Thanks so much for the positive reception regarding the last chapter! It meant so much to me.
And oh, what's this? Another chapter so soon? I'm so proud of myself.
Thank you to Harrison Orion Black and The Kid-Zoom for the favorites!
For following: DixieFictionPad, Miss CannelRolls, The Kid-Zoom, and silver-eyedLadyofDarkness.
And to my amazing reviewers: Dreamer558750, setsuna1415, Ern Estine 13624, Roseflame Crystalheart, White Hunter, guardianofdragonlore, Guest, and Bloody-Asphode11.
Reader Responses:
Dreamer558750: Oh, it was? That just makes me even more excited for this year.
setsuna1415: Then my work here is done. :) No, seriously, I'm glad you're enjoying this story. Your positive responses just make me write faster because I'm looking forward to hearing what everyone has to say. And . . . this chapter might make you cry as well. Just a warning.
White Hunter: They'll make it up to her . . . in time.
guardianofdragonlore: Ack, I'm sorry for mentioning it! But I think you know what this chapter's gonna be about now.
Guest: Oh, you're gonna be a freshman too? Then, luck to both of us! And about my other stories . . . hehehe. I'm actually kind of embarrassed by some of them, save for As Long As We're Together. But thank you for the compliment.
Bloody-Asphode11: Um, yes. I think I am. I'm kind of bad at villains, so I either make them totally evil, or - yeah, extremely evil. :)
"The heart can get really cold if all you've known is winter."
― Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Last Night I Sang to the Monster
Chapter Five: Shattered Reality
Jackie poked her head out of the opening of the tunnel. She needed to make sure that she and Baby Tooth had actually gotten to Burgess, because Pennsylvania was quite a distance from Australia. But when she saw the familiar gleaming ice on her pond, Jackie sighed in relief. She was home.
She flew down the trail to the Bennett's house. The sky was dark, like the last time she and the Guardians were here. Jackie only hoped that Sophie wasn't missing for too long. The police would have a field day if the girl started chattering about "Easter Bunny, hop, hop, hop!"
With Baby Tooth's help, they phased through the window of Sophie's room. Jackie set down her staff in the corner, and awkwardly made her way to the bed. Sophie was clinging tightly to the winter sprite's neck, even in sleep, and it made it hard to untangle the mess of limbs. But after a few moments of struggling, Jackie managed to pry the little girl off her neck, and drop her onto the bed. Jackie turned to leave, but Sophie murmured something and rolled off the bed. She reached out her arm uselessly to try to catch her, but she cringed as Sophie hit the ground. Baby Tooth was equally mortified.
"Sophie, is that you?"
Jackie gasped as Mrs. Bennett's voice floated up from downstairs. Though she knew that the woman wouldn't be able to see them, they needed to get out quickly. Thinking fast, Jackie threw a fleecy blanket on Sophie, and after a moment of hesitation, a squeaky stuffed lamb.
Jackie grabbed her staff, and Baby Tooth passed them both through the window. They carefully peered back in to make sure that Sophie was okay. "We should get back," Jackie said softly, looking at the little fairy.
Then . . .
A soft, feminine voice echoed across the night sky. "Jackie!"
She swiveled away from Baby Tooth. "T-that voice – I know that voice," Jackie murmured to herself, her mission now firmly planted in her mind. She needed to find out who was calling her.
"Jackie?"
She turned, now knowing a direction to go in. Jackie shot into the air, leaving a trail of flurries (and Baby Tooth) behind. When she neared the edge of town, she landed on a roof, looking around worriedly. Where had the voice gone?
"Jackie!" The voice had taken a sing-song tone, and . . . it was coming from the forest. There.
As she flew, Jackie could hear the nervous twittering of Baby Tooth behind her. She descended cautiously in the woods, feeling slightly wary of the dense fog rolling in. But Jackie needed to find the girl who called out her name with such love and familiarity.
Jackie walked deeper into the forest, ignoring Baby Tooth's anxious chirps and the insistent tugging of her hood. "Don't worry," she said distractedly, brushing off the mini-tooth's concerns. "There's still time." The Guardians hadn't given her a set time to come back, right? But her mind was strangely fuzzy as the voice called to her.
