For the rest of the duration of their walk, Jamie and Marie did not speak to one another. A feeling of awkwardness hung in between them, until Jamie sighed and decided to break it.
"I'm sorry." Jamie whispered quietly. He stopped walking and faced Marie, taking his wife's hands.
Marie simply stared at their conjoined hands. "For what?"
"Yelling at you when I knew you were right. I shouldn't have lashed out at you or Jack like that; it just sort of came out. I feel awful about it." Jamie looked down at the snow, guilt washing over his features.
Marie smiled a little. "Then why don't we go find him so you can apologize?" she suggested, looking up at her husband. She leaned in and wrapped her arms around his neck before giving him a gentle kiss on the cheek. Jamie smiled, his cheeks blushing a little. The woman laughed softly.
"Come on; let's go find Jack before it gets too dark-"
A loud scream pierced through the forest, stopping Marie from continuing, seeming to recognize the voice. Soon shouts echoed off the trees; they sounded like they were coming from children. Jamie turned in the direction from which the shouts came from the loudest.
"Y-You don't think-" Marie stammered, pulling away from their embrace and tugging on her husband's sleeve.
Jamie took her hand before glancing at her. "There's only one way to find out. Come on, we'd better hurry!"
Nicholas POV
After we had gathered a group of our friends -Martin, Hailey, and Lynn, Aiden, and Zach, Annie, and Justin- we started heading into the forest.
"Liz, are you sure this is safe?" I called out to my little sister. We had been walling through the woods for forty minutes now, and I hadn't recognized any of the landmarks we passed. The sky had grown dark, and I could hear Jackson shivering. I had a bad feeling about going out to the lake.
Lizzy was farther ahead, scouting out the trail for the lake with Martin and Hailey. She turned and smiled back at me.
"Of course it is! When have I ever led you wrong, big brother?"
Too many times to count. I muttered in my thoughts. I heard Annie whispering something to Justin behind me.
"I bet he's scared! Everyone knows these woods are haunted in the winter."
Justin snickered. "Yeah, he's probably worried 'bout "The Spirit of the lake" that guards this forest. I heard the spirit once drowned someone back in the old colonial days."
I rolled my eyes and was about to say something when I felt Jackson fun up and hug me by the waist. His teeth were chattering and his nose was running, but his eyes said the most. I looked down at him.
"What's wrong, Jackson? Are you cold?"
He shook his head a little before stopping and nodding. "But that's not what I wanted to ask you."
"What'd you want to ask then?"
"That they're lying. They are, right?"
I raised my eyebrow. "Who, Justin and Annie?" My little brother nodded and I smiled a little. I ruffled his hair with my gloved hand.
"Yeah, they're bluffing. There aren't any spirits in these woods that are gonna get you."
Jackson smiled. "'Cept Jack Frost, but he's here to protect us."
I nodded. "Yep." I heard Annie and Justin snicker, and Aiden walked up to Jackson and I, laughing.
"You guys believe in Jack Frost? Ha! The guy is a myth; he ain't real!"
I guessed Lizzy must have overheard him; a snowball flew directly into the side of Aiden's head as she came running towards us.
"He is real! Our mom and dad have met him!" she announced.
"Pssh, yeah right. They're lying." Annie gawked, rolling her eyes.
"No they're not. My parents have talked about him; my mom says she's seen him too!" Zack noted.
Lynn smiles a little. "Yeah, my dad talks about Jack Frost a lot too. He says he is a Guardian…?"
"Guardian of what?" Justin asked, semi-interested.
"Jack Frost is one of the guardians of childhood!" Jackson states proudly with a smile. Aiden raised his eyebrow.
"Who are the other guardians then?"
"The other guardians are North or Santa Claus, Bunnymund or as we know him the Easter Bunny, the tooth fairy Toothiana, the Sandman, and the Man in the Moon." I listed off their names, a little shocked as they came to me so easily. Memories of bedtime stories flooded back into my mind; Mom would always read us them whenever we were scared or had been good. Dad talked about Jack Frost the most, and I felt as if I had met him myself once, but I wasn't sure. The memory was fuzzy, and I couldn't tell if had been a dream or reality.
"Santa? The Easter Bunny? The Tooth Fairy? Now I know you guys are all a bunch of-" Aiden started but was interrupted by a snowball from Martin. We looked to where he and Hailey were standing farther ahead, waving their arms towards us.
"Hey guys, we're here!"
Dropping the conversation instantly, we all ran forward, quickly catching up to them and ran out to a clearing. We found ourselves facing the big, frozen lake. Lizzy, Annie, and Lynn cheered while the boys and I raced to the edge of the ice. The girls quickly joined us, except for Hailey who stood further back with Jackson.
"Last one on is a rotten egg!" Zach shouted before sprinting out onto the ice. I held my breath, expecting the ice to crack.
It didn't, and soon we all had raced onto the frozen lake. Slipping and sliding, laughter quickly echoed around the clearing. Hailey soon joined us and left Jackson alone at the edge of the lake. He looked at it cautiously before training his eyes on me.
"Nicholas, are you sure this is safe?"
I couldn't help but roll my eyes a little. "We're all out here on it, aren't we?"
