March 16
Sandy was out earlier than usual.
He was going to begin his rounds as soon as he saw a house that he was sure was full of sleeping children. Pitch was surely going to try something on Easter to ruin the fantasy or turn things his way, and they couldn't let that happen. Ana was doing the same thing as Sandy across town. This was also the first time they were doing it without help. Aster was preparing for Easter, North was trying to finish their home, and Jack was on patrol. Because of the "Groundhog's" information about where and when Pitch would be sending his people out, there was no longer so much need for all five of them to be on watch.
All the same, Phil wasn't going to catch everything. There would be no way for him to learn it without eventually being found out by someone. Sandy was carrying a sling-shot with him now, and he knew Jack and Ana both had something on them for protection. Finding a way to communicate long distance was becoming more and more important now that they were starting to work on their own, but it just hadn't been possible to do anything about that problem yet.
As he waited for night to fully settle, he sat on the playground that the Guardians had nicknamed the "Ice Fortress" after its use in one of the first fights against Pitch. Jamie had come there on multiple occasions and had actually been one of the reasons they knew who to visit each night. He mentioned someone losing a tooth once in a while or if someone was worried about an attack from the Bogeyman.
It appeared that this was going to be one of those informational evenings.
"Are you guys alright?" Jamie babbled before he even sat down on the swing. "I mean, some weird stuff is starting to happen and I just thought…maybe you were busy and couldn't help but that seemed off because it's so close to Easter and wouldn't you want to keep a closer eye out now…? You know some kids from Corta were attacked, right? On their way home at night?"
Why weren't those kids walking home with someone, was what Sandy wanted to know.
"I heard about it from a friend. They were too scared to even tell the police the truth because the Bogeyman might come after them again. So…do you just protect the kids in Burgess? What's so special about this town?"
This kid was smart.
"Someone else said there were a few attacks in Harrisville but it wasn't as vicious. They told the police the truth, but no one thinks they're looking at it seriously because it just sounds like a horrible prank. If it's the Bogeyman…and who else would it be? …Can you do something about it? Even if you just protect Burgess, it's scaring kids here, too. I'm glad it's not happening here, but..."
Sandy frowned, leaning his head back against the snow-covered plastic of the playground. Pitch was ordering such severe attacks that the police were getting involved? It was obvious why he was doing that. It spread all five of them out over three towns instead of just one. They barely had this town protected. They really needed more personnel. And a pay raise. And an actual house. Some decent food wouldn't go unmissed either. He was going to have to let North and the rest know. This meant some serious hours were going to have to be pulled to keep everyone safe.
Jamie had trailed off into thought below. After a minute, he got to his feet and started climbing up the side of the play set. Sandy looked around wildly but didn't see a way for him to hide before Jamie reached the top. He sprawled out quickly and pulled out the book he had been reading before Jamie had shown up.
Jamie peeked over the side and blinked in surprise when he saw Sandy. The teenager pretended not to notice him. Jamie climbed up to the top and looked around for another set of footprints. Seeing nothing, he turned to Sandy, who had looked up when Jamie walked over his legs. He pretended to pull out a set of ear buds. Hopefully the kid wouldn't look close enough to see that there weren't any.
"Did you see anyone up here a minute ago?"
Sandy shook his head. Jamie frowned thoughtfully and climbed down from the playground. Sandy saw him walking away a few moments later. Then he quickly got to his feet and set out to do his job.
There were two more towns to visit tonight.
-.-.-
After the third rescue, things got interesting. Sandy stood at a corner of two streets, listening for the sound of anything stirring in the night. A wind was blowing strongly through the town, shuffling leaves in the maples over his head. He closed his eyes and listened past the nearby noises to anything beyond. To anyone else, they would have been fooled into believing they were the only ones awake at this time of night. While he hadn't been able to alert the rest of his team, he knew that all of them were awake and his adventures tonight proved that Pitch's forces were most certainly not in their beds.
The first child had been with her father, stomping in mud puddles from melted snow. Dusk had already come and the two needed to head inside soon. Most people were off the streets already, and no one was going to look up. As a result, he was immediately suspicious when the teenage girl with dyed red and purple hair walked by below the roof he was crouched on. He followed, climbing down the rain gutter to get to street level. She went past the house of the father and little girl, barely paying them a second glance. Smart. A fully grown man was not going to be scared of her, no matter how badly her hair had been done.
Sandy watched as she paused, looking at the backyard of a house several addresses ahead of where he was. She walked over, pressing her face against the side of a chain link fence. A Doberman snapped at her and she jerked back to avoid being bitten. The dog bared its teeth and growled before barking loudly. The girl smirked, undeterred. Sandy frowned. Maybe she lived there. She didn't seem to be very frightened of it.