Jackie's eyes locked onto the broken, battered bedframe partially hidden in shadows. The sun was beginning to creep up into the sky, lighting up the area. She moved closer, wondering why this of all things was out here. It was situated over a dark hole, and Jackie couldn't tell how deep it went. But the voice called out again, and the curiosity was replaced with a burning feeling of need.
She determinedly slammed the butt of her staff on the weakest strip of wood, repeating her actions until part of the frame broke. Without hesitation, Jackie jumped into the darkness.
She and Baby Tooth made their way through the tunnel, weaving around stalactites and stalagmites. Baby Tooth was still squeaking, trying to convince Jackie to go back up to the surface.
"B-baby – Baby Tooth, I have to find out what that is!" she insisted. Then her eyes widened as she reached the end of the passageway and took in her surroundings. This place was dark, dank, and filled with a malevolent chill. Jackie shuddered. This wasn't the type of cold she liked.
Then, hopeful chirps echoed throughout the cavern. Jackie heard the sound of thousands of fluttering wings brushing metal. Baby Tooth's sisters . . . this was Pitch's lair.
Jackie flew up to the cages, nervously shushing the mini-teeth. "Keep it down," she whispered urgently. She couldn't let Pitch know that she was here. "I'll get you out of here as soon . . ."
"Jackie?" asked the familiar voice again.
". . . as I can . . ." Jackie trailed off, the voice sidetracking her from helping the fairies.
Jackie gripped the bars of the cage she was hanging onto, and gasped as she realized the tooth boxes were laying oh-so-innocently on the ground. Her memories were here! She could find her memories without the Guardians, and they'd be so proud when she told them she found Pitch's lair.
But first . . .
Jackie hopped down and anxiously pawed through the millions of teeth canisters, searching for hers. She heard Baby Tooth tweeting from the cage she had just abandoned, clearly saying, Get back here!
But Jackie ignored her friend and scanned the unfamiliar faces painted on the discarded tooth boxes. None of them rang any bells in her mind, but she needed to be thorough. She could easily skip over her precious memories if –
"Looking for something?"
Jackie flinched violently. Pitch. She quickly shot a blast of ice from her staff at the growing black shadow on the wall behind her, but he dodged the attack, leisurely moving along in the dark.
Jackie ran up the stairs and flipped up a wall, angrily searching for the Nightmare King. He still needed to pay for hurting Sandy.
"Don't be afraid, Jacqueline. I'm not going to hurt you . . ."
There he was. Pitch was walking across a nearby path, his back facing her. Jackie leaped across a crack and skidded, almost colliding with a wall. "Afraid?" she panted. "I'm not afraid of you." Jackie pointed her staff threateningly at Pitch's back. She was ready for anything that he threw at her.
"Maybe not," Pitch mused. He kept walking at his slow pace, and she followed closely behind.
"Think so, huh?" she demanded.
"I know so!" Pitch almost seemed to laugh as he said his answer. "It's the one thing I always know," he said, looking over his shoulder at Jackie. "People's greatest fears . . . Yours is that no one will ever believe in you!"
She gasped, stumbling away from Pitch like she had been punched. And she might as well have been – having her greatest and most private fear being thrown so blatantly in her face. The shadows around her grew and snaked around her bare feet, and then she fell through the ground, yelping as her small form tumbled around.
Jackie landed roughly on a stone floor, rolling with her momentum. Her palms were stinging when she scrabbled fearfully away from Pitch's disembodied voice.
"And worst of all, you're afraid you'll never know why."
Jackie wanted to scream. She stood and ran blindly away, slamming into another wall hidden in the dark. She wanted to get out of here. She needed to run – because running was what she was good at. It helped her escape her fears . . . although this seemed to be her worst nightmare.
"Why you?" Pitch asked softly. "Why were you chosen? To be like this?"
Jackie's hands were trembling as she held her staff. Then she whimpered softly as Pitch's menacing form appeared in front of her. She pressed herself against the wall, trying to make herself even smaller than she already was.
