Shadows Nipping At Your Nose

by Cassandra Telford

What if Jackson Overland had never fallen through the swiftly cracking ice over a pond in Burgess, Massachusetts? What if he had never become Jack Frost? Would there just never be a Winter Spirit or would the Man in the Moon have chosen someone else instead?

3. Chapter 2

When the tragedy struck Burgess, the moon was hanging in the sky on the other side of the world. It slowly made its way back to the New England colonies, and something darker lurked in the shadows that even the moonlight couldn't penetrate.

Something has gone wrong. What has happened? The powers over Winter have already begun to take their effect on...the boy. But this is not so. Jackson Overland lives. Yet there is the hole in the ice. If not Jackson Overland, then who has been claimed by the Winter?

No. This cannot be. The girl. This is not right. The girl cannot fulfill the destiny that was meant for her brother. It will not work this way. And she is just a child, much younger than can handle this burden. Jack Frost was always meant to exist. Jack Frost must exist but he cannot while Jackson Overland still lives. And while this girl possesses the powers intended for her brother, there can be no Jack Frost anyway.

This must be remedied as soon as possible. But how? And beside that, why have things changed? He was supposed to sacrifice himself for her. His path of action was never in doubt. There must be something else at play. Something, or someone, has interfered. I will find out, and I will make this right.

Below the moon, the dark shape in the shadows loomed out of the darkness and into the moon's light, revealing himself in sharp contrast to the ice on which he stood. He turned his face upward with a satisfied smile.