The other teenager casually started unwrapping the rope that kept the gate tied closed. While part of it was still tightly bound, she paused to undo a latch on the gate. Sandy froze, realizing what she was doing. Before he could move, she planted her foot in the fence and started climbing up, rope still in her hand. The dog barked louder, but she ignored it. From her position, she nudged the rope with her foot to loosen it some more and tugged on the unraveled end. The dog jumped at her, trying to get her out of its territory, but couldn't get a good grip on anything poking through the chain links. His jostling of the fence shook the rest of the rope loose and the fence came open.
The Doberman paused before leaping forward, slamming the door out of its way. The teenager was of little consequence to it now as it tore down the street. Sandy stepped back, realizing he was directly in is path. The dog barked furiously at him, and he bolted for a magnolia tree in someone's front yard. He was in one of the highest branches before the dog could even get to the base of the tree. It growled at him, realized he was boring prey, and left in the direction Sandy had come. Sandy let out a breath he had been holding in.
The dog started barking loudly again as it narrowed in on a new target. The girl and her father looked up in surprise. Sandy started scrambling down from the tree, swearing in his mind. The father sent the girl towards the house with a push, trying to avert the Doberman's attention by flailing his arms. The dog was too close for him to be able to do much else. It changed direction, going for the man instead of the girl. The man lashed out, kicking it before it could bite him.
Sandy fell the rest of the way out of the tree and started running after the dog. The girl had gotten to the front door only to find it locked. She started running around to the back, trying to get behind the house. The dog had recoiled from the father's kick and tried to snap at him again, but was losing interest in such violent prey. It glanced at the girl, but the man stepped in the way. The back door opened and the girl disappeared inside. Sandy took cover behind the neighbor's bushes and lobbed a heavy rock at the dog. It turned and snarled. The man took the opportunity to bolt after the girl, running to the back door. The dog started to follow, but Sandy threw another rock.
And so Sandy spent the next ten minutes being chased by the Doberman and getting stuck in another tree until someone called the owners of the dog to come get it before it bit someone.
The second child wasn't as complicated. He chased a pair away from a house before it even started, and made sure they were going to report that the Guardians were starting to interfere before moving on to the next house. Sandy was not going to let them think they were getting off easy.
The third child had a pair in his room trying to frighten him. The window was open and Sandy snuck in behind them. He pulled his flashlight out of his back pocket and stood by the bed. The boy was huddled in the opposite corner of his room, trying to shield his face with his arms. Sandy turned on the flashlight, shining it at a mirror and reflecting it into the attacker's eyes. They turned around in surprise and Sandy flashed the light directly into their faces. He bent down and grabbed a trash can, turning off the light and throwing it at them. It bounced off with a clatter. One of the figures bolted for the window, and the other paused only for a moment before taking off after him.
Sandy hid under the bed as the boy came over, excited. To Sandy's surprise, he heard him whisper in an awed tone, "Nightlight…!" Sure enough, Sandy had been standing right in front of it.
The door opened and Sandy saw light from the hallway spill onto the floor. A woman's voice said, "Honey, is everything okay? We heard something fall."
"Yeah! These two guys came in and then the nightlight flared on and blinded them and threw the trashcan at them and they ran!"
"It was probably just a dream," the woman said.
"No, it really happened."
"Sleep well."
" 'Night, Mom!"
The door closed and the boy settled into bed. He began enthusiastically whispering to his nightlight, clearly believing it was going to keep him safe. Sandy sighed to himself. He wished it were that easy. How nice it would be if the mother had been right and they were just bad dreams.
He supposed they were nightmares, really, just of a different kind than the mother imagined.
The boy went to sleep half an hour later, leaving Sandy free to creep out. He closed the window behind him and quietly climbed down into the backyard. That was how he found himself in his current predicament.
Something was thudding. He frowned, trying to identify it. The sound was repetitive, a steady knocking. He opened his eyes and walked closer to the source. A few houses went by before he realized it was wood. He was proved right when he found the unlatched gate, thumping open and closed every few seconds as it moved in the wind. If that wasn't ominous, the dictionary needed new definitions. Before he could do anything to see what might be going on, the back door shot open. A girl ran out, trying to get something off her head. Sandy ran after her as four shadows jumped out the open door.
He wasn't fast enough to get in front of them, but he was able to keep up at the least. The girl finally ripped the object off from her head and threw it on the ground, but didn't slow down. If anything, she ran faster. Sandy bent down and snatched it up, barely breaking stride, to see what the object was. He spared a glance. It was a piece of fabric with blood in the center. With a frown, he stuffed it into his pocket and kept running. Up ahead, the girl took a corner and disappeared momentarily around the other end. One of the four people chasing her slowed down as the other three milled around, looking for where she went.
