Broken and Beloved (8)
Heart of Darkness
Bunny's green eyes narrowed in irritation. "Where the bloody hell is Jack? He's late for our weekly round of Cards Against Humanity."
The Guardians, minus Jack, sat at a round checkered table in their favorite board game cafe. They had ordered drinks to kill time after perusing through the card deck to snicker at the raunchy ones. Rounds of Cards Against Humanity often involved filling the cafe with explosive laughter, with Bunny and Jack often winning the most white cards. But since Jack wasn't around, the Guardians merely sat there waiting. North ponderingly sipped at his second cup of chocolate milkshake. The last bits of ice swirled and clinked against the glass under the mercy of Bunny's straw.
Tooth propped her chin on the palm of her hand and scrunched her eyes shut. "Bunny, please stop that. The noise is giving me a headache."
Bunny let go of his straw and plopped against the back of his chair with a loud impatient huff. "Someone call him again."
Tooth shook her head. "I've already tried to reach Jack five times. The call always goes straight to his voicemail."
"Unless if he's in phone service wasteland, there's no bloomin' excuse for him to keep us waiting."
North frowned, his bushy black eyebrows knitted together as he stroked his long white beard. "Strange...Jack always answers his phone. Something important holding him up, perhaps?"
Bunny snorted in derision. "What could possibly be more important than us? Than me, his best friend?"
Tooth sneaked a pointed sly glance at the Aussie. "Oh, I dunno...Elsa, perhaps?"
Bunny's mouth parted to make an intrigued little "o." "He's going out on a date with her, then?" Then he crossed his tattooed arms and sulked. "He should have told us!"
North didn't look like being in the mood to joke around. "I don't think that's it," he admitted. "Jack would have let us in on something important like that."
"Maybe it's Guardian business," Tooth suggested.
Bunny frowned. "At this time of year? It's too early for the Guardian of Fun to go flyin' around in winter snow."
While the Guardians debated among themselves over the cause and reasoning behind Jack's absence, Sandy took no part in it and remained quiet, as always. The faculties of reason and logic had no place in his mind as the Guardian of Dreams let intuition, instinct, and a supernatural outreach guide him in his search for an answer. Finally he sat up straighter in his seat with alarm as he realized where Jack could be. Sandy tried to be polite and gently rapped on the table, but he failed to get his friends' attention.
"I still got a gut feeling that it's got to do with Elsa," Tooth asserted.
"I don't think so," Bunny countered. "Maybe he just got tired, went back to the dorm to hit the bed and forgot to call, for all we know."
"We won't get anywhere sitting here and making guesses," North said. He spared a worried glance outside the cafe window. "Let's call off our game session and look for Jack."
"Sure, but where do we start?" Bunny asked.
Sandy had enough. He grabbed a handful of black cards and threw them at his fellow Guardians, effectively cutting them off before they could argue further. They sat stunned and perplexed. North had the "white privilege" card stuck in his beard. Tooth had "a robust Mongoloid" card on her shoulder. Bunny looked particularly unflattering with "the biggest, blackest dick" card slanted on the bridge of his nose, right between his eyes.
North was the first to sheepishly break the shocked silence. "Erm...you wanted to say something, Sandy?"
The stout, golden-haired Guardian bore an expression of mixed relief and exasperation at finally being noticed. He shifted his eyes back and forth, then beckoned his friends to come outside. They put away Cards Against Humanity and left the board game cafe, following Sandy to darkened cover where no one could see them.
When Sandy was sure of this, he conjured small images made of golden sand. North had no trouble interpreting the visual cues.
"You know where Jack is? Are you sure, my friend?"
Sandy vigorously nodded. His expression darkened as he produced the next few images. The menacing, looming silhouette was unmistakable.
"Pitch Black?" Tooth whispered.
Sandy nodded again. Tiny grainy trees appeared next, only to collapse and swirl into a sandy whirlpool.
North narrowed his eyes. "Jack was in the forest...and Pitch had him trapped there?"
"But why would Jack be in the woods in the first place?" Bunny asked.
"Let's go," Tooth urged her friends. "We don't have time to ask why-"
Sandy held up his hands to get their attention once more. He laid out his palms to say he was unsure, then an image of Elsa appeared before them.
"That makes sense!" Bunny exclaimed. "Jack and Elsa are together, and they're in trouble."
There wasn't a moment to lose. The Guardians dashed off, and under the cover of darkness, changed into their Guardian forms. Like wraiths, they streaked into the woods before anyone could notice.
The unending torrent of black sand proved stronger than the grip Elsa and Jack struggled to hold. Elsa felt her fingers slip. She tried to tighten her fist, but the sand wrenched her away from Jack. He despaired as Elsa cried out his name.
