Everything hurts. His bare fingers and toes, frostbitten, and
As he lay there, unmoving, breathing shallow, he wondered: How did he get here?
•๑•
The ceremony was quiet, a soft humming sound from the glowing pedestal that once held the shining circle of the Sandman, a silhouette of the little man... bringing all of them near tears.
Aster balled his paws into rock-solid fists, angry, while Toothiana stared down at her feet, her large eyes brimming with tears.
North… North was conflicted.
He knew Jack wasn't the kind of person to hurt someone, much less kill them, without a good reason.
Jack was a boy, a child who hadn't had the chance to find love, who hadn't truly grown up the way he should have. So why was he doing this?
The guardians needed to get down to the bottom of this- something was wrong.
•๑•
Her black dress trailed behind her as she made her way to the glass dome. It was sealed inside, the Darkness. The Darkness she needed to regain her power again, to regain… control.
•๑•
"Jack needs to be put down." Aster said, with utmost certainty. He spoke of Jack like he was a wild animal.
"But Aster! What if he didn't mean to?" Toothiana asked, agitated, her wings fluttering every so often. The Guardians were discussing what to do, with Jack, and with dreams. Obviously, Pitch wouldn't be able to give good dreams to children, only nightmares and inducing fear.
"He killed our friend, a guardian of childhood, he cannot be running around any longer!" The Pooka exclaims, furious. "You saw what he did! What he can do! He's dangerous! To us and himself."
"Bunny, maybe putting him down is too harsh. Maybe if we find other way to lock him out-" North tried to reason with the angry rabbit.
"So what? So he can escape and start again? No, we are going t-"
"Alright, everyone shut up."
Heads turned towards the man in black, who had been silent this entire time. "You are the Guardians of Childhood, and you don't even know how to come to a proper conclusion?" He asks, folding his arms. He was disappointed.
Aster scowls at him. "You ain't even one of us." He says. "Mim just asked you to help us. You really think you have a say in this?"
Pitch sighed, shaking his head. "I have a choice to leave, don't I?" He scoffs, glaring at the taller creature. "But I haven't. Why? Because I know all of you. You are the Guardians of Childhood, you always find a way to defeat me, and look!" The Boogeyman gestures to himself. "I am- well was- coexisting with Sandman. We had no... immediate problems."
They were all silent, having no idea how to respond.
Funny, for them to be given a pep talk by Pitch of all people, the man they fought against four hundred years ago.
But he was right. They needed to toughen up, and figure out what was going on.
North raises his head from the floor, his wondrous blue eyes shining like a curious child, excited for his Christmas present. "Perhaps we should take a visit to Sandy's home."
•๑•
Jack paced around in his room, muttering to himself.
The tiny snow globe he kept on the window sparkled dully. Inside it, was a snowman. It had a red scarf and a top hat that had a red ribbon around it. Jack looked over to it, sighing.
This had been a gift- a gift from North just 40 years ago. He wished they could go back, back to the time when they were at least acquainted well enough to not have petty arguments.
The spirit chuckles dryly to himself before he hears a quiet knock on his door.
He turns around, his crystal eyes lighting up in worry and confusion, but relaxed when he saw who it was.
"Shou! Hey." He says, smiling a little bit at a fellow spirit.
The girl leans against his door frame, folding her arms and smiling back, though strained. "Hiya, how you holding up?" She asks, quietly.
"Oh, you know, how I normally hold up." Jack sighs, flopping down in the giant pile of snow he considered his makeshift bed. The wood had started to rot. Peter was fixing it right now.
Shou frowns to his response. "Jack, you know what you're doing is dangerous." She sighs, sitting down next to him, placing down her large, black wooden staff. "If she finds out-"
Jack sits up quickly, cutting her off by covering her mouth with his hands. "No, don't say that. Don't jinx it." He says, his chest pounding.
The girl furrowed her brows and pushes his hands away. "Yeah okay, but what you need to understand is if she does, you could get yourself and the others hurt."
The winter spirit was silent, staring at his feet. She was right, and he knew that. "... But I need to… fix the problem. If I don't, thousands of children will be hurt! Shou, you understand why I have to do this!" His blue eyes looked into her violet ones, and she sighs again.
"I know. Those children… If their belief is this powerful, she will…"
•๑•
"My plan is to instill belief." She had said, the woman with the long silver hair.
Jack blinked, a little interested. "Really?" He asks, quietly, like a shy child answering a teacher's question. The woman smiles radiantly. "Yes, and you, my child, will help me."
•๑•
The Island of Sleepy Sands. The star that Sandman had fallen with, becoming his home. Beautiful mermaids and faeries mourned for their lord's passing, many of them not even greeting the Guardians when they had arrived. They were far too sad.
Pitch stepped off the Ship of Dreams, a ship created by the spirit of Imagination, as a gift for the Guardians. She had long disappeared, her whereabouts unknown.
The Boogeyman looked around, in awe, though he would hate to admit it. It was beautiful- everything was made of golden sand. It wasn't gritty, like beach sand, it was smooth and shiny.
As the Guardians made their way to the top of the mountain, Aster sighed. "I miss the little bugger already." He mutters. Everyone else nods along, saying nothing.
Once they reached the top, seeing the large palace-like structure, the home that Sandman stayed in when he didn't have his busy nights to do, they stopped. It was hard for them, to step inside a home that once belonged to a dear friend. A dear friend who was…
"Come on. Sandy wouldn't have wanted us to waste our time like this." Toothiana says, bravely, though the rest could hear the tears that threatened to spill.
They all entered the palace and headed straight to his chambers. Maybe there was something that could solve this mystery, even as a referent.
"Everything's so little." Aster says, a little amused.
"He is a little man." North replies.
Something peaked at Pitch from the corner of his eye. It wasn't the same color as the rest of the room. It was blue.
He made his way over to the corner of the room, and pulled out a blue hoodie, still cold to the touch. It was a very familiar hoodie…
"Isn't that Jack's?" Toothiana asks, softly.
She was right.
It was Jack's blue hoodie.