The fourth person dropped down onto their knees, looking under all the bushes and getting to the eye level of the girl Sandy watched her carefully as he slowly stepped forward. The further they got from the girl's home, the harder it was going to be to protect her by taking her straight home or to a neighbor's house. He was going to have to think outside the box and take her somewhere these four people weren't expecting.
The girl suddenly shot out from one of the bushes, sprinting past Sandy. The fourth person was the only one who had noticed, the rest having gone around the other side of the house. Sandy met the man's eyes as he started forward, clearly interested in following the girl. His left leg moved forward a little too fast, and Sandy expected the right hook before he saw it coming. Grabbing the arm as it shot out, he twisted it down and slammed his other hand into the back of the man's head. He dropped but was up again as Sandy backed off, knowing he was going to lose a fight against someone who outweighed him by that much.
Reaching into his back pocket, Sandy pulled out a slung shot. He hadn't really been planning on using it and he had just been tinkering with the idea of using something to propel objects at other people, but it was going to have to do the trick. The man raised an eyebrow but stepped forward again even as Sandy pulled out a rock from his other pocket and slipped it into the pouch. He gave the man a warning look, which went unheeded. Sandy sighed and whirled the slung shot over his head, throwing the rock before the man got any closer.
The man dropped like a stone, pun intended.
It was the most anticlimactic thing Sandy had ever seen.
He took off after the girl. She wasn't going home, probably thinking that it was the first place the quartet after her would look. Admittedly, she was right, but that didn't mean that it wasn't the safest place to be. He was going to have to keep her safe, away from her home, if he didn't want to wake up her parents. That seemed like the smartest option, except the parents could dismiss her story and she would be left in a worse state. She could just tell them when she got home in the morning. Besides, Sandy wasn't sure he was fast enough to catch her, calm her down, and get her home before Pitch's associates moved to intercept them. Getting into a brawl with those three – four, if the last one woke up – didn't seem too smart when last time, they had been carrying weapons.
He paused, looking around the street. She had just disappeared, but he wasn't sure if it was because she had seen him or not. He moved slowly, listening for any sound she may have caused. There was a thumping behind him of feet hitting the sidewalk. The others must have realized their quarry had evaded them. Sandy grimaced, sprinting in the likeliest direction she had gone. Being seen in the street wasn't going to do much for him. Despite his attempt, he heard someone shout at him to stop. He dived between two houses.
The girl jumped out of the bushes, taking off as fast as she could go. Sandy leaped after her, tackling her and landing on his back with her on top of him. He wrapped a hand around her mouth, trying to keep her quiet. The three were going to come around the other end of the house any moment. Sandy pulled her backward behind a bush, somehow managing it despite her kicking out and trying to hit him. He grunted as she elbowed him right in the ribs, but didn't let go. A fence stopped him from pulling back any farther.
Pitch's "friends" sprinted fast and he felt the girl recoil against him. They both held their breaths until the last of their footsteps had faded. The girl slumped in relief. Sandy loosened his grip and took her hand instead. She turned around and looked at him in surprise. He smiled gently and put a finger to his lips. Keeping her back, he leaned out slowly to see if they were gone. No one was in sight. They would be back soon, though. It wouldn't take them long to realize they had been evaded again. Sandy tugged on her hand and she ran out of the bushes, nearly dragging Sandy after her. He jogged behind her as she kept running.
She slowed down after a minute, panting. Sandy wasn't nearly as out of breath. He glanced down at her, and saw her looking determinedly at the ground in front of them. It appeared that she had a certain destination in mind. He squeezed her hand and gave her a curious look when she looked up.
"My friends and I always used to play in the woods until our parents told us it was too dangerous," she muttered. He smiled at the coincidence. She brightened immediately. "Who are you?"
He paused before miming speaking with his hand and then shook his head.
"You can't speak?"
He shook his head again.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Well, my name's Alice."
He bowed slightly and kissed her hand like she was royalty. She giggled.
"You remind me of some of the stories the kids in Burgess are talking about, the fairy tales. I didn't think they were real, but then, I didn't think someone would actually attack kids."
Sandy shook his head. No, he didn't want her to think someone would actually attack kids. There weren't evil people out there who just wanted to hurt someone.
"But they did! They did attack me!" she said in protest. Sandy paused, and then shrugged in a 'sort of' way. She frowned, looking in front of them again. They could see the tree line of the forest at the end of the street in front of them. "But they did!" she said again, but she sounded more hesitantly.
An idea from earlier that night sparked into Sandy's head. He tapped the back of her hand to get her attention. She glanced up as he took his hand back and put his palms together and under his head, tilting it to one side. He pointed at her and then made mock-clawing gestures.
