WARNING:

~BOOK AND SLIGHT MOVIE SPOILERS AHEAD~

Every time I try to write my little brother starts slipping blank papers under my door. Why? Why?!

My OC is an only child, so it's kind of hard to put myself in her shoes regarding siblings. My brother and sisters are constantly harassing me, waking me up in the middle of the night, and doing all sorts of weird junk. I'm pretty sure it isn't healthy to try to eat a frog,

So its kind of hard to imagine what beign an only child is like which doesn't help when it comes to Alice.

Aaaaaand here goes...

The three stood in silence for a few moments, Alice stood in front of them, arms wrapped around herself. Now that the danger seemed to be gone, and there were no wolf monster things in sight, her body suddenly became aware of the cold that chilled her to the bones. She stood there, shaking, yet relatively calm which disturbed her.

"Whats going on." She said quietly, her dark blonde hair falling in front of her face in a result of the small movement

"Um, can we do this somewhere else? I'm feeling a little exposed out here..." The boy said, looking over his shoulder.

After a few seconds of more silence, Alice turned without a word and started towards her house. The two silently followed, throwing questioning looks and shrugs behind her back. Finally arriving at the road, she crossed and walked up the driveway in a mindless state. After slipping her muddy shoes off, she walked in and held the door open.

"Shoes off." She said with a blank tone. The second she said it she felt strange. Every time she invited friends over she informed them of Ashley's "No shoe rule," but this time it just felt odd to say something so mundane after all that happened.

"No problem." The boy in the blue sweater said, holding up a bare foot and wiggling his toes before walking past her. She glanced at Sandy who proceeded to look down at his small feet with a slight frown. He rose up off the ground and hovered there for a moment, looking up at her with a smile. She stared as he floated by and joined his companion in the living room. Alice closed the door with loud groan and leaned against the cold surface with her forehead.

'This is really weird.' The only thing that she could think. She stood there trying to gather her thoughts before turning around. After flipping the light switch she remembered the power was out. 'Great.' She walked into the living room with a sigh and suspiciously noticed Sandy was looking above her with an anxious look, a small circle with a slash through it appeared above his head just as she looked up.

"BOO!" The boy with white hair exclaimed as he dropped from the ceiling, poking her shoulder. Alice jumped and turned around angrily, not in the mood for playing games. He laughed as Sandy floated over, giving him a look of disapproval while wagging his finger.

"Sorry, sorry," He said between laughs, " just trying to lighten the mood a bit, you guys are so tense."

Ignoring his explanation, Alice started to walk towards the kitchen when she suddenly remembered she had dropped her flashlight in the driveway.

"My flashlights outside." She said, not bothering with the other light switches. Before she could head for the door the boy spoke up.

"I'll get it." He said quickly and jumped up as a burst of wind propelled him out the door, making a a chilly breeze drift through the house. The moonlight dimly beamed through he windows, but wasn't enough to light the farther parts of the house. After a couple seconds of silence she walked into the dark hallway and blindly grabbed a towel from the closet. She Patted her wet hair with it before dropping it in the laundry basket and sulked back into the living room, her hair still a little frizzy and wet but she didn't care much at the moment. After sitting down on the couch with her legs crossed Indian style, she put her head in her hands and closed her tired eyes, the silence making her forget she wasn't alone. A tap on her knee startled her as she looked up to see Sandy holding up a blanket with a sympathetic smile.

"Thanks." She muttered, appreciating the kind gesture.

Alice draped the blanket over her shoulder and grasped the corners in her lap just the boy walked in with the flashlight.

"Found it," He said proudly as he held up the wet flashlight, "still works too." He shined it at both their faces making them squint and cover the eyes.

"That's nice just put it down." Alice said while shielding her eyes from the unexpected light. He placed it on the coffee table in front of her making the light reflect off the white ceiling which slightly lit up the room. Alice rubbed her temples as her headache subsided and realized it had gotten quiet again.

"What just happened?" Alice asked again as she raised her head.

"Actually I was hoping you guys could tell me." The boy said, plopping down in an armchair before pulling his hood over his eyes.

She looked over at Sandy, who was now the only one left standing and her last hope for an explanation.

"Wait a second who are you guys anyways?" She questioned as she examined Sandy. Even though she had somewhat adjusted to his presence, his appearance was still stunning.

"You can answer that," He said with a confident voice as he flicked his hood with his fingers, "you wouldn't be able to see us if you didn't believe in us."

"What?" She asked, not quite understanding his reasoning.

"I'm Jack Frost." He said, looking over his shoulder with surveying eyes.

