Fear Itself
Chapter 3
Notes: Here we go, another chap. Thanks for the reviewers! I haven't gotten this much attention so fast on a fic before. It's really made me happy that you like it! Thanks!
Just remember, creative people cannot live in a void, so please review the stories you read! Nothing makes an author happier than to know people enjoy their work!
000
Jack Frost sat in a window at Santa's workshop. Staring out over the landscape outside while Santa worked on putting the finishing touches on a new toy idea he had.
"You've been unusually quiet Jack." North said not looking up from his work other than a brief glance from under heavy brows. "Aren't you usually busy, snow days I believe?"
"Eh, I just finished a week long one and a few others, but" he sighed and shifted to dangle his feet against the wall and lean on his staff. Frost spreading where his fingers touched. "I, met someone and something about it, disturbs me."
The bearded man chuckled "Cupid wasn't involved was he?"
"What? No! Nothing like that!" he said eyes widening in slight panic. North laughed. Evil bastard.
But he put down his tools and gave Jack his full attention "So, why don't you tell me about it then Jack." The older Guardian invited the winter sprite.
Jack paused "Well, it started the other day I saw this lady."
"Oh?" one of his brows arched and there was a smile playing about his lips.
"North, I'm about to give you the worst case of ice down your pants if you don't stop." He warned.
North chuckled at him and after watching him to make sure he didn't pull anything Jack continued. "No, I mean, when I saw her she was looking rather depressed, so I thought it was the beautiful day everyone else was being so happy, why couldn't she have a bit of fun to? So, I lobbed a snow ball at her. She perked up and well, when I thought she was going to hit someone else, she threw it at me."
The older man raised both his brows. "She saw you?"
Jack nodded "Even said as much. She knew what I was, and even who I was. Anyway, she took off so I followed her a bit until she talked to me. I didn't get much from her, because well, she started to panic. And." He bit his lip and looked down "She had this, bracelet on, it… it looked like a maniacal to me and it felt like Pitch."
North's face was very serious. "Are you sure?"
"No!" Jack banged his head on the glass behind him in a slight rhythmic feel "Worst part is aside from her being utterly terrified and warning me away from her, she felt familiar. As if, I met her before, a long time ago." He had been lost in thought this whole time. Trying to place were he had seen her before. Something about that smile when she had lobbed the snowball at him, her wide brown eyes and black hair half covering her face.
There was a nagging familiarity. Nothing to do with Santa's teasing. It was as if he should know her from somewhere.
And the fact she saw. Hell she believed. For her it as a matter of course that he was Jack Frost. She even mentioned Bunny and Tooth. With an air of normalcy, so it was clear she believed not just in him, but all of them.
Definitely rare in an adult. Oh there were those who said they believed, usually to humor children in their life but for ones who retain the belief of their childhood, that was very rare.
The feel of Pitch though all over her, and the fear in her eyes. She was shaking to her boots when he touched her.
Something was wrong and if Pitch was involved, he wasn't sure it was good. It had not been that long since they defeated him. Maybe this was just something leftover from when he tried killing every child's belief in the whole world?
But, it seemed he didn't try to kill her's. She still believed. And from the way she acted, she never once hesitated in that belief. She admitted that she saw them all.
"Jack?"
Jack blinked "what?" from the way North was standing with hands on his hips this wasn't the first time he'd tried to get the distracted boy's attention.
"Do you have a name?" he asked him.
"Name?"
"The girl you addled boy!" he was looking highly amused again.
"Oh Ashley. Sorry I wasn't able to get her last name, I managed to overhear someone else calling her that." He said hurriedly before North could start teasing him again.
"Right." And he went to the side of the room and pulled out a filing cabinet "There are a lot of Ashley's in the world, it was quite a common name a few years ago, so this might take a little bit. About how old would you say she is?" he began sorting though naughty and nice lists. Older records.
"Um well she was in college, so.. at least twenty. Hard to say she was so utterly tiny. I think Tooth might give her a run for her money on who's taller." He hopped over and looked into the case with curiosity. So many pictures with names.
"Heh, she sounds adorable." North said as he began pulling out a few likely candidates "Have a look at these and tell me if any of them are her."
