Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/7929541.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Graphic_Depictions_Of_Violence, Major_Character_Death, Rape/Non-Con,
      Underage
  Category:
      F/M, M/M
  Fandom:
      Rise_of_the_Guardians_(2012)
  Relationship:
      Jack_Frost/Pitch_Black, Nicholas_St._North/Toothiana, E._Aster_Bunnymund/
      Jack_Frost
  Character:
      Jack_Frost_(Rise_of_the_Guardians), Nicholas_St._North, Toothiana,
      Sanderson_Mansnoozie, Pitch_Black_(Rise_Of_The_Guardians), Jamie_Bennett_
      (Rise_of_the_Guardians), Jack's_Mother_(Rise_of_the_Guardians), Jack's
      Father_(Rise_of_the_Guardians), Jack's_Sister_(Rise_of_the_Guardians),
      Cupcake_(Rise_of_the_Guardians), Pippa_(Rise_of_the_Guardians),
      Nightmares_(Rise_of_the_Guardians), Fearlings_(Rise_of_the_Guardians),
      Nightlight_(Guardians_of_Childhood), OC_fairies?, Mother_Nature_
      (Guardians_of_Childhood)
  Additional Tags:
      Fluff_and_Angst, Rape/Non-con_Elements, Death, Swearing, pitch_is_a
      fairy, pot, irresponsible_teens, North_was_in_a_gang, i_have_no_ideer
      what_state_they_are_in_-_somwhere_cold, Bad_Ending, Aster_tries_to_be_a
      good_boyfriend, Angst_and_Fluff_and_Smut, Child_Abandonment, Jamies
      mother_is_crazy, Sorry_Not_Sorry, fairy_folklore, everyone_else_are
      human, Alternative_Univers, mother_nature_AKA_Emily_Jane_will_be_playing
      Pitch's_fairy_mother
  Series:
      Part 1 of The_poems_of_a_winter_heart
  Stats:
      Published: 2016-09-01 Completed: 2016-12-19 Chapters: 16/16 Words: 94089
****** The woods are lovely dark and deep ******
by TheLonesomeWriter
Summary
     Jack and his friends goes on a roadtrip to visit his parent's old
     forest cabin, have fun and make some memories.
     The trip's goal was to close doors to the past and move on
     but the past has other plans...
Notes
     First Guardian fic
     inspired by the horror movie "The Hallow" (2015)
     =====================================================================
See the end of the work for more notes
***** Whose woods these are I think I know *****
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
Prologue
A pressured silence hung over the small forest cabin as a heavy lead-blanket.
The old wood creaked under the moisture pressure and light dust crumbled from
the brick walls, that had seen better days, but like the rest, the cabin gave a
certain rustic ambience with its age.
It was a cabin that could have been thought as suitable for hunting, but no
trophies or horn hung from the walls and no animal skins decorated the floor.
Photos of the newer digital date covered the bare walls and the large oak
dining table held the remains of an abandoned morning routine and meal, along
with the plastic toys that were virtually left near the child seat.
Outside, the wind howled as it is expected out in the woods and the night birds
of prey could be heard out in the wilderness that was bordering to the house,
as a respectful, but stooped neighbor.
A neighbor who had come to visit.
Despite the house's messy, but human order, the forest had done its part to
remind its residents of its presence. Dark sand covered all surfaces as dust
and the shattered windows and the broken doorframe leading to the courtyard,
seemed only to welcome more as the wind dragged dark sand in and swept dead
leaves into the living room.
One of the pictures from the wall in the hallway had left its rightful place on
the wall and gained a crack in the glass that protected the photograph. Four
smiling faces looked up from the frame on the floor in a frozen second of joy.
A dark-haired man with a humorous grin, held the camera out in outstretched
hand and encircled the three others. The woman at his side looked back at the
camera with a tired, but wry smile of the kind women with too much
responsibility and still so much compassion for her loved ones, often wear.
Her brown locks and mocha eyes matched the little boy between them and he
smiled all he could in honor of the camera and showed of his lack of front
teeth without a shame in the world.
A newborn lay in the arms of the woman and made it clear to the viewer that
this photo had been taken shortly after the birth, due to the hospital bed they
all sat on and the white corridors in the background.
A small happy family.
The shadows and sounds of the house remained dark and persistent, but soon
hushed and the wind abated. The creaking from the wet wood faded and even the
dust particles seem to freeze in the air.
Awaiting.
It is often said that the silence comes before the storm. This certainly was
the silence that opens up for many horrors and anxious moments, in which
children in the night are waiting for the monster to drag them out from under
their bedsheets, or grown men are holding their breath just before a battle ...
but the problem of the meaning of 'silence before the storm' in this scenario,
was clearly simple.
This was not the silence before the storm. The storm had already passed.
And this silence was impossible to predict.
"Close the door! Shut it!"
The photograph on the corridor floor was further damaged when the man and the
woman burst through the front door. There were no smiles or compassioned around
them as they fled through the door and tried to block it with the nearest
furniture and objects of iron.
The woman turned and twisted timidly with smudged mascara and fearful eyes as
she clutched a bundle tight to her breast. The bundle moved a little and she
shushed the baby below.
She hurried out of the way when her husband stormed through the combined
kitchen and living room, frantic and panting, as he took care of his wounded
side and dirty bandage over the right eye.
He threw around with the various kitchen equipment and tied a bundle of iron
pots together with spruce, before he hung it up in front of the broken window
and covered it up with a blanket – but not before he had peeped out and made
sure they were alone.
"I'll have to get her some clean clothes," came it measly, but insistent from
the woman. She had watched her husband with an increased turmoil and searched
all shadows for the slightest movement, with increasing alarm.
He ignored her as if he hadn’t heard her and searched the kitchen drawers and
the toolbox on the floor near the fireplace.
She wiped trembling her cheeks and straightened her convulsive grip on the
sleeping baby. She licked her lips, "we will have to check if she's okay ...
she gets sick if she doesn’t get some dry clothes."
The man shook his head as if a fly had been in the way and then continued his
search. Soon he had placed all the house's knives and sharpest tool on the
table in an order, which ran from lightest to most weight. Sharpest to dullest.
He ended his small collection by breaking the lock to the weapon cabinet and
placed a rifle on the table. He emptied two boxes of ammunition into his cargo
pants pockets and began to fill the rifle's magazine with trembling, but
determined fingers.
The woman suppressed a sob and sniffed into her daughter's hair to find
strength. The smell of mold, damp leaves and moisture penetrated into her
nostrils and added her painful nerves dilapidated an additional layer of fear.
One of the shadows seemed to move and she whined in torment.
The man straightened with lightning rapidity by the sound of her little
outbursts and aimed at the shades. When nothing happened, he released a
trembling breath, leaning his hands against the table for stability and
comfort.
”Please… ” she whispered almost in prayer and smeared her ruined makeup out
further. The warm fleece jacket with the fur lining that had kept her warm, was
now stained and damp of rain and soil.
Light stains of black liquid had tarnish her skintight jeans to a point where
they would never get clean again and leaves was tangled in her long chestnut
hair.
Despite the many bruises on her face and the cloths condition, she was still a
beautiful woman and seeing her so vulnerable made something in the man burst
and he took pity on her.
He rummaged a hand through his unruly black curls and smeared the dirt and
blood that had gathered in his short beard, out on his cheek. More blood had
gathered around the right side of his plaid-clad torso and soaked the shirt.
The same black substance that tarnished his wife's jeans stained his hands, his
upper arms and the iron-pipe he had thrown by the door when they arrived at
their house in haste.
He straightened the bloody and inflamed bandage covering his right eye with a
grunt of pain and stepped toward his wife and college sweetheart. The gesture
had laid up for either an embrace or loving caress, but all the man’s peaceful
intentions disappeared from his mind like snow in the sun, when he caught a
glimpse of the baby in her arms.
"Put the baby on the table."
His wife blinked surprised and a trifle of uncertainly sneaked into her
chocolate brown eyes.
"W-why?"
"Just do it."
The fearful part of the woman that had gained more footing in her life and soul
over the past twenty-four hours, than throughout her entire life, were
forcefully pushed back by her more rational thinking.
Believing that her husband just wanted to take care of their daughter here on
the table, instead of the nursing-room upstairs, where there weren't nearly as
safe, she placed the baby on the part of the table that was still free of sharp
objects and began to undress the little.
The damp blanket was laid over a chair and the muddy baby bodysuit opened up
one button at a time. The little pink face peeped sleeping out from under the
thick wool hat of bright pink yarn and the woman smiled down at the little one
that gently opened her eyes and blinked with two chocolate brown eyes, looking
exactly like woman’s own.
The small moment of affectionate bond between mother and child, was broken when
the child's father pushed his wife out of the way and leaned scrutinizing over
the child.
The woman recovered quickly from the push and felt the fear return in full
speed.
"What are you doing?" she asked anxiously, as he slowly took off on the little
pink woolen hat, staring down at the baby's face. Hardness came on his mouth
and his hand sought toward the closest knife.
"This is not our child."
"What?" she stammered terrified and tried to get to get in between, but was
blocked by his massive arm. He looked at her with cold determination and deep
sadness on the verge of rage, "it's a changeling, they have swapped them."
She shook dismissive her head and cursed herself for letting him just take the
little initially. He had been unstable since the creatures had stabbed him in
the eye.
He had become increasingly unpredictable as the night's horrors had progressed.
She had noticed the little tics and drops of black inflammation that had run
from his wounds, but she had assured herself that all of this could be taken
care of when they got back to the cabin and got hold of an ambulance and the
police ...
Her eyes darted from the scene in front of her to the phone on the table in the
corner of the living room. She knew that the most rational thing to do would be
to call and wait for help to arrive, but all in her screamed that she wasn't to
take her eyes of what was happening in front of her, whatever that was.
"Honey," she said gently, trying to get closer with careful steps, "honey, you
... you're not well, you ... changelings aren't real. The creatures outside,
they don't have our daughter, we took her back. Remember?"
She made a nervous gesture to the baby between them and tried to sneak an arm
around the little one to recapture her. Get her back into her safe embrace.
"This is our little Flee. It's our little girl."
“NO!” he shouted furiously and pushed her out of the way again, this time with
the knife raised. The woman's eyes widened in panic and her insides froze as he
held it over the child, a few inches from the small chubby face.
"Our daughter is gone - they took her! They took her and left this thing to
fool us!" he raged and held the baby firmly with his left hand and raised the
right with the knife, ”I can prove it. Iron burns them."
The iron-pipe from the hallway struck the back of his head and caused him to
howl in pain. He sank heavily to the floor with his hands locked around his
head, while the woman over him let go of the pipe, grabbed the baby and ran
towards the door.
Far away, he heard furniture and iron being wrenched aside and then the door
being slammed shut. Clattering on the broken frame. The sound of her running
feet disturbing the stone in the yard and soon the sounds faded as she fled the
site.
He clenched his teeth in rage and could smell burnt hair and skin. His healthy
eye darted to the iron pipe left on the floor and observed in alarm and in
semi-delirium, as his own blood was still seethed on its surface.
The small hairs that stuck to the pipe sizzled and rolled up to small black
spirals before breaking and became black dust on the floor.
The pain throbbed through his head and for a time it the dull pain that had
permeated his wounded side. He opened panting and sweating his plaid shirt and
saw that the sticky blood that stuck his shirt to his side, no longer was red,
but black.
He bit the inside of his cheeks and lifted the sticky shirt from the wound.
Long black threads stretched from the soaked shirt to his wound and he sobbed,
trembling as the smell of death filled the room. His sobs slowly became cries
and cries to aching howl when his eye felt as if it would burst.
He rolled onto his side and howled agonized with both hands pressed against the
bandage. Pressed and pressed to make the pain go away. Long black veins below
the skin creept out from under the bandage and spread to the rest of his face,
stretched neck and below the shirt collar.
The man, who would soon cease to be human, wept inconsolably and tore the
bandage like a wild animal. A low snarl crept into his voice and long muffled
moans filled the heavy and ominous forest cabin, as the bandage was ripped off
layer by layer.
The weeping petered when the last black bandage layer was peeled of and the man
rose to his knees quivering. The wound that had made him blind on the right
eye, was now wide open and displayed a bare white eyeball.
The eyelid had withered and the skin around the eyeball turned black as night.
The white eye stared blindly ahead, but a hushed light testified that there was
still life behind it, but not a life any creature might call human.
Mumbling and hushed whispers approached the windows and the door like a fog
ever so slowly. The man regained enough of his humanity to deliver a fearful
gasp and hoisted himself against the table to grab the rifle.
He burned himself on one of the tables knives and drew back in panic and bumped
into the posted camera that have had been given the best spot in the middle of
the living room, placed firmly on a tripod.
The sound of his tumult only seems to eager the beings' intrusions and his
breath came out in quivering shock as thousands of small bright eyes peered in
through the dark windows and black hands scratched the glass.
The shadows became long and black, stretching where no shadow should be able
and reached out to him from all sides. He screamed as a new wave of pain
overwhelmed him.
-
The wet sneakers slithered against the damp grass and she avoided the fall with
a hand on one of the old trunks that stood naked and dead on the moor. She had
put the forest behind her now, both to her great relief and fear.
The forest was their land, but the moor gave her no cover and she was as
visible here as a sitting duck.
If they scouted in the direction of the wild grassland and undulating hillocks,
she would be visible from a mile away. She wiped the sweat from her forehead
and searched around in the foggy darkness to find the best possible direction
to continue her flight.
She didn’t know how fatal the blow to his head had been, but at this stage he
could have left the cabin and start searching for her in this very moment.
She looked down at her sleeping daughter and inhaled her scent again to remain
sane. A light far away caught her eye and she made a sigh of relief, when it
dawned on her that the light was of human origins.
It was a house.
She gathered her last stamina and ran stumbling and precarious through the moor
to reach the house that promised security, normality and help. The hope flared
like a torch in her heart, when she got to a small gravel path and let it guide
her safely to the house's front door.
She jumped to the first step on the stairs and lifted a dirty hand to knock on
the door in the name of mercy, when the residents beat here to it and opened
themselves.
Her sigh of relief was quickly turned into a gasp of astonishment, when the end
of a rifle met her face. The old man on the other side of the weapon raised it
cautionary and forced her down the stairs.
"I warned you," he said quietly, forcing her further down and away from his
property, "I told you not to come here. This place is cursed and your family is
cursed. Get out!"
”Please!” she cried pleading and showed him her daughter, "they are after us;
they have already taken my husband! If you don’t help me, they'll take her
again! They'll kill her!"
A shot hit the ground in front of her and she jumped screaming three steps
back. He raised warningly the smoking rifle again and left no doubt about his
intentions with steeled eyes.
"Your family brought the forest anger upon themselves. Now reap in which you
have sown – get lost now!"
She bit gasping the tears and shame of his rejection down and ran back. One of
the chained dogs around the house barked furious at her and she hurried away.
She had reached the middle of the moor when her side stitch became too much for
her and she bent over gasping and sobbing.
Hugged the baby into her and tried to come up with a new plan.
Besides their only neighbor, the nearest habitation would be three kilometers
from the latter and she would have to go through the path that ran through the
forest. She couldn’t take her chances on the path and certainly not without a
car.
Their crashed vehicle remained hidden somewhere behind her, half mired in the
mud and would require a crane to get free again.
She looked up and knew with a heavy heart that the forest cabin was the only
place she could find even the slightest shelter. All the windows were secured
and the door could be closed again with the furniture and iron bars she had
removed in her escape.
There were weapons on the table and a rifle, if he hadn’t taken it with him. If
he had left the house at all...
The fear of going back and meet him, his madness and sickness, was overcome by
the inner voice that told her that he probably had left the house. It would be
foolish to stand out here in the wind and bloom until they came for her, when
the house obviously would be empty and ready to protect her until sunrise. In
addition, she just needed to call and the police would they be here within the
hour.
She could do it. She had to. For her daughter’s sake.
She ran as fast as she could and let out a sigh of relief when no one awaited
her at the door. She peaked quickly into the living room to make sure she
wouldn't do herself a disservice and risked lock herself in with him, before
she slammed the door and put the overturned furniture up against the door
again.
She set the iron bars against the door with her heart up her throat and ran
towards the phone. She cried out in shock and fear when her foot became
entangled in the overturned tripod and she fell heavily towards the carpet-
covered floor.
Luckily, she didn’t land on the baby and shushed the little in an attempt to
calm the child just as much as herself.
She rose groaning to her knees and pushed the tripod away. The blinking camera
was close by and she wondered briefly on whether it perhaps had recorded this
entire time.
If it had, maybe she could see if he indeed had left the house or not...
Murmur and whisper got the blood in her veins to freeze and she jumped to her
feet. She needed a place to hide and that quickly. She decided on the basement
and took the video camera with her as it could give her light to see within the
lack of better.
She ran to the small trapdoor under the carpet and made sure to pull the end of
the rug that had hidden it over her again, so no one would see the hatch from
the windows.
She locked the latch securely above her and moved cautiously down the last
steps to the basement before she held her breath and sat down. Above her, the
whispers and murmurs continued. The sound of long nails running across glass
and the creaking of torn wood, caused her to press her face against the baby’s
head in horror.
She knew it was over when she heard the sound of furniture being pushed from
the front door, reverberated through the cabin. The child in her arms moved
silently by it and she cradled it with new tears rolling down her cheeks.
The camera blinked again and she took a deep breath before she opened it and
saw herself and in the small side screen. The camera's night sequence made her
face occurred green and pale, but she doubted that she would have looked any
different in daylight.
"Jack ... if you’re watching this, it means I'm dead ... we…" she pressed the
child against her again and sniffled quietly, "mom and dad loves you so much,
honey. Little Jill, our little Flee, loves you more than anything else. Never
doubt that."
She straightened the camera screen in order to level the child and have her
joining the picture. The baby's eyes seemed unusual big and green on the screen
and the woman smiled bravely.
In the darkness behind her, two shining eyes opened as demon-light in the
night. She froze when she thought she saw something on the screen behind her
and turned cautiously.
”Honey, is that –?”
Two black hands grabbed her feet and she screamed in raw fear as she was
dragged into the darkness. The camera which had landed on basement floor
continued to film, as she screaming reached out to her child and disappeared
into the darkness that engulfed her completely.
The baby wriggled slightly its head and small hands opened and closed a few
times to the sound of its mother's agonizing screams and its father's brutish
snarl. With a final nauseous crack, there was silence and the darkness crept
slightly closer.
A dark shadow crawled out of the dark and slipped the last of its plaid shirt
off and became one with the darkness. The Shadow hissed at the baby and the
baby opened her small mouth and hissed in return with tiny black teeth.
It jumped to all fours, snarled at the larger shadow and crawled up wall and
out of the camera's view.
Chapter End Notes
     inspired by the horror movie "The Hallow" (2015)
     I will update a chapter every friday
***** His house is in the village though *****
Chapter Notes
     Hello people
     i just like to say i'm surprised how many people showed this fic
     interest already after the first chapter and I hope I won't
     dissapoint
     hope you enjoy - comments are always welcome
     =====================================================================
See the end of the chapter for more notes
Jack Overland stuck his head out the car window and enjoyed the cold November
wind that swept past the battered Land Rover.
Outside, the forests and the deserted field reached the time of the year when
everything is supposed to die and wither away, but for a child of the town like
Jack, it looked as if it had regained momentum, rather than lost it.
The golden and brown colors was a welcome change from Burgess gray concrete and
he wondered whether the air out here always have been so light and fresh. A
silly but catchy pop song played on the radio and soon became absorbed by
statics, as the signal disappeared and returned for every twist and turn the
car took on the small roads.
Jack sighed in pleasure when the wind caught his hair and stuck a hand out to
get more of it, when an old map was thrown into his lap and he turned his head
towards the car's driver with a wry smile.
"What now? Tired of being taken on sightseeing by Susan?" he asked and got a
dark countenance in return from the tall Australian behind the wheel.
Aster scowled and turned off the GPS from when the female Scottish actress told
him to make a legal U-turn, "just find out how we get back to the main road and
away from these little shitty roads, mate. And close the window, its freezing
out there!"
Jack unfolded the map in pragmatic manner, took a thorough look at it, as if
this had been the moment his existence had led to, dragged the now cold hand
through his wild brown hair and threw the map back to his boyfriend with a
sheepish shrug, "hey, I am too young to get sense of a manual map. Ask one of
the old people in the back. "
He got a few rude comments from the back seat’s three passengers in return, but
knew it was only for fun and joked back. They all started snickering when the
GPS came back to life and told them to run across the field to the right.
Jack broke into an open laugh when Aster threw the card back in his face, his
Aussie accent boiling with irritation, ”just tell me which road I'm on!"
"Hey, North! Think fast!" Jack shouted in a fresh manner and threw the crumpled
map towards the big Russian. North caught it with one hand and unfolded it with
a good-natured shrug.
It soon became apparent that the ability to read maps had nothing to do with
age and the car's oldest member scratched the black hair in confusion.
"Listen, Aster, is this still the states? You are not trying to kidnap us to
kangaroo land, are you?"
Aster groaned irritated and Tooth rushed to help North, "it is upside down,
honey. See? Northern States and all, lets focus on the main road - Aster, which
exit did you take last?"
Aster half turned in his seat to answer her and Jack caught a glimpse of his
tattoos on the hip when his sand-colored tank top rolled up slightly. The band
of faded tattoos was connected to those who ran over his shoulder and out to
his biceps, a job Aster had designed himself rather than what you could get
from the ink folders in a tattoo artist.
Not that there was anything wrong with ordinary tattoos, North behind him had
his arms overbooked with classic tattoos and a few only street children would
get the meaning of, but that didn’t seem to bother Tooth.
She rubbed up against her boyfriend and stroked easily a hand up his 'Naughty'
tattoo in bold Gothic and pointed insistently on the map to guide Aster the way
back to the main road, while she leaned over North.
Aster gave Jack the wheel and Jack leaned to manage while they discussed the
road system. Jack got a very good sight of Aster's tanned rear and grinned
impish. He considered tickling his boyfriend, but stopped himself.
Aster's mood was crap at the moment and Jack knew better than to fool with
Aster when he drove a transport device. He always got so terribly frustrated
while driving. The teasing could wait until they were alone and back on steady
ground.
They seemed to come to an agreement about the crumpled map and Aster took over
the wheel.
"A'ight, here we go. It amazes me that you didn’t run us off track, Jack," he
said surly, but with a certain affectionate tone reserved only for Jack.
The smaller teen just shrugged his shoulders. Usually he was always up to a
tease, play games or causing trouble, but he didn’t really feel like it today.
Aster's crooked smile faded slowly and he kept a worried eye on Jack in-between
his focus on the road and Tooth’s instructions behind him.
Jack had been down ever since they approached the forest and Aster knew only
too well why. Jack was perhaps a troublemaker and impossible to have a serious
conversation with, but a depressed Jack was not a sight Aster liked one bit.
He caught their blonde passenger in the rearview mirror with his eyes and gave
him a discreet glance.
Jack stretched and looked up when a pale hand patted his seat to get his
attention. Jack put the seat down a little further and almost ended with his
head on the lap of the little guy behind him, ”sup, sandy. ”
Sandy blew a little puff of smoke out the window and offered Jack a drag of his
joint with a dazes smile. Jack took a drag and felt his nerves relax. He had
been a little nervous about the trip and knew now that he needed a joint to
handle the last stretch before they arrived.
"Thanks Sandy, you always know what one need," he said with a wink and gave the
little junkie his pot back. Sandy nodded in a mixture of self-importance and
humility. Jack gave him a low-five and straightened up the seat again.
Aster nodding contentedly to himself and a smile crept onto his tanned face,
"seems like the road has taken us back, mates - one hour until the forest
cabin!"
"Yeah!" they all shouted relieved and Sandy made a new joint and made a round
to the other excitement. Sandy’s small round head nodded sleepy and a little
high, when Tooth accepted the joint as the first.
Her small doll-fingers held the joint carefully and handled it over as if she
was afraid to ruin it. She shook the shoulder long blue and green hair over her
shoulder, when the first drag had its effect and she sighed in content while
running her fingers through the strands.
Her amethyst eye-contacts became clouded and her wide smile burst into laughter
when North snatched the joint with a kiss and placed it between his own narrow
lips.
His big muscular chest hidden under the sweater swelled and sank like a machine
as he inhaled, and his pale face broke into a wide grin when the effect worked
its way through his system.
Jack observed North with a certain fascination as the big guy blew smoke rings
and Tooth stuck a hand through one of them.
Her grin became a girlish squeal when North had had enough of watching and
pulled her down on his lap. All laughed as they fought for fun and ended it
with a kiss. Jack took the joint and enjoyed the heat that rolled down his
throat and filled his lungs.
He handed it to Aster, but he refused.
"No good when I drive the car, mate" he said in a better mood, but still a
little tense.
"Oh, come on, don’t be such a sour-bunny," Jack teased and sneaked up to Aster.
The Australian watched him with a wry grin, as Jack took a puff and leaned
against him.
They harvested quite a bit of cat-calls from the back seat, when Jack exhaled
smoke into Aster's mouth and Aster took the vapors from the joint. Aster broke
the exchange by kissing Jack and got the younger to purr.
They broke quickly with a gasp when Aster almost drove off the road and Jack
returned grinning back to his seat. Aster sighed heavily, "showpony."
Jack just wiggled with his eyebrows, "everything for my rider. "
It made the others laugh like silly children and Jack got a few high-fives with
an open laughter.
Aster just shook his head, but felt relief wash over him. Keeping Jack happy
and busy had become a bit of an obsession for Aster. He was excited to go to
forest cabin with his boyfriend and friends of course, but at the same time, he
couldn’t wait to leave again.
This place was bad news for Jack and although he hid it well behind a facade of
jokes and smiles, Aster could see that it ate him up from inside. He switched
gears and caught Jack's hand to the other's surprise, but great joy and let the
younger snuggle up to him.
They had met two years earlier through Sandy who was a mutual friend of him and
North. Aster had been put in a state-funded program for troublesome youth, when
the problems with his temper had gotten out of hand and he had taken it out of
a man in the supermarket one day.
As the only other foreign nationalities on the center, Aster and North had
quickly found each and settled in mutual understanding. North was in the
program due to his record as the member of a local gang and was only one last
chance away from getting behind bars for good.
That all changed when North found the love of his life. He had told Aster that
he was going to quit his lifestyle for her sake, but Aster had just rolled his
eyes and made a bet that he too would take the full program, if North proved he
could finish it first.
Aster had been stunned and fully convinced, when North had reached the last
steps of the program and presented him for his girlfriend; the indie exchange
student Tooth at a party hosted by Sandy. In her name, North had promised to
quit drugs, leave his friends on the street behind and fisnish the complete
rehab program.
Both Aster and Sandy were in agreement that Toothianas’s company was the push
in the right direction the American-Russian guy had needed. North had even
started a degree in engineering, which they all had celebrated an evening
behind the curtain to the scene at Sandy's high school.
They had all ben caught by surprised by first-year, who had been about to hang
a couple of buckets of water up on the top of the stage with a rope - a prank
that would had made all the cheerleader's white shirts soaked and therefore
transparent during the next day's public rehearsal, before the midseason’s
battle against the rival school.
Sandy had recognized the teen as Jack Overland, knowing him all too well by
reputation, due to the fact that the freshman had made a name for himself as
Burgess high school's uncrowned trickster king.
Sandy had brought him in on their little party without hesitation and placed
him gently - but firmly next to Aster. One thing had led to another and soon
Jack had become a definitive part of the gang, as their smallest, but most
vibrant member and provider of fun.
North had troops up the last day after their autumn exams as another big
brother of the gang and take them out for hamburgers. They had all ended up at
Sandy's apartment afterwards, smoked a little bit of pot and listened to some
slow music, when Jack had remembered the cabin and invited them all up to check
it out with him.
Aster hadn’t heard of the cabin before, but their relationship was still new
and after asking deeper into it, it had quickly been proven that Jack hadn’t
known anything about the cabin either before a day earlier when he had been
called by his parent's old lawyer.
Jack had asked them with a light tone, as in a joke, but everyone knowing Jack
just the slightest could see that he wouldn't be able to make the journey
alone. Jack hadn't really been himself since the news of the cabin at all.
A song emerges clear and loudly through the speakers of the radio and Jack
turned it up, "hey, it's The Blizzard of '68 - that's our song!"
"Oh, kill me," Aster groaned, hating the song and Jack knew it.
Jack starts to sing for full throat and Tooth went along with her clear soprano
– soon they all bawled, not even trying to sing clean and Aster drop his
concerns and yelled along with them.
-
The old gravel crunch below the Land Rover’s wheels as Aster parked outside the
innocent-looking gas station.
They had seen enough road signs to know they were on the right track and passed
enough residential to know they would soon hit the small village before the
forestland, but everyone had agreed on being a little hungry after the joint
and needed some food, regardless of quality.
They have already eaten everything there was to find in the car and the vehicle
needed a refueling, so it was not like they had any other choice but to stop
anyway. Jack knew his boyfriend would have continued to drive until they
reached their destination or ran out of gas, but it had been a democratic vote
with four against one.
Car; 1. Australien; 0.
Sandy, Tooth and Jack went on the prowl for food, while North used the toilet
and Aster refueled. The little bell tolled over them when they opened the door
and Sandy waddled immediately toward the candy shelves, with the sleepy eyes
locked on a new brand called 'dream sand'.
Jack stuck his tongue out by the sight of Sandy eager to fill his arms with the
small golden packages, "Yo, Sandy, that stuff has been banned in five states
and can produce hallucinations. I don't think you need it."
Sandy examined one of the packages, then shrugged and took the whole box of the
station's dream sand inventory into his arms. Tooth made a timid attempt to
stop him, but Sandy had already continued for the remaining shelves and she was
left with wringing hands and walked up to the counter, while Jack took the
candy and soft drinks from the shelves behind her.
He briefly considered sticking something in his pocket, but Sandy had a credit
card of forged gold and moreover it wasn't worth the rush. Not today.
They placed their predation on the counter and threw a few Popsicle in
addition, before the young teen behind the counter got finished watching the
combined grill and baked good part of the disc. He put his book down and walked
up to them.
"Cute," Jack whispered, leaned over to Tooth and she giggled along with him
when the boy's ear turned red.
"Sorry, man," Jack grinned, trying to come back from his high-trip, "we'll take
five barbecue burger menus. One of them has to be without ketchup and two needs
to be vegetarian - do ya think North want his with extra bacon?"
The last was meant for Tooth and she nodded after brief consideration and took
over the order," come extra chili in mine, please and throw a couple of donuts
on top, then you're sweet. "
The guy whose name turned out to be "Jamie" according to the name tag, coded
their purchases into the machine with a nervous smile and started to scan their
side purchase.
Jack and Tooth secured that Sandy hadn't started eating the small bags in a
rush and went over to the grill section of the disc, when Jamie moved to make
their orders.
"Hey, you wouldn't know how far we're from the small village, would you? We
have taken the wrong turn five times now and these little roads are a
nightmare,” Jack complained teasingly and 'Jamie' smiled wryly.
"Umm, if you want to go to the town, you just have to follow the small road
straight ahead until you hit it. We don’t get many tourists here, but those we
do, always end up turning to the left when they reach the town sign and take
the small path. Just turn right and you will be there in no time. How long are
you guys counting on staying?"
"We don't really know yet," replied Tooth sweetly and discovered Jamie had a
map on the wall behind him. Jack took the first bag of burgers and followed
Jamie's eye as Aster and North placed themselves outside the stations the
window and talked.
Jamie gulped at the sight of the two guy’s visible muscles and intimidating
height, and Jack caught his attention with a snap of his finger, "hey, they're
good enough, they’re with us. I can personally vouch for the tanned one with
the sand-colored hair - we're just here to get a little vacation from the city.
Don’t worry."
Jamie seemed to be a little calmer now that he knew no one would run with his
petrol and handed Jack the last bag, "if you say so, as I said, we don’t get
that many tourists out here so all the outside tends to make an impression, you
know what I mean? Anyway, where are you guys going to spend the night? One of
the small cabins along the forest, or the motel outside the village? "
"A forest cabin," Jack replied and began on his Popsicle. The cold ran through
him like a brain-freeze and woke him up from the previous joint.
He caught a glimpse of the title of Jamie's abandoned book and leaned over the
counter, to be sure, "hey, I didn’t know bigfoot was around here - have any of
your local hunters found any tracks?"
Jamie's eyes brightened and he leaned secretive toward Jack, "they haven't
found anything, but between you and me I think they should start looking
further north. A creature that big must either be drawn south for the winter -
which isn't possible now because of the dense city growth - or north to
overwinter. My guess is that he'd wanders to Canada. Maybe Alaska."
Jack had only meant it as an icebreaker, but could recognize an enthusiast when
he saw one. He tried to keep a straight face and nodded gravely in agreement to
Jamie in a manner he hoped was convincing.
"What about the forests around here? Any ... unusual inhabitant?"
Jamie's eyes suddenly became uncertain and looked down, "do you want to pay in
cash or card?”
Jack blinked. Not sure what had caused the sudden change of subject, but chose
not to comment on it. Maybe he had said something wrong?
He saw Aster waving outside the window and Jamie encoded their petrol as
included. The price got just a bit higher, when Sandy returned from his sweet
loot and toppled small packets of dream sand and other silly snack brands over
the counter. Making Jamie bend down on his side of the counter to pick up the
onces that had fallen to the floor.
Sandy made gestures indicating he was ready to party and it gave Jack an idea.
"Hey Jamie, we're planing on making a little party when we have been installed
in our cabin - why not gather some friends and come down and see us? We have
beer!"
Jamie bit his cheek and looked at the box of beer they had put on the counter,
"I'm not sure I can sell it to you without ID and -"
"Let me, fellas," North interrupted. He pulled his ID out from his jacket and
proved he was a legitimate twenty-five. Jamie took his card without a word and
North tousled his hair with a laugh, more than used to the reaction his size
had on people, "hey, we do not bite, we are just here to have fun, come see us
, Okay?"
Jamie just nodded and Jack doubted that the little brunette dared to do
otherwise.
He gave Jack his number and Tooth gave Jack a look he chose to ignore. He
helped carrying the food out to the car and left the the payment to Sandy, who
showed off his golden Express card out with a wry grin.
"Guess who just scored the number of the clerk from the tank station?" Jack
asked teasing and jumped in next to Aster. The Australian gave him a look that
said 'you better be kidding for your own good, mate' and accepted his
vegetarian burger.
"Should I be worried?"
Jack unwrapped his own burger and showed him the number Jamie had written on a
sticky note, "he looked as if he was bored out of his mind, so I asked him to
gather his friends and get out and party with us. I think it'll be great. "
Aster rolled his green eyes, "your cabin, your bill, mate. "
Jack took a bite of his burger and almost choked on it, "ew, Tooth, I think
I've got your vegi-chilli burger!"
They quickly devoured their rightly designated burgers and checked their
phones, as the signal disappeared and returned for every turn and twist. Jack
opened his window, despite Aster's protests and tried to find the sun above
them, but the forests barrier of dead leaves was almost as solid as a roof.
He blinked confused as an ornament on a tree blew past him.
"Hey, did you guys ...? "
Another decorating rushed past him and Jack got Aster to slow down. They
stopped and Jack whistled, "wow ... we've really reached the American
wilderness."
Tooth opened the backseat window and stared out along with the others. Aster
left the front seat and they left the car to look at the phenomenon. A pale
horse skull hung decoratively from the wide, moss-covered tree trunk. Ratteled
qietly in the wind.
Small amulets and faded flowers hung around it and Jack notice the small bones
and bells that hung in the tree branches above them. They clattered quietly in
the wind.
"Any of you who have ever seen something like this before?" Aster asked
quietly, like he wouldn’t interfere with the…whatever it was supposed to be and
Tooth shook her head.
"Not quite, but ... maybe it's a local superstition? We have lots of small
temples and god houses in India. Perhaps this is a shrine?"
"It could be modern art," North suggested without sounding particularly certain
on the matter and Jack touched one of the small bells, "it's a little bit like
being in the The Witch Blair project, don’t you think? UUUUuuuuuUUUU."
Tooth shuddered immediately and Sandy rolled his eyes, smiling by the sound of
Jacks silly imitation of a spooky ghost howl. Aster scoffed and returned to the
car, "witch or not, I think that we should get the key to the cabin before it
gets too dark to see a as much as a groundhog on the road. It’s already cold as
in - Jack, drop it!"
Jack had been about to sneak up behind Tooth in order to scare the shit out of
her and put up his hands in mocking Innocence with a large grin.
They all returned to their seats in the car and the three backseat passengers
continued their shrine discussed in the back, while Jack and Aster observed how
the horse skulls became more frequent in the forest picture the closer they got
to the village.
Jack bit his lip and Aster knew that look all too well. He placed his big hand
over Jack's smaller and much paler one and lowered his voice for only the two
of them to hear, "are you sure you want to do this? We could always go to the
motel instead. You don’t have to do this."
"It's just a cabin," Jack retored dismissive and was about to remove his hand,
but Aster he held him in place.
"Frost ..."
Jack looked down at the nickname. Aster only called him “Frost” when he really
wanted to get through to him and it had been their thing, the same way that
Jack called him “Bunny” when he wanted to tease him.
"It's just a forest cabin," Jack repeated unwavering, "so what if it's all my
parents left me before they abandoned me forever?"
The caustic tone and emotional anger that have sneaked into Jack's voice, made
them all look up and North placed a big hand on his shoulder.
"Jack, you do not have to talk about it, if you do not want to - we are here
for you. We can wait if you are not ready to come here."
Jack nodded gratefully, but continued to stare straight ahead, "I know, but I
don’t want to have the cabin hanging over me like this anymore."
He turned around in order to talk more freely and slammed a half-hearted, but
genuine smile up on his pale face, "let's just go out there and party, okay?
Make some good memories before we all disappear in the wind after summer and
sell it for what it's worth - okay? "
Tooth stretched to hug Jack and North fished their frame of beer up from the
bottom of the car, "cheers on that, Jack."
He gestured to make a toast and they unbuttoned their beers, "nostrovia! "
"Nostrovia!" they all cried, all except Aster, who insisted on driving sober,
and bottomed their beers.
The Land Rover stopped in front of a hunting office and Jack ran in to pick up
the keys along with North. Aster leaned out and searched the worn, but festive
sign that showed towards the edge of the woods, where the mark of four forest
cabins lay scattered on an area of seventeen kilometer.
"Seems like our nearest neighbor is the forest," Aster said hesitantly and
Tooth leaning forward with a smirk.
"well, then you don’t have to fear waking up any neighbors when you get Jack to
scream your name. "
Aster’s face turned red and he waved her off in embarrassment, while Tooth
laughed behind him along with Sandy, "stop it you two, you both know he's only
just turned seventeen."
"It was just for fun," she calmed him as if she were his mother and sobered up,
"but seriously, if you make Jack upset on this trip, you're gonna be sorry."
"Don’t worry; this trip is for Jack's sake, we all agreed on that. It’s gonna
be a trip filled with good memories, parties and fun, and nothing else - trust
me", he assured them both and gripped a little harder than necessary around the
steering wheel.
"Trust me," he muttered to himself.
They acted as nothing when North and Jack returned. Jack rattled triumphant
with the keys and they drove with good spirit towards the edge of the woods.
-
The cabin turned out to be what an honest and down to earth American might call
"habitable."
The roof sheets had fallen off several places and the rusty gutter seems to
have become home to a couple of owl nests, who looked like they weren’t
interested in moving any time soon.
The wooden frames that held the forest cabin together was dark and crooked with
age and clearly infested with termites. Mushrooms climbed the brick blocks in
extension of the climbing plants and made the place almost one with the nature.
All the windows were dark, but intact and all as one covered by a grid of iron
bars, as if the house's earlier owners had tried to keep something inside. The
chimney were cold, but seemed to work and the many old apple trees hung over
the house's lawn like old crocked men and overshadowed the sun in the cold
November afternoon.
Jack couldn’t see any horse skulls, but many of the trees had incised faces and
he shuddered with a laugh. Perhaps this wouldn’t turn out to be quite as bad as
he had thought.
None of the others comment on the forest cabins decay out of respect for Jack,
but still ended up muttering something in jest in the end, when Jack laughed
and broke the tension with an excited, "what a dump!"
Aster opened the door with the key and the gang took a step back when the
stuffy air escaped the cabin and dragged the smell of something stale out with
it. Jack squeezed in as the first and took in the sight.
All surfaces seemed to have life of their own in the form of either bare carved
wood or stone and the narrow hallway culminating in a combined kitchen and
living room, where all the furniture and lamps had been covered with white
sheets.
"Creepy," Aster whispered and began to strip the furniture. Heavy oak furniture
out of woven wood and home-made pillows appeared under. The kitchen counters
were bare except from a dusty oil lamp of ceramic and Tooth lit it with a
lighter.
It lit up the room and chased all the shadows away, creating a cozy atmosphere
that made them all relax and take a better likening to the place. She moved on
to the other lights around the living room, while North checked the cabinets
and found an electrical outlet.
The electricity stayed absent even after his third try and he went outside to
find the house's generator.
Jack kicked a pine cone that had strayed into the cabin and walked across the
many heavy carpets that covered the rough wooden planks below. Pale rectangles
on the walls testified that there had once been pictures and maybe even photos,
but they were nowhere to be found and Jack decided that, just like other
personal artifact, they had probably been removed by the police and they too
weren’t worth looking for.
Tooth examined the gas stove while Sandy threw himself in one of the deep sofas
in front of the fireplace. Jack played tentatively with the piled firewood to
see if he could get a fire started, while Tooth got herself orientated in the
kitchen and returned to the living room, in time for the unannounced group
meeting.
North returned from his search for a generator and turned on the power socket
again. They all cheered when all the lamps and a single electric fan came to
life and Aster returned from his inspection of the first floor.
"Three rooms, but only two of them have beds," Aster informed slowly, trying to
get an idea how to solve that problem, when it solved itself in form of Sandy.
The little sweater and scarf clad teens made it clear that he wanted the couch
instead of the bed-less room.
The others protested, but Sandy had already claimed the deep yellow couch and
stuffed his stash and packages with 'dream sand' down between the cushions. The
other could nothing but honor his wishes and went out to get their stuff from
the car.
Jack took the stairs three steps at a time to Aster's great amusement and threw
himself into the master bedroom to the right. Aster stopped in the door to the
sight of Jack jumping on the bed.
He wasn't sure whether it was a good idea to share a room with the little
joker, but didn’t know how he was going to make that point without hurting
Jack. They have been dating for a little over two years now and spent night's
together with cuddling, but now that Jack was officially seventeen, Aster
feared that Jack maybe expected something more.
He knew with certainty that he loved Jack, but would it be wise to put Frost up
to bigger expectations than he was ready for?
Jack discovered him in the door frame and beckoned a flirty finger at him with
an impish smile, "Bunny."
Aster looked behind himself to make sure that Sandy still took a nap on the
couch downstairs and North and Tooth were preoccupied with their own unpacking
in the next room and closed the door.
Jack looked up at him looking like a little angel on the bed, but his smile
belonged definitely to that of a devil.
Aster smiled wryly and allowed himself to be led up onto the bed by Jack. He
caught the scent of Jack's hair and breathed in the deep aroma of autumn and
the mint shampoo that Jack to like to buy.
Jack seemed to become impatient and turned his head up to catch Aster's lips.
Aster let him and answered the kiss. He let his tongue run over Jack's lower
lip and Jack invited him inside by opening the mouth with a small sigh.
Aster loved the taste of Jack, the same way he loved chocolate. It was sweet,
full and he couldn’t get enough of it. He might be allergic to chocolate, but
Jack, he could never quit.
The smaller sneaked his arms around his neck and caressed his short hair. Let a
hand run through it and increased the depth of the kiss. Aster's thoughts
became blurred and he lost himself in Jack.
Slight redness had spread across Jack's cheeks and he groaned hotly when
Aster's hands began to wander and touch his chest. Jack squealed with a smile
when the other’s hands got to the hem of his jeans and lifted the blue hoodie
to run his hands upwards again.
Why Jack insisted on wearing baggy hoodies, Aster would never get, but he
always appreciated the sight of Jacks tight jeans, when the other had his back
to him. He let a hand run over Jack's behind and got a groan in return.
"Bunny, wait," Jack whispered needy and Aster broke off the kiss with a few
inches to breath.
"Yeah?"
"Lean back," Jack whispered breathless and Aster allowed himself to drop back
on the bed with Jack sitting astride. He was about to tell Jack he didn’t need
to go further if he wasn’t ready, but Jack brought him to silence with a kiss
and placed two fingers over his eyelids.
Making him close his eyes.
Aster had no chance guessing what Jack was planning, but enjoyed the feeling of
Jack sitting over him and sighed heavily when Jack ran his hands over his toned
chest. He felt Jack lean forward and waited for what he had in mind when a
flash brightened behind his eyelids and a camera clicked.
Aster opened his eyes to the sight of a grinning Jack who held a Polaroid
camera.
"You're too much," Aster groaned while Jack aerated the small photo with an
easy laugh and threw himself down next to him with the photo in outstretched
hand.
Aster groaned in embarrassment as his own heated face frozen in a pleasurably
moan came into view and he tried to snatch it. Jack was faster and pulled a
small ball-pen from his backpack and wrote as he spoke, "Needimus Bunnymus." He
smiled proudly and plastered the photo over the bed with tape.
"Take it down, Frost."
"Hey, we wanted to make some good memories, right?" Jack insisted grinning and
clicked the camera again with a silly grimace. Aster rolled his eyes of the
photo of him scowling and Jack looking like a retard.
It came up hanging next to the other and Jack wrote proudly, 'Two years and
five months!' on the small photo. Aster examined the camera.
"Where did you even get this camera, aren’t they expensive, mate?" Aster asked
confused and Jack threw it all but gently back into his backpack.
"My foster-father has tons of this shit lying around the house – he'll hardly
notes that I borrowed one or two of his silly gadgets."
Aster watched him gently and stroked one of Jack's wild locks of hair, "say, is
he still picking on you?"
"Every fucking day," Jack sighed and turned around like a little seal, making
himself curl up into Aster with a hand under his head, "anyway, thanks for
coming to pick me up. Without a ride I would barely have reached the street
corner before they noticed I’d ditched the house. You know they were
considering putting bars on my window, right?"
Aster's eyes darted to their own window, where iron bars peered in, "seems like
they share this trait with some other people of yours…"
"Fuck them," Jack retorted quietly and cuddled up to him, "fuck parents and
fuck foster care. I can go up here if I want to - you're still up for a party,
right? You’re not gonna skip are you?"
”Not on Ya nelly,” Aster replied and remind himself to remove those bars as
soon as possible. Jack hadn’t come up here to be reminded of his foster
parents. Truth to be told, those two were better suited as jailers than as
parents.
Aster had only met them once and already learned of Mr. Jokul's fondness for
handguns on close range.
Off course, kidnapping Jack in the dead of night, hadn't the best impression to
give them either, but Jack would only have to stay with them until he was of
legal age. Jack hated them more than anything and Aster didn’t really feel like
he owned them anything either.
"Hey, lovebirds - we found a TV!"
Both Jack and Aster straighten up at North's shout and went down to the living
room to see what all the commotion was about. As promised, an old TV was
revealed and brought forward from its spot over in the corner and Jack thought
to himself, that he'd probably would have gone straight past it, thinking it
was a covered table, if no one had lifted the sheet.
North gave them a excited glance before he put the plug into the outlet and
turned one of the buttons.
Aster hadn’t really come all the way up here to watch TV, but it could
certainly help to get Jack's thoughts of the topic of parents and keep him busy
with mindless entertainment until the place was sold and far behind them.
The TV received an unclear image and North lifted triumphant a fist in victory.
The victory turned out to be short lived, when a burning smell filled the
living room and the television produced a small black cloud of smoke with a
loud 'poof!'
Everyone jumped in shock and almost turned over the couch Sandy was laying on,
when they all hurried back to get away from the fire. Aster ran for the fire
extinguisher he had brought for emergencies and North tried killing the fire
with the dusty sheet, which soon caught on fire to.
Both Tooth and Jack shrieked as little girls and grabbed each other while the
others got the fire under control in a mess of foam and burned carpets. The all
watched the dodged catastrophe, paralyzed and frozen in shock, before they all
burst into laughing.
"Uhhh, you were right – we’re haunted by a ghost TV! " Aster teased and tickled
Jack, "uhhhh! "
Jack laughed in cramps and Aster threw them both down on the couch. Tooth dried
a tear of laughter and climbed in after them. Sandy was lifted from his spot to
lay on everyone’s lap, as North returned from the kitchen and took the last
inch on the long dusty couch.
The gang slammed their dirty boots up on the worn coffee-table and opened the
new frame beer North had brought, silently celebrating their first day in the
wild and watching the smoking TV.
Jack took a picture for the wall of fame upstairs.
Chapter End Notes
     inspired by the horror movie "The Hallow" (2015)
     I will update a chapter every friday
***** He will not see me stopping here *****
Chapter Notes
     hey people
     the store that fixing my broken laptop and lend me another one for
     the time being and i think it's working for now and i'll be able to
     post as scheduled
     hope you enjoy - comments are always appreciated
     =====================================================================
See the end of the chapter for more notes
They had gathered at sunset.
Jack had led them into the woods without a genuine destination and ended up
stopping by a small rocky spur with view on the overgrown undergrowth that
stretched below them in all its glory. It was a beautiful, but sad sight with
all the vegetation withered and the trees half-naked.
The fallen leaves ran in clusters, assembled in the mud puddles and a small
steady woodland stream led its part of the brown and golden leaves deeper into
the forest. The sun was nothing more than a glimpse up over the foliage roof
and Jacks smiled.
It wasn’t the usual wryly smile he wore with a twinkle in his eye a seconds
before a new funny idea or harmless prank had taken root in his head.
It was a smile. Maybe only an imitation of one. A smile witch only purpose was
to cover up a deep sadness and a valiant attempt to find something meaningful
in the situation. He turned to them and put his hands in the blue hoodies
front-pocket.
He rocked slightly on his feet while he worked his way up to say something.
"You know ... I'm not good at stuff like this, but ... I can’t tell you guys
how much it means to me that you’re here with me," he admitted a little
embarrassing and got encouragingly smile from the others, clearly telling
without words, that they would give him all the time in the world to say what
he needed.
He nodded to himself.
"The truth is, I don’t think I would have been able to do this alone. It ... I
don’t know. Just, thanks guys."
Aster stepped forward and placed an arm around him. Jack exhaled a trembling
breath and pulled an old photo out from his pocket. Aster knew from Jack's own
mouth that it had been one of the only things his parents had left behind,
before they left for good and without so much as a trace of where they went.
It was a simple photo taken at the maternity ward of child Jack, his parents
and his newborn sister Jill. A little sister Jack had never known.