Alice stared at him for a moment before replying.

"You mean like that winter spirit thing?" She said suspiciously, vaguely recalling references from movies and stories from grammar school.

"Well I don't know about spirits or anything, but I do like winter." He retorted with a mischievous smile.

"Oh and that's Sandman," he said, tilting his head slightly in his direction, "or Sandy as we call him. He doesn't talk much. I take it you two have met though."

Sandman?

He beamed at her when she gazed over at him and waved a small hand making wisps of sand float in the air before sinking and fading.

'Have I finally lost it?" Alo had always said that one day she would snap and go on a mass murder rampage or something. 'Maybe this is the first stage. I should really call her, I did say she would be the first to know.'

"Wait a second, how can you she see us if she doesn't believe in us?" Jack asked suspiciously, sitting up in his chair.

Alice blinked, not sure how to respond to his statement. Confused and tired she put her head in her hands again.

"Have I gone crazy? Tell me now if I am crazy because I have no idea what your talking about." She half groaned as she squeezed her eyes shut.

"Yup." Jack answered her humorously. Sandy threw jack an irritated expression and crossed his arms making Jack sigh before clearing his throat.

"What I meant to say is we are Guardians, kind of like protectors. We protect the children of the world and fight the bad guys and stuff." He said nonchalantly, hanging his head upside down on the arm of the chair as he looked over at her. "Only the children who believe in us can see us." He continued with a frown. "Haven't you ever heard of the Tooth Fairy or Easter Bunny before?

"Of course I have, everyone has, but those are just fairy tales and myths-wait, did you say Tooth Fairy?" She asked, her voice mirroring her disbelief.

"Wow. This is kind of awkward." Alice didn't really here his statement as she began to space out.

It was difficult for her to grasp what he was telling her, but she knew there was no denying what she had seen with her own eyes. How could she rule out anything he said after all that just happened?

"Are there any more of you?" She asked, welcoming the familiar feeling of curiosity.

"There's a few more." He said casually.

"Was she one of them?" Alice asked with a feeling of anxiety as she remembered the disturbing individual.

"No way." He said quickly, his tone going from carefree to defensive.

"Who was she then?"

They both turned to Sandy who slightly frowned before he slowly hovered over to the couch and plopped down quite cozily on a pillow next to Alice. She watched curiously as he held his hand out and lyrical threads of shimmering sand swirled together into a small circle before collapsing in the middle and rising up to form a slender figure.

"I don't get it." Alice said after closely studying the the narrow features of the persons face.

"What does he have to do with this." Jack asked, his voice lined with disgust.

"Who is it?!" Alice asked impatiently as she looked from Sandy to jack.

"Pitch Black, the Nightmare King." Jack answered, not fully paying attention to her.

Alice examined his face carefully to see if he was joking or not but decided not to speak, wanting to know as much as possible.

"So what is she some kind of minion or something? A follower?" Jack asked.

Sandy shook his head back and forth and the sand morphed into another image. Alice looked closely to see a what looked like a baby carriage from old cartoons she used to watch.

After a few seconds the message set in.

"Pitch has a daughter!?" Jack half shouted, his state of surprise made Alice itch even more with curiosity. Even though question after question was whizzing around in her head Alice stayed quiet.

Once again sandy shook his head no, and the figure of Pitch appeared again, this time the clothing of a soldier, equip with a hat and sword.

"Oh..." Jack said, his tone more mellow now. A few seconds of silence passed before he spoke up again.

"But how was she here? How did the fighting start?"

Sandy gave a small shrug before a present with a bow appeared and hovered for a few seconds before the top suddenly popped off, sending little clumps of golden sand in the air.

"She gave you a present?" Alice asked with a questionable tone.

"No, she surprised him."Jack corrected her, obviously more advanced in their conversation of charades than her. 'That probably wasn't pleasant .." Alice thought after recalling the whole reason she ran out into that field in the first place.

"Then what-" Jack was suddenly cut off by a crash upstairs. The room went quiet as everyone froze in their tracks and listened closely.

"What was that?" Jack whispered, breaking the silence.

"I don't know...sounded like something broke." Alice whispered back. The thought of someone in the house was always a phobia since she was usually home alone and she felt chills run down her spine at the very real possibility. Another crash went off, the sound of glass shattering on the floor echoed from the second floor.

