the whip of Bunny's words. "Jack, what are ya talkin' about." Jack allowed himself a peek at Bunny's expression. Perplexion and thunder. That was all he saw there. Jack reinforced the mental wall he had put up, then pushed harshly past Bunny to Pitch's side. He noticed Bunny's lack of pained twitching with a gentle relief. Good. He looked up into the face of his new companion. Pitch laughed gleefully as he passed Sophie to Jack. "Well done, Jack!" he praised. His amber eyes flashed. "Well done."
Jack clutched Sophie tightly for a moment, then sat her on her bed. "See?" he asked with a forced chuckle. "You're okay." Sophie wiped her nose, than offered him a tear-soaked smile. She didn't understand a lot of what just happened, but she was glad to be away from the tall dark one. He was scary.
"Jack, ya can't be serious." Bunny was quiet now. He looked at Jack with a gaze of emerald fire. A knuckle or two cracked as he clutched his boomerang still tighter. "Yer not! The Jack I know would never help Pitch! Stop actin' stupid!"
"That's the thing." the winter sprite replied numbly. "How could you know me?" He hated the words he was saying, but it was better to sever the connection. He didn't know how long he would have to be with Pitch until he found a way around the darkly effective leverage the man had. Jack met Bunny's gaze steadfastly. "Of course I'm not the Jack you knew. I'm the Jack that woke up at the lake not too long ago. And maybe you didn't realize, but a person can change a lot in three hundred years." He took a step closer to Pitch, who placed a hand possessively on Jack's shoulder with a small chuckle. Jack ignored the biting fingernails. "This is who I am now." He turned to face Pitch, calling on all of his self-control to not scowl. "Can we just go?" he asked in a monotone.
"Yes. We can." grey lips smiled, then the nightmare king, turned and opened the window. Bunny stared, looking as though he'd been slapped. Jack tore from the eye contact as Pitch melted into the shadows on the side of the Bennett house.
Then he followed.
A/N: So... basically I'm a lying lier-pants who lies. I know I said I'd update quickly, but here we are! I don't know how many of you actually care how often I update, but on the off chance that one or two of you are excited for new chapters, I want to update regularly about once a week. Lately, school has gotten in the way, but I'll see what I can do:)
Also, I lied about the whole conclusion thing. Hehe, I guess it wasn't technically a lie since I believed what I was saying at the time, but then a whole new plot twist hit me, and I think its on its way to being a little longer than originally planned. Tell me, are you guys okay with that? Because if you're not, I can close up this arc and save the other plot twist for maybe a seperate fic. What happens, happens, I guess:D
Unrelated: I finished this chapter during a huge thunderstorm. It was spectacular! I wrote the last line as a flash of lightning lit the room, and thunder played behind my maniacal laughter.
Not really.
But it felt that way:D I hope the chapter was pleasing, fellow fanfictioners! I WILL try to update on a schedule now, but since I've warned you that I'm a lier, maybe you shouldn't get to excited. .
Love,
Mariah