Jack began sorting through files and looking hard at the pictures. A couple close, but this one had brown hair, not black. This one's eyes were grey not brown.
Finally he paused as North pulled out a new file and immediately grabbed it from him before he could set it down.
Ashley Tompson. "This is her!"
It was unusually slim in comparison to the other files.
North took it back and flipped through "Huh, never on the naughty list, but I never delivered to her." He said and turned a page "Ah ha! Her family did not celebrate! But good people all the same and," he paused "Her file just ends when she's eleven. Like she died, or disappeared. It starts up again when she's eighteen and continues for a few years, but." He turned to the last page "She's gone again."
"Huh?" Jack leaned over to stare at the file.
"Gone, missing, disappeared, ischyezli." North said and dropped the folder.
Jack picked it back up and looked over it. Then he felt his eyebrows go up into his hairline "Hey wait! North! That bracelet! The maniacal! Could it be that Pitch has made her invisible to us?"
"Now why would he do something like that it would make hardly any sense unless she… mi lord…" he suddenly covered his mouth with his hand and his eyes wide he left his work room.
"Wha-wait! North, hey Santa! Where are you going?" Jack chased after the other Guardian who was marching off with determined boot stomps. Jack ducked around elves and yeti as they did their own work, many pausing to see where the big man was heading.
Then he came to the observatory. Jack hadn't really been by this room since North had ordered him tossed into a bag and then through a portal.
North looked up at the sky and the moon. "Man in Moon, do you know anything about this girl, Ashley Tompson?" he asked.
For a long moment there was nothing. Jack wondered if this was another 'figure it out for yourself' type answers.
Then slowly a glow filled the room.
Then nothing.
North blinked as did Jack.
"Well? I didn't hear anything." Jack commented with mild irritation.
"Me neither." North replied but was staring about the room until he saw something "Ah ha!" He said heading to the side and a glow along the wall. Then he looked both scared and stunned.
"What?" Jack was beginning to feel like a broken record. He came up beside Santa and stared at the glow, that was starting to fade.
Over a door, and next to it a lock.
"What?" now he was starting to sound like a petulant child as he was just wanting to know what was going on.
"This is very bad."
"What is?"
"Pitch has found the Gate and Key."
Jack stared at him for a long moment, "And, this is… bad?"
"Bad, more than bad! It should be impossible! A gate and key have never been born together! There is usually just one or the other, not both. And if Pitch has both of them in his hands." he shook his head. Arms crossed along the barrel of his chest.
"What do they do?" Jack was feeling a bit confused by all this, he'd never heard anything about a key, or door or gate or whatever. And North is talking about like two people, he only met one. So does this mean there is also someone else out there?
"Well a Gate is a kind of doorway, a kind of midiary between our world and the human. They bypass belief and can have more direct access. The Key on the other hand, really doesn't have any special power for themselves, they actually unlock and enhance the Gate, making it more powerful and actually offering access to the power for another to use."
"Wait wait wait!" Jack held up a hand his brows frowned and head down. He could feel a headache coming on "So, you are saying that the Gate is someone who can on their own just see and understand our world on some, deeper level, and the Key lets someone else access this?"
"Exactly!" North touched his nose and pointed to Jack "Now, imagine Pitch with direct access to everything that makes us Guardians. He could very possibly rival the Man in the Moon!"
Jack sat down on the floor, just sort of collapsed bonelessly as the enormity of this hit him. "How the hell? I mean, what has been done in the past?"
"Nothing." North shrugged "The Key been locked up a long time in a tower where she could not escape and the Gates never encountered one before."
"The key been locked.. WAIT you mean the key was imprisoned because of what he was?"
"She. Well, not completely against her will as far as I know. This mind you was before my time, The Key is among the eldest of any of us. Possibly as old as Time himself. And since the birth of the first Gate, she's been in her tower."
"So, is she still in her tower then?" Jack asked.
North frowned "I, don't know. I mean I do not know the details of how she may leave it."
"Well, where is this tower? I mean, if Pitch only has one of them we're safe, right?"
North paused and nodded "Yes, we should be safe. Its, getting close to my holiday, so here." He pulled out one of his portal globes "You go to Key's Tower Jack, make sure she's still there. If she is, we'll get some guards on the tower and everything should be alright."
