A few days after the debacle I'd hoped was a party, I stopped by Sam's house while the twins spent the day having lessons in Santoff Claussen. I hadn't heard from Jack yet as to when he wanted to meet his great grand-daddy but I knew he actually wanted to. I could tell by how he clutched the note for dear life as he left the Treehouse after everything had calmed down. Aldebaran hadn't left the guest house since his outburst. I don't know if it was because he was still fuming or if it was because he felt bad about how he'd acted. I was personally hoping it was because he was scared of my threat of kicking him out. Maybe that'll keep him in line. I now understood all too well how Sel felt when I'd moved out.

I knocked on Sam's door and he greeted me with his normal grin. "Hey! What's up?" He moved out of the way and let me inside. A few of the kids were running around in the sunshine that was summer in Massachusetts and a handful saw me as I entered the house. They waved at Sam and me, looking like they wanted to come and play but the wards on Sam's house were strong enough that anyone who wasn't Immortal - and had never been there before - couldn't get inside very easily. Sort of the same way my ground floor door was disguised.

I dropped my bag on his coffee table when I got into the living room. "I brought your stuff."

"Thanks." He shot me a smile before coming over to grab his things from me as I all but up-ended my bag. "Hey, I'm sorry for blowing up the other night." He caught my eye, wincing as he did. "I didn't mean to ruin everything."

"Oh, no, you're fine." I pulled the last board game out of my duffel bag and set it on the table. "Aldebaran, however, is on guest house arrest until he deigns to apologize."

Sam sort of growled slightly. "I'd have kicked him out then and there."

"I almost did." I eyed him out of my peripherals. "But you already knew that." He winced again. "Jack told me that the two of you heard me chew him out." I straightened up. "Thank you, for standing up for me."

Sam stood up after placing the last game in its place. "You're my friend, Story, I wasn't about to let some stranger drag you through that hell again."

"I can defend myself -"

"I know what you told Jack and me." He locked eyes with me. "He wasn't there when you first got here. He didn't see your face, I did." He took a breath and looked down. "You weren't... It was like you were a zombie. You were moving and alive technically, but you weren't alive and you sure as hell weren't handling things." He looked up again and I saw a twinge of fear in his eyes. "I didn't know what happened but you looked like a ghost." He gestured to the couch weakly. "Then you broke down crying and I just... I got scared. I knew something bad happened but I couldn't help you and you obviously needed it." He took a breath. "I felt helpless and useless and the fact that it's five years later and I didn't do anything to help you get through this doesn't make me feel any better."

In an instant, he went from guilty to pissed again. "And then that pompous idiot and his sister show up out of nowhere and it's like they're this magic cure that brought you back from whatever abyss you disappeared to when you lost Caeden. And I met him and he looked at me like I was as insignificant as a gnat. It's selfish that it bugged me so much and I'm not proud of reacting the way I did, but it happened..." He looked me in the eye again. "And I'm sorry. I shouldn't have put you in a position where you had to douse the flames on my behalf."

I stared at him, mouth gaping for a moment. No one but Sam makes us speechless, huh? Oh, shut up, would you? "It's... alright. You're my friend. I'm not about to let someone with a holier than thou attitude start calling the shots on my watch." I gave him a sincere smile, trying to get across how grateful I was for him. "And if it's any consolation, you're one of the reasons I handled everything as well as I did." I shrugged a little, running my hand over the armrest of the couch. "You were there for me when I didn't want to be alone. You let me do what I needed to do in order to be me again. That alone should tell you that you did something right." I looked over at him, seeing that I had his full attention. "You're one of my best friends for a reason, Sam."

We gave each other smiles for a moment and then I moved to sit down and hang out for a bit until I had to go and get the twins later. Just as my butt was about to hit the seat, a sharp sting shot through me. From Sam's grunt, I knew he felt it too. "What was that?!" I rubbed at my chest, trying to get rid of the feeling almost like I had heartburn.

