Sorry this took so long, but I'm distracted with final projects and other school work. Anyway, this is my longest chapter in a while so I hope you enjoy it.
I couldn't help but shake, I mean it was involuntary. I was freaked out that Pitch could get inside my head and that he knew everything that completely terrified me. I looked around and Jack wasn't anywhere to be seen; I was afraid it was another nightmare.
'Mini-me, come in Mini-me,' I said in my head.
'What is it?' she replied back.
'Where were you when I needed you?'
'When was that?'
'I don't know. Why didn't you help me in my nightmare?'
'Oh that. A section of your mind was closed off, I couldn't get to you.'
'He's thought of everything," I thought to myself.
'Who?' I changed the subject.
'You should know that you're no longer a complete secret. Someone knows about you.'
'Really, who?'
'Pitch black.'
'Pitch black! He knows I'm around?! How do you know?'
'In the nightmare he mentioned 'my little friend' after he already mentioned Jack. I'm pretty sure he was talking about you, although I'm not sure if I would consider us friends.'
'Yeah,' she said. 'I'm only really helping you for myself. You made me, if anything happens to you, something will happen to me. I don't think I like you at all, really."
'Thanks Inner-thoughts,' I thought sarcastically. If my inner thoughts don't like me, maybe I am really bad. Of course, even if Pitch does know all my secrets, my feelings for him haven't changed; I still don't like him.
'Anyway, I have a new job for you to do.'
'What is it?'
'Pitch said in my nightmare that the reason I was having it was because during our most recent attack when I blew apart that sand army, one tiny grain of black sand lodged itself in my eye. This will cause me to get drowsy, fall asleep, and have nightmares. I don't know exactly why he wants me to have nightmares, is it to prove a point, get in my head, make him more powerful, all of the above. Anyway, I want you to destroy the sand grain.'
'How will I do that?' I made miniatures of my weapons appear in my hand.
'I'll give you some weapons.' I shoved them in my ear and rattled my head around a bit to make sure she got them.
'Did you get them?'
'Yes, but did you really have to rattle your head?'
'Yes,' I thought blankly. 'Now get to work.' I really didn't want another nightmare.
I stayed where I was. It was better if Jack found me, if we tried to find each other it would be it would be too complicated. I had no idea where Jack was. I don't know how long I sat there, 5-10 minutes maybe, but it was too long. Jack showed up right after. I felt immediately relieved.
"Ema," he said. "You're alright."
"Of course I'm alright."
"You had me worried there for a moment."
"You shouldn't have been," I fibbed. I don't know how he would have felt about my predicament, but I didn't want him to worry.
"Really, I mean I thought you were having a nightmare."
"I wasn't," I lied, holding all my tells back.
"Your eyes were closed; you wouldn't open them when I said anything. You were tossing and turning, and crying."
"I'm in pain. I was resting, in stasis trying to recover. I was tossing and turning because I was trying to get comfortable and I was crying because of my pain." I was holding back my tells.
"Are you still in pain," Jack asked, concerned.
"I'm better now," I said still lying and hiding my tells.
"Well, I'm glad you're alright." Was he that bad in telling if I was lying without my tells? "You should know, you can tell me anything and I won't judge you." Maybe not.
"I'm fine," I lied again.
"Okay, are you fine enough to see the groundhog? He came back a little while ago. I was just patrolling the area making sure no nightmares lingered, because I knew you wouldn't want me going without you."
"Let's see him then, I want my memories back," I said jumping to my feet. We went to the groundhog's hole, and knocked on the door. Then I had a shocking realization.
"Maybe this isn't a good idea," I said suddenly.
"Why not?"
"The groundhog doesn't like me; I'm one of the people who scare him."
"Please," Jack laughed. "If he stayed away from everyone who scared him he would be the loneliest thing on earth." I laughed. Just then the door opened and the groundhog was there, smiling?
"Ema, Jack, so happy to see you!" Something about what he said was off. How could he be happy to see us? Jack and I looked at each, with both of us having no idea what was going on.
