Chapter Fourteen

Compulsions

"I just wish there was something we could do for him." Tooth sighed. "I feel so bad."

"We've tried just about everything, Tooth," said Jack. "It's not our fault; it's his." he nodded in the direction Pitch had disappeared. "Until he breaks down walls, like North has said, nothing's going to help him. And the only person keeping those walls up is him. Believe me, I know. I was there once. Only I wasn't evil."

Sandy grimaced signaling a picture of Pitch's memories where he was hugging the little girl and then it faded into a wicked looking Pitch with horns and a question mark?

Bunnymund sighed finally simmering down a bit from his previous anger. As annoyed as he was with Pitch, being a bringer of hope he knew that in order to bolster a person to want to do better, they had to believe it in themselves, "No. I don't think Pitch, per se, is evil, but his actions have been. None of us are inherently evil or good as that too is a choice. We got ta stop thinking of things in black and white and instead in layers of grey. If Pitch still feels like he's not able to be one of us, he's never going ta even try."

"So what do you suggest we do to make him feel like one of us?" North asked, opening his eyes to look at Bunny. "I am open to suggestions, seeing that everything we've tried has not done much good. In fact, I call meeting right here and now. It is time we get to bottom of this, because I grow weary. Just when I think we've broken through to him, we end up falling back two steps. I am currently open to any suggestions. Party has failed. Painting toys is up in air, but not something he seems highly interested in so I don't count it lasting long. So what else?"

Bunnymund frowned, "Well he's not gonna like everything he has ta do, and that's just the breaks. This isn't the Pitch show, and he needs ta realize that sooner than later. Everything else will work itself out."

Sandy's eyes blinked his face had been contorted into a look of concentration since North spoke, but now he glanced up ready to contribute to the discussion signing over his head a moon and a table with all of them and Pitch followed by the sun following the moon again and the group of them in the same scene around the table.

Bunnymund shook his head, "I don't have the time ta come babysit Pitch every night ta make him feel better, but I get what you're going for. Maybe once a week I can make an exception ta come visit ta try and get him to be more social. We could probably take turns ta make a point of a few of us or at least one of us making a nightly get together with him to keep up interaction and maybe force him out of his shell a bit. But something has got to give with his attitude because no way, no how am I putting up with that every time I come by!"

Sandy grimaced nodding in agreement. One of the biggest obstacles to getting to know Pitch was his volatile and often unyielding need to be rude to all of them. It certainly was making the task of being friendly towards him harder on all of them.

Jack Frost had been listening in silence to the conversation and the suggestions being thrown out, his brow furrowing in both concern and concentration.

"And maybe we're going about this the wrong way." he said finally. "Maybe Pitch is different and needs a different approach. You can't force someone into being sociable, because not everyone is. And that's okay. Some people enjoy the company of just their thoughts or just one or two other people." he looked from each Guardian. "Maybe some of the way Pitch acts is caused by there being too many of us around and trying too hard. I—I think this is my job—I think it always has been. I know he's not really that fond of me, but maybe I can help a little. I think we need to go ride some reindeer." he looked at Bunny. "When it comes to his rudeness, I think that's something we're just going to have to overlook for now. One step at a time."

Bunnymund considered Jack for a long moment before nodding, "You might be right, the party did seem to intimidate him now that I think about it, but that's still no excuse for him to be a big jerk to us; that kind of behavior isn't acceptable, and I refuse ta let him treat me like that. Now if you wanna let him dog you out Jack, that's on your head, but just remember, it's hard to be a friend without mutual respect. But yeah, maybe in the future we'll make it just us guardians ta visit with, no big crowds. I do think Sandy is right though, we should have at least an hour or two a day that we check in on him to also get him used to us and get to know each other better."

"Oh, I agree," said Jack, smirking amusingly at Bunny. "If he gives me very much flack, I'll just call North or Sandy and let them deal with him."

North nodded in agreement with everyone. "Sounds good to me. We will all move to take these next steps. If Pitch does not come around then, I do not know what to do."

"Don't forget to show him the library." Tooth put in.

"Yes, I will do that." North replied.

Bunnymund smiled at Jack, "So are ya gonna go out there ta help Pitch train the reindeer then? Maybe him being able to impart something on someone over just being told what to do might do him some good, but ya better expect to get the full brunt of his ego if you do."

