"I'm sorry...WHAT?!" I yelled, looking at them all with surprise. "How could that be?!"
"We're not sure," He said. "But, he's planning something. I can feel it...in my belly." He jiggled his belly, making me roll my eyes as I looked over at the others. Bunny was just painting an egg, ignoring the phrase North coined every time he felt something was off in the world. Tooth was still busying herself with her fairies and ordering them to go out in the world to collect more teeth and memories. And Sandy...was still asleep.
Huh...usually he woke up whenever I walked into the room.
"Sandy!" I yelled, making him stumble awake. Once he regained his balance on the floor, he glared up at me, making me shrug. "Hey, sorry. You were asleep for too long." He sighed, though silently before making a couple of images above him, trying his best to say he was sorry. After all these years, I kind of had an idea of what this little guy was trying to say nowadays.
"Do you think Pitch is returning?" I asked, brushing off that previous encounter when Bunny scoffed.
"Pitch Black is in his little hole of despair," Bunny said, which caused Tooth to stop what she was doing. "He's not coming back."
"You can't be too sure, Bunny," Tooth finally said. "Halloween isn't that far away. Maybe the fear of Halloween is making Pitch stronger again."
"Maybe," North said, stroking his beard for a moment before the light of the moon shined through the opening in the ceiling. "Man in Moon! Welcome!" The light ignored North's bellow and continued to make a shadow of Pitch on the floor. It then shifted to show a cemetery and a gravestone, no name.
"What is Pitch planning?" Bunny asked confused before getting jolted as a blue crystal rose up from the ground.
"Uh, what's that?" I asked, making Bunny's eyes fold down behind his head.
"The Guardian Crystal!" Tooth exclaimed. "Manny chose a new Guardian!"
"What?!" Surprise etched my face as I watched the crystal rise further up, while blue tendrils and light shimmered above it. It slowly twirled and twisted into an image, and I could hear Bunny muttering for the new Guardian NOT to be the Groundhog (I wonder why). But to everyone's surprise, it shifted into an image of a girl with what looked to be two different kinds of hair colors, couldn't tell you the colors though since it was all different shades of blue. She was also smiling at us, while sitting on a broomstick in a black mini-dress that has some patches on it and a longer corset dress with it opened in the front. She had her black holed tights covered legs crossed, and for some reason...I couldn't stop staring at her eyes. They were calm, beautiful even, and the beauty mark by the bottom corner of her right eye just gave her a beauty I couldn't place.
"Spectra Webb?!" Bunny and Tooth yelled simultaneously.
"Who?" I asked, confused. "Who's Spectra Webb?"
"She's like Pitch! Causes fear around the world!" Bunny said, getting ready to add more when North gave him a look, his way of saying to stick a carrot in his mouth. And surprisingly, Bunny did shut up.
"Spectra is not like Pitch!" North said. "If anything, she's a little like Jack!"
"How?" I asked.
"She's all about making her holiday "fun", like how you make winter," North explained, a grin on his face. I nodded in understanding, thinking that whoever she was the spirit of, I could see it being fun. But, she held a regal elegance about herself, one of a princess, or a queen. And she held a friendly glint in her eyes.
"But she causes fear, North!" Bunny exclaimed.
"And she's nothing like us!" Tooth added, making me look at her with surprise. She usually was one to accept anyone that Man in the Moon chose. She immediately accepted me. Why was Spectra different?
"How is she nothing like us?" I asked. "I mean, if she'll help protect the children, then what's wrong?"
...
Trust me, I surprised myself with what I said, but I had a point and Tooth could see that. But Bunny...
"She's just different, Jack!" Bunny said, grimacing at the idea of someone like Spectra entering the group. "She's immature, selfish, and..."
"...a Guardian," North said.
"Spectra Webb is many things, but she is no Guardian," Bunny retorted.
"Funny," I said, giving me a look, "you said the same thing about me."
"Oh, you're different, Frostbite! You've proven yourself!"
"Then let her prove herself!" I explained, making Bunny shut up and stare. "Everyone deserves a chance to prove themselves." He took a breath, stiffly might I add, and grunted as he crossed his arms. He hated to admit it, and he never did, but I could see in his gestures and body language that he knew I was right. He dropped the argument after that and I looked at North. "So, how do we find her?"
"I say we do what we did to find you, Jack!" North exclaimed, making me immediately shake my head no.
"No, North! As much as I loved that," I began sarcastically, "I think she'll find that a tad bit invasive." North grumbled as he agreed and then gave me a sly smiled look. "What?"
"She's in Burgess," North said. "And you go there all the time."
"Yeah, because Jamie and his friends are there. So?" I asked...and then it hit. He's sending me to go find her.
"She lives in an abandoned house on the outskirts of town," North continued. "You can't miss it. It's by a cemetery." I gave him a look. "She's your age, Jack! She'll listen to you!"
"Fine. I'll go. But I have one question," I said. "What holiday does she represent?"
"You'd think that cemetery would give that away," Bunny mumbled and I shot him a glance before truly letting that comment sink in. She lives near a cemetery, in an abandoned house on the edge of town, and possibly rides a broomstick.
...
Wait...
"Don't tell me..." I spoke up. "She's..."
"That's right," Tooth sighed. "She's the Spirit of Halloween."