"My family will probably never acknowledge me ... and maybe never even come
back either, but that's okay," Jack continued and stroked the wrinkled and worn
photo with a thumb, "but maybe family isn't something you're born into."
He looked up, "but maybe it's something you choose ..."
They all watched as he fished Tooth's lighter out from the same pocket and
ignited the small flame. The fire gripped the corner of the photo and his
became illuminated by the flames chemical colors.
Jack and the others watched as the fire got the photo to seethe and colors to
fade before they turned to ashes and disappeared forever.
Jack let it drop and let it disappear down the cliff and out of his life. He
inhaled deeply and exhaled. He felt as if he had just thrown something very
heavy of his shoulders and the weight that had burdened his blood and lungs
finally had lifted up and given him something back.
Aster embraced him and the other patted him on the shoulder. North almost broke
his spine with a bear hug. They told him he had done well, that he was free now
and he believed them.
Darkness fell silent as the sun reached the forest floor and the sounds of the
night took its hold. Tooth looked down toward the cliff and met two eyes.
She gasped and alerted the others.
A doe stared back at them, shook her ears and ambled of. North laughed and
Tooth placed her hands over her red face in embarrassment. North kissed her on
the nose and led them back to the forest cabin where the fire sent smoke up
through the chimney and Sandy’s delivery of pizza from the village's only pizza
place, waiting for them.
-
Behind them the ash and the last corner of the photo fell still and silent
through the air.
A little corner of the photo fell quickly on the ground at the bottom of the
cliff and the fire that had gripped it went out in the wind. A small fraction
of a child's face smiled up from the forest floor.
A quiet wind stroke through the woods and howled lowly. The photo shook a few
times before the wind caught it and sent it far above the forest floor.
Darkness had now fallen in earnest and the glossy photo flashed like a
dragonfly above the forest lake and soon passed the stream of fallen leaves,
branches and wet soil. The small photo’s trip ended abruptly when it fell into
the forest stream. The water gurgled softly in the evening darkness and took
the photo away from this place.
The gentle muddy stream carried it with it and brought it deeper into the
forest where the last sunlight was suffocated by the trees' dense crown.
-
It was a cold and pale morning when Tooth got out of bed. Her natural clock had
woken her before anyone else – a clock that had been evident ever since she
started dentist school, where early hours where law – and she rummaged a hand
through her striped hair.
The window testified that it had rained last night and quiet dripping could be
heard falling on the window-glass. She stroked her face and looked down at
North. Or “Nicholas”, as he was actually named.
She didn’t know quite where “North” had come from, but everyone that saw him
seemed to be thinking of the cold harsh north and he seemed to have taken a
likening to the nickname. North had once revealed to her that he might have
been born in Siberia, but couldn’t remember more about the place than his
three-year brain could recall.
His bond to Russia was only though blood and family, and all the traditions and
language he knew was either lost when his parents decreased or transformed into
some American fusion celebrations and way of speaking, his aunt had to be
blamed for.
The only other connection he had ever had with the old harsh land was what he
had gained from his other Russian-American friends or gang members. But all
that was behind him now.
Tooth always felt a sting of pride knowing it was her who had brought him out
of gang criminality.
That it was her love and trusting hand that had gotten him back on track, made
him realize what he wanted in life and got him back from wherever future gangs
lead their victims to.
She kissed his cheek and pulled the covers a little higher, in order to cover
his bare legs and chest. He had a silly habit of kicking his sheets off and she
traced a finger over his naked skin.
Just as his arms, his collarbone was covered in tattoos and although they made
it difficult for North to get through a job interview, she couldn’t imagine him
without them. She knew every tattoo by heart and decided to get one when they
were married.
North had already plans of moving a business to Dubai near her family when she
finished her dentistry education. They would go there to inspect the
competition this summer and she had planned to introduce him to her parents
Rashmi and Haroom.
Her parents already knew everything there was to know about North from the
photos and Skype conversations they had shared and Tooth’s older sister Vanish
was more than excited to meet her boyfriend and fiancé. No, Tooth wasn’t afraid
to bring North home to India.
Her parents would understand and respect her choice.
And North’s plan wasn’t just a shot in the dark either. He had thought it all
through and with the help of his roommate Phil; they'd gotten a business
kickstarted and started the production of their environmentally friendly toy
brand.
She was in a light mood, despite the dreary weather, as she dressed herself in
a light red sari and made her way down to the kitchen. Sandy was still heavily
asleep on the couch, almost completely hidden under the many layers of quilts
and blankets, but it was a common sight for all of them and the fact that Sandy
was still asleep, just meant that the couch was to his likening.
Tooth decided to make omelets, toast and bacon. The radio was blaring, but
decent and she danced around a bit to an old pop song, while she placed toast
in the toaster and found a plastic bowl she could beat the eggs in. She added a
little chili and mushrooms when nobody watched.
The omelets were well underway when heavy footsteps could be heard on the
stairs and North arrived in nothing but pajama pants and kisses her behind the
ear. She giggled, as his stubbles tickled her and she let him hold around her
from behind, while she worked on the gas stove.
"Smells good," said his in a soft hum and she smiled.
"Now we just need to wake the rest of the house - do you think it’s possible?"
"If it is just half as difficult as to understand word your older sister is
saying over skype, then I think we won’t have any luck until lunch."
He looked out the window, where the weather seemed to clear up a bit, Tooth
followed his gaze with a soft voice," I was just thinking on our trip to
Dubai."
She could feel he smiled behind her, "yes, you will probably have to teach me
how to cook before we go – I get to work at home and you're going to be leaving
poor me in the morning. I would be bad housewife, if I cannot even make
breakfast."
She gave him grinningly an elbow in the stomach and he hugged her to keep her
arms in place. "I mean it," he insisted, "I can’t do anything other than bacon,
fruitcakes and biscuits. What will your parents say?"
"They will say I made a good choice," she replied and kissed him before she
stuck a piece of toast into his mouth, "I'll wake the others."
North chewed his toast with an acknowledging nod, recognizing her good cooking
skills and lean on the kitchen counters, while she tried to get some life into
Sandy with a breakfast plate.
"But it is going to be computer work the first while. Phil has got the website
up and running, but the business itself will first arrive at the street scene
when the sales rises. If we want to be successful, Dubai is probably the best
place to start business."
He made a thoughtful gaze and caught her before she reached the stairs, "but if
you'd rather stay and extend your education, it can wait along with our plans
for Dubai, Tooth. You know that right?"
"North," she began, but he beat here to it with something that could resemble
shame on his face.
"I know I'm too old for you, but –"
She stopped him with a kiss and forced him to look into her eyes. They had had
this conversation before and she would have none of it now.
"North – love, I like the plan as it is, okay? Just wake up the boys and eat
your toast. Then you’re sweet."
"Yes Mom," he replied teasingly and got a slap on his pajamas-clad behind as
she walked back to the kitchen. North went up the stairs and found both Aster
and Jack sleeping heavily, limps tangled into each other. He decided that they
could use a little light and opened the curtains.
Both groaned in protest and empty threats as the light poured in and woke them
effectively.
They arrived sleepy and morning tired, but dressed, for breakfast and Sandy
whistling at their tousled hair.
"Shut up, Sanderson," Aster muttered and grabbed a plate of food.
Sandy just smiled and ate one of the small dream sand packages they had bought
at the gas station. The candy sparkled and sputtered when it came in contact
with his tongue and was almost too sour to eat, but he was already hooked.
Sandy often got hooked on things. Friends, candy, hash ...
As the group’s stoner, pothead, junkie – you name it – he was often unfocused
and sleepy, but in many ways he was the smiling and jovial glue that held the
little bunch of people together. His family was one of the richest businesses
in New York, which gave him money and loose rein to do as he pleased and when
he pleased.
His father didn’t exactly approve of his lifestyle, but nor did he expected
anything from him. Mr. Lunar, CEO and man in his own million-concern and
billion companies, had plenty of sons born before and better suited to managing
his empire than Sandy and it suited the blonde just fine.
It gave him all the time he needed to enjoy life, hanging out with his friends
in high school and leisure. Sandy had met Aster and North when his mother had
sent him to rehab and it had created an unbreakable friendship between the
three.
Sandy was used to having loose friends, who only hang out with him to get
influence with his father, his endless storage of pot or ride along on Sandy’s
golden money carpet, but neither North or Aster had demanded anything like
that, nor seemed interested in his family liaisons.
They were two simple, but good guys, who just need something to hold onto in
life. Sandy had decided to pay their friendship back tenfold, by expanding
their social circle in search for the two guys special someones and found
Toothiana in his father phonebook.
They had hung out at one of his father’s charity parties once and he had soon
invited her to stay at his place and finish her education there. Sandy really
liked Tooth. She was a sensitive, but tough girl, who wasn’t afraid of anybody
and more than willing to see the best in even the worst.
Sandy had introduced her to North and known it was chemistry at first sight.
North had quickly turned his whole life around to become what Tooth deserved
and Sandy had been more than satisfied to observed from the sideline as North
got out of his addiction and gang activities.
Three had become four, which was good enough for Sandy – the more the merrier –
but it soon became clear that Aster had problems. He had received treatment for
his anger incidents and dangerous temperament, but even Sandy could see that
treatment wasn't enough to help a guy like Aster.
The Australian needed someone who could keep him busy, if not saving him from
drowning in his own antisocial hell and actually convinces him to leave the
cave his apartment had become. The hermit needed someone who could keep him
going and could get on his nerves without being scared away when he snapped.
Someone who wouldn’t leave when Aster had his anger periods, or end up getting
scared away because of his temper.
A difficult match to find when Aster was gay as well.
Sandy had almost given up when they had encountered Jackson Overland. Jack had
just laughed at Aster, when the Australian had called his prank on the
cheerleader’s behalf childish and Sandy had seen the sun rise. Jack was an
unscrupulous joker who always knew how to get the party started wherever he
went and how to get even the sourest people to loosen up.
The rumor said that Jack had never been afraid of a challenge and that he
possessed a special talent to soften all who came after him, when he had come
to step on their toes. Sandy knew it was fate when he also remembered that Jack
was gay.
Sandy lit a joint, watching his little gang from his seat on the couch. They
started making pancakes and Jack carved a face into his and goofed around
Aster, to North and Tooth's great amusement.
Sandy went up to join them and shared his joint. He knew it wasn't particularly
nice to regard his friends as a personal project, or keep them close to him
with hash, but pot was only addictive in very few cases as in his own, and his
friends weren’t with him because they were addicted, but because they liked
him.
The hash helped of course - he gave it to them for free and held them close to
him with the joyful existence that marijuana gave people, but it was their
friendship that counted.
He liked his crew. He liked to see them succeed and although he never spoke,
they seemed to know it. He knew they would soon grow out of teenhood and spread
for all winds, but he liked to get the most of it and fear for the future
later.
North patted him on the back and Jack gave him the pancake he had just turned.
“Is it me or does this flapjack look like Jack,” Aster asked with humor as his
boyfriends ruined another pancake and Jack turned his burned pancake over.
"You’re a flapjack – Sandy tell him.” Sandy grinned and Jack gave him the new
pancake, “you said it, Sandy.”
They continued to fool around until Jack turned his pancake too eagerly and got
it stuck to the ceiling. Aster took a chair and North decided to breakfast/
brunch was over.
"Okay no more wishy washy, Jack and I found out that the estate agent will come
and take look at the cabin in a week, so we will have to fix this place up a
bit, if Jack is to get something of it. "
The others agreed without protest and North clapped his hands together, "okay,
I think we allocate some work tasks and see how far we get. Aster, examine what
paint, wood varnish or else we have to buy tomorrow when we go to the village.
Jack, you remove the bars on the windows. Tooth, you see what is worth keeping
around here and I move the furniture out to shed – Sandy, you provide
refreshments for all and see what you want to make for dinner, yes?"
They made a ring with his hands on top of each other and made a short battlecry
before they moved on to their own tasks.
Jack went as North had instructions to find a ladder and tools, while Aster
went out to examine the cabin exterior condition. He already knew that the
rooms upstairs needed a new layer of paint and examined one of the windows
where the old paint had started to peel off.
Tooth moved around Sandy who went into the kitchen and began her own work by
collecting house trinkets together. North lifted one of the armchairs as
weighed it nothing and carried it out through the door. Tooth shook her head in
simply amazement and examined the carpets.
Some of them seemed to be of some local crafts, while others looked like
imitations of Persian carpets. She rolled the loose ones together, removed the
one they had burned during the (haunted – uhh!) TV incident and threw them out
or stored for later, till after she had had a chance to clean them.
She reached for the biggest and last one in the middle of the living room, but
discovered that it wouldn’t let go of the floor. She tugged tentatively at a
corner and made a confused face. North returned and saw her fight with the
carpet.
"Just let it be, Tooth. It is probably one of those rugs people glue to the
planks. My old polish neighbor had such a rug."
Tooth let go of the rug, but kept watching it with clear confusion. It wasn’t
even placed straight on the floor or seemed to match any corners, "why would
anyone glue a rug to the floor like that? "
North made an embarrassing expression as if he was recalling something
unpleasant, "well, sometimes people just like their carpet to stay where they
are and other times ... you glue the carpet to the floor to cover up a stain
that cannot be removed by planer."
Tooth wasn’t sure whether North was referring to a stain as a 'stain' or blood
and decided to let it be. She shrugged, "okay, I can’t really do anything about
a stain like that and the carpet actually looks good enough as it is. Do you
think it's authentic?"
-
Aster stroked the cabin's outside wood frames and continued on to the bricks,
with increasing amazement.
He ended up with a hand on one of the window lists and rubbed his thumb and
forefinger against each other. His hand had been smudged by a black type of
dust that seemed to cover everything like a light film.
He sniffed it and found a slight smell of mold ... and maybe ashes? He looked
around to see if anyone was looking and tasted it. He lifted surprised an
eyebrow when a sweet taste filled his mouth. Was it something chemically?
He examined the grass, but it was too wet to prove anything and he moved on
toward the small shed bordering the cabin.
The old room was overloaded with floating dust particles, but none of them were
particularly black or looked like ashes. All the surfaces though.... Aster made
a handprint on the old bench and watched the cabin humming generator.
North had clearly poured petrol in it last night and a half-filled jerry can
was ready to fuel it again later today.
The many cables attached to the generator pulled long streaks in the black dust
that covered the dirt floor and Aster could hear it crunch under his combat
boots. Was it dust or sand now?
He found more on the walls and it led him to the shed’s fuse box. He opened it
curiously and found no cobwebs or white dust as expected, but more black sand.
Aster had never seen such a phenomenon before and he of all people should know
stuff like this.
The long periods of drought in Australia's wilds had a special way of moving
dust and sand, bringing it everywhere and settle on everything – but this was
no dry desert or Western Australia. This was a forest. A moist and muggy
forest, just to make it more confusing.
What made this type of dust?
His thoughts were led back to his surroundings when he overturned a pile of
iron pipe and an old tarpaulin slid to the side. Aster blinked when an old
tractor tire appeared. A strong noose hung from the rubber wheel and that gave
Aster an idea.
Jack was well under way to the first rows of bars of his and Aster's bedroom
when he heard Aster whistle.
Jack threw the two bars into the wheelbarrow below him and placed the tool in
the belt he had found in the toolshed, before he climbed down. He found Aster
on the other side of the house near one of the old trees and he seemed to glow
with anticipation.
Jack walked up to him and followed the Australian’s glance. A tractor wheel of
rubber, hang from the tree thickest branch and swung easily as the wind. Jack
brightened up like the sun over Antarctica and ran ecstatic the rest of the way
to him.
Aster led him to the wheel and started to push. Jack laughed and helped to gain
more height and they soon lost themselves in their games.
Both were too preoccupied with their own joy, to notice the doe at the edge of
the woods. Its dark eyes followed the two people attentively. At once it turned
both its ear to the left where a disturbance had made a branch break. It ran as
fast as it could.
It didn’t get far.
Chapter End Notes
     inspired by the horror movie "The Hallow" (2015)
     I will update a chapter every friday
***** To watch his woods fill up with snow *****
Chapter Notes
     alright the borrowed laptop broke down...i think it's like with those
     guys that can't touch a plant without killing it - im kinda like that
     with technology, yeah.
     fortunate for me the store told me it couldn't have been my fault and
     lent me another one - i love second chances - wish me luck that i
     don't kill this one to
     hope you enjoy - comments are more than welcome
     =====================================================================
See the end of the chapter for more notes
All of them had taken a break to behold their finished work.
The cabin was bathed in the sun's last rays and reflected the light in the now
abraded and bar-less windows. All the surfaces had been hosed down to made
ready for the paint and the cabin's wood-frames seemed cleaner and the bricks
brighter, now that all the black dust had been swept away.
The worst of the forest overhang branches and thorns had been cut down and the
tire-swing delivered something homey and sweet to the garden in its own raw
manner. All the surfaces shone freshly and inviting – everything just seemed
far more residential than previously.
Even the small shed seemed cozy.
"Otlichno. Maybe we should celebrate it," North said well satisfied with the
day's work and emptied the beer he had been drinking. They have all taken a
step back to look at their work and unbuttoned refreshments and Sandy had
remained faithful to his role as their Water-boy and dumped their beer cans in
a bucket of ice from the freezer.
He nodded allegedly in response to North's proposal and Jack smiled, "sounds
like a plan. We can celebrate another party for the inside of the cabin when
it’s done."
Aster pushed Jack's hood down over his head and Jack beat his hands away with a
smirk. Jack couldn’t help it. He loved parties and the more the better.
"We promised Jamie and his friends a party," Tooth added cheerily and clapped
her hands in a sudden impulse, "we could drive up to the village and have a
pre-party there and then finish it off here. It would be like a barbecue."
Aster hummed, "just without the grill - I have searched the shed and there’s no
trace of anything that resembles a bloody grill. It’s as if all iron around
here’s either rusted or torn apart."
"I’ll call them!” Jack shouted back to them. He had already left the group long
before any of them had had a chance to notice and picked up his phone in the
living room. He searched for the spot on the site that had the most signal and
found that he had two lines if he placed himself in front of the cabin, stood
on one leg and placed his hand on door’s iron handle – all at the same time.
Weird.
Jamie took his phone at the second attempt and sounded to be in a place with a
TV in the background, "Jamie, here."
"Hey, man – it’s me, Jack. We talked about throwing a party when we met on the
tank station, remember?"
"Oh, yeah," came it enthusiastic from Jamie at the other end, "I just thought
you guys were joking – but okay! I gather my people and you gather yours, where
would you guys meet?"
"Is there a place in the village where we can hang out and maybe get something
to eat?" Jack asked, not quite familiar with the party procedure, when it came
to village teens living by the woods. Who knew what they found suitable for
festive place up here?
The local graveyard, perhaps?
A clearing?
A hollow tree?
A gingerbread house?
Eh?
"You could come to the pub and meet us there,"Jamie suggested, "they have great
food and music in the evenings. We could start there and see what happens."
"The pub?" Jack asked in a mixture of confusion and humor. Jack didn’t think he
had ever been in a pub or seen one with his own two eyes for that matter.
Wasn’t a pub something English or Irish people went to, when they wanted to
drink after work and share war-stories?
But okay one time could gladly be the first, "Okay, sounds good. "
Jamie sounded a little embarrassed, "but i-if you guys rather meet somewhere
else –"
"Hey, hey, slow down! – The pub sounds super, dude. You bring the mood; I bring
the people,” Jack retorted, wondering what they served at a pub. His thoughts
had already run away to a spectacle of boiled meat and potatoes, when he missed
the next and pulled back to the present moment, "come again?"
"You live in one of those forest cabins, right? "
"Yes? "
Jamie hesitated, but then sounded very insistent, "do you have a horse skull up
near the cabin? "
Jack had no idea where this was going and thought maybe Jamie was about to
crack a joke, "not that I know of – you people sure love those things up here.
Where do you get all those horses from exactly?"
"Just get one up as fast as possible. You can get one from my house as a
starter. It let them know you won’t break the peace."
Jack blinked. Was this guy for real? "them? Who them?"
Jamie hung up and Jack looked down at the phone with a confused frown. Half
expecting Jamie to call him again with laughter and say something like "got
Ya!" or "November-fool!" or something else just as insane but reasonable, but
nothing happened.
Jack decided it had to be the local version of prank calling and pitied the
village teens. If this was the funniest thing they could come up with around
here, he'd better take care of them tonight and help them into something more
modern entertainment.
But seriously, where did they get all those horse heads from? Did the pub serve
horse meat? Jack hoped it wasn’t the case and went back to the others.
He found Sandy and Tooth watching from the garden, as Aster and North carried
the burned TV from the living room and over to the two green containers by the
road.
Both males shared an unsure gaze as they were to judge whether the TV should be
thrown into the combustible or recyclable container and ended up just throwing
it in the first. Who cared?
"Jamie told us to meet them at the pub," Jack said as he reached them and North
made a large grin.
"The pub? That I have to see – okay, ten minutes to get ready in and ten
minutes to the village. The time starts now so get ready – I’m not waiting for
slowpokes!"
Tooth ran into the cabin to take the fastest shower she had ever taken in her
life and Aster had to wake up Sandy, who had fallen asleep upright while the
others had discussed whether a TV should be dismantled or disposed of as an
intact object. Sandy blinked sleepy and showed with a thumbs up that he was
ready for anything.
North rushed them while they got ready and Tooth’s hair was still damp when
they finally got squeezed together in the Land Rover after ten minutes precise.
North reached the front seat before Aster and the Australian turned deadly
pale. Tried his best to persuade him to give up the wheel again.
”Come on, North, I like to get to that village in one piece.”
“Just let him,” Tooth whispered with a soothing voice that didn’t fool the
Australia for a second.
“Bloody oath I’m not! With him behind the wheel, we’ll be lucky if get there
without scratches or get crook as drunken sheep!”
“Ha!” North laughed, “the more talk, the faster I drive us there. You are
taking up the time, Aster, and if you keep up, I will have to outrace the past
two minutes!”
Tooth giggled and Aster gave her an angry look. She just smiled sheepish with
raised shoulders and slipped around him before he could protest. Aster scowled
as she snatched the last seat in front and he crawled muttering in beside Sandy
and Jack, who rushed to buckle their seat belts.
More than familiar with North’s style of driving.
Tooth squealed fearfully as North almost broken the gearlever and pressed the
throttle. They shot forward like a rocket and blew several of the courtyard
stones up on the house wall, as the wheels screeched under the pressure.
Sandy threw his hands up with childlike delight and Jack laughed loudly, as
North led the car into full speed through the woods and made dry leaves whip up
around them. Aster grabbed his seat with anxiety and wailed as North ignored
several puddles and got water and mud to spray up the sides of the car.
They jumped and bumped, as the car shot forward and North steered the car
almost into the verge, in order to avoid a single oncoming car that looked as
if it consider driving into the ditch to avoid them.
“Cricky!” Aster yelled in panic as North chose to take a short-cut and shot
over a small path that was barely wide enough for the car, “you’re gonna kill
us all, mate!”
“Why Australians always so nervous?” North replied lightly and took a hard
turn, “we're still two minutes behind time – oh look, another shortcut!”
Aster gave up on yelling or talk sense into North’s thick head, when he was no
longer certain he could open his mouth without vomiting and Jack screamed along
with Tooth, as a low branch struck the windshield as a whip and blurred their
vision with mud and old rainwater.
The wipers wiped quickly the water and the mud of the glass and made them aware
that the road would change from forest road to raw moorland in a few seconds.
“Looks like it gets bumpy!” North shouted over their cries and screams. They
hit the moors marshy and half frozen ground with a bone pulling landing. Mud
and moorland grass was jumbled up in their ruts and the many tufts of grass and
ponds got the car to jump like crazy, as they create a new road to the village
that could be seen up ahead.
The car jumped sharply when they passed a lump of scrap in the middle of the
moor, but none of them had time to think much about it.
Had they stopped and studied the piece of rusty steel, they would have quickly
discovered this was the corner of an old bumper.
Maybe Jack would even have recognized the car, if it had been pulled up from
the old mud hole and hosed clean of rust and mud. But even if he wouldn’t have
recognized it due to bad memory or destruction of the car, the police would
soon have been able to tell him from the number plate, that his family never
left the village by car.
North steered them out of the moorland and onto the cobblestones, as they hit
the town boundary and swung into the nearest parking lot with screeching
wheels. Everyone was pushed to the car's left side in the sharp turn and then
laid still. Everyone besides North sighed in either disappointment or happiness
now that the drive was over.
North checked the time-display, "well, that took less time than estimated -
what did I say? Teen minute!"
Aster was too weak to respond.
-
They walked over the old town square, which seemed too small to be a real
square, but too large to just be a street and soon spotted the town's only pub.
The building was sandwiched between two shops and inclined a little to the
left, but it was the place alright.
One would have to walk down a staircase to get into the pub and from the open
door, that was too low for North to walk through upright, old jukebox music
could be heard. An old antique sign hung from the street with a black wagon on
the front. Jack read the name of the pub with half interest. ’The chariot’.
The inside of the pub was a bit obscure due to the subdued lighting and lack of
windows. Jack could smell heavy cigarette smoke and the aroma of homemade food
and beer from the low bar filled his nostrils.
He spotted Jamie as the first. Jamie and his friends were rather easy to spot,
since they were the most noteworthy with their colorful jackets and number, who
occupied a long table over at the farthest corner and seemed to represent the
young population of this place.
Jack and his own friends got a few looks from the locals on their way to the
table, but that was only expected for as diverse a group as they were and Jack
soon thought no more of it when Jamie got up to find chairs for them.
The little flock of teens seemed genuinely happy to meet the outsiders and Jack
ended up at the seat between Aster and a girl whose dress said "princess", but
appearance said "troll."
"I'm Cupcake," she greeted and Jack soon found that he liked her, as she turned
out to be both funny and straightforward. And as the evening moved on, Jack
couldn’t for his life remember why he had compared her to a troll.
"This is Claud and Caleb," Jamie said and two African-American twins greeted in
their own loud manner, while they continued hitting each other and pushed for
fun and/or space at the crowded table.
A little shy guy with blond hair and hipster glasses was Monty and the lanky
redheaded chic next to him, with the T-shirt that said 'winner of the chess
championship 2004' was Pippa. Monty and Pippa soon proved to be a couple, which
looked a little strange, as she was almost two heads higher than him, but Jack
couldn’t really be the one to judge.
Jack and the others presented themselves in the same way, but all of Jamie's
friends looked up the second it was mentioned that him and Aster were a couple.
None of them chose to comment, but Jack had the feeling that he would soon be
asked a number of embarrassing and/or strange questions regarding his sexuality
later in the evening, when they had a little to drink and become brave enough
to ask him personally.
Jack had tried it before and would probably have to do it again. There were
always people for whom homosexual was somewhat mystified or something wrong.
They needed an explanation and endless answers to even be able to comprehend
what he was or why he had become like that – was like that.
Jack just hoped that Jamie's friends weren’t the judgmental types. He soon
discovered that Cupcake wasn’t, as she spent the entire evening chatting with
him and laugh at his jokes. Even the dead-baby jokes. Nice.
“Why do they call Ya Cupcake?” Jack yelled to outshout the others and she
shrugged with a smiles, "I think it's because I always brought a cupcake as
lunch to school and that I can be cute as one, but also knock all your teeth
out like cavities. Why do they call you Frost?”
”I like frozen food!” he shouted back and kept to himself that the name
actually had become a nickname after Aster had seen him eating a Popsicle in a
most seductive manner after they just met. But yes, he also liked frozen food.
Cupcake’s mobile started playing 'Space unicorn' and she had to walk a little
away to hear the words of whoever had called her.
It gave Jack a little time to listen to the others and be more social. Pippa
and Monty appeared to be gamers and one of them had asked to Aster's tattoos.
Claiming that they had seen some similar designs in some fantasy game.
“Not likely, mates. I've designed these myself. I make virtual design for
living, that and the tai-chi I teach children as a side job and hobby.”
That seemed to interested the couple and the twins, as they began to ask about
his martial arts and pestered him to show a few tricks on the floor.
Jack discovered Jamie sat by himself and moved to him, "hey Jamie, what would
you suggest from the pub’s menu?"
It turned out that the place actually served ordinary burgers and with the
tables varying and unnecessarily complex orders in mind, he and Jamie went up
to the bar to order.
Jack took interested in the place interior and took note of the little strange
details, like the displayed rifles over the bar and the bulletin board behind
it, showing of the local sensations in the form of newspaper articles and
photos from the village.
A large horse skull with braided onions and corn hung above the door, reminded
Jack of Jamie’s exhorting order, slash, silly joke from before.
"Hey, you mentioned something about one of those skulls on the phone, what was
that about?"
Jamie blinked surprised and then snapped as his memory returned to him and
pulled his backpack of his shoulder, "right, good thinking, Jack – we can bring
it back to the cabin when we go there after we've eaten – I show you where to
hang it up and stuff."
Jack couldn’t help but smile a little by the sight of the other's spirit. Jamie
really believe this stuff, didn’t he?
"And if I remember right, you said it was two keep someone away – did you mean
ponies?"
Jack's humor was lost on deaf ears and Jamie shook severely on the head, "no,
the Kelpies are further out in the countryside where there’s larger lake areas.
The mare skull is to keep the people of the forest away. Tell them we respect
the border. The forest boundary. It's an old pact."
Jack was now seriously alarmed, but also deeply curious. The last of the two
won, "an old pact? Sounds wild, uhmm… when you say people of the forest, do you
mean as in trolls or ...?"
"The Fea. Fairy-folk," Jamie interrupted with secretive eyes and handed Jack
the bag. He looked into its depths and a pale skull stared back at him with
hollow eyes.
"And horse skulls are associated with fairies because ...?"
"It's the fairy prince's mark, he's the one who lures children from the village
and the surrounding area into the forest to join his kingdom. I've done some
research..."
Jack watched over his shoulder as Jamie found an old scrapbook from the outer
pocket of the backpack and began flipping through it with eager.
Countless newspaper clippings of disappearances and accidents near the forest
were pasted on the sides and sharing the space with old torn book pages, text
or field-studies about fairies or fairy-lore.
Jack wondered briefly if Jamie had torn them from his own or library books and
couldn’t help admire the work of the other teen. The book was one of the
wildest Jack have seen in a long time, but he wondered briefly if this
obsession (it sure looked like one) was healthy for a kid like Jamie.
Hanging on to the belief in fairies that way seemed kind of…unhealthy. Jack
himself believed in aliens, but on a more tolerant level. Like - ten levels
down the top of this kid's lane.
They returned to the other when the order had been passed on and settled at the
loud table.
Jamie flipping through his book and knocked on one side with a quivering
finger, "watch this, if you go back in time and old town registrations, you’ll
find that someone has disappeared within a gap of ten years until 1920. Then, a
child disappeared each year until 2004 and an entire family disappeared – well…
it says in an article that they just left the place – but I couldn’t find one
trace of them on Facebook, so I know they’ve been taken to! A year after that,
it just started all over again. It’s a pattern in the way people disappear – I
think it’s a conspiracy."
Caleb blew a raspberry with a tired grin, "Jamie, could we please just hang out
one time without having to think of fairies and conspiracy theories?"
His twin slammed the book in Jamie's face and threw it back into their
backpack, "it's not healthy, dude. "
"You know I’m right," Jamie persisted and North broke in, "wait, wait,
fairies?"
"It's just stories," Pippa said with rolled eyes, that told everyone what she
thought of the subject, "my grandmother loved to tell stories about fairies
that eats naughty children at night and swap them with their own to fool
people. If you promise to take care of a fairy child, they follow you to your
death or something. Enchant you. Suck the life out of you."
"I just think they do it to keep people from walking into the forest," Monty
continued and straightened his glasses as they slid down his nose, "it’s a
wildlife reserve with large predators like bears. People can quickly get lost
in there just walking few steps in. Furthermore, I think it’s even a protected
area or something like that. Filling children with horror stories about
supernatural beings is probably just another way to keep people from going in.
That people keep disappear probably just proofs that they should fence it
instead."
"But, guys!" Jamie cried impatiently, wanted to be heard and taken serious,
"it’s real! My grandfather once saw one, the fairies are real. I don’t know
how, but it all has something to do with the forest cabin north of the
village!"
Tooth wrinkled her forehead in confusion, "do you mean no. 5? Well, that’s the
one we live in."
Jamie turned and glared at her as if she had just cursed him in some ancient
language and developed feathers, "... you’re ... you’re live in the cabin?"
Jack didn’t understand what the big deal was, "sure, you can go investigate it
all ya want when we go there later tonight."
Jamie immediately rose from the table and almost flipped his chair. He didn’t
seem to have noticed, “are you people insane? People died out there!”
“Come again?” Aster said and turned encouraging to the other to get an
explanation. None of them seemed to have anything to say and Aster shook his
head, placing a friendly hand on the upset teens shoulder.
“Eh, listen, mate. How about we turn that fairy nonsense down a little and just
focus on having a big night, okay?”
“It’s not nonsense,” Jamie raged and slammed his fist down the table. He wasn’t
strong enough to make their beer glasses tip over or anything, but his outburst
still gained him their full attention – that including some of the other
patrons around them.
“Fairies are real and you’re gonna die if you don’t leave that place right
now!”
North rose to get the teen to sit down again and relax a bit, but Jamie was
already on the way out of the pub. He turned in the doorway and looked angrily
at them, "if I were you I would hang the skull up before the sun goes down. Not
that it's gonna help you."
With those last cryptic words, he was out the door, leaving them all in a
stunned silence. Claud and Caleb tried to laugh it off, but the mood continued
to be pressed until their food arrived.
The food made them all move in the direction of lot more festive mood and the
murky atmosphere soon fell to the ground, as Cupcake exclaimed she actually
would like to see the haunted cabin. They soon laughed at the idea of having
spent the night in a cabin without knowing it apparently was haunted and
Jamie's words was forgotten for a time.
They decided to drive to the cabin in two cars and Cupcake drove with them,
while Sandy left with the others in Monty’s car.
Aster was very pleased to be behind the wheel again and made a big deal out of
driving slow and civil. He followed Monty's car and they left the village in
exchange for the large forest trail leading back to their cabin.
Jack was sitting next to him with Jamie’s backpack on his lap and Aster took it
without a word and threw it to the back of the car. He found Cupcake in the
rear-view mirror, "no offense, but what the bloody hell was that kid’s
problem?”
Cupcake exhaled with a tired face, “it’s an obsession. Jamie have always
believed in weird stuff and things like that – I’ll blame his family, they’re
pretty serious when it comes to fairies and the forest – but it wasn’t like
this three years back. Jamie lost his little sister, she just vanished one
day.”
Jack sat up immediately, “why…what happened?”
Cupcake bit her lip, “…I think it was because of all those fairy stories they
filled the Bennet kid's head with. Sophie loved listening to stories about
those fairies. She dressed up with one of those stupid plastic wings and kept
running to the forest border to play, telling everyone she had a fairy friend
there. Making their mother crazy like hell. Mrs. Bennet lost it when Sophie
just disappeared like that. The police organized a search into the forest, but
Mrs. Bennet tried sabotage it – keep telling everyone that it was the fairies
that had taken Sophie and walking into their ‘territory’ would only make their
anger worse. It was crazy. They never found the body.”
Jack gulped and even Aster looked a little ill, “Cricky…”
It began to snow.
Chapter End Notes
     inspired by the horror movie "The Hallow" (2015)
     I will update a chapter every friday
***** My little horse must think it queer *****
Chapter Notes
     Alright! plot develop!
     hope you guy's still up for some fairy horror and badly written smut
     - if any of you have discovered any errors or written mistakes,
     please hit me.
     *get's hit by a sledgehammer*
     English isn't my first language and the gramma and right ways of
     spelling can be a bitch sometime when you don't have the eye for it
     stay fabulous, enjoy and leave a comment if you feel like it
     =====================================================================
The fire of North and Aster’s damp bonfire had finally reached the point where
the fire took hold of the firewood and Jack observed the moist leaves as they
sizzled in the flames.
The snow had stopped just as quickly as it had begun and they had been able to
continue the party outside as planned. He wondered if the cabin would rise or
fall in price now that they had made an amateur bonfire in the middle of the
lawn, but even if he hadn’t been drinking, he'd probably remain indifferent.
Despite the others' attempts to make this trip easier for him and put the cabin
and his psychology luggage in a festive light, Jack could still smell the
stench below. It wasn’t a stench you could smell in the literary sense. Jack
imagined it as a thin invisible layer of mold clinging on to all surfaces.
A present only sensed in the dust swirling in the light of the winter sun in
the morning, the dark lines in the cracks of the wooden planks, a pest that
rested as a fungus just behind the wallpaper. It was a smell that only Jack
seemed able to detect, a mixture of sweet childhood memories and bitter regret.
The police department that had searched the cabin to find traces of his
parents, hadn’t left much behind after they confiscated the abandoned
belongings as evidence materials, but Jack could still see feel them here...
Sense his mother's face in the kitchen’s floral clay dishware. Hear his
father's laughter as the ‘tiks’ and ‘toks’ of the clockwork above the
fireplace. Feel his younger sister by the touch of the wind chime hanging in
the beds-less bedroom.
It left a sickening bitter taste in his mouth and made his insides squirm like
snakes. They were still in this cabin, despite their absent. They and all what
he had ever associated with his family, hung heavily from the cabin’s
atmosphere as thick moisture and threatened to crush him completely.
Jack had somehow thought he could have learned something by coming here. He had
told the others this trip was to nothing more than to sell the stupid cabin and
put his family's betrayal behind him once and for all. Get on with his life and
move on for good, just…get over them.
But despite good intensions and self-amends, lies and delusions, ulterior
motives and ideas of being better than that…he had still made the trip with
discovery in mind, taken the trip with the simple intention of witnessing the
last place his family were seen before they left.
See what they had left behind before they took their car and left this place
and Jack forever. See with his own eyes exactly what they had done, thought,
created and made of this place, before they suddenly decided not to do that
anymore.
Tried to put himself in their place.
Jack gulped. He didn’t want the others to know their efforts to uplift him had
been in vain and put up a wide – but fake – smile, as North walked past him and
tousled his hair. Traded his empty beer with a new one and made a joke Jack
didn’t quite hear.
Jack just laughed and continued to smile even after North had turned his back
to him and would probably continue to smile for as long as he lived. It was
kind of his thing, really. Maybe even a specialty.
Jack could smile, smile, smile and still be broken inside. He loved parties and
loved to forget himself by losing his mind in its joyful center, just lose all
boundaries and worries. When you goofed around and made jokes, it was easy to
forget you were an orphaned and wreckage of those who should have been there
for you since birth.
Easy to forget you were unwanted.
Jack couldn’t blame or hold a grudge against his younger sister, though.
Jack could still remember the day she was born. His father had picked him up at
school and steered like hell to the hospital in time to reach his own wife's
delivery. Jack had waited quietly in the hospital's waiting-room with a
patience that was to be the first and last time in his life.
The thrill and the terror created by the mere thought of having a younger
sibling, had caused him to forget all about making mischief and made him
quite…calm.
He had remained on the couch, he didn’t even have the space in his clouded mind
to think about rummage through any of the room's houseplants in order to see if
there were any worms hiding in the soil, or walked over to the elderly lady on
the sofa to see if she would like to see a trick he could with his fingers -
making it look like he removed his thumb, or tiptoe to the counter to grab the
bowl of candy without the lady with the headphones behind it detecting him.
Jack had remained calm in little over five hours, when his father, sweaty and
exhausted, had picked him up and brought him into the room with his mother and
newborn sister. Jill had been a small red and slimy knot of wrinkles and dark
hair, but Jack had lost his heart to her at first sight.
Jack had secretly hoped for a little brother, due to the unspoken rule that
little brothers always took over the older brother’s chores at home, but all
that had quickly been forgotten and the many opportunities and benefits of
having a little sister took their place.
Jack had already decided that Jill would get the fortune the tooth fairy would
place under his pillow that night in exchange for his two lost front teeth and
smiled as his father gathered them together around his mother on the bed to
immortalized the moment in a single picture.
Jack nodded to himself in the warm glow of the fire. He couldn’t blame Jill
that their parents had chosen her over him. Jack knew that he had been an
impossible kid and even as a baby, Jill had been more than lovable. He would
have chosen her over himself anytime.
The thought was bittersweet, but didn’t really help his case of self-hatred and
he unbuttoned his beer in spite. She probably didn’t even know about him!
He checked his phone and the little zeros announced midnight. A little reminder
he had installed many years ago in his calendar popped up and blinked cheerily.
Jack smiled . Jill would be six years today.
A movement on the other side of the fire caught Jack’s blurry attention. He
couldn’t quite figure out who the two girls were since the fire illuminated
them, but nerveless, the girls waved boldly at him.
Jack waved back in drunk glee and wondered silently if Jamie's friends were
playing a game, but frowned when his unfocused sight made it clear that all the
teens were currently seated around the bonfire and listened to Caleb's ghost
story.
Jack’s frown deepened and he stood to get to the bottom of this, but the two
girls were nowhere to be seen. Perhaps he’d just imagined it? After all, the
girls had been nothing more than two shadows in the glow of the fire and he had
emptied more beer cans than he should.
He placed his empty can on the ground and decided it was time to get a little
sober.
"I'm surprised it's not you who’s down there, frighten the little ankle-biters
out of their wits. Whatcha ya sitting here for, mate?" Aster asked and sat down
next to him.
Jack gave the woods behind the fire one last searching look, before he directed
his attention to Aster, "hey, you know me. I'm too humble to steal the twins'
spotlight and attract all the attention to myself like that. "
Aster answered him by tousling the hair North had left as spikes and Jack
laughed. Tried to save his hair from anymore damage, "but those teens could
really use a better arsenal of ghost stories. Who the hell is afraid of a
leprechaun? "
"Beats me," Aster mumbled and rose an eyebrow, as Jack rose and started to walk
towards the woods.
"Hey, where ya going? I just seated my ass!"
"Come on," Jack whispered secretive and started pulling him towards the edge of
the woods. By the fire, Tooth squealed as Caleb reached the climax of his story
and made the others laugh.
North sat with his back to them and Sandy’s head was resting on Pippa's thighs.
Clearly deep into dream land.
None of the others seemed to notice them slip away from the party.
They barely got behind the first clusters of trees before the lights and the
sound of the party had been reduced to a low audible and only the flickering
light of the fire was still visible.
Aster and Jack found themselves a bit overwhelmed by the forest atmosphere, a
sight made of heavy shadows, static gravity and the wet smell of rot and
leaves, before they both laughed like naughty children and sneaked a little
further.
The forest was as transformed in the night and Jack who wasn’t used to being
out in the untouched nature as raw as this, looked around him in amazement.
The pale moonlight made the many dense trunks appear kilometers high and cast
solid shadows as long and thin as the bars that had once hung on the cabin’s
windows.
Aster disappeared and reappeared in synch with his movement from shadow to
moonlight and all sounds seemed to have increased in power and deeps of echo.
The moist leaves and verdigris branches crunched like canon shots under their
boots and sank down in the soft mud and moss, while the bare branches and the
sticking shrubs stroked their jackets and trousers like needy claws.
A bird took off somewhere and close by running water could be heard.
Despite the fact they were only one month away before December, it was
surprisingly warm in the forest in a damp muggy way, as if they were only
seconds away before a storm. Jack squeezed Aster's hand and he squeezed back.
Jack had forgotten all about the two girls and pressed himself to the calm side
of his boyfriend.
Being near the tall Australian always made Jack forget everything around him
and reduced his concerns. Aster may not appreciate his antics or tricks most
days, but Jack knew the other couldn’t be mad at him for long and under the
layers of cantankerous and spitefulness, Jack had come to find a childish
spirit in him.
A spirit that could only be brought to the surface with the right amount of
harmless competition or closure. Jack laughed by the thought of a new whim and
patted Aster on the shoulder before he ran, “tag you’re it!”
“Jack, wait!” Aster shouted, but Jack had already crossed the visible
undergrowth like a little nimbly rabbit. Aster rolled his eyes, but went with
the game with a little smirk and began to run. In any case, he would need to
find the other before Jack got totally lost.
He frowned. It would be spot on Jack to get lost in some forest in the middle
of the night with only his mobile as a light source. Aster checked his own
phone and found no signal, or enough power to fuel the flashlight function for
long. Cricky.
“Jack!”
He received no answer and he could have knocked himself over his forehead for
expecting one. Jack was playing with him after all – if you couldn’t catch him
in a game of tag, it would end up in a game of hide-and-seek. That was Jackson
Overland for you.
"Jack, come on, mate! Ya just gonna end up getting lost and I doubt that you
want to sit out here until tomorrow morning and wait for some rescue team! And
I’m not gonna bloody carry you back!"
Still no answer. Aster wasn’t at that stage of mind, where he feared to get
lost for good in the forest and loose his shit – yet – but he could no longer
tell which way they had come from and wherever he turned, the forest looked
exactly the same to him.
Incredibly how much a forest could change at night.
He made sure to walk clear and visible in the moonlight, in case Jack got tired
of his game and returned by himself and went deeper into the woods.
The run through the forest had heated his body a bit and he tied his jacket
around his hips, to let the wind dry the sweat from his arms and neck. He
listened before he started running again and followed a natural path he figured
Jack might have taken, if he would avoid falling of the forest's natural
growths in the dark.
But then again…Jack had been drinking and maybe decided to make his own
personal path...
He stopped when the side stitch did a permanent end to his run and slowly the
concern began to creep in on him. Aster had always been a fast, strong and
agile runner. He did sport at a daily basis, never got tired easily and could
run, jump and sprint faster than anyone he knew of.
Jack himself was agile, but not nearly as durable as Aster. But Aster hadn’t
really giving it a though about how far or how fast he had run – maybe he’d
already passed Jack? He should have come across the brunette by now if the
other had continued to run from him.
The thought of Jack hiding and he passing him by without knowing, made him
search his surrounding with fearful eyes.
“Jack! ”
Still no answer and now Aster was getting really worried. He couldn’t for his
life hear or see the edge of the forest. Even the forest patch was gone.
"Jack! Where are you!? "
The phone announced that the battery was up and the phone died in his pocket.
Aster cursed frantically. Now he could neither call Jack or help. Aster tried
to come back the way he had come from – or thought he had come from – but
nothing seems recognizable or looked as if it was thinning out.
Maybe he ran in circles? He had no water on him and in a place like this you
never knew when the cold would hit and burry everything in snow. Aster could
feel the moisture under her boot soles, but knew he wouldn’t survive long in
such a forest if he didn’t find drinkable water within a few days.
If he didn’t find Jack or his way back or someone raised the alarm in time, he
could risk walking around in here till he collapsed. And that was only if no
major predator met him first. Wasn’t it a rule that the police could start a
search until the subject had been missing in over 24 hours or something?
Aster recalled his grandmother's voice a long time ago in the warm country
kitchen. The old radio had interruptions her early brekkie tunes and informed
them of a bunch of tourists that had went missing in the shady moist woods near
her ranch.
"Those silly city people. They get enchanted by the forest and think ‘hey can
go right in and won’t get lost a meter inside without a guide. Ya know what
happens to fellas who take their chances in such a forest?" Child Aster had
nodded, "they'll get crook from drinking mud water and die of thirst."
“Jack! ”
A rustle in the underbrush got Aster's ear to peak and had he been a rabbit,
his ears would have bristle and turn to the direction right behind him. He
turned around and tried to peer into the darkness.
The intertwined trees made it almost impossible to see anything and the
moonlight disturbed his night vision to a point where he became almost blind in
the shadows.
There was something under the tree, right under –
"Got ya! " Jack shouted and knocked him to the ground. Aster stared up in a mix
of shocked and breathlessness at Jack, who had landed on top of him when Aster
had lost his balance in surprisea ended on the forest ground.
He recovered quickly from the shock and shook the laughing brunette with a
scowl, "are ya out of your mind!? I almost got a bloody heart attack!"
That just made Jack laugh louder. The sound of his joyful laugh made the
darkness and its hollow threats seem to be somewhat relieved. Aster's fear of
dying and losing Jack disappeared little by little and the grip the fear seemed
to have had on him a second ago, was replaced by relief and mild irritation.
"Ya think you're so funny, dontcha?"
“I know so – it’s my thing, remember? And hey, it was you who wanted to get
scared, wasn’t it?" Jack retorted in mocking innocence and bit Aster’s nose
teasingly. Aster scoffed and rolled over, making himself end on top and Jack
bottom.
Jack got an expression of anticipation and smiled in that crooked way Aster
couldn’t resist. He realized he had overreacted. If he exerted himself, he
could even hear the party and sense the light from the bonfire between the
trees. He had freaked out for no reason.
He could almost laugh at himself and even Jack's joke seemed completely
harmless now. He guessed it was time to make amends.
Jack hummed in satisfaction as Aster closed the gap between them and kissed
him. Jack gave him immediate access and Aster forgot all about the forest,
completely lost in the sweet fresh taste of Jack.
Small hands crept around his neck and clutching his hair in a fierce, but at
the same time soft way, that made Aster purr.
Jack smiled into the kiss and his tongue became more insistent. Aster lost
focus and moved his hands under his boyfriend lower back, closed more space
between them and felt Jack spread his legs under him, pulling him in. Bringing
them closer.
Despite the damp heat in the air, the soil and moss proved to be hard and cold
to the touch, and the unit of their bodies created a light haze of heat around
them. Jack whimpered as Aster started making a trail of kisses and marks down
the small brunette’s jaw and neck.
When he reached the clavicle and wanted to lift Jack's hoodie, the teen below
him suddenly stiffened and Aster looked up. A bit dazed, "Jack? "
Jack opened and closed his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but didn’t
knew how and an uncertain glance slid across his clear brown eyes. Aster
suddenly understood. Jack was nervous.
"Hey. "
Jack’s face was the epitome of guilt, but Aster pressed his forehead against
his to show he wasn’t angry, "we don’t need to go further than that, if you
don’t wanna, Jack. No pressure. "
Jack exhaled in relief and smiled again. Aster did the same, but not on the
inside. The last thing he wanted was to force Jack to do something he couldn’t
handle or feel he was ready to – and a damp forest floor was hardly the place
for Jack to lose his virginity.
Aster was no asshole and didn’t want Jack to believe that of him either. His
desire for Jack was quickly forgotten when he noticed how cold and wet Jack's
back had become and put his dry jacket around him as they stood. He should take
better care of Jack, especially here ...
"This place is kind of weird," came it hesitantly from Jack, who looked around
in a mixture of astonishment and adventure, "magical, but weird."
"I know whadda' ya' mean," Aster replied less found of the place and kissed him
on the forehead. Placed his arms around him and lead the way back to the cabin,
"but I prefer the cabin, it has a fireplace."