Sandy was looking to North giving a small shrug with a half frown.

"Yeah, I'll help him train the deer." Jack's smile turned into a smirk. He turned to Sandy. "You know, Sandy, I might need you to come with me for our first training. Just to show Pitch what will happen if he gives me any trouble."

Sandy smiled sheepishly before giving a delicate nod.

Bunnymund chuckled, "Hearin' how that turns out is gonna be entertaining I have a feeling."

Jack continued to smirk.

"Can I say something?" Tooth asked timidly, clearing her throat. North nodded. "I've been here thinking, and I feel like I need to say a few things before we continue on. Whatever we do to help Pitch, we all need to keep in mind that he, like us, is centuries old. He can't be expected to change quickly or easily. When we took on this job, we all got carried away at first and expected a little too much. We were counting on him changing in a matter of a few weeks, maybe months. But this is going to be a much bigger job and responsibility than we thought due to the fact that Pitch is very old and set in his ways. And since he's allowed the fear inside him to overtake and rule him for so long, it's even worse. We need to also keep in mind that we aren't just dealing with Pitch himself, but with the fearlings inside him. I know that some of it is just Pitch being Pitch, but we don't know what influence those things are having on him. If you want my opinion, I think Pitch has changed in some small ways since he's been here. It hasn't been a drastic change, but he has changed a little, in small bits. So it gives me some hope that we're headed in the right direction."

North sat silently, chewing on Tooth's words. Finally he nodded. "Yes, I think you do speak truth, Tooth."

Sandy also nodded in agreement as he looked among his fellow guardians.

Bunnymund looked a little abashed, "Well, uh I wouldn't really know since I haven't been around this week… still doing a lot of clean up from this past Easter and trying to get things going for next Spring and all." He scratched the back of his head, "I'll try ta make a more consorted effort ta be around and help in the future although being in close proximity with Pitch might drive me ta be a little cranky meself."

"Ha! Make you cranky? What about me?" North groused. "I think is safe to say Pitch has gotten under all our skins since he came here."

Bunnymund shook his head slowly in sympathy, "I don't envy you mate, I don't envy you one bit!"

Pitch had lay on his bed just thinking about the party now listening to the sounds from down the hall carry up to his room as he sighed resignedly. Perhaps he could have been a bit more civil to them; they did after all throw him a party. Why then did he have to ruin it by getting under North's skin? Yes, it had been amusing at the time… until it wasn't anymore, and then it had swiftly spiraled into… this, a pity party table of one. Pitch hated being all alone, but he constantly found himself right back where he started. The situation vexed him, and he wasn't sure how to change it and be happy.

A few hours went by, and the party seemed to die away and sounds of the normal hustle and bustle of the workshop resumed. Pitch turned glancing back to the broken figure on the night stand feeling determined to do what he'd originally planned to, if done right, North would never be the wiser that the figure had ever been broken. Pitch scooped the doll and all of his many fragments back up stuffing it into his robe and moved stealthily out of his room and down the opposite wing away from the main hall. He'd walked these halls now so many times, he was beginning to know them well.

Pitch continued down the hall making his way to the woodworking shop. It was relatively quiet comparatively to the normal noise level and busyness of the shop around this time, but Pitch supposed North gave the yetis the rest of the day off for the party, and the couple that milled about now were just workaholics. Good, they were better at this sort of thing than him anyway, "You there," one of the yetis that was gluing together a nutcracker doll peered over at Pitch now to see what he wanted. Pitch pulled the broken figure out of his robes thrusting it forward, "I need you to fix this."

The yeti blinked looking down at the broken splintered object curiously before harrumphing and grabbing a bottle of wood glue and setting it in front of Pitch before turning back to the doll he was already working on when Pitch walked up.

Pitch snarled, "Didn't you hear me? I need you to fix this; it's far more important than that thing you're playing with!"

The yeti looked back up at Pitch raising an eyebrow as he set the nutcracker doll down and held out his hand.