"Elsa! No!" Jack thrust out his outstretched hand, only to grasp more black sand that constricted and crushed his body. He felt himself being mercilessly tossed and tumbled, and lost all sense of direction. He scrunched his eyes and mouth shut to keep the sand from getting to him.
'Is there any end to this?'
No sooner had he thought that, he landed with a sudden thud that knocked the wind out of him. Sand poured on him in a black mound, and just when he feared that the sheer weight would crush him to a pulp, it eventually thinned out to a trickle. Jack twitched and gritted his teeth. He still couldn't see anything. With one free arm he groped about blindly in the dark, feeling for his shepherd's staff. To his great relief, it was an armlength from him. Jack gripped the staff upright and slammed its base into what he thought was the floor. The burst of white dispelled the sand, freeing him from its clutches. Jack coughed, staggered to his feet, and wiped the remnants of black sand that clung to his hoodie. He cupped a hand around his mouth and called out.
"Elsa? Elsa! Can you hear me? Where are you?"
His lone voice quickly got lost in the dark void. In return, he got no answer. Instead he came upon someone he didn't expect at all. His mouth dropped open.
"Jamie Beckett...?"
The brown-haired boy of ten years stood a few feet before him, clothed in winter apparel and with a snowball in hand. He smiled, so that Jack saw the result of the freak sled accident he caused: a gap in his teeth.
Mixed fondness and worry for the boy swelled within Jack. The Guardian stepped forward and offered his hand. "Hey buddy, you shouldn't be here. It's danger-"
"Snowball fight!" Jamie shouted.
Jack put up his hands. "I love a good fight, but now isn't a good time-"
Jamie charged with the snowball cocked in his arm, ready to fling. Jack braced himself for the hit. To his complete horror, the boy ran right through the Guardian's body. Jamie vanished out of sight, but Jack could hear his voice calling faintly from behind.
"Gotcha! Try to get me, Sophie!"
There was more laughing, then it came closer as Jamie ran towards Jack again. And once again, the boy ran straight through, as if Jack wasn't real.
Cold fear and shock seized Jack's body. 'What's going on? Why is this happening? How can Jamie be here and not see me?' The staff fell away from his hand as he stumbled back and clutched both hands to his head. 'Is this an illusion? Am I an illusion too? What if none of this is real...?'
Jack gritted his teeth and his squinted glare flitted across the dark. 'I know Jamie...he'd never act like this. If there's only one kid in the whole world who'd still believe in me, it's him.' Jack furiously shook his head and berated himself. 'Get it together, Jack! This is just some trap by Pitch to mess with your head. Jamie's probably back in Burgess, safe and sound with his family. It's Elsa who's stuck with me...'
Suddenly, and with a pang of shame that he had forgotten, Jack remembered. 'Elsa! I gotta find her!'
Jack picked up his staff and held it aloft. Soft white light glowed from the curved tip. He didn't know front from behind, north or south, east or west. He had no idea how deep and far this darkness persisted. All he had was the tiny halo of light and his own instincts to spur him forward. He left behind the pain and fear of rejection. Instead he relied on thoughts of Elsa to bolster his low spirits.
'I don't know how I'll do it, or where she is, but I promise on my life and honor as a Guardian that I'll find her.'
With that resolution, Jack pressed on through the stifling darkness.
"Jack? Jack!"
Elsa's heart fluttered wildly with panic. Total darkness surrounded and pressed on her with tyrannical force. She couldn't even see the sparkling brightness of her ice gown. She shuddered as she felt black sand clinging to her body. At least it had the decency to cushion her fall. Somewhere along the way she had lost her wheelchair, and she felt desperately helpless without it. She had to make do with her arms and hands to crawl away from the sand. Dragging her half useless body across, Elsa still couldn't see a thing.
Her heart pounded so wildly that she felt it throb at her throat. Choking her, suffocating her. Elsa shut her eyes and a small frightened sound escaped her trembling lips.
'Where am I? Where's Jack?'
She pulled herself up into a sitting position the best she could. She looked wildly around her, hoping and praying for anything but the darkness. For a one terrifying moment she thought she was blind.
Then something strange unfolded before and all around her. Blurred lights streaked past her peripheral vision. Elsa blinked in confusion. It took her a few seconds to realize that they were lights from the shops and stores at night, as if she were in a driven car. Then Elsa gasped. She was in a car! She felt the tug of the seat belt strapped across her chest, the softness of the leather seat behind her. She dared to turn her head, and her breath hitched in her throat. Anna sat right next to her.
Elsa was dumbfounded. 'Anna? But how...?'
Yet there she was, her little sister smiling to herself and bobbing her head to some unheard beat in her mind.
For some reason, Elsa let her get lost in her own little world and kept silent. She turned her head to the front and gasped.