"I have something I made, just for you two," he said. Where was I when we became B.F.F's with the groundhog? The groundhog, after going into his hole, came out again with a trolley full of cupcakes, plain cake, and other pastries. I let out a squeal of joy, and went to go grab the tray of cupcakes. Jack had to hold me back.
"What's going on groundhog," asked Jack. "Why are you being so dangerously nice?"
"Can't I just be nice for the sake of being nice?"
"Well, with the amount of the times we both scared you, no." I was still trying to grab the sweets.
"Can you please put the sweets away? You know as well as anyone that she can't have sugar."
"Jack, please," I pleaded. "I won't go out of control, I won't go crazy, I promise."
"Ema, you're almost going crazy and losing control with sweets just in your presence, so I'm saying no."
"Aww," I groaned as the groundhog put the sweets away. When the groundhog came back out jack asked again, "So why are you being so nice?" The groundhog sighed and took a seat in front of us.
"I'm afraid I have something to tell you."
"Tell us," I ushered. The groundhog sighed again.
"Ema, I understand that your memories are missing. I know of your quest to find them, and it's what brought you here." I waited patiently to hear what he had to say next, at the same time I was on the edge of my seat.
"It's true I did have your memories…"
"You said 'did'," I said, piecing it together.
"Yes, I don't have them anymore." I clenched my fists and started to turn red. Why were my memories so hard to hold onto? People are being careless, it's almost like they…don't…care…about…me. 'Snap out of it' a voice in my head said. Right, it's just what Pitch wants.
"How'd you lose them," asked Jack.
"Well, when I got them from the leprechauns, I thought it was just a gold canister and I didn't know what to do with it, so I just kept it in the back of my hole."
"How is it that easy to mix up," I asked through clenched teeth. "Tooth boxes are pretty recognizable." I was starting to steam.
"It was 25 years ago, after the fiasco with Pitch; I realized it was a tooth box."
"It took you 25 years to figure that out," I said irritated. Steam came out of my ears.
"Look at the bright side, Ema," pleaded Jack. "It's a good thing he had them, otherwise Pitch would've had them."
"It would have been better if Pitch had them, because then I would've gotten my memories back!" Why'd I say that!? "I mean the tooth fairies would've known where they were and I would have gotten my memories back earlier instead of searching on this wild goose chase for them now," I said nervously, calming down a little. They looked at me a little confused.
"Anyway," said the groundhog. "After realization, I didn't want to keep a little girl's memories away from her."
"You didn't know they were mine?" I asked irritated.
"No I did not, I am old, therefore not a good reader. Also, the girl didn't look like you."
"What did she look like," I asked desperately. The groundhog thought for a bit.
"She was…blonde…with blue eyes." So I was blonde, with blue eyes, those are two newly discovered attributes of my past self I had never known before.
"Continue," said Jack.
"Well, after I realized they were teeth, I went to go return them to the tooth fairy. I didn't want to travel to India, so I was hoping I would just find a tooth fairy in the middle of her work so she could inform the tooth fairy about my discovery. Of course, it was Halloween when I decided to head out. I ran into the demons, and me being easily scared, dropped them and ran back to my hole. When I went to find them the next day, they weren't there." After that I burst into flames.
"I am so sorry, Ema, that I lost your memories." I grabbed him just then.
"You COWARD! You lost my memories you IDIOT!"
"Ema, he said he was sorry," reasoned Jack.
"HE IS NOT SORRY! HE DOESN'T CARE ABOUT ME! HE DOESN'T CARE IF I DON'T HAVE MY MEMORIES!! I BET HE WANTS ME TO BE MISERABLE AS PAYBACK FOR ALL THE TIMES I SCARED HIM!" After that I dropped the groundhog. I then flew to a remote part of the woods. There I shifted from red to blue, flames to rain, and started to cry.
Ah, I always feel sorry for my characters, but I guess that's good. As a writer you want to make the pity believable and not just plain cheesy. Tell me what me what you think of this chapter in reviews.