Relaxing a bit Pitch placed the figure in the hairy hand as the yeti pulled the pieces over to his work station and laid out the numerous fragments beginning the very slow process of gluing them back together. After about thirty minutes of watching and seeing the yeti was painstakingly slow and had only glued about a fourth of the parts back together, Pitch was beginning to get impatient as he grumbled tapping his foot, "Can't you pick up the pace? You do this all day don't you? One would think you'd be a little less slow at it."

"What is problem, Hector?" said North, walking out from behind a tall shelving unit full of teddy bears to stand beside the yeti. He caught sight of Pitch and stopped. "I thought I recognized familiar complaining."

Pitch jumped hearing the burly man's voice. Spinning around to face North, Pitch visibly paled quickly stepping between Hector and North, "I… I wasn't complaining! I… I was just watching Hector work is all." Why didn't he just take the glue and bring that stupid bauble back to his room to fix it himself! He cringed wishing to distract North as far away from the project as possible as he stuttered pointing behind North, "Wha-what have you got going on over there? Are you making something special?" Pitch tried to look curious and not guilty hoping to distract North away from seeing what Hector was working on.

"No, not making anything special. Was just putting these bears on shelf." North lifted an eyebrow and looked down at Pitch. "I do have to say, Pitch, that if you broke it, you should fix it, hm?"

Pitch seemed surprised by North's reply. Could he have known already that he'd thrown the figure against the wall splintering it to pieces in a rage? Of course not, he doubted North would be this calm if he did. He likely thought if anything that Pitch was just fixing something he accidently broke. The latter was much less condemning, but if North saw the shape the figure was in, he'd know immediately that it was no accident, so Pitch lied, "Uh, I'm not proficient with such things and was just interested in seeing how it was done is all."

"Pitch," North chuckled, shaking his head. "You forget who you are talking to. I deal with naughty and nice children all the time." he turned to look at Pitch. "I have a sense for these things. It is part of job. Do you think you can hide little thing like this from me?"

Pitch scowled not liking the comparison at all, "I'm not a child North, I wish you'd stop making references to me in such a way," he grumbled.

North raised an eyebrow. "You misunderstand, Pitch. I was not comparing you to child. I was merely saying that I have special sense of telling who has been naughty or nice. It does not matter what age person is. Though, in my business, it is usually children. But same sense also works on adults too, since all adults were once children."

"Oh… I see," Pitch blushed averting his gaze. That was awfully inconvenient he thought and would likely work against him if he ever did anything in the future he wished to keep to himself. "You… you're not mad then?" Pitch took a tentative glance up to look at North's face to see his expression.

"Why should I be mad?" North replied. "Accidents happen. Though, I trust that you be more careful from now on, yes?"

He didn't know! Pitch visibly relaxed feeling much better now that North believed it was an accident over purposeful intent. He smiled nodding his head vigorously, "Oh yes! Of course! Definitely more careful," he almost laughed in relief.

"And be sure to keep temper under control so accidents like this don't happen again." North added, eyeing Pitch.

Realizing North was on to him, Pitch paled letting out a nervous titter as he rocked back on his feet, "Uh… yes. It... I didn't mean to break it," he finally confessed looking away again. Admitting the fact sent another streak of embarrassment through him. He was glad North didn't call him out for lying in the first place thinking he should have probably just admitted breaking the figure to begin with. Pitch was comforted that the truth was actually out now though and North wasn't mad at him after all.

"You do know you could have just told me, right?" said North calmly.

Pitch grimaced thinking that he didn't wish to anger North and most definitely wasn't going to risk telling the man something that could bring down the man's potential wrath, but only shrugged, "I figured I'd just fix it and be done with the matter. No sense in bothering you right?"

North regarded Pitch a few moments, and then turned to leave the room, gesturing for Pitch to follow. "Come."

Pitch glanced back at Hector who was meticulously still fixing the figure before his eyes followed North whom was walking out the door. He hesitated a moment in indecision but finally moved to follow behind North curious as he asked, "Where are we going?"

North refused to answer Pitch's question and remained quiet as he led Pitch through a number of corridors. Finally he stopped in front of a door that was snugly placed in a quiet and secluded corner. Giving it a push, the door swung open. Stepping inside, North reached out and turned on a lamp that was placed on a side table near the door. The light illuminated rows upon rows of shelves, housing books of every size and color.

"This is the library." he said at last.