"But fear not," he whispered silkily. "For the answer to that is right here," he said, pulling a golden object from under his robes. Jackie straightened, looking in disbelief at what Pitch was holding out to her. "Do you want them, Jacqueline? Your memories?"
Jackie glanced down at her tooth box, and the face painted on it. Though the hair and eyes were brown, that was most definitely . . . her. As if in a trance, she reached out her hand to grab it, but then hesitated. Now that her memories were within reach, did she really want them? Was it worth betraying the Guardians for Pitch?
No. She couldn't. They meant too much to her.
At her indecision, Pitch snatched the golden canister away, laughing as he escaped back to the shadows. Jackie jumped down to a lower level, following the sound of his laughter. She raced down the steps, spotting his shadow on the wall alongside her.
"Everything you wanted to know . . . in this little box." Pitch's shadow held out the container teasingly, but then disappeared again into another section of his lair.
"How did you end up like this?" Pitch wondered, though she could still hear the wicked undertone in his words. "Unseen, unable to reach out to anyone. Unloved."
Jackie reached the end of the stairs, but then Pitch's shadow multiplied. "You want the answers so badly. You want to grab them and fly off with them." Jackie circled around, looking for any sign of his reappearance. "But you're afraid of what the Guardians will think. You're afraid of disappointing them."
She gripped her staff so hard that her knuckles became white. She was so tired of this! She hated Pitch, hated that he knew all her fears, hated that she was so vulnerable –
"But let me ease your mind about one thing – they'll never accept you. Not really. All those words about you being part of their family? Lies," Pitch hissed.
Jackie shut her eyes tightly and pressed her hands on either side of her head. She was only vaguely aware of her staff digging into her temple as she screamed out, "STOP IT, STOP IT, STOP IT!"
They promised her! They told her that she was their family! It couldn't all be a lie.
It couldn't . . .
"After all," Pitch crooned, finally coming out of the shadows, "you're not one of them."
"You don't know what I am," Jackie spat, pointing her staff. Behind her, Pitch's own Globe of Believers spun sadly.
"Of course I do!" Pitch said genially, like they were two friends just throwing insults at each other. "You're Jack Frost! Or . . . Jacqueline, as you're less known." He moved closer, his smirk growing with each step. "You make a mess wherever you go! In fact, you're doing it right now." Pitch tossed something at her, Jackie reflexively reaching out to catch the object. Her eyes widened as she realized she was holding her tooth box.
"What did you do?" she asked in horror.
"More to the point, Jacqueline," Pitch said, walking away, "what did you do?" His golden eyes flashed in the dark as he disappeared.
Jackie raced to where he vanished, her staff glowing with bright blue energy. It crackled with each swing, as she hoped that she could get a good whack in. She turned around in the dark and slammed into yet another wall. Jackie pounded her fists against it, but then stepped back at seeing the familiar insignia. The Warren. She wasn't in Pitch's lair anymore.
"Baby Tooth!" she yelled, realizing that the little fairy wasn't with her.
"Happy Easter, Jacqueline," Pitch's voice said softly, as she took in the sight of shattered eggshells scattered along the tunnel.
"No . . ." she whispered. Bunny!
She ran over the shells and up through the tunnel opening.
Bunny peered anxiously through the foliage, watching the kids search for eggs. After Jack had left, Pitch's Nightmares had stormed through the Warren, destroying everything. He and the others had fought hard, but it was the sheer overwhelming numbers that had defeated them. Bunny hated to admit it, but he wished Jack had stayed to help. He could've easily destroyed those Nightmares.
But now, there was nothing for the children to find.
"There aren't any eggs," a girl said sadly.
"There's nothing here," another added.
"I don't understand!" a boy burst out, frustrated.
"Maybe he just hid them really well this year," this first girl reasoned, thought Bunny could feel her hope slipping away.
"I've looked everywhere! There's nothing," said the boy, after he looked behind a bush.