Jack giggled as they walked, "oh yeah, this climate must be a bitch for someone
who’s used to white sandy beaches and dusty ranches with kangaroos. Do ya
people even have woods over there? "
"Of course we have," Aster snapped indignant, but with no real anger in his
voice, "Australia is more than just sandy beaches and sheep ranches, for ya
information. Plus, the kangaroo’s living on the east side and in the wild, not
in ranches. "
"You must miss your flock so much. "
Aster pushed Jack and got a wide grin in returned. He considered his next
words, but didn’t know how Jack would respond. It had been lurking in the back
of Aster's head ever since they planned the trip and he took a chance, "we
could always keep the place, mate ..."
Jack, still grinning up at him, hadn’t noticed the seriousness of his voice,
"what? The cabin?"
"It’s already looking better and now that it’s almost done –"
"Nah, I just want it out of the world, Aster – also, if I don’t sell it soon,
my foster parents will probably discover it and take advantage of it with all
there foster and guardianship shit. Even if they don’t sell it for the money,
I’ll probably have to come here with them during the holidays ... "
Jack looked quite ill by the thought of those future prospects and Aster got an
idea. An insane and completely bat-shit crazy idea, that both frightened and
elevated him to an almost euphoric level. Why hadn’t he thought of it before?
"We could run away."
This time the severity seemed to get through to Jack and he stopped dead in
track, "what?"
"Think about it," Aster continued and held Jack's eyes with his own gray, "we
could just run away. Your foster-parents doesn’t even know where we are and
they haven’t called you even after three days – there could go weeks, maybe
months before they start searching for ya and we could be in Australia by that.
We could go to my grandmother's ranch and outwait the time there. Ya become of
legal age in two years and then ya never have to see the Jokul family ever
again. We won’t have to sneak around or keep your curfew anymore – we could
just be us, mate."
Jack had listened to him without a word or interruption and his mouth had
opened in a small silent "o". His eyes lit up with glee and Aster laughed as
Jack threw himself ecstatic into his arms. They topple over and tumbled around
in laughter and joy, when a loud ‘crack’ got them both too stiff and shut up
immediately.
They waiting in breathless silence to see if they had been discovered, but no
one stepped forward to tell them to "go get a room". Jack sat up in curiosity
and glanced in the direction the sound had come from.
"Maybe it's one of the others looking for us," Aster suggested, but Jack just
took his hand and pulled him to his feet in order to sneak forward in the
direction of the sound.
“Let’s check it out! ”
Aster wasn’t much for it, but Jack was unwavering and still a little red-
cheeked from their previous play on the ground. Aster swallowed his protests
and went along with Jack's hand securely in his.
They had barely reached a few meters before Jack forgot all about stealth and
picked up speed, leaving Aster behind. Aster cursed a bit over his boyfriend's
damn spontaneity and sneaked after him, "Jack, wait! "
His whisper was ignored and Jack soon disappeared out of sight. Again!
Aster was not gonna make the same mistake twice on the same evening and ran.
His head snapped quickly to the left, when he thought he heard something and
turned to the right when another sound followed the first.
“Hallo?”
No one answered him and he heard Jack call his name somewhere ahead. Aster
squinted at the blurry moonlight and stopped as a large dark shadow appeared
forthright.
A bit puzzled, Aster placed a hand against the old ruin and concluded it was an
old house. Perhaps a forest cabin? The roof had long since collapsed and only
the shell of the house was left, consisting of half crumbled brick crowded with
creepers, fungi and moss.
The dehusked and half rotten door creaked noisy in the night, as Aster stepped
cautiously though it and walked inside the ruin.
“Jack? ”
His voice didn’t echo, but the interior swallowed his voice like a sponge. The
moss and the many layers of fallen leaves sank under his boots and almost
buried them to the calf. The strong smell of rot and wet woodland hung heavy
over the place.
The rotten house's beams divided the place in lighted and shade like lines on a
paper. The north wall laid half of the place in perfected darkness, making it
impossible to see. He moved further in, a trifle curious and a trifle alarmed.
Remains of windows stood tall and empty on either side of him and dilapidated
walls which had once indicate divisions of room, had long since fallen apart
and was nothing more than small stone elevations now.
He stepped across a pile of fallen rocks, knocked over a plank with a low
cursing and found himself near one of the house’s dark corners. The stench of
rot was even worse here and he wiped his nose with disgust. A slumped figure
sat silently in the corner and Aster moved toward it, believing it to be Jack,
who was trying to hide from him.
The stench became almost too much to endure and Aster felt the urge to vomit.
The flies buzzed and swarmed around the dead deer and landed eagerly in the
bloody and putrefying fur. The animal almost seemed comical as it sat there,
like a naughty child placed in the corner to think about what it had done, and
the head, stretched from the long neck, rested along the corner of the
building, as if to try reaching the missing roof.
Aster had seen dead animals of a certain size before, but there was still
something…. strange about the cadaver in front of him. He stepped closer and
made sure not to step in any of the fluids that had leaked from the animal or
move its thin legs sticking out from under the leaves.
The blind eye stared un-blinking and dead back at him and made an almost glassy
reflection that distorted his face to the grotesque. The fur had turned brown
and black due to the old dried blood and the entire body seemed soggy, if not
wet.
He concluded it had to be the moisture that had turned the body that way and
picked up a branch behind him.
With a hand covering his mouth to prevent his gag reflexes from taking over, he
pushed the deer’s head to the side with the stick and away from the wall. Long
black threads followed and with a sticky sound, they stretched long and gooey
between the dark smudge on the wall and the head’s hidden side.
Aster's eyes widened when he discovered the animal's other side had turned
completely black and collapsed to a point where the entire side seemed flat, if
not nonexistent. Black slime showed where the head had rested on the wall and
when he let the head fall back into place, black sand crumbling of the fur and
landed on the animal's chest and his boots.
"YAH!!!"
Aster screamed as Jack jumped onto his back and almost caused him to fall
towards the cadaver.
"Jack, ya bloody showpony!"
"Surprise! "Jack laughed and jumped down from his back before he could get his
hands on him. Jack's face quickly changed from teasing to confusion and then to
downright disgust, when he caught the smell and fixated his drifting attention
on the corpse.
"What? Ew ... "
Aster nodded. Agreed.
"It’s covered in the same black substance we found on the cabin."
Jack moved a little closer and followed the direction of Aster's pointing
finger. The brunette reached cautiously a hand towards the animal, but Aster
stopped him, "don’t, it could be carrying something. Perhaps mold or ... "
"Maybe it's Jamie's curse," Jack whispered and wiggled his fingers, "uhh! The
fairy curse!"
"Be serious, mate,” Aster replied and Jack laughed an incredible bad imitation
of a TV villain haunting crackle.
"Not as long as you scream like a girl. Uhhhh!"
"I do not! "
Jack continued to tease and imitate Aster’s girly scream of surprise to Aster’s
great annoyance and they left the ruins without thinking more of the deer or
the black sand.
Aster walked through the door as the last and didn’t notice the dark silhouette
behind him in the middle of the ruin. The door closed slowly behind him and
stopped just before the frame. Neither of them heard or noticed anything, as
small black fingers prevented the door from closing completely and opened it
again to peep after the two.
Two eyes shone bright in the darkness.
“...Jack…”
***** To stop without a farmhouse near *****
Chapter Notes
     Sup guys
     Im sick as hell right now, but good thing is you can write in bed =P
     hope you enjoy, comments are always appreciated
     =====================================================================
See the end of the chapter for more notes
The magical time of 03:45, better known as the sheep hour, was upon the night.
The strange hour of the night, when it was way too early to rise and still too
late to go back to bed. The hour sailed across the forest cabin like a light
wave and the darkness was complete, still and silent.
The fire from the garden’s new bonfire behind the cabin was still smoldering
slightly and the two buckets North had thrown over the fire hadn’t yet been
able to stifle it completely.
To his and everyone else's (drunk) luck, the weather proved to be too humid and
the brown grass too wet to be flammable, and the last of the red embers died
out in the cold wind. No chance of a forest fire tonight it seemed.
No one seemed to have taken notice of Jack and Aster's trip into the woods – or
at least mentioned it, since most of the people around the bonfire had had an
idea of what they were doing out in the woods and wouldn’t be the one to
disturb – they returned in time to hear the others talking about breaking up
for the night and acted as if they had never left the party to begin with.
Several of the guests have wished to go home, but North hadn’t really liked the
idea of drunk minors driving through an unlit forest in the middle of the night
and asked them friendly - but firmly to crash at their place.
Nobody had dared to objected and everyone had gone to bed.
The forest last leaves rustled in the rising wind and the moon was darkened by
the drifting clouds that had gathering thick and complete, like a woolen cover.
The last stars were washed from the sky and the moon's yellow face vanished.
The darkness reigned.
And the darkness had plans ...
Jack’s sweet dreams was crushed suddenly and painfully, when he was woken up
abruptly, as the entire cabin shook due to the sound of breaking glass and then
filled with screams from the first floor. Aster woke up under him and seated
himself with groggy eyes.
Jack had to grab his shoulder to keep from falling off the couch they had flung
himself on earlier that night and looked around in the darkness.
Sandy woke on his own couch next to them and they shared a confused glance,
before jumping to their feet in alarm, as Pippa and Monty came running and
stumbling down the stairs.
Both struggled to pull on their clothes and flee toward the door
simultaneously. Tooth and North followed them down the stairs, but in a more
leisurely pace and less dressed. None of them looked hurt, just a little shaken
and edged by a their upcoming hungover.
"Hey, hey, what's happening?" Aster asked baffled and tried to slow down
Cupcake, who fought to keep up with the twins and escape through the door.
Her size and struggles won over Aster's and she searched her pockets for the
key to Monty’s car.
"Window, t-they threw a – they broke the window! Where the hell are your window
bars!? There’s nothing keeping them out!" she cried in a mixture of horror and
pure outrage.
Aster raised averting his hands, as she pushed past him and toppled a chair as
she ran for the front door. She disappeared out the doorway where Caleb and
Claude tripped, obviously eager to leave as well.
The oldest pointed at them with a quivering finger and shrill voice, "Jamie was
right, this place is fucking cursed. We shouldn’t never come here – you
shouldn’t never come here!"
His twin pushed him out the door and they vanished along with the others.
Jack, Aster, Sandy, Tooth and North were left shocked and a little flustered,
in the middle of the living room, while the sound of screeching wheels and
humming engines started outside the cabin and tore several stones up the muddy
driveway.
Car lights and running engines was slowly swallowed by the night and then
disappeared completely.
North was the first to break the pregnant silence, "other than me who heard a
window being shattered?"
-
"It could be a bird."
They all looked at each other and Sandy shrugged while Tooth seemed a bit
skeptical.
"You really think a bird could crush a double-glazed, Mr. Officer?"
The ranger straightened his cap and rose from his kneeling position on the
floor, where he had studied the scattered shards of glass from the broken
window.
Jack and Aster had crashed on one of the sofas in the living room, when Monty
and Pippa had occupied their bedroom and the remains in shape of a jacket and
unmade bed linen, testified that they had fled in great haste from the room
just thirty minutes earlier.
Tooth have called the police after they’d all agreed, it had to be the be right
procedure if one of your windows was shattered in the middle of the night.
The officer, who looked to be somewhere in his forty and well worn, shone his
flashlight around the window and scratched his short beard, "believe me, we
have some huge birds out here. It's not often we get broken windows like this,
though. Most folks protect their windows with iron bars to prevent stuff like
this, but it wouldn’t be the first time a bird of prey has mistaken some knick-
knacks behind a glass pane for its next meal. Aha!"
They watched as he fished a wind bell up from under the bed and held it up to
match the nail that had fallen down from the window corner.
"There you go. The bird spots something shiny and fly toward it. It is too
stupid to understand there’s a glass pane in the way, smashes into it like a
retarded flapjack and flees. You’ll probably find a dead eagle or something
similar outside the window if you search long enough. "
Jack found it quite reasonable, but neither North or Aster seemed convinced.
"Maybe," Aster retorted a little reluctant, "but when we called ya, it was with
vandalism in mind."
"Vandalism?" the officer asked interested, clearly more than a little excited
by the thought of solving a real case and North nodded.
"We had a… quarrel with some of the young people from the town earlier tonight
and it only got worse when the window was shattered. They believe the house is
cursed."
"They kept talking about fairies," Tooth interjected with a tone that clearly
told what she thought about the subject, "when we didn’t take Jamie Bennet's
warning seriously, he became a little ..."
"Violent," Aster finished. Jack bit his lip, not liking how this evolved one
bit. Would Jamie really be childish enough to throw stones in middle of the
night because of a grudge? Or maybe to scare them? Both?
Jack understood Jamie’s fear of the forest, his sister’s disappearance and
possible death was more than motivation enough and Jack appreciated that he had
tried to warn them…in a way. Sorta. But was it really necessary to frighten
them in order to get them in on the madness?
“I know the Bennet family," came it with a wry smile from the officer, “but
believe me, Jamie’s just as frightened as he’s a puny weakling. That kid
couldn’t make a crack in a window if he was lifted up in front of one with a
crowbar in his hands. He’s simply too small and the window too high up!"
The old officer moved toward the bed to search for more clues and suddenly
spotted the empty beer cans between the sheets. He gave them a long calculated
look, "when you say the other teens from town was here, are we then talking
about a party?"
Jack and the others fell silent, hadn’t really seen that coming – in their
defense, it should probably be noted that their minds were still kind of
clouded from last night. Well five hours before, really. It was barely morning.
When none of them delivered any genius lie that could justify the empty cans or
their obvious beer breath, the officer just nodded slightly to himself and then
went downstairs with a grunt. They all shared a minor panicked gaze and hurried
after him.
Downstairs, the officer had opened their dustbin with his foot and spotted the
many empty cans that had accumulated in it along with the sink during the
evening.
Sandy gasped in horror when the officer picked up one of his joint, as it had
been painfully visible lying in the ashtray on the kitchen table.
They all looked down in shame and fidgeted like children caught with the hand
in the cookie jar, as the officer leaned the hips against the kitchen counter.
He took of his cap and scratched the little hair he still had left on his head,
before he finally exhaled slowly and tiredly, shaking his head in mild
disbelieve.
"Okay, this's what we do. I know you children come from the big city, you want
to have a little fun and probably celebrate you've passed your exams, and so
on. I let you off the hook this time, but if you ever feel the need to call an
officer a second time, then please do yourself a favor and dispose of your pot
and beers before you let him in, understood?"
They all sighed relieved and even Sandy smiled when he realized his father
wouldn’t get to hear about this.
The officer smiled too, "I’m from San Francisco myself, I know you boys and
girls are harmless – however, not all up here is of the same opinion. You must
understand that this is a small community. You know what that means? That means
everybody knows each other, everyone knows some unwritten rules and what not to
do. This also applies to superstition. If you don’t agree with what they say up
here, keep it to yourselves. Don’t do something stupid that could piss of the
locals. The people in this town are old Irish settlers and brought their
folklore with them – fairies especially."
They all nodded and the cap returned to its proper place on the officer’s head,
“alright. You kids be safe.”
He blinked kindly to them like an old uncle, before walking out to his old
police car again and Jack held the door for him. Had a feeling they owed the
old guy in more than one way.
"Thanks, son," he said pleasantly and straightened the ranger jacket before
stepping out and into the cold morning, "if I were you kids I would take a look
at the cabin insurance and get them to pay for the window – but if you want to
do something really smart, get those bars back up on those windows again. Makes
it a lot harder for boys to throw stones through them."
With those words of wisdom, he lifted his cap one last time and went down to
his car, drove to the forest path and disappeared in the early morning, which
colored the world in the gray morning mist. Smelling crisp and cold as steel.
Tooth sighed and mumbled something about that they might as well eat breakfast
now, and disappeared back into the kitchen. Sandy ran back in to make sure his
stash was still secure between the couch cushions and North clapped his hands
together.
"Well that is another way to start the morning. If we are to get anything out
of the insurance, we better provide some evidence – do any of you have a
camera?"
"A polaroid, handheld, digital and five different lenses upstairs," Jack
informed him with a twinkle in his eye and Aster just shook his head. Jack’s
foster father had to be freaking out by now with such a large hole in its
camera inventory.
And now that Jack had agreed to run away with Aster, Mr. Jokul would probably
never see his beloved gadgets again. That idea pleased Aster in more than one
way and he led Jack back to their room.
"Come on, mate. Let’s get a broom and get the broken glass outta there."
"Do you think we can get anything through insurance?" Jack asked sincerely
concerned and Aster shrugged, not the sharpest when it came to bureaucracy
either.
"In any case we can just change the window – I can screw out the frame and
probably get it fixed down in the village. They gotta have a small carpentry
shop that sells frames that fit these forest cabins. Anything else would be
strange, mate – don’t worry ya sweet head, It’ll all be ready for when the
broker comes up here Sunday and inspect the place."
It seemed to calm Jack and the worried wrinkles smoothed out on his forehead,
but his eyes stated to dart uncertain again and Aster already knew what Jack
was going to say before he opened his mouth and beat him to it, "I’m pay for
it, silly head. Let me take care of ya for once, okay?"
Jack knew from experience better than to contradict Aster when he insisted on
paying for something and smiled as he knew it was expected of him.
The Australian had gotten tired of the whole "I can’t take your money, Aster"
discussion and had finally put a lid on the whole malaise last year after a
huge fight, when Jack wouldn’t take the phone he had bought for him - if Aster
wanted to contact Jack, neither Mr. Jokul or money would get in his way.
End of discussion.
Jack suddenly got a devious look and kissed him on the cheek with a coy
whisper, "only if you let me take care of you tonight."
Aster felt warmth stir in his abdomen and Jack laughed at the sight of Aster's
blushing cheeks.
North smiled at the sight of those two, as he returned from the stairs and went
out the door with a camera he had selected from Jack's surprisingly
professional assortment. It looked quite expensive and North felt his fingers
itch.
An old habit of placing a black-marked price on the camera emerge from the
darkness and North repressed it with a pained expression.
Forget it, Nicholas, think of Tooth.
He smiled at the memory of Tooth who had jumped out of bed this morning only
with a blanket to cover herself. His little ruffled bird.
A light layer of frost had covered the grass and fallen leaves on the lawn
around the cabin. The crisp ice crunched under his heavy boots and the small
puddles cracked as mirror glass.
The sun had yet to rise completely, but the first gray color could just be
glimpsed in the horizon between the trees.
North moved on to the east side of the cabin to get a snapshot of the window
and the broken glass. There was no clear footprints or traces of Jamie – or
whoever had felt girly-offended by their lack of belief in elves and fairies.
They didn’t know who had done it, but one things were for sure; North refused
to believe the bullshit about a bird who just spontaneously decided to make a
kamikaze against their window, right after Jamie has cursed them.
Cases like these just didn’t happen. They just didn’t.
North took a few paragraphs and it took some time for him to find the menu on
the digital camera and see the result. The images looked kinda blurred and too
dark to show the subject clearly – he doubted they would hold in court – and
rummages through the camera settings to fix the light or maybe the contrast.
A flash pops up on the side of the camera and provided a blast of light. North
grunted satisfied. Despite being anything else than sober, he still had it in
him to get shit done when needed and took another picture.
Better.
The crack of a broken branch sounded from the right and North glanced toward
the forest. The shade of trees was almost impossible to single out from the
rest of the forests dark contour and North squinted, searched for a silhouette
or new motion. A sly smile crept onto his lined face.
The culprit hadn't left the crime scene.
North acted as if he thought of the broken branch as nothing and took some more
pictures. All the while, he stepped closer and closer to the right with his
back to the person and ended up near the forest. He had almost reached the edge
with his back turned, when he quickly spun around and took a series of
lightning-fast images.
He blinked half dazzled and half shocked when the forest were lighted in grey
and the shape of a black, tall, thin figure appeared in black contrast. North
lifted the camera down from his blue eyes and stared into the massive dark. The
darkness seemed to gaze back.
He ran a hand through his black hair, tried to think soberly. What –
“North!”
North turned toward the door where Tooth stood. An expression of concern
stamped her pretty features, "you'd better come and see this."
North sent the forest one last suspicious gaze before he went in. Wrote himself
behind the ear, to check out the pictures on the camera to be sure if what he
had seen was what he had thought he’d seen or not.
In his mind, the figure had already turned into a high thin tree, he drunkenly
had mistaken for a person, but his stomach insisted on something else.
"What is happening?" he asked anxious and found Jack, Aster, Sandy and Tooth
behind the kitchen counter, all preoccupied with something on a dustpan in
Aster's hands. North broke into their midst and placed surprised a hand over
his mouth and nose, as the stench welled up from the dustpan.
"I think we’ve found our bird," Jack replied meekly.
It was indeed a bird ... a bird corpse.
The gray bones stood thin and scrawny up from the body. Black councils and
decomposing feather hung in knotted bundles and messy clusters on the skeleton,
as if the bird had been bathed in an acid and oil bath, made all the meat and
feathers detach and place themselves in cakes on the skeleton.
A sweetish stench hung from the bird and black dust covered the glass shards on
the dustpan.
"It was under the bed," Aster said with anger in his voice and looked as if he
was ready to march directly up to Jamie Bennet's address and hurl the bird in
the face of the first and best person who dared to open the door.
"Who in their right bloody mind throws a dead bird through a window in the
middle of the night!?"
-
The forest shadow remained total and impenetrable without the sun's power to
subdue them. The clouds above the woods blocked all light and laid the land in
an insatiable darkness, as it was expected in the long and cold winter months
up north.
The darkness gathered around a tall majestic silhouette on the edge of the
trees border and his golden-grey eyes regarded the manmade forest cabin with a
fixedly curiosity.
Hearsay traveled quickly through the woods and a special rumor had piqued his
interest and will to leave his halls for a time. The humans had returned to the
northern border of his land and they were many this time.
The Overland cabin buzzed with activity as the likes of one of the ant hills
that hid under the forest soil and the five humans had taken liberties most of
the village wouldn’t have dared or feared to simply devise.
His long gray fingers stroked one of the prunings and the tree's surface
screamed to him and whispered of the debasement that had surpassed it.
Iron.
He sighed theatrically, touched it and new sprouts grew from the cut stumps.
The new green sprout stretched and returned to its former glory. The forest
took back its territory.
His territory.
His piercing eyes searched even though he knew it would probably be futile and
indeed they found no landmark. No mare head hung from the gable or tree where
one of the men had hung a swing.
They hadn’t acknowledged him or his kingdom. Interesting. And oh so annoying.
He condensed the darkness, as the targets of his interest started to swarm out
of the cabin. He watched them one by one. The first thing that caught his eye
was the largest of them and whose presence might create the most havoc.
A man with hair as black as a moonless night and skin that smelled of the cold
harsh north, where ice deserts and ancient forests prevailed.
It was the same one who had been rude enough to attack him with its human gear
and left him in a second’s painful brightness. Blinded him for a moment and
bathed him in a fake light his darkness had retired from in shock. Exposed him.
It wouldn't go unpunished.
He breathed in, but sensed no fear. The fearful aura that had oozed from the
tall man just a moment ago when he had caught a glimpse of him in his full form
with the sudden horrid flash of light, was gone. Only confusion, anger and hurt
was left. Nor did he sense any fear around the next tallest and slimmer human-
man.
He seemed to be the one least driving by fear and left no trace of such emotion
around him. His anger burned like fire and clouded his aura like thunder.
Temper, irritation and rage flashed in the gray eyes.
The sun shone on his skin and even from the forest edge, he could smell the
pale land of the sun and the warm ocean that covered the human as a significant
spice.
His jaw tensed and his shadows trembled as an extension of his anger. With a
single harsh gesture, he regained control of the darkness and subdued a snarl.
It was the edge of dawn, although the sun was hidden from his eye, it’s power
still reigned over most shadows.
The night would return in time to punish these two men for their shamelessness
and lack of submission.
The three remaining humans on the contrary…
He inhaled and was instantly filled with the pleasing aura of their growing
terror and fear. All emotions wore a special aura around them, the simple
instincts the animals in his kingdom carried in them were of the strongest and
purest kinds.
Amongst the most concentrated was hunger, pain, pleasure and bliss, but among
men, fear was the one that brought him the most satisfaction. It lay over them
and their hearts as something persistent. They were afraid. They should be.
The woman who followed the others with her arms around herself, seems to search
all shadows for the answers to her questions and carried a scent of nervousness
and hopelessness around her.
A perplexed expression scarred the eastern facial features and he wondered
briefly how such distant human beings had found their way to his land and that
in such a variegated flock.
The fair-haired man beside her had the fear draped around him and it saturated
him with power, but there was something…unnatural and disrupted about his aura,
masking its true feelings with a fake calm and happiness.
A light veil of some intoxicants coated the little man’s aura and he soon came
to understand. It disturbed his senses and he wrinkled his nose as he
understood the fair man’s blood was poisoned. They all were, although the small
light man was the only one to be encased in it.
Humans ... he remembered the smell of their scorching medications and firewater
that made them act crazy and unpredictable. Made their auras erratic and
provoked more anger or laughter than sincere feelings for him to feast on.
His gaze turned milder and more scornfully, when he saw them carrying one of
his children's leftovers between them. The two angry men slammed it down into
one of the hollow green boxes behind the cabin and appear to think themselves
immense ensure and safe now that they couldn’t no longer see their "gift".
However, it was not him who had sent it, but one of his children. Said child
stepped shy and uncertain forward to stand behind him in the safe darkness and
gazed at the humans with a thinly veiled longing. He followed her gaze and
found its goal to be the last human in the flock. A young….
He lifted one of his hairless eyebrows and the little one looked up at him with
a silent prayer. He laid a gentle hand on her head and understood.
He nodded and she rewarded him with a smile and ran back to her friend, who
giggled like the sweetest of forest winds and hand in hand they disappeared
into the dark woods, where they would play between the ring of mushrooms and
dance in the coming night.
He followed the young human boy with his eyes far longer than he had allowed
them to rest upon any the others and felt the old bloodlust stir. His sharp
teeth appeared between his thin gray lips and golden lined wings rose readily
from his back.
The last Overland had returned to his kingdom.
-
The cottage was bathed in white. Infinity stretched blank and threatening
around them, without any refraction or aid to find.
Imprisoned it with its branch thin fingers and penetrated through every crevice
and connections of darkness.
Long fingers crept up the steps, stretched toward the room and toward the bed
where Jack was trapped.
Frozen. He had come for him.
He was here.
Jack opened his eyes and felt as if he had just fallen into a deep abyss. He
pulled himself together and noticed it was cold in the bed behind him.
His heavy eyes and blurred brain caught the sight of the light and the sound of
running water from under the bathroom door and he fell back into the pillow.
Aster was just taking a bath.
Jack sighed cumbersome and kicked of the covers a little to give his upper body
some air. He was sweaty and warm from the dream and even if he tried, he
couldn’t pick up more from it, than that someone was after him. It was a funny
dream.
He had had it since he was a small child and the social worker had sent him to
a psychologist at the request of Mrs. Jokul. She had grown tired of Jack waking
her every night with his screams and the lady needed her beauty sleep –
probably more than she knew of.
Jack. of course, hadn’t wanted anything to do with the psychologist at first,
but eventually he had warmed up to her a bit since the woman had proven to be
of great depth and actually wanted to help him.
She had explained that the dream was nothing but a reaction to his
powerlessness and repressed emotions, a natural response to abandonment and
hope of getting found – by someone at least. Jack had accepted it and slowly
the dream too had waned in strength and only appeared at long intervals.
But it too had changed over the years. Jack could recall he had awakened
screaming and crying when he was younger, but now ...
He bit his bottom lip and wondered whether Aster had forgotten about Jack's
small promise from previously the day. Jack blushed and pushed the blanket down
to the edge of his boxer shorts. It would certainly give Aster something to
think about when he returned.
Jack waited and at some point he had allowed himself to close his eyes in
content and unwilling fallen into a doze.
He awoke from his daze when the mattress dipped under pressure behind him and
smiled half-asleep. His smile widened as he felt the tingling sensation of a
hand moved towards his head and Jack closed the gap by pushing his hair against
the hand.
Aster’s hand stopped for a second as in surprise and Jack took advantage of the
other's pause to move back and into the other. He felt the other's warmth
against his back, crept closer like a cat and sighed in satisfaction.
Aster said nothing, but the hand in his hair now stroked Jack, placed
titillating blunt nails into his scalp and pulled the brown locks tentatively.
Jack purred in response and oppressed a chuckle. Was this Aster way of saying
he wanted to try it rough?
The hand in his hair continued its alternation between soft and hard
administration and the other hand went slowly around Jack's waist and pulled
him closer possessively. Jack couldn’t see that much, but something told him
Aster was smiling behind him. Inhaled his hair and the crook of his neck.
Jack tried to touch him, but one of Aster's hand gripped his wrist and forced
both his hands down. Clearly saying that he wanted to lead. Jack was surprised,
but played along.
He turned willingly his head when the hand in his hair ran down to his jaw and
turned his face upward. Jack closed expectant his eyes and enjoyed this new
direction their relationship had taken. It was surprisingly gently and
patiently, but controlling and Jack found he kinda liked it.
It was strangely rousing being robbed of his freedom like that and Jack felt
his boyfriend’s arousal grow behind him. Aster seemed to have used a new
shampoo; the room was filled with a luscious scent Jack didn’t recognized right
away and allowed it to overwhelm him along with Aster’s touch.
Heating lips bit Jack’s earlobe and took his face one kiss at a time. Jack
wriggled eagerly and chuckled as Aster finally let his neck and jawbone be in
favor of his mouth. Jack gave him access and met his tongue with sweet fervor.
A squeak got Jack to focus on his surroundings and he turned toward the door to
the bathroom. It was dark under the door now and the handle turned slowly with
a long creaking sound.
Jack's heart rate increased and he gulped fearfully. Behind him Aster inhaled
deeply and sighed as in ecstasy. Jack sat up, eyes still fixed on the door, "I
think there's someone in there."
Aster didn’t reply and Jack sat up immediately as the door opened. The light
turned on. Both he and the Australian in the door blinked surprised. Jack
looked confused at Aster and turned around. The bed was empty.
"Jack?” Aster said questioning and drove one of his towels over his hair to
catch the last drops from the bath. Jack scratched his neck in confusion,
wondering if he had just woken up from a dream and blinked the last of the
sleep from his eyes. Even the sweet smell had disappeared.
"I thought for a moment you were here with me ... it was so vivid. "
Aster suddenly smirked, "is this ya way of telling me you have wet dreams about
me now? "
Jack quickly caught the other's mood and smiled coly, "maybe – but I couldn't
help but notice dream Bunny’s a better kisser."
Aster scoffed and caught Jack in with his towel, "allow me to disprove that
claim."
Jack laughed as Aster lightly kissed the corners of his mouth and allowed
himself to fall back, to let the other climb up on the bed. Unlike dreams
Aster, the real thing’s hair was still wet and used a far less luscious
shampoo.
Jack rolled his eyes at himself and his crazy imagination and surrendered to
reality.
To Aster.
”Hmmm,” Jack hummed as Asters large rug hands found his naked back and pressed
himself against him. Jack lost momentum as the kiss became deeper, more
demanding, and he noticed Aster's member against his hip.
His brain slowly informed him of the little detail that his boyfriends was
naked under that towel and his breath turned shallow when Aster free hand
gripped his hip. Holding him in place. A small sprout of uncertainty and fear
rose to the surface, when he felt Asters weight spread his legs a little.
His anxiety poked his mind in pace with the insisting feeling of Aster’s
arousal. His member grew through the towel and Jack knew this was working up to
something more than just a make out. But forced his doubts down.
He wanted this, he wanted to be here with Aster. He focused on the other's
tongue and drowned himself in the feeling of the kiss. His scent, his warmth,
his abs. He gasped for breath and buried desperate his hands in the other’s
hair. Tries to find something to distract himself and his uncertainties with.
A shiver runs through him as one of Aster's hands moves down to the edge of the
elastic of his boxers and began to pull it down ...
"Wait!" Jack gasped involuntarily and close his eyes in instant embarrassment.
Aster stopped immediately and pressed his forehead against Jacks. They both
laid silent and breathless in the dark bedroom and shared the oxygen between
them without a word.
Jack finally found the will to open his eyes and gazed apologetic and anxiously
up at Aster.
He thought he was ready, but ...
"It’s okay, mate," Aster whispered and Jack breathed in relief. Aster captured
his mouth again, but moved his hands up and avoided moving south again. Aster
bit his earlobe and Jack moaned. Jack was grateful for the consideration and
tried to prove it with his lips and hands.
Tried to show how much he wanted and appreciated Aster. Tried to make amends.
Aster kissed his cheek, temples and hairline, before he buried his nose in his
hair and inhaled Jack.
"We have all the time we need, frost. "
Jack smiled in content and let himself be cuddled by the other. Aster threw his
damp towel over the edge of the bed, turned off the light and buried his face
in Jack's brown locks. He soon felt Jack drift back into sleep and stared into
the night. He didn’t want to push anything.
But still couldn’t keep himself from letting out a sigh of disappointed.
Chapter End Notes
     inspired by the horror movie "The Hallow" (2015)
     I will update a chapter every friday
***** Between the woods and frozen lake *****
Chapter Notes
     MY NEW LAPTOP CAN'T MAKE FUCKING ANGLE PARENTHESES!!!!!!!!!
     but the screen can flip backwards, so that's pretty cool
     I'll survive - stay spooky out there, comment if you like - enjoy!
     =====================================================================
“C’me on, Aster. We found the bird, we’ll get the insurance money, no damage
done – just let it go.”
Aster still didn’t seem convinced, silent and frowning as he was behind the
wheel, but Jack loathed the idea of his lover walking up to the Bennet house
and do something rash.
Even if someone really should had thrown the dead bird through the window out
of ill will, a threatening confrontation would hardly be the answer.
Plus, Jack was pretty sure Aster would get arrested.
Jack forced his eyes back to the sight of the moist nature outside the car
window, as Aster’s continuing to state his stubbornness and unwillingness to
cooperate with him in silence. Jack scowled to his own reflection and saw a
horse skull rushing by.
They soon doubled in number as they approached the small village and Jack
smiled a little, as they drove past the small stone bridges and thatched roof
houses. Despite the villager’s gloomy looks, the village itself was pretty
sweet.
The broken window and its frame was safely supported by a blanket on the
backseat and would get fixed while they did their necessary purchases.
After the (failed?) party last night, they soon discovered they needed to get
their fridge refilled and the cabin's generator swallowed gasoline faster than
they could fill it.
Jack was mostly interested in exploring the little village and get the best out
of the situation, but it didn’t seemed like his boyfriend would drop the idea
of calling upon justice anytime soon and buzzed sourly as they approached the
town border.
Of course, Jack wasn’t very fond of the idea either that someone intentionally
had tossed the bird into their room, but going around and accursing Jamie
didn’t really seem fair to Jack. Jamie might be a little crazy, but that didn’t
give Aster the right to identify Jamie as the culprit.
"You heard the officer yourself. Jamie couldn’t have tossed the bird through
the window – he's too weak!"
"Jack," Aster sighed as if he was talked to an unreasonable child, "Jamie threw
it, he’s angry, okay? Apparently people out here throw shit through ya windows
if you don’t take their bedtime stories seriously."
Jack gave him a glare, "now that’s just judgmental, Bunny."
Aster ignored the nickname, "I mean it, Jack. Jamie and his like shouldn’t be
allowed to commit vandalism against us, just because he’s lost his little
sister to the woods. It has nothing to do with us and really – fairies? Someone
should force some sense into the head of that kid. If not his entire family."
Jack felt a small plug in his chest and tried to keep his voice neutral,
"that’s not fair, Aster, and you know it. Jamie seemed quite okay and seriously
– you and I both know the types that would think of throwing things through a
window for kicks and Jamie’s definitely not one of them. And what about showing
a little compassion? His little sister has never been found and is probably
still out there resting somewhere under the moss. Try to put yourself in his
place. I would probably warn people against the woods to, if it was me ... if
anything I should probably be the one to know how it feels like to lose someone
like that."
Aster glanced to him as he picked up the emotional edge moving into his voice,
but then shook his head with a cynical clearness, "it's not the same, Jack.
Your sister’s still alive. Your parents took her with them, she isn’t dead and
you shouldn’t –"
Jack lost his patience and untightened his seatbelt, " – you’re so fucking
insensitive some time!"
Aster protested in surprise as Jack opened his car door and jumped out. The car
had slowed down in order to drive over the edge of the cobblestones and took
some of the danger of the situation. But still.
Jack regained his balance without falling and quickly went his way out on the
frozen grass, where Aster and his car couldn’t follow. He heard Aster shout
after him, but ignored him. He was too angry and hurt to talk to him right now.
He stuck his cold hands deep in the pockets of the blue hoodie and stumped off
on long legs without a real goal, just walking away from Aster. Jack clenched
his teeth and felt his jaw tense.
Yes, Jack's sister was possibly alive, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t just
as well be six feet under somewhere unknown. For all he knew they could have
died in that cursed cabin – it would make way more sense than the current
possibility of simple abandonment of their son.
In his heart, Jack had no disillusion hopes of ever meeting the six-year-old
Jill. The walking, talking perfect Jill, probably looking like their mother…
Jack would give almost anything to just meet her – just for a second.
But their parents clearly hadn’t wished it that way and what were the chances
that they would one day just decided to reveal his existence to Jill? Or simply
call him? Was that too much to ask? Apparently…
Jack snorted angrily and forced his eyes to dry up like a man. He wasn’t gonna
cry. Not now, not ever again. The tears hadn’t helped the ten-year-old him when
he’d been picked up by the police, instead of his parents at the summer camp
and they wouldn’t help him now.
Jill might as well be with Jamie's little sister below the forest’s topsoil. In
any case, the chances of finding her where the same odds and the odds had never
really been in his favor.
Jack sighed and walked into the village’s old streets. He would find Aster and
apologize when he had cleared his head. Later maybe.
-
Aster watched as the last glimpse of his furious boyfriend disappeared behind a
house corner.
Aster slammed the car door in frustration and felt an urge to bang his fist
against the steering wheel. Just hitting something.
"Damn it, Jack."
If Jack had just heard him out, he would have told him that the difference
between him and Jamie wasn’t only the fact that Jack's little sister was alive
and still out there somewhere – but the simple fact that Jack shouldn’t give up
hope like the Bennet’s and stop looking for his loved ones.
Aster stared out the window, lost in mind. Something unpleasant had started to
creep in on him and the heated conversation between them had only fueled the
growing suspicion.
Had Jack really just accepted his younger sister's disappearance, as if she was
dead or at least dead to him? Aster felt a knot twist in his stomach and could
hear how insensible he had sounded.
Cricky.
He sighed cumbersome with his forehead resting against the steering wheel and
felt all the anger seep out of his body like cold water. Did they really just
have had this discussion – right here of all places in the world?
Jack's family was last seen here, goddammit – how could Aster had let something
as stupid as a dead bird control the course of this trip? Of their
relationship? Aster cursed himself, ran the conversation though his head
countless times like a broken movie.
Picked up the little pieces one by one.
The part where Jack compared himself to Jamie got Aster thinking. He frowned in
alarm.
Was that it? Had Jack really come all the way up here to look for their bodies?
Could that be it? Did he believe that he would stumble across a hull of an old
car in the forest and find three white skeletons under a cluster of moss? Aster
began to see the trip in a completely different light now.
Jack's little speech before he burned the family picture.
Jack's nervousness during the entire ride.
Jack’s uncertainty about moving to the next step in their relationship.
Jack who wasn’t sure he could do the trip alone.
Jack had still hope, but even hope lost its strength over the years and died
out in the end. Jack hadn’t come here to put his family behind him. He had come
to commemorate them for the last time. Jack was here for an invisible burial.
He had been mourning this entire time without their knowledge.
And all Aster had done was making it worse.
He turned his head toward the window, but Jack was still nowhere to be seen.
Aster decided he would apologize when he had finished shopping and had given
Jack time to grieve.
He got out of the car and emptied the vehicle of empty jerry-cans and gently
placed the broken window under his arm. He peered between the small straw
houses to singling out the shopping street, as he moved through the village's
entrance port and continued over the slippery cobblestones, where salt had been
spread this morning to fight the ice.
A few locals passed him and stopped to send him long glances. Aster ignored
them, more than used to cause a stir with his height, unusual tattoos and hair
color. But there was still something different about the attention these people
showed him.
He frowned when a group of old men at the corner of a memorial, sent him a
collective unfriendly stare and not one of them looked down in embarrassment
when he returned the gaze.
Several horse skulls hung from the buildings and Aster felt the discomfort
rolling down his back. Light goose bumps covered his skin.
What the hell was wrong with these people?
He all but fled into the small hardware store with an adjoining workshop and
closed the door behind him to get some distance between him and the main square
outside. Two men in plaid and old worn caps looked up and they seemed anything
but kindhearted.
Aster wasn’t afraid of them, but the alienations of his person was still
unpleasant and unnecessary in his book. He walked up to the counter and placed
the broken window on the dented surface.
"G'day, fellas, a bird hit the window and destroyed it last night, think it’s
something you can fix?"
The older man glanced from him to the window and send then the other guy by the
worktable a measured nod. The younger man took the frame without a word and put
it on the table before he started screwing wood and glass apart.
He straightened his cap and looked directly at Aster with hooded brown eyes,
"we can fix it, but unless you hammer the bars back up again, it’s of no real
use trying to fix it.
-
”105, 106, 107, 108…" Jack counted quietly with a sigh filled to the rim with
boredom.
As horse skull number lucky 200 made its grand appearance he lost interest and
went searching for a new diversion. He soon became bored out of his mind again,
but wouldn’t allow his mind to wander and fall back on thoughts of mischief.
People around here didn’t seem to like strangers one bit and although Jack
surprisingly fit well into the crowd with his brown hair and eye color, it was
clear that everyone knew each other here and singled him out with their
judgmental stares.
Jack pulled his hood up and hurried to pass two men who had been watching him
for a while. Looking as if they were just waiting for him to do something funny
and get an excuse for beating him up. Jack gulped. Nope, no tomfoolery or
pranks here.
They'd probably hang him if he tried anything funny.
He spotted a window with iron bars and started counting again. He quickly got
to a high number and looked around in confusion. Was everyone afraid of getting
birds thrown through their windows, or was there some weird window fashion he
hadn’t got the memo about?
His distraction-desperate eyes was soon caught by the sight of a young brunette
with small prominent ears and nose buried into a tome and Jack flashed a big
grin, "hey! Jamie!"
Jamie was clearly startled, if almost jumping a meter and losing the grip of
his book was any indication to go by, but tried to act as nothing. Jamie turned
to him and looked as if he just wanted to disappear down the cracks of the
cobblestones and curl up and die forever.
Jack didn’t let it get to him and ran up to the teen, "hey, we were just in
town and –"
"Listen, Jack, I want to apologize for yesterday," Jamie interrupted him
rapidly, fidget nervously and turned the buttons of his jacket, "I acted like
an idiot and I heard from Cupcake what happened. Are you guys okay?"
Jack just waved him off with a smile, "nah, it was just a bird hitting the
window and the insurance covers it all, so really, there's no harm done. But
listen, Jamie, I would like to apologize to – I heard about your sister and I
just want to say I know what you're going through. It wasn’t fair of us to make
fun of ya believes like that."
Jamie loosened up and seemed somehow uplifted by Jack's words despite his timed
expression and Jack took it as a good sign. Jack knew most people would rather
act as nothing, than ask to your loss, like it was something to be ashamed of
or some sort of taboo to discuss.
Before Jack meet his friends, he had never had someone to talk to about his
loss of family and he knew how frustrating it could be to keep it inside for
too long. By Jamie’s positive reaction, Jack guessed not many people walked up
to Jamie and used his decreased little sister as an icebreaker. Allow him to
talk about his pain.
Jamie started accompany him as they continued down the street and slowly he
opened up about his sister. Jack knew the story from Cupcake, but Jamie clearly
wanted to get a lot of things out and seemed starving for this course of
conversation.
"So you’ve lost someone too? Sorry by the way,” Jamie said and led them down a
small street.
"It's alright, I’m mostly worked my way through it," Jack replied easily, but
quickly fell back into his dreary mood before he crossed paths with Jamie, "my
parents and my younger sister disappeared a couple of years back. I have no
idea where they are and apparently they don’t wanna be found by me or anyone
either – but I know they were last seen here six years ago."
Jamie had listened careful and showed genuinely interested, but suddenly made
an alarming expression by the last part. He hastened to hide it while they
crossed the last of the village border and continued out to walk along the moor
that stretched to the south.
Jack enjoyed the cold wind and took in the stunning view that was lined by the
thick forest and the grey sky. He soon stumbled across North’s old ruts and
smiled at the memory of the wild ride.
Jamie turned to him with an uncertain frown and his voice sounded slightly
strident, "Jack, you've got to listen to me. The bird isn’t a good sign. This
means they’re aware of you – it’s a warning!"
Jack tried to keep a neutral expression, but Jamie saw right through him,
"fine, but if you don’t believe me, at least take my advice – just run, okay?
Go before it gets worse."
"Don’t worry, we’ll only be here until the broker arrives on Sunday. Then I’ll
be out of ya hair in the matter of hours. Relax, you’re so tense," Jack said,
smiling soothing and tried to tickle the other.
That didn’t seem to be sufficient enough for Jamie – neither the date or the
tickling for that matter – and he placed a stern hand on Jack's shoulder.
"Jack, listen to me ... I broke into my grandfather's library yesterday and I
found some things ... Jack ... there's a reason nobody lives in the Overland
hut."
Jack burst into laughing, "what? Now my family’s cursed to!?"
Jamie pulled his hand back as if he had burned himself on hot iron and he gaped
terrified. Jack crocked his head, "what? What did I say now?"
"I can’t believe it…You’re an Overland!?"
Jack rocked on his feet with a humored smile, "Jackson Overland. That's my
name, wanna buy it?"
His humor was once again complete and utterly lost on Jamie and the guy looked
as if he was debating vehemently with himself whenever he should run or stay.
The last one seemed to be the winner of the quick match, "you can’t be here –
they’ll kill you!"
Jack rolled his eyes, was the guy even real?
"First they wanna punish me, then they wanna curse me and now they wanna kill
me? Is it still the fairies or the schoolboard of Burgess high we’re talking
about?"
Jack yelped in surprised when Jamie grab his hand without a warning and began
to run like the devil was hot on their trails. Jack followed the other in
bewildered confusion, still not quite sure what the hell was happening, "whoa!
Slow down, buddy! Where’re we going?"
"My house! " Jamie shouted against the wind, tightened his iron grip on Jack
when he tried to wriggle free and shot straight for the house the farthest out
on the moor.
Jack smiled wryly to cover his uneasy, "usually people take ya out to eat
before taking their hand and bringing them home. But hey, maybe that’s just me
being old school!"
He got no answer and started to become breathless as they crossed a frozen and
bumpy moorland where tufts of frost-covered reeds and ponds made it difficult
to run straight.
Jamie didn’t stop his crazy run until they reached his driveway and Jack
shuffled after him all the way up the stairs with a side-stitch biting his left
side like an angry beak, stealing his breath away.
“Hey, w-wait!”
Jamie opened the door and pulled Jack through without taking the least care of
his anguish. The warm cabin was a huge upheaval in relation to the moor's cold
biting wind and Jack could feel his nose start running and cheeks burned.
He sniffled and followed the brunette, who had continued the tour-de-force and
disappeared into the cabin's living room.
Jack noticed it was built exactly like theirs, but several extensions had
transformed it from a cabin to a real house. A greyhound growled from her place
on the carpet at the fireplace and Jack hurried after the teen.
"Here," came it eager from Jamie, who rummaged through a book in something that
looked to be an old office or trophy room of some sort.
Jack tried not to let himself get creeped out by the many glass eyes watching
him from the many heads on the walls and walked to the desk, where Jamie threw
a large leather-bound book on the wood surface and motioned for Jack to come up
beside him and read for himself.
"Look, it’s all there in grandfather's book. It has been passed down for
centuries – it's legit."
Jack walked precariously up beside him and took his assigned spot in front of
the book. It was antique in appearance and certainly a few hundred years old,
with yellowed pages, dense small ink letters and a wrinkled bark-like motif on
the front. Jack was no book expert, but to him it looked real, not a fake.
He followed Jamie's finger running down the book's index and stop beside one of
the stories that was noted as one of many history titles.
Jack rose an eyebrow, “The Overland curse?”
Jamie faintly nodded and began flipping to the designated page number of the
story.
Pictures, headers and small chunks of text flew past Jack's eyes faster than he
could absorb them and Jamie tried to explain it all at the same time, but got
too eager in his ardor and just confused Jack more with his fast talking
nonsense.
Jack abandoned all hope of keeping up with the kid and simply focused on the
pictures and woodcuts. He would probably never look at fairies the same way
again after this. He stopped Jamie’s flipping to focus on a dark woodcut of a
young girl, who was being devoured by three scrawny ghouls.
All with large luminous eyes and bared fangs. Dark wings stretching from their
backs.
Jack read with a frown, “the feast of the vigin bride…”
The sound of heavy boots stepping in the hall got them both to release the
words of the tome and focus on the sight of a middle-aged woman, appearance
quite similar to that of Jamie – but with darker hair and glasses, who had
stopped in the door to watch them with confusion.
Her gaze locked onto Jack’s persona a split-second later and lightning shot in
her eyes, "what is he doing here?"
Jamie grabbed Jack's arm by instinct and Jack’s eyes widened to the painful,
when Mrs. Bennet pulled a rifle down from the wall above the fireplace.
"Take the backdoor," Jamie whispered and Jack backed away, as the woman pointed
at him with the raised rifle.
"I will not have an Overland in my house! Get out! It’s your curse that has
taken Sophie!"
"I –," Jack croaked dumbfounded and the woman started to scream.
"IT'S YOUR FAULT SHE’S DEAD! HER AND ALL THE OTHER CHILDREN!"
Jack had seen enough and ran. Mrs. Bennet's hysterical screams followed him all
the way to the backdoor and he ran as fast as his legs could carry him. A rifle
shot echoed behind him and the panic caused his legs to run faster and he shot
toward the thick woods behind the house.
He continued to run even after the tree’s shade had enveloped him and didn’t
stop in fear that Mrs. Bennet had followed him.
His side-stitch from prior returned tenfold as a thorn in his side and Jack
limped out of breath and staggered terrified toward a cluster of trees and
jumped under a toppled trunk. Clutching himself together and waited
breathlessly.
He didn’t know how long he had waited, but when the sweat began to dry on his
forehead in the forest heat, his heart started to calm down and his cramping
legs began to relax. He guessed it had been long enough for him to switch back
from surviving mood to something less angsty.
"What the fuck is wrong with these people?" he whispered quietly into the
woods, but received no reply. He turned cautiously and peered in the direction
he had come, but found no hysterical woman with a loaded rifle sneak up on him.