Sam grimaced and rolled his shoulders. "I'm not sure..." He shook his head a little. "It almost felt like losing a believer, but..." He looked as bewildered as that assumption made me feel. The last time losing someone had felt like that was the first believer. Once you hit fifty or more on a regular basis it was more like an inconvenience. Once you got to Guardian level it was barely even noticeable. This was a sharper pain that losing the first believer had felt like - even worse than the sick-to-my-stomach feeling when Caeden and Tanya had stopped believing in me.

Who could it be? If it was happening to both of us then it had to be a believer we had in common - and no one in Salem was that important. Not to say the kids weren't important to us, but you know what I mean. So who else do we have in common... My eyes widened and I sat up straight. "Oh no..."

"What?" His face went from bewildered to concerned. On my end, a chill ran down my spine. I stood up and grabbed my bag off the floor. "What is it?"

I paused for a second. "I really hope it's not what I think it is, but I have a hunch..." I looked out the window and saw a bunch of kids playing around the fountain, my mind going back to the first time I'd seen Jack in Burgess, playing by the Founder statue with the kids and Jamie. "I have to go check it out. After I confirm or - hopefully - deny my suspicions, I'll send you a letter, but..." I looked back at him. "If it's who I think it is then you're probably gonna have to meet me at Jacks place by tomorrow." I opened the door and before I was even off his front step, my wings were there and I was taking off.

During the ten-minute flight, I hoped that I was wrong. I really, really hoped I was. Hell, I prayed. When I reached Burgess, The first place I went was Jamie's house. He was still living in his childhood house, his parents having left it to him when they retired to Florida. I flew past his bedroom window and saw that he wasn't there, then I walked around the first floor, seeing if he was inside... when I was sure he wasn't home, I wandered around until I found one of my believers. "Kari!" I waved at her and she ran over to me. She was eight years old and bound to know something - also she lived three doors down.

"Story!" Her eyes lit up as she got near me, running towards me and landing in a hug. I grinned over her shoulder as I squeezed her back. She was one of the resident artists and one who'd given drawings to both Jack and me in the past. Now I don't have favorites, but she was one of them.

"Hey." I pulled back, my smile falling a little. "Do you know where Jamie - Mr. Bennett is?" I pointed towards his house, just in case she didn't know his name.

She followed my finger and as soon as she saw the house her smile dropped like a stone. She looked back at me, frowning. "He's been in the hospital since Wednesday. He was getting his mail in the morning while I was waiting for the bus and he fell down. My mom called an ambulance but he hasn't come home yet." She looked down the road like she was remembering the path the ambulance took. "I'm worried about him, he's a nice person."

My heart sank, and I swallowed to try and dislodge the thick and dry feeling that had built up as she spoke. I forced a smile at her, trying to cheer her up a little. "Thanks, Kari. I told him I'd stop by and I didn't see him. I'm gonna go visit him now." I straightened up and waved her towards her house. "I'll tell him you sent me to see him, okay?" She nodded and looked like she was feeling a little better - if her smile meant anything.

As soon as she was out of sight I called my wings and was up in an instant. I flew straight for the hospital - having learned where it was a few decades back when one of mine and Jack's shared believers got a bloody nose that wouldn't stop after a snowball fight that got a little out of hand. They'd had to cauterize his nose to stop it. I landed in front of the doors and hurried inside, heading straight for the ICU. My stomach felt twisted in knots and I kept hoping against hope that I was wrong, but part of me knew he didn't just stop believing in us. When I got there, a small bit of searching lead me to his room and sure enough...

I stepped into the room which only had a Nurse in it at the moment. She was pulling all of the hoses and wires from him and had turned off most of the monitors. It looked like his family wasn't there yet, or had already left. I walked over to him, moving to hold his hand only to have it fade through in an all too familiar way that made me wince. "Oh, Jamie." My eyes misted over as I looked at him.