Bunny took this as his cue to rush out and save the day. "Yes, there is!" he said desperately, holding out his basket filled with only a few of his eggs. "Ah'll admit, these aren't mah best-lookin' googies, but they'll do in a pinch," he said, looking at the two children.
"I can't believe it!" the red-haired girl sighed morosely, sliding off the picnic table.
"Ah – Ah know, but –"
"There's no such thing as the Easter Bunny."
Bunny stared into her dark blue eyes, watching as the last bit of belief and Hope disappeared. "No, no." He hopped around, looking at the other children walking away. "Wrong – not true! Ah'm right in front of ya, mate –!" he pleaded, but then a little boy passed through him.
Bunny's eyes widened. He'd never felt anything like this before. He was the Easter Bunny! Children believed in him, but he had been passed through for the first time. This couldn't be real . . . right?
"They don't see me," he whispered. "They don't see me . . ." His ears drooped as he sank down slowly to his knees, blown away by the crushing realization.
Tooth flew over to comfort him, saying, "There are probably other children in the world who believe," she said optimistically. "We'll just have to leave England, and –"
"Jackie!" North boomed. "Where were you?"
Bunny and Tooth turned at the sudden noise. Jack's here?
"The Nightmares . . . attacked the tunnels. They smashed every egg, crushed every basket – nothing made it to the surface," North said, gripping his swords tightly. The loss of the children's belief had affected him first. Now, North was beginning to feel his age. He could barely move without grunting in pain.
Tooth flew over, yelling, "Jackie!" Then her eyes widened in horror as she spotted something in his hands. "Where did you get that?"
Bunny watched as Jack glanced down at his right, seemingly surprised that he was holding it. "I was . . . it's . . ." he mumbled, weakly protesting.
"Where's Baby Tooth?" she demanded.
When Jack didn't answer, Tooth's hands flew to her mouth. "Oh, Jackie . . . what have you done?" She flew backwards, away from the boy, as if she was . . . afraid of him.
"That is why you weren't here?" North bellowed. "You were with Pitch?"
Bunny stood up and stormed in their direction. Siding with the enemy was unforgivable. Jack had probably been working with Pitch all this time, earning their trust, their friendship – no. Bunny had thought that he had found a friend in Jack Frost, but he was a traitor. Bunny couldn't believe that he had fallen for Frost's trap. The boy was so innocent and so childlike.
But now he knew. Jack had finally shown his true colors.
"No, no, listen!" Frost pleaded with them. "I'm sorry."
Bunny's eyes narrowed. Sorry that you got caught.
"I didn't mean for this to happen!" Jack burst out.
"He has to go," Bunny said coldly, cutting off any more of the boy's pleas.
Jack turned. "Wha –?"
Bunny raised his fist, ready to pummel the damn spirit into oblivion. "We should never have trusted you!" he roared, slamming his fist into Jack's cheek. Jack stumbled back and tripped over his feet, falling. His shoulders were trembling with fear as pure fear filled his blue, blue eyes.
Maybe that's what made Bunny not strike again. No matter how traitorous Frost was, Bunny still cared for him. And that angered the Pooka. "Easter is . . . new beginnings. New life. And that's how I saw you, Jack. Easter is about hope – and now it's gone."
Bunny turned away from the spirit of winter, refusing to look back, even when Jack whispered, "Maybe I shouldn't have trusted you, either."
Wind rustled the leaves.
Snowflakes fell from the sky.
Jamie tiptoed on the ladder, trying to grab an egg from the gutter lining his roof. But the ten-year-old was too small, and he lost his balance, the ladder falling along with him. The egg that Jamie had tried to get bounced off the deck of his house and rolled in front of his face.
The flash of bright color that Jamie had seen on his roof wasn't an egg . . . it was a tennis ball.
But Jamie refused to be hindered by this. He knew that he saw the Easter Bunny in his room (along with Santa Claus, th e Tooth Fairy, and the Sandman) last night. It wasn't a dream, because his mother had asked this morning why his alarm clock went off.
"Come on," he insisted, hopping up and brushing himself off. Scooping up his basket, he said, "Let's check the park again."