"They attacked me while I was asleep…?" He nodded like she was on the right track. He tapped her forehead twice. She blinked, going cross-eyed to try and watch his finger. "In…In my head?" He nodded. She suddenly jumped, realizing what he meant. "They're not real! They're…They're nightmares!" He nodded enthusiastically. "Oh…!" She bit her lip, looking back in the direction they had come from. "But…am I asleep now?"
He hadn't been going to take that route, but why not? He nodded again with a gentle smile.
"So they can still get to me?" She couldn't see anything he did with her head facing away from him again, so he didn't reply. "But then…who are…?" She looked at him again for a moment with a scrutinizing expression. He looked back at her. "Oh! You're the Sandman!"
He laughed silently at her reaction. She gaped for a moment before shaking her head. "It's- It's nice to meet you! I, uh, I love your dreams!" He smiled wider. It was almost like a teenager meeting a celebrity. "What are you doing in mine?" He looked back the way they had come. She followed his gaze and frowned. "You're protecting me from them, aren't you?" With a silent sigh, he nodded. "Someone else gives us nightmares?" He nodded once more. "Can they still hurt us? Am I still in danger? What can we do against them? If this is just a dream, we're safe, right? They can't do anything? What…?" He stopped and crouched down in front of her, putting his hands on her shoulder. With one hand, he tilted her chin up to meet his gaze. He put his fingers on either side of his mouth and made himself grin. She gave a hesitant smile back. His hands dropped and he took her hand again, standing up.
A shout rang out from behind them. The fourth man had gotten up, and he didn't look happy even across the distance. The other three were behind him. Sandy looked at Alice and grinned happily, as if this were a game. She was startled into laughing, and he took her hand and started running down the street like they were winning a race.
They ran into the trees with the other four still far behind them. The trees would be dense enough to hide them if they just got in deep enough, and there were running creeks that would mask their breathing if they were close to them. It wouldn't be hard at all to hide if they could just stay ahead of the other four long enough.
And they did.
The nightmares of Alice's sleep were gone within ten minutes, and for all she cared, she was alone with the Sandman in the woods for the rest of the night. She sang and laughed, pulling Sandy into a dance with her to celebrate their escape. Sandy smiled right back at her antics, as happy as she was that neither of them had come to harm. Pitch had not won tonight. This was one girl who had stayed safe. She was as happy and alive as she had been before this had happened, with all the innocence and delight that all children could produce.
She exhausted herself two hours later and fell asleep in the roots of a tree. Sandy carried her home and tucked her into bed, locking the window and walking quietly out the backdoor. Alice would be safe for the rest of the night.
-.-.-.-
"She saw ya?" Aster demanded. Sandy gave him a look.
"Way to prioritize," Jack said cheerfully.
Sandy drew a stick figure and added spiky, dark hair to it. Several lines went below it, each leading to another stick figure without any adornments. He drew a bracket including all the other stick figures and wrote 'Nightmares' by the bracket.
"You're calling Pitch's guys Nightmares now?" Jack asked.
Sandy nodded. He added a little stick figure and circled it before tapping his pencil on the new drawing.
"Ah, she started it?" North added. Sandy nodded again.
"Wait, and once you were in the forest, you lost them pretty quickly, right?" Ana asked. Sandy nodded. She looked thoughtful. "Could you do that again? Push the child to the forest to protect them?" Sandy paused but then nodded again.
"It would be a lot easier than looking after each child if they knew to just go to the forest," North said carefully. "How would we do that? Tell them where to go?"
"Easily," Aster muttered. They glanced at him. "Repetition. Kids go there enough times and they'll realize it's safe. And as soon as Jamie realizes it, ya know there's goin' ta be some dramatic tale about it."
"He already knows we protect this specific area," Jack said. "Do we need to give him a reason or let him make it up?"
"He's got a good imagination and he'll put it to use." Ana shrugged. "Let's just allow it to play out."
Sandy had been drawing something. He held it up now and showed them two trees with an obvious trip wire strung between them. A string of wires trailed from one of the trees to a switch that had been flipped up.
"Back to the forest," North muttered, eyeing the paper contraption. "You mean to have a device that alerts us when someone activates a trip wire?" Sandy nodded. "Is good idea."
"We'd know as soon as someone entered the forest an' where they are," Aster said.
"Lots of wire," Jack pointed out. "Simpler than running all over, though." He glanced at North. "I'd hurry up with the house, 'cause I think we've all got some more projects for you."
"Is not really a house," North scoffed, "but is almost done."
"Ah, whatever."
-.-.-.-
March 17
"What the hell is parkour?" Aster asked, folding his arms. North looked just as confused, as did Ana. Sand and Jack were gaping at them. A fire was burning merrily in between the group members as they talked.
Jack groaned. "Do you have no pop culture knowledge whatsoever?"
"Stop it with the dramatics an' tell us what it is."