After a few moments, I walked out of the room. This was one time I'd have loved to be wrong, but of course, my luck wasn't that good. It was never that good. I walked outside and took a seat on one of the benches that ran along the sidewalk through most of downtown Burgess. I pulled out my notebook and wrote a note to Sam telling him what had happened, I also told him to meet me at Jack's place in twelve hours or so. When I was done writing the letter I folded the piece of paper by hand into a plane and sent it like I used to. I didn't want to have a bird repeating those words.

I sighed as I stood up. I didn't want to have to tell Jack, but I had a gut feeling that he already knew. It's Jamie... of course, he knows. I called my wings and soared above Burgess. It was the middle of the day and the sun was shining. It was early Autumn and the leaves were just starting to fall. The kids in town had just started school and winter wouldn't be there for a few months. I hope to god Jack can handle coming back here this winter.

Even though the trip to Antarctica took me around 6 hours, it didn't feel like it was too long after that I made it to the Sanctuary. After my feet touched down and my wings fluttered away I paused for a minute. Part of me wanted to leave Jack alone - God knows he probably didn't want to see anyone right now. I looked towards the doorway, trying to will my feet to move but I was frozen in place. I still felt the stinging absence that was Jamie's missing belief. He'd not only believed but had cared so much about all of us that to lose someone that special had to have hurt most of the individuals in our world. Everyone had to know. I winced, thinking about how horrible it had to be for Jack in the second it happened. I wonder if he knew then or found out after? I finally managed to make myself move and as I passed the Globe room, I looked in to see a notable absence of the brightest light that had shone over Burgess for as long as I'd been alive. He knew.

Tears threatened to leak out and I blinked hard without breaking stride. I'd gotten good at powering through heartache by now, something I wasn't proud to admit. I made it to the entryway and saw Del pacing in one of the few areas big enough. He looked at me and for a few seconds he almost shouted at me in greeting, but then he teared up and started bawling. I hurried over to him and gave him a hug as best I could - being twenty times smaller than him. Del had never met Jamie a day in his life but Del was more empathic than anyone else I'd ever met and Jack was hurting. Of course, Del was crying. I bit my lip and squeezed tighter until he calmed down. He turned an eye on me, blinking away tears as he did. "I was waiting for you to show up. I knew you wouldn't be too far behind Jack." He looked down. "Sel was trying to get him to come out and I heard him make a noise... I was by the globe then and I saw the light go out." He whined. "It's Jame, isn't it?"

I stood back and blinked hard, nodding. "Where is he?" Del looked down the hallway towards the bedrooms. He didn't have to say anything, I already knew. I squeezed him one last time before walking towards Jack's room. Sel was waiting outside his door, hands against it and looking like she'd been trying to get through to him for a while now. She heard me coming and looked up, her happiness at seeing me dwarfed by the mutual heartache we shared for our friend. "How long has he been in there?"

"Almost a full day now. He has not made any noise or even moved except for once... I hope he is asleep but my hopes are not very high at this point." She shot me a morose look, trying to get across how much she'd tried already.

I looked towards his door, sighing. "I've got him." I caught her eye. "I don't want to shoo you but you should probably back off..."

She nodded, casting a lingering glance at his door before finally lifting her hand off the surface. "Help him, Story. I can't stand to see him frown - I don't know what we'd do if this took his smile forever. I may not require belief to survive, but I heard his pain a few hours ago..." She shook her head. "No one deserves that pain, Jack least of all." Her eyes were watery as she turned away. I watched her as she disappeared into her room, then I stood outside his door for the first time in a long time. The thin sheet of ice cast my own reflection back at me, as well as hinting to the contents of the room I'd never seen. No one had, except for Jack. I thought about the last time I'd faced down this door on the day I'd moved out. I'd been ready to ram it and break my way in if I had to. I'd disregarded the fact that the ice was probably a lot stronger than it looked, either through natural means or magical ones. I'd never actually seen Jack leave or enter his room, he was always either inside already or out somewhere else. I didn't even know how the door opened.