"Really?" Claude asked, annoyed. "For the Easter Bunny?"
"I told you," Jamie said, "I saw him, and he's way bigger than I thought." He jumped and raised his arms for effect. "He's got these cool boomerang things, and –"
"Grow up, Jamie," Caleb sighed.
His five friends stood in front of him, making a wall of gloom.
"What's happened to you guys?" Jamie asked, eyes widening with concern.
"It was a dream!" Caleb said. "You should be happy you still get dreams like that." His face was full of dejection. "And not . . ." He looked helplessly at Cupcake.
"Nightmares," she finished, turning away from Jamie.
Pippa dropped the fallen tennis ball into Jamie's basket. "Forget it, Jamie," she said sadly. "There's just no Easter this year."
"He really is real!" he shouted after his leaving friends. Then he stared at the lone object in his basket. "I know he is." The tennis ball rolled around.
The yetis watched as the last remaining lights on the Globe of Believers blinked out. None of them noticed a fading light racing down south.
Jackie fled from England and flew to a place where she knew she'd never be bothered. Not Burgess, definitely not the North Pole, but Antarctica. Her feet sank into the cold snow, and she ran to a cliff, pulling out that stupid tooth box from her pocket. She was fully prepared to throw it away as she neared the edge, but . . . she couldn't.
These were her memories from before. Jackie still wanted them, even though they had caused all of the good things in her life to vanish. Besides her staff, Wind, and the clothes on her back, the box was all she had left. Jackie stared at the diamond pattern on the box, then at the cheerfully smiling girl painted on the front. That was really her?
Then Jackie's arm dropped as she heard the voice that she hated the most.
"I thought that this might happen," Pitch said. "They never really believed in you. I was just trying to show you that."
Jackie ground her teeth harder with each sentence.
"But I understand."
That statement was what set her off. Sending out the strongest blast of ice she could, she ran toward Pitch and flipped over his head, repeatedly attacking. "You don't understand anything!" Jackie screamed, blind with rage.
"No?" Pitch shouted back. "I don't know what it's like to be cast out?" He slammed a wave of nightmare sand at her, but she rolled out of the way, shooting into the sky and slashing her staff into the air. Jackie yelled as her power channeled into her weapon, zigzagging toward Pitch.
But he raised his hands up and blocked her attack, a fine mist settling around them.
"To not be believed in?" Pitch continued. Then his voice grew softer, more . . . compassionate. "To long for . . . a family." He looked so broken and lost. Jackie lowered her staff at those last words. Right now, she could sympathize with the man.
"All those years in the shadows," he said softly, "I thought, 'No one else knows what this feels like.' But now, I see that I was wrong." Pitch held out his hand to her, and she lowered her staff all the way. "We don't have to be alone, Jacqueline. I believe in you, and I know children will too!" He walked closer to Jackie and stopped by her side.
Jackie couldn't believe her ears. "In me?"
"Yes!" Pitch said, raising up his arms. He laid a hand on her shoulder (though it didn't feel as comforting as Tooth – no. Don't think about her), and gestured to something that Jackie hadn't noticed before. "Look at what we can do!"
A jagged sculpture of ice towered above them, black sand mixed with the cold. It kind of . . . scared her.
"What goes better together than cold and dark?" Pitch walked away from her, his voice echoing around them. Jackie stared at her reflection in the ice – her short white hair, her blue eyes, and the slowly forming bruise on her cheek. "We can make them believe!" Pitch shouted triumphantly. "We'll give them a world where everything – everything is–"
"Pitch Black?" Jackie interrupted, glaring at him.
"And Jackie Frost, too," Pitch assured her. "They'll believe in both of us."
"No," Jackie said, her glare becoming icier. "They'll fear both of us. And that's not what I want," she said, shaking her head. "Now for the last time, leave me alone." She walked away from Pitch, away from the terrifying truth of her powers, and the temptation that she had admittedly felt earlier, when he talked about . . . a family.
"Very well. You want to be left alone? Done," Pitch responded darkly. "But first . . ."
