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Chapter 13: Increasing pressure

As the pain was starting to subside, Jack immediately noticed the multiple presences that had seemed to gather around him. He had attracted way too much attention and they were all too close for comfort. He almost froze as he notice the multiple light spikes in his usually dark world and it didn't take him long to figure out that he had accidentally deep frozen ALL water within a mile! As this realization dawned upon him, he quickly thawed it before anyone started to notice. The fact that none had so far seemed was a small miracle, one he was deeply grateful for having occurred, though it appeared that it was only because everyone had their eyes on HIM! The people, who was on the rides, were utterly confused when the water suddenly froze and they were unable to explain what might have been the cause of this strange phenomenon.

He suddenly heard frantic, but faint as if it was far away, yelling and sobbing. He relaxed and the voice became much clearer, it was Tooth "Jack! What's wrong? Please say something!" before she even realized it Jack had already pulled her into a tight hug, speaking to her softly, "I'm okay Tooth, calm down" she immediately returned the hug, squeezing every bit of air out of him. "JACK! I was SO WORRIED! What happened? You just suddenly collapsed! I didn't know what to do!" she said as she continued to cry into his shirt.

Feeling the hug grow even tighter, Jack knew he had to act fast or it would be the end of him "Tooth! Can't… breathe! Need… air!" as realization hit her, she immediately let go of him and gave him a sheepish smile "sorry, I was just so worried! Are you okay?" Jack smiled softly at her and gently began to stroke her silky, feather light hair in an attempt to calm her down, "Sorry for the scare. I'm fine" he paused as a clear and VERY obvious blush appeared on his face, he lowered his voice "could we go somewhere… well more private? All this attention is kind of freaking me out" Tooth raised an eyebrow at that. She immediately froze on the spot and her face turned completely red as she realized they had gathered a rather large audience and managed to give a slight nod, despite her stunned state.

As the two teens stood up, the crowd seemed to dissolve itself, going back to whatever they were doing before this unexpected turn of events. "Let's just go home, okay?" Tooth agreed on that immediately, not wanting this to repeat itself though she would have preferred taking him to the hospital. The trip home seemed deceiving peaceful, she could tell that something was up with Jack he appeared deep in thought and nothing she did seemed to be able to pull him out of it. She sighed and her face softened, knowing it was better to just leave him be when he got like this.

When they finally got home, Jack immediately went outside towards his usual perch, on stones by the pond. However, just before he went out into the garden he faced Tooth and spoke in a slightly tired voice "Sorry, I need some time alone" Tooth just smiled at him "It's okay, I'll be fine. I'll just start on making dinner, sound good?" Jack just nodded and went outside.

As he sat down on his rock, he pulled his legs up, hugging them as he placed his head on his knees. Tears threatening to fall as he thought about what the wind had told him on the way home.

Jack had opened the cap's window slightly, as soon as he had gotten in the vehicle, so he could listen to the words of the wind. "Jack, your power is growing too rapidly! The headaches you've experienced earlier… well… they were caused by a massive and rapid power increase, causing it to go haywire. When the power peaked, you could no longer contain it and it had nowhere to go but out. You actually managed to suppress most of the power burst! If you hadn't you would have frozen EVERYTHING solid within miles, maybe even yourself. I'm actually quite stunned… you managed to not only keep it to a mile, but also manage to lessen the power output itself!

The ground was only slightly coated in a thin, almost invisible layer of frost. No one would have noticed it, unless, they had been looking for it… even then it melted in less than a second due to the heat… easily managing to convince them their mind had played a trick on them.

The people of the rides, however, noticed the water freeze solid but have no clue what caused it and have no way of connecting it to you."

The wind sighed to itself, knowing it had over explained everything, again! It knew that this wasn't what Jack was so concerned about. It couldn't help but wonder why the moon had chosen to let the boy be aware of his destiny to become the spirit of winter, the pressure was only making things harder for him. The wind couldn't help but worry that today's events might have increased that pressure. Further pushing him to become something, he didn't want to become and leave behind everyone he loves… there is no way he would be happy about that. Now that he is aware of just how unstable his power is becoming the wind could tell the boy would try to distance himself from everyone in an attempt to keep them save from his out of control power.