Jack sighed with relief and leaned against the tree’s soft moss and stretched
his legs out in front of him. He closed his eyes and regained normal breathing,
ran his hand through the sweaty hair and suddenly discovered the book.
The book was lying innocently on his lap ... he had taken the book with him in
his flight.
Oops..
He ensured once again that he wasn’t persecuted and weighed the heavy tome in
his hand. He should probably go back and put it where Jamie could find it. But
then again ...
Jack looked around one last time and flipped the crisp pages. His curiosity
brought him to the desired page, where a twisted ribbon of painted runes
presented the title; “the Overland curse.”
Jamie had wanted him to know about this and who knew? It could be important.
Maybe he actually wanted to know what this book had to say about his surname –
by all means, it would give him something to do until everything had quiet down
and gotten dark enough for him to sneak back and return the book unseen.
He turned on his phone's flashlight function (noted there was no signal, but
ignored it) and began to read.
The Overland Curse
In the Irish village north of Urchan and south of Milltown, a godly year, the
land became plagued by a poor harvest.
The many farmers and smallholders suffered from this catastrophic deed and in
particular a simple peasant and his family did saw the erroneous harvest as
punishment for their sins, as only several more ills had followed in the
harvest’s footsteps.
The peasant and his family could not pay their bushel to thee landlord and he
threatened those folk ever so terrible about tossing the family out of house
and home, if it be true their debts were not paid the next day.
The peasant, who was a simple sir, but loving father, could not bear the
thought of seeing his children suffer and decided to sell the family's only
cow, and that despite the fact the cow was the only thing still keeping the
house from starvation.
Admittedly, the coin in exchange for the cow would pay their landlord, but not
their lives in the long run.
He then went off on the road with the cow and at which hour darkness had
fallen, it happened that he came across a young mistress on the dusty road. The
peasant knew he had long distance to all his neighbors, but meeting strange
traveler occasionally on the road was not uncommon. Especially in the
summertime, where markets attracted all kinds of travelers.
The lady person however puzzled him.
The lady's light golden dress was far too precious and unfit for the harsh
night weather and her ankle-length golden hair fell loose and shamefully down
her back, as if the lady was a simple whore. The peasant did not like the
thought of such a young mistress walked along on the road on her own and
offered to follow her safely to the town.
The mistress took up his offer and followed him silently and effortlessly by
the dusty road, she barely seemed to touch, light as she was in the moonlight.
At which hour the sir did notice the lady was barefoot in the stern coldness
and had eyes like the deps of hell, he became afraid and did cross his chest.
This seemed to amuse the mistress and the lady asked of his errand on the road.
He told her that he was heading to town to sell his cow in order to keep the
hunger, the bitter cold and the landlord of his doorstep, and all this he told
her in the name of Jesus Christ.
The young mistress then offered to buy the cow, but the sir knew better than to
trade with fairy-folk and rejected, but was nevertheless tempted when the lady
offered him any wish in exchange for the animal.
But immediately he remembered Jesus Christ in the desert, who did resist the
devil’s temptations three times and with faith in his Lord, the man refused the
fairy’s offer. This made the fairy furious and she threatened him ever so
terrible.
If it be true he did not sell her the cow, it would die by the hands of a
strange disease before he reaches the town.
If it be true the cow should live to walk past the gate of town, then the sir
would see there was a bull-market in town and receive a low price for the cow.
Should he sell for the low price nevertheless, be it and return home, then two
robbers would wait for him on the road and kill him for the few chinks.
All this because he did not sell the cow to the fairy.
The simple peasant did beg for his life and the fairy appeased. She offered him
the wish once more and the sir who did not dare to refuse the fairy again,
thought cunningly to himself that he could wish for anything he desired and did
wish for vast wealth.
"Be easy," retorted the fairy, "I shall grand thee greater riches and happiness
than thou hast ever seen before. All this for the cow by thee side."
The fairy told him quietly that when he returned home, the table would be
covered with gold chinks and riches. Enough to keep the hunger, the bitter cold
and the landlord of his doorstep.
He then handed over the cow as the deal commanded and went home. But when he
did turn around, he found that the cow and the fairy was gone and he ran the
entire way home, as he did cross himself and did pray in the name of God.
As he reached his simple home, his wife awaited him ever so frighten in the
doorway and led him to their living room, where the table and the floor, as
promise, was covered with the purest of all gold chinks and costly trinkets.
His weeping wife thank God for his glory and the peasant, who did not want to
alarm his family and let them in on his godless deed, allowed them to stay in
that believeth.
In the years that followed after this strange meeting, the man and his family
became quite wealthy and the richest farm in the area. They should neither fear
the hunger, the bitter cold or the landlord banging at their door and for a
while everything went its merry way.
But as much happiness as the gold chinks had brought, just as apace, they were
spent and the wealthy peasant had to sell the farm, then the livestock and soon
he was left with nothing but the cow as the last defense against poverty and
the landlord's demands of paid tithing.
With his wife carrying a soon to be born child and expectations of starvation
at hand, the peasant then decided to try his luck once more and went off with
the cow on the dusty road in the moonlight. Rest assured he would meet the
fairy mistress once again and do a better wish this time around.
Quite true, the fairy awaited him and did him company as the last time they had
met. The lady left nay imprint on the fair snow and her light silver robes and
stark white hair floated around her form, as quaint as one of the lord’s
angels.
The peasant then offered the lady the cow in payment for a wish, assured the
lady would accept, but this time the fairy did not show interested in the
animal. This time the lady did want a different deal in return for her
services.
“Be easy,” said the fairy, “for I will make thee richer and happier than thou
has ever been before, only thou must promise to give me the young thing which
has just been born in thy house!”
This sounded ever so terrible to the petty peasant, since he, like all good
God's children, knew that the fairies turned their stolen human children to
slaves, kidnaped and did marry untainted virgin youngsters, to live with them
underground and used the very human souls as payment in exchange their powers
in hell.
The fairy did soothe his fears with the assurance that the child would only be
in her custody temporarily. While his wish would last as long as he lived, the
fairy would give him her own son in pledge and his youngest would live as a
prince in the fairy’s kingdom underground until he came of age.
The peasant did refuse and the fairy did promise him vast wealth and great joy.
His family would rule as landlord over his soils and never should they feel the
hunger, fear the bitter cold or suffer from the fairy-folk’s wrath, as long as
they lived.
But the sir could not sell his own flesh and blood, and did flee. Quite forgot
the cow in his fear.
At which hour he returned to his house, he found sure enough the living room
stuffed with gold and his wife carrying their newborn son in her arms. Seeing
that the fair boy was human and not fae, he hasted to collect their new riches
into holdalls, chests and saddlebags, wherever there was room.
He then packed their few belongings and did place his family on the neighbor's
wagon and headed towards the town. Forthwith, the man bought a ticket for each
of his family members to cross the water, did secure his youngest son in his
arms and left his motherland forever.
In the new harsh land, the sir bought land, yard and livestock, went to church
every day and did pray for forgiveness for his sins. Eventually his memories of
the fairy mistress paled and with the years it left his troubled heart.
As time passed, the luck seemed to be in the peasant family's favor and with
the valorous harvest and gold, they soon became the richest family in the area
and the landlords of the bawbling Irish immigrant village in the new strange
land.
On a particular day, it did occur that the sir felt a healthy urge to inspect
his livestock before the next season of harvest and visited his stables. To his
hoyday, he found an extra mare in the midst of his herd of cows.
In the belief that one of his adult sons might had purchased the animal without
his knowledge, he went to his family at the breakfast table, where his wife and
children was seated.
As he did seat, the youngest arrived from the stable and did place a bucket of
fresh milk on the table. To his father’s most wondrous horror, the knave then
started to drink its entire content and slowly the boy’s shin changed into a
most remarkable color.
Soon the knave's skin had completely paled like that of a grey corpse and his
locks did turn as black as the wings of a raven.
The father, who feared the knave had turned ill due to spoiled milk, did want
to discard the bucket’s foul content, but the boy did refuse as he insisted on
the horse milk being a gift from his mother. Instantly the sir did turn livid
and at which hour the night had fallen over the village, he did seize the knave
in his bed and led him by the dusty road.
As was expected, the fairy mistress awaited him in the colors of fall and
crimsoned hair hanging loosely under the wax moon. The sir brought forth the
knave and demanded the return of his own son in exchange for the changeling.
But the fairy just shook that fair red head. The child of man could not return
to the mortal world without a sacrifice in exchange. At that, the sir did reply
that he would do anything to have his child back, regardless of the price this
time.
To this, the fairy demanded a contract.
“Be easy,” laughed the fairy, “I shalt return the fair child and leave thee
with riches and health in great condition. For when thy son comes of age, he
will accept marriage engagement with mine own son, the prince of my kingdom
underground. He shalt these forests rule and thee shalt honor this pact.”
The sir, who know knew better than to disown the fairy, gave that lady his word
and a lad-bride of his blood. When his word was spoken, a white-haired boy was
brought forth from the fairy mistress' red robe and the two boys was switched
over.
As soon as the knave had returned to his rightful father's arms, his shimmering
white hair returned to that of brown and all the star shimmering fairy-features
did erase from his body.
The knave, by the fairies named "Nightlight", returned to the village to live
amongst humans and the forest became home of the fairy queen's son, the
darkling fairy; Prince Kozmotis Pichiner.
The peace between the village and the forest was to last many a merry year.
The village's inhabitants had many a most wondrous harvest and happiness, which
made the village bigger and richer than most, but coequal though many a peasant
had the wage to expand his parcel of land, nay one did dare to chop down bits
of the forest or plow the ripe soil.
The forest border became the village border and nay one did dare to put their
feet within the trees, as many spoke of dark figures lurking behind the trees
and grazing animals disappear once they hath left the herd and did stray into
the woods.
It then came to pass one faithful night, that the peasant passed away of old
age and went to our lord in the heavens. His youngest son, Nightlight, did
achieve a marriageable age, took a faithful bride and had many children.
One moonlit night he felt a certain uneasiness in his soul and went for a walk
on the road alone in the spring night. He was then soon joined by a lonesome
rider on a mare as black as the night. The rider then told the young sir to
halt and did introduce himself.
Nightlight, who remembered the realms of fairies and did recognize the darkling
prince, was filled with most wondrous apprehension and when the fairy asked of
his hand in marriage, Nightlight ran as fast as he could.
At his house, Nightlight hasted to barricade all entrances to his home and his
wife and children did weep bitter drops of sorrow for him until dawn.
At sunset, the young sir then gathered all the durable men of the village and
led those folk out to the border of the forest, where they decided to burn down
the forest and kill the fairy in the righteous name of Christ.
But as soon as the first tongues of crimson flames had burned and blackened the
surface of the trunks, the fairy prince did step out of the dark and cursed
Nightlight with his diabolic magic.
“Be damned!” said the fairy, “none of thee blood will be spared by the hands of
mine and nay human of this land should know their children safe, until every
last of the Overland's family's blood has manured the forest soil and saturated
the roots of the trees!”
After many a year of terror and countless innocent children's disappearance
into the woods, the village finally united against Nightlight and spilled his
blood at the border of the cursed forest.
The profane sacrifice brought an end to the numerous sorrows and peace reigned,
until the tenth year after the death of Nightlights. At which hour fear once
again took hold of the village, the humans did repeat the ritual and sacrificed
once again a member of the Overland family.
The ritual was to be repeated continuously the next decade and the decade after
that. The blood of the Overland family was given back to the forest and the
fairy prince was propitiated decade after decade.
By this pact, the village people could then once again keep the hunger, the
bitter cold and the forest prince’s wrath of thy doorstep.
***** The darkest evening of the year *****
Chapter Notes
     Alright - i had a hard time writing this chapter since Pitch's a
     complicated character
     When you find him in fanfics, he's always this mysterious collected
     Nightmare king, who thrives in the fear of others and especially
     Jack's fears.
     Sometimes he's emotional if it fits the story, but most of the time
     he got his shit together
     In the books he's just plain evil, but a honest antagonist with a
     hurtful backstory
     But in the movie! Damn - the movie Pitch Black is like...all of the
     above, but have you guys ever noticed how fearful Pitch looks when
     he's attacked or the way he rages like a five-year-old when things
     doesn't go his way?
     As said, i had a hard time writing Pitch Black, but i guess this will
     be my tribute to the fandom, until i come up with a real Guardian fic
     and not just a alternative univers.
     hope you enjoy, comments are always appreciated =)
     =====================================================================
Jack flipped the book a few pages and reverted to the beginning of the Overland
story.
…Was that it?
He searched in vain for the name of the author or the story's origin, maybe
even a sequel, but found nothing.
With knitted eye brows, he went on to the next story and found similar tales of
child thievery, people lured into signing shady contracts in exchange for
wealth or miracles and children who were captured and tricked into death by
dancing under the moonlight.
Jack gulped heavily as more stories about changelings appeared and a large
woodcut of an infant stood side by side with an almost identical woodcut of a
thin shadowy monster in the fetal position.
“Geez…” Jack whispered quietly and ran a hand through his wild hair.
Now he understood better why Jamie had freaked out like that earlier. Jack’s
family name appeared in more than one of these stories and the book appeared to
be one large collection of horror stories and inherited fear of fairies.
Jack never thought fairies to be this wicked. When they appeared on film or TV,
they were always small leaf-clad toddlers, who picked berries or put acorn
shells on their chubby heads. Those fairies were small, cuddly and friendly.
These fairies were straight out of hell!
Jack couldn’t believe it. He snorted and scrolled a bit further, “what a load
of crap”.
Jack had to strain himself not to laugh out loud and slammed the book shut with
a grin. Did Jamie and these people seriously believe a bunch of fairies to
sneak around in the woods?
That a magical “fairy prince” was to blame for some people’s disappearing?
Jack shook his head in mild pity and wished himself back to civilization. He
doubted that these people would go as far as to cut his throat to satisfy some
old sacrifice ritual pact – or whatever – to a forest, but there was obviously
something fucked up with this place.
Jamie's mother had shot at him after all.
....Maybe they would…
Jack rubbed his throat involuntary, shivered and opened the book again. It
couldn’t be nothing more than a coincidence that he shared a surname with these
people.
As far as Jack knew, he had no Irish blood in his veins and the cabin was
nothing more than a vacation home his parents had brought years ago. Besides,
if he had had any connection to this village, his father would had told him ...
right?
A sting of doubt crept into Jack's confidence and his smile fell and turned
into a frown, “this is so –”
A branch snapped behind him and Jack was startled. He sat up with a ponding
heart, searching for Mrs. Bennet amongst the trees. He suddenly noticed that
the sun had long since set behind the trees and he checked his phone.
17:58. How long had he been here…?
The battery blinked and Jack's concern intensified when the phone died out
between his hands and the light it had delivered was turned off. The sound of
broken branches returned, now closer and Jack looked around with all his nerves
on his sleeves.
He squinted in the beginning dark, but found no crazy axe murder or
bloodthirsty werewolf. Jack shook his head and felt like hitting himself with a
stick or something. The fairytales and legends had gotten his senses up on high
alert and made him afraid of the dark.
"You're not a little kid," he mumbled sourly to himself and tried to overcome
his irrelevant fear, "it’s just stories, get a grip, man!"
Jack took a deep breath, counted down from ten and felt how he slowly began to
calm down. This book was just fiction.
Just bedtime stories made by fucked up people, for fucked up children and even
though they were scary, and absolutely not appropriate for children, Jack had
seen movies and read books much bloodier and scarier than this rubbish.
A sudden impulse made Jack look up again with zeal. Maybe it was Aster out
searching for him. Of course! It had to be his boyfriend walking around the
forest looking for him, Jack had been gone all day after all and his phone had
been without signal and now as good as dead.
It was only logical that Aster or a villager walking his dog, had stumbled upon
Jack's hiding spot, or something like that.
“I’m here!” Jack shouted loudly and huddled out of his hiding place. He waved
his arms in case Aster could see him, even though Jack couldn’t spot him and
walked a few steps forward, “Aster, you're there?”
He received no reply, but Jack’s hopes only grew when he saw the silhouette of
a child behind one of the trees. Probably one of the village children, who were
out playing by the forest edge.
"Hey, kid!"
The child didn’t answer him, but waved friendly. Jack took it as a good sign
and walked toward her. He could see the outline of a skirt, so it had to be a
little girl, but otherwise she was almost impossible to see in the midst of the
forest’s heavy shade.
Jack squinted. Was she just very far away or were the forests just really dark
this time at day? He came a little closer and entered the forest's dense
foliage-hangings.
After his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw glimpses of the girl's bright
eyes before she suddenly turned around with swinging locks and ran away.
“Hey, wait!” Jack yelled and ran after her, “wait, I’m just lost, don’t go!
Promise I’m no pedo!”
But the girl continued her retreat and continued to be five steps ahead of him.
Jack ran after her and had to slow down as he almost stumbled over a tall tree
root. He heaved breathlessly for air and looked up.
He expected the girl to be gone, but was surprised when he saw she had stopped
as well. Jack lifted an eyebrow. She was waiting for him?
He took tentative one step forward and she took a step back. He took two steps
and she imitated him. Jack's lip twitched into a wry smile. He had feared the
girl might had been afraid of him and run off, but it would seem that she was
just playing with him.
Jack liked games and at some point she had to go home to the village again and
lead him along, so why not play the game until then?
He stepped a little forward and hid behind the nearest tree trunk. He sneaked
to the other side of the big tree and peered around. The girl was hiding behind
her own tree and caught his eye. She giggled and hid again before she jumped on
to the next tree.
Jack couldn’t help but laugh himself and ran over to the next tree. They
repeated this pattern a few times until Jack got lucky and came close enough to
catch the girl. He quickly jumped out of hiding and expected to scare the girl
behind her tree, but there was no one there.
Confused he turned around a few times before he found her again – now behind a
three nearly four meters ahead. She giggled and Jack scratched his head
dumbfound.
“How did ya…?”
"Jack," she whispered almost inaudible and ran away.
Back at the tree, Jack hadn’t moved as much as an inch. Frozen. His heart felt
as if it had forgotten how to beat. How to pump the blood through his system
and his breathing had stopped all together.
It wasn't that she knew his name. Everyone knew gossip ran fast in small closed
societies like these – no, it was that she had said his name in a way so
familiar and knowing, that it had knocked the teen to the ground.
Jack knew it was impossible. That it couldn’t be real or possible in any world
and never could have any reason behind it, but the treacherous hoped grew in
him still.
He knew it couldn’t be her. One, because he had never known her and two,
because they had never met before, but the way she had called his name had
touched something so deep in him that he thought he would break.
She had the soft edge of their mother’s voice.
“…Jill?”
She turned her head in his direction and spun around with outspread skirts, as
to show of her miraculous existence, before she waved sweetly at him and ran
away. Jack felt his legs begin by themselves, felt his body set into leaps and
speed up with new strength.
Jack ran faster than he had done before in his life and he refused himself to
stop again. He couldn’t lose his little sister.
Never again.
Darkness fell silent around him and made the forest dense and shady. Jack
jumped over the protruding roots and bent under the low overhangs branches. He
avoided the dark tree trunks at the last minute, ignored the forest thorns and
bare branches that tore his pants and hands until they bled.
She turned her head to make sure he still pursued her and all around him, he
seemed to hear her hushed voice, whisper his name again and again. More voices
joined her's and Jack shook his confused head and heard the blood roaring in
his ear, as his body work to increase his speed.
“Jill, wait!” he shouted desperately and bumped his shoulder against a tree
trunk. He ignored the pain and stumbled forward. He thought for a moment that
he saw double when another little girl showed up at his younger sister's side.
He soon realized that there were actually two of them now, as they moved
individually and the other girl's hair was shorter and something that looked
like wings protruding from her back. The two girls giggled and disappeared
behind a cluster of trees.
He could hear his own breathing like that of a bellow, as he jumped over the
intertwined trees they had just passed and jumped down. Jack uttered a repulsed
shout in protest when his boots disappeared in water to the thighs.
A green lake stretched out in front of him and was framed by trees as a living
fence, barely kept upright by the coarse roots that stood exposed, where the
ground had slipped and sunk into the lake.
Jack shivered from the cold water that bit his thigh and tried to get back up
from where he had jumped down. The mud loosened under his muddy boots and he
fell back. He struggled to stay upright and avoid an involuntary dip, when
Jill's voice sounded once again.
The water sloshed violently as he turned around and caught a glimpse of her
behind an old hollow tree halfway submerged in the lake. She allowed him to
catch a glimpse of her before she turned around again with a sweet laughter and
disappeared out of sight.
Jack pressed his lips together and tried to think of something other than the
water’s harsh bite, as he bit the sour lemon and waded toward the hollow tree.
Reminded himself that it would be worth it in the end.
His boots made thick muddy imprints as he began his ascent and moisture soaked
his sleeves as he pulled himself up with help from the branches of a wet pine
tree.
He took one last look back at the forest lake and thought for a moment he
sensed something that looked like a road far behind the tree line, when Jill
and the other girl regained his attention with their haunting giggling.
They cried out in joy and laughter as he continued to pursuit them. He quickly
forgot all about the road behind him and followed a self-created path with
thundering boots, now heavy with mud and water. He picked up speed as the
forest floor started to decrease.
The girls disappeared behind two logs.
“Wait!” Jack shouted and wanted to cry out again, but lost his voice as the
ground disappeared under him and he fell down a slope. Involuntarily Jack made
a somersault and rolled helplessly down without control, as earth whirled
around him and the sky kept popping up and disappearing before his eyes.
Roots, rocks and thorns tore his arms as he threw them up to protec his head
and the slope seemed to go on forever, until the ground suddenly lay still and
Jack rolled onto his back.
He panted battered and breathlessly, waiting for the world to stop turning
around like crazy and sat up between the moss and dead leaves. The half-hidden
sky soon ceased to dance before his eyes and his stomach calmed down, as his
head stopped spinning and he regained his sense of direction.
Jack staggered to his feet one leg at a time and felt the leaves fall out of
his hair and clothes. A lonely clearing spread out in front of him and let a
bit of the last light down through the bare treetops.
The strange heat seemed to be almost compressive here and all of the trees were
old, bony and covered with a smooth layer of moss and fungi. Jack looked around
for traces of his sister and the other girl, but found nothing.
“Jill!” he shouted and heard how his voice was swallowed up by the forest. Jack
picked a leaf out of his collar and stepped further into the clearing. The moss
dipped softly under his boots like a thick carpet and the dying sunlight seemed
to drench everything with its red glow.
"Jill?" he asked quietly into the dark and got no response in return. A crisp
crackling sounded from under his boots and Jack raised his foot to the sight of
a group of crushed mushrooms. A ring of white fungus ran around the clearing
and framed it in a natural circle.
If Jack hadn’t read Jamie's creepy book, he might had found it magical, but all
he could think of right now were fairies with sharp teeth and long claws.
It suddenly occurred to him that he had left the book somewhere behind him he
in his panic, but he couldn’t take care of that right now and the idea of the
book soon drowned in the quivering trains of thought that threatened to drown
him completely.
He had reached the middle of the clearing now and looked around for the
slightest trace after his sister.
His eyes peered into the forest’s bar-like tree trunks and found the outline of
a tall man. Jack's smile returned and he stepped toward Aster.
His joy and relief was soon turned into confusion as the silhouette, very
similar to his lover, stepped forward with a self-importance and graceful walk.
The body movements were all wrong and the man moved with an elegance Aster
would never have been able to muster even if he had wanted to.
Jack’s own steps slowly went from forward going to reverse and he watched with
a mixture of childlike fascination and growing uneasiness, as the silhouette
left the darkness of the forest.
Bare ash-gray feet made no sound, as the man moved across the moss-covered
forest floor and the low branches, heavy with vines, lifted themselves to make
room for the human-like creature.
Dark gauzy robes as black as night and heavy as the shadows around them, hung
elegantly on the man's lean body and opened in a deep V-neck, showing a grey
hairless chest.
Jack's burgeoning understanding grew in pace with the stranger's entree and the
teen continued his slow recession, as two golden gray eyes pierced him like a
bug on a needle with their intensity.
Jack's subconscious mind recognized the creature in front of him by reputation,
but his stubborn brain continued to be in denial and ignored what his eyes was
telling him, until the sight of the two black wings behind the man's back
finally forced Jack’s senses to its knees.
“No way…” the teen murmured in a mix of fear and deep agony, “you’re just a
fairytale. Kozmotis isn’t real…”
The fairy prince stopped his gentle progress and elevated one of his hairless
eyebrows in mild interest. As he was standing there, barely a meter from Jack,
he was pretty much three heads taller than the small teen and studied Jack from
the edge of his prominent nose with half lidded eyes.
The fairy tilted his head in something that could only be interpreted as ...
curiosity.
"I'm surprised a mere human like yourself is familiar with my old name. How
intriguing,” the man retorted with a velvet voice, spilling like liquor from
his thin gray lips. Jack would probably have laughed at the absurdity of the
fairy's British accent, hadn't it been for the situation's grave severity.
"But Perhaps a more suitable introduction is in order," he continued. The fairy
price didn’t bow to Jack, but a slight nod with the head nevertheless indicate
some sort of greeting that both seem respectful, but also gloating.
“Now days I go by the name, 'Pitch Black'.”
Jack had no idea what to do with that piece of information, but politeness
seems to be the fairy’s flow, so Jack jumped on board, "uh, my name’s Jack
Overland ... um ... your majesty?"
Should he address him differently? Jack had never met a royal before or paid
much attention in history class when it came to European kings, so he had no
idea. Your fairyness? Mr. forest Lord? Sire tall, handsome and British accent?
Wait…what?
A light laughter like the sound of rustling leaves and the wind whistling in
the night, sounded deeply from the fairy’s gray chest and Jack smiled
awkwardly. Without Jack’s notice, the fairy had decreased the distance between
them and Jack took a step backwards in shock.
That seems to amuse the fairy and he stepped into the ring of mushrooms without
as much as crushing a single one, "don’t be afraid, Jack."
Jack scoffed, but moved back nonetheless as the other creeped closer.
Regardless of how the fairy positioned himself, half of his face continued to
be in shadow. He began to circle Jack and his bright eyes shone as an eclipse.
Followed Jack's every move.
Jack frowned, "where's my sister?"
The fairy ignored him, circling him still and Jack moved out of the way when
the man tried to catch a strand of his hair. Grey lips stretching out in a
mocking smile.
"Relax, Jack. I'm not gonna hurt you ... much," the last was said with a
crocked smile that made goosebumps form on Jack's skin and he gathered the
courage he still held.
"I'm not afraid of you."
"Lying dosn't suit you, Jack," the fairy replied with hands folded behind his
back and his long sharp face contorted into something that looked like mild
amusement. Jack quickly turned around as the fairy almost got behind him.
It slowly began to dawn on Jack that he hadn’t heard any of the fairy’s
footsteps. It almost seemed as if he hovered above the ground, completely
silent and gliding like a shadow. As a shark on land.
"You think so, huh?" Jack said to gain himself time. Got the conversation going
and tried to listen for cars or any indications that could tell him how far he
was from the road or human habitation. Had he come in from the right or left
the side of the road he saw earlier?
Pitch watched him with endless patience and stopped his wandering, "of course I
do, I'm a darkling-fairy, we know that kind of thing. Fear is one of the things
I know the best."
He suddenly moved up to Jack without the slightest of sounds and Jack stumbled
back in surprise.
"You fear the forest fairies, Jack and it is wise of you," Pitch said knowingly
and lifted a hand toward Jack's face. Jack stared at the dark pointy nails and
gulped loudly as Pitch laid one against his cheek. The slightest pressure and
he would puncture the skin.
"And since you know my old name, you must know why we’re here, what drives this
village of humans and their fear. Their fear of me and mine," he whispered and
leaned in as to drown Jack in his shadow.
"Is this because of Nightlight?" Jack asked angrily, pissed off by the thought
of getting killed because of some dead person’s stupid deeds and recalled the
content of the book, "because of that history ..."
Pitch pulled away and Jack could breathe a little easier.
A strange sweet smell had hung around the looming man and the teen couldn’t
help but notice how awfully familiar it seemed. Pitch pulled an old tome out of
his robe, waved it teasingly.
"Oh, this?" he asked in a playful tone, holding it before the teen. He began to
scroll through it old pages, the stopped to read and Jack knew almost for
certain, that it was the Overland story the man was looking down on.
"Such a particular little fairytale. The good, but helpless man, goes out too
safe his family from their pitiful life and get ensnared by the simple promise
of gold – tricked by an evil fairy. A fairy that soon curses his innocent son
and dooms his family to extinction by the hands of their own neighbors. Such a
tragic story, an important moral to learn and admonitory to teach little human
children, if not parents – BUT I cannot help noticing a few missing details..."
He slammed the book shut with a bored expression and looked at Jack out of the
corner of his eye. Jack realized to his great vexation, that his curiosity had
gotten the best of him and made him stay and listen to the fairy, rather than
trying to escape while the fairy was busy reading.
He looked up again and discovered Pitch was now right in front of him. An open
smile on his lips and attentive eyes. Looking shokingly gentle. "Do you want to
know the truth, Jack?" he offered in a genuinely manner, “about your
ancestors…or maybe your own family?”
Jack felt his heart beat faster and the fairy’s outstretched a hand, offering
him to take it. Jack reached out to it per automation, but then pulled his hand
back in a moment of reason. The fairy prince laughed with a cracking laughter
and moved quickly as a shadow behind him and grabbed Jack's shoulders.
Held him captive and whispered into his ear.
"The peasant didn’t meet my mother by accident or vicious plan from her side.
He knew where to find my people and made the deal with her long before the
family lost everything. That he stalled to fulfill his part of the agreement is
no lie, but trust me, Jack. He wasn't nearly as reluctant to sell his youngest
son to me, as the stories states."
Jack shuddered and listened like his life depended on it. Pitch's voice crept
into his head like a snake and he could hear the smile in his voice. The sweet
smell almost smothering him.
"And as for sweet Nightlight? We might have ended up as enemies, but he was my
lover long before he decided to reject me and suddenly play holy. I blame the
villagers. Incompetent people can place such dangerous ideas in the head of a
young insecure boy. The fact he grew up as half fairy among them, didn’t
exactly help his life as a villager or acceptance among them either. They were
more than willing to sacrifice the Overland family when they discovered I
couldn’t be burned away. And as for your parents ..."
"You killed them," Jack whispered, the certainty almost smashing him to pieces.
“I took them in. The ones with Nightlight’s inherited fairy blood took place
among me as my people and the others…well,” he chuckled, “they are still part
of us, just not as fairies.”
Jack caught the sound of whispering voices in the darkness, low, but high-
pitched wails of agony scratching the inside of his brain and he groaned as he
clutched his head. Covered his ears in pain. But no hands could keep the sound
out of his head and he jammed his jaw as the volume only grew.
"Stop it, stop it!"
The haunting voices continued to grow in strength and Jack opened his eyes. Saw
them. Eyes in the dark watching him with malicious glee or sorrow, all of them
part of the darkness dancing around them.
The living shadows moved closer and molded in and out of each other in a sea of
shadow bodies. Faces as black as night and distorted in bestial mindless
expressions, returned the gaze of his widened eyes. Not a trace of humanity was
left in them, not even in the small childlike shadows.
Jack pulled free of the fairy's grip and felt tears forming at the thought of
his father or mother being among the whispering flock.
“What do you want from me!?”
Pitch scoffed and got a harder and more determined expression as he towered
over Jack, “maybe I want what is mine, what was promised me. I want you, Jack
Overland.”
Jack widened his eyes and decided this was his cue. Fuck this shit!
Pitch chuckled humored at the sight of his fearful expression, "a bit scared
are we? Running won’t do you any good, Jack."
Maybe not, but Jack was of the belief that you could always run away from your
problems if your back was free and he sticked to this philosophy without a
second’s hesitation. He turned 180 degrees on his heel and decided to run for
it, when the fairy made an almost imperceptible motion with his hand behind the
teen.
Jack cried out when one of the shadows shaped into a tentacle and twisted
itself around his feet like a whip. Jack fell on his face and turned around
quickly as the shadows began to drag him toward the ever so patient Pitch
Black.
The brunette kicked of his soaked boot in an attempt to escape, but the shadow
just crawled further up his leg and several other shadows joined it. Before
Jack could even begin to comprehend he had actually been hijacked by something
as unbelievable as shadows, he was already lying before the feet of the fairy.
“No, n-no, wait!” Jack protested in panic as the fairy seated himself between
his spread legs and hovered over him like his own personal nightmare. Jack
tried to kick and fight with his fists like Aster had showed him, but the
shadows just seized his wrists and ankles.
Spread him out on the forest floor and offered him to the fairy like a meal on
a silver-plate. A gray hand lowered towards his face and Jack turned his head
to the side with a scared sound. Scrunched his eyes tight together.
Gentle but sharp fingers placed themselves against his cheek and a smile could
be heard in the haunting voice above him, “shy without the darkness and sheets
to shield you, Jack?”
The hand rummaging gently through his hair and the sweet smell filled Jack’s
mind and nostrils again. Now that it covered him like a blanket and Pitch held
his face firmly, Jack suddenly recalled from where he’d encountered the strange
scent before.
His eyes opened immediately and his head turned toward the fairy with an
expression that could only be described as absolute horror. There was no doubt.
This was the guy from his dream. The realization hit Jack like a hammer in his
guts and got his pupils to dilate in fear.
Pitch’s eyes closed in bliss and small sharply pointed teeth peeped out from
between the thin lips. A second hand started to caress his thighs and Jack
whimpered with a sharp intake of air. The fairy chuckled.
"When I discovered that the last Overland had ventured into my land, my
intention was simply to reap another sacrifice and be done with this boring
malaise," Pitch admitted and smiled almost gently at Jack's attempts to wriggle
free.
His nails bit into Jack's flesh, "but I must admit I hadn’t expected such ...
warm a welcome. But I must confess it pleased me."
“P-please, I leave the cabin, I-I leave your land, I promise, I – don’t!”
“You’re a true reflection of Nightlight,” the fairy prince continued without
giving any indication he had heard a word of Jack's pleading, "just lovelier."
Jack's protests became a stifled scream as the fairy shut him up with a kiss.
Jack turned his face in disgust and fear, which just seemed to excite the fairy
more. A nausea sweet taste filled the boy’s mouth like tar, making his head
light and his nerves burning like they were on fire.
Black dots began to dance before his eyes and he coughed strangled, as the
fairy began exploring his body.
***** He gives his harness bells a shake *****
Chapter Notes
     Hey guys
     having some...mix feeling about this chapter
     it will be my first ever written smut, but on the other hand it's
     also a rape scene
     hmmm, i let you decide if it's decent or not hope you...enjoy?
     =====================================================================
It would be a lie to say he had never been this scared before in his life.
The long thin fingers and skillful hands explored Jack’s body and brought his
mind off balance toward a place where fear, humiliation and dread prevailed.
Jack was terrified of what this fairy, this creature had in store for him and
most of all, Jack feared how far Pitch would go.
Jack fought and wriggled to get free, which just seems to arouse the fairy even
more. The more Jack struggled, the more eager the exploratory hands got and
Jack cried out for help when his hoodie was pulled over his head and thrown out
among the ferns.
The clammy warm climate and the damp moss under him stood in stark contrast to
the fevered fairy, who loomed over him and the cold that gripped Jack's
interior.
The shadow holding his hands in place had let go for a second to allow Pitch to
remove Jack's hoodie and now t-shirt, and Jack grabbed the fairy in an attempt
to turn him over and get a chance to get up from his locked position.
Pitch just grinned and pinned him down with his weight, a hand coming up and
grabbing Jack’s own two. Holding them above his head and leading the other grey
hand around his neck before he had a chance to fight back.
"Stop it!"
Jack had no doubts concerning what the fairy wanted from him. He knew, like
every other creature with a simple libido insight and ear for the whispers that
often ran between the boys in the locker room, that he was going to be raped
and abused here in this god forsaken place.
And he couldn’t do anything about it. Jack was afraid, but the fear ran deeper
than what the act entailed.
It was what came after that drove his brain to the madness of terror.
Would pitch kill him? Strangle him and simply be done with it, like it was
common practice among rapists who wanted their fun and avoid the law? Off
course, Jack knew no human law could punish a fairy – and who would believe
Jack anyway? – but the chances of dying was still high bet.
The picture in Jamie’s book of the young girl being devoured by the flock of
fairies, played across his retina and twisted his fantasy to the nerve-racking.
Would Pitch eat him afterwards? Would he do it while Jack was still breathing?
Di it quickly, or slowly and painfully?
Jack had no idea and his strength began to fade. The fairy's hand held his
desperate hands in an iron grip that extended far beyond human strength and
Jack could might as well had tried to break out of stone shackles.
His kicking legs became heavier the more he exhausted himself and his heart was
pounding so hard he thought he was going to faint.
Jack gasped for breath, aimed with a last kick meant for Pitch head, but
missed. The fairy prince entrusted Jack’s hands to one of the shadows and
waited for Jack to tire himself out.
It took a far shorter time than Jack had hoped to last and soon he was
completely exerted and laid still to catch his heaving breath.
The memory of another time, where Jack had been left without the ability to
breath either, overwhelmed him to the core and made him shake violently.
Captivated by the sight of Jack’s dread and heavy smell of fear, the fairy
sighed and cupped his cheek.
Buried his face in Jack’s locks.
Jack didn’t resist this time, frozen in his own state of pure panic, suddenly
recalling a simple, but traumatic memory. He could taste the snow now, cold and
pungent on his tongue and heard its soft crunching in his ear, like the break
of thunder.
Jack was filled with fear, but fear in its pure form was a phenomenon he had
first come to know as a six-year-old. It had been a long summer that year and
as it often happens, it was followed by an even harsher winter.
Jack had gone out in the snow with the permission of his parents and wrapped in
various jackets, mittens, bonnets, scarfs and ski pants, he had wobbled hassled
and heavy into the white world.
As the active child Jack was, he hadn't wasted a second and went out to explor
all the wonders winter had to offer, He had soon wandered off and left the
other children behind, in search of adventure.
But it would seem that Jack in his lust for adventure, had forgotten how the
surrounding area had looked before the snow had covered all its bays and holes.
His own forgetfulness had made him reckless and soon he had found himself
falling through a little hill of snow and into a cavity between a cluster of
trees.
The snow had swallowed him like a hungry monster and his whole world had become
white, cold and unyielding. Leaving him little room to move in.
Jack had shouted and struggled to climb back up, but the soft snow gave no
impetus for him to climb on and the more he pushed the soft snow, the more
compact it became and harder to move.
Jack’s world became a blue hole above him and his drenched layers of jackets
and pants became weighed down by the snow that melted on his body.
Soon Jack had used up all his strength and had been too tired to move. Caught
in his white prison, caught with his muffled cries and tears that stung his
cheeks in the cold, Jack found himself face to face with the purest of all
fear.
The fear of death.
It had been late in the evenings before Jack's screams had ceased in lack of
response and he had settled down. Lost, scared, hungry and haggard having
struggled for so many hours.
That was the day the fear had bared its open face before Jack and made him
older than he should. Jack had understood that death was the certainty that
followed when you gave up on fighting for your life and the child surrendered
to his cold self-dug grave.
If a random bunch of kids hadn’t come across the hole on top of his prison and
had decided to dig him out in jest, Jack could might as well have been one of
those missing children, who’s corpse first reappears back in the spring when
the snow retreats and let go of its treasures.
Jack never told his parents about the incident. Without a worry in the world,
they had welcomed him home just in time for dinner, in the belief that he had
had a fun day in the snow.
And Jack - like most children his age - had quickly shook the near-death
experience of him like a wet jacket and stored it away deep in his subconscious
for when he got older and had time to dwell on it. Meaning he pretended like
nothing and told them nothing.
Fearing that his parents might get angry if he told them he had buried
themselves in the snow and almost died, he kept it to himself and with time
forgot about it all. Left it for another time and another day. A day that
seemed to have caught up with him now.
Burning lips captured his tears and Pitch brought him back into the present
again with his warmth, his intense eyes and insistently rubbing against his
body.
Jack protested, but the fairy ignored him, leaned down and nibbled on Jack's
neck with sharp teeth. A shocked noise escaped the boy's quivering lips.
“Please let me go, you don’t have –‘”
“Shhh,” Pitch shushed with what could almost be taken for a gentle voice, if it
hadn’t been for the sinister edge, “the transformation has already begun. I'll
make you mine, you’ll see.”
Jack didn’t want to see anything and turned his head away to at least show some
reluctance in his locked state. His head had begun to feel fuzzy. What
transformation?
The fairy chuckled, "relax, let me show you my world, Jack."
Pitch stroked his face and let his hand wander down along the visible marks he
had left on his neck across Jack’s trembling chest and down to his side where
it rested firmly on his slender hip.
Jack opened his mouth to scream for help, but the fairy beat him to it and
kissed him forcefully. Caught off guard, the boy's mouth stayed wide and the
fairy’s burning tongue gained entrance without a fight.
Jack struggled, used up the last he had in him and end up moving around with no
real plan or escape.
The old hopelessness from when he had been caught under the snow grew into his
present state and as the cold once had dulled him, he slowly calmed down. The
hot tongue in his mouth making him feel a comforting warmth he couldn't
remember having ever felt before.
The foul taste that had filled his mouth after the fairy’s first stolen kiss
returned, but this time Jack’s senses found it cleaner, sweeter and almost
sedative. As the kiss deepened, Jack's mind became overwhelmed with strange
thoughts and unfamiliar emotions.
His mind and panicked thoughts clouded. The fairy cooed in satisfaction, as
Jack stopped struggling and actual started to return the kiss. The fairy opened
his Jack's legs further with a knee and pressed against his crotch.
The teen released a high-pitched keen and received a malicious smirk in return.
The fairy allowed him a second of air and Jack moaned as the hot tongue
captured his left ear. The wantonly sound of his own doing made Jack wake up
instantly.
He returned to his senses and struggled again, this time making the fairy pull
back. He frowned and took a possessive grip in the brown locks.
"There is no use fighting it, Jack. The blood in you has started to wake, you
feel it, I know you do. Just let go of your humanity and let me in, sweet
Jack.”
Pitch moved to kiss him again, but Jack turned his head to the side and avoided
him. The fairy just chuckled and moved his hand south. Pitch ignored Jack's
scared pleas to stop and started to lick a hot brand along his jaw to his ear.
Jack moaned in a mix of fright and sobs when the grey hand forced his head back
with a tight grip in his hair and caught his lips. The sharp teeth draw blood
from Jacks bottom lip and he tasted his own life on Pitch's tongue.
Copper and the dark sweet flavor mixed together.
Pitch turned the boy’s head as he pleased and sucked on his earlobe, licking
the shell and whispered heated words Jack couldn’t comprehend.
Jack knew he should be trying to escape, fight or at least shout for help, but
a strange burning sensation had spread out though his limbs and made everything
draw near before Jack’s widened eyes, turning everything clearer and almost
painfully close.
Jack was overwhelmed by the sound of his own heartbeat that struck in line with
the night's beating wings and the feeling of moss that sprouted under his back.
Nearby he could feel the fall of a leaf like a roll of thunder and somewhere
over him, a drop of rainwater climbed the branches, shining like a fallen star.
The roots of the trees sang to him from deep below the ground, where the roots
hummed as they drank the nectar of the soil.
He could hear them grow ...
He felt how the fairy’s hand began to stroke his naked stomach, the long
burning fingers ghosting over muscle, that jumped and clenched by the slightest
of contact. The warm feeling consumed Jack’s senses and the sweet smell almost
dazed him.
It became intoxicating, coursing through his veins like hot oil and down to
pool in his stomach and lower, lower still. Jack arched and gasp at the
touches. Pitch’s smirk grew larger and his hand slowly moved up in circles and
started to play with his nipples.
Jack drew his legs to him by the feeling and his sensitive body grinded against
the fairy, desperate for friction and release from the sweet intensity.
Jack’s body became his entire world and he could nothing but obey it. The fairy
kissed his stomach and felt how the fear was replaced with desire and hunger.
The fairy blood had started to work and Nightlight's magic rose to the surface,
as the boy’s skin paled and the blood veins slowly turned from red to blue.
Jack moaned shamelessly to the feeling of Pitch’s hand adding pressure on his
stomach, fingers kneading into the soft flesh, stroking his skin in rousing
circles and working their way to the hem of his jeans and boxers.
Jack heard his own breath hitch, as the fabrics was yanked down in one single
move. Exposed and uncovered like this and completely at the creature’s mercy,
the previous fear began to trickle in through the cracks of his clouded mind.
Pitch soothed him with his fevered kisses, distracting him from his instincts
of fights with one hand massaging his necks and another moving towards his
length.
The fairy began to rub the sensitive area and Jack gasped, arched his back
completely of the damp ground and widened his eye to the eternal sight of the
stars. Pitch stroke him in long movements, pressing down more, rubbing a little
faster and conquered Jack’s gasping lips once again.
Jack was on the brick of crying now. Left with no will to flee or strength to
even lift his arms, he felt how the insanity crept in on him. Turning him to
nothing but a mess of moans and wanton sounds.
No one had ever touched him there before; Aster had never gone this far and
Jack felt shame for not fighting more.
Jack couldn't believe this was happening to him and it shocked him that he felt
a warm stir build up in his abdomen, an eager want to move and meet the looming
fairy’s movements.
Jack’s doubts drilled inside his mind, but no plea could make the fairy stop
and Jack found that he soon lost the connection with his fears of intimacy.
Jack cried out as he came and fell limp on the moss with regret and disgust
tainting his heart.
A disillusioned hope that the fairy was done, was shattered, as Pitch licked
the semen from Jack’s trembling skin and grip his thighs, pulling them
forcefully apart and gaining complete access.
The boy tensed in shock at the sudden exposure, knowing what would surely
follow and tried to close his legs.
The fight was lost even before it began and the prince’s grip proved
unrelenting. Jack lamented with fresh fear pumping in his now blue veins and a
high-pitched keen from the back of his throat filled the night as the fairy
grinded up between his thighs.
Jacks half-formed protests turned to an alarmed shout, as he felt of a digit
pressing against his entrance. It pressed in despite Jack’s pleas and started
to move in and out. It was soon followed by another and Jack felt how his inner
tissue burned from the friction.
The fairy kissed his cheek and smiled as he bit the shell of his ear, “just
relax, there is natural fluids in you that will make it easier if you allow
it”.
Jack had absolutely no idea what the fairy was talking about, but tried to
relax nevertheless. Getting through this as fast as possible and just give the
fairy what he wanted, so Jack could curl up and die.
To his surprise and utter disbelieve, the hurt stopped the second he let go and
a lubricate felled his inside, making it slick and easy for the now three
digits to move and scissor him.
The shock over this strange new body function was soon forgotten, as the fairy
found the little bundle of nerves inside him, making him see stars.
The fingers began to slides in and out in a maddening phase, creating a
sensation along with the continuously hit of the spot, that walked the fine
line between pain and pleasure.
Tears rolled from Jack’s cheeks and the fairy leaned over him, licking them and
distracted him with a deep kiss. Jack met his burning kiss and tried to loos
himself in it and distract himself from what he knew was coming.
His shallow breath turned to panting and a low growl of hunger rolled in the
prince's chest, both frightening and arousing Jack to the core. He whimpered as
the fingers was removed and left him with a hollow empty feeling.
“No,” jack whispered weakly as Pitch straighten up and seized Jack's trembling
thighs, pushing his knees up near his chest. Something much larger and scarier
than a finger pressed against him now and Jack felt everything else than ready.
The shadow around his wrist killed his attempt to wriggle his sore hands free
and the grey fingers digged into his pale thighs.
“Please don’t, please…please d –”
The black robes slid down Pitch’s firm grey shoulders and his torso shone in
the night like cold stone. The shadow robe dissolved like smoke and removed the
last hindrance between them.
The black hair almost seemed like black branches in the eyes of the boy and he
trembled under the gaze of those shining eyes, the epitome of an eclipse.
“Mine,” Pitch growled and pushed in.
Jack screamed in pain and his back arched in a painful bow. Tears streamed down
his eyes and his hands clenched tightly. His insides burned like they would
tear and the head of the fairy’s length pushed against Jack's stomach.
A broken sob left Jack’s lips and he shook in the intensity of the pain.
The fairy exhaled in bliss and enjoyed the boy’s tight inside to the fullest.
He waited for the boy to regain his breath, remember how to relax and felt how
the boy’s inside coated his length and used the awakened magic inside the human
to adjust to his size.
Jack cried out when the fairy started to move. The pain was unbearable and made
his body scream for an easy escape. Maybe even the sweet relief of death.
The suicidal thoughts were shot down instantly, as a new sensation filled him
and colored his nerves. An intense pleasure began to build up, as Pitch moved
into him again and the pain was washed out and drown in pleasure. The friction
starting to do its wonder.
After a few unhurried thrusts, the fairy hit the spot, continued to go for it
with every trust and picked up pace. Jack moaned like a million-dollar whore in
the increasing intensity of the sensations. He arched his back, his mouth
opened in a silent scream.
Pitch's growl filled the night and his teeth attacked the newly exposed skin in
hunger. Jack felt like he was being buried in the burning snow again. Ice so
cold it scalded his skin and pressed in on him like a living cage. A hand moved
from his hip to his cock and stoked in pace with the fairy’s trust.
Jack lost himself to the warm feeling building up inside him and the insane
sensitivity his body had submitted to.
Everything was too much, everything too close and all around him he felt bright
eyes watching him, devouring him with their blind hungry stares.
Jack moaned and wailed in pain and pressure as long nails digged into his back
and draw line to his thighs, chest and stretched arms. The lips and teeth that
had covered his chest in marks and bites, stole Jack's ragged breath away and
forced its entrance without consent.
Jack drowned and melted into the body above him, felt how he became nothing but
an extension and at the same time part of the forest. In a strange vision, he
saw his limps become trees, his flesh become reeds and his soul a thousand
fireflies.
His heart beat in pace with the fairy prince’s and their lounges fueled the
wind in the threes. The pale mushrooms lighted up like lanterns and he felt the
underground water flow through the root of the trees and the pores of his back.
Jack came hard and felt Pitch follow him, roaring his name. His muscles
tightening around the fairy in multiple contractions and the prince rode out
the last waves of the orgasm.
His teeth, sunk deep into Jack’s neck, released him and Jack whimpered tiredly
and closed his eyes to the feeling of Pitch's feather light kisses running up
his jaw.
For the first time in Jack’s life he actually felt complete and wished nothing
more than to stay part of this new reality. His eyes widened in wonder when two
wings, like that of a butterfly, lifted from Pitch’s strong back and unfolded
above them.
The strong black shimmering wingspan filled Jack’s world and became the star
and moonless night sky. Pale gold lined the wings and they fluttered in
ecstasy.