Pitch followed silently worried, but when they entered the library, his eyes widened at the large array of books that lined the multitude of shelves. His jaw dropped as he silently regarded the many tomes, "This… this is quite impressive."

He moved to the shelves as his eyes traversed the many titles seeing one that was titled 'The Golden Age,' his eyes softened as his fingers touched the binding, "This is very old indeed," he said almost sadly in remembrance of an age long gone.

"Yes, it is impressive." North smiled proudly. "There are some very old books in this part of Pole." he walked over and carefully lifted a book off one of the nearest shelves. "You are welcome to come here to peruse them any time you wish. Although, I do ask that you be careful with the more fragile ones."

"Of course; I will use the utmost care," Pitch stated as he moved closer to North to see the book he had pulled off of the shelf. It was one of the most famous Christmas tales that still circulated even in this day and age: A Christmas Carol. Of course Pitch had never actually read it for obvious reasons, but the book appeared to be an original copy by Charles Dickens. He had to smirk and roll his eyes wondering how many of these books centered on the big man's holiday. Pitch commented dryly, "So what is that one about? Let me guess, a dashing tale of how you save the day?"

North let out an amused laugh, turning to Pitch. "Not every Christmas book is about me, Pitch. There is far more to Christmas than old man pulling sleigh." he turned his eyes back to the book. "This particular book is about redemption." he turned to regard Pitch thoughtfully, imagining a chain wrapped around the nightmare king that would make even Jacob Marley's pale in comparison. "It's about ghosts, fear, darkness, and creepy stuff. You'd love it."

"Really?" Pitch seemed intrigued now as he looked at the book curiously, "Maybe I'll read it then just to see how those aspects could possibly relate to your holiday."

"I bet you didn't know that Christmas has darker side, did you?—or of old tradition of ghost stories at Christmas." North smiled as he took a book of old ghostly Christmas tales from the shelf and handed it to Pitch. "It seems you didn't die out with Dark Ages after all. The Victorians were quite intrigued with supernatural and invoking fear amongst themselves. It was an age of ghostly tales and stories and folklore."

"A darker side? What can possibly be dark about Christmas with all your feel goods and gift giving?" Pitch took the book looking at it with a scrutinizing stare.

"You'd be surprised," North mused as he walked around, examining the book titles. "Unfortunately, not everyone has happy Christmas. There can be sadness and gloom even at Christmas. But the world is curious place sometimes. People feel need for thrill and adrenaline rush, regardless of time or place. Something I can appreciate, but why they choose to scare each other, I do not know. But there is something about ghost stories that continues to thrill and entertain the human race, even at a joyful time such as Christmas."

Pitch stood up straighter; he did know the answer to this and was more than happy to expound upon the merits of fear, "Scaring someone to get a thrill of fear is exciting; it can make you feel more alive and vivacious then some of the other mundane emotions you feel in every day to day encounters." Pitch smirked, "It's definitely less boring if you ask me."

"Does it, Pitch? Or does it just give you the feeling of power over another?"

North's remark soured Pitch's good mood on the subject as he growled, "Not everything that fear deals in has to be about a power exchange. I was actually speaking of the person being scared not just the person doing the scaring, but if you must know, I do miss the rush of feeling a surge of terror ride up a child's spine when I put a flash of fear through them that makes them want to run and hide." He of course said this last bit just to make North feel uncomfortable.

North ignored him as he continued to scan the book titles on the other side of the shelving unit. He knew that Pitch had a penchant for rambling, especially when it came to using words to try and strike fear into people.

"I'm surprised you would say such a thing." North said at last, his voice sounding preoccupied. "As I recall, you seemed to experience a lot of fear yourself when you were confined to the hole. Tell me something. Do you really get that much pleasure out of scaring people when you yourself know what it feels like to be frightened?"

Pitch opened his mouth to say something before looking down at the books in his hands as he scowled, "It's a little different in that hole don't you think? When there, it's an almost unending fear. I'm only extracting a small thrill of fear prolonged for no more than a few minutes. That's harmless comparatively." In truth, Pitch didn't like to feel afraid, more than half of his existence felt like it was spent in a dichotomy of the struggle between giving fear and being consumed by it. But he needed that feeling of power that surged through him whenever he did reciprocate fear on another. It made him feel just a little less afraid himself.