Her father sat behind the wheel, with her mother in the passenger seat. She caught glimpses of their profiles as their voices rose over the classical music playing from the radio, exchanging small talk and soft laughs. Tears pricked at the back of Elsa's eyes and she fought back a sob. She hadn't seen her parents in three years. Seeing them again, alive and happy, made her want to throw herself forward into their arms.
Even in the seat, Elsa felt the car drive over an old road riddled with potholes. Wait, felt? How was that even possible? Elsa dared to look down and willed herself to jerk her right leg. To her utter astonishment, it moved. Everything worked. Nothing impeded the smooth transition from will into action. Her brain turned her desire to move into electrochemical signals... firing through the synapses, down to her spinal cord, past the efferent neurons, and finally to the muscle filaments of her leg. It was mysterious and complex and wonderful. Elsa couldn't help but marvel at how she flexed her ankle, each movement strange yet familiar, small yet powerful. The sensations elicited a thrill within her. She bent her knee next, though she overestimated her distance and the top of her foot struck the bottom of her father's seat.
She winced at the pain, then she smiled even at that.
'I...I have legs again? Legs that work? Is this for real?' Elsa looked around, her heart aching with longing. That longing turned into fresh pain as she slowly became aware of the reality she faced, not the dreamlike illusion that surrounded her.
'That's right. The wedding...we were on our way to a wedding. Then this is...'
Looking past her father's seat and the windshield, Elsa saw the headlights of an incoming car. She cried out in warning. Too late.
The first thing she did was the last thing her working legs had ever done: she threw herself across Anna to shield her from the impact. An explosion of shattered glass and screeching metal pierced her ears. The car, the music, her parents, all gone in a violent flash. What Elsa saw next was her own torso drenched in dark red blood. It spread from her broken body in a thick pool. Anna clutched her older sister's bloodied body close to her own, screaming and crying even over the wailing sirens of police cars and ambulances.
Elsa felt sick dread grip her stomach. 'No...not again. Not again...'
This time she couldn't move at all. She didn't know if it was from the crippling fear, her crippled legs, or both. All she could do was stare in horror at her legs: twisted before her at unnatural angles, skin in some places torn open, the white of bone glinting underneath. Hot tears ran down her cheeks marred by dirt and scratches. Elsa wanted to hurl, but she was too weak. All she could manage was choked sobs as the living nightmare enslaved her.
'Make it go away...please, someone save me!'
Jack's heart clenched at the sound of pained feminine screams.
"Elsa," he gasped.
He charged forward, following the sounds of her cries of distress. He willed himself to slow down, lest he accidentally step on Elsa in his wild pursuit to locate her. He squinted into the darkness, pointing his staff in all directions. At last, several feet to his left, he found her.
Ensnared by malevolent tendrils of black sand, Elsa's sprawled body contorted in agony. Though Jack saw nothing wrong with her body, Elsa seemed to think otherwise. Her faraway tear-filled eyes told him that her mind was trapped elsewhere. He had to snap her out of it. He instantly ripped away at the sand strangling her and held her close to his chest.
"Elsa, it's me," he whispered. "It's Jack. I'm here now."
"It hurts," she sobbed. "So much blood...Mom, Dad, Anna...I don't want to remember it anymore!"
Jack clenched his jaw as he realized what was going on. 'She's remembering the day of the accident, the day she lost her parents and her legs...'
He ran his fingers through her hair. "You're having a nightmare, Elsa. It's not real." He whispered into his ear to gently hush her. "Shh...it's okay. Come back to me."
All he could do was hold Elsa and bear the pain with her until at long last, her sobbing subsided. Elsa blinked slowly, the fog clearing from her eyes. Her upward stare at Jack was void of comprehension for a moment. "Who...? Jack Frost?"
He smiled weakly at her. "Yeah, it's me. You and I are together now. The past is in the past."
It took Elsa several seconds to come to her senses. She fought to suppress her heavy breathing and last traces of her tears.
It hurt him to see her look so pained and miserable. He gritted his teeth. "I'll make that bastard Pitch pay for what he did to us."
"Y-you too...?"
Jack made a grim nod. "He toyed with us, exploiting our deepest fears to pry open old wounds."
Elsa shuddered at that. Jack rubbed her shoulder as he realized what he just said. "I'm sorry...I didn't mean to-"
"It's okay. I owe you one for helping me." Elsa seemed greatly relieved at the sight of the light from Jack's staff. She looked around. "Where's my chair?"
"I think we've lost it somewhere in this mess," Jack said with a sigh. He stared down at the helpless young woman in his arms. "I'm sorry Elsa, it's way out of our hands now. You'll have to stick with me."
"I'm fine with that. But I hope I won't be a big burden to you."
"You're no problem at all," he insisted.
As he carried Elsa, Jack positioned the staff in his outstretched hands so that its length ran parallel to Elsa's body.
