Chapter Five: The Darkness
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"Jack left," Tooth came out of North's guest room. She nervously crossed her arms and awaited for their reaction.
Bunnymund quickly grew angry and grabbed his boomerangs off the table. He huffed his breath and loudly exclaimed, "That show pony running off!" He tapped his feet on the ground and made his rabbit hole.
"Bunny-," North tried to calm him down, but Bunny hopped down the hole before anything more was said. North muttered something in russian and then looked back at Toothiana who lightly rubbed her arm.
"North, Pitch hasn't attacked the Tooth Palace," Tooth said. North pulled on his beard.
"What is Pitch plotting?" North asked and looked up at the moon.
Tooth looked down, "I will continue to keep my girls on guard." She put her tiny hands on the table and formed a tiny fist.
Pitch was fascinated what was happening on the globe. He looked back at the failed fearling behind him that desperately fought off the black sand with its gold. He rolled his eyes.
"So disappointing. I expected you to be the best fearling… you're very powerful, Sandy, you know," he mocked.
For a second, the golden sand seemed to have the upper hand. Pitch took a step back, but got a grip of himself. The black sand began to swallow away the gold.
"Disappointing, a human actually does a better job as a fearling," he looked back at the globe which brought calamity to him.
Sandy raised an eyebrow.
"It is all your fault… well you and the guardians. You helped me create the greatest creation," Pitch smiled and Sandman grew more nervous. Pitch decided to play up this fear and end this growing dream sand. He put his hand up in front of the Sandman and with it appeared black sand. Then, turned the dark sand into something that resembled Jamie. It was small enough to fit in the palm of Pitch's hand.
Sandy knew Pitch was playing with him, but he was talking about the child. What did he do to the child?
"A child grows up and stops believing. It is natural. It means they're not weak and need your selfish protection," he said and put his arm closer for Sandy to see.
Sandy's eyes widened.
"It was easy. I just put a little speck of darkness and he made it grow. I just did it out of spite, but never would've I imagined it would become my strongest fearling," he said. He made the dark figure of Jamie grow and it lost it shape. It joined the rest of the dark sand and then there was no longer any dream sand.
The wind blew the Winter Spirit above the hospital. The Winter Spirit's expression was plain. The wind brought him down, violently. He set his foot down on a branch of an old oak tree. It broke. He found himself on the snowy ground below the tree. It was a sudden awakening. He planted his staff on the ground and lifted himself up.
"What am I doing here," he remarked to himself as he laid down on the old oak tree. He looked up at the branches all of them looked dead and ready to fall. He held his staff close to his chest.
A loud noise jolted him to look back at the hospital. Jamie came out with the same angry expression. Jack followed.
"Jamie?" Jack asked uselessly.
Jamie stopped his step.
Jack held his breath and tried to take a step closer towards his friend. Jack walked around and saw the same lost expression as before when he was in the arms of Pitch. Jamie's lost expression changed and wrinkled into anger.
"Jamie!" Jack tried to comfort his friend but just went right through him. Jack followed nervously.
Close to the hospital, Sophie was putting the last touches to her snowman.
"Sophie, did you take my gloves?" Jamie asked angrily.
"Sorry-," Sophie nervously answered.
Jamie saw them on the snowman's hands. He rushed towards the snowman and violently took them off. The snowman shook under Jamie's hand and it collapsed.
"Hey, Jamie that was mean!" she tried her best not to cry. She tried to recover her snowman, but her attempts were useless. It was broken.
For a second, Jamie was filled with regret, but he brushed it off as soon as it came. "Then, stop taking my stuff!"
"You stop being mean!" she yelled back at him. She saw the nervous Winter Spirit walk behind him. "Jack!" she said with a smile and ran towards her hero.
"Hey, Soph," Jack smiled in relief and glad he was able to be seen.
"Sophie, what are you doing?" Jamie asked her.
None of them made a noise or any movement. Sophie sensed the heavy silence and tried to break it off. "Talking to Jack Frost," she looked away from her brother and looked up at Jack.
"You're eight years old Sophie if you keep talking to your imaginary friends like they're real, people are going to think you're crazy," his words were heavy with each enunciation. Sophie looked back at Jack. She felt Jack looked faded.
"Jack is real! He made the snow," Sophie crossed her tiny arms. She looked back at Jack who nodded his head, reassuringly.
"Okay, who cares! Hurry up the doctor is going to let us visit Mom," Jamie said and pulled her hand.
"Wait, wait," she let go off his grip, "Jack are you coming to help Mom?"
"Sorry, I can't help, but I will be there for you," he said. She nodded her head and held out her tiny hands towards him. He took it.
"Sophie, seriously pull of the game and let's go," Jamie said and buried his hands on the pockets of his sweater.
They made it inside and Jack remembered how much he disliked the place. Too bright and the smell too strong. Jamie rushed towards the doctor. Jack stayed behind as Sophie held his hand. He gave a reassuring smile.
Jack couldn't hear what was happening, but Jamie turned away from the doctor. He had those lost eyes, again. Jamie walked towards his sister.
"Sophie are you serious. Playing at a time like this," he said without looking at her.
"Sorry," Sophie let go of Jack's hand and quickly walked away. She didn't want to hear what the doctor said.
"Sophie, it's okay-," Jack tried to say more, but then he saw the black sand take over Jamie's face. "Jamie?" Jamie's hand was engulfed in black sand.
Jack couldn't move. He didn't know what to do as Jamie in front of him resembled a fearling more than that boy that saved them years reached his dark hand towards Jack direction and grabbed his staff. The darkness began to take over the Winter Spirit. Jack let out a scream.
Sophie stopped her nervous steps when she heard the scream and she looked back. Jamie just watched like there was nothing in front of him, but Sophie grabbed her face.
Jack felt the darkness take over the air around him, slowly. Like if the air was being sucked away. His lungs began to feel like fire. The dark sand was very heavy it slammed him down on the ground. The sand took over the flesh of his arm and he tried to rip it away. It started to take over his face. He tried to rip it off, but it was a part of him. It was like he was pulling off his own flesh. The darkness crawled into his eyeballs and in front of him stood his little sister.
"Jack, why did you leave me," she said and the ice started to freeze her over.
"I'm sorry!" Jack shouted as he reached out to her.
Reviews are appreciated.
This actually came out a bit more scary than expected. I blame the Akira soundtrack I was listening to it the whole time while writing this chapter. Jack's transformation was the hardest to write, because I didn't want to push it too much.
Anyway, the next chapter I will reveal what happened to Jamie's Mom. This whole chapter was a big cliffhanger as a reader I understand and I'm sorry.