Jack’s mind became mesmerizing by the movement and without giving it a though,
he reached to touch them, felt his hands and legs getting released by the
shadows like thye knew he wouldn't leave or try to fight now.
“Jack,” Pitch whispered heated and Jack smiled dazed as his pale hand almost
glowed like freshly fall snow compared to the black deeps of the wings he was
reaching for.
Then the world collapsed in the blinding light of two headlights.
***** To ask if there is some mistake *****
Chapter Notes
     Hey guys
     Hope the wait hasn't been too long - the show must go on and when I
     say show I mean Jack's suffering
     Sorry not Sorry
     Leave a comment if you feel like it.
     Enjoy?
     =====================================================================
The two headlights blinded Jack and he clapped his hands over his eyes with a
groan, forgot all about the two black mesmerizing wings above him and curled up
like a ball.
Pitch hissed furiously at the sharp light and like a shadow driven away by a
child’s flashlight, he pulled away and left Jack to hide in the shade of the
trees.
Jack squinted painfully after having been in the dark for so long and sat up
hassled. His whole body cried out in pain and all his muscles were aching and
overrun with red lines and marks.
He registered the faint sound of the car that honked and began, almost in a
trance, to gather his spread clothes together, pulling it over his aching skin
and got up on shaking legs.
To say he was sore would be an understatement and he limped toward the light.
"Jack!"
The teen lifted a hand to halfhearted greeting and used the other to shield his
eyes as he walked toward the sound of Aster. Jack heard the sound of a car door
violently opened and boots running in his direction.
To Jack it seemed almost ironic that the road had been this close to him the
entire time and he laughing humorless to himself before it changed into a sob.
Strong arms closed around him and Jack recognized the smell of his boyfriend
and tired he lay his head against Aster’s broad chest. He wanted to cry, scream
and lie down to sleep in Aster’s arms and never wake up again.
Aster stumbled over the words and asked a series of quick questions, Jack
neither could nor had the strength to answer and just followed him back to the
car and got in. He was still too sore to sit down and had to adjust, while
Aster ran around the car and jumped into the driver's seat beside him.
"Jack, damn it - we've been looking for ya all day, ya know what time it is?
Everyone’s worried and Tooth wanted call to the police and everything. When I
didn’t find you, I went up to Jamie to see if you were there and can you
believe it? Mrs. Bennet was shooting at me! With a real gun!"
Jack tried to get his breathing under control and keep up the wall that
threatened to burst and release the tears. Aster was obviously angry with him,
but Jack couldn’t take any more right now and failed to respond in order not to
reveal his shaky voice.
Aster started the car, turned to him for an explanation and noted Jack’s messy
hair and half-closed pants.
“Jack? What the hell happened to ya, mate?”
“I…I uhmm,” Jack stuttered insecure and didn’t know where to begin, "I was ...
I r-ran into ..."
Jack swallowed hard, forcing the tears and sobbing back. Wouldn’t allow himself
to break into small pieces and fall into the pit that threatened to devour him
completely.
He tried to compose a clear explanation in his head Aster would understand, but
didn’t know how. Jack didn’t even know how to explain what had happened in the
first place! Even the word "rape" wouldn’t get over his lips and Jack stared
ahead with a lost expression.
One sinister question continued to reverberate in his head like an insistent
bell and he grabbed the seat so hard, his knuckles turned white.
Was it still rape if he’d liked it?
Jack became terrified of himself and touched his own lips. If he closed his
eyes he could still feel Pitch’s hands on his hips and teeth biting his lower
lip. See the burning light of his eyes in the dark and feel another body
rocking in pace with his.
The memory made him strangely turned on and made him weak in a way he had never
experienced before.
Aster was still waiting for a response and was getting restless, “Jack what the
hell is it with ya!? What –”
“Pull the car to the side.”
Aster gave Jack a strange glance, but did as he said anyway. There was
something about the toneless way Jack had said it that had got chills to run
down Aster’s back and if he were to be honest, Jack was starting to frightened
him.
He almost looked like a ghost as he sat there and his skin seemed almost
transparent and pale as snow. Black and blue rings had begun to form under his
eyes.
The car stopped by the roadside and Aster turned in his seat to get an
explanation, when Jack left his own seat and crawled over to straddle him.
Aster had NOT seen that coming and sat back, caught off guard with big eyes.
Jack took a deep ragged breath and decided to find out if he really had been
raped or not.
Rape victims always turned touched and intimacy frightened afterwards, right?
If it had been forced, Jack probably wouldn’t be able to implement anything
with Aster and if he could that would mean ...
Aster blinked confused, as Jack leaned forward and kissed him with an almost
desperate eagerness. His pale hands ran over Aster’s broad chest and Jack’s
thighs latched around his lap. Aster had no idea what was happening, but
returned the kiss nevertheless and tried to figure out what the hell was going
on.
Aster immediately pushed Jack away and held him out safe arm's length, when
Jack tried to unzip his jacket and stick his hand down his pants. What the ...?
”What are ya doing, why are ya…?”
Jack just looked down and his shoulders shook. Aster didn’t understand what
this shameful facial expression were comming from and then noticed the hickeys.
Jack let out a broken sob, as Aster pushed his brown hair and hoodie collar
back to examine the countless love bites and marks that covered Jack's neck and
jaw.
Anger welled up in him and twisted his mind. Aster neither could nor would he
believe it, but the evidence stood out clearly on his boyfriend’s skin and
messy clothes. He could even smell it now.
Jack had cheated on him.
Jack seemed to see all this in his eyes and widened his brown eyes in horror.
He rushed to cover the marks with a hand, “Aster, please – it wasn’t my fault,
I swear!”
“Oh really?” Aster snarled and shoved Jack of him in anger, "you were
completely unwilling and just decided to jump me as though it'd never happened,
is that it?”
Jack uttered some unintelligible words and buried his face in his hands. Aster
allowed him to settle back in the front seat without a word and grabbed the
steering wheel harder than necessary. He turned the car back on and speeded up.
Tried to find a distraction from the urge to hit something.
He couldn’t believe it. He had been waiting for Jack to be ready and been the
oh so patient and considerate boyfriend in a little over two years. And how was
Jack rewarding again? By jumping into the arms of someone else and then doing
it outside in a fucking forest!
An icy thought almost slammed the air out of Aster.
"Was it Jaime? Have you been fucking Jamie!?" he snarled furiously and
increased the speed.
"No, not him ... I w-was raped," Jack retorted in a low voice and grabbed his
hair as if in pain, “I-I think…”
“You think!?”
Jack didn’t answer and felt like he had to throw up. He forced himself to get a
hold of himself and think about something else. Go to some happy place, if that
such place even existed.
He looked down at his bruised hands and noticed how all his vein had become
blue. Even the scratches and old blood seemed almost purple against his skin
and it freaked him out a little.
Before his eye, the blue veins changed and became crystal blue rivers and his
skin the crust of icy snow they ran in between. If he concentrated enough, he
could almost hear the cold water gurgling and feel the snow that was falling
from a grey sky.
Turned everything blue and white. Pure. The thought gave him a little peace and
he concentrated on the idea, felt how it calmed him down and stared ahead as
the temperature dropped around him.
Aster clenched his teeth, still in the middle of their discussion, “you think
you was raped and then you wanna do it in the fucking car with me? What the
fuck!”
Jack didn’t hear him, to mesmerized by the fact he could see Aster’s breath.
Aster figured the conversation was going nowhere and concentrated on the road
instead.
The betrayal burned Aster’s insides like a glowing piece of iron and he turned
the car more violent than necessary and braked hard in front of the cabin.
He kept on clenching the steering wheel with a gruff face, long after Jack had
left the car and tottered up to the cabin. Aster hit the steering wheel and
grabbed his hair with a pained sigh.
What now?
He didn’t know and he didn’t know what to do with himself either. Beating up
Jamie wouldn’t make up for this and Aster doubted that anything really could.
What Jack had done was heartbreaking, pretty much unforgivable and all he could
think of was letting his anger out on someone and it was only a question of
time before he planted a fist in the face of someone.
It could very well end up being Jack, but Aster couldn’t bear the idea of
harming Jack. Even after he had cheated on him.
Should he break up with Jack now? Aster really didn’t know and the idea got
part of his rage to fade. Made him miserable and queasy. He looked up at the
cabin and decided that it was time to go in and face the others.
For his and Jack's sake, he would try to keep the others out of this, until
they had figured it all out between the two of them.
The first thing that met him as he got into the warmth, was Sandy and North,
who were about to pull on their jackets and boots. They both stopped at the
sight of him. Clearly relived.
“Oh good, you here,” North sighed in relief and pulled Aster inside, while
Sandy followed with a worried expression and looked questioningly up at Aster.
He looked away.
"What happened?" North asked seriously.
Aster tried to come up with an answer, but ended up saying, "I found Jack."
That seemed no way detailed enough for them, but he didn't feel like explaining
himself and Aster looked around, "where’s Tooth?"
"She ran after Jack when he stormed into the bathroom upstairs. He looked like
something straight out of a war zone. Shostakovich. Is he okay?"
Aster didn’t know how he should respond and shrugged, “Its nothing, we just –”
”DO WE HAVE A FIRST AID KIT SOMEWHERE!?”
They all looked up aghast to the sight of Tooth looking down at them with
dilated eyes from the staircase, "Jack’s hurt!"
"What do you mean hurt?" North asked deeply confused and Tooth ran down to
rummage through the kitchen cabinets.
"He has a large bite wound on the collarbone and long claw-marks down the back
and arms. His left wrist is sprained…"
She found the first aid kit and looked at them with alarming concern, "it looks
as if a shark has planted its teeth in his upper leg."
Aster froze immediately and felt how the world fell apart around him. What had
he done?
Tooth almost jumped him, “what happened out there!?”
Aster gulped, “I uhmm, I found jack and he…he said he was…raped.”
The others looked at him, absolutely horrified and Tooth waited for him to
continue and got nothing. She lifted perplexed her hands to her hair, "and you
did nothing!?"
"I call the cops and ambulance," North said brusque and began typing on his
phone with a rage that almost destroyed it, while Tooth returned upstairs in a
hurry. Sandy began to trudge around in anxious circles and Aster were left in
the middle of the living room without knowing what to do.
The last ten minutes played before his eyes like a bad sitcom and he found
himself grabbing his head in regret.
Jack had been raped and he had blamed him for it. He hadn’t even given him a
chance to explain himself. If Jack never wanted to see him again, Aster could
hardly blame him for it.
Aster would give absolutely anything to travel back in time and hit himself
with a fist right in the face – or better still, give the person who had
touched and abused his boyfriend a proper beating.
Killing him couldn’t even begin to justify what he had done to his Jack.
He could faintly hear the sound of water being filled in a bathtub upstairs and
got an uncomfortable picture of Jack's condition from what Tooth had told them.
What sick motherfucker could do such a thing? It made Aster see red and just
the fact that he had only searched the area along the road by coincidence and
out of pure spontaneity, made him clench his fist together.
Nails biting into his palm. What if he hadn’t stopped the car to run along the
road and shouted for Jack? What if he had driven right pass him or worse –
never stopped? The thought gave him chills and he shoved it out of his troubled
head.
It was essentially that Jack was back in their safety.
The police would do the rest.
As in a reply to that thought, North returned to him and stuffed his phone in
his pocket, "the ambulance will be here in an hour and the police will be here
soon."
“They better, this psycho won’t get away with this,” Aster hissed low and
glowered. North seemed to understand and patted his shoulder in sympathy with a
grave nod. Sandy glanced up despairingly at the upper floor where Tooth was
still attending Jack and his wounds.
Outside the window it suddenly began to snow ...
-
Jack stared up at the white-painted beams and tried to become one with the
water in the bathtub.
The hot water had been like salt on his ripped skin, but Tooth had insisted
that they had got to wash the soil and dirt out of his wound, or at least do
something, until the ambulance arrived and Jack was too weak to protest.
Tooth had ignored his nudity and Jack was at this stage pretty much
indifferent. He doubted that he could have undressed in front of anyone else
than her anyway. Despite their almost similar age, Tooth had always acted like
a mother to him and Jack felt safe in her care.
Tooth fussed around somewhere to his right and tried to gather some
antibacterial packaging tubes while Jack tried to dissolve himself in the warm
waters.
Despite its steamy surface and clear heat, it was as if the water didn’t warm
him more than on the surface. Jack knew the water was hot, but felt no effect
of it what so ever.
His skin remained pale and no flushing reached its surface, or allowed the heat
into his interior.
All Jack could feel was cold, but not a cold that harmed him. Just sedating
him. Like a hard core of ice, the hot water couldn’t melt nor could it reach
into him. He stayed cold and the water stayed hot.
No charges, no meeting in the middle.
He maintained his eyes toward the ceiling, steely not to acknowledge the sight
that had met him in the mirror when Tooth had helped him out of the dirty
layers of clothes.
They had been able to wash the soil and the blood of his skin, but the long red
lines, teeth marks and bruises remained.
The large bite mark that formed an arch on the inside of his thigh, had gotten
Tooth to gasp in shock and Jack's stomach to turn. He couldn’t remember having
been bitten, but the entire encounter with the fairy had also begun to blur and
mix together.
All he remembered was Pitch Black's burning eyes, warm hands and whispering
words. Jack knew something awful, but in many ways, incredible had occurred in
that clearing, but couldn’t keep track of it.
This feeling of guilt facing Aster and disgust of himself, took up too much
space in his head and made his guts curl up in shame.
Jack had never regarded himself as weak, but as things was now, he couldn’t
remember ever having been strong either. He had lost something out there in the
clearing and knew for certain that it wasn’t only his virginity.
He writhed and returned to his happy place. He thought of the clouds again.
Heavy of cold and wide as huge gray sheep. He saw before him how they covered
the sky and gathered in soft clusters.
How chunks of snow would fall from them and land on the ground without melting.
Just drop and cover the ground, cover the world and make it pure in the name of
winter.
Make Jack pure again ...
Tooth gathered the last bandages on top of the sink and began to look for a
pair of scissors in the first aid kit, when she noticed how white lumps of snow
began to land on the window pane.
She placed a hand against the cold glass and watched how the ground outside
slowly became covered in snow and the wind shook the trees. Snow fell slightly
but steadily and soon spread a covering layer over the dark earth.
Tooth bit her lip, her breath leaving condensation on the glass.
If this continued it would be more than just one hour before the ambulance
arrived. She prayed that it wasn’t a blizzard they were to deal with and
carried her remedies over to Jack.
She would bandage only the worst of the wounds for when the ambulance arrived,
but now that something could indicates that it would be delayed, she decided to
do what she could for Jack.
Jack let her bring him out of the bath and dry him with a towel. He was far
away and had only eyes for the snow. Daydreamed of how he crumbled into crisp
snowflakes and flew out among the other thousand glittering equals.
He would lay the wood in white and clean it with his spirit and freeze over the
forest lake, until it was shiny and reflective like a mirror. Saw the forest
lake before him, as if he was out there is this second.
A young man with stark white hair and ice-blue eyes looked up at him from the
lake's reflection and Jack knelt against him. Went through the ice.
“You have to stay awake, Jack,” Tooth said in a soothing voice and dried his
hair, “the ambulance will be here any minute now.”
She hoped.
***** The only other sound’s the sweep *****
Chapter Notes
     Hey guys
     Sorry the delay, but an important paper got in the way
     hope you enjoy - leave a comment if you feel like it
     =====================================================================
They had waited patient for three hours, before they finally accepted the fact
that the storm wasn’t gonna die out anytime soon.
Aster leaned against the cold window and returned his reflection's hopeless
expression. Outside, everything was white and the wind's rustling could be
heard in every corner of the cabin.
In Aster’s ears, it sounded like scornful laughter and he cursed the weather.
Neither the police nor the ambulance was anything near them and Tooth had ended
up making dinner after putting Jack to bed.
She continued to check on him every half hour, since he was on heavy
painkillers and the others had sat down in the living room to wait in case the
help would come despite the weather.
Behind him, Sandy had sat down to smoke a joint as a means to calm down, but
none of the others had feel like sharing one with him. Aster, because he
preferred to stay focused and North...well...he just hand't felt like it.
Tooth returned from the upper floor with a depressed expression and untouched
bowl of alphabet soup. Aster followed her over to the open kitchen. She set a
teapot over on one of the open burners and prepared for tea.
"How is he?" he asked quietly and she leaned against the kitchen counter with a
tired sigh.
“He’s sore, he’s hurt and most of all exhausted. I couldn’t get him to eat
anything and those bites needs some serious stitches, he keeps bleeding though
the bandages – where’s that ambulance?”
Aster looked out the window that was now framed in snow and she followed his
gaze. The glass vibrated noisy and the cabin howled as another gust of wind got
the bricks to shake.
The Australian slammed his fist against the wall and Tooth grabbed his hand
with a beseeching expression, "Aster you should go talk to him."
"I'm probably the last person he wants to talk to right now, Tooth," he
whispered, didn’t want to be overheard by the others, “you should have heard
me, I was blaming him, not believing a word he said. I even accused him of
cheating on me – what is wrong with me!?”
Tooth laid a hand on his shoulder, shook him gently, "Aster, please. You have
to talk to him, Jack needs you. At least ... tell him you’re sorry and work
your way from there. Just go see him, okay?"
Tooth seemed to be on the verge of tears and Aster sighed in defeat, "a'ight."
The walk up the stairs felt all too short, even though he only took one step at
a time and he stopped outside the door, unsure of whether he should go straight
in or ask Jack for permission. He ended up placing his trust in the latter.
“Jack? You’re awake? It’s me, Aster.”
He got no answer and opened the door cautiously. The room was darkened and the
outline of their double bed was one of the only thing visible. Aster tiptoed
inside and got a glimpse of Jack's silhouette on the bed.
His pale face peeped out of from the covers he had almost buried himself
beneath and wrapped around his body like a tight cocoon. Jack was obviously
asleep and Aster sat down on the chair beside the bed. Not sure what to do with
himself.
Not that it was anything new, the last couple of hours had made him feel rather
useless.
The light from the open door fell onto the polaroid pictures Jack had hung over
the bed’s headboard and Aster looked at them one by one.
He found the picture Jack had taken without his knowledge when they'd first
arrived and unpacked. Making a sweet fool out of him. The one beside it was a
picture of Aster and Jack on the tire-swing in the garden.
Another was from the party, where they had made a number of selfies in front of
the fire. Jack had taken some photographs while Aster had slept beside him. All
of them with a happy smiling Jack posing for the camera.
Jack's wall of fame. Their collection of good memories from this place.
His boyfriend’s carefree face smiled down at him and Aster grimaced at the
picture Jack had taken of them the same the first day they arrived. Asters
mouth twitched, trying to keep a sad smile down, to the sight of his own sour
face and Jack's silly grin.
He could clearly read the black handwriting on the pictures white frame line.
’Two years and five months!’
Aster hid his face in his hands and hunched forward with his elbows on his
knees. The suffering teen curled up on the bed in front of him, seemed to be a
completely different than the one smiling down at them and Aster knew it was
all his fault.
If he hadn’t been so busy discussing Jamie and hurt Jack’s feeling in the car,
this would never have happened. If Aster had just ignored the dead bird and
accepted Jack's words of leave Jamie alone, they could have walked into town
together.
Rather than argue and split up, they could have laughed at the villager’s
judgmental stares and went to the workshop together. Walk across the town
square and visited the few shops hand in hand.
Jack would surely had persuaded him to buy something silly and unnecessary,
like a boyfriend bracelet or something else tacky and stupid like that. But
Aster would had done it because he knew it would have brought a smile to Jack’s
sweet face and made the day special.
They would have bought lunch, perhaps eating it in a spontaneous picnic at the
edge of the forest and then returned to the cabin and sing along to the broke
down radio tunes on the way, like the two tone-deaf idiots they were.
The others would be waiting for them back at the cabin, help put the new window
up together and later eat cheap pizza over a couple of draft beers. It would
have been a fun night, filled with old dusty board games, laughter and jokes.
Jack would have been happy, laughing louder than any of them all combines and
snapped a couple of new pictures for the wall over the bed frame.
It would have been perfect.
And now Aster had ruined it forever.
“I’m sorry, Frost,” Aster whispered and felt the tears roll down his cheeks, “I
shouldn’t have doubted you, I wasn’t fair.”
Jack stirred in his sleep, but didn’t wake up. Aster laid a hand on his cold
shoulder and bit his quivering lower lip.
“I don’t know how, but I’m gonna make this right somehow. I promise.”
Jack was still heavily asleep, when Aster bowed down and pressed a kiss to his
cheek. A small smile spread on Jack's face. Aster smiled too, just not as
carefree as the sleep of the innocent seemed to make Jack.
“I love you, Jack.”
-
Jack didn’t hear Aster shut the door behind him, but the kiss and his words had
found their way into his dream.
Only few outside obstacles reaching him now, as he walked in the blizzard like
the center of the storm. He was the eye of the hurricane and had laughed louder
than the wind and lighter than the storm gusts.
He felt how he became one with the snow and the essence of winter. Felt the
cold run in his blood. He was one with the ice and snow. He was Winter itself.
The light kiss and the loving words caused him to halt, to fall down from his
enchantment and Jack let the storm die out. Left it to gather strength, until
next time he felt the urge to dance.
Jack thought for a moment he had seen a white rabbit jumping away into the snow
and smiled sadly. He knew the rabbit, but its name had long since lost its
meaning to him.
Jack was the heart of winter and the rabbit was the hoped that would bring
spring with it. The truth saddened him, but Jack knew he would have to realize
this sooner or later.
The warmth from the kiss and the sweet words of love would always fill his
heart with fire, but ice and fire could never coexist for long. They lived in
their own separate worlds and would rule each season in each solitude.
Spring and winter would never meet and was never meant to. They were warmth and
cold. Life and death. Glee and sorrow. Germination and withering. Two different
existences. Two different lives.
Jack waved a sweet farewell and walked back toward the ice-clad landscape. The
storm had died down and it was time to play in the land of winter. Long
tendrils of frost flowers decorated the ice under his bare feet.
-
Aster met Tooth at the bottom of the stairs, where she had waited for him.
Shamefully, Aster dried his eyes, but she just smiled at him and went up to
take care of Jack. Aster hadn’t really been talking to Jack as he’d promised,
but he still felt that he’d done something right.
Back in the living room, Aster walked back to the window and gazed spiteful
towards the woods and then discovered that the storm had calmed down. The wind
had settled and the snow-covered trees stood silently in the night.
The storm was over.
"Huh. Maybe it wasn’t a bloody blizzard after all," Aster noted and Sandy came
up next to him to get a look for himself. He smiled optimistic and North
grabbed his phone. Called for help again.
It turned out to be a disappointment.
North cursed furiously and ended the call, “those bastards! They won’t send
another police car before the hospital have confirmed Jack has been assaulted.
Assaulted!?”
“Bloody hell,” Aster seethed and even Sandy frowned, deeply offended. North
threw the phone down on the couch, “and the ambulance won’t get here before
they sure they won’t get caught in another blizzard – these people are
useless!”
Aster threw himself down on the opposite couch with an angry grunt.
One thing was to get medical help for Jack and get his open wounds attended,
but something completely different was to get someone down here, who could hunt
down the monster that’d hurt Jack in the first place.
The longer they waited the less chances they had of actually catching the guy.
Aster might had been able to recognized the place where he’d found Jack in
daylight, but after a snowstorm?
The forest road would be one big white stretch, impossible for him to recognize
and identified the exact stop of the crime scene.
If that wasn’t enough already, they had remembered too late that they would
need semen remains to help the police identify this guy and there was nothing
to do about it now, that all the evidence had been washed of Jack upstairs.
North had studied Jack's dirty clothes and concluded there might be enough DNA
on it, but it was uncertain whether it would be enough in a simple
investigation. In any case, none of them could have gotten themselves to force
Jack to sit for hours with dirt and semen in his wounds.
The only reason they would have kept Jack from getting clean, was if the help
had arrived as promised on time.
Aster rocked on his heels and turned to the clock above the fireplace. 02:45.
Too much time had already passed and every second gave their rapist more time
to pack his stuff and leave this place. Aster clenched his hands helplessly and
stared ahead. Tick. Tock.
The couch dipped and Aster looked up at North, who had sat down next to him and
beckoned for Sandy to join them. They both looked confused down on the digital
camera North held in his hands.
“You fellas remember I took pictures for the insurance, the other day, yes?”
They nodded, still not quite following and he rummaged through the camera's
pictures, “well, I saw something and I think it might be the one that smashed
the window.”
Aster rolled his eyes. Classic North to get side tracked in the middle of a
crisis, “North, mate – there’re more important things at stake that some bloody
vandal, right now.”
“I was not finished,” North continued with a severe voice, “Tooth just told me
that Jack had mumbled something about a tall and black clad guy, when she asked
him out about what happened in the forest.”
The camera's display scrolled past a series of pictures of the broken window,
the ground below it and one of the side of the cabin. The next image got both
Sandy and Aster to widen their eyes in shock.
The flash had lit up the forest line in an almost white image and made all the
trees gray and protruding. In the middle of the image was a black silhouette.
High and thin as a tree, staring straight back at the camera with bright eyes
and a hand lifted to shield its face, as if the blitz had taken it by surprise.
North nodded gravely and Aster zoomed in on the humanoid silhouette. Felt a
shiver run down his spine, “a tall guy clad in black…”
“I think he has been spying on us,” North replied and they gazed at each other
with the same steely expression. The same thought running through their heads.
Sandy pounded his fists together with a dark expression, a gesture that spoke
more than words and North nodded, “you said it, Sandy.”
The huge Russian stood and walked to the great cupboard that filled half the
room. Aster and Sandy followed him and watched as North opened the cabinet
doors and pulled out an old rifle from the top shelf.
North had found the old rifle when they had moved the furniture out to the shed
and showed it to Sandy. They had let it be for no good reason, just found it to
cool to be removed to the shed, but now it should prove to be useful.
North took a box of bullets that was at the disposal and loaded the gun in a
shift movement. The sound cracked like thunder through the cabin and those sky-
blue eyes of his promised harm.
Both Sandy and Aster had heard some dark stories about North’s time on the
street, but it was first in this moment that they finally came to realise that
the jolly guy they had looked up to like a big brother, was the same Russian
that used to lead the Cossack gang that ruled the old town of Burgess.
“If we do not do something, no one will. This man will not get away with this.”
“What are you suggesting,” Aster asked, wanted to know beforehand how far they
would go.
“I say we find our guy, give him proper beating, bring him back here and hand
him over to the police, when they feel like showing up. Get confession on
tape.”
Sandy nodded eagerly and Aster understood that the final decision would fall on
him. The memory of Jack's tears and shaking, bruised body came back to him and
Aster clenched his fists.
He nodded, “let’s get that bloody bastard.”
-
They’d left a note behind for Tooth.
Explained where they went and why. Informing her in carefully selected words,
that they would probably return again sometime during the morning.
Noon of them had been disillusioned enough to deny the known fact that Tooth
would straight up forbid them to leave the house and play avengers in some
spontaneous hunt for Jacks rapist, if they asked for permission first.
They did as grown men would do and simply left the note and nothing else, chose
to cut corners where they were softest and slip away before she found out.
Moreover, they couldn’t continue to sit by idly anymore. It was something they
had to do.
For Jack's sake.
Aster checked his phone and found no signal. He figured it was the same for the
other two, since Tooth hadn’t called them yet and ordered them to return to the
cabin this instant.
The only thing keeping her from going out and dragging them back by the ear,
was probably Jack and Aster’s will to punish this unknown man doubled tenfold
by the thought of his wounded boyfriend back at the cabin.
The wind outside the car had subsided completely and Aster peered out on the
crispy white road and forest fence.
"Recognize anything?" North asked from the back seat and Aster rolled down the
window, "we didn’t drive far, it must’ve been around here, mate."
Finding the crime scene was their first clue. If their guy had raped Jack in
the woods as they figured, he could easily have left traces by means of left
clothes or lost items behind. Something that could help them to identify him.
The only problem? Aster couldn’t for his life recognize the place now when
everything was covered by a thick layer of snow and just to make it worse, was
the fact that the same snow would cover the evidence that may had be able to
find.
North had brought a huge weed-burner to melt the snow with for when they found
the place, but as it progressed at this moment, they could easily had driven
past it without Aster's knowledge. The entire route was almost identical.
He had absolutely nothing to go by.
“Cricky,” he murmured quietly and pulled the jacket tighter around him. Despite
the fact that the wind had died down, there was an almost unnatural coldness in
the air that chilled to the marrow of the bone.
It almost hurt to breathe, as if he was breathing the essence of glass or
silence.
Sandy drove the car a little further and waited for Aster to pin point anything
he recognized. A black shadow slid across the white road and Sandy stopped
abruptly to avoid hitting it.
North smashed his face flat against Sandy's backrest and Aster hit his head
against the window edge. None of them was badly injured, but winced anyway.
“Rimsky-korsako!”
“C’me on, Sandy, who signed your driver citification, the bumper-car manager?”
Sandy sent them a panicked look and pointed perplexed towards the road outside
the car’s headlight. Made wild gestures and signs that went too fast for any of
them to decipher.
They just shook their heads uncomprehendingly and Sandy frowned angrily, opened
demonstratively his car door and waited for them to get out and follow him.
The small plump man was waiting for them in front of the car and pointed
strictly on the white untouched snow in front of them.
A number of long tracks, matching that of a fast sprinting animal, stood
clearly out in the snow. Aster tilted his head and bent down. The footprints,
on closer inspection, turned out not to belong to any forest animals, but
something bigger and much more human.
The footprint was a bare human foot. Stretched by speed.
They gathered around the tracks and held their flashlights high to get as much
light as possible. None of them noticed the shadows fluttering movements behind
them. Busy as they were with their mysterious discovery.
North took in the footprint with eager, “oh footprints! Why didn’t you say
anything, Sandy?”
Sandy facepalmed, but let it go.
North pointed to the deepest of the footprints, “my guess it that it was a
male, too heavy and wide-footed to be woman or child. Theses footsteps are
pretty deep, the weight of tall or heavy person.”
“And possible our guy,” Aster noted, “the weather is bat-shit crazy, the
villagers would probably know better than to go out at this time at night. Only
someone with a purpose would be out here. Maybe to cover up his tracks or
collect stuff he left behind for the police to find?”
“Or to finish his business with Jack,” North noted with a serious tone, “these
footprints points back to cabin. Jack knows what he looks like, can identify
him. Most rapist don’t like taking that kind of chance and finish their victims
off.”
Sandy made an alarming face and the gravity of the situation hit Aster like a
brick wall, “he’s looking for Jack. And we left him all alone in the cabin with
no one but Tooth!”
North cursed in colorful Russian and turned promptly to the car to get to the
driver's seat first. This time Aster let him take it, the Russian's crazy, but
fast driving would for once be appreciated and he jumped into one of the
backseats.
North started the ignition and all as one tensed when the engine sputtered
once, before going out and died down completely. North tried again, but with
the same result and became more and more violent, as he tried to force the car
back to life.
Aster jumped out of the car with a snarl and ran up to the car's hood.
"Sandy get the tool-box in the trunk, North, open the hood!"
The car's helmet jumped up in front of Aster and he held his flashlight high.
His eyebrows rose immediately.
For a second he thought that the flashlight's hard contrast between light and
dark had played a trick on him, but there was no doubt now that he inspected
the engine by hand. A black layer of tar-like slime covered the engine, as a
sticky porridge and it stuck to his gloves in long sticky threads.
Sandy was still rummaging the trunk to find the tools, but Aster doubted that a
bottle of car oil and wrench could fix this engine. Aster’s nose caught the
recognizable smell of sweet rottenness and his thoughts sent him back to the
night he and Jack had found the dead deer.
The black slime ... the dead deer ... the dead bird ... the black sand covering
all surfaces ...
"Aster, what you doing!?"
Aster awoke from his terrible coil of thoughts and opened his mouth to call
them to him, when he caught a glimpse of movement. Sandy glowed in the dark
with his yellow winter coat, hair and flashlight, but the person behind him was
practically merged with the darkness.
Sandy’s scream of surprised was muffled by the shadow claw that clung tightly
around his face and torso. Dragging him down.
“Sandy!”
Aster stood frozen in horror and North, who was half out of the car door,
pulled the rifle to his eye and aimed, as their blonde friend was pulled
backwards and into the darkness.
The shot echoed, but the shade was too fast and disappeared with the struggling
Sandy. Aster broke out of his dear-in-headlights state and ran after North to
get Sandy back.
The lost flashlight illuminated the tracks that Sandy and his kidnapper had
left behind and neither Aster nor North wasted time and raced in the tracks
direction.
Aster yelled Sandy’s name in hopes of getting a safe direction to go by, while
North reloaded rifle with eyes that could kill and would kill, should anything
had happened to Sandy.
A scream of agonizing pain tore the night somewhere ahead of them and the sound
of Sandy’s dreadful howls got both his friends to widened their eyes in panic
and run faster.
They both stopped as they got to an open clearing, partly of breathless-ness
and partly due to difficulty breathing at all, as the red snow appeared in
their cones of light. Aster felt his stomach flip in nausea and denial.
Stark red blood covered the surface of several trees and was splashed on meters
of snow before them.
The image was almost to hash for the eye as it shone cruelly against the pure
white snow and Aster couldn’t look at it without getting black dots before his
eyes and blind rage stabbed him deep in the soul.
“SANDY!”
A bestial roar met his cry of desperation and a large lump of dark mass moved
ahead. Aster and North's fury was rapidly replaced by pure fear, when the large
shadow broke free of the darkness of night and stormed straight toward them at
full speed.
Aster, who appeared to be the shadow goal, threw himself to the side and
avoided it just barely. North cursed startled and shot after it. Aster rolled
across the snow to get out of the way, grabbed the flashlight that had ended up
beneath him and aimed it at the shade.
It took him a few seconds to find the thing, as it seemed to had melted
completely with the darkness, but found is as it revealed itself with its
puffed and groaned sounds, quite similar to those of a large animal.
A creature of human dimensions, but inhuman shape, screaming in the light's
blinding glow and turned its head to them with a roar of fury.
The large bright eyes that shone like that of a deep-sea fish, was the only
thing visible in the dark mass that was its shadowy body and it stared blindly
and wildly back at them. The shadowy behemoth of a man barred his shark-like
jaws and planted his long claws into the snow to push off from the ground.
North took advantage of the monster’s exposure in light and aim again, this
time taking the time to make it a clean shot. The bullet resounded through the
woods and tore the bark of the tree behind the beast.
But even if the shot had been a direct hit that should have torn the black
body’s cardiac tissue and killed it on the spot, it not as much as indicating
that it had been gazed by the bullet and jumped forward without hindrance.
North made a rapid roll to break the fall, when he threw himself to the side
and avoided the long claws that lashed after his throat. The big russian was
quickly back on his feet despite his size and reloaded the riffle in one beat
without blinking twice.
The beast melted back into the shadows and Aster sought desperately after it
with his flashlight, tried to spot its shape in the dead of night before the
next attack. He doubted they’d sent it on the run.
North was the first of them to catch the monster with his flashlight, as it had
tried to sneak up on him and plant in claws into his wide back. The shadow man
screamed in soulless pain, as North turned around on the beat and caught its
face and chest with his flashlight.
North knew deep in his soul that he would never forget the nightmarish sight
that stared back at him, only and inch from his face. Staring right into his
soul and leaving its mark of death.
The once human creature convulsed in pure agony as it howled and North’s frozen
fear was first broken, when the creature slashed its claw across his chest.
North had held the gun up in front of him out of pure reflex and hence avoided
being torn open from head to foot, but the riffle was now nothing more than
useless shreds between his hands and broken spare parts fell into the deep snow
and disappeared forever.
The beast howled like a wolf in a leghold-trap and pulled its sizzling claw to
its chest in visible pain. The smell of burnt flesh and iron filled the crisp
air and mingled with the sweet stench that oozed from the steaming black blood
that stained the snow.
"North, we’ll have to run! We’ve to get outta here!"
North's eyes were still fixated on the monster in front of him in horror, but
was nevertheless able to stand when Aster pull him out of the snow and led them
away from the forest.
Without the rifle to protected them or the certainty of Sandy’s fate, they ran
all the snow could allow them and climbed back up on the road where the car was
still standing – still useless and now overrun with small black shadows.
They flickered like little skittish animals on the car and hissed furiously
when North's flashlights fell on them.
"Forget it, mate! They’ve filled the engine with black slime!" Aster protested
and tried to pull North away from the vehicle and the meaningless fight of
possession. North uttered a sound of furious frustration and got up on his left
side as the ran down the forest road.
Behind them, the sound of rapid feet and whispers pursued them and in front of
them jumped the cone of their lights hectic and sporadic to lead them in the
right direction. Small and insignificant rings of light in the solid darkness.
A puny weapon if they got caught.
The trail from the car made it easier for them to run through the compacted
snow, but Aster felt his heart fly up and settle in his throat, when his foot
almost slipped on the icy ground and threatened to take away his balance.
Farther behind them the monster's roar mixed with the smaller shadows hissing
voices and the ground seem to reverberate under the galloping feet and claws.
They both unknowingly picked up speed by the sound and gasped for breath, the
fear takinghold with its clutch of their pounding hearts. Aster’s breathing and
pulse sounded like a stream of blood racing through his ears, but was still
drowned out by the growing wailing approaching them rapidly.
Adrenaline flowed thick in the veins of the two men and their imagination
produced distorted image of teeth digging into their backs and phantom feeling
of long claws gripping around their ankles and making them fall behind.
The light from the cabin blinked closer like a lighthouse in the eyes of the
distressed at sea and Aster grabbed North when the larger and heavier man
slowly started to fall behind.
Countless luminous eyes glimmered in the darkness on both sides of them and
Aster forced himself to look forward.
Only forward. They were so close.
Both came to an unwanted halt as several shadow creatures suddenly appeared on
the roadside and began to encircle them from the forest edge like hungry
predators. Their staring lantern eyes ate them up and stretched eagerly their
long skeletal fingers toward them as in a mixture of warning and craving.
North swung roaring his flashlight toward the nearest of the shadows and the
smallest of them pulled back in venomous hissing. Aster straightened the point
of the flashlight at the nearest shadows and they retreated as if he had burned
them.
He gasped as the light created an opening in the circle and ran for it.
”North, c’me on!”
North gave up on fighting the small shadows creping up on them like a flock of
hyenas and ran after him. Too late the shadows discovered the opening in their
ranks and stretched their hands at them in screaming rage, but missed them by
only an inch and the two men ran toward safety.
Aster allowed himself to take one last glance back and saw to his astonishment
and relief, that none of the monsters had dared to follow them into the
driveway of the cabin.
Some of the bravest leaped stooped forward, but hissed when they came too close
to the lights of the cabin windows and retreated to the other shadows and the
security of the tree line's darkness.
North reached the door as the first and hammered for all he was worth on the
wet wood.
“TOOTH! TOOTH!!”
Aster joined him in panic and hammered till his fist became sore, “Tooth! Open
up! Please!”
A very upset and furious Tooth opened the door and barely got to make a word
before they nearly toppled her and pushed to get inside.
Aster slammed the door shut and secured the big bolt across the door, a large
piece of decorated – but firm wood board – they hadn’t used until then, since
it had seemed a little unnecessary when you had a working lock.
But now it was very much appreciated.
Both Aster and North sighed in sweet relief. They were inside the cabin. They
were safe in the light. They were alive.
The clock over the fireplace struck 06:00 pm.
-
Pitch watched the cabin from the wood's tree line and scowled enraged.
One of the humans had already meet a horrible bloody end and joined his army of
shadows, but that was a meager gratification, not nearly enough to calm the
fairy prince’s burning ire.
He could practically feel his claimed prince presence and smell his half-
transformed scent from the cabin. Everything had went as it should, he had
claimed his mate by the rituals, led the magic back into his veins and secured
his way into his world as the chosen bride by Pitch's side.
But then that human…that light!
Pitch snarled and his shadows became fueled with his anger and hissed like an
extension of his infuriation. Pitch eyed the light of the cabin with hatred and
remembered the fire that once had been set to his home by previous humans.
Thought themselves rightful in taken what was his, cheating him and steal what
he had marked as his possession. He may have lost Nightlight, but he wouldn’t
lose Jack.
If the blizzard and heavy fall of snow was anything to go by, something could
indicate that Jack had gotten the first taste of his newfound powers and blew
them all off at once.
A dangerous thing to do as a new born fairy and a sign that Jack was in pain.
Possible exposed to light or in contact with iron. Pitch had to get him back
and subdued the stream of power, before Jack hurt himself or got drained for
power completely.
If only those humans hadn’t interfered.
Pitch wasn’t sure if this anger was a coursed by the loos of his claimed bride
or the accumulated of cases of debasement he had been forced to suffer from the
hands of humans.
But he knew this; those humans were going to pay. Just like the humans before
them.
No sound of compressed snow was heard as his court of fairies stepped forth and
bowed before him. He turned to them and they shivered by the sight of his cold
and golden eyes.
Only the little fairy, once known as Jill Overland, seemed to meet his glare
with hopeful glee and awaited his orders eagerly.
His eyes narrowed, “you know what to do.”
***** Of easy wind and downy flake. *****
Chapter Notes
     Hey guys!
     A little heads up - my exams will be coming up in december and last
     until end of january, so if there's no new update, you'll know why
     but don't worry - i'm not giving up on my fics, i'm only getting
     started =D
     hope you enjoy and leave a comment if you feel like it
     =====================================================================
“What in the sweet moon of soma do you guys think you’re doing!?”
Tooth stared them down like an indignant school teacher, scolding two children
caught in the midst of a severe crime and both males looked at each other.
The past hour’s event passing before their eyes.
She didn’t have the patience for their stalling, taking her frustration out on
them when none of them broke the silence, “you can’t just leave a piece of
paper, saying you’re going out for some wild goose chase and expect me to be
cool about it! For god’s sake – the snow’s 10 feet out there and Jack is death
sick! He has a fever and the help isn’t coming and all you boys can think of is
playing some stupid game of hunters and –”
Aster woke up from his nightmarish daydream, “what? Jack’s crook!?”
Tooth gave him a seething look, “oh, now you guys care?”
He ran up the stairs without taking care of her angry rant behind him, leaving
North to her anger. He knew they deserved it, but the image of shadows in the
woods and the smell of Sandy’s cold blood still hung on him like a second skin
of horror.
Made it hard to care about Tooth’s resentment and take care of problems lesser
than what lurked just outside the cabin.
Jack and his room was conveniently lit by more than one lamp and some abandoned
paraphernalia told him that Tooth had been up here taking care of Jack when
they had hammered on the door.
A bowl with water and melting ice cubes were left on the bedside table and a
damp cloth covered Jacks sweaty forehead. He was asleep, but twisted and turned
restlessly between the sweaty blankets.
His cheeks and chest was flustered and fever heated. Aster had never seen Jack
this pale before and as he got closer, he could have sworn Jack's hair roots
had become white. He shook it off without second thought.
Had to be the light playing tricks on him.
“Jack? Bloody hell…”
He hurried to his boyfriend’s side and removed the cloth from his forehead.
Jacks temperature was warm against his palm, almost burning and Aster rushed to
wring the cloth with new ice water.
He was no doctor, but even he could see this was serious, Jack needed medical
attention and that now. Most of Jack's sweaty torso had become bandaged by
Tooth, but the long scratches and blue hickeys stood out on the sickly pale
skin like paint.
Jack hissed painfully when Aster tried to investigate one of them and hastily
he pulled his hand back. No need to hurt Jack further.
“Jack? Jack, can you hear me?” Aster tried, but Jack continued his troubled
sleep and mumbled nonsense in his delirium, “Wings…Wi…come back…please, Jill.
Don’t g….burns…it burns…”
Aster grabbed his head with a heavy sigh. He had once heard that people could
die of fever and the thought made him sick. Jack needed something to turn down
the fever until they had provided better antibiotics than the pills and cream
that had been part of the first aid kit.
And maybe something sedative like morphine. Aster wondered briefly if Sandy
could have something among his stash and forgot how to breathe.
Sandy.
The Image of the bloody snow and trees in the woods got his breathing to hitch
and he let out a choked sob, which he immediately tried to stifle, not wanting
to wake up Jack. His hands were trembling.
They had left Sandy in the woods. Sandy were still lying out there in the snow
somewhere and had perhaps already become food for the flock of shadows. Sandy
was gone.
Sandy was dead.
The sound of the altercation from the floor under him, brought Aster back to
the present and he forced himself to drag a few big mouthfuls of air down his
lungs. Regain his senses. There was no time for panic attacks right now.
They had to secure the cabin.
Tooth’s raging voice could still be heard as he moved down the stairs again and
if North's facial expressions was anything to judge by, it was doubtful whether
the russian had gained the courage to tell her what had happened to them.
"And where’s Sandy?" she asked irritated and a painful expression came across
North’s facial features, "if you have left him out there to continue your silly
search then -"
"He’s dead."
Both Tooth and North turned to him as he made the last step and entered the
living room. One looked down, the other looked at him with confusion.
"What?" came it baffled from Tooth. Either she hadn’t heard him or maybe
something in her refused to accept his words. If it was the last, he honestly
couldn’t blame her.
"Sanderson's death, Tooth," Aster repeated slowly, noticing how the
hopelessness crept into his voice, "we were attacked in the woods and lost
Sandy of sight. We didn’t find the body, but there was too much blood that he
could’ve survived it ... I ... I'm sorry Tooth ..."
Tooth continued to look at him with clear confusion. Waited undoubtedly for the
punch line. The end of the joke. Sandy jumped out from behind the couch - just
something… but nothing came and something in Aster’s red rimmed eyes made it
clear to her that this wasn’t a joke.
She turned to her boyfriend for an explanation, but North had covered his eyes.
“He’s…gone?” she whispered almost as a question to herself more than Aster. Her
flat tone full of disbelief.
Aster wanted nothing more than to given them the time to grieve and gather
around the loss of their mutual friend and beloved comrade, but the darkness
had begun to roam outside the windows and Aster could hear the whispering afar.
“Listen, we don’t have much time, they’re coming and we need to secure the
house – now!”
North knew what he was talking about and hurried to turn on all the lights that
still worked. He ran out to the kitchen to find as many weapons as possible and
brought their extra flashlights and lighters back to the living room.
Aster grabbed his phone, found no signal and threw it on the sofa to check
North’s and Tooth’s. Tooth was still in the same spot and watched them work in
puzzled confusion. She only uttered half a protest when Aster pulled her phone
from her hands.
No signal.
“Cricky,” he whispered and ran a hand through his hair before he turned to the
cabin's large cabinet. An old corded phone greeted him from the bottom shelf
and he fumbled with it to find the end of the line and locate the old socket in
the living room it could be connected to.
Tooth finally broke out of her shocked state and grabbed North to get make him
stop.
“North! What?...what are you two –?”
“Shhh!” Aster shushed and pressed the number to the station. He came through at
the second attempt and North breathed a sigh of relief along with him, when the
sound of a voice on the other end broke out.
“911, this is Jane speaking, what is your emergency?”
“My name’s Aster Bunnymund, I and ma friends need help! One of our friend’s
dead!”
“Can you describe what happened?” the unknown Jane and her thick Virginia
accent continued, the sound of keyboard typing in the background.
Aster knew there was a procedure in this, but didn’t feel they had time for
this, “we were attacked out in the woods, something…big killed him – you have
to send someone down here!”
“Something…as in a bear? Was it a bear attack?”
Aster didn’t know how to answer that without buying himself a ticket to the
madhouse, “listen, we need help, one of our friends need medical help right
away to – he’s burning up!”
All the cabin lights flashed before everything went dark. Aster gasped as
Jane's voice disappeared and the phone died, “wait, NO!”
“What’s happening!?” Tooth asked in a strident but panicly voice, that demanded
some answers this instant and North shared a dreadful look with Aster. The
sound of whispering and murmuring voices were audible now, even Tooth seemed to
have discovered they were no longer alone.
"What’s that?" she asked, voice coated in fear and North grasped her arm. Not
taking his eyes of the windows one second.
“Take Jack and hide in the attic.”
Tooth was clearly going to contradict, but North turned to her with eyes that
left no room for discussion and raised his voice, “now, Tooth!”
Tooth just stared at him. Speechless.
At no point in their relationship had she ever experienced being given orders
by North, nor yelled at. She looked at him with fear for a second before she
slowly moved backwards toward the staircase and disappeared up to the upper
floor.
Both men felt a little easier now that they knew their sweethearts would be
safe. As much security as a dark cabin could provider that was.
“Light,” North finally said and Aster moved to the nearest lamp. The light bulb
was in excellent condition, but the power outlet gave no power. North beckoned
for him to come to the window.
“Hear that?”
Aster could only hear the sound of the incoming invasion of shadow creatures
and nightmare horror-shows, but soon caught onto what North meant. The humming
from the shed had ceased.
"The generator’s dead," he whispered and North nodded, “I normally fill it
before we go to sleep. It is out of juice. We have to get out there.”
They looked at each other and knew it wasn’t any way around it.
They had to cross the dark courtyard if they wanted to survive.
-
Tooth slammed the door behind her, heaving with her back pressed to the door in
the dark room and placed her hands over her mouth. Her eyes were blank and
eyebrows pulled together in humiliation. She couldn’t believe that had occurred
down in the living room.
Sandy was dead?
Something attacked them?
Something attacked them now?
She shook her head, tried to gather her thoughts and prevent them from ending
up in the same sick channel that began with Aster's description of Sandy's
blood and ended with North's harsh tone.
Tooth had no idea what was happening around her, but an urge to call home and
hear her parents' voices allowed a treacherous whimper to escape her lips.
Jack muttered from his position in the bed and Tooth was pulled back to the
present moment and the task her boyfriend had entrusted ... no, forced upon
her.
She quickly wiped her eyes and walked over to Jack. The teen was still in
dreamland, but something might suggest that that his fever had subsided and
delivered him to a more natural sleep.
Without the light Jack occurred even paler than before, but the former fever
blush had left him and he was no longer soaked with sweat. Possibly a good
sign. She removed the icy cloth from his forehead and tried to read his
temperature with her palm.
Tooth’s eyebrows rose in dismay. Jack was cold as ice.
"Jack?" she whispered, shaking him gently. Jack's brown eyes opened slowly and
cumbersome.
“Tooth…mmm, is the ambulance here?”
“No, not quite,” she admitted, looked away, “we uhmm, we’re just going to move
to the attic for a little while. Come on, let’s get you some warm cloths.”
Jack was clearly confused, but to drowsy and sick to ask more probing questions
and let her dress him like a little child.
Tooth was considering letting him stay in bed – where he should be – but
North’s new side wasn't a part of her boyfriend she particularly wanted to
experience further and decided to follow his orders. At least for now.
She gritted her teeth and gathered Jack's quilts and blankets together.
