AN: I AM SOOO SORRY GUYS! This is soooo late and there really isn't much of an excuse for it besides not being very inspired for this chapter. But I finally came up with something that would work and hopefully I'll be able to write again this week. Read and review if you want guys.

Oh just to clear up any confusion.

This- is Manny speaking.

'This'- is Jill speaking within her mind.

Ánd "This" is speaking aloud. lol

– Kay xoxo

Chapter Twenty- Four

Manny looked down upon the scene sadly as his lost Spirit stormed off to torment the man who had killed the beautiful young woman Pitch had been so fond of. It was a pity and a shame, young Jill's murder. It seemed that she was able to get through to the man behind the Nightmare King, the Kozmotis Pitchiner who had been lost so many years ago. The young woman had inspired a change in Pitch, one that hadn't been seen in a Spirit of Childhood since their inception.

Her sacrifice was truly a worthy one. Jill had died defending her right to love and her right to give that love to whom so ever she chose. Such determination was almost unseen in the many girls Manny saw in this era, in most past eras as well. She almost reminded him of Toothiana before she stopped collecting teeth and worried more about efficiency. Although, truth be told, young Jill was more like Pitch's forgotten daughter, another pure soul that had crossed paths with tragedy too many times.

It was Jill's ability to love unconditionally that had changed Pitch, whether the Nightmare King knew it or not. She had wormed her way into his heart as a lonely little girl who had just lost her brother and her hold had only increased as she grew into the strong and passionate teenager willing to defy society for her own happiness and desire to stay with her childhood guardian. It was strange to think of the infamous Boogeyman as a guardian and yet Jill had managed to almost transform the bitter man.

Transform. Manny suddenly grew a bit brighter. That was it. Jill had done much for Pitch, had chipped away some of the suffocating darkness around his soul. Surely that warranted some sort of payback on Manny's part. And who knows, perhaps if the young woman stuck around for a while longer, Kozmotis Pitchiner might finally reemerge from the Nightmares' hold.

Mind made up, Manny gathered up all his strength and shone all of his light down upon Jill's cold corpse. At first it appeared that nothing had happened. Then, her brown hair lightened, from chocolate hued, to caramel, to a strawberry blonde before finally ending with a light rose color. Her skin retained its death pallor, only a hint of rouge blooming in her cheeks and lips. Her chest appeared to rise and fall just before Jill woke with a gasp.

JSVJSVJSVJSV

The newly revived Jill jolted straight up into a sitting position. What on Earth had happened? The last thing she remembered was running away. Away from what? If she could only….

Her hand brushed against something smooth and unnaturally cold. There was a deathly pale hand lying beneath her own. Her violet eyes followed it up, widening as the familiarity of the still body beneath her form struck her. She choked back a cry of disbelieve as her gaze finally came to rest upon her own face.

She scrambled to her feet and away from it, from what was obviously her own dead body. There were unsightly bruises about her throat, disfiguring in their dark color. Everything was slowly coming back to Jill now, speaking to Pitch, Garrett finding her, her own desperate flight through the forest. Clearly she hadn't been able to escape Garrett's murderous rage. He had been brutal in his destruction of her, she observed with horror, her neck seemingly tilted at an unnatural angle. She was dead. But if that were true, how was she still there?

Jill.

She startled, looking around her. Jill could have sworn she heard someone whispering her name.

Jillian Overland.

Her eyes moved to the star-filled sky. It had sounded as if the voice was coming from above her. But there was only the Moon, shining brightly down upon the area. It's not as if the Moon was speaking to her.

Jill's mind latched onto something, a faint memory from when she was eleven. Pitch had been telling her about Spirits of Childhood, about how they had come into being. They were created from noble souls, transformed by-

The Man in the Moon. Manny.

She could see him now, his cherubic cheeks and wise eyes. He smiled as her full attention fell onto him.

It is a pleasure to truly meet you at last, young Jill.

"The pleasure is a-all mine, Manny," Jill stammered slightly. She didn't understand; she could suddenly see Manny now that she was dead, hear him as well. Did that mean-?

Yes Jill. You are now a Spirit of Childhood.

'Can you read my mind?' she thought.

Only if I want to. The droll moon replied with a laugh. I try not to for the most part; seems an invasion of privacy and all. There are some pretty personal thoughts people keep locked up in their heads. Most of which are not really my business.

Jill giggled for a moment. She sobered though before asking tentatively 'I don't understand. Why was I brought back as a Spirit?'