"Come on." Jack whispered, picking up the flashlight. Alice promptly stood up and followed him as Sandy floating silently beside her. They stopped at the bottom of the stairs for a moment before slowly ascending, pausing at every creak. Not a sound was made until they reached the first guestroom. Jack mouthed the words:

"One...Two..." On three he threw the door opened and held out his staff while scanning the room with the flashlight. Besides a bed and a table all seemed right, and he quietly closed the door and tip toed to the second guest room. They repeated the process, finding the second room empty. Finally they approached the last door in the hall. Alice's room. On the silent count of three her door was flung open followed by an array of small barks that erupted from somewhere inside the room.

"What the.." Jack said as Alice sighed with relief.

"It's just the dog."She said more to herself than the others. She pushed past Jack to see the pup sitting on her bed, obviously shaken by the strangers intrusion. In front of the stand next to her bed was a broken glass cup sitting in a pool of water. Upon seeing her, the dog stopped barking and started to whine in frustration as he tried to muster up the courage to jump off the bed. Alice saved him the trouble and sat down next to him, making sure to step over the glass. He promptly jumped in her lap and buried his face in her arms trying to burrow into her. The gesture made her feel guilty that she had forgotten all about him, though she did have a good reason.

"A dog huh? Why didn't you so say?" Jack said as he leaned against the doorway.

"I forgot." She said simply as she scratched behind his ear.

"You forgot you have a dog?" He asked in a mocking tone. Sandy peaked into the room from behind Jack and his face lit up with delight upon seeing the small dog. He quickly drifted in and tilted his head trying to get a look at the furry pooch hiding in her arms.

"I just got him, like less than a couple of hours ago. I really didn't have much choice in the matter." She said simply as she moved her arms, forcing the Yorkie to confront the stranger. He growled and stood up, only barking once before sniffing the air around him. Sandy chuckled silently and held out his hand to the puppy. After a couple of sniffs the dog decided he was not a threat and lost interest as he walked off her lap and sat on the blanket at the end of her bed while chewing the corner. Sandy promptly followed and conjured up a golden butterfly that flew around the puppy, sparking his playful nature. The dog jumped up in a quite adorable and enthusiastic manner though never quite wrapping his teeth around the apparition. The sight was heart warming, and Alice enjoyed it before noticing a cold breeze coming from her open window.

"That's weird..." She muttered as she got up to close it, not recalling opening it in the first place. There was a small window sill on the wall outside her window that Alice always used to climb on when she was younger. Every time she closed her window she reminded of the times she would sneak up onto the the top of the house. The roof was only about a couple of feet above it, and being as flat as it was was easy to climb onto. Walter never approved of it, so Alice usually climbed up their at night when she couldn't sleep, mostly to watch the stars. She stopped reminiscing at the moment and turned round, leaning against the closed window. She noticed the dog was asleep in Sandy's lap with a small scene floating above his head of a dog running around in circles, it's leg twitching every now and then in it's sleep.

"Whats he doing?" Alice asked.

"Dreaming." Jack said with a small smile on his face as he watched the scene.

'Oh right.' The Sandman, deliver of dreams. She watched the dream for a few moments before bringing the matter at hand back up.

"What do we do now?" She asked without looking up.

"We?" Jack inquired with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes "we". I'm involved now aren't I?" Alice stated, irritated that he was playing this card.

"Yea, but I figured you wouldn't want anything to do it. You don't want to go through that again do you?" He asked as he pointed towards the field where everything had happened. Alice went quiet for a moment before answering.

"She knew me. I don't know how, but she knew my name."

"How did you get involved in this anyways? And how can you even see us? You are human aren't you?" His questions held a tone of accusation that irked Alice. The sound of glass being swept up in a yellow broom and dust pan lingered behind their conversation before it hovered over to a wastebasket dissipated making the glass falling rather noisily into it.

"Yes I'm human." She snapped, not liking his tone. She paused briefly before going on.

"I was outside when I heard some kind of loud noise in the clouds. When I went out to get a better look I saw something falling from the sky and ran out to see what it was. That's where he came in." She explained looking over to Sandy and noticed Jack tense up out of the corner of her eye. As if on cue a catchers mitt and a baseball flashed over his head and then scattered back into the air.

"You caught him?" Jack said with amazement.

"Well...I wasn't really thinking straight at the time...but yea." Alice admitted as she continued. "He seemed kind of out of it at first, but he looked fine after he got up. Anyways she was watching us the whole time." She felt a feeling of anxiety rise in her stomach as she spoke the last sentence.

"How did she do that? With the black stuff and the sinking into the ground?"

"Nightmare sand. It's similar to Sandy's dream sand, but more like an evil twin kind of thing. As far as her using it and being able to fade into shadows, I've only seen one person do it." He said, his voice growing darker.