“I don’t feel so good,” Jack whispered hoarse and coughing violently.
Tooth wrapped him in an extra sweater before one of his signature hoodies and
gave him a winter jacket. She fished with a quilt over his trembling shoulders
and led him out of the room. Tooth watched Jack’s condition with concern.
She had no idea if cold sweat was a normal side-effect after wound inflicted
fever, but whatever the infection had done to Jack, it couldn’t be anything
good.
Dark circles had begun to form under Jack’s eyes, as she moved him up through
the hatch in the ceiling and into the dusty attic.
The strong emergency flashlight she had brought along illuminated the entire
attic in a yellow tinge and if Jack’s tan had seemed deathly pale back at the
bedroom, it was nothing compared to this lightning.
He fell more than sat down on the nest of quilts and blankets she had prepared
for him and only his eyes and brown bangs could be seen between clothes and
layers of blankets.
Tooth listened one last time, in case North and Aster had something to say,
before she closed the hatch and crept over to Jack's blanket fort with the
flashlight in tow. Jack's eyes began to water when a part of the light hit his
eyes and he winced as if she had done him harm.
She hastened to point it down at the planks and away from the teen. Thinking
Jack's senses might had become hypersensitive.
“Sorry…” she whispered sheepishly, rubbing her hands together to get warm. The
attic didn’t appear to be intended for habitation and were less insulated than
the rest of the cabin, the cold penetrated like water through a sieve.
There were no windows to light up the attic and the only way down was the
hatch, which suited Tooth just well. Her breath came out in small clouds.
Jack’s didn’t.
He leaned tired his head against her shoulder and Tooth sighed wearily. Tried
to think of something pleasant and allowed her thought to wander. They soon
returned to Sandy.
The thought of the blond brought tears to roll down her cheeks.
-
"Okay,” North whispered and popped the cap on the two bottles of liquid grill
lighter fluid.
Both Aster and North withheld a trembling breath while Aster removed the bolt
from the door as quietly as possible and clicked the lock.
They looked at each other. Reviewed the plan in each their head one last time.
They had spent most of their precious time to set up all the flashlights and
battery-powered light units they could find in front of all the windows and
even lit all the candles there was to be found in the cabin, just to be on the
safe side.
Ensuring their base had been the first priority, but both of them knew deep
down that it was just an excuse to postpone the inevitable and get to the real
problem.
In any case, they would have to come face to face with the nightmare that
awaited them outside the cabin and get the real light back. None of them were
sure how long their measly lighting would keep the monsters away, but they
couldn’t defer it anymore.
They had to get the generator back on again. They had to go out there.
"Three ..." Aster mimed and clicked the last door lock open. North tightened
his grip on the two plastic bottles. The smell of lighter fluids filled the
room.
"Two…"
Aster opened Sandy's zippo lighter and focused a bit on the open flame.
Clutching the doorknob. Four bottles of vodka with rags pushed down the bottle
throat, jingled when his boot came into contact with them.
Aster felt his hands became sweaty and his grip getting weaker.
"One ..."
All North's muscles tensed and Aster raised his flashlight to the front door.
Listening closely for any indication of movement, rustling, hissing – just
something that could indicate that the shadows could be lurking just outside
the door.
Not a sound was heard. It was quiet. Too bloody quiet.
"NOW!" North shouted in a wild warrior cry and Aster tore the door open before
he could regret anything.
North ran through the snow in a straight line toward the door to the shed and
poured the contents of the two lighter fluids bottles out on the snow in two
straight lines on his right and left side.
Darkness writhed immediately and came to live in hundreds of shadow bodies. One
of the shadows lashed out to get North and Aster threw the first
molotovcocktail.
It wasn’t a direct hit, but the homemade bomb blazed strongly as it hit the
side of the shed and the shadows around it pulled back screaming.
North continued his straight route and Aster threw the next molotovcocktail
when the shadows were trying to attack him from the other side of the fire.
Aster was down on one molotovcocktail when North reached the shed and dropped
the two bottles in favor of a keys to the shed. Aster clicked the zippo-lighter
and dropped it, as he raced towards North.
The lighter landed on the beginning of lighter fluids rim and as a track to a
plain runway, two tongues of flame ran through North's delineated track and
made a marked corridor of fire for Aster to run through.
The shadows retreated from the light emitted by the fire and hissed and writhed
furiously after the two. Aster threw one of the two industrial flashlights he'd
kept in his jacket pocket to North and they slammed the shed door behind them
and closed the lock.
-
Tooth blinked somnolent and sat up from her spot on the floor. Was it just her
or did the attic smell a little burned?
Jack moved uneasily and she chose to ignore her nose in exchange for taking
care of the sick. Jack had fallen asleep again and she helped him to lie down,
to prevent him from getting a crick in the neck from sitting up and sleeping.
The bright light from the flashlight was still working and illuminated the
attic like a lamp, but Tooth found it strange that the left side of the attic
seemed to have become brighter. As if the sun had risen in the west.
The sound of breaking glass made her forget all about light and burnt smells,
and Tooth listened to the floor beneath her in a strange state of curiosity.
Jack continued to sleep heavily and she moved carefully away from him and
towards the closed hatch to investigate, without waking him up.
Tooth opened the hatch and peered down. She figured Aster and North still had
problems with the generator, since all she could see was darkness and a bit of
light from the bottom of the stairs.
It fluttered slightly, making her conclude they must have lit some candles to
see.
"North?" she called quietly and waited for answers. There was no verbally, but
the flickering lights from the bottoms of stairs went out with a sizzling
sound. Tooth raised an eyebrow.
“Aster?”
No one seemed to feel like answering her and Tooth gulped. It was irrational to
fear what you couldn’t see or hear, but Tooth felt like there was someone at
the end of the stairs. Someone who listened to her and crept closer in the
thick darkness.
And it wasn’t North or Aster.
She quietly closed the hatch again. Clenched her teeth and shut her eyes as the
wood creaked louder than it should be legal. If the person downstairs wasn’t
aware of her position before, it would be by now.
Nice work, Tooth, she thought and scowled at her own stupidity. She looked
around and searched quickly for something useful and end up dragging an old box
with Christmas decorations to lay on top of the hatch.
It wasn’t exactly heavy, but the weight would be enough to keep the intruder
from getting up without her knowledge and she crept back to Jack's nest. Threw
her arms around her knees. Tried to get warm again.
“Tooth…”
She looked down and found Jack awake among the many blankets and quilts. His
voice sounded hoarse, but the cough had stopped so she took it as a sign of
improvement.
"Jack, how are you? Better?" she asked hopefully and helped him halfway to sit.
She lost her breath, when the blanket around Jack's head slid down and revealed
his normally brown locks.
Like an old man, Jack's roots and temples had changed color from mahogany to
stark white. The strange color change got Tooth to forget all about the
intruder and North’s harsh words.
She laid a hand on Jack's cheek in a mix of shock and sympathy. Couldn’t
believe what was happening to her friend.
”Oh, Jack, your hair!”
He didn’t seem to have registered her words and hung between the blankets,
looking sick to the bone and collapsed without the will or strength to hold
himself up anymore.
"Tooth I don’t think the help will get here..."
She grabbed him before he could collapse again and almost burned her hands on
his icy skin. Tried to cover ham in more blankets and secure the warmth he
didn’t possessed.
"Of course it will, Jack. Stop talking like that. The ambulance will be here
any minute now and then they get here, they’ll fixed you up in no time. They’ll
drive us to a hospital where they can help you and we can get this mess sorted
out. We just – "
“I think I’m dying,” Jack blurred incoherent and squirmed like he was going to
throw up. Nothing came up, but the movement provoked a new coughing fit that
sounded way too wet in Tooth’s ears.
She felt how the situation was getting out of control and grabbed Jack a little
harder than necessary.
"Jack you listen to me. You're not dying, you’re hurt and sick and been abused,
but you’re not going to die. Not here and not now. Your fever’s gone and you're
just cold, ‘cause we’re sitting up here and as soon as North and Aster come
back, we’ll get you carried down to the fireplace, okay? You’ll get through
this. Is that clear? You’re not gonna die, Jack, you're just ... "
She didn’t know what he was, but she had far from given up on him. Her own
words had strengthened her more than they seemed to have bolstered Jack, but
she could be the strong one for both of them and compelled him gently to lie
down again.
"You're just sick, that's all."
She began to massage his icy feet and regained some of her lost control.
Regained her composure again.
A little whim lighted up her mood and she smiled sadly, "you know…I was going
to tell North first and then the rest of you along with him, but now I don’t
know if I should wait a little, now that Sandy is ..."
She stopped herself when she remembered Jack wasn’t actually aware of Sandy's
death and forced herself back on track. No need to give Jack more to worry
about before he was in safe hands, "now that…all this shit is going on, but I
still feel like I should tell this to someone."
She looked down at Jack and saw he was still awake. His eyes held a pale glow
she could almost mistake for the same glasslike sheen found in the eyes of
dolls. A sound like scratching sounded from the hatch, but none of them took
notice and Tooth maintained Jack’s sleepy gaze.
"I took a pregnancy test this morning, or actually yesterday morning, since we
passed midnight and all that. I’d suspected it for a few weeks now and guess
what, Jack. It came back positive."
An honest smile spread across Jack's pallid face, a bittersweet reminder of his
usual happy demeanor and he took her hand under the blankets.
"I'm happy for you," Jack whispered, "North is gonna be super excited when he
gets the news."
She nodded. She knew that. North loved children. He would love their child even
more.
A light pawing sounded from the other side of the hatch.
-
North screwed the lid of the jerrycan frantically and wasted a handful of fuel,
before he could get a sufficient grip on the can with his trembling hands and
hit the fuel opening of the generator properly.
Aster waved around the two flashlights like a madman and tried to light up the
shed from all directions at once, while the shed’s sides, door and ceiling
groaned under the increasing weight of the furious and determined shadows.
More faces of sinister darkness pressed against the two narrow windows and
Aster directed his flashlights on them and send them back.
"I need light to see what I am doing!" North shouted stressed and spilled
beside the generator now that he stood in the dark again.
"Use your phone, i'm kinda busy here!" Aster retaliated and turned 180 degrees
to prevent a shadow from penetrating through the door. It hissed in pain and
retreated, but more took its place and one of the windows was shattered when
the weight of the many shadows pressed it in.
“I don’t have it!”
“Just get it started! We can pour more when it’s working and lighting these
bastards back to the woods!”
North seemed to see his point and left the jerrycan in favor of the generator's
pull-cord. It grunted at the first attempt and North pulled again with all his
strength behind.
Aster turned his back to catch the shadows who had tried to sneak under the
door and heard more than saw the long shadow arm that shot through the last
intact window and grabbed North by the neck.
North cried out in shock and Aster let shadows be shadows. North yelled and
writhing in the grip like crazy and grabbed one of the long iron pipe that lay
scattered across the floor, after Aster had toppled them earlier.
Aster almost slipped in the thick layer of black goo covering all the sheds
surfaces and more gliding than ran to North's rescue. They grabbed each other
and began to beat the arm with the torch and iron pipe.
The arm's owner hissed by the contact with the light as expected, but both
North and Aster were surprised when the iron pipe's blow left a long deep
branding across the arm and caused it to pull back in the deep pain. Leaving
three fingers behind.
Both North and Aster stared at the burned flesh that still hung from the pipe
and seemed to realize the same thing, as they looked up and stared at each
other.
Iron burned them.
-
Tooth gasped as the box of Christmas decorations jumped again and she clutching
Jack's hand in fear. The box jumped louder this time and was almost toppled,
when the one pushing the hatch had put more of its weight behind.
Tooth jumped to her feet and rushed to add her weight down on the box. Keeping
the hatch closed.
Her first reaction had been to order the person on the down floor to identify
themselves and order them to leave, but Tooth’s guts told her that addressing
the intruder was a bad idea right now.
Whatever was lurking beneath the hatch, it was something dangerous and she
couldn’t allow it enter the attic under any circumstances. Not on a long shot.
She held her breath as the hatch became still and all the pushing stopped just
as quickly as it had begun. Her purple eyes darted in uncertainty and she
raised the flashlight up to the shoulder. Stared toward the edges of the hatch
with widened eyes.
A black liquid had slowly started to fill the edges and sides of the hatch, and
a bittersweet smell spread around. Filled her nostrils with a smell like sweet
decay.
Tooth couldn’t do nothing but stare in shaking horror, as the tree and metal-
hinges slowly began to rot and rust, as if someone had forced time to go fast
forward. Brown damp blotches spread over the Christmas box cardboard sides and
caused it to collapse.
Tooth pushed it away in disgust and found herself kneeling in front of the
hatch. The metal-hinge curled like burnt paper and drew back from the tree,
leaving it wide opened for anyone to enter.
Tooth's breath went from fast to heaving, as she pressed both hands down over
the hatch as a last defense and forced all her weight down on the tree. The
smell made her gag, but she couldn’t get herself to cover her mouth and pressed
down further.
She quietly began hyperventilate in panic as the center of the hatch began to
collapse into black rot, sinking into a slowly maddening pace and dissolve
itself into moist black wood.
Slowly, like a poisonous fungus, five long and sickly thin fingers pressed
through the black tree and stretched up through the rotten wood like it was
nothing but soft soil.
Tooth started to slowly leaned away from the hatch, in same slow speed at which
the hand stretched upwards. She soon realized that she couldn’t retreat further
without lifting her weight from the hatch and thus allow the person beneath it
to enter the attic.
The long pale hand grew from the wood and soon exposed a wrist and then the
rest of the arm. The long fingers wiggled slowly and remained in the shadow
Tooth's hunched body created in order to avoid the light from the fallen
flashlight.
Tooth didn’t know what was going on with the hand and the light, but tried to
get the flashlight closer with a foot nevertheless.
The hand moved closer and Tooth stopped with held breath. It was now right in
front of her face. Only a few inches from touching the skin between her eyes.
She almost became cross-eyed as the tip of the hands index finger grew longer
than the rest and a long needle began to unfold from the point of the finger.
A drop of black liquid ran from the tip and approached steadily, but surely
towards Tooth's right eye. She couldn’t look away. She couldn’t retreat. She
couldn’t move.
She could only watch as the needle approached.
-
Aster and North both looked up from the iron pipe and it’s still seething
clumps of burned hair and flesh, as a large part of the roof was torn off the
shed and the shadows pressed and fought to get down through the hole first.
North rose and used the pipe as a sword, as he moved to slash the down coming
shadows and turned around to grab a second iron pipe on the floor and hit the
nearest group of monsters.
The shadows screamed in pain and dissolved back in the darkness of their own,
where several waited to take their place.
Aster gave up one on one of his own flashlights in favor of an iron pipe and
stood side to side with the big russian. Took one shadow at a time and tried to
take the most of them out and get back to the generator.
Tried to hit as many as possible and just survived this. It seemed to be a
fruitful strategy as they got back to the generator and Aster reached for it
and was only inches from grabbing the pull-cord.
The attempt was stopped when a long burned arm swung down from the opening in
the ceiling and Aster lashed out after it with his iron pipe, but slipped on
the greasy black blood, that gradually had covered them and the already
slippery floor.
North who had stood with his back to him, wasn’t fast enough to react and felt
when the arm struck him to the ground and grabbed his jacket. The shadows
screamed in triumph and lifted North from the floor.
"North!" Aster yelled shilled and jumped to grab his friend. North struggled in
vain to free himself, but several eager hands grabbed him where they could and
pulled him up to the roof.
Aster swung his iron pipe and tried to drag North back to the ground with his
weight and will, as several shadows entered the shed from all sides. Aster
yelped in pain as one of the shadows grabbed his hair and tried to drag his
head back and bare his neck for its partner to dig its teeth in to his throat.
Aster strucked the iron pipe and hit the largest of the shadows behind him and
wounded two others, when he felt his grip on North loosen.
“No!” he screamed and tried digging his nails into North's skin, but it was to
late and his hand was pulled from North’s.
The many claws and hands almost covered North's body in black and he screamed
as they pulled in all directions to get him through the hole in the roof and
outside. Aster lost his breath in shock as the large shadow arm pulled and
North's back was pressed against the narrow opening.
North fought some of the smallest of him and turned desperately in their grip.
Tried to put his hands and knees against the sides of the hole to hold back,
but the shadows strength surpassed his.
Aster screamed as the largest of the shadows pulled with raw force and North's
spine folded in a way no normal person should be able to.
North made an inhuman sound, as the back og his head slammed against his boot
heels, like some grotesque broken doll and Aster managed to get a last glimpse
of the wide-open blue eyes of his, before North was dragged through it all too
little hole and a rain of blood spurted out of the shed's floor.
The majority of the shadows retreated with their prey in cries of joy while the
remaining shadows stayed to finish Aster off. Two smaller shadows jumped down
on top of him and he snapped out of his frozen state of shock.
”GET OF ME!!” he cried out in mindless anger and threw them off. They both
landed on the pile of dismantled iron bars from the cabin and burned up. A
larger shadow took their place and Aster beat it like crazy to get it off his
back.
They both landed fighting on the floor when Aster slipped in North's fresh
blood and landed on top of the shade. The shadow hissed and reconstituted
itself on top of him and lashed out to get his neck.
Aster felt cold iron under his finger and swung the iron bar, his hand had
closed around not a second to late and cut the shadow in half.
The two burned parts fell writhing to the ground and Aster crept backwards to
get some space between him and the many shadows that had started to encircle
him. He bumped his shoulder against something, looked up and found the
generator.
The shadows murmured in unison and he closed a blood soaked hand around the
pull-cord. The shadows drew closer as he struggled to get back on his feet and
pulled the chain with shaking hands.
The generator made no sound and he yanked again with a plea. The first shadows
had already seized his jacket as he placed all his strength into it and pulled
the pull-cord with all his weight.
"WORK YOU STUPID CRAP!”
The generator came to life with a little "plop!" And lit the fluorescent tubes
in the shed. All the shadows within the she'sd four walls cried out in a
cacophony of pain when the light fell over them and burned their bodies.
Aster fell back on the bloody ground and could only watch as the shadows either
fled or was destroyed in the synthetic light.
-
The hand halted an inch from poking through her purple contact lenses and into
Tooth's eyeball, as the entire cabin was lit at once and bathed the intruder in
electric light.
Tooth watched with open mouth, as the hand receded like an injured moray eels
and pulled part of the rotten hatch with it in its escape. Tooth fell back on
the floor without a word and stared at the spot where the hand had been a
second before.
Black splotches and clumps of squashy wood covered the ladder up to the hatch
and laid scattered around on the carpet below. The ceiling light illuminated it
all for Tooth to see, but gave no hint about the true form of the intruder.
She was startled when Jack coughed again and broke out of her trance. She went
back to him and sat down quietly next to him with an empty look upon her face.
Not quite sure if what had just happened to her, had been real or not.
Neither of them moved when the front door burst open and Aster called for them.
He found them in the attic, cold, silent and shocked by the sight of him. Not
only because of the black slime that covered him, but because of all the blood.
Aster realized it was North’s.
***** The woods are lovely, dark and deep *****
Chapter Notes
     I have never written this much action or fight on paper before -
     guess it's not as bad as i think it is?
     you people decide - i still can't believe anyone is reading this!
     Hope you enjoy - comments are always appreciated
     =====================================================================
The sun had set and the clockwork on the fireplace shelf announced with a
proved melody, made by a play of little bells, that the day had reached 10:00
in the morning.
Aster looked from the old worn clock to the window and sighed. By the look of
the darkness and heavy grey sky outside, it could might as well have been
afternoon and no one would have questioned it.
Everything was dark and shaded outside. Dangerous. Everything not inside the
cabin was dangerous.
Outside, the yard and shed remained lighted, but Aster had no idea how much
gasoline North had had the chance to pour into the generator and how much time
they had left before the power would go and leave them to the shadow's mercy.
And speaking of North ...
Tooth's sobs had calmed down to a still crying back at the couch in front of
him, but Aster had the feeling it was still too early to approach her. Tooth
hadn’t left the living room's safety for obvious reasons, but even he could see
she wanted to be alone after Aster had informed her of her fiancé's death.
Maybe it was all for the best, as Aster didn’t know how to comfort someone
after such words. Personally, Aster didn’t even know where he stood himself. He
had reached a point where he found it hard to feel anything at all and just
waited for the dam inside him to break.
When and how he had no idea. When he’d lost Sandy, he had been ablaze with
fear, but later, he’d lost himself to his own cold rage when North had been
broken and pulled through ...
Aster pressed his hands to his freshly washed face and tried to focus. Tried to
remember how to breathe and calm down. He tried focus on his breathing for a
couple of minutes and fell how he calmed down little by little.
He had to get his fucking act together. The others didn’t need to see him fall
apart like this. He was the only one left who could protect them. He had to be
stronger than this. He had to do something productive, something useful.
They had to make a plan.
His red-rimmed eyes turned back to the window automatically. The glass and
frame was almost covered with snow and frost by now. A light but steady
descending of snowflakes had started during the last hour and it wasn’t looking
like it would stop anytime soon.
It was no storm, but it was yet another reason why the help hadn'yt arrived
yet. The roads were probably covered with a thick layer of snow, impossible to
travel on...
Aster turned his eyes to the cold fireplace, where the living room's last couch
had been pushed to. He couldn’t see Jack, only the large quilt blanket that
covered him from head to toe, along with the other thick layers of duvets and
blankets.
The cold from the attic must had kicked Jack’s fever back to life, leaving the
teen in a critical condition, where he alternated between shaking and drenching
himself in sweat. Jack had rejected all food and simply buried himself under
the blankets to hide in the darkness and its small comfort.
Aster guessed Jack might need a little privacy and had grown tired of their
sympathy and pampering, but it was like something wasn’t right with the
picture. Aster had a bad feeling of what might be wrong, but forced it down
like vomit.
He couldn't think of that right now, wouldn't think such thing. Not now. Maybe
never. He had to focus.
They had to do something.
“We can’t stay here,” he ended up saying and Tooth looked up with tear-stained
eyes.
He sighed and moved to sit down next to her. She scooted over to make room,
wiping her eyes with little difficulty, because of the contact lenses.
"It's not safe here, mate. The light will keep them at bay, but it’s only until
the generator runs out of juice. The cans we had in saving is shattered all
over the floor out there. There’s only what’s in the tank."
She sniffed and blew her nose into her sleeve, "how long do we have?"
Aster pursed his lips, "an hour ... maybe two? I don’t know, but I know I’ll
don’t wanna be here when we find out. It's not safe out here there as long as
we’re surrounded by forest. The day time and little sunlight that remains is
our only hope."
"It's cloudy," she muttered empty and he just nodded.
"But it is our only chance to escape."
Now it was her turn to nod and she wiped her eyes. She exhaled heavily and
suddenly straightened up to her full height – which wasn’t much, but the change
was significant – and she turned to him with a firm look that made him blink in
surprise.
A resolute tone crept into her otherwise gentle voice, "what's the plan, Aster?
What are these creatures?"
Aster forced himself to imitate her tone, man up.
"My guess? Fairies."
"Fairies," she repeated simply and sent him a look that required elaboration.
He groaned, knowing how foolish he sounded, "it kinda make sense, doesn’t it?
Ever since we’ve arrived, that’s all the locals have talked about. Horse skulls
to keep them away, forest borders not to be crossed, missing people ... I know
it's crazy, but ya guess is as good as mine, Tooth. The only thing we can know
for sure is that they’re weak against light and iron burns them. That and the
fact that one of them hurt Jack."
Tooth glanced in Jack’s direction to see if he had heard them, but Jack seemed
to live in his own world of duvets and quilts now. Her eyes darted shortly and
she looked urgently at him.
"Do you think ... do you think that's why they’re here? Why they attack us
now?"
Aster frowned, the thought hadn’t occurred to him before. But now that he
thought about it, their meeting with the supernatural had first started for
real after Jack's disappearing.
His boyfriend had been in shock when he’d found him, indicate that the assault
had happened just before Aster had shone into the woods with his car lights.
Maybe even blinded and stunned the monster that had attacked Jack.
The fairy ... shade ... monster – whatever it was. It began to dawn on him, how
strange it seemed that the thing that’d attacked Tooth earlier, had broken into
the house, completely alone and just decided to go straight after Jack and
Tooth in the attic, rather than use the time to destroy the lighting or letting
its own army of shadows into the cabin instead.
Like it had been its plane from the start. Could it have been the same fairy
who’d raped Jack?
The knowledge that he had been a hair length away from failing Jack once again,
made his insides boil and he forced himself to seal it for now.
"Maybe," he muttered darkly and clenched his fists. Tooth noticed, but said
nothing. Her sweet face tightened as she gritted her teeth in determination.
"Okay, so we know what hurts them, what else?"
“We’ll have to make some sorta plan. Staying here is suicide, mate. We’ll have
to move Jack now while we can and get as far away from the forest as possible.
It's our only chance. If light inhibits them and the forest is their base, then
they can’t leave during the day and persecute us longer than till the forest
line."
"Then we’ll need a car," she replied resolutely and both their thoughts turned
to the Land Rover, that stood left and overrun with shadows back in the forest.
Not an option.
"The village, they got to have a car we can take," Tooth added and broke the
silence. Aster thought quickly.
"All right, reach the village and get a ride outta here, but how?"
They both looked around for inspiration and stood to check if their phones by
some miracle had gained signal. This wasn’t the case.
Aster threw his phone back on the kitchen counter in frustration and pressed
his palms against the cool surface. Forced himself to think. Think. Think.
Think!
-
The snow fell gently from the cold skies and increased the layer of white
powder filling the woods.
A single crystal-clear snowflake formed in the clouds atmosphere and fell like
a soft fuzz dropped by a bird in flight. It fell without a sound in the silence
that filled the dark forest, until it came to rest on the fairy prince's gray
cheek.
Pitch picked up the snowflake in a gentle manner, careful not to destroy it. It
melted against his finger and he regarded the drop in silent fascination as it
shone like a pearl from his nail.
The shadows groaned around him, writhing impatiently. They alternately between
hissing at the lighted courtyard that made the cabin almost unapproachable and
winding in and out of one another as ravenous wolves.
Hungry, even after their killing and consumption of the large human male. Pitch
had no eyes for them and continued his absentminded adulation of the icy
droplet, as his court of fairies slowly approached his presence.
The prince clenched his hand around the droplet. Felt how its magic was
absorbed into his gray palm for time and eternity. Finally where it belonged.
"Onyx.”
The fairy called Onyx stepped precariously forward and twisted her long pale
fingers. Her black clad figure wasn’t shaking – yet – but Pitch could smell her
fear like thick syrup.
Feel her anxiety and golden eyes darting rapidly behind her thick veil of black
hair, awaiting his next move. Fearful like a caged mare before the
slaughterhouse.
As a human, she had once been a granddaughter of the man named Nightlight and
therefore been blessed and cursed with his straight bloodline and therefore
magic.
After Nightlight's fall, his wife and children had been captured and forced to
live under strict guarding by the village in the house outside the village,
that should later be known as the ‘Overland Cabin’.
Behind shield doors and shuddered window, they grew up knowing that one of them
would had to pay their fairy-father's blood debt when the annual nine-year
peace had elapsed.
Just like the other inbred offspring of Nightlight’s seven children, Onyx had
never known anything but the cabin and the villagers who held her and her
family trapped in it. As time passed by, she could only wait until a sacrifice
was needed and one of them would be taken away to fulfill the blood sacrifice
to the woods.
When Onyx had reached the age of 20, she had already witnessed her uncle and
younger sister being taken away by the villagers and had tried to escape three
times herself already.
The first time had taken place when she had been nothing but a baby carried by
her mother, but it had failed and cost the three oldest rebellious Overlands
their lives. Setting an example for the rest of the family and killed any
dreams of escape for a couple of years after that.
The second attempted had been led by Nightlight’s oldest daughter and Onyx's
aunt. It had taken five years for them to break down a hole in the wall with
makeshifts tools without the villager’s knowledge and created a chance to
escape the sealed cabin.
Onyx's aunt and her brother had been the first to crawl out of the cabin, but
the plan had been exposed as one of the prisoners had become stuck in the hole.
Her aunt and brother had run and never returned, which gave the rest of the
family hope that at least two of them had reached freedom.
Since then, the cabin had been guarded with double shifts and dogs. Less food
and medicine had been brought to the cabin as a punishment.
The conditions had worsened shortly after and the inbreeding and filthy
conditions had already taken the lives of many of the cabin occupant, leaving
few and fewer Overlands to become sacrificed as the years went by.
When the time came for a new victim to be selected, Onyx had been the oldest of
the Overland’s and therefore the next in line.
Her third escape attempt had happened the day of her death. Had Onyx been more
educated, she could almost have called it ironic, that her first confrontation
with the world should be that day she was destined to leave it again.
The meeting with the outside world had almost been too much for the young
woman, but she had kept a clear head and played the sick cursed Overland whore,
the villagers took her for.
As they led her to her doom, she had finally seen her chance and pulled out the
sharp piece of stone she had honed for five years and stabbed an eye out on the
farmer who had been appointed to chain her.
Onyx had run without a direction as the dogs was send after her and given it
all she got. Since the cabin had been her entire world for 20 years, she had
never seen a forest with her own eyes before and too late realized that she had
run into the cursed woods, as the dogs had stopped the chase and the trees had
closed in on her.
By nightfall, Onyx had collapsed from running and the shadows had surrounded
her. The shadows had toyed with their victim like cats for hours and made ready
for the final strike that would spill her blood, when the lord of the forest
had stepped forward and found interest in her.
Pitch had with great fascination regarded this wild human, so unlike the rest
of the humans he had ever known and found her far more suited to live like the
rest of the creatures in his forest, than any manmade stone building.
Like the angel of mercy, he had awakened the fairy blood in her, given from the
fairy queen to Nightlight and made Onyx his first child. With the fairy blood
running through her and essence of the dawn of night, the night-fairy Onyx had
been born.
With vengeance running like gold in her veins, she had become Pitch’s right
hand and commander of his shadows, even after others of Nightlight's blood had
followed in her footsteps and joined Pitch’s court.
For many years, Onyx had been Pitch’s most faithful and loyal child, more
bloodthirsty than any other shadow or fairy in his court and had taken a great
pride in never failing the prince of the forest.
Until now.
“All you had to do, was bringing me my bride,” Pitch seethed with a slow hard
voice and Onyx golden eyes widened in fear.
"It wasn’t my fault, my lord! The light! They created the light - it was the
fearlings job to secure that – "
Pitch raised his hand to hit and the night-fairy cowered, engulfed by the fear
his magic captured her in. The other fairies and former Overlands stepped back
to avoid being involved in their prince’s anger and waited for the situations
outages.
Pitch regained his senses and let his hand fall. The wrinkles which had
furrowed his nose in an almost animal expression, smoothed out and his usual
arrogance took its place as a veil of granite.
"Fine,” he drawled and turned to watch the cabin with murder in the eclipse
eyes, “let those filthy humans have their last hour of rest. For tonight, all
their pathetic scrambling and light bringing will be for nothing.”
He turned back to his children and opened his arms in invitation.
They came willingly to him and he enveloped them in his powerful magic and
protection, “my bride and your soon to be prince is weakened. He needs our
help. And since we can’t come to him, let’s make the humans bring him to us.”
The young Jill giggled elated and Pitch lifted her chin with a fatherly smile,
"tell me again children ... how does humans lure rats out of their holes again?
Oh yes, they smoke them out and play the game of waiting. Let's see if we can
do something similar, shall we? "
-
Tooth watched as Aster searched the cabin for all that just had the slightest
residue of iron in it and hung it up in primitive constructions above the
windows and doors. Tooth carried the pots and pans he had handed her and
followed him around the cabin without a word.
She opened her mouth to share her troubles, but halted and remained silent.
Aster noticed nothing, completely engrossed in his project. The group of tools
he had tried to put up with shoelaces, fell down due to the heavy weight and he
swore furious and cursed the tools unwillingness to cooperate.
“Aster,” she tried again, but he just brushed past her. Mumbled something about
"more string".
Tooth watched him and when he disappeared out eye length, her gaze
automatically wandered to the couch, where Jack was hiding. Tooth swallowed.
The picture of Jack’s white locks still fresh in the mind.
She had listened closely to all that Aster had been able to tell her about the
monsters of the forest, but during the sharing he had avoided getting into the
most central part of the whole matter.
Why were the fairies after them?
Tooth got stomach cramps by the mere thought of her theory, but ignored it.
They had to talk about this. She had already tried to get in on the subject
with Aster, tried to discuss whether Jack could be what attracted them, but
Aster hadn’t seemed too fond of the theory and how could she blame him?
If only North was here ...
She bit back the tears and forced herself to hang the last pots in front of the
window. She could cry over North and Sandy when they’d gotten away from this
horrible place. If only they’d never come. If only they’d never listened to ...
No! Don’t blame Jack. Jack had nothing to do with this!
She scrunched her eyes tightly together and pressed her forehead against the
cold pane of the window. Tried to push some cold sense into her emotional head.
Her foolish head that continued to look for an easy scapegoat.
She opened her eyes and looked toward the lighted courtyard. There were no
shadows or long-fingered monsters to see, but now that she was aware, she could
almost sense them out there.
Imagine she saw or could make out a form or figure moving out there in the
shade of the forest, or at the base of a hanging tree. Sense them returning her
gaze.
Sense their hatred.
Their hunger.
Their yearning ...
But why Jack? Tooth knew why deep down, but the idea of a fairy claiming Jack
and sending an army of monsters after them to get him back was almost too much.
But what about Jack's transformation?
Tooth looked back at the veiled figure on the couch. Jack had refused to show
his face since they got the lights on again and protested in fear when Aster
had tried to light up the fireplace.
Tooth still hadn’t mentioned Jack’s hair to Aster, but the longer she waited,
the more delicate and important it seemed. Tooth wasn’t stupid. The way Jack’s
heat strokes and cold came and went, was anything but naturel.
Tooth was more than positively sure that Jack should have been dead by now, to
be honest. There was something that affected him and that something appeared to
be light.
She thought back to the feverishness state he had suffered, while the light had
been on and sudden change to almost hypothermic shaking when the light had gone
out.
Jack reacted to light.
And so did the monsters…
”Aster.”
The australian knocked his head against the top of the cupboard he had been
half buried in and looked up at her hard tone, "what!? Are we being attacked!?"
She shook her head and sat down with him behind the kitchen counter, "Aster, we
have to talk about Jack."
"What about him?" came it nonchalant from Aster, who had returned to his search
for iron in the cupboards. Avoided all eye contact with her. Tooth was not slow
to notice the warning connotation in his voice.
She chose to ignore it and put a hand down on the pot he had been about to
examine, "Aster, listen to me. There’s something very wrong with Jack. His hair
... half of it had turned white."
This time Aster stopped his work. He turned and looked at her now, but his eyes
revealed nothing.
“And? Listen we have to find a way to hang up this –”
"Chalk-white," she stressed to make the seriousness of her words get through to
him, "you know like when people get old within a very short time span or
frightened as in myths. And it's not just his hair, you've seen his skin. He’s
cold as ice, it shouldn’t be possible to be so cold."
"Don’t ya think I know!?" he shouted and Tooth shushed him quickly. They both
looked toward the couch, but either Jack hadn’t heard them, or he didn’t care.
Tooth hoped for the former.
"I know, okay," Aster continued, now more subdued and slid down on the floor
next her. Looking utterly distressed.
"His roots were already white when I went up to apologize earlier, I just
ignored it because ... I don’t know, mate. And it’s not only the roots now. I
got a glimpse before we placed him on the couch. It's all white now, Tooth.
It’s almost insanely. I can barely recognize him anymore and when some of the
blanked fell from his face he…he hissed at the light. He hissed at the light,
Tooth."
Tooth placed a hand on his shoulder to comfort him and he groaned in pain. His
shoulder was still sore after the fight in the shed and Tooth looked at the
bandage under his torn sweater. She bit her lip precariously.
"Aster, please don’t take this hasty, but ... when you were fighting those
monsters out there in the shed, did they ... stung you? Bite you perhaps?"
He looked at her without a word and then shook his head, "no, only bruises.
You?"
She shook her head to, "no. The light drove away the fairy, or whatever it was,
before it could poke its needle finger through my eyeball. But…"
She looked back toward Jack, leaning forward with a whisper, "Jack has both
scratches and bitemarks."
Aster covered his face and she grabbed his hand insistently, "Jack is about to
change, Aster. We have to –"
" – Have to do what exactly, Tooth?" he suddenly snarled cautionary and swept
her hand away with anger, "beat his head in like a mad dog with rabies? Is that
what ya telling? Is it!?"
"Of course not!" she burst out in shock and followed him as he got up and
stomped back to the living room, "but we have to talk about this, Aster. We
have to make a plan!"
"I have a plan," he spat back and threw a pot over to her, "secure the cabin
until we get phone signal."
He returned to work with his pieces of iron, clearly not interested in
continuing this conversation and Tooth scowled. She threw the pot down in a
chair and turned around in an angry pirouette to leave the room, when her foot
came under the room's only carpet and she fell face first.
Aster turned around, startled by the commotion, and hurried to Tooth as she lay
groaning on the floor, "cricky, ya okay, mate?"
Tooth wincing sourly and pulled her foot free, "yes, I just got tangled in ..."
The rest of the sentence died between her lips, as it dawned on her that she
had torn a part of the carpet off the floor. Tooth had otherwise accepted the
fact that the old stained carpet was as good as welded to the floor, when not
even North had been able to remove it during their cleanup of the cabin.
But now it seemed that she had gotten the foot under it. Literally.
Aster frowned at the sight of the uprooted corner of the carpet. A black smudge
showed where the carpet had been lying on the floor and black dust sprinkled
dryly from the old carpet. Both Tooth and Aster recognized the sweet rotten
smell and looked at each other.
Aster grabbed the loose corner of the carpet without a word and pulled. More of
the carpet let go of the floor and long black threads stretched sticky from the
moist middle of the carpet.
The last of the carpet let go and revealed an old hatch. It was closed shut
with an old padlock, but it looked rusty enough that a single kick from a boot
could break it. Tooth reached towards the handle.
Aster grabbed her hand, ”don’t.”
”Why?” she asked a little confused. Curious to discover the reason why the
hatch had been covered up and what it had to do with the fairies.
"We don’t know what's down there, mate."
"But it could be a way out," Tooth insisted, "or there might be something
useful down there. Maybe another hatch leading out of the cabin."
"Another reason not to draw attention to it. If there’s an dark entrance down
there to the cabin and a way for the fairies to enter, we’ll be screwed. If we
don’t draw attention to this basement, or whatever it is, then the fairies may
not even know it's there. We should keep this to our self for as long as
possible, especially is there no light down there. Don’t go where light can’t
reach.”
Tooth sighed and let the handle be. She watched without a word as Aster covered
the hatch with the carpet again. Her disgruntled countenance quickly changed to
confusion as Aster placed a polaroid-camera in her hands.
"The flash should work like the light from a flashlight, just stronger. It can
probably stun ‘em if they come too close. And this –"
He handed her two iron bars with duct tape wrapped around the ends.
" –should be able to cut through ‘em like a hot knife through butter."
She hung the camera around her neck and held tentatively the two ‘sword’ in
each hand. Swung them around to get used to the weight and twirled the blade
experimentally. She hummed and guessed them to be usable.
"What about you?" she asked quietly and he lifted a machine from the dining
table. Tooth whistled impressed, "really? A wireless nail gun? "
"Iron nails," he explained and taped two flashlights firmly to the machines
sides with duct tape.
"I bought it when I was down the village to get the broken window repaired.
Good thing that I emptied the car before I went out to search for Jack,
otherwise it would have been out in the middle of the woods right now."
The little armament was suddenly interrupted when all the lights in the cabin
blinked at once. The lighted flashed and went off, and then lit up again. Both
Tooth and Aster had held their breath and Tooth gasp as the electric lights
blinked rapidly, before returning to life again.
"Running dry already !?" Aster asked bewildered and looked over at the clock.
It showed 12:34. The brightest time of day, if any, despite the overcast
weather.
Jack who hadn’t moved for several hours, suddenly sat up. He was still covered
with blankets and turned his head toward the windows, without a word. Aster
couldn’t see Jack's face, but he slowly began to realize that Jack was
listening.
Chills ran down Aster's spine like a cold finger as the haunting sound of
muttering and whispering voices slowly began to increase. The lights flashed
again.
Tooth ran to the window and looked out toward the shed. Aster followed her, saw
that the shed was still standing and there was still light in the yard, but it
flashed rapidly.
Two lights outside went out.
More shadows moved in on the darkened side of the cabin and Tooth cried out as
a shadow placed a hand against the window behind Aster. It hissed by the light
of the cabin interior, but still tried to break the glass.
Making a long crack with its fist.
Aster raised the nail gun and fired. The iron nail shattered the glass pane and
hit the shade clean between the eyes. It disappeared as it fell, but more took
its place.
They screamed as the hanging pots prevented them from entering the cabin and
retreated with pained shrieks and the smell of burning flesh. More shadows
gathered by the other windows on the darkened side, looking for a weak point in
the cabins defense and knocked eagerly on the windows with claws and fists.
The window next to Tooth broke in a shower of glass and Tooth raised the
polaroid-camera around her neck and photograph the shadows. The sharp flash got
the shadows to go over backwards in shock and the others behind them withdrew
from the window.
Enraged and blinded.
Several windows were smashed as the shadows became wilder and Aster fired
several nails to keep up with them. Tooth stuck her sword though one of the
windows and felt a sudden rush of revenge as the shadow screamed and dissolved
into nothing.
In the heat of the moment, Aster got to close to one of the windows and fought
to get the black hands of his nail gun and fired with a roar.
Tooth was too preoccupied with the struggle to keep their defense, that she
didn’t notice the cold at first. But as the windows were shattered and her
sweat became cold against her skin, she realized that the frost slowly but
surely was taking over the cabin.
Clouds stood out from her and Aster’s mouths in their efforts, and soon the
cold had crept under their clothes and made it difficult to handle their
weapons, as their hands began to shake and hurt.
A heavy bump from the couch informed Tooth that Jack had left the cushions and
she ran over to where he tried to climb across the floorboards.
"Jack!" she exclaimed and tried to get him to his feet, but he was still too
weak to stand on his own and the teen screamed in pain as the blanked slid off
his face and let the light in. Tooth rushed to cover him again, ignoring the
sight of his now completely white hair and transparent skin.
"Aster! We have to move Jack!"
"She's out there," Jack muttered in a voice that was barely a whisper, "she’s
calling me, Tooth. I can’t –"
"Jack, stop it," Tooth pleaded when Jack tried to drag her towards one of the
shattered windows.
Even through the blankets she could feel the chill from his body and some of
the blankets had even become crispy with frost. She cried out when a group of
shadows tried ripping down the pots in front of the window Jack had tried to
pull her towards and the shadows screamed furiously at them.
Jack shuddered by the sound and grabbed his head under the blankets, "please
stop ..."
"Aster, we have to get Jack out of here!" Tooth continued and Aster fired
several nails when a new group of shadows tried to enter through the windows.
He was drenched in sweat and wiped his brow to see clearly.
"Tooth! Take Jack and go to the attic!"
"We’re not going anywhere without you!" she shouted back, trying to get a grip
on Jack, who was trashing and muttering to himself.
"Stop .... please ... stop it ..."
Tooth gasped when the blankets suddenly became stiff with frost and release
Jack as the floor beneath him was covered with frost patterns. Ice spreading
across the floor and running up the walls.
He swayed from side to side on shaky legs and raised a weak hand under the
blanket. The wind around the cabin grew stronger and began to howl like a large
animal.
Jack muttered to himself and Tooth began to tremble as the cold grew stronger
and caused the temperatures to drop like a stone. Snow began to fly in from the
broken windows and landed on the cabins floor like a light preview of the storm
had risen outside the cabin.
Both Tooth and Aster watched with open mouth, as the shadows was cast aside by
the strong wind and the many pots and pans flew out and into the storm. Soon
the sound of screams and hisses ceased and there was only the howling of the
wind.
Jack started to shake violently and let out a pained moan. Aster threw what he
had in his hands and hurried to grab Jack, before he fainted and collapsed on
the floor. Ice broke off the blanket and fell to the ground around Aster, as he
knelt to hold around Jack’s lifeless form.
Tooth watched breathlessly while the storm slowly decreased and faded away into
nothing. Soon the pots stopped their chattering and the wind dropped again as
if it had never been there. The light in the cabin flashed, but remained on and
silence descended like a blanket over the cabin.
Tooth let go off the breath she didn’t know she had held between chattering
teeth and felt the cold chill her to the marrow. Light dusting of snow
sprinkled from the snowy windowsills and fell to the living room's ice-covered
floor without a sound.
Heavy frost had covered most of the walls and floors and by the sight of it,
and Tooth guessed the hidden hatch was as good as frozen shut with ice.
Aster looked up now that the peace had settled and shared a long glance with
Tooth.
None of them knew how and if was even safe to address what had just occurred or
not. Tooth had no words, but leaped in alarm when one of the still whole
windows were smashed and a bundle landed in the middle of the living room
floor.
Aster had pulled the unconscious Jack close to him in fright and used his body
as a shield, since he for a split second had thought it was a shadow that was
entered. He watched the black bundle on the floor, not knowing what to expect
and it was Tooth who ended up approached it with wary steps.
She used one of her homemade sword to ensure that the bundle wasn’t alive and
unfolded it with the iron bar. The black sticky bundle opened and turned out to
be a yellow scarf, soaked in a mixture of the black goo and red blood.
Aster felt anger gather like an angry creature inside him, as both he and Tooth
recognized Sandy's scarf. Tooth uttered a pained sound when North’s gold ring
rolled out of the bloody package and landed before her small feet.
She picked it up with trembling hands, leaving a circle of blood on the floor
and pressed the rings against her chest with a sob.
Aster clenched his teeth in rage, "they’re trying to lure us outside, we can’t
fall for it."
Tooth didn’t answer, just tightened the grip on the ring and stroked a hand
across a corner of the blood-soaked scarf.
Her lower lip trembled, "but we can’t stay here either..."
Aster knew she was right. There wasn’t a window back still in mint condition
and most of his iron setups had become scattered around the yard and out of
reach. The shadows had been driven off as well, but they would return and find
the cabin unprotected.
The generator would run out of gas eventually and leave them at the fairies’
mercy. Jack was as good as dead between his hands and could just as well have
been a sculpture of ice, as cold as he had become.
Silently, Aster lifted a corner of the blanket from Jack's face and found his
boyfriend’s serene, but colorless face. If it hadn’t been for Jack’s regular
breathing, Aster could had taken him for a corpse.
Small blisters and burning redness began to spread across Jack's cheeks and
Aster cover him once again. Kept him away from the light and the only thing
that ensured them life.
He didn’t have to look up to know Tooth had seen it all and pressed his face
against the cold blanket that separated him from Jack's face. It was so cold it
almost hurt, but even if it would give him frostbite, he didn’t give a damn.
He just wanted to be with Jack.
Tooth looked at them with a heavy heart and knew it was implausible, but
nevertheless wished for an easy way out of this. She didn’t know if Jack would
become a shadow or not, but it was clear that he was beginning to change into
something else.
Something that wasn’t human.
She didn’t know what it would come to mean for Aster, but something told her it
wouldn’t end well. Love couldn’t fix everything.
She looked down at North's ring. Love hadn’t saved North. It hadn’t saved
Sandy. It wouldn’t save any of them. This was reality and reality wasn’t a
fairy tale. Fairies or not.
She closed her eyes in acceptance when the cabin's lights blinked. The lamps
switched between light and dark, like a dying heartbeat before the last spark
died out and the cottage was lowered into the embrace of darkness.
It was afternoon, but at this moment there was no difference between day and
night. There was only one way from here and neither Aster or Tooth had any
illusions left about rescue.
It was over.
Tooth closed her eyes. She placed the ring in her pocket and tightened her grip
around her two swords. If she were to die it would be on her terms and she
prepared herself for the upcoming attack.
North would probably had wanted that her to flee, not only for her own sake,
but their unborn child's, but Tooth had never liked taking orders from anyone.
And even if the ran…how far would they even get before they were surrounded
again? Might as well take the fight here where they at least had walls around
them.
They both listened to the heavy beats of the clock on the mantelpiece, waiting
for the shadows to return with their haunting sighs and whispers.
Both Aster and Tooth's muscles tensed when a low murmur began to build up
outside and slowly approached with a roar. Aster listened, but then frowned.
There was something about the sound that seemed… out of place and it suddenly
dawned on him it was nothing like a bestial roar or assembly of murmuring
voices.
The cabin's living room was suddenly bathed in a sea of white light, blinding
both of them, when two headlights hit the side of the cabin. An old beaten
pickup truck braked besides the cabin and sent the snow outside flying up on
the side of the cabin.
Both Aster and Tooth was frozen for a second, before the hurried to their feet
and the honk of the impatiently car lead them to rush to the sealed front door.
The large foglights on the pickup's rusty sides almost blinded Tooth and Aster
as they ran out into the snow and made it impossible for them to see the
driver. Not that it worried them at the moment, any life-line was more than
appreciated.
Gratefully Tooth opened the car door, when she was the fastest of them and
shooed Aster into the car, as he carried the veiled Jack out of the cabin. Both
felt their pulses rise when the warning cries from the darkness reached them
and shadows began to flicker in the corner of their eyes.
Aster slammed the door shut and looked up at the driver in the front seat.
A wide-eyed Jamie Bennet had turned around to face them.
"Hold on!" he shouted and pressed the pedal to the metal.
***** But I have promises to keep *****
Chapter Notes
     *inhales* smell that?
     it's the smell of stress, anxiety and students sweating in their
     little shoebox apartments, working on their exams
     oh and christmas of course
     stay focused and sane out there, I fell ya!
     Hope you enjoy
     leave a comment if you feel like it
     =====================================================================
“Whadda' ya' mean we can’t leave the area or go to the village! You’re not
making a lotta sense, Jamie!”
Jamie winced by Aster's harsh words, but held on to his statement, “the roads
have been closed because of the blizzard. They’re maintaining roadblocks as we
speak and preventing people from leaving the village. I’m only here because I
was caught by surprise back at the gas-station and let through.”
Jamie made a resolute face that wouldn’t tolerate any contradictions, but
neither Aster nor Tooth would be anything near satisfied with his vague
explanations.
They had put the cabin and the shadows behind them when Jamie had picked up
speed and followed the road through the forest.
It was far from cleared and the snow was deep, but the old pickup appeared to
be made of something stronger than most cars and the snow-chains around the
winter tires helped a lot on their slow but steady progress.
Where they were going, no one knew for sure, not even Jamie, who refused to set
them an actual course.
"Jamie, if we can’t leave the area, then at least drive us to the village,"
Tooth insisted in a gentler tone. Tried to be the rational of the two and reach
out to Jamie.