"Parkour is defined as the use of your surroundings to take the fastest route from Point A to Point B," Jack said. "But it's also more dangerous and usually includes some rather bizarre activity, and it takes a lot more effort."
"Why bring it up if it'll be more effort?" Ana glanced between Jack and Sandy even as they exchanged exasperated looks, clearly annoyed that they had to explain something so obvious to the rest of their oblivious team. "What's the point of it?"
"Parkour's normally used in cities because there's so much to work with, but it can be used anywhere. In the city, they might jump over a railing, climb up the side of a house, cross two roofs, and jump down using the fire escape. If used right, we can cross distances a lot faster than running everywhere and it's not as hard."
"…Is that it?" Aster asked.
Jack blew out a frustrated breath. "It's hard to explain. When Ombric gets back tomorrow, we'll ask him. He probably sees an example of it every once in a while." Sandy drew a picture of fireworks. Jack looked confused, so Sandy wrote two unreadable words down on the paper, one with the fireworks surrounding it and one without. "Oh. And it makes more sense than simply entering an area. I mean, the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus don't walk into your house – they come in with style. It's less normal and more supernatural."
"We'd overdramatize what we do," Ana said in realization. Jack nodded.
North rubbed his chin. "I can see this. Each of us would need to enter differently, each with their different version." He paused. "Wait, you are assuming children will see us?"
Jack nodded again. "I don't know how we'll make it safe for us, but I think I can safely say that it's going to happen eventually. We've gotten pretty lucky up until now in the way of not being out in the open enough in a situation to be clearly spotted."
Surprisingly, Aster sighed and backed him up. "Yeah, Frostbite's right. Easter's in two weeks. If we hide eggs all over town, they'll just think it was a joint effort by the town an' school or somethin'. But if they see the Easter Bunny out there, it's different. It's magical."
"And Easter Bunny cannot simply walk across street while hiding eggs," North pointed out. "He must be mysterious and whimsical. Aster, you must make it look like you were not supposed to be seen. We can help with that."
"Yeah, let you know when some kids are looking out their window," Ana agreed. "It'll have to be before they go out to start searching, though. Otherwise you're not cool – you're just late."
"Uh, guys?" Jack suddenly said. "How're we disguising Aster as a bunny? He's, like, six foot."
"Six foot and one inch."
"Okay, Mr. De Tails," Jack said, separating the word out comically, "the kids aren't going to be carrying yard sticks to measure you with."
"It's the difference between over six foot and not!"
"Guys!" Ana snapped. "Cool it."
"So, parkour," North said, redirecting the topic. "Jack, you know it?"
"Not really. Some of it, you just kinda…figure it out. Common sense, in some cases, just of the street smart variety. We'll be using a weird sort anyway because of what we're going to be using it for. But I know how to scale buildings. I used to do it all the time. Sneak out at night, get back early that morning and no one knew any better."
No one brought up the fact that his parents had never known about anything he had done. It was uncertain about whether that was a sore topic or not and they didn't want to test it. So they kept blank expressions and just nodded as if the statement had not struck a chord in them.
"Let's work more on that after Easter," Ana said. "One day, we'll all do our jobs on our own all the time, but that's just not possible right now. We're going to need to get a lot of eggs."
"Not real ones," Aster said. "That'd be nice, but there's no way we can get that many without being extremely obvious."
"Or creating an egg famine for anyone who wants to paint eggs as a family," Jack muttered.
They all paused, thinking for a moment.
Then Aster smirked.
"I've got an idea."
-.-.-.-
March 31
Jamie looked out his window. With a gasp of delight, he shot away from it, throwing on clothes as he hurried out the door. His mother wouldn't let him go without proper attire. In his haste, he tripped and fell. He spared a moment to groan before continuing to get dressed. He jumped to his feet and sprinted out the door and down the stairs, nearly falling again.
His mother looked up from where she was making eggs at the stove. "Honey?"
"I saw the Easter Bunny!"
"You did?" she said in that tone where Jamie knew that he had convinced her something was real.
"Yeah! I'm going to go say hi!"
"Alright, just be back in for breakfast!" She had to yell the rest, as he was already out the door and running before she could finish.
In all honesty, he hadn't exactly seen the Easter Bunny. He'd just seen an egg wobbling across the lawn, but that was the same thing, really. Where eggs were walking on their own, the famous rabbit had to be near. That was just common sense. Jamie looked around excitedly, grinning. There were faint tracks around him of where eggs had been walking around. He hadn't woken up Sophie yet and she wouldn't think to follow the tracks, so he would just follow them and see where all the eggs were but wouldn't take any. After all, seeing walking eggs was better than finding him.
He ran in the direction he had seen the egg go from his window, skidding to a halt by his mother's flower garden. He parted the leaves and grinned, seeing a pile of three eggs nestled in the center a patch of Russian sage. There were rabbit footprints nearby, clearly recent. Forgoing his search for the rest of the eggs, Jamie followed the new tracks.