The wind wanted to comfort its friend SO much, but it knew that it couldn't do anything to help him and it knew that he would rather be left to his thought, attempting to make them at least make some sense again.

Jack lifted his head and opened his unseeing eyes to face the moon. Despite being on the verge of breaking down in tears, he managed to choke out a few barely audible whispers "Why? Why…. Why me?" but the moon remained silent.

A few months passed since the incident in the theme park, it was now in the middle December and only a few days from Christmas. Tooth had noticed how much Jack had changed since that day at the theme park. At first, she was just slightly worried about him, but now she was almost scared by his change. He was pushing everyone away, all of them… her… his sister… EVERYONE! He would barely even touch them! She was so angry with him, thinking he no longer cared for them. A month ago, she had enough. She let out his anger at him, yelling at him, trying to get him to talk to her, but he wouldn't say a word so she broke up with him out of anger. That had caused a reaction, but not one she had expected. He looked seriously upset, but he just looked away before nodding, he spoke in an exhausted and resigned tone, as if this was something that couldn't be helped "I understand, goodbye Tooth… thank you for everything" he just walked away after that.

Even weirder was the multiple confrontations with Bunny. Normally he would attempt to either tease, prank him or start arguing with him, but now. He simply just walked away, not even showing the slightest change in expression, no matter what Bunny did or said. However, what surprised Tooth the most, was the fact that Bunny had seemed almost worried about Jack! Now he only seemed to try to bother him just to get him to react. He thought it was HIS fault! After all the last time they had seen each other, he had knocked Jack out with a football, so naturally he thought he might have screwed something up in there. Tooth assured him that it wasn't the case.

She was happy with the fact that he had seemed to get slightly better after the first snow fell at the end of November. He seemed to relax slightly after that. She really hope that it was a sign that he would finally be himself again. She let out a sigh and closed the book she had been trying to read, keyword: trying. She couldn't help but think about what could have happened to Jack that day at the theme park to cause such a dramatic change. Was it because of her? She shook her head at the thought, no point in trying to pin the blame on herself. She wished, now more than ever, to able to hear the wind, if she could then she would finally know what was up with Jack.

She went out of the library and into the school halls when she heard the familiar voice of Bunny. She walked towards the sound and found Bunny chasing after Jack, looking very… almost upset. "I know that you don't like me and I sure as hell don't like you, but please listen to me for once in your life!" that made Jack stop in his track and gave Bunny a face of indifference "I don't care why you are acting like this. All I know is that you're not acting like yourself… not by a longshot!" Jack rolled his eyes at that, almost as if he was saying 'thanks for stating the obvious'. Seeing this, pissed Bunny off even further.

Bunny grabbed Jack's hoodie and pushed him up against the lockers. "LISTEN! I don't know what you're trying to pull, but you're hurting Tooth!" Jack remained silent, not even bothering to look at him "almost every day she is on the verge of tears and you don't even seem to care! She cares so much for you and you just throw her away as if she is a piece of trash!" Bunny reluctantly let go of him and walked away turning his head slightly as he said, "she would be better far off without you!"

Something suddenly felt off, it caused Bunny to stop dead in his tracks. When he turned around, he saw something far beyond anything he could have imagined. Jack stood right behind him, sending him an icy glare that could kill. His unseeing eyes seemed to glow in an icy blue glow and the very air seemed to crackle in response to his anger.

"You think I don't that? You think I don't care? HOW DARE YOU!" the temperature rapidly dropped to a point where they could see their own breath "You know NOTHING! Yet you're here, questioning me? Claiming me to be heartless? You think I'm Ignoring Tooth just because I want too?" clearly visible layers of ice formed underneath Jack's feet as he spoke and it started to move rapidly across everything nearby. Jack raised his hands gesturing towards the rapidly forming ice, looking far beyond angry "THIS! This is why I kept my distance!" his face seemed to soften and appeared extremely sad, tired and upset "I can't control it… not anymore! I locked myself away, trying to restrain this CURSE called power. I pushed everyone away… not because I no longer cared… no, I was trying to keep them safe!" Jack looked so fragile, looking as if he was just about to break. His next words, were said in a barely audible whisper "To keep them safe from me"

He seemed to calm down after that, realizing what he had just done. His eyes widen in panic as he became aware of everyone's seriously freaked out gaze. Jack noticed Tooth's presence, he let put quiet whispers of denial "no… no… what have I…" He looked so sad, so broken! Tooth couldn't help but cry after what she had just witnessed. She let out a whisper only she could hear "This is why he pushed me away?" She couldn't help but feel slightly touched that he cared so much for her, but at the same time the feeling was overwhelmed by her sadness and guilt.

