Chapter 6 - Welcome to my Nightmares pt. 1
The next memory began with Jack walking up to Catherine, who was sitting against a tree sketching something. The leaves were red and orange, autumn had just arrived.
Jack walked up behind her and caught a glimpse of what she was drawing, "Guys, look." he said to the other Guardians.
They all came and huddled around Jack, and they all gasped. It was an impeccable drawing of Pitch Black. They didn't have too long to examine it further, because she shut the book as memory-Jack approached.
"Catherine?" Jack said cautiously.
"Hey Jack." Catherine said.
"Are you okay?" Jack asked her, Catherine looked at him questioningly, "You look tired Catherine." She sighed, and moved to stand, but Jack sat down beside her and grabbed her hand,"Catherine, I'm worried about you, you haven't been yourself."
"Honestly?" Catherine asked, looking into his eyes, he nodded. "I haven't slept in two days because whenever I close my eyes I see terrible things and I'm exhausted from trying to avoid James, and my dad's just been on my back." She sighed deeply, "I'm so tired Jack."
Jack looked at her fondly, and she yawned, he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and he said quietly, "Go to sleep Catherine, I won't go anywhere."
"M'I don't wanna sleep." Catherine moaned, but her eyes were already closing, and she was asleep as her head hit Jack's shoulder.
The memory ended and Bunny asked Jack, "Why was 'er father on 'er?"
"Oh don't worry, that traumatic memory is just around the corner." Jack deadpanned.
Tooth looked down, watching Jack's memories was something that they were all starting to regret, even Sandy.
The next memory began with Catherine and Jack walking through the woods, the leaves were falling everywhere and they were wearing warmer clothes.
"They've almost finished building his palace." Catherine said regretfully.
The Guardians didn't need to ask to know who she was talking about.
"Are you going to the party next week?" Jack asked her.
"Unfortunately." Catherine told him.
They walked a little longer in silence, and the sun began to set, "We should be getting back." Jack said.
"You go, I'll just be a minute." Catherine told him.
"You sure?" He asked.
"Yeah."
Jack hesitantly walked away, but from the Guardians view they could see that he didn't really leave, but hid behind a tree.
Catherine sat down cross-legged and she looked up to the moon, she spoke, "What do you do? You sit up there and you watch us. Why don't you do something, do anything? We could really use your help, I-I could really use your help." She paused. "There's something coming, I can feel it. Please help us."
Jack's eye's narrowed, "She told him." he said, realizing something, "She told you and you did NOTHING!?" he yelled up to Manny.
"Jack?" Tooth started sadly, "What happens to her?" there were tears in her eyes, and if this were normal circumstances, then Jack might've had a bit of sympathy, but he didn't, not one bit.
"Oh no, no, no. I told you! I told you that this wasn't a good idea and you didn't listen. So now I'm going to let you watch knowing as much as I did, and like I did, you aren't going to realize what went wrong until it's too late. Isn't this what you all wanted?! Well welcome to my nightmares."
They were all stunned at Jack's outburst, they had never really seen him like this before. The silence was thick as the next memory began.
The next memory began with Emma and Catherine walking together on a dirt path, Jack was a little behind them tying up his shoe quickly. They were all in their best clothes that night, and as they rounded the corner, they came upon a fairly large home.
The memory jumped ahead, and now they were in a crowded ballroom of sorts, there were very few people dancing, and the ones that were were doing so poorly. The music they were playing was more reminiscent of a waltz, less so of the folk dancing that was usually preformed at large gatherings like this.
Catherine was chatting on the outskirts of the circle with Jack and his parents.
"You look lovely tonight Catherine." Jack's mother said fondly.
"Thank you." Catherine said, blushing slightly, she looked momentarily to the floor and Jack's father took the opportunity to elbow him in the side and jerked his head in Catherine's direction.
Jack whispered to him, "I don't know how to dance!" His father shrugged.
Then, all of the sudden, James Burgess was behind Catherine and he tapped her on her shoulder.
"Catherine, a pleasure."
"I assure you it's all mine." Catherine said stiffly.
"You learned how to properly do a Russo-Parisian waltz as a child did you not?" He asked.
"Oh, I did, but it has been many years, and I'm afraid that I don't remember most of the steps. As you know, it's quite complicated." Catherine told him.
"Have you seen the other dancers? You'll do just fine if you would do me the honor..." he trailed off.
Catherine paused a moment and looked over her shoulder, momentarily making eye contact with Jack, who continued to stand there silently. "Of course."
She placed her hand in his and he lead them to the dance floor, much of the chatter quieted down, but the Guardians could hear some whispering along the lines of, "Why would he want to dance with her?" and "This will be interesting."
The music began again, and they began to dance, the movements came much more natural to her than she had expected after all this time, and before she knew it, she had completely gotten into it.
"You seem to remember just fine, Catherine. Might it have something to do with young Jackson? Wanting to make him jealous?" James asked her. She didn't respond, and focused on the lift coming up, he twirled her in the air and brought her back down without a hitch, they continued dancing and Catherine continued her silence. "The silence indicates a resounding yes by the way." he said quickly before they both spun around.
"We're the only ones dancing." Catherine said shyly.
"We're the only ones that know how Catherine."
Over with Jack's family, his mother was saying, "That's a beautiful dance, where's it from?"
"Russia I think he said." Jack's father replied.
Jack's eyes were glued to Catherine, "What is wrong with me?" he said quietly. Both his parents sent him looks of sympathy.
On the floor, James said quietly to Catherine, "Meet me in the study, I have something private I need to talk to you about."
The music faded and the dance ended, there was a spattering of applause, but many were still confused by the exchange. James went back to intermingle with some of his more important guests, and Catherine, instead of going back to Jack's family, walked out of the ballroom entirely.