She looked away and sighed. "I'm sorry for being so weak," she mumbled. "You snapped out of your illusion all on your own, but I needed you to help me."
"You don't have to apologize," he said gently. "And you're not weak. You're actually one of the strongest people I know."
She looked up at him with mixed doubt and surprise. "You mean that?"
He smiled. The lack of confidence she had in herself was heartbreaking. If only she could see how much she inspired him. "I may fool around a lot, but I don't tell lies." His grin faded as he looked around him with the wariness of a cornered animal. "I'm not lying right now when I tell you I don't know where we are. And I wonder why Pitch hasn't sprung out to get us yet."
Elsa stiffened in his arms. "I don't know, but we better be on our guard."
"And we gotta find a way out of here," Jack added grimly.
In the melancholic gloom of the woods, Anna, Hans, Kristoff, and Sven carefully picked their way through the labyrinth of trees. They had picked up Elsa's lingering ice trail easily enough, and thanks to its pale light they were able to trek through the forest without falling flat on their faces from upturned roots and rocks. To Anna, she considered it an outright wonder that it hadn't happened to her at least a few times already.
Anna's ears pricked as a sharp sound broke the muted atmosphere. She flinched and snapped her head around. "Hey, did you hear that?" she hissed.
"It's just us behind you," Kristoff replied.
"No, it sounds like something moving fast. A lot of things moving fast, actually."
"I think hear it too," Hans said.
Anna felt her body tense and her heartbeat quicken as she listened closely for the suspicious sound. She spotted unusual silhouettes among the trees. Before she could react, they darted out of sight and ran right into her. Anna jumped back and gasped.
Tooth and Bunny, the forerunners, skidded to a halt. She clapped a hand to his mouth before he could shout. North and Sandy nearly bumped into them. The Guardians remained stock still, as if hoping that the girl they ran into took no more notice of them.
Anna's wide eyes remained riveted on them.
Tooth's wings fluttered even faster out of nervousness. She raised her hands with complacent deliberation, as if being put under arrest. "Uh..it's okay, nothing to see here. We're just...uh...looking for a friend of ours."
Anna quickly got over her shock (much to the Guardians' own great surprise). "Oh, really? Me too. Actually, I'm looking for my sister."
Tooth made a nervous laugh. "What a coincidence."
Kristoff frowned and tried to peer past Anna. "Who are you talking to? Where are those voices coming from?"
"Can't you see them? They're right in front of me." Anna took in his confused look that persisted, and eventually she understood. "You...can't, can you?"
"I can see them," Hans slowly said. Sven too grunted in affirmation.
Kristoff's eyes darted among his companions, and he was genuinely perplexed. "What? You mean I'm the only one?"
"Looks like we got a disbeliever among us," Bunny muttered.
"Did you happen to see a white-haired guy on your way here?" Tooth asked with hope tinged in her voice.
Anna frowned and shook her head. "Sorry. I do know a guy who has white hair, but that's probably irrelevant right now."
"It might just be, young lady," North said, clearly intrigued. "Who is this acquaintance of yours?"
Anna waved it off. "Oh well, he's a friend of my sister. Jack Frost."
The Guardians collectively gasped at this.
"Hey, we're lookin' for Jack too!" Bunny exclaimed. "I mean, that's the very same guy we're talkin' about!"
Anna blinked. "Really? Whoa."
Kristoff looked thoroughly weirded out as he watched her animatedly talking to what he thought were invisible voices. "Anna, can we get a move on? This is really making me uncomfortable."
"I'm trying to carry a conversation here," she insisted. She turned back to the Guardians. "I'm looking for my sister Elsa. Do you happen to know her?"
"Yes, we do," Tooth replied. "Long story short, we came to know her through Jack." Then she looked uncomfortable and fidgeted her thumbs. Um...I don't know how to word this without freaking you out, but Elsa and Jack may be in danger. Our friend Sandy's got a lead, we think."
Anna's face was one of distraught. "Let's hurry, then. We can take care of introductions along the way."
Kristoff clapped a hand on her shoulder and pulled back a bit so that she faced him. "Wait wait wait. You're just gonna trust a bunch of invisible voices in hopes that somehow, some way, you find your sister and their imaginary friend?"
She shrugged out of his grip and put both hands on her hips. "Look, they know where they're going. I think it's best if we follow them. And they're not imaginary. They are just as real as you and me, though you don't seem to realize that. If you don't want to tag along anymore, I'm not holding it against you."
With that, Anna turned and followed the Guardians farther into the woods. Hans and Sven followed suit. Kristoff was left standing alone, bewildered and wondering what he had gotten himself into. He wasn't surprised that Sven was able to see what Anna saw, but he didn't expect it from Hans as well.
"God, this is so weird," he muttered. He went after them anyway.