"Ah! There you are." North suddenly said, apparently finding the book he had been searching for. He felt like he needed to say something else to Pitch, but at the same time he knew that if he continued he would only anger the man further. "I hope you enjoy the library." he said, now addressing Pitch. "I've been so busy lately that I've forgotten what a cozy feel this place has. I need to get back to spending more time here."

Smiling Pitch nodded, "Oh I'm sure there are many wonders to discover here," he was of course curious to see what North had been looking for in particular and strained to look at the cover now. Later he would come back when he was alone to peruse the books and see if any of them happened to be spell books. He knew North had to have a stash of them somewhere to exploit.

North walked to the door. "I will leave you now, then. Need to get some sleep. Some of yetis and I have inventory to do tomorrow." With a yawn, North waved 'good night' to Pitch and disappeared through the door, leaving it open.

Pitch watched North go listening carefully for his footfalls echoing down the corridor before turning back to the massive rows upon rows of books, the task before him seemed daunting. He sighed tiredly remembering how long it had taken going through the substantial stack of Toothiana's tooth casings to find Jack's teeth. So it would be a needle in a haystack, but what else did he have to do with his night? The sun had just set, so he had plenty of time to himself now Pitch thought as he set the books North had given him down on the table to begin scouring the titles.

After twelve hours of frantically searching for any trace of magic within the myriad of shelves, Pitch was on the verge of throwing in the towel; that was until while he was perusing through one of the back shelves, his hip bumped a peculiar desk, and he heard the sound of a latch unclick. Curious to where the sound came from, Pitch's attention was drawn to the desk. It had a roll top lid drawn down over the front of it as an obvious note of being private. This of course did nothing to deter Pitch as he pulled at the now unlocked lid to roll it up. Inside were several loose pieces of parchment in an ancient language Pitch hadn't seen in over five hundred years. Intrigued, he carefully thumbed through the pages doing his best to read what he could make out from the faded pages. Oh there was definitely magic here! He smiled greedily. It would take many more hours that he didn't have at the moment to decipher the dead language, but he was more than sure whatever he did find here would at least prove to be interesting if not useful.

Gathering up all the pages into a neat stack, Pitch pulled the roll top back down carefully and quietly made his way back towards the front of the library peeking around the corner carefully to make sure no one was around to see him with the pages before he swung back by the desk to grab the books North had originally given him stuffing the pages in between them and scurrying back to his room.

A thrill of excitement went through Pitch thinking he'd found something here he otherwise wouldn't have had access to before. To be a being as old as Pitch and have the prospect of truly learning something new that he found of interest was a rare occurrence, and the added fact that it came from a locked desk meant it was forbidden fruit which only served to make the prize that much more enticing.

Pitch would of course have to tend to the reindeer before he had the opportunity to even begin looking over the pages, and as much as Pitch enjoyed spending time with the reindeer, today he wished he didn't have to. No matter; he'd rush through his chores and hurry back to his room he thought.

Finally after making his way down the many hallways that led from the library, Pitch had made it back to his room and started looking about for a place to stash the pages away. It wouldn't do to have North find them and most likely take them away from him especially after he'd worked so hard to find them in the first place! Searching about, Pitch finally found the perfect spot. There was a layer of wood placed on the back of the dresser's mirror, and Pitch found he could jimmy the backing off to which he lined the many pages and sealed it back once again. He cringed slightly as he did so, mentally seeing North's disapproving glare for treating the pages so recklessly. Not that it mattered as the man was never going to find out he had the pages in the first place Pitch reassured himself.

Giving the back of the mirror a thorough once over, Pitch was satisfied that there looked to be no tampering and no sign of any of the pages sticking out. Smiling Pitch made his way to the reindeer stalls rushing about as quickly as he could to finish all the necessary work, and much to the disappointment of the reindeer, Pitch cut their roaming time in half only brushing them for as long as it took for them to get done eating and drinking. He was too excited to get back to his new discovery and figured they could get the express treatment for one day. He made a silent promise to the reindeer that he'd make it up to them tomorrow.

Having finally loaded the last reindeer back in its stall, Pitch strode back towards his room wearing a cocky smile. He felt he'd finally managed to get a small win here at the Pole. As much as had been taken from him, he was finally able to take something back.