Because of what you have done. Manny spoke solemnly. I don't know if you quite grasp everything you have accomplished during your rather short life. Not only were you a strong advocate of love and willing to die for it, you had an innate gift to love nearly everyone you met, that awful Garrett fellow notwithstanding. You had even managed to forgive Davey for tormenting you all those years. That was quite the impressive feat; it is far more difficult to forgive someone than it is to hold a grudge. But there is a far greater act that cemented your place as a Spirit. You used your gift to improve another's life. I'm sure you know who I am referencing. The Moon added knowingly.

'Pitch.'

Manny nodded.

Before you came along, Pitch wasn't the man you know him to be now. He was far darker, far more bitter and jealous and conniving. He detested his role as the Boogeyman and wasn't much of a fan of children either due to their fear and hatred of him and his ilk. I worried for him; he was falling deeper and deeper into a hole that he may never have climbed out of.

Then he met you. You truly did surprise him when you pulled yourself out of your nightmare, Jill. You had managed to break free of his power, which almost no one is ever able to do. You gained some admiration from him that night; that small step began so much more than your friendship with Pitch. You've changed him, Jill. Maybe not so much that he will suddenly wish to become a Guardian, but enough that he doesn't hate his job and who he is as much as before.

That is why I chose you Jill. You have the power to bring back the man hiding behind the Nightmare King, the man Pitch pretends not to be. That man can change everything in this world, for better or for worse. He just needs someone to be on his side and to help guide him. Would you be willing to do this for him, Jillian Overland?

She didn't even have to think about it.

'Pitch is my best friend and I love him dearly. If I can help him, if I can heal him, then I will. I would do anything for him. I would stay by his side for eternity, no matter what.' Her expression was deadly serious and sincerity rang out in every syllable.

Manny glowed brighter again, his smile stretching across his whole face. She truly was a wonderous young woman.

Then you shall henceforth be known as Jillian St. Valentine, Spirit of Love. Welcome to your new life, young Jillian.

'Thank you, Manny,' the newly dubbed Jillian St. Valentine replied, bowing her head slightly. Manny let a moonbeam glide lightly over her head, almost caressing her hair as a father would do to his child.

I'll give you some time to adjust to all of this before I ask you to start helping the children. Right now, though, I'd like you to start your other duty. I believe that a particular Nightmare King in need of a friend is currently mourning in a certain young woman's old bedroom.

Jillian smiled. She was going to see Pitch again. And this time, they wouldn't need to cut the meeting short.

JSVJSVJSVJSV

Pitch was sitting alone in Jill's darkened bedroom. His hands were fisted in the coarse blanket covering her bed and his eyes were clenched shut. By the light of a solitary ray of moonlight shining through the window a lonely tear could be seen gliding down his grey cheek.

Jillian entered quiet as a mouse, her steps light and crept up to settle slightly behind him. She smiled sadly before placing a delicate hand upon the mourning Nightmare King's shoulder.

Pitch shook the hand off, hunching forward slightly.

"Not now, Sandy," his voice was quiet yet almost empty. "I just want to deal with Jill's… death alone for the moment."

Jillian smiled wider and replaced her hand on his shoulder.

"I'll be sure to pass the message along to our golden friend next time I see him."

Pitch gasped before jumping off the bed and whirling around. He couldn't believe his eyes. It was his little Jill, but it wasn't. Her physical appearance was much different, or maybe it just seemed that way because of the light pink hair, and she seemed to almost have an ethereal glow about her. But she was dead, he held her freezing corpse to his chest before concocting the worst possible night terrors to torment Garrett Blythe until the day he died.

"Jill," he spoke, still not believing his eyes. "But, but how?"

"Manny brought me back, so to speak." She replied getting up and standing in front of him. "I'm a Spirit of Childhood now, Pitch. Now I don't have to hide our friendship from my father; he can't see me now."

"Our friendship?" Pitch questioned. "So you still want to spend time with me? Even though you can go anywhere and meet all of the others?"

"Of course I do," she laughed. Jillian's face grew serious and she placed a hand on Pitch's cheek wiping away the remnants of his tear. "Pitch you're my best friend. If I'm going to spend the rest of my new forever with anyone, it'll be you. You mean more to me than anyone else in the whole world."

Finally Pitch smiled and brought her in for a hug. Jill was back and he didn't have to face forever alone anymore.