Jack held the portal and then frowned "What about the girl, Ashley?"
"We can't do anything for her Jack. She is after all, not a child. The Guardians protect childhood, she's an adult. All we can do is hope that if we keep Pitch from the Key, then he'll leave her alone."
"But, as an adult, shouldn't she stop believing in Pitch? I mean I thought it was some sort of automatic thing?" Jack turned the snow globe in his hands leaning on the staff he held between his arm and shoulder.
"Gates, don't get the luxury of forgetting such things of childhood. For them, they always remember, they always believe. Only a Key can lock that away."
"And the Key is, locked away as well." Jack said softly. "Its… not fair."
Santa reached out and touched Jack's shoulder. "I know, but not everything in this world is fair. Unless Pitch is threatening the world and thus the children, there is just nothing we can do for her."
"I, just can't help feeling we're letting her down." Jack said looking up at the bigger man. North came down to closer to Jack's height, looking him in the eyes.
"Thing is Jack, we have. It's not any of our faults. We never knew that Pitch had her at all. But our position is very clear, and unless something else happens. This is all we can do for her. Make sure the Key is safe Jack."
Jack took a breath, trying to control himself "Where do I go?"
"Key's Tower."
Holding up the globe he saw the snow inside swirl. There was a faint image inside as he focused on the place he was to go, but the snow still swirled.
"Throw it and go Jack!" North told him.
And pulling back his arm he threw the globe. The portal opened and taking a breath he jumped through.
000
Pitch wasn't there when Ashley got home. For which she was grateful. A moment's reprieve. To let herself gather her wits about her and hopefully not reveal her encounter with Jack Frost.
She got herself a soda out of the frig and sat in her nest like papasan. Curling herself under blankets and pillows and hiding from the world. The chain around her wrist felt cold and evil. The intent of it as she always felt it was. Something she did not want. She wanted nothing from Pitch, yet he continued to make her take from him and he took and took and took from her.
After the last few days he was definitely more solid. Not just able to touch her and her things, but manipulate other things as well.
And he had new toys over when she was younger. Real Nightmares. Black sand and horrible gazes. Who trapped her and pranced as they devoured her fear. He adding to it until all was pitch black.
There was no light. There was no hope. There was nothing and no escape.
In that moment of complete and utter despair she felt something. As if someone wrapped her in the tightest hug and filled all the hurt with cotton made of clouds.
She sat up in shock looking around herself. It was weird, she felt… rested. Still panicked and depressed but felt as if maybe this endless tunnel may have some light.
Ashley just had to find it.
A sudden gasp she clasped her hand around her wrist and that horrible silver bracelet. Ripping it off she flung it to bang against the wall on the other side.
It didn't hit. A hand catching it. "What have we here? You should be more appreciative of gifts Ashley my girl." Pitch stepped from the shadows of the wall and looked at her. She still clung to her wrist and shook under his gaze.
"It was burning. I'm sorry, it just hurt."
"Burning." He seemed confused and held out his hand to her. Hesitantly she reached her hand back and he took hold of her wrist and looked at it. There was outlined the chain on her flesh, low welts of a very minor burn.
"So it did, how… interesting." He said "Well no matter, we will just find a new gift then for you." He said pocketing the bracelet. She was glad he didn't force it back on her. A small miracle at least. But he also was not letting go of her wrist.
She gave a tug. Trying to pull away. Instead he only pulled her close and pinned her against him, a mockery of the opening of a tango. His eyes staring deeply into hers.
"Don't you dare try and block her from me." He said.
She blinked "Block who? I'm not."
"Because if you do, I will kill her and then were will you be? You know they will only give you one place to go back to. One place." His grin was horribly nasty and Ashley was quaking in horrible terror. Not know what he was doing or why he was threatening her like this. What had she done wrong?
And suddenly he released her. Ashley falling back into her chair and curling herself small. "Now Ashley, how is your homework?" he steepled his fingers together, smiling as if nothing had happened.
Ashley's lip shook and she gulped. Not knowing what to do or what he was going to do to her.
She just, felt so…
Cold.
End Note:
Ischyezli means 'was gone' or 'disappeared' 'vanished' in Russian.