However, before she had the chance to do anything, Jack ran away not willing to 'look' her in the eye. She dropped down on her knees clutching her head trying to clear her thoughts 'All this time Jack had avoided me, to protect me! Yet I selfishly decided that he didn't care for me anymore.' The tears wouldn't stop as she spoke in a soft whisper only she could hear. "I'm so sorry, Jack! I should have known… You've always been like that… yet I couldn't see it… I… I feel so stupid"

Jack was running as fast as he could. He didn't know where he was running, all he cared about was getting the hell out of there. He continued running until he reached a secluded area of a park close to his home. He stood still for a moment to regain his breath, before he clenched his fist in anger and frustration. He let out a scream, that seemed to pierce through the air frightening everyone who heard to their very core, as he swung his fist against a tree trunk. he stood like that for a while, trying to calm down. He took a deep breath and ran a hand through his messy white hair, trying to collect his thoughts. "What the hell am I supposed to do now? They saw! There is no way I can lead a normal life now that everyone knows I'm a god damn FREAK!" He let out a sigh and his expression saddened "even Tooth" his expression hardened as he continued, "it's all that damn Bunny's fault. If he had known when to keep his mouth shut, this would never even have happened in the first place."

Noticing the dangerous amount of ice that had started to build around him, he sighed and sat down pulling his legs into a hug in an attempt to calm himself. With tears threatening to fall, he spoke with a heartbroken tone "Everyone would have been better off if I had never been born" he buried his head in his knees and tried to hold back his tears.

He sat like that, in what felt like ages. The wind was at a total loss, it had no clue how to help him and it was frustrating it to no end. Jack seemed to notice the wind's increasing frustration he lifted his face from its previous position, wearing a slight smile "Don't worry wind, I'll be fine" he shrugged "at least I think I will. Thank you for always being there for me, I really appreciate it"

The wind gave him a rough shove. Knocking him into a snow pile, head first. "being serious, doesn't suit you, Jack!" Jack couldn't help but laugh at that "very true my friend, very true! Well how about I make it up to you then? It's been a while since you and I had some fun." The wind couldn't help but laugh at that and was about to agree, when it noticed something was very wrong and it went silent to locate the problem. Jack 'looked' around in confusion "Umm, wind? Is something wrong?" he heard the wind gasp in what sounded like panic before it shoved him along, yelling loudly into his ear, "you need to go home NOW! Your sister is in danger!" The wind didn't need to say more, as Jack immediately took off, running as fast as he possibly could but even with the wind's assistance it was too slow for Jack.

When he finally arrived, he went straight for the pond praying he wouldn't be too late to save his beloved sister. As he came into view, he shouted at the top of his lungs "EMMA! GET AWAY FROM THE ICE!" Emma who had decided to go ice-skating on their pond, stopped dead in her tracks when she heard the panic shout of her brother. Before she had a chance to react, a loud cracking sound came from underneath her and she immediately tried to get off the ice but it was too late. The ice couldn't hold her weight any longer and she fell into the cold abyss.

Jack, who was almost at the pond when he heard the laud crack, ran even faster. Fearing the worst. He heard the ice give in and Emma's fearful scream as she fell into the cold water beneath her. Without even the slightest hesitation, he ran towards the hole in the ice and immediately dived in.

A/N: Sorry to leave it at such a huge cliffhanger but fear not, I shall be back with the next chapter tomorrow. Anyways, as for the sudden time skip? well I felt it was needed or the story would have been to dragged out and boring without it. I considered having gone into more details on their break up but felt it would be Unnecessary to do so. After all i only put it in to empathize the concequences of choosing to distance himself from his loved ones.