"That Pitch guy?" She asked. He nodded and and leaned against his staff.

She saw Sandy pick up the dog and put him on the bed out of the corner of her eye. He proceeded to jump off and hover to the ground before tapping his arm above his wrist with a sense of urgency.

"Now? Are you sure? What if she comes back?" Jack asked after taking notice of Sandy's signals.

"Wait you guys aren't leaving are you?" Alice asked and straightened up with worry as she looked from Jack to Sandy.

Golden sand gathered over Sandy's head and yellow hard hat appeared, similar to a construction workers. He tapped his invisible watch again, this time more impatiently.

Jack sighed and straightened up. "Okay I'll tag along for a littler before heading for the Pole." Sandy expressed a look discontent but didn't seem to argue much.

"Wait, wait, wait, you guys can't just leave!" Alice raised her voice to an almost pleading tone.

"Believe it or not we have work to do. Well Sandy has work to do. I don't much like work." Jack said. Sandy responded by knocking on his hat which faded shortly after.

"What work?" She asked.

"Where else are people going to get their dreams tonight?" He started to walk towards the window when Alice blocked his path.

"What if she comes back?" Alice asked afraid her voice would give away her fear.

Jack sighed again and put his hand in his jacket pocket, pulling out a small box shaped thing.

"Here." He said, handing it to her. She took small device that fit in her hand quiet nicely. It was decorated with red and blue swirls that symmetrically traveled up the sides, giving it an almost Christmas-y feel to it along with two buttons, a blue and orange one.

"Since Sandy is busy tonight I'll just get a new one when I visit North." He said. Sandy impatiently hovered over to the front window and crossed his arms.

"What is it? North? who's North?"

"If anything comes up just press the blue button and it will alert us, but only if it's really important."

"What about the orange one?" She asked, turning it over and examining the back.

"Just don't press that"

"Okaaay..." She said warily. She felt a tug on her sleeve and looked down to see Sandy holding a hand out, the image of a baseball and mitt over her head again.

"Umm..." She said awkwardly as she took his hand and looked to Jack.

"He's thanking you."

"Oh right...no problem." She said awkwardly as she shook his hand. He smiled and nodded, turning back to the now open window and stepping out.

"What are-!" She stopped mid sentence when he hovered outside her instead of falling. "Right." She said, forgetting these guys seemed to be able to defy gravity better than the average person. He smiled in amusement and waved as he rose in the air and quickly disappeared above the house.

"Anyways, thanks for the help. I suppose you weren't completely useless out there." He said sarcastically as he approached the window and stopped in front of it.

"Gee, thanks." She muttered.

"Seriously though, if you weren't there when you were things could have gone a lot differently." His voice more tender this time.

"Are you thanking me because of the sheer chance that I happened to be outside at the time?"

"Well that's half of it I suppose."

"Well don't mention it then." She said. Alice wasn't entirely happy she had gotten herself into this mess, but she was glad everyone was alive. They said nothing for a few seconds when Sandy suddenly appeared upside down at the top of the window, this time an hour glass appearing next to him.

"Well see ya." Jack said as he started to climb out the window. A sliver of golden dust passed in front of her face and she felt suddenly felt her eyes grow tired.

"What the..." She said as she rubbed her eyes.

"Don't worry about it, just get some sleep." He said. Sandy flashed her a thumbs up, which was actually a thumbs down from her perspective, and then disappeared again.

"What?-Wait!" She shouted and grabbed his sleeve.

"What?" He looked back with a impatient expression. She thought for a moment before speaking.

"Will I see you guys again?" She asked, worried they would would leave and never come back as if her imagination had played some twisted prank on her.

"Probably." He said half heartedly. He jumped out the window, forcing her to let go, and disappeared for a second before and a gust of wind carried him out of sight. She leaned out the window and studied the grey sky as she clutched the device in her hand. Nothing. Now alone, Alice slowly closed the window and stood there tiredly thinking.

'Did that just happen?'

She looked down at her hands, which seemed very real at the time, and noticed the room was still slightly chilly. The cold room and the sleeping dog on her bed was the only evidence she had that proved a boy with white hair and a small golden man had just been standing here with her, and it wasn't very reliable evidence. Confused she walked over to her bed, not sure what else she could do. After plopping down she didn't bother pulling up the covers knowing very well in her tired state she would probably wind up punching herself in the face. After a few moments of staring at the dark ceiling she dozed off into a dreamless but comfortable sleep.

I'm ashamed to say sometime I punch myself in the face when trying to pull my covers up to my chin. It's not as funny as it sounds.

:P