He came back inside ten minutes later, disappointed. The tracks had disappeared once he'd gotten past the property. It made sense. After all, plenty of kids would have seen the Easter Bunny by now if he left tracks for all of them to follow. Whatever the case, he had seen walking eggs. How many kids saw that?
-.-.-.-
"Well," Ana said from the tree branch below North's, "that worked."
"I don't think he saw the ears, though," Jack replied, chin resting on his fists. He was the highest of all of them, having had no qualms in climbing to an unreasonable distance. Aster had paled even looking up at him and had muttered something about freakish abilities. He was the lowest, ignoring the tree in favor of just hiding in foliage. Sandy was by Ana, having been pulled up quickly after making the false rabbit tracks before Jamie spotted him.
Aster rolled his eyes. "I didn't really have time to stop an' pose, Frostbite."
Jack sighed dramatically. "All our hard work, put to waste."
"Don't be such a sour puss."
"Alright, what have we learned?" North said, redirecting the conversation.
"Jamie is so cute," Ana cooed.
"He's not a stray cat we can adopt," Jack warned. "Aster's not going to be able to make the tracks himself, ironically, 'cause he's too tall. The kids are going to see him. I think if Sandy makes the prints like this again and Aster is just seen, that should be good enough."
"The wind-up eggs worked to get his attention," Aster said. "Let's use 'em again."
"Those will also make sure the kids get to the eggs before Pitch can sabotage them," Ana said.
"Alright, let's split up and move onto other houses. Aster and Ana will finish this neighborhood. Manny's helping, so Jack can work with him. Sandy, come with me."
"Wait, Sandy and Aster aren't working together the entire time?"
"Too many houses, mate. Obviously."
"Hey, I'm allowed a stupid question once in a while."
"Every once in a while? Most 'a yer questions are stupid."
"Hey, I would bet my entire bank account that I'm smarter than you."
"D'ya even 'ave a bank account?"
"No, but that's beside the point."
The other three exchanged exasperated looks.
-.-.-.-
Ana and Aster slumped onto the ground after the last house. "Okay," Ana said, breathing hard, "that was a bit more running than I was expecting." The clearing in the forest wasn't very far in, but the kids were too interested in the egg hunts to venture in the woods today. No one ever did anyway unless they were hikers.
"Time went by a bit faster than normal, I'm sure 'a it," Aster muttered.
"We got all of them, though. Every single house." She smiled and looked over at Aster. "And I doubt the others went any slower."
Aster smiled, looking up at the sky. "Yeah. We got 'em. Our first holiday…" He glanced out of the corner of his eye at her. "Ya know what? I don't care about Pitch or any of his guys. Right now, I don't care that his guys used guns an' that we still need ta get Manny ta have a chat wi' 'im. I think we're goin' ta change lives, and really, that's all that matters. We're goin' ta save children. What more could we do wi' our lives?"
Ana grinned. "We could do it while making them believe they're protected by fairy tales."
"Who would be crazy enough ta do that?" Aster said, sitting up. "Alright, should we meet them back at-?"
He broke off as a caw pierced the air. Aster whipped around and got to his feet, annoyed at the ravens. As he rose to his full height, he saw the Nightmare duck behind a tree. Aster jumped forward, shouting out a warning to Ana as he did so. He heard her scrambled to her feet behind him as he put a hand on the trunk, swinging himself around to come face to face with the Nightmare. The woman jumped back with a hiss, striking out with one fist. Aster blocked it and swung with his other hand. She didn't dodge the punch fast enough and fell to the ground.
Another caw tore through the air and Aster turned around in time to see one of the ravens clawing at a Nightmare trying to cower away from Ana and the bird. Ana had her back to the scene, fighting off two Nightmares at the same time. The woman behind Aster took the opportunity to jump up, but Aster shot her a glance and she reconsidered her options before scampering away. Aster turned back to Ana and the Nightmares before planting himself in the middle of the fight and dragging one of them out of it and away from his friend.
The fight was over moments later, one not even worth mentioning in comparison to all the other ones they'd had. The only oddity was that it was an ambush and not an accidental meeting or defensive attack of territory. Both of them looked over at the raven, who had flown a short distance away to sit on a branch next to its companion. The two birds stared back at them.
"Y'know, maybe ya had a good idea there feedin' the birds…" Aster said.
"I know," Ana replied simply. "What do you think that was about?"
"I think they know where their food is comin' from an' are lookin' at protectin' their source."
"Not them, the Nightmares!"
"Oh. Pitch probably has somethin' planned an' is keepin' us distracted."
"Not a very good distraction."
"Not really, no. I'll go follow 'em. You go get the others an' tell 'em somethin's up."