"Both North and Sandy have been murdered and Jack is badly wounded – we need
medical help! Anything! And we have to warn people about these creatures!”
"The village is safe, it's only you they’re after – and no, I’m not taking you
guys to the village under no circumstance. They will..." Jamie stopped mid-
sentence, failed to follow up and grimaced in the rearview mirror, "if you had
just stayed away from the forest and kept the peace as I told you from the
start, none of this would have happened in the first place! Don’t you get it!?
Hallowed be their name, And blessed be their claim. If you who trespass put
down roots, Then Hallowed be your name – the book of innovation chapter 1150.
It’s all in the book!”
"What book?" Aster asked in frustration and Jamie waved a hand irritated,
"The book Jack took when my mother drove him out of my house with a riffle!"
"So it was you people who chased Jack into the forest!"
Tooth felt it was time for her to intervene and forced herself in-between,
"stop it! We won’t find a solution to this by fighting – Jamie, I'm sorry, but
your book must have been lost somewhere out there when Jack was attacked in the
woods. But it’s not your fault."
She gave Aster a warning glace and he crossed his arms, sulking in seething
anger.
She turned back to Jamie," but we need your help now. Jack was badly injured
and need all the help he can get, I beg you – take us to a doctor! Anything
will do."
Jamie sighed and turned half around in his seat, "you don’t understand, the
village is probably the last place you guys want to be right now. The elderly
has – "Jamie stopped his flow of words as his eyes caught the sight of Jack's
half-covered face.
He gasped and stood on the brakes. Everyone in the car was thrown forward,
since no one had thought of seat belts and Aster groaned as he hit his head.
“Bloody hell! Jamie, what the –”
“Oh my god,” Jamie whispered with a hand coming up to cover his mouth, unable
to take his widened eyes of the unconscious Jack in Aster’s lap, “it’s true
then…they really do turn humans…”
Aster hurried to pull the blanket over Jack and returned Jamie’s stare with
eyes that promised murder. Jamie forced himself to lower his gaze and ran a
trembling hand through his wild hair.
"Please," Tooth begged him and grabbed his hand between her own two, "you'll
have to help us. Jack's life depends on it. Take us to the nearest doctor,
hospital, wet, just anything, Jamie."
"There’s no hospital that can help him," he whispered and tried to pull his
hand away, but she kept his hand in a firm grip and looked at him with eyes
that couldn’t survive anymore rejections.
"Please. Help him."
Jamie looked at them with doubt and uncertainty colored his eyes. They darted
between the road and them, before they ended up on the covered Jack. He
swallowed audibly and then nodded hesitantly.
"My ... my grandfather's library might have some books that can help us. It's
mostly just stories about fairies and the area, but maybe ..."
"Thank you," Tooth exhaled relieved and a shadow of a wry smile crept over
Jamie's face and he squeezed her hand.
A stone hit the rear window and knocked a long gash in the glass. Jamie gasped,
going rigid with fright and watched with open mouth as the darkness came to
life and moved in on the pickup truck.
More rocks and ice came flying and hit the car, showered the car like the main
target in a mean snowball fight and inflicted the car's sides with dents and
scratches when they didn’t hit the windows.
“Fuck!” Jamie cried out and Tooth threw her hands up in reflex as another large
stone made a large crack in her window.
Aster stood in his seat.
He had had enough.
He placed Jack securely on Tooth's lap, swung himself into the front seat,
kicked Jamie aside and grabbed the wheel. The gearstick was twisted three gears
down and the car accelerated up to 60 kilometers per hour as it was brought
back into action.
Jamie screamed as the car flew forward in a hard trust and scattered the snow
in all directions. Aster ignored him and drove forward before he pulled the
handbrake and managed to turn the car around 180 degrees.
The heavy fog lamps flared up and the car shot forward toward the enemy.
The shadows screamed as the car came towards them at high speed and bathed them
in the light. Jamie cried out in panic at the sight of the creatures and the
car was running straight at them. Aster maintained its course with a look of
steel and speeded up to 200.
Tooth clicked her seatbelt without a word and pushed Jack to her chest for dear
life.
"We're dead! We're dead! We're dead!" Jamie ranted panicked and threw his arms
up to cover his face. Aster gritted his teeth and steered the car into the
middle of the shadows with a roar.
The many screaming bodies smashed against the car with loud smacks and shook
the passengers to the core, making their teeth rattled and ears go deaf. Black
blood filled the windshield and was smeared out, as Aster had been predictive
enough to turn on the windshield wipers.
The smaller shadows were dissolved into black smoke by the meeting with the
car's hard bumper, while the larger and more corporal ones broke or was slung
across the roof. The wheels slipped several times as more went under the car
and Aster jerked the steering wheel to keep the car on the road.
More rocks and primitive clubs of wood was beaten against the car windows, and
long tears mingled with the incipient cracking.
The blanket of darkness that had prevailed in the shadows midst, was pulled
aside like a veil when the car broke out on the other side and past the last
shadows.
Cries and furious wails sounded behind them, but Aster had only one direction
and that was towards safety. The village.
It was impossible to see through the window that was now nothing but a network
of cracks and Aster pounded his already bloody fist against the windshield,
until the glass pane's rubber ring let go of the frame and the window flew past
the car and sprinkled them in huge pieces of laminated glass.
”Oh no,” Tooth muttered as Aster turned to a side road and onto the same
shortcut North had cleared a few days earlier. Branches with heavy layers of
snow hit the car in a noisy cascade of whiplash and sprayed them with snow.
Jamie almost hung himself in his seat belt as Aster steered the pickup between
the two large trees and out onto the open moor.
North’s old wheel track were still tactile under the snow and Aster stayed in
their channel, while they bumped across the open white land and towards the
first houses forthright.
-
The night-fairy Onyx hissed furiously after the human vehicle and whipped her
long black hair as she screamed to the heavens in rage. Her golden eyes blazed
with the humiliation of defeated and the shadows quivered around her as they
writhed between her long legs.
Waiting for further instructions.
A couple of the fallen fearling and nightmare-men regained some of their
strengths and reformed, while others had been reduced to nothing but black goo
and mist. Onyx sneered by the puny sight and her own uselessness.
A water fairy separated himself from the crowd of shadows and placed himself by
her side with humor in his steps. His sea-green eyes and algae-braided hair
dripping from his constantly drenched body and melted the snow below his bare
bluish feet.
As a human, he had been a distant cousin in the seventh indent to Onyx, but
just like her, Nightshade's blood ran thick in his veins and had assured him
their prince's favor after he’d been sent off into the woods by the villagers
one summer night many years ago.
He hadn’t spoken since the day he had been transformed in the muddy forest
lake, but Onyx understood his gaze, as she had been forced to compelled his
presence for some time.
Small sharp teeth like those of a freshwater gar, peeped out between his
grinning lips. The words were clear in his humored eyes.
Oh my. They are heading towards the village.
"I know," she scowled and her blood-brother’s snickering filled the evening
like the sound of a forest brooks chuckle.
They’re seeking refuge in the village. What do you think the prince will say?
She crossed her pale arms and snorted scornfully, “he’s going to die from
laughter.”
-
The car stopped outside the village square and Aster left the engine idling as
he pulled the handbrake and jumped out to help Tooth with Jack.
Jamie was still a shaking mess back at the front seat, but returned to his
senses when they started running towards the square with Jack inbetween them.
“Wait! No, the books are back at my house! We have to go there, not here!”
“We’re taking Jack to the doctor, you get the books!” Tooth yelled back,
ignoring Jamie's cries of protests. She didn’t understand why he was against
returning to the village, but it meant nothing now.
They were here and they could get Jack indoors. That was the most important
thing.
Tooth suddenly slipped and regained her balance on the slippery cobblestones,
as they had reached the square and Aster took over Jack in a bridal-style grip
as they ran. Most of the village seemed just as dead as a ghost town and no
light was anywhere to bee see, either at the market or between the shutters on
the murky buildings.
"Hello!?" Aster shouted tentatively.
“Anyone here!? We need a doctor!” Tooth chimed in, but no one answered them.
Jack moved a bit and a little of his face peeped out from the blanket like a
hood. Aster felt his heart drop, when he looked down and discovered that Jack's
right eye had changed.
An icy-blue color like those seen amongst older people with cataracts was all
that was left of the eyes Aster had once loved. Trembling, he pressed Jack
closer to him as if his warmth could heal Jack somehow and the enveloped teen
looked up at them with eyes that didn’t seem to see the same world as them.
"Is’t all my fault, isn’t it?"
“No, Jack,” Tooth replied tenderly and made sure that no light would burn him,
"just stay with us, help is close now."
Jack blinked tiredly and the dark circles under his eyes had become as heavy as
those of a panda.
"I didn’t mean it to end like this. I just wanted us to have fun. Make some
memories. I thought I could close the door to the past, but instead I just
opened new ones ... I'm sorry."
“Oh, rack off,” Aster gritted out between quivering lips, “don’t make me drop
you or something, Frost.”
Jack smiled by the sound of Aster’s paltry wits and laughed hoarsely. The fun
only lasted a moment as Jack’s laughter turned into a coughing fit and his body
curled up in pain. Pressed his hands to his mouth.
Tooth gasped as black blood sprinkled out between Jack’s fingers and onto the
white snow, but Aster would have none of it. He simply ignored it and forced
them forward without a word.
“Somebody! C’me on!!”
“There,” Tooth said hopeful and pointed straight ahead. A group of villagers
were gathered in a small group in the middle of the square and seemed to be
unaware of the trio's presence. To busy handing out blankets, extra flashlights
and boxes of food and supplies between the nearest houses.
Probably making rounds and securing that everyone was prepared for the upcoming
weather and possible storms.
Both Tooth and Aster felt hope sprout in them and hurried towards the group,
“help! Our friend is hurt and needs medical assistance!”
The group turned to them and watched as they ran up to them. Aster panted from
his struggles and straightened Jack a little to get a better grip.
"Please, we were out in the blizzard when one of our friend was murdered in the
woods. We’re chased back to the cabin, where another of us were massacred. They
hurt Jack here and infected him with something. We need all the medical help
you can provide. He’s badly beaten and need immediate assistance."
The men and women listened attentively to their words and looked at each other
for a moment. Aster and Tooth looked expectant at them, awaiting that someone
would lead them, or at least point them in the direction of their nearest
emergency room. Responding in some fashion.
But nothing happened.
The villagers just looked at them. All with the same expressionless face, as
were the teens agonies indescribable boring to them. Tooth looked from one to
the other.
Why ... why where they just standing there?
The villagers didn’t move until a single person made them step aside and they
all turned to the person, as she walked to stand in front of the trio. Clearly
taking the stand as the group’s leader and spokesperson.
Aster scowled as he recognized Mrs. Bennet.
She regarded them briefly with an unimpressed snarl. Let her eyes glide across
them and the primitive weapons attached to their hips and backs. Noted their
bloody and bruised state with the same interest as a cleaning lady noticing a
cumbersome stain.
Her face first betrayed real reaction when the brown eyes ended up on Jack.
Like a magnet, he had lifted his own eyes to meet hers and the brown globes met
a blue and brown for a long second.
The sound of a loaded rifle rang out through the silent square and Mrs. Bennet
pointed the rifle at them, in the same manner her father had once pointed his
at Jack's mother six years ago.
"What the hell!?" Aster exclaimed startled and Tooth took gasping a step back
at the sight.
"Wait! What are you –"
"You shouldn’t have brought him here. You only enrage them further.”
Tooth forced herself to tear her eyes from the gun orifice and meet Mrs.
Bennet’s gaze, “It…I-It wasn’t our intent. They just – You have to help u-”
"There is a pact between the people of this village and the forest," Mrs.
Bennet sneered with a cold clear voice, while the other villager backed up
around her in silent unison.
"It was a good pact, a pact that created great prosperity and security for us
and our ancestors for many years. It wasn’t a pact we took upon us voluntarily,
but we made it work! Until an Overland," she pointed to Jack with the rifle and
spat in disgust, “broke his part of the contract and pulled us all into his
curse."
Aster blinked. Utterly confused by the turn the whole situation had taken, "I
have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. What is? What?"
One of the older men from the group scoffed and took a stand beside Mrs.
Bennet's right, "it doesn’t matter if you understand or not, the only thing
that you need to understand, is how fragile that peace is. A good sacrifice
provides 9 long good years. A poor sacrifice will mean the death of many
children."
Mrs. Bennet and three others made a pained expression and the old man nodded to
himself before he continued, "but when all is said and done, all this damage
only happened because there was once a man who forgot the most important rule
when dealing with fairies."
He sent them a look of almost precocious dimension, "that abandonment of an
object touched by fairies is the only solution we as humans can hope for. What
the children of the forest claims will never be worth the fight.”
All their indifferent gazes turned to Jack and a young woman stepped up to Mrs.
Bennet's left, "give back what is claimed by the fairies. Not only for your own
sake, but for our children. Too many have already lost their lives for the
Overland family's sins. When the last Overland is sacrificed to the forest, the
debt will be paid and we will all be safe."
Both Aster and Tooth had automatically taken several steps back from the group
during the entire speech. Unable to believe what they were hearing. Aster
pulled Jack protective to him with a bewildering face.
He stared at them and realized these people was for real. They wanted Jack
dead.
“Are ya completely insane!? Sacrifice him? What is wrong with ya fellas!?”
A glimpse of an uniform caught Aster’s attention and he recognized the officer
who had visited them back when the window had been smashed.
”Hey! Officer! Yeah you! Are ya just gonna stand there and listen to this
shit?”
The old village-officer looked down and avoided meeting Aster and Tooth’s
glance. He didn’t seem ashamed, but wouldn’t acknowledge them either. He simple
turned around and walked away.
"There you see," Mrs. Bennet continued, "there is nothing for you to get here.
You are not welcome here."
Tooth laid a hand over Aster’s arm, warned him not to do anything hasty and
looked at the various villagers in turn, hoping to find a sympathetic face. But
none of them seemed to disagree with Mrs. Bennet’s statement.
“But…where would we go then?” Tooth asked.
The older man from the hardware store pointed toward the woods, "go to the
forest boundary and leave him there. If you don’t have the balls to sacrifice
his blood yourself, just leave it to the forest. Releasing an Overlands into
the woods seems to be the way the fairies like it these days."
Aster's face contorted into a despicable snarl, "shut up you crazy-hillbilly
ratbags! I'm gonna kill ya!"
Tooth grabbed him and held him back from attacking Mrs. Bennet or the older
man. The older woman had made ready to fire and several of the other villager
raised their own weapons.
”Don’t you see!?” the young woman from the group yelled and broke down in
tears, "it's the same trick the Overlands does every time. They always try to
use others for their own gain and pulls them down into their curse. If they
don’t trick people into dying in their place, they'll run and leave the
punishment to our children and brothers and sisters!"
The older man from the hardware store stepped forward and aimed now directly at
Jack's head, "those two Overlands should never have left it to us to pay their
punishment back in 1800! My two girls would still be alive if that Overland
bitch hadn’t left this kid back in Burgess six years ago!"
Tooth’s grip on Aster tightened as all the little puzzle pieces fell into place
and her eyes widened in understanding.
"It was you," she whispered, horrified, "it was you who sent the deed of the
cabin to Jack. That’s why it wasn’t send to his foster family first. It was you
who lured us here."
Mrs. Bennet just shrugged, no sense of guilt in her voice, "it has taken
generations to trace all the Overlands around the states, but luckily for us,
Maria and Oven Overland and their children, continued to keep their family name
despite marriages. People come willingly if you tell them they have inherited a
forest cabin. It has taken years to track down all of them, but soon the curse
will be over. We have paid our debt."
“You won’t get away with this,” Aster sneered, "the police will come and look
for us. There will be investigations and professional examinations out in the
cabin. There’re people who know that we’re here, powerful people like Sandy and
Tooth’s family. There will be witnesses, people have seen us here!"
A blank expression spread among the residents.
"How? When you were never here?"
Tooth didn’t know who had spoken, but the way things went down at the moment,
it could have been any of them. Their faces were so similar that the entire
group appeared as almost the same. The same haircolor, eyes and facial
features.
Each gaze radiated the same aversion of them, the same hatred of Jack. The same
indifference concerning the teens fate.
"You were never here," one said.
"You never arrived to the village," another added.
"You never turned and took the right road to the village after the gas-
station."
"You never turned up to receive the key to the cabin."
"You paid with cash for all your supplies in the village. No credit card was
traced here."
"No strangers have arrived to the village in years."
"We haven’t seen anything."
"You were never here."
Tooth felt fear shoot through her. The villagers had slowly but firmly began
walking toward them, charging their weapons and made a better grip on the small
arms that had been hiding in the crowd.
Aster to seemed to have realized that the village people had grown tired of
waiting for their final "liberation" and retreated in line with the group's
advance.
"911 knows we’re here," he warned with a voice that wasn’t nearly as confident
as he might have liked, "how will ya that cover up, huh!?”
A man barely above his thirty, drew nearer, "prank call. It happens all the
time, right?"
Tooth grabbed Aster’s hand hard enough to practically break it and was about to
whisper a hasty plan into his ear, when the blessed sound of the old pickup
progressed into in the town square and made a mad dash for the disheveled trio.
Several of the villagers jumped back in surprise, as the car slid across the
icy cobblestones and stopped in between them and the teens. Aster and Tooth
rushed to jump in with Jack in tow and Jamie jerked the gear lever.
He turned his head for a split second and met his mother's gaze.
She had shortly had a look of shock by the sight of her son, but it had quickly
changed into something far worse. Disappointment. She shook her head in
warning, but Jamie had already turned his back on her and put the car in
reverse.
The group watched in silence as the car backed out of the square and made a
quick three-point turn to continue out of town.
Several had wanted to shoot, but Mrs. Bennet had held them back with a raised
hand. Her eyes followed the car long after it had disappeared from sight.
”You little fool…”
-
“Fools.”
Pitch looked across the moor with a sneer. Now that the night was almost upon
them, there was no sun behind the clouds to keep them in the forest and no
limit to his land other than his own morality.
The two fairies who had delivered the news of the human’s destination stood
waiting in the shadow of his robe and waited for his further instructions.
Pitch knew this wasn’t exactly “good” news, but it was news that certainly had
amused him as they had delivered the word of the humans next course.
He had no illusions or fears concerning what answer the small human’s plea for
asylum, would receive from the villagers. What once had been a pious bunch of
peasants who’d took him and his children for the devil juveniles, had
eventually become his own herd of willing servants and executers.
Their annual sacrifices had strengthened his realm with more blood magic than
anyone could have anticipated and been a steady stream of nourishment for his
children. The fairy queen's blood had been a gift to Nightlight and a gift very
few changelings could ever have hope to enjoy.
Becoming a true fae was now his gift to give. Not many fairies were as generous
as Pitch's own mother, but Pitch thought he was righteous to his own subjects.
When his bride would be returned to his arms, Jack would be bestowed the same
graces as Nightlight had once been bestowed, but this time it would be Pitch
alone that would make a human his equal and bestow him the full transformation
from human to fae.
Jack had already gotten a taste of his own magic and evolved into a changeling
as they spoke. But their sudden separation was a problem. Jack had already
spent most of his new magic and for every moment he deviated from Pitch
proximity, the less nourishment the magic had to draw on and remain stable.
If Pitch didn’t get his bride back and completed the transformation from human
to changeling and finally fae, he’d risked that Jack spent all his magic and
his reserves would run dry.
If it didn’t kill him, he'd become a simple human-like creature again and
Nightlight's blood would cease to be magical and become nothing but mundane.
He would lose Jack to mortality and humanity. Just as he had lost Nightlight.
Pitch closed his eyes in a moment of silence and tried to channel his burning
anger and put it into a more usable form. Behind him, his children had sensed
his mood and waves of fear and anxiety rolled off them like summer fog.
Pitch felt his pent-up anger and humiliation transformed into raw power and
exhaled slowly. The two messengers straightened up as he turned around and
faced them.
Onyx seems to expect her long life to come to a painful end, while her brother
was twice as soaked as normal, nervousness running down his body like moisture
and made his little smile turn into a pained grimace.
Pitch stared ahead and towards all of them rather than addressing the two
alone.
"Humans," he laughed sinister, "oh, can you imagine the fear they must have
felt when they realized these villagers are in our favor? What adorable scene
it must have been? A pity none of us were there to taste their auras."
Several of his children sighed in annoyance or laughed by the thought. His
youngest child, Jill, stepped forward, eager not to miss a thing. Pitch clasped
his hands behind his back as he began to walk among them.
Stroke them like cats as he passed them one by one.
"Yes, I think that's what we all wanted, isn’t it, children? A real
confrontation with these humans. We sent my fearlings after them, certainly,
but the nightmare-men have probably never faced a similar challenge since the
night Nightlight and his men tried to burn down my realm."
By the mere mention of the name of their ancestor, an angry murmur ran through
the crowd of changelings and their displeasure with the former changeling’s
treachery, tasted sweet as caramel on Pitch’s tongue.
He sighed and nodded with a melancholy expression.
"Oh Nightlight, Nightlight, Nightlight. He was the light I was promised and the
prince who should had established the last part of our beloved realm. Ensured
us a stable court with both light and darkness."
Pitch allowed the little melted snowflakes to restore in his hand and played
with it as he danced with his fingers in the air. His children stared hungry
after the small crystal lights and enjoyed that its light didn’t injured or
burned them the least.
A winter-fairy would have secured all of them a land with six months’ free
movements outside the forest and nights with his weather powers. A steadier
flow of magic and home of balance.
The prince chuckled at their yearning moans, "yes, half a year of eternal
darkness, that never gets old. Feel the cold light, children, come on."
They all stepped closer like moths drawn to a light and admired the drop of
luminous ice. Pitch kept the alluring drop out in front of them, allowing them
to feel for themselves the magic and nutrient hidden in the little drop and
feel Jack’s potential powers.
Several stretched out their hands slowly, mesmerized and sighing as one. Jill
stood on toes to get as much of her brother’s magic as possible. Relinquished
in his absent and starving for his return to her.
“Come on, that's right. Yes...” he cooed and allowed them closer. Onyx who had
kept her distance, eager not to arouse anymore of his displeasure with her, had
slowly moved closer and looked hopefully towards the ice drop in his palm.
As a night-fairy, she was the child of his who had most problems enduring even
the slightest of light and always withdrew from the surface by the mere talk of
dawn.
A winter prince would give her a chance to be able to move further away from
the wood's shades and enjoy the night and its magic without fear of the rays of
dawn.
She reached out like the rest and Pitch closed his fist around the drop.
Killing the light.
A sigh of disappointment ran through the entire flock and Onyx seemed to
remember where she was and rapidly stepped out of his way. Pitch smirked and
hid Jack’s magic away.
"That's why we must have our prince back. There can be no doubt that his safety
and immediate return to our court is of the utmost necessity. I cannot tolerate
any more mistakes," he warned with a hint of anger in his tone and several of
his oldest children nodded in determination.
Keen to get their winter fairy back from the thieving humans.
Pitch couldn’t be more proud than now that he had the change to witness his
children prepare for battle. He chuckled and smiled assured in his victory, as
a new wave of fearlings and nightmare-men rose from his shadow.
The night was upon them.
“Now... I want you all to do as we planned: the wait is over!”
All his children ran out in the night with the help of their elements and
disappeared along with his army towards the forest. Onyx made ready to become
one with the night when Pitch stopped her with a light hand gesture.
"Not you, my girl."
Her black and white face immediately twitched in fear and she did her mentally
preparations for her punishment with golden eyes convulsed in shame.
The forest prince quickly killed all her imagining of corporal punishment, as
he laid a gentle hand on her shoulder and filled her with new magic.
"Do not fear, girl. I've only kept you here to ask you of a simple request."
Out of danger she seemed more sure of herself and lighted up. His words seemed
to have increase her interest and her cocky personality returned as spring in
April.
"Anything, my prince. You know that I will not disappoint you."
He had no doubt that she would do anything to succeed this time and laid his
cloak over her bony shoulder as they walked towards the woods.
"As my first child, it has long been my intention to make you my successor," he
said and made the trees withdraw their branch and move aside for them. Creating
a path they could pass freely through without being flooded with low branches
and bushes covered in snow.
"I would therefore ask you the same task as our queen in her time instructed
me," he continued in a nonchalant voice, making it almost sounds trivial and
laughed on the inside by the feeling of her zeal.
She hid it well under a neutral face, but you cannot hide your feelings for a
true fae. He squeezed her shoulder in a fatherly gesture.
"Two of the infernal humans have already met their death and joined my arsenal
of fearlings, the same will tonight be the fate of the human woman from the
east, but the man with the sun on his skin, for him I have special plans. It
was he who stole our prince. A simple death will never be able to pay the
humiliation he has committed to the fullest. I have an adequate punishment in
mind for him and something tells me it will fall gracefully along with your own
task at hand."
A famine expressions slipped across the night-fairy’s pointy face as the drop
reappeared in his palm. He stopped them in the middle of one of the forest's
many clearings and led her to the middle of the snowy fairy-ring.
He gently grabbed one of her pale hands and placed it calmly over his own
upturned palm, Making them both cup around the drop.
“Now, what I’m about to do will alter everything you’ve ever known.”
***** And miles to go before I sleep *****
Chapter Notes
     Funny thing - Jamie wasn't even gonna play more than a side character
     in this fic - but what do ya know?
     He just crashed right into my plot with his pickup truck and stayed
     put
     Well good for you jamie *pads his head and hide the knife on my back*
     =====================================================================
”You idiots!” Jamie yelled and switched between letting his anger run over them
and maintaining an eye on the road at the same time.
"I told you not to go to the village! I told you specifically not to go there!
But is anyone ever listening to me!? Nooooo! Everyone is smarter than Jamie
Bennet, everyone is experts on fairies and the people around here, everyone
knows what they’re doing without the slightest background knowledge! ‘Cause
that have working out for you perfectly, hasn’t it!? I can’t believe you’re
still alive!"
Tooth was ashamed and decent enough to look down while Aster ignored Jamie and
his accusations. He focused on the teen in his lap. Jack was in a kind of semi-
consciousness, where he slipped in and out of sleep with small intervals and
half mumbled, half moaned weakly.
Aster considered to check Jack's pulse, but what if there weren’t any?
He tore himself out of the unpleasant speculation and stopped Jamie in the
midst of his rant, "did ya get any of ‘em books? Did ya head out to your
house?"
Jamie sent him a look that clearly said 'what do you think?', “as if I had time
for that! You guys were barely out of sight before a group of the elders passed
by. I had to hide because ..."
Jamie sighed and rubbed his face with eyes that bore witness of great
exasperation.
"After I closed the gas-station for the night and drove home, I couldn’t find
my mother and was afraid if she had been caught in the storm. I went down to
the village and saw lights in the pub, but for reasons I didn’t understand they
had locked the door. They had drawn the curtains to, so I couldn’t see them,
but I could hear them muttering and understood that most of the village had to
be in there. I thought maybe they were having a crisis meeting or something
like that and went for the back door to enter. I stopped in the hallway when I
heard them talk about sacrificing Jack."
Tooth and Aster sighed along with the troubles teen. Neither of them had quite
gotten past the little story the villagers had served them back at the town
square. Tooth couldn’t begin to imagine what it must have been like for Jamie.
What is was like to discover that the people you had lived among and trusted in
all your life, had been sacrificing humans for centuries and probably expected
you to follow in their footsteps when the time came.
"It explained a lot of things," Jamie continued quietly and looked straight
ahead on the road, "the disappearances, why no one ever made search parties,
the Overland cabin ... I’d just always thought it was something that happened
in the old days, like witch burnings and werewolf hunts. I ... I had never
guessed that they ..."
They stayed quit for a couple of minutes, each of them processing what they had
heard or seen. Tried to understand the dimensions of this place and the ounces
of blood that had been spilled in the woods.
Jamie stopped the car just before the forest in the shelter of two large trees
and turned off all the lights. Securing that they couldn’t be seen from a
distance.
He locked all the doors as a precaution, despite the obvious fact that the
pickup no longer had a windshield and turned to the others in the back seat
with an open expression.
"What now?"
Tooth ransacked herself of places they could go, a safe place where they could
hold out until they knew how to deal with the situation. Aster, on the other
hand wanted some more information.
"Before we do more, I need to know what’s happening to Jack."
Jamie looked skittish, but then started to rummaging through his bag for his
scrapbook. He flipped a few pages in the dark and ignored the cold wind that
blew in from the missing windshield.
He bit his lip and decided that it was time for him to provide them with
everything he knew.
"Listen ... all I have is what the stories tells and the little I have found
here and there. Half of it is nonsense and other ... I don't know. But what I
think has happened is ... Jack has become a changeling."
That meant absolutely nothing to neither Aster and Tooth and they just stared
at him. Jamie rolled his eyes by their ignorance.
"A changeling,” he repeated like some lecture, “a child or youngster stolen by
a fairy. In some stories, it is a phenomenon where the fairy steals a child and
leaves its own offspring in return, but in other stories, a changeling is the
name of the half-fairy race that sees the light of day after a human have
undergone a transformation in the realm of fairies."
Aster looked down at Jack, "I think we can all be sure that this is our Jack.
Not a fairy kid."
"I think so too," Jamie replied, "if Jack had been replaced with a fairy-child,
it wouldn’t have revealed itself by showing its real form like this. I think we
can all agree that we’re dealing with the second changeling theory here. But
there’s not much about changelings besides ... it’s just….the stories focus
more on the grief the fairies inflicts the humans after the kidnap and the
moral of not dealing or making deals with fairies. Most stories tells you how
important it is not to fight the fair folk, not many tells how to deal with a
changeling other than leaving it behind and leave the land. Of course, in some
of the legends the fairies steals a child and leaves something called a ‘fetch’
in its place, but it's just random junk stacked together with magic to act and
look like the child. Making sure that no one’s going looking for the child.
It’s just a mindless thing that has all the child’s memories, thoughts, and
appearance, but it gives itself away quickly due to bad behavior. It’s not in
its nature to know right from wrong, since it has no soul, so – "
"How do we fix him," Aster interrupted to keep Jamie on track. Tooth felt a
lump gather in her guts. At this point she had gradually come to the terrible,
but honest conclusion that there wasn’t any way to save Jack. But obviously,
Aster still had hope.
Jamie scratched his neck in concentration, trying to remember something useful.
"There was a book, but it was very vague," he began uncertainly, trying to
remember it all, "there was a chapter which dealt with supernatural creature’s
types of nourishment and something about the fair folk hunting people for their
life force, but it was in latin and I’m wasn’t entirely sure my translation was
grammatic correct, but - "
”What?” Aster pressed.
Jamie glanced down on Jack shortly, "okay, try this – a human becomes a
changeling when they’re claimed by a fairy, right? They become a kind of half-
fairy and get some of the same power, I think. So, if I understand right, they
can live as fairies and be magical and immortal, and all that as long as they
live in the fairy’s ... well, realm? Proximity? Something. But maybe… if they
are removed from the fairy and its magic – if a changeling is stolen back from
the fairy and brought outside its range ... then it ought to be more human
again. How much I don’t know, but if I have to guess, I’ll say that if you
steal a changeling, then you’ll be forced to be its source of life for the rest
of your life. As you can probably guess that never happens in the stories. "
Both Aster and Tooth had gotten a hopeful glance in their eyes and Jamie
hurried to raise his hands, "wait, wait, I don’t even know if the chapter had
something to do with fairies, it could have been anything, I’m just guessing
and gathering something meaning out of the things I know –"
"But what do ya know then?" Aster sneered, getting rather frustrated with
Jamie’s dubious knowledge, "if you can save someone by stealing them back from
a fairy, then why is Jack only getting worse? He was himself when I found him,
and now ..."
Tooth bit her lip, "maybe it's because you didn’t stole him back."
Both Aster and Jamie turned to her and she looked gently down on Jack who slept
quietly.
"I mean, you brought him home, Aster, but you did not steal him, so to speak.
You ..."
She remembered Aster's cold treatment of Jack, back when they’d arrived back to
the cabin after Jack's disappearance. The same seemed to had gone through the
head of Aster, as a look of guilt came across his face.
"Then," Aster began quietly and protectively laid a hand over Jack's shoulder,
"then I just need to claim him, right? Make it clear that I have stolen him
back?"
He turned to Jamie, "how?"
"How?" Jamie repeated surprised and flipped through his book without coming up
with something. Taken aback by Aster’s question and looked utterly lost. He
looked up with a look of disturbance, "I don’t know? I don’t know how to steal
people back. Do you!?"
"Maybe you just need to simply say it?" Tooth suggested uncertain, "like in the
Swan princess, make a pledge to the whole world?"
"A true love kiss?" Jamie contributed without really sounding like he believed
it. They were all more or less back to scratch. How do you take a human back?
Aster looked down on Jack, who had gone out cold again. He considered his
options when Jamie grimaced.
"What?"
"It just,” Jamie began uneasy, “... if the legend of the first Overland
changeling is true. That Nightlight Overland got his powers from the fairy
queen of Northern Ireland ... then Jack have always been a changeling, Aster.
It has always been in his blood. He has never been human ...
A rustling outside the car got them all to turn heads with a jerk and they kept
silent with detained breaths. A bird took off from the bush next to the car and
they all sighed in relief.
Jamie started the car again with slightly trembling hands and forced his frozen
fingers to grip the steering wheel. His gloves squeaked dryly and he looked at
them in the rearview mirror.
"Where do you wanna go?"
Tooth seemed dubious, not sure where it would be safe enough for them to stay
anymore. Aster suddenly looked up as he got an idea.
"Drive back to the Overland cabin. Take the forest road.
-
Jamie drove them through the forest road with the headlights switched off. The
fog lights and car lights could send the fairies on the run, but would also let
them know where their exact position.
Better to keep a low profile until they had reached the cabin. Jamie had feared
he would have to drive in crawl speed, to avoid crashing in the dark, but the
clouds had miraculously disappeared and revealed the starry night sky, where
the moon shone down on them with its pale light.
The moonlight and the white snow combined lighted the woods like something from
a dream and made the night easy to be traveled in, if not supernatural to the
mortal eye.
The moon's pale light made the trees shade appear like long lines on the white
snow and seemed to transform the forest into a prison, with its long bars and
branches whose shadows shaped bony fingers, reaching for them with ominous
intentions.
Tooth and Jamie shivered partly out of discomfort and cold, while Aster seemed
uplifted in line with their progress towards the cabin. His hands massaged
Jack’s shoulders and the cold teen slept quietly as an infant in his lap.
Tooth smiled slightly by the sight. She hadn’t seen Jack so peaceful for nearly
two days.
The prospects of saving him from the strange curse seemed even promising to her
now. She had no doubts that Aster would do anything in his power to change Jack
back to normal and if anyone could do it, it was Aster.
She hugged North’s ring in her pocket and tightened her grip, as Aster suddenly
told Jamie to stop and jumped out of the car. Tooth was just about to shout
after him, but then remembered they couldn’t attract any attention and
contained herself.
She grabbed Jamie's shoulder instead, "what's he doing!?"
Jamie seemed equally confused, but then leaned forward when he saw Aster run
towards a large dark excrescence of roots and plants along the roadside.
Aster pulled several of the long roots and dark branches covering the
excrescence aside and Jamie blinked in surprise when a car door appeared
between the black growths.
Aster crept into the overgrown car and returned shortly after with something
dragging behind in the snow. He reached the pickup shortly after, out of breath
and working hard to drag the thing into the car after him.
Tooth took Jack and made space, curious to see what the commotion had been
about and Aster showed them the weed-burner.
"We’ll need this one, mates," he said and sent the old Land Rover one last gaze
before Jamie put the car back into movement. Aster turned his back on the car
and made sure Jack was still asleep.
The forest might have taken his car from him, but it wouldn’t succeed in taking
Jack from him. He nodded to himself.
He could do this. He had a plan.
They reached the cabin a few minutes later. Everyone shuddered collectively,
besides Jack who just snuggled into Aster. Without light or smoke in the
chimney, the cabin seemed both hostile and haunted.
It lived up perfectly to its name as the “cursed Overland cabin”. Jamie gulped
loudly.
People had lived their entire lives in that cabin. Waiting to be sacrificed to
the forest, with no hopes of escape or goodwill of their fellow villagers.
He looked down, ashamed to be a descendant and still a member of that village,
who had committed and still committed the atrocities the cabin seemed to scream
with its hushed atmosphere.
Tooth on her part, couldn’t believe she had slept in that cabin and felt safe.
It seemed like an eternity ago. How could things have gone so wrong?
They parked the pickup on the east side of the cabin and tried to camouflage it
with a few tarpaulins from the shed and threw as much snow as they could on top
of it.
It wasn’t perhaps the best camouflage they could have made for a car of this
size, but at least it was no longer visible as a sign bent in neo with the
words "we’re in the cabin!"
Both Tooth and Jamie was curious to know why Aster had chosen this exact place
as their hideout, but remained silent while his guided them into the cabin.
He handed the weed-burner to Tooth, while he and Jamie carried Jack and he led
them to the blank floor in the living room, where the ice had covered all the
boards with several centimeters.
Jamie grunted slightly under the weight as Jack was handed over to him and
watched as Aster unpacked the weed-burner and unfolded all its hoses and wires
from one another.
He dragged the large cylinder after him and the two wheels crunched the ice
under its heavy weight. Aster stopped when the edge of the icy carpet appeared
and started the weed-burner.
It had originally been North's idea to bring it to their hunting of Jack’s
attacker. Use it to melt the snow and find clues on the ground if necessary.
Aster had almost forgotten about it after they had been forced to give up the
Land Rover in the forest, but when his thoughts had fallen on the hatch in the
cabin and the problem with the ice, he had silently wished he had a
flamethrower.
The childish wish-thinking had unconsciously led him onto the memory of the
weed-burner abandoned in the car and a plan had started to form in his head.
Tooth brightened up when she understood and helped as he began to melt the ice
around the corner of the carpet. The ice soon turned into water and some of the
carpet appeared.
Tooth took over the weed-burner as the work progressed and Aster grabbed the
first free corner of the carpet. It took him five attempts to get it free, but
on the fifth attempt the ice cracked and fell off in large pieces, as the
carpet was lifted upwards.
Aster wiped the sweat from his brow as the hatch appeared and Jamie stepped
curiously closer.
"Wow, a hatch, really?"
"We can hide down there until we know how we make Jack normal again," Aster
panted and sat up. Threw the wet carpet aside.
"The question is just whether there's light down there…"
There was only one way to find out and Tooth gave the hatch’s rusty padlock a
kick with her boot. The padlock went off as easy as nothing and Aster took hold
of the handle.
An acrid smell of musty furniture and moisture streamed out of the open hatch
and some cobweb went along, as Aster tilted the hatch all the way. The black
abyss returned their gaze and Aster prepared to descend.
He looked gravely at them with a hand on the hatch side, "if I don’t answer or
it comes to battle down there, take Jack and drive as far as ya can. Just keep
on driving. I mean it."
If Jamie had had the heart to tell him, he would have informed Aster that the
car was only left on a third tank and that they wouldn’t get far, car or not.
But as already said, he didn’t have the heart to tell him and just nodded in
response.
Aster delved into the darkness and began rummaging as he went down a set of
stairs, if the sound was anything to judge by and went deeper into a cellar,
whose floor seemed to have a few millimeters of water, since his boots splashed
around for some time.
Jamie and Tooth shared an alarmed glance, when all sounds suddenly stopped and
all sounds seemed to have disappeared. They waited as the silence stretched to
the unpleasant. Wondering if they dared to call for him or not.
It startled them both, as the sound of a large machine suddenly came to life
with a hum and light filled the basement. Jamie and Tooth had been in the dark
for so long that their eyes began to water by the sudden lighting and they
blinked in discomfort as Aster looked up at them from the bottom of the stairs.
"There’s an emergency generator down here, mates! Full tank and more!" he
shouted with a grin and waved two large floodlights on separate tripod, "we
have light!"
Tooth uttered a sound of joyous amazement and even Jamie looked down with a
broad smile by the prospect of a secure base. They crept down quickly after
Aster and Tooth descended as the last, secured that the carpet was fairly on
top of the hatch again and locked the hatch.
If the fairies came back to the cabin they just had to hope that they would
believe the cabin to be empty, without investigating further. To push a table
or couch over the hatch to hide it better, would be a disservice if they needed
to escape from the basement quickly.
The wet carpet would have to do.
Tooth reached the end of the small steep staircase of old worm-eaten wood and
looked around.
It was a simple cemented cellar with no windows or other exit than the stairs
up to the hatch and it appeared to have been used as storage for old furniture
and cargo nobody knew what to do with, or had the will to throw too far away.
A large rusty beast of an emergency generator took up almost the entire third
part of the basement and stood side by side with two old-fashioned wood-burning
stoves, whose function had gone out of service, after the cabin had been
modernized with radiators and inlaid heating elements.
Rings emerged in the millimeter-deep water that covered the cement floor under
Tooth's winter boots and the crisp splashing filled the basement with a slight
noise in step with Jamie, who was worming his way over to one of the old
couches and laid Jack on the damp couch cushions.
Everything in the basement seemed to be contaminated by the moisture and it
surprised Tooth that it hadn’t spread to the rest of the cabin above them. She
quickly raised a hand to shield her face and squinted as Aster turned one of
the large floodlight in her direction.
He turned the lamp the last turn to make it point toward the other end of the
basement instead. Tooth watched his work and found his location of the two
floodlight to be the most functional.
Half of the basement was still laid in dark, but the shadows were narrow and
the light that illuminated most of the basement would be too strong for any
fairy to overcome.
Tooth pulled the weed-burner after her as she moved to the corner where Jamie
had placed Jack and was trying to clear a little space for them to rest. Making
a space where they could sit on the different surfaces and chairs, without
fearing placing their buts on a rat nest or basket with old pincushions.
"There should be enough fuel here that we can hide ourselves for a few days,"
Jamie noted and nodded his head toward a row of rusting, but full jerrycans,
next to the wood-burning stoves.
Tooth nodded as she took a seat, thought to herself that they should make some
molotovcocktails now they were at it.
"Thank you, Jamie."
Jamie looked up and frowned confused, "for what? Nearly getting Jack killed by
my mother and chased out into the woods? Keeping secrets from you and holding
back information that could have saved you from this?"
He sounded bitter, if not ashamed of himself as he looked down and Tooth lifted
his chin tenderly to maintain eye contact.
"For saving our lives. If it hadn’t been for you, Aster and I would be two
puddles of blood above us right now. Or two cold corps lying on the frozen
grounds back on the village. We owe you our lives, Jamie Bennet."
Jamie's face changed in a series of different emotions and expressions,
creating lines of self-hatred, but also hope glide across his features.
It was obvious that he wanted to believe that he had done right, more than
wrong, but it was an inner struggle that would take some time for him to get
through.
He offered Tooth a little crooked smile to lesser her worries and make it
easier for her. Personally, he would had preferred that she'd hated him just as
he did, rather than to forgiving him so easily.
But as said, he wouldn’t cause her any more harm. If accepting her forgiveness
would make this nightmare easier for her, he would gratifying accept it.
"Bloody hell," Aster cursed as he bumped into something in the shadier part of
the basement. It crashed down from a rack hidden behind an old set of stacked
dining chairs and something fell down on the tabletop.
Aster had no time to clean up the stacked objects, except from the tables and
chairs blocking his way, making him ignore it and continue working.
Tooth and Jamie had been watching him, alarmed by his swearing, but now that it
was clear there was no danger, they returned to their starring at each other.
Jamie awkwardly patted Tooth on the shoulder, not quite sure what to do with
himself and just wanted the moment to pass as fast as possible.
”No big deal…”
Back at the other end of the cellar, Aster had found a fuse box and threw the
fuses on the floor he didn’t need before he slammed the cover and looked up at
the planks above them.
"The only part of the cabin there should be lit up now, is the basement. We
should be secure now and have more than a few days of surviving before the help
arrives."
"What about food and water?" Tooth asked quickly. Hated to be the one that
ruined their bubble of security, but someone would have to bring it up sooner
or later if they had to be here for a long time.
Aster pointed toward a large stack of boxes and a small sink Tooth hadn’t
noticed before.
"There’re cans of different stuff in all the boxes and water in the tap, I’ve
checked whether it’s drinkable and it is. Some of the cans can have several
years left before expiring. Guess it must have been Jack's parents or someone
before ‘em that thought of storing ‘em down here."
He splashed across the open floor and began to pull a table out from behind the
staircase with a grunt.
"Who has left these, I have no idea, but I think it must have been someone
further back in time. Some of this stuff is bloody old, mate."
Tooth moved to him and began to inspect the many long knives and scythes that
laid stacked on the table. Several of them had rusted beyond recognition, but
several had been carefully wrapped in old leather covers and survived the
water.
The many harvesting tools and plow-teeth shone dull in the glow of the
floodlights and the blades was cold to the touch.
"Iron," she murmured quietly and Aster ran a hand across the handle on one of
the bigger scythes.
"We should have gone down here when ya found the hatch back then. I shouldn’t
had stopped ya, I’m sorry, Tooth. You were right."
She just sent him a raised eyebrow return, "do you know how long I've waited to
hear you say that?"
They looked at each other for a long serious moment before both collapsed in
giggles.
Jamie glanced their way and felt a small pang of envy. Despite all the hardship
and horror that had surpassed them, they still had the courage to continued and
could take little moments like these, knowing that they were still alive.
Still had each other.
After Jamie had listened to the elders meeting in the pub and left in horror,
he had tried to gather his friends. Gather them in order to assemble some kind
of rescue team and drive to the cabin and save Jack and the others.
But whenever Jamie than turned, doors were slammed in his face. Even Cupcake,
who he had thought to be the toughest of them all, had cut the connection when
he had tried to explain her the situation over the phone.
None of them had wanted to help him. None of them had wanted to interfere and
prevent the massacre that was bound to start.
Neither Cupcake, Pippa, Claude, Caleb, or Monty had wanted to help him. Jamie
had always known deep down that his friends had believed in fairies, though
they would never admit it openly.
But he’d never imagined that their fears would have been able to prevent them
from doing the right thing.
Jamie had never felt so alone as when he’d got into his pickup and set course
towards the Overland cabin. Utterly lost and without a friend at his side.
Friendless and only with disgust left for his mother that had led the word at
the meeting in the pub, he’d started the car and put the village behind him.
The place he was born and raised, but could no longer recognize.
Jamie glanced down on Jack and wondered if all this had been worth it in the
end. What if they couldn’t safe Jack? What if saving him still meant death for
all of them? Then what? Was Jack even still Jack?
As in response to his troubled questions, Jack's brown and blue eyes opened and
fixed themselves on Jamie.
"Hey ..." Jack whispered almost without voice and Jamie edged down next to him
and pulled his feet up from the wet floor. Mustered a smile for Jack's sake.
"Hey, Jack. How are you feeling?"
Jack blinked owlish, as if had to remember how he felt and breathed heavily as
if he had difficulty in breathing the moist air. Jamie didn’t like the sound
and felt goosebumps run down his neck, but hid it from Jack.
Felt he owed Jack that little, after all he had been through. It was odd for
Jamie to see Jack like this, not only because of the entire color
transformation, but his way of holding himself as well.
When he had first met Jack back at the gas-station, Jack had seemed so
confident and steady, like a guy you could tell your deepest darkest secret and
he would keep them to his death.
His calm laid-back personality had attracted Jamie in a way he couldn’t quite
describe, but if he were to get close to anything, he’d say it had something to
do with trust and familiarity.
Jamie had never had other siblings than Sophie, but always wanted an older
brother.
And if that hadn’t been enough to admire the guy, Jack had given him something
Jamie hadn’t been meet with in a long time. The understanding of loss.
Seeing Jack in this state made Jamie afraid, but most of all angry. The forest
had taken a lot from Jamie, his sister, his mother, his freedom to leave the
village ... but by now it almost felt like the end of a long series of losses
having to watch Jack slowly dwindle and become something the forest had
determined.
Jack quietly kept an eye on Jamie.
Noticed the small wrinkles of anger and powerlessness that had formed in his
corner of his mouth and eyes. In his groggy state, Jack felt the need to soothe
him in some way and said the first and best his foggy mind could come up with.
"I saw your sister in the woods."
Jamie froze as if Jack had slapped him with something and sat silently as a
statue for a while. Jack watching him patiently, waiting for a response and had
almost fallen asleep again when Jamie low voice could be heard once again.
"Was she ..." Jamie choked with tears stinging in his eyes and fought to get a
hold of himself and continued, “did she seem happy?”
Jack thought back on those few fragments he remembered and tried to hold on to
them in a usable order, before they disappeared between his fingers like water
again.
"She was playing with my sister. She was laughing."
Jamie snorted sharply and wiped his eyes with his jacket sleeve. He was too
lost to speak clearly and his voice sounded husky, "my mother always said that
fairies ate the kids, but I always clung to the stories where the fairies kept
the human children as if they had been their own, or at least kept them
around."
Jamie's eyes were shining with tears and he struggled to hold back the river,
"i'm sorry, Jack. I'm so sorry for all this ..."
Jack felt the dizziness return, but he didn’t want to sleep anymore. All his
senses swam and became useless, but he fought with the heavy eyelids and pull
from the darkness. He didn’t want to dream again, not yet.
The present was more important than the world beyond the veil. For an instance…
why was this guy so upset? And who was he again?
The answer was right there lying on Jack's tongue, but continued to slip his
mind and became increasingly blurred. Jack's eyes tuned from the human to his
surroundings and he frowned.
He didn’t recognize any of it and it nagged at him that he knew the names of
these humans, but couldn’t remember their names, or his relation to them.
Jack forced his body to obey him and fought to regain control. By doing so his
last drops of magic awakened and Jack froze as his nostrils suddenly extended.
He turned his head slowly as a tear fell from Jamie's cheek.
Jamie had buried his face in his hands and didn’t notice the almost starved
look Jack sent him. Jack inhaled Jamie’s smell ... no, scent ... no ...
Jack closed his eyes and tried to twist his mind around the unknown sensation
and understand what he was picking up from the human being at his side.
Aura, he finally realized, as the unknown depths of his changeling
consciousness started to return to the surface. He filled his lungs with the
intoxicating smell of human sorrow and thrived in it.
It flowed from the human teen like a river of clear cold smoke and coated
Jack's tongue as the fountain of life.
Jack drank from the human’s profound emotion, like a thirsty man and felt a
soothing feeling spread through his body. There was a power in that feeling and
it filled Jack with nutrient, sustained his weakened body with new strength and
eased some of the pain.
The connection was brutally broken when one of the other humans called the sad
one to him, in order to help with some boxes and Jack sighed painfully as the
source of his sustenance left his side and moved towards the other end of the
basement.
Out of his weak reach.
Jack stared after him. Tried to focus, but soon felt the tiredness wash over
him again as the warm tides. Nourishment had relieved some of the veil before
his eyes, but his weakened body needed more if he wanted to rise again.