He seemed to take that as a yes and carefully placed his right foot on the ice. Slowly, he put pressure on it and transferred his left foot onto the cold surface. I saw a smile make its way onto his face, and he started to slide around, putting his arms out horizontally to keep balance as he skated away. I heard him start to laugh a little. I smiled before skating away myself, chuckling when I saw Justin and Annie fall, losing their footing.
We started to come up with games for us to play on the ice; racing each other from the edge of the lake up against the rocks to the other side multiple times, seeing how many turns we could do in a row. Each time someone fell I could see tiny little cracks beginning to form. However, I didn't pay them much attention, they were tiny and wouldn't cause any danger, or so I thought.
Giggling and laughter echoed all around us. It began to snow, the clouds covering the moon above our heads, and the ice became all the more slippery. Slipping and sliding, we quickly lost track of what time it was. Eventually, the snow stopped, the clouds moving on. I stopped skating to catch my breath, as I had just raced the other boys; I'd gotten second place. Once I could breathe without coughing, I looked up to the now night sky, bright with the shine of the moon and stars. Realizing how far up the moon had already risen, I gulped.
"Hey Liz?" I yelled out to my sister nervously.
Lizzy stopped twirling in circles, nearly losing her balance before responding to my question. "Yeah?"
"What time did Mom say to be home by?"
She looked up at the sky, her eyes widening as she realized what I was getting at.
"Uh, she wanted us home by seven…" She put her head in her hands. "We're so dead!"
I rolled my eyes a little. "You mean you're dead. This was your idea!"
Lizzy put her hands on her hips and glared at me. "Hey! You could've been the older sibling, put your foot down and told me no!"
The area around us seemed to darken, but I didn't care at the moment. I moved towards Lizzy, ready to argue. "Don't try and blame this on me!"
She came forward to meet me, already with a look of annoyance on her face. The others simply watched us in amusement, except for Hailey and Jackson; who were on the other side of the lake, hands linked and spinning in circles. I rolled my eyes at my sister and crossed my arms.
"You get to tell Mom and Dad why we're late." I turned around, looking over at Jackson and Hailey. "Hey!" I shouted. They stopped spinning, struggling to keep their balance before looking at me. "Come on you two, time to go!" Hailey nodded and turned to Jackson, grabbing his hand and they started to make their way back over to us.
"Hey, we weren't done talking. You get to tell Mom and Dad! You're older!" Lizzy stuck her tongue out at me and I opened my mouth to retort back when Justin slammed into me, smirking as I fell onto my side.
"Come on you brats, why does it matter if you're late or not? Do the little babies need to get home?"
Lizzy shoved him. "Don't call us brats, or babies! You didn't need to push my brother!"
Justin pushed her in response, causing her to fall onto her back. I got up, hands clenched in fists as anger consumed me.
"Hey! Leave my sister alone!" I ran forward and slammed into Justin, causing us both to fall to the ground. Justin then tried to punch me, but I moved out of the way and his hand hit the ice, causing a series of breaks to stretch out across the ice. Lizzy saw me and tried to get up, but lost her footing and slipped. Annie snickered, and Lizzy then reached out to grab her ankles before pulling the older girl down next to her. I looked up and saw them wrestling, tugging at each other's hair. Hailey had let go of Jackson's hand, racing over to Lynn in fear. Jackson stopped, watching the fighting from a distance.
I started to count the cracks in the ice that had appeared during our skating games, and now from the fighting. The number scared me.
It felt like it was getting colder, and darker. "G-Guys…"
Zach was now going at Justin, and tackled him onto the ground. I could see cracks forming around the impact spot. Fear started to creep into my heart, and I tried to get up only to be knocked back down by the feet of Aiden and Martin, who were chasing each other around the ice. Jackson simply stood over by the rocks, watching in confusion. Lynn and Hailey stood behind me, shocked by what was happening. I continued to hear and see small cracks forming in the ice, more and more with each impact.
Shadows were creeping across the lake now, highlighting all of the cracks in the ice. "Guys!" I tried to get everyone's attention, terror beginning to latch itself onto me.
No one listened to me, and I saw both groups of boys slam into the ice, hard.
CRACK.
Everyone froze. A large split formed in the middle of the lake, stretching all the way back to where Jackson stood. He screamed, stumbling back from the crack, only causing it to worsen.
No… no, this can't be happening! I felt my heart stop as more cracks started to branch off from the large one. Images of the car crash from two years ago flooded my mind, and I felt myself starting to panic. Katelyn's crying rattled in my brain, and my eyes began to tear up. I wiped them away harshly, and shouted out to my little brother.
"Jackson!" He turned to me, fear written all over his face.
I inhaled deeply before continuing. "Don't move! Just stay calm! I'll… I'll uh, come get you!" He nodded, and I think I could hear him starting to cry.
I turned around slowly to face the others, being careful not to shift my weight at all. "Guys," They all turned to me. "Slowly, crawl on your hands and knees back to the shore. Be very careful! Slide along the ice, don't lift up off the ground!"
Thankfully, they listened to me and did as I said, heading back to the shoreline. I turned back to Jackson a little too fast and my hand slipped, causing me to fall onto my stomach. The vibration didn't go unnoticed; the ice cracked again, causing the ice to split completely. Jackson lost his balance and fell onto the ice. I got back onto my hands and looked over at him. He remained one his hands and knees, frozen in terror. He shut his eyes tightly and began to shake with sobs.
"Nicholas!" He screeched. "Nicholas help me!"