Jackie froze. She didn't like the way he said those last two words. Then, she heard a familiar twittering. Whirling around, she shouted fearfully, "Baby Tooth!"
The little fairy's colorful plumage shone so brightly against the dead gray of Pitch's fist. He clenched Baby Tooth's tiny body tighter as Jackie came closer. She held up her staff.
"The staff, Jacqueline!" Pitch roared, looking at the weapon hungrily.
But she gripped it tighter. There was no way she would give Pitch her staff.
"You have a bad habit of interfering," he said. "Now hand it over, and I'll let her go."
Baby Tooth squeaked in fear, shaking her head. Don't, Jackie!
Jackie growled, weighing her options in her head. She couldn't leave Baby Tooth to die . . . not after she abandoned her last time. But she also couldn't give up her staff. It was the source of her powers. But in the end, she relinquished her hold on her staff. Baby Tooth was more important.
When Pitch snatched it from her hand, the beautiful frost designs that had decorated the staff instantly disappeared, the wood now powerless and dead without her energy flowing through it. Already, Jackie's hands felt empty. "All right," she said, holding out her hand. "Now let her go."
Pitch stared easily at her. "No," he said simply, and Jackie's eyes widened. He . . . he lied her. And she had had enough at being lied to today! "You wanted to be left alone, so be alone!"
Baby Tooth then sank her pointy little beak into Pitch's thumb. He yelped in pain, but then threw the fairy over the same cliff Jackie planned to throw her memories into. "No!" she shouted, watching helplessly as Baby Tooth disappeared over the ledge.
But the pain wasn't over yet. Pitch immediately snapped her staff in two, grinning maliciously at the action. Jackie's hands flew to her chest and screamed in agony. When he broke that staff, she could feel her heart – no, her soul – being ripped apart. Whatever happened to it happened to her.
Then Pitch flung a strong wave of nightmare sand at her, slamming her body into a glacier. Jackie's back arched in pain, and she dropped into the ravine. She struggled to look up, and saw Pitch's form above her. He laughed cruelly, and then dropped the remaining bits of her faithful weapon next to her.
Jackie was now as broken as the staff by her side.
She struggled to move herself off the wall, but then spotted Baby Tooth's limp body lying in the snow. "Baby Tooth!" she gasped, crawling over to her friend. Jackie cradled the fairy in her hands. "Are you all right?" Then she jumped as Baby Tooth stirred, then sneezed, looking at Jackie apologetically.
Jackie sighed. She certainly couldn't help Baby Tooth feel warm while they were in Antarctica. "I'm sorry. All I can do is keep you cold." She shifted herself around to go on her knees. "Pitch was right," Jackie said bitterly. "I make a mess of everything."
She ruined Easter for the world, unknowingly betrayed the Guardians, and when she tried to help Baby Tooth, she managed to become powerless and hurt the same person that she tried to protect.
Baby Tooth had been hugging herself for warmth, but then hopped out of Jackie's hands and into her hoodie pocket. "Hey!" Jackie said in surprise. But then a small frown worked its way onto her face. Baby Tooth needed to be warm to survive, but that was the one thing that Jackie couldn't provide.
She scooted herself back to the cliff wall and curled up against it. Her eyes closed. There was nothing she could do for them now. Now she could only wait – wait for the rest of eternity.
"Jackie? Jaaackie . . ."
A golden glow emanated from her hoodie pocket.
Jackie leaped back in shock. It was the voice again. What . . . ? What was going on? She reached inside her pocket and pulled out her tooth box. The diamond patterns seemed even more inviting this time, but she hesitated. What if she messed up everything again by looking at her memories? But Baby Tooth hopped out of her pocket and placed her tiny hand onto the box's lid. She smiled and nodded reassuringly.
Jackie placed her fingers onto the shapes at Baby Tooth's encouragement . . . and her vision blurred as she was sucked into her memories.
A short chapter, because I thought this would be a good place to stop.
And also, HAPPY (belated) BIRTHDAY, PERCY JACKSON! I couldn't believe I forgot to mention it last chapter . . .
Until next time!