I'm back everybody. I just love cliffhangers. Anyways, last we left off, Ema was cornered...again. Why do I keep doing this to you? Well mainly because it's fun. I'm back in university and focused on learning about love and how it's written. Well don't tell Ema that...well as long as its not Eros she'll be fine. I also want to try meeting up with people again, it's been too long. Here's some advice, go out and see the people you care about. Of course, while you're here, you might as well enjoy the chapter.
"I wouldn't count on it," I breathed out as I grinned.
"Oh so confident," said Pitch. "Once I get rid of you, I'll go after your little believers, Jack, the entirety of Berwick, and then the rest of the guardians. This world will face an era of fear once again."
"I'd freeze if I were you," I said as I turned my hair white, and my skin to the colour of pale iciness. This confused him. Ice rippled through the sand walls around us, shattering the entire structure. Jack then came flying in, toppling Pitch off his sandy high horse. Jack landed next to me as I applauded him.
"Expertly done, Jack Frost; how are the kids?"
"Last I checked they were making sandcastles and glass sculptures out of those nightmares."
"Impressive, couldn't have done it better myself." I turned my attention towards Pitch.
"What was that you were telling me Pitch, about how the world would face an era of fear once more? Those kids don't seem to be afraid of you at all. If I'm right, soon the whole town won't be either."
"Looks like your resurgence has come to an end, Pitch," said Jack.
"To think I used to be so scared of him, but to be fair he was quite intimidating when he showed up. You always make such a big entrance that we forget that at the end of the day you're still the same old boogeyman with the same old tricks. That just settles it then…"
"Settles what?"
"There is no way you will ever win. Fear may have a large presence, but it is so easily defeated. All you need is a friend to help you through it all," I said taking Jack's hand in my own.
"You realize that, don't you," said Jack. "Ema just needed her friends to be on top of things. That's why you tried to make her alone; that's why you tried to make her scared of her friends, scared of herself." Jack gave me a kind look. "Ema has nothing to be afraid of." I glowed a little at that.
"How sentimental," said Pitch, sneering. "Almost makes me want to rip you apart. You know what, I think I'll just do that." Another wall of sand appeared, encircling us like a tornado. Jack readied his staff, and took out a sword and dagger. We nodded towards each other. Jack started unleashing his Ice at the sand. I sheathed the sword and dagger and took out my bow and arrow. I began shooting at the tornado.
"So what if I can't crush you both, I might as well just destroy you. Or maybe you can destroy yourselves."
"What the heck do you mean?" I shouted as I launched a sword at the tornado. Every gap we made had more sand just come in.
"You inspired me, Ema. You say I lack creativity, well," he chuckled. "I think you might just be proud of me for this one."
"Like I would be proud of anything you come up with." I tried firing a bunch of projectiles towards the top of the tornado, but every time we attacked it, it closed in on us.
"Maybe not, but would you be proud of what you come up with?" What. That made the both of us pause. A small part of the tornado opened up so we could peek outside.
"Feast your eyes, Jack, Ema, on well, my Jacks and Emas." Nightmares, but they were not horses. They were copies of us. Sandy Emas with glowing eyes, wielding swords, daggers, bows and arrows, some of them even had weapons for limbs. Jacks were all jagged like icicles. The Emas were obviously more impressive. They had horns and toothy fang filled maws, each copy was horrifying.
"This battle will never end and you two will be the ones to keep it going. Every attack against me, against my attacks, will create another enemy for you to go up against. This battle will continue to get more difficult, and all thanks to you."
Jack tried to freeze around the hole to crumple it to a larger size so we could escape. The crumbled sand didn't tumble away powerless, instead it clumped together like frozen building blocks forming another Jack.
"We're giving him more fire power!" I smacked Jack's staff. I didn't even know that Pitch could do that. Dang it, I was impressed.
"Well played Pitch," I said. "Of course, these are probably easy to beat as well. They're just sand after all."
"True," said Pitch. "However, they are not just sand, its nightmare sand. One wrong slip-up and your little believers will be facing their worst nightmares. Also, how easy would it be to fight something that looks like their protectors?" I imagined it so it showed up as little images outside my head. I was face to face with an evil North, an evil Bunny, an evil mother nature…an evil Jack. If it is shaped like them, I might not be aware at first it's not them; even if I realized it, I still might hesitate in attacking it. I popped Mini-me out of my ear and threw her outside the tornado before it closed.
"Be careful and keep an eye on things for us."
"Can do," called out Mini me.
"We're not getting out of this anytime soon," I told Jack.
"We have to try," said Jack. "Our friends are out there against these new nightmares."
"But we're trapped, and if we try to escape we just make more."
"He's not just going to keep us in here, Ema!"
I looked up at the tornado. "Are you?"
"Where would be the fun in that?" said Pitch coldly. Out of the walls of the tornado, nightmarish horses started coming out of them; as soon as they were free they ran towards us. We could fly around the tornado all we wanted but they would still chase after us. I managed to hold a couple off with a sword I split in two.
"You have us in quite the predicament, Pitch. No matter what we do, we're fighting you. Here I thought you didn't want to fight." With two quick movements I slashed the nightmares apart. The sand then reformed to make two separate Ema's one who wielded twin blades and one who had swords for arms as well as razor sharp fangs. The dual wielder gave me a wicked grin as she flew out of the tornado, waving goodbye.
"No!" I cried. I saw Jack defending himself with Ice, but each blast made a nightmare Jack.
"Yes, I don't want us to fight. It'd be easier if you surrendered, sure the nightmares would have you and the fun would be over, but it would be so much easier for me."
I slammed my fist against the wall of black sand. It enveloped my hand making a nightmarish version of my hand to go attack the kids. All that was left was to pull my own hair out.
"Did I forget to mention that alongside these new nightmares, your friends will also have to deal with the old ones? How will they deal with both is the question to ask?"
Another cliffhanger! Will they ever get back on that cliff? Let's wait until after the climax and see. Until then, I like making them struggle. Until I write the next one, be sure you stay tuned!