She nodded. "Got it." A look was spared to the birds. "I would say watch your back, but it looks like someone is doing that for you."
Aster shrugged. "We'll see." He started running in the direction the last Nightmare had disappeared to. Ana barely paused before going the other way, closer to town and their friends.
Tomorrow, Aster would look back on events and realize they had been really, really stupid. If Pitch had wanted to distract them, he would have sent more than four people to do it. As it was, he was lead across the entire town five times and it was late in the evening before he began thinking that there was something a little bit off about the situation. By the time he did, he felt like bashing himself in the face. Of course the distraction wouldn't be a fight. It would be too short. No, the distraction was him chasing the attackers after the fight. Meanwhile, the real attack went on elsewhere.
So, reasonably, he went to his first and last source of information.
The first was Manny's house. The doctor was out, but that wasn't a problem. Phil would leave a packet in the stove if he had information they needed. There wasn't anything in there, so Aster went to their second source, which was, oddly enough, their last one too. He arrived at the playground, not sure if the Nightmares had even realized by now he was no longer following them.
The sand under the swing sets had been disturbed by someone sitting there and a pair of footprints led off the sandpit. Aster frowned. What had Jamie been doing here alone? There had been an Easter egg hunt, but that had been over hours ago.
A shout caught his attention. Aster's head snapped up and he gave a soft groan to himself. Of course there was more trouble. He started running before his brain even processed that it could be another distraction, but it didn't matter because that voice sounded an awful lot like Jamie's. By the time he was near the source of the shout, the shouter and the one who had been shouted at were both running. He could see them on the other end of the street, right by the forest. They disappeared inside a moment later. Aster followed, albeit not as quickly as he would have liked to.
It wasn't hard to track them. Neither were being very stealthy and their path was easy to see because of branches and leaves that were still flapping back and forth from their passing. He went as fast as he could without risking losing the trail, not bothering to hide his own presence. There wasn't time for precautions. He was proud to say that he actually had a bit of trouble getting through the dense foliage, not because of the difficulty he had, but because he knew Pitch would have just as many problems and because he knew Jamie would be able to go under many of these troublesome obstacles with ease.
He came to a stop as the river came into view. His pace slowed and he got control of his breathing quickly, looking around in confusion. No one was in sight. It finally occurred to him that it might have been a bad idea to run off on his own, but he didn't really care enough to try and retrace his path. He was still sure Jamie was around here somewhere. There was a clump of boulders by the river, and he moved toward it to try and get a better view from the top.
As he started to climb up them, he glanced down a crevice as he nearly fell through it. He nearly fell again when he saw Jamie huddled in the crack between the huge rocks. Instead, he dropped onto his stomach and stuck his arm through, fingers grasping the back of the child's jacket to get his attention. Pitch must have chased him under here and was off looking for a way to get him out. Aster wouldn't have been able to even touch Jamie's head if he weren't so tall.
Jamie tried to shake him off and splayed his body out to make it harder for Aster to pull him out. "I am not-" he started to say. Aster readjusted his strategy and clamped his hand over Jamie's mouth to keep him quiet.
"C'mon, ankle-biter, work wi' me a little, would ya?" he said quietly. He released his hand, knowing Jamie would recognize him. They had crossed paths a few times at school. That, and Jamie had been a friend of Emma, who was the sister who Jack, who Aster was friends with. For a short time, they had both watched the Frost family be torn apart by the father's alcoholism. They hadn't spoken much but had acknowledged each other's existence.
Jamie's head shot up and his wide eyes met Aster's. A grin split his face and Aster took that as approval to reach in and haul him out. Jamie's words came out in a rush. "You're not dead! You guys have been here the entire time?! You never left?! Wait, were you the ones who saved the other kids?! And…and…and you're not dead!"
Okay, the kid wanted information, like, now. "I'm gonna be dead 'a old age before we get outta here. Is it really the time for Twenty Questions?"
"You're going to leave as soon as I'm safe, so yes!" Well, he had a point there. Unfortunately, he was going to have to have a little chat with the kid about not spilling it to the world that the account of their death wasn't entirely accurate. "Are you alright? Isn't it cold out here? They thought you guys died of exposure!"
"Jamie, let's just get ya outta here, okay?"
"Why didn't you leave?" What part of he was in danger did the boy not understand?
" 'Cause we wanted ta make sure Pitch didn't harm anyone if he got out. He's got a lotta power in the area an' we were afraid he might be released. Turns out it was a good idea ta stick around. Now come on, let's get ya home." He reached out and tried to tug him in the direction of the town. Jamie didn't budge.
"Aster, what if he goes after more kids? I mean, the high school kids have stopped working for him and buying from him. What if he goes after their siblings to make them afraid again and make them think he's in charge? He's already done it to a few of them." They had been right in assuming that he was smart. He had figured things out pretty well.