After a few minutes, I raised my hand and knocked on the glass-like ice, the sound echoing for a while down the hall. "Jack?" The ice betrayed nothing of whether he'd heard me or not. "I know you're in there. Sel and Morning Breath ratted you out." Nothing. I couldn't even hear him in there - though that might just have been because the ice was thick enough to muffle sound. "If I have to wait out here much longer I'm just gonna keep talking and we both know how annoying that can get." I laughed a little, but it died almost as fast. Now wasn't the time to laugh, at least, not yet. "Jack... I know about Jamie. Losing him hurt me too... But I know it's worse for you so I guess me playing the 'I lost him too' card isn't really gonna work here..."

I looked down and my eyes burned a little where faint tears were freezing in the sub-zero temperature. I wasn't just crying over Jamie. I was crying for him, Caeden, Tanya... and for Jack. I knew exactly what it was that he was going through, having experienced it myself only a few years ago. But it was so much worse with Jamie because he'd believed in all of us until the very end, so not only had we lost The Last Light as a believer, but we'd lost him. Everyone was feeling the sting of Jamie's death... and Jack most of all. He just found out Jamie was his nephew... and now this. "Jack, you were there for me when Caeden died, and I'm gonna be here for you whether you want me to or not. If that means sitting on the other side of this door until you decide to come out then so be it."

There was no movement from within the room. No colors or shapes shifted about behind the ice and no noise escaped. Part of me entertained the thought of leaving - he obviously wanted to be alone. But, I knew that even when you want to be alone, you really want someone to comfort you - tell you everything was going to be alright. Jack had done that for me when I'd lost Caeden as a believer and both of the boys had been there when he'd died. I owed it to Jack to return the favor. "Jack, no one should be alone for this." Let me in.

When there was no response I sighed and sank to the floor. If I was gonna be left outside I might as well be comfortable. He hadn't told me to go away so I was staying right here. And even if he had told me to leave I'd have stayed. But, if that'd been the case, I'd be staying out of stubbornness and my duty as his friend. His best friend. So, I waited. And waited... and waited. I have no idea how much time had passed before I finally heard something from inside the room. I glanced over my shoulder and a moment later I saw Jack's silhouette and the muddled colors that were his clothes. "Story? ... Are you still out there?" Though his voice was muffled a bit, I could still hear just how bad he was taking it.

"Of course, I am, you knucklehead." I stared at the colorful, Jack-shaped shadow, standing up as I did. Intuition told me the time was nigh for comfort.

"Is Sel with you?" He'd said that one so softly I almost didn't hear it.

"No. Just me." I heard him sigh and a moment later the ice almost melted away and I got my first ever glimpse of Jack's room. It was big. Not as big as Sel's or Del's but still bigger than I expected. It was one story high but it stretched out for a while. And it was pretty full of stuff, which surprised me more than anything. There were ice sculptures everywhere as well as what looked like skating ramps and other things in that ballpark. And along the wall that his bed was against, were drawings and other artworks alike. Some were mine, but a lot were from his believers. Jamie's stood out just as my own did, more so from the fact that Jack had recently torn them down. I could still see parts of the paper sticking to the wall.

But, as much as I wanted to explore my best friend's room - I'm a curious person, sue me - there was something else that demanded my attention. And that was who the room belonged to. For the first time, I could see all of Jack's years on his face. No, there weren't wrinkles and liver spots. But for the first time in all the years I'd known him, he looked old, and he looked tired. Jack was almost four hundred years old - and today, I could see it. It didn't matter that he had the features of an eighteen-year-old, I could see it on his face and I could see it in his eyes.

I didn't say anything - I mean what do you say? I just hugged him. God knows, he needed it. Jack wasn't much taller than me, less than an inch, but he seemed smaller today. It was like he'd shrunk without the happy-go-lucky front he usually had up. I didn't like it. We stood there like that for a while, not nearly as long as I'd been waiting outside, but still. Eventually, he pulled away with a faintly despondent expression. He looked out into the hallway for a second before weakly pulling me inside and re-icing the door. The second that the outside world was cut off he all but collapsed against the wall. He shifted until his head was resting on his knees and he looked like he was in physical agony.