He sank heavy down between the damp blankets and tried to find something to
hold on to, tried to stay awake, but soon lost as the dreams of winter and
silver wings took him again.
As the memory of an old beloved melody, he caught the sound of a voice and
sighed quietly, "I can hear mom, Jill."
Tooth looked up from her work. She had started a small supply of
molotovcocktails two tables from Jack and kept an eye on him in case he woke
up. She placed the tenth bottle on the table beside her and frowned.
Jack himself appeared to be asleep again, looking at ease like a child, but his
last words had given Tooth more than just the creeps.
He had been addressing his mother and sister. But why...?
Tooth suddenly stopped as the sound of a small voice reached her. There was a
sound like someone was talking somewhere. A woman judging by the sound.
Tooth turned around, but the splashes from her boots and Aster and Jamie’s work
with the furniture in the other end of the cellar, drowned out the sound
completely.
“Stop a second,” she asked quietly and the two guys stopped. Aster put down the
table they had been moving again with a frown, "what now?"
Tooth just shushed him and quietly moved towards the sound, then stopped when
she lost direction again. She held a finger up as Aster was about to speak
again and moved towards one of the floodlights now that the sound returned with
a little laugh from the woman… or was it a man now?
"Do you hear that?" she asked with a whisper and moved toward the sound of the
talkative pair. Jamie frowned, he had heard it to. Aster quietly followed them
as Jamie and Tooth started walking toward the farthest end of the cellar.
They ended up making a ring around the same stack of tables and chairs Aster
had bumped into earlier, when he had place one of the floodlights.
Tooth raised one of the flashlights she had kept in her belt and lit the group
of furniture. A box of plates, stacked chairs, a lantern and old machine parts
appeared in the dark. All of it were old and from another time, but what caught
everyone's attention was a video camera.
It looked surprisingly new. Outdated model, but compared to the rest of the
stuff; brand new.
“What is it doing down here?” Tooth asked puzzled and Aster just shrugged. No
idea.
An overturned tripod laid beside it and they silently concluded that the camera
had been resting on it for some time, until Aster had come across into it in
the dark. Tooth hesitant lifted the dusty video camera and looked it over.
The fall had broken the camera lens, but turned it on as well. Tooth opened the
small deployable side screen and watched its playing content.
They all looked down at it, deeply confused and deeply curious.
A woman waved to them from the screen and blew them a kiss. Half of the screen
had turned green due to a previous hit, but most of it was watchable. Despite
the poor quality, it was obvious that she had been a beautiful woman in the
beginning of her early thirties.
Long chestnut hair framed her smiling face and she laughed with clear brown
eyes, telling the cameraman to stop bugging her. The baby in her arms was too
small to recognize the camera or understand what was happening, but the woman
took the little one's hand nevertheless and waved to the camera with it.
“Say hi to Daddy, Jill. Hey!”
The man behind the video camera turned it around to become part of the film and
smiled widely to them as he blew his dark hair out of his eyes. The sound of a
small boy made him turn the camera around again and he focused it on a small
boy with the same eyes and hair as the woman.
”Hey, Jack! Happy birthday! Tell the camera how old you are?”
The little boy with no front teeth showed the camera ten fingers and smiled
broadly when his parents cheered in glee.
Jamie turned precariously to the others, “should we show this to –”
“What is it doing down here?” Tooth whispered again, deeply disturbed, “I
thought the police ripped this place for evidence. Why would they leave
something like this behind?”
Jamie had a pretty likely idea why, “it must have been the local officer. He’d
probably just cleaned this place after their disappearance, made the necessary
paperwork and hid their stuff down here. I’ve seen the blueprints of this cabin
back at the local library. There’s no cellar on it.”
Aster stared down at the camera, noticed the date in the corner and without a
sound he pressed a camera button, making the film go to fast forward.
A quick montage of a birthday pass quickly before their eyes. A birthday cake
with ten candles, a stack of packages in colorful gift wrapping, Jack showing
off his new suitcase filled with the things he was going to need for summer
camp.
Tooth brought the film back to normal speed when the scenery changed to Jack's
mother filming in front of a packed car. It was summer.
"Hey, Jack! You asked if we could document our summer vacation, so you wouldn't
get to miss anything while you’re on summer camp and since Jill loved the
idea,," she filmed the sleeping baby in the carrycot in the back seat, "I'll
make sure that you won't miss anything, hon."
The three teens quietly watched as family Overland began their journey to
certain death, lured to a holiday cabin by a village who needed them for an
ancient blood sacrifice.
Tooth felt nauseous just watching and witnessing the smiling faces and small
moments of simple joys between family members, knowing that it wouldn’t stay
like this for long.
Aster’s eyes darted to the date of the recording again and felt dreadful. It
was the day of their disappearance.
A new entry in the series of days of playing in the garden and walks in the
woods, began like the others, with Mrs. Overland making breakfast for her
husband and daughter. Greeting Jack by turning on the camera and voiced what
they had planned for the day.
Mr. Overland made a joke at the expense of the villagers and they laughed
together while baby Jill gobbled from her baby-seat.
Aster caught the sight of the particular seat in the other end of the cellar.
Even from here, he could tell that the pink baby-seat was missing a leg.
The film jumped to the sight of Mrs. Overland who swung with Jill on the tire
swing Mr. Overland had hung up outside the house and they drank the lemonade
that had been made earlier in the sunshine.
Waving to the camera that had been placed on the tripod.
There was a long pause where the camera had been turned off and with a sudden
shock, the video camera was turned on again. It showed a second of blurred mess
before it landed on the floor and became still.
A number of loud noises like those of a wounded animal shot out of the camera
in hard pushes and turned into a long yelp of a man in pain. A foot hit the
camera again and they caught a short a glimpse of Jack's father.
The man came back into view when he landed hard on the floor in front of the
toppled camera, writhing in deep pain as he pressed his hands to his right eye,
where black slime ran out between his fingers and bleeding side.
He began to tear the bandage around his head like a madman with loud groans,
his cries began to switch between human weeping and more…animalistic snarls. He
groaned in pain as the last lair let go of the eye and rose to his shaking
knees.
They could only see his knees now, but the sounds continued. The man wept like
a child, but despite the cutting volume of his screams, they had all noticed
the sound of muttering and recognized the whispered just beneath.
They grew steadily in strength and as the man began tearing himself until he
bled, the sound of the shadows grew louder and mingled with the sound of nails
scratching against the glass panes.
Aster felt like he was going to throw up when the man collapsed in front of the
camera again. Mr. Overland opened his mouth to the almost painful in a silent
scream, making his jaw pop, while long black vein spread under his skin.
He began to pull his own black hair out with uptight fingers and tried
scratching the black out of his scalp. Black liquid had slowly begun to escape
through his torn skin and the white blinking eye he had covered earlier, began
to glow like a little cold light.
Black shadows began to approach the man as black mist and the first hands
reached out to him from the shadows.
None of them wanted to watch the rest and turned fast forward. For a few long
minutes, nothing happened and they focused on the place where Jack's father had
been before the shadows took him and Tooth almost missed it, when Jack's mother
ran past the camera fell over it.
The woman groaned outside the camera angle and it shook when she picked it up
and looked down into it, with a face that had seen too much. She stopped her
inspection of the camera and quickly turned towards what might be the nearest
window, with labored breath.
They all recognized the sounds of the shadows that had returned, although Tooth
felt like the sound had become more lifelike and less like it came from a
camera microphone now. She ignored it and lifted the camera closer to her face.
The film shook and jumped as the camera was turned towards the floor and Mrs.
Overland carried it with her under the arm. They got a brief glimpse of the
hatch to the basement when she slipped down and closed it behind her.
The camera's night mode took over in the dark and everything turned green.
The sound of whispering and muttering rose to an almost unbearable level and
the camera was slowly reversed, making it filming Mrs. Overland, who looked at
them with stinging breath and trembling lips.
The baby in her arm was pressed tightly against her chest, as she kissed the
baby's head and turned to the camera with tears in her eyes.
"Jack ... if you’re watching this, it means I'm dead ... we…"
They watched as she pressed the child against her again and sniffled quietly,
"mom and dad loves you so much, honey. Little Jill, our little Flee, loves you
more than anything else. Never doubt that."
She straightened the camera screen in order to level the child and have baby
Jill joining the picture. The baby's eyes stared at them with an almost
unnatural intensity and the woman smiled bravely.
Tooth felt her heart drop as two shining eyes opened in the darkness behind the
woman. Mrs. Overland froze in her sitting position on the floor and turned
around slowly. Her voice shaking with dreadful uncertainty, ”honey, is that –?”
Jamie lost his breath as he watched Mrs. Overland getting dragged into the
darkness by the monster, that had once been her loving husband. The camera hit
the floor and focused on Jill, while the sound of Mrs. Overland's screams
filled their ears and ended up in a sickening crack that brought all sounds to
a stop.
Aster had turned away with a hand on the bridge of his nose and Tooth turned
around to go to Jack. Didn’t want to see more.
Only Jamie witnessed as the shadows crept toward the baby. His eyes widened in
horror as the baby suddenly hissed at the shade and jumped to all fours,
crawled up the wall and out of the camera's view with a snarl.
Jamie was first brought out of his trance when Tooth's screams caused him to
drop the camera in shock. It was broken in two pieces. He quickly forgot about
the camera when he discovered what had caused Tooth's fears and forgot how to
breath.
The forest prince, Pitch Black, stood tall and deadly in the dark part of the
basement with a small army of shadows around him. Aster gasped as Pitch looked
up from the sleeping Jack in his arms and the fairy caught the australian’s
eyes.
He smirked with a set of sharp needle fangs.
***** And miles to go before I sleep… *****
Chapter Notes
     Happy Christmas everyone!!!
     this fic has come to an end, but fear not! the lovely SeramiNefera
     has inspired me to take up the writing of a sequel - something I'll
     start as soon as my exams have come to an end
     hope you enjoy reading this as much as i did writing it
     enjoy!!!!!
     =====================================================================
No one said a word.
Only lengthy fearful glances were exchanged with Pitch's victorious grin, as
the echo of Tooth's screams dimmed.
Pitch's smile widened as the three human’s fear filled the basement with its
heavy fragrance. As a darkling-fairy, fear was that he mainly got its
nourishment from, like summer fairies got their energy from raw wrath, spring
from sheer hope and winter from the deps of sorrow.
He regarded acknowledging the plain, but pure horror that spread in their
dilated eyes and felt how he became stronger each second.
The truth was evident. He had won and they knew it.
The proof was lying unconscious, but safely in his arms and he broke eye
contact with the harrowingly human beings to admire his prince. Jack had truly
surrendered to winter.
The dull, but white locks framed the clean pure face as perfect and untouched
as freshly fallen snow. The skin was almost transparent, revealing the blue
crystal vein and eyes that lurked just beneath the heavy eyelids, framed by
lengthy black lashes.
Jack’s dark eyebrows frowned as he reached a critical point in a dream and
Pitch reassured him quietly with a black nail against his forehead. Made sure
that the dream would turned into something more soothing and pleasurable.
Jack was, after all, where he belonged now. No need to fear.
Moving his focus to Jack and away from the humans had apparently been a
mistake. The Australian had escaped his constraining spells as anger began to
fill him and the human raised what looked like a very square gun at him.
Pitch snorted. It was obvious that the thing shot with iron, but even Pitch
knew that it required concentration to make a clean hit with such an
instrument. This man was obviously driven by his anger, got his strength from
it.
But Pitch wouldn’t be his mother's son if he couldn’t see behind such bravura
and sense the dark gulf the anger threatened to pull this man into. Aster’s
anger flared up tenfold when Pitch’s grin grew wider.
If what drove this man was wrath, then Pitch would be more than willing to give
it to him. He snapped his fingers and the little group of humans jumped by the
sound, startled by the sudden disappearance of silence and only pure willpower
kept the man from shooting in shock.
"Calm down, little human," Pitch crackled with a resounding voice, "wouldn’t
wanna hit sweet Jack by accident, now would we?"
His laughter faded into a chuckle when one of his younger children stepped
forward, summoned by the snap and more than willing to assist him.
"Let go of him or I ..." the rest of Aster's threats fell apart when his eyes
drifted to the changeling who had sided besides Pitch. He smiled and laid a
light hand on her head.
“Hehe. Look familiar, doesn’t she? Took me a while to perfect this little
summer changeling: turning an infant into a growing child. Don't get yourself
too worked up,” he added, as Aster was about to shot ham of out hateful spite,
“hate only gives her more power. Hate is so delicate close to wrath, you know.
You’re practical feeding her your soul if you continue like this.”
Tooth's eyes dilated in fearful recognition. She had never seen the six-year-
old Jill Overland before in her life, but the girl's face and smile was so
similar to Jack’s that there could be no doubt.
“Jill?”
Jill just smiled in sweet politeness. A light scent of apples and ripe
strawberries hung from her long chestnut brown hair, where small fresh leaves
and soft berries mingled with the many vines and leaves that seem to be part of
her body.
A skirt of roots and bark hung from her body and revealed a pair of dirty bar
legs. She giggled as sweet as summer showers and the laughter spread to the big
eyes, where two golden globes very similar to that of the late summer harvest
moon shone in the darkness.
“You’re all gonna die,” she giggled and the three humans stared at her in
horror.
“Now, now, Jill” Pitch scolded her lightly, like a loving father who had to
correct his naughty child in public without meaning a word, "don’t reveal the
surprise for them all at once, right? It would ruin the hunt."
"We’re not your prey."
Pitch and Jill's eyes locked onto Jamie with the same swiftness as wipers and
he regretted opening his mouth on the spot, but forced himself to meet their
gaze. He wouldn’t be weak anymore. He wouldn’t surrender to the forest's power.
Never again.
"We’re not -"
"Silence," Pitch ordered and Jamie kept shut, as the many shadows suddenly
encircled them and filled the dark corners of the basement. Tooth and Aster
pulled him quickly in between them and flanked him with their weapons drawn.
Fearlings snapped out after them and the nightmare-men drew nearer with ominous
whispers.
Tooth was ready to stab her sword into the nearest, when Pitch raised a hand
and all the shadows came to halt. The three humans looked confused from him to
his dark army, breaths shallow and fear oozing from their skin.
“I must say... this is quite exciting. Five little mortals have managed to
overcome my army and powers for more than a night. I'm a little impressed,
well,” he chuckled and acted as if he counted them, “three little humans
managed.”
"You –” Aster snarled, but Pitch pointed warning to Jill, whose gaze had hooked
itself to Aster like a rattlesnake. A wide smile had spread across her sweet
face and Aster felt how the anger grew in him without his control.
His hands began to shake and all his muscles tighten like he was making ready
for a fight. He recognized this condition from the times he had lost control of
himself. The times in his past where he had lashed out after others just for
address him, or getting too close to him.
Those were dark memories and his most shameful ones. Aster forced himself to
breathe, focus and come back down to earth. He went through the breathing
exercises he had learned from material art and forced himself to relax.
To get hold of his anger.
Jill pouted offended when he got control of his emotions and broke out of her
spell. Pitch patted her shoulder, she had been close to gaining control over
the human. Oh well.
They had time.
”P-please,” stammered Aster forced and felt the sweat that had gathered under
the jacket, "let. Jack. Go."
”Hmm,” Pitch hummed in mocking consideration before his face tuned to an
expression of utter boredom and indifference, “no.”
“He needs help,” Tooth tried and took an uncertain step forward, "stop his
transformation and let us help him, we can cure him. We have hospitals, we have
doctors who can fix him ... "
A choir a laughter had spread in the dark and even pitch seemed to be amused by
her words.
"Stop his transformation? Surrendering him to humans and knives in a house of
iron and light? I think not. Jack is nearly through his change and will become
one of us. When his fully changed, he will become stronger than ever, more
powerful than any of you humans can imagine and even lovelier than now.”
He cooed the last and send a possessive gaze to the sleeping teen resting in
his arms. Aster’s anger flared up again like a fire, but Jill was there on the
second and tried to catch on to him like a hook in a fish. He gasped and forced
himself to keep it down.
Jill narrowed her yellow eyes, but didn’t let her attention leave him one
second. Ever patient and waiting for his fist step into the path of wrath.
“You see, it’s all in the season,” Pitch continued, playing with Jack's white
locks, "I have made many changelings of the Overland family over the years, but
no one have ever had the change to take winter as their element before now."
Jamie felt a strange mixture of horror and involuntary fascination when eight
changelings appeared out of the darkness behind the forest prince and moved to
his side.
The mute water-changeling took grinning place alongside Jill, while two autumn
changelings took the other side of Pitch. A woman with long bird claws and
feathers instead of limbs, gazed sharply at them with big green eyes, intensity
as an owl.
A young man, very similar to a tree in bloom, returned their gazes with deep
knowledge shining from his hallow eyes and hummed as a squirrel ran across his
calloused body.
An old woman with long billowing hair, as foggy and white as the wind that
fluttered around her body, glared at them scornfully and clear rain dripped
from her cloud-gray eyes.
A handsome man with flowers instead of hair and eyes, took affectionately her
hand and the many flower petals that shaped his body flickered easy and
aromatic in the wind she produced.
Their many eyes meet the three humans with witness of hidden secrets and the
wisdom that came from having lived past a human lifetime.
All were they different in appearance and yet… Even without knowing their
common inbred heritage that had kept them from diverge from the village common
traits, there could be no doubt that they all had the same ancestry.
All had they traces of brown eyes and chestnut brown locks showing here and
there. Every last one of them looked like Jack in so many ways and yet in many
ways not. They were Overlands. They were all changelings.
They were all lost to humanity.
They swarmed around Pitch and stole small glances in Jack's direction with
scattered smile and whispered in each other’s eras with broad grins. Aster had
an unspeakable desire to shoot them all.
The way their eyes turned to Jack as if he was a piece of meat for them to
devour, made all his nerves itchy for a fight, but it took all his will not to
surrender to rage and be overwhelmed by the power Jill held over his emotions.
She followed all his movements like a hawk and he gritted his teeth in despair.
Jamie himself struggling in the grip fear had taken in him and tried to break
out of the prison Pitch had caught him and Tooth in.
Jamie knew from his studies that the fairies got their powers from the emotions
humans provided them with and tried to muster an emotion no fairy was able to
draw energy from.
Courage.
"That's not true," Jamie stuttered and felt fear grip his heart as Pitch raised
an unimpressed eyebrow. Jamie wetted his lips and tried to find his voice
without letting it crack. Tried to gain them some time.
"N-Nightlight. He was a winter changeling, it says so in the legend; ’a white-
haired boy was brought forth from the fairy mistress's red robe and the two
boys was switched’,” Jamie recited fluent now that he was more sure of himself,
"Nightlight was a winter-changeling, the Queen gave him the winter as his
element and sent you out to live in his place. To create your own realm."
A grin had spread across Pitch grey face and he sighed in sweet melancholy,
"my, my. Someone has some insight I see, then this must be yours I presume.”
Jamie hurried to catch the book, as Pitch threw it to him without a care. He
chucked by the sweet memories of the books content.
“Oh, sweet childhood! All the fear and the panic. Everyone whispered and
cowered from the sight of their neighbor's sudden breakdowns and slowly
insanity. All the emotions and so many people to take sustenance from in the
village. There was the wrath I found in the drunken cobbler. After to weeks of
my magic, he lost himself to it and beat his family to death with a hammer.
Such fear it evoked. Or what about the young clergyman's daughter, surrendered
to the pure hope of love so easily. Jumped in the hay with a stable boy and
became pregnant. She hung herself when he left her alone with the shame. Not to
mention the village children ... "
He seems to grow in the darkness of the cellar and smother the light from the
two floodlights. The fairies beside him grew and flourished as they fetched the
power of his words and the three humans moved backwards.
"They feared the most. So innocent and frightened. Afraid of their own shadows
and the imaginary monsters in the dark under their tiny beds. If you whispered
enough sweet words into their little ears, the nightmares would come naturally.
I didn’t even have to lift a finger for them to cower in the night. It was a
time to remember, but it was only after Nightlight that they should come to
understand real fear. Come to understand what happens when you challenge the
forest. Challenge the fair folk. Challenge me."
"We didn’t challenge you," Tooth defended and tried to protect Jamie by placing
herself in front of him," and neither did Jack. We were lured here against our
will by the villagers. Jack doesn’t want to become a changeling, he did nothing
to deserve this!"
A sinister laughing filled the cellar and bounced from wall to wall. Pitch
dried his eye, deeply amused.
“I’m afraid that’s where you go wrong, little mortal.”
He laid a hand on Jack's cheek in something that could almost resemble
tenderness and smiled gently, “surprising creatures, humans…when he first
stepped into my territory I was going to kill him and be the curse even.”
The offhand remark almost sent Aster over the edge and Jill laughed sweetly,
while Aster struggled to get keep himself in control. Pitch laughed by the
sight and caressed Jack with a sadistic smirk. Knowing that it would just
provoke Aster even more.
"I must say I have received a lot of different sacrifices during the years, but
never have anyone offered themselves so willingly. Sweet, sweet Jack, I had
almost forgot about my mother’s original plan with the Overlands, when this boy
reminded me. Such a sweet boy, so innocent, so…delicious untainted.”
Pitch licked Jack's cheek and the teen whimpered in his sleep.
Aster lost his cool and shot with a roar. The series of iron nails made sparks
light against the cement walls and the changelings laughed and started to walk
backwards along with their master.
Jill was ready to drown Aster in his own insane bloodlust, but Pitch called her
to his side with a simple hand gesture. The girl made a disgruntled pout, but
followed obediently and sent one last sullen look after Aster before she
disappeared into the darkness.
Tooth grabbed Jamie and sprinted to stop the fairy's withdrawal, but Aster was
fastest and jumped across two tables to grab the laughing Pitch.
“Pitch you shadow-sneaking ratbag! Come here!”
The prince of the forest simply cackled as he backed off into the darkness and
his shining eyes and teeth was the last Aster saw, before his hands reach the
shadow and slammed against the wall of the cellar.
“No! No, Jack! NO!”
“Aster!” Tooth shouted after him, but Aster had already run towards the stairs
and broke through the hatch before she could reach him.
"Jamie, take the bag with the molotovcocktails and the two cans of petrol!"
Jamie nodded hectic and made salute before he could stop himself. Tooth jumped
behind the stairs and grabbed as many knives and scythes she could carry and
ran after Jamie up the stairs, while she in a hysterical whim of jest told
herself her mother would be disappointed with her for running with knives.
-
Aster groaned.
His shoulder had taken a very hard fall when he had slipped on the ice up in
the cabin's living room and it still rang in his right ear with an insistent
deafening tune. But even if he had dislocated his shoulder and lost his
hearing, he couldn’t have care less.
"Jack!"
The sharp cold winter had bid Aster welcome with its biting embrace and Aster
forced his chattering teeth together. It was too late to run back for his
jacket, gloves, and cap. The only thing Aster could think of was Jack.
Jack in the fairy's arms. Jack who was led into the darkness.
"Come back!" Aster yelled into the cold and the wind stole his words. The snow
reached to his knees and had soaked his boots in seconds. Chilled him to the
bone Instantly.
“Give him back!”
Aster’s words cut through the night this time and the strength of his own voice
drove him forward towards the forest. Just the sight of the dark dense trees
got the blood in his vein to boil with hatred.
The forest had taken his car. It had taken Sandy from him. North. And now Jack.
It had taken a large part of his life. It had taken many things from him.
Too many things.
Aster tripped over a hidden root and fell as long he was in the white snow. He
heard shouts behind him and Tooth and Jamie ran up to him. He registered half
they were carrying stuff with them when they bent down to check if he was okay.
Tooth said something, but it was as if he had become deaf. All sounds seemed
fuzzy to him.
He peered into the trees and tried to find the fairy's footsteps, something
that could indicate a direction, a clue to where the fairy had taken Jack.
He found nothing. The snow was untouched all around him. Not a disorder, not a
single footprint. Nothing.
Jamie shook his healthy shoulder, Aster pushed him lethargic from him, couldn't
bring himself to focus on them. He had to find Jack. Didn’t they understand?
He had lost all sense of time when a shadow flickered somewhere in front of
him. Aster lifted his head, stared at it, before realizing and crawled forward.
He reached the black object and pulled it from the snow with trembling fingers.
It was a black winter jacket.
Jack's jacket.
He rubbed his fingers deep into the fabric and could sense the smell of Jack's
cheap mint shampoo. To Aster it smelled like heaven in the midst of this cold
hell. Another smell soon reached his nostrils and he felt a sticky feeling in
the midst of the fabric.
Tooth gasped above him and Jamie took a step back. Aster’s fingers were stained
with blood. The back of the jacket was soaked in dark blood.
Anger flared in him again and this time there was no summer-changeling to
control him and force him to stop it. Pitch grinning face appeared before his
eyes and turned his blood acid. An impulse told him he should do something
about that fairy.
Something permanent.
He caught a glimpse of rust out of the corner of his eye and turned his head.
Tooth and Jamie were talking somewhere above him, but all he had eyes for was
the jerry can. There was a picture of a smiling oil droplet on it. It held a
match.
Fire, he thought, burn the whole forest down.
"Aster, we have to make a plan, we have to safe Jack! We gotta – "
"Give me that scythe," he interrupted flatly. Jamie stared precarious between
them and Tooth exchanged a long stare with Aster, hesitated as if she was
considering whether it was wise to entrust a weapon to him.
Finally, the scythe was placed in his outstretched hand and Aster used the
shaft to get back on his feet.
The sound of ripped clothing echoed through the woods, as he tore the sleeve of
Jacks jacket. Tooth and Jamie both watched him in silence, feeling slightly
uncomfortable, while he tied the two sleeves around the scythes long curved
blade and grabbed the rusty jerry can.
The smell of gasoline was almost sickening to Tooth, who had spent her time
making molotovcocktails earlier and Aster ignored them as he soaked the blade
and fabric in gasoline.
The lighter hissed and flared, it lit up their face for a second and the
nearest trees turned red as the fire spread across the blade. Aster raised the
scythe and felt the warmth as it burned like a hellfire.
“C’me on,” he barked and led them in the direction the jacket had lead.
Jamie and Tooth shared a brief glance before they both hurried to follow him.
Tooth threw the two iron bars she had previously used as a sword and switched
them out with two long plow blades as they walked.
Jamie unscrewed the top of his two jerry cans and secured the straps of the bag
with Molotov cocktails on his shoulder.
As they walked futher into the woods with solid gear and faces of
determination, Jamie could almost believe that this wasn’t a suicide mission.
Almost.
As a bizarre - if not macabre - trail of breadcrumbs, they soon came across
Jack's windbreaker and followed the direction deeper into the darkness where
his shoes and later socks appeared.
Jamie caught a glimpse of a fearling or two out of the corner of his eye, but
they pulled back when he turned his head toward them and lit them with his
headlamp. Tooth flanked Aster's right side, opposite Jamie and kept all the
shadows at bay, with the two flashlights she had bound to her arms with duct-
tape.
The rest of the shadow stayed out of the way and followed them from the
shadows. Safe and far away from Aster's burning scythe.
Aster led them still as the angel of vengeance with his burning scythe and
ignored the fearlings that snuck by them in the shadows. He stopped them again
when he found Jack's scarf and Tooth groaned distraught when Jack’s signature
hoodie appeared in front of them.
Someone had wittily hung it from a branch where they couldn't miss it and
showed taunting the big bloody smudge that had soaked the entire hoodie's
backside.
“Looks like a warning or a trap,” Jamie warned, but Aster took no notion of
him.
“Do…do you think they…” Tooth began quietly, but couldn't bring herself to
continue.
Aster shook his head and pulled the hoodie down from the branch, "if he wanted
Jack dead he had done it by now. He wanted Jack alive. Jack's alive. His hoodie
is still warmth."
A giggling echoed between the dark trunks and the three human beings made a
closed ring. Tooth did a toss of the head and they all turned toward the
direction. Silently and without leaving an imprint on the snow, Jill stepped
forward as light as a dancer.
Her orange eyes sparkled with mischief and she offered them a smile as sweet as
the berries hanging from her ears.
"Come to play?" she asked curiously with an undertone of naughtiness and rocked
on her toes.
Aster stepped forward in front of Jamie and Tooth, and felt a certain
satisfaction by seeing Jill eye his scythe with discomfort. She hid it well,
but it was obvious that the light of the fire blinded her and the heat from the
fire got her cheeks to blaze fever red.
"I have come to get Jack," he replied calm and collected. Tired of bullshitting
around, but not quite ready to kill a little girl, just yet. It didn’t exactly
help that she was Jack's sister either.
“You can’t have him,” she warned and made a threatening stand. Aster moved his
scythe and made her step backwards easily. He took a step forward.
“I know you love him, Jill.”
She looked up at his words. Blinked attentively with the dark eyelashes that
were so similar to Jack’s.
“Ya love him and ya tell yourself that he belongs with ya, mate. I get it,” he
told her quietly, taking another step forward and lowered the burning scythe,
“you’re his sister and you’re family. You’ve waited for him, for years. Knowing
that he was out there and that he maybe one day would return to ya. Become
yours.”
A mixed expression came over the small changeling’s face. A glimpse of sorrow
and hurtful injustice surfaced and the small berries and summer flowers in her
hair faded slowly in line with his words.
Aster stepped closer and lowered the scythe completely, tried to show he
wouldn't hurt her.
"And I know ya will fight to keep him with everything ya have. Ya know what is
best for him and you know that he belongs with ya; body and soul. That ya can
only be happy as long as ya’re together and that nobody should ever come
between ya. You know what’s best for him, Jill. I know, Jill. I know better
than anyone that ya feel - because I've been there myself."
Tooth stretched out a hand to keep Aster from going closer, but Jamie stopped
her with a hand on her shoulder. Shook his head in warning.
Aster took no notice of them, he only had eyes for Jill.
"I used to think the same way, mate. I love Jack more than anything else and
wanted us to stay together forever. Jack’s the only one I can be myself with
and the only one that understands who I am. I would kill for Jack. Kill anyone
who would try to take him from me and as much dared to look at him wrong. I
would protect him from everything and everyone and make sure that nothing
happened to him – and ya know what, Jill? That's why none of us can have Jack."
He went down on his knees in front of her to be at eye level and she stared at
him with blurry eyes, confused and captivated by his words.
"Because that’s not love, Jill. That’s ownership. None of us can own Jack. Not
you, not me. Neither blood or words can define where someone belonging and
Jack’s his own, mate. He has his own feelings and his own idea of where his
life should lead him to. If we force him to do as we want, then we’re no better
than those we wanted to protect him from in the first place."
Jill's big eyes looked down. Grief and uncertainty caused her to bite her lip
and she hugged herself, suddenly freezing in the cold winter night.
Aster kept an eye on her and sighed, "that's why I need ya help now, Jill. Jack
became a changeling against his will and now he’s near death. If ya love your
brother then you have to be a big girl and look beyond what you want for him,
and understand what’s best for him. Help me get him back from Pitch and become
human again."
At the sound of her prince's name, she turned her eyes back to Aster and she
lifted one of her little hands. She stroked his cheek with an almost melancholy
expression and sighed theatrically.
"Oh, Bunny. If only you knew my brother like we do ... "
The darkness behind her began to move and Aster rose rapidly as the large shade
from the forest staggered out of the dark. Jill backed backward until she
leaned against the monster's large burned arm and stroked it to calm the
shadow.
Patted the huge nightmare-man the same way a child would sooth a loyal pet.
“Shhh, easy, daddy. Don’t let their fear get the best of you.”
Aster twisted his face in disgust, "you know what Pitch did to your father and
still you side with him?"
She ignored his rude tone and continued her petting, “of course I know my daddy
– and I think you know my friend here to.”
A smaller shadowy fearling stepped forward in the glow of Aster's scythe and
Jamie gasped agonized. Sophie Bennet danced lightly to her mistress' side and
the old tattered plastic wings hopped frantically from her back.
Jill took her hand and the two girls giggled in sweet unison, while Jamie
dropped to his knees with his hands to his mouth.
"What have you done to her!?" he cried in despair and Jill just tilted head as
if she didn’t understand his misery.
"Nothing she didn’t even asked me to, silly. Sophie said nobody wanted to play
with her, that the other children wasn’t nice to her, because she wanted to be
a fairy princess. That her brother never bothered to play anymore…"
"Stop it! It wasn’t like that! I didn’t, I-I,” Jamie stammered with bated tears
and could barely look at his fearling sister, who waved to him with an
impossible wide grin.
Jill smiled maliciously, "come and play with us, Jamie. Come into the – arg!"
The little summer-changeling had been quick enough to get out of the reach of
Aster’s scythe, but not without two of her berry vines going up in flames.
Screaming and wailing she patted herself on the head to stop the fire and
jumped up and down in anger, “kill, them! Kill those stupid humans! Kill them
now!!”
The large shadow was more than eager to comply and flung himself at them with
bared fangs, closely followed by Sophie and the large group of fearlings that
had been waiting patient in the shadows.
Aster rushed to jump away from the claw the large shadow lashed out at him and
moved quickly back to Tooth and Jamie to form a defense. Tooth swung her two
swords against the nearest fearlings and Jamie threw a lid molotovcocktail with
a shout.
Several of the fearlings withdrew from the light of Aster's scythe and Jamie’s
fire, but several soon joined and attacked them from all sides. Jamie struggled
to keep their right flank free with molotovcocktails, while Tooth moved back
and forth with flashing knives and snapping light from the polaroid-camera
around her neck.
Aster defended their front and kept the biggest shadow in check with his nail
gun and tried to find an easy way out for them.
Jill hissed at them in fury and gave a brief order to Sophie, who ran back into
the deep forest. Aster knew instinctively that she sought toward Pitch to warn
him and he would have none of that.
He broke out of their secure formation and went after her. Tooth yelled after
him and Jamie gasped as Aster sidestepped the large shadow’s claw, ran in front
of it and jumped to planted his boot on top of its head.
He jumped off across the shadows broad back in a high arc and landed safely on
his feet behind it.
It shortly occurred to him that his tai-chi sensei would have been awfully
proud of him.
The monster tried grabbing him, but he was far faster than the big heavy
monster and turn around before it had the chance to realize what had happened.
He raised his gun and fired his nails in its bared neck.
The monster screamed in pain and sank to its knees before it collapsed with a
howl, bleeding all over the snow. Aster stepped back as it went into a frenzy
and lashed around in blind pain, tried blindly to remove the iron nail from its
flesh with blunt claws. Only making it worse and the bleeding more lethal.
Aster gave it a kick in the back and planted his boot down on it to pin it
firmly.
With a single swing, he cut his burning scythe into its spine and the monster
howled to the moon in pain.
The fire quickly grabbed the flammable body and the shadow writhing on the
ground as a living fireball before it finally lay still and was dissolved into
black slime.
The other shadows retreated by the sight and Jill screamed in horror. Aster
turned to her and she widened her eyes in horror. She took a step back,
terrified and send the goo that had once been her father one last glance,
before she turned around and ran.
Aster gave chase.
"Aster, wait!" Tooth shouted, but he had already disappeared into the darkness
of the forest, only a faint yellow light revealed his direction. Jamie threw
his molotovcocktails forward and grabbed her hand when the fearlings retreated
with hisses and created an opening.
”Come on!”
They ran as fast as their heavy burden allowed them and soon tailed Aster as
they followed his fire. Behind them they could hear the fearling pursue them
and multiple shadows appeared on both sides of them.
Aster stopped and shouted in aggravation when three changelings stepped out in
front of them, blocking the way. The old wind-changeling raised her hands and
the humans stepped back as a storm started to rise.
Tooth grabbed Jamie to keep him on the ground, as the wind tried to divide them
and howled all around them. Streams of wind encircled Aster and he realized she
was trying to extinguish his flaming scythe and leave them in the dark.
Tooth came from the left and slid in front of him. Her swords left two long
gashes across the old changeling’s chest and the old hag lost control of the
wind with a surprised cry.
Tooth tried getting a second hit, but the changelings had already grabbed their
fallen member and pulled her back to safety. The flower-petal covered
changeling hissed furiously, but it was the two autumn-changeling who took up
the challenge.
The two changelings grabbed one another and began to mumble in unison, digged
their feet into the soil, where they made roots. Jamie gasped as the earth
began to wave and squirm beneath them.
Large roots shot up from the ground in pace with the trees that started to bow
in their direction, going for the three humans. Tooth and Aster was quick
enough to dodge and duck under the roots, but Jamie had been less fortunate and
was hoisted up by the leg.
His bag hit the ground beyond his reach and he lost his grip on the two
jerrycans as the roots threw him into a net of branches.
”Jamie, I’m coming!” Aster yelled and threw himself through the living tangle
of twisting roots and snapping branches. Tooth left Jamie’s rescue to Aster and
ran towards the flock of changelings.
The two autumn-changelings continued their chanting and the young spring-
changeling with the floral hair, left the elderly to rest against a trunk and
leapt forward to protect the other two.
Tooth swung her sword against him and he dodged easily like a leaf in the wind.
He sent her back in the snow with a side-kick and tried to get on top of her.
Tooth rolled quickly to the side and stabbed after the root that had tried to
capture her.
The spring-changeling saw his chance and grabbed both her hands, keeping her
form swinging the two plow blades. Tooth gritted her teeth as they fought and
pulled each other around to gain the upper hand.
Tooth tried to force one of her knives down and into his neck, but he ducked
with a grunt and finally forced her hands up over her head with bared teeth.
Aster had finally reached Jamie by climbing a block of soil and began to chop
the thick root that contained him. Jamie screamed at the roots to let go of him
in convulsions, only to get caught by another one and hoisted further up.
Aster swung his scythe against the incoming branches that threatened to pierce
right through him and knocked his foot against one of the toppled jerrycans.
The missing lid had cause the can to empty its content across most of the
ground and plenty of the roots had been soaked in gasoline.
That gave Aster an idea. He grabbed the half-empty jerry can and began to
spread as much of the gasoline around him as possible. He evaded a tree that
reached for him and threw the empty can behind him.
"Jamie!" he shouted, pointing at the ground, ”drop the lighter!”
Jamie, who was now almost enveloped in a network of small roots and branches,
fumbled gasping and breathless into his pocket with bloodless hands, as the
roots tightened around him. Cutting out the light and air.
His hand was almost locked against his thigh when he found the lighter and he
groaned in pain as he struggled to ignite it.
Aster gasped as the lighter slipped out between Jamie’s fingers and the teens
eyes widened as he followed the ignited lighters way down to the ground. It
bounced off the ground once before everything went up in flames.
Tongues of fire ran across the roots, wild as hungry predators and spread like
a plague faster than the roots could withdraw. The fire took hold despite the
snow and released a thick white smoke, almost blinding Aster who ran forward to
grab Jamie.
The teen had been released from his prison and fell screaming to the ground
between the whipping branches and burning roots. Aster caught him before he
could hit the ground and behind them the fire reached Jamie’s bag.
The total amount of molotovcocktail bottles and the last sealed jerrycan
created a small explosion in the fire's center and sent everyone flying with
its blazing shockwave. Tooth was hurled across the ground and away from the
spring-changeling, who had gained the upper hand by now.
Aster and Jamie was sent forward in a large arch and landed a few meters from
each other in the melted snow. The two autumn-changelings screamed as the
explosion set them on fire and went squealing into the woods where they rolled
in the snow to kill the flames.
Aster was the first human to get back up and he turned dazed to the sight of
the fire they had kindled. The great sea of flames spread slowly, but solidly
through the clusters of old trees and began to fester its way through the
woods.
The changelings screamed and hissed painfully by the light and fled the scene
as fast as they could. They left the old wind-changeling behind as she was too
weak to follow. Aster could only watch as the fire grabbed her gray robes and
ate up her long silver hair in seconds.
He found Jamie a few meters away from him and shook the teen to get him back to
life, "wake up, mate! Now's not the time to take a nap!"
The teen rose slowly, but then fell back down.
"Ahhh, my rib," Jamie groaned and grasped his aching side. Aster frowned,
guessed the guy had broken a bone or two. He knew the kid would hate him for
it, but they had to move – broken bones or not.
"C’me on, mate, we gotta find Tooth. Ya can writhe in pain later."
Jamie screamed as Aster yanked him to his feet and forced him to lean on him
for support. Aster looked around hastily to spot Tooth and started moving
around the fire, careful not to get caught in it and fought not to choke on the
gray smoke.
They moved through the thick waving land of mist and watched how the veil
seemed to block out the light from the fire. Black shadows began to wander in
and out of the smoke, now that the light was weakened and Aster raised the nail
gun, he had been thoughtful enough to grab after the fall.
The scythe was nowhere to see.
One of the shadows hissed in pain when three iron nails pierced its torso and
Aster fired around them blindly to get the enemies of their backs. More shadows
flickered in and out of the smoke around them and Jamie struggled to stay on
his feet. Keep quiet and don’t attract attention.
Apparently, Aster wasn’t much for the quiet game.
"Tooth! Tooth where are ya!?" he shouted desperately into the smoke and felt a
moment of relief as a human cough emerged somewhere in front of them. Aster
walked eagerly towards the sound and started to jog with Jamie in tow.
A slender contour emerged forthright and Aster reached out, "Tooth?"
Two claws shot forth from the smoke as the spring-changeling jumped them and
grabbed Aster’s collar, ready to bury his sharp teeth in his face. A lightning
of silver whizzed through the air and beheaded the changeling before he could
do much.
Tooth appeared behind the falling body with bloody swords and hitching breath.
Neither of them had time to dwell on the situation for long. The fallen
changeling had attached the fearling's attention and the many shadows began to
attack. Tooth cut down the closest and began to lead them through a cleaved
road, while Aster kept their back free with his nail gun.
Jamie struggled to keep up, trying to keep his little screams of pain on a
minimum. Tooth led them round the fire and coughed sharply from the gradually
thickening smoke. The whole forest seems buried in its blanket by now and they
continued their new direction, now with the fire behind them.
More fearlings tailed them and the crowd behind them kept growing. Despite
their efforts, they were soon surrounded again and Tooth swung her knives
through the incoming shadows around them with wild war cries.
Aster followed suit with his gun and the three stood back to back to get the
best defense.
Aster soon realized it was hopeless and tried to seek out an opening or
weakness somewhere in the ring of shadows. His eyes darted from fearling to
fearling, shooting around in blind and fought to get air in the increasing
darkness.
His eyes caught the sight of blood and Tooth noticed his stare. She didn’t even
try to cover the large bitemark in her neck and send him one last look, before
she did something incredible stupid, but otherwise…brave.
Jamie, who had no other weapon than a flashlight, looked up in confusion, when
Tooth placed her sword securely in his hands.
"Don’t hold back," was all she said before she ran. She ignored their warning
cries and lifted her camera. The shadows screamed as she flashed them and they
retreated in hissing clusters.
She flicked again and again, as fast as the camera-flash allowed and broke out
of the circle. The furious shadows followed her and soon she had drawn more
than half of the circle's fearlings along with her.
"Tooth, No!" Jamie shouted and made ready to try and save her, when her voice
reached them.
“Don’t – save Jack! – I’ll find you!”
Aster shot the nearest fearling in the face and his eyes darted between her
friend and the direction the changeling had taken last. He uttered a sound of
utter frustration and pulled Jamie after him. Jamie protested, wanted to follow
Tooth and help her, but Aster forced him ahead and bit back the tears.
Tooth smiled bitterly, seeing that they continued on without her and allowed
her to do this. She ran as fast as she could and continued her flight through
the forest. Caught out of the corner of her eyes, how the shadows were closing
in on her.
Several jumped down from the trees around her and others tried to catch her
from the low branches. She dodged with her heart beating in her throat and took
picture after picture, to keep them off her back.
She screamed when the ground suddenly disappeared from under her and she began
to roll down a snow-covered slope. She hit the bottom hard and struggled to
stand up again and move on.
The camera was still hanging from her neck like a stone and she limped on,
listening to the wild hissing and screaming from the shadows echoed behind her
from higher ground.
A side-stitch began to form in her side and her breath became shallow as the
exhaustion took over. She coughed and felt how the slime from the smoke stole
the air from her lungs. Black blood came up with the next cough and she sobbed
as she limped on, utterly lost and as good as broken.
She lost her jaw when a large dark brick wall appeared in front of her. She
suddenly realized it was a house and threw herself against the old half-rotten
door.
The house was nothing more than a ruin, but at this moment it was better than
nothing and she slammed the door behind her and fell into the untouched snow
that had fallen through the missing roof.
She half-crawled, half-huddled toward the nearest corner and leaned
breathlessly against it.
She took the glove off with her teeth and lifted trembling her fingers to her
collar. They became pasted by the contact with her skin and she drilled the
nails into the spot where the changeling had taken a chunk of her neck.
Grimaced by the pain and strange texture of the wound's rim.
Humorless laughter escaped her bloody lips. She had taken the spring-
changeling's life, but he had sealed here fate in return. Her laughter turned
into a series of coughing and she groaned as the sweet sickening taste settled
on her tongue.
It had slowly begun to dawn on her, that this was what had happened to Mr.
Overland. What the fairy from the attic had planned to do to her when it had
reached for her eye.
Her bloody hand searched down towards North's ring and she felt tears rolling
down her cheeks. Prayed that Aster and Jamie would get out of this alive with
Jack.
Prayed that she would meet North and Sandy again on the other side.
Prayed that she would get a quick death. That she wouldn’t become a fearling.
As the messengers of death, the snow slowly began to darken around her and
hundreds of white eyes appeared in its void. An ominous chant of whispering
voices filled the night and dragged her from reality into an ink-ish nightmare.
Tooth sniffled and seized his camera with a combative scowl.
"You monsters," she growled grimly and pressed the button. Nothing happened.
She felt her heart miss a beat and pushed again. The flash remained dead and
she pounded on the camera with hiccupping breath while fearlings slowly crept
toward her. Tooth pushed herself further into the corner and fumbled with the
camera to make it work.
It blinked back to life as she beat it against the wall and she flashed the
nearest shadows and kicked the next. Puller her feet to her to get out of their
reach.
She twisted as a tall shadow emerged, loomed over her with a sonorous murmur.
She lifted the camera, ready to blind it and take the next who dared to come
close, but forgot all about pressing the button when she recognized the
fearling.
She dropped the camera in shock.
North’s black shadow form looked down on her eyes of dead light and she pushed
back against the cold wall, shook her head in denial with a sob.
"No, no, not you North ... please no ... oh god ..."
Her world slowly began to fall apart as North was joined by Sandy. Tooth broke
down in tears at the macabre reunion and lost herself to her hysteria. It
wasn’t fair, they were supposed to meet again on the other side, far away from
this nightmare, far away from the wicked world.
Not like this, never like this.
“North…Sa-Sandy, it’s me…please!”
The two fearlings barred their black teeth as an answer and hundreds of hands
shot forwards. She writhed with a scream and slammed her hands up to cover her
eyes.
Her screams were drowned as the shadows covered her.
-
Aster shivered as he caught the sound of Tooth's horrific screams and blinked
the tears from his eyes.
Forced himself to focus on the road ahead and take the chance she had given
them. Jamie whimpered besides him and groaned tormented. His face had gained
the same pallid color as the dirty snow and every step sent bolt of white pain
through his ankle and ribs.
They had put most of the shadows behind them, but could still hear their
whisper and murmuring persecute them somewhere behind them.
Aster peered around them to get an indication of whether they were still on
track or not and tried to keep a straight direction, despite the many trunks
and fallen trees that lay in their way.
He noticed how Jamie became heavier and heavier, knew the teen was just a
hair's length from fainting or worse.
Aster didn’t know if the teen had internal bleeding, could only hope he was
dealing with a sprained ankle and maybe a bent rib. But if Jamie’s wan face was
anything to judge, it was hardly the case.
"Aster, please," Jamie whispered for the fourth time since they parted from
Tooth, but Aster wouldn’t listen to him. He be damned before he did. He
wouldn’t leave Jamie; the kid wouldn’t have a snowball's chance in hell on his
own.
“Just leave me…”
“Bloody hell, just shut it will ya?” Aster hissed out between gritted teeth and
forced him forward. He stopped by the sight of another piece of cloth in the
snow and quickly moved to lean Jamie and the swords he used as a crutch against
a tree to investigate.
He recognized it as one of Jack's white t-shits, though this was far from white
anymore. Jack had to be bare-chested now that they had found the T-shirt. It
wasn’t warm like the hoodie, but still wet rather than frozen solid.
Aster threw the bloody shirt aside and grabbed Jamie to lift him again, but he
resisted and pushed Aster’s hands of him and fell limply down against the trunk
again.
"Just go, go find Jack. We both know I can’t walk like this."
“I’m not gonna leave you to those monsters, like some easy bait,” he scowled
and seized Jamie. Ignored his protests and tried to force him to his feet.
Jamie screamed in pain and Aster had to let him lean against the tree again.
Aster bit his lip and looked around for a solution.
Jamie was right, of course. Where they were going, Jamie would only be a burden
to Aster. Simple death weight. He couldn’t face Pitch and rescue Jack if he had
to carry Jamie and keep him out of danger to.
But if he left him here Jamie would be ripped to shreds.
He couldn’t bring him with him, but he couldn’t let him lie out here in the
open either. Time was ticking and Aster knew it was only a matter of seconds
before the first fearlings was upon them. He had to act now.
Jamie protested weakly as Aster lifted him up bridalstyle and tried to push him
away. Aster ignored his weak attempts and found what he had been searching for.
A hollow trunk.
He helped Jamie as far into the trunk as he could and began to cover the
entrance with snow, making sure that no outsider would spot him. He hoped at
least. He looked around one last time and bowed down besides the little hole in
the snow entrance for Jamie to hear him.
"Stay here. I'll go find Jack and meet ya back here. And if... if I don’t make
it back before sunset, just get the hell outta here, Jamie. Ya heare me, mate?"
Jamie hummed as an answer and Aster caught a glimpse of his hooded eyes and
shaking shoulders. The sight reminded him of Jack and he patted Jamie's brown
locks one last time before he covered the entrance up with snow and ran off.
Jamie heard him run through the heavy snow and tried to control his breath,
making sure he wouldn’t reveal himself. The sound of mumbling and whispering
soon appeared and he pressed himself against the trunk sides.
His legs were almost numb from the cold by now and subdued the pain in his
ankle, but his ribs still burned just beneath the skin and forced out a little
scream of pain every time he moved or breathed too deeply.
From what he could sense just outside the end of the trunk, he caught countless
black forms as they crossed right past his hiding place and he contained his
breath in mute horror.
The only weapon he had on him was a flashlight and one of Tooth’s swords. The
other he had dropped or lost to the shadows, as his body gave up on him and
stole his determination to fight.
Jamie closed his eyes, tried to tell himself that all this was just a bad
dream, a dream he could wake up from any minute now and dismiss as pure
fabrication along with all