"We'll figure somethin' out." You know what? He had figured things out. The kid deserved something for that. Besides, he was in a risky position and would continue to be so since he was showing no signs of backing out. "Hey, I've got an idea. Listen carefully, alright?"
Jamie practically bounced on his heels. "What?"
"You want to come see Jack?"
"Yes!" Jamie said excitedly. Aster motioned for him to keep his voice down. "He's alright too?" Jamie asked in a much quieter tone, although the energy hadn't been lost at all.
Aster nodded and took hold of his hand, leading him away from the river.
"Where'd you get your ears?" Jamie asked, reaching up and tugging on the back of the doo rag.
Aster pulled his head away. "Long story," he said, not really wanting to go into the tale of his brother at the moment.
They picked up a quick pace, going back into town. Jamie protested when they were sure Pitch was well away from them, but Aster assured him they weren't going to the Bennett house. Instead, Aster led him to Manny's house.
As expected, everyone had grouped up there. They went in through the back and found everyone sitting tensely in the living room and lively arguing. All discussion froze when the door opened and the two walked in.
Ana jumped to her feet. "Aster!" She glanced down. "Wait…"
Jamie gaped and pointed at Sandy. "You! You were on the playground." Sandy looked sheepish but waved anyway.
Jack grinned. "Jamie! It's great to see you! Well, I've seen you, but actually exchanging words with you is what I mean."
"That sentence made no sense," Aster grumbled. "Alright-"
"Aster, you realize the danger you just placed him in?" Manny said in a deadpan. Aster sighed and nodded, rubbing the back of his neck.
Jamie frowned, looking around the room. "Wait… What's going on? Why did you all have to fake your deaths in the first place?"
Jack blew out a breath. "We couldn't stay in the area if the police were going to keep looking for us. But this is our home and Pitch is causing a mess so we couldn't just leave. Besides, just about none of us had homes we wanted to go back to."
"Jack!" Ana hissed, elbowing him. He gave her a 'What?' look.
"Look," Aster said, "we can't protect all the kids. There just aren't enough of us."
"So we are under attack," Jamie said.
"Yes," Jack and Aster said simultaneously as Ana and North both said, "No." The four all glared at each other. Jamie looked more confused.
"It's not something you need to worry about," Manny said gently.
"People are breaking into my home. I think that's definitely something I should be worried about," Jamie contradicted. "What's going on?"
"Pitch wants to scare kids," Jack said. "We're trying to stop him. We've managed to stop most of his attacks, but a few leak through." He grinned. "Actually, you've been a great help. We didn't know about the attacks in Corta until you said it at the playground. Sandy protected three kids that night on his own."
Jamie grinned back. "Really?"
"Yeah!"
"This is way cooler than the real Easter Bunny protecting us! You guys are awesome!"
Ana flushed, embarrassed. Sandy and North exchanged bemused looks while Jack appeared to be reverting into a five year old.
"I know! It's awesome!" Aster rolled his eyes at his friend, but Jack ignored him.
Jamie bounced, turning back to Aster. "So, you said there was something you wanted to tell me?"
"Yeah." He looked around the room. "We were talkin' about getting' kids ta come into the forest so we can protect 'em easier, right? Jamie's been our little story teller up until now. He can just add a little detail in about that."
"Is that it?" Ana asked.
"For now, but I thought ya might want ta know I was goin' ta ask 'im ta do that."
"Of course!" Jamie said. "Wait, you know I've been telling stories to the other kids?"
"Yeah! It's so cool!" Jack exclaimed. "You'd think we're superheroes or something!"
"Alright," Ana said before they could bounce anymore energy off each other, "Let's get Jamie home before his parents freak out."
"Freaking out parents is bad," Jack agreed. "Come on, the rabbit and I'll take you home. Coming, Cottontail?"
"If that's a new nickname," Aster growled.
"Now, now, don't use bad language in front of the children."
"Children is plural. Are ya referrin' ta both 'a ya or are ya just illiterate?"
Jamie blinked, looking between the two. "Um."
"They argue a lot," Ana said by way of explanation.
"How often is a lot?"
"Every time they see each other."
"Wow."
"Yeah."
"Sorry."
"It makes the days livelier, that's for sure."
-.-.-.-
Pitch returned to the rocks half an hour later with an irritated raccoon in his hands. He leaned over and smirked. "So-" He broke off, realizing there was no one in there. "What the hell-?!"
"Looking for someone?" North asked, hands in his pockets. Pitch's gaze shifted between him and Aster, who was leaning against a tree behind him. Sandy and Ana were off to North's left and Jack was on the other side of Aster's tree.
Pitch cursed under his breath and turned on his heel, sprinting away with five very irritable Guardians hot on his tail.