I knelt down next to him. I was about to ask him if he was okay, out of habit, but I already knew the answer. Seeing Jack like this scared me. Me the girl who faces down Nightmares, thinks Fearlings are cute, and is friends with the Boogeyman. I was scared. I was scared because Jack was crying. Jack... was crying. I had never, not once, seen Jack even a little misty-eyed over anything. Ever. And I think it was safe to say that was a universal truth. Jack Frost did not cry. What he did was smile and laugh until anything eating away at him was squashed like a bug under his foot. But here he was, crying... and it was breaking my heart to see it. This is how Sam felt...

My own tears returned in earnest at the sight of my best friend in the world so deeply hurt. I set my hand on his shoulder. He raised his head long enough to lock eyes with me. He didn't need to say anything, I already knew. Jack and I all but shared a soul we were so similar. I knew all too well exactly what there were no words for anyway. It didn't matter that we were born three hundred years apart, it didn't matter that we weren't the same gender, and it didn't matter that our lives had played out in entirely different ways. Jack was my best friend for a reason. Looking at his tear-streaked face, so grief-stricken by the death of his first ever believer - his family - I did the only thing I could think of to stop it. I wrapped my arms around him and held him as tight as my arms would allow. I felt his shoulders shake as he started sobbing and I couldn't help my own tears. They weren't for Jamie now, they were for Jack and Jack alone. Sometimes, crying is the only thing that helps. Well, crying, and having someone to share your pain. Misery does love company after all.

I knew why Jack let me in to see him like this and no one else. It wasn't that he didn't want people to see him like this, at least not entirely. It was because no one would know how to handle it. No one would know how to react to seeing Jack cry. No one but me. I wouldn't judge him, I wouldn't try and cheer him up by forcing him to play games or by being overly chipper. I wouldn't try and talk him out of his sadness, not this time at least. I wouldn't ask anything of him. I know Jack like I know the inside of my eyelids, and this was not the time to do anything other than be there for him. He let me inside because he knew I'd be there and let him get out everything he'd been holding in. Whether it was because others were around or because he was alone. Because, believe me, there are some things you don't want to deal with alone. And this is coming from the poster child of 'dealing with it' where and when no one would see.

So, for once, I didn't say a word. I sat there, holding him when otherwise he'd fall apart. I did for him what he'd done for me and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I cried with him and I cried for him. The only thing that broke my heart more than seeing him like that was when he finally said something through the tears. "I didn't get to tell him. I got there and he was already in the hospital..." He took a ragged breath. "I waited with him but I couldn't take it anymore. I came home and - and -" He couldn't talk anymore, he was crying so hard. I bit my lip so as to not make any noise even though, hearing that, I wanted to breakdown for him in not just sympathy, but empathy. I squeezed him harder and sat rigid while he cried into my shoulder. I know...

-

Hours later, I heard movement and quiet voices in the hallway outside. Jack had since become quiet in his crying, much in the same way I had not too many years ago. He was still crying but he was almost calm. He was clutching one of Jamie's drawings of him - one of the first ones he'd ever made. I'd almost lost it when Jack pulled it over because I knew it must have meant so much to him then that a mortal was making something not just about him - but for him. The voices got closer and I realized that Sam was there, talking with Sel. From the snippets of their conversation, I could tell that she was filling him in on what she knew. She also mentioned how I'd been in here with Jack for ten hours. I blinked in surprise when I heard her, sure that was wrong. There was no way ten hours had passed it barely felt like four. I glanced at Jack, who's head was resting on my shoulder and a pang hit my heart again.

When their voices were right outside the door, they stopped. I heard Sel softly tell Sam that she was gonna leave it to us and then I assume she left. It took Sam another moment before he knocked exactly like I had. Jack didn't move, he almost didn't look like he even heard Sam. After a minute or two, Jack felt my eyes on him and looked up at me. He just stared at me for a minute and I knew that he wanted to let Sam in, but he didn't want him to see how hard he was taking things. "I'll give him the low down, first... okay?" I whispered it, my usual volume seeing like screams at the moment. Jack stared at me for another minute before weakly nodding and shifting until he wasn't leaning on me anymore.

I stood up and he followed, moving to his bed instead of the door. I stared at him, my heart breaking again, not wanting to know what he was going through. When I got to the door, he moved ever so slightly and the ice almost melted in front of me. Sam gazed in, slightly surprised to see me standing there instead of Jack. He opened his mouth to say something and I quickly held my finger up to my mouth, shushing him. I nodded towards Jack and stepped back a little so he could see. He leaned in and his expression immediately mirrored my own. Sam was one of the few men I'd ever met who didn't give a damn how others perceived him. He looked back at me and I gestured to the hallway.

He nodded and backed out with me following him. A few steps outside of the door, it re-iced behind me. Somehow, part of me still managed to be envious of the magic ice-door. I turned back to Sam who, to his credit, looked like he was about to fix everything. "Jamie died?" Under the careful way he said it, I could hear the shock and slight fear in his voice.

I nodded, swallowing. "He believed until the end. I got to Burgess ten minutes after I left your place and it only took five to realize where he was... fifteen minutes and the nurse wasn't even done unhooking him from everything." I folded my arms tightly across my chest, trying to keep my composure. "Jack wasn't there," I looked down and took a quick breath. "He figured out what was going on and decided that he didn't want to be there in person when it happened." I looked at his doorway again. "I can't say that I blame him." My gaze traveled to my feet, which I couldn't keep still. "I hid in the hallway."

I gestured towards his door, making eye-contact with Sam once more. "It took a little while and a lot of convincing for him to let me inside, but I think he got most of it out... The immediate parts anyway. I think he's to the point where we can try to coax him into talking." I shook my head a little. "He just looks blank and -" I looked up at Sam again, his eyes finishing the sentence for me.

"Like a ghost?" I didn't even nod. I didn't need to. He didn't say anything more to me, he just turned to the door and knocked again, softly calling Jack's name. The ice dissolved again and I watched him walk inside, hesitating. He glanced at me and I shook my head at him. A second later the door re-formed, isolating me in the hallway again. I didn't think Jack could handle two people right now, so I let Sam have a turn... after all, he'd known Jack way longer than I had.

I held my head as high as I could and walked down the hall. I wasn't planning on leaving yet, but just then I thought the two of them could use some privacy. I passed Del in his room - who was whining a little as he tossed and turned in his sleep like a giant dog having a nightmare. In the end, I made my way to the globe. I sat down in a fluffy pile of perfect snow and watched as it slowly rotated - barely above a snail's pace, noting the sad little absence of the Last Light as it passed me.

This chapter has been planned and half written since October 17, 2014. I wrote most of "And so the Bell Tolls" around the same time. Back then, I wasn't having any depression, nor was I sad about life. Actually, life wasn't too bad back then. Frost and Stories had been going strong for a little over a year, I was halfway done with college, and my family members hadn't started dropping like flies yet. But I'd rewatched the movie, and I knew that if my story was going to progress as far into the future as I thought it would, then there was no way I could escape these moments. Around the time I was writing them, I saw a quote somewhere, where someone asked if writers feel bad when they kill off everyone's favorite character and someone responded that we just smile and drink tea with Satan... Meanwhile, I bawl my eyes out for causing any of my characters even the slightest bit of emotional pain and I feel like Satan for it. But... sometimes, death happens. Life isn't fair and in all actuality, eternal life is one funeral after another while you don't change. Thankfully, though, now that everyone important who was mortal is dead, there won't be too many more sad parts. ;_;