This is a shorter chapter, more of a final glimpse at Chaya's normal life, tying in a few foreshadows, but I promise there is more to come, the next chapter is longer and a lot more happens. Stay tuned!

Disclaimer: I do not own Rise of The Guardians

Chaya lay in bed, a book on her lap, with the lamp on. Her eyes were riveted to the pages and the story unfolded in her mind. This was one of the many books that she was behind in for school. With her afternoon job and picking up Joey from school, Chaya had had to leave school earlier then usually and even though she only had four classes, she found it hard to keep up with it all. She hoped to finish this book by the next day. Grade eleven was proving to be much more demanding then grade ten, but she was coping as best she could.

Out in the living room, Da and Joey were curled up together on the couch. It was a ritual of theirs to read an hour before Joey went to bed. It provided their son and father bonding time. Having taken an extra shift at the paper mill, Stoke would not arrive home until late that night, when Chaya and Joey would be asleep. He didn't do it very often, only when they had an upcoming bill that needed to be paid. Chaya couldn't remember what bill was approaching due date, but she had no doubt that her brother would be prepared with the money when it did.

Shaking herself, Chaya returned her thoughts to her book. The story was fictional and quite lengthy and frankly, in her opinion, quite boring. The books title was The Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and although she had heard the name several times, she had never read any of the man's books. The story was interesting and there was a good deal of drama, but the style of the book was too explanatory for Chaya and the pages were packed full of information that she found herself skipping over most of the paragraphs until she reached the conversational part of the chapter. Although she tried to take as much as the book in as she could; she had to make a report on it by the following week, she found it quite hard and extremely overwhelming. Finally, frustrated with her lack of focus, she threw the book down and sprawled out on her bed, exasperated.

"I'll never finish this book,"

Sighing, she got up and stepped over Stoke's bed to the window. The snow was falling softly and it glittered in the moonlight, which shone into the room. Chaya's jet black hair was caught in the radiant glow and looked almost silver. Looking over her shoulder to make sure no one was watching, Chaya gently opened the window and stepped out onto the frozen dunes of snow built up around the little house. Wrapping her thin sweater tighter around her shoulders, Chaya looked up at the moon. Above all things, it was her favourite source of light. The moon had a certain cold and mysterious air about that spoke deeply to Chaya. It had always been the thing that inspired her when she needed it and it never left her during the night, not even the clouds could keep it from her for long. Smiling, Chaya closed her eyes and bathed in the white light that illuminated everything around her.

"Chaya!"

Chaya started and turned around. Her father was calling her from the living room. Looking once more at the moon, Chaya climbed back in through the window and closed it as quietly as she could and sprinted out the room. Joey was fast asleep, curled up beside his father, who smiled down at him. Chaya cleared her throat and her father looked up.

"You better put him to bed,"

Chaya nodded. She leaned down to pick up her brother and her father brushed her hair gently with his free hand. He held her there for a second before she straightened again and picked up Joey gently in her arms. He stirred for a moment before setting his head on her shoulder and curling up in the crook of her arm.

"Goodnight, Da," Chaya whispered as she disappeared into her own room.

"Goodnight, Chaya,"

Just as Chaya put her brother down on the bed and pulled the covers over him, Joey's eyes flew open.

"Can you tell me a story?"

Chaya put her hands on her hips, mocking surprise.

"I thought you were asleep.

Joey shrugged, sitting up, his wavy brown hair falling into his eyes. He brushed it away casually and stared pitifully at his sister. Sighing, Chaya sat down next to him.

"Okay one story, but after that you have to go to sleep,"

Joey nodded vigorously and settled back down among the sheets. Settling down next to him, Chaya, tapped her chin, pretending to choose a story from the many that Joey had already heard. She finally decided on one. Propping her head up on her arm, she looked down at Joey as she spoke.

"Once upon a time, the bogey man captured the North Pole and all its people in a spell of fear,"

Joey's eyes widened and he gripped the sheets tighter.

"Santa and all his elves were caught in the spell and they could do nothing but fear everything, especially the bogey man, for he was fear. His fear as so powerful that even Santa could do nothing to break his spell,"

It was two minutes into the story and Joey was completely captivated, his eyes rivet on his sister and his hands gone white with the death grip he had on his blankets.

"But the bogey man had a secret. He had a secret fear. He feared light, so he cast a dark shadow over the Pole and it was cast into a eternal night. You could not see your hands in front of your face it was so dark,"

"So how did the elves make the toys?" Joey asked, genuinely concerned.

"Well it looked as if Christmas would have to be cancelled that year because they couldn't see to make the toys,"

Joey gasped.

"It was the season of Christmas and still the North Pole was under the bogey man's spell. But finally Santa had an idea,"

"What was it?" Joey watched his sister excitedly.

Chaya pointed dramatically to the window.

"He called Jack Frost and he swept into the Pole and lifted the spell!"

Joey gasped again.

"How did he do that?"

Chaya tapped her nose knowingly.

"He brought the light with him and the bogey man was afraid and the spell broke. You see if you believe in his fear, you can never defeat him. But if you know it isn't real and you make him fear, you can lift his spell,"

Joey was spell bound as Chaya tucked the sheets around him.

"Okay, now its time to go to sleep,"

Joey yawned and turned over and soon he was fast asleep. Shaking her head, Chaya settled down in her bed. But she couldn't sleep. Turning over, she watched the glow of the moon shine through the window until it dazzled her eyes and closing them, she herself was soon fast asleep.

Deep down in the ground, so deep that not even the moon had touched it's surface, lay an underground labyrinth. There was no light and nothing could penetrate the layers of darkness covering the slimy wet rocks that shaped together in no particular order. There were tunnels, caves, passages leading up and passages plummeting straight down. Twists and turns that would drive a wanderer insane. If you were so unfortunate as to find yourself in those tunnels, you would be lucky to find your way out again. That is to say if you were brave enough to keep on the deathly cold paths of the underground maze.

If you were to follow the drafts of the wind, the slight currents that only the ones listening could hear, you may be able to find your way to a chasm. Many of the tunnels lead to what some would call the heart of the underground realm. It was a wide open space, miles high and miles to the drop below, but in the middle was a flat, wide platform-like structure, made of solid granite stone. It looked almost like a table, as if carved for that very purpose, but this table was home to something very different. On it, lay the figure of a body; covered over completely by a thin black veil, which reached down over the pillar as if to touch the floor far, far below. The figure was draped so as to distort it's rigid figure.

Standing over this table of death, you would be able to distinguish broad shoulders, a wide built chest, a slim waist reaching down to long, powerful legs. And if you were to look even closer, so that your face was but inches from it's own, you would even be able to see the liquid golden eyes staring straight back at you through the black veil.

The figure was alive, as if it had awoken for a very long sleep. The sleep-like death was over.

Pitch Black was living once again.

Once again, let me know what you're thinking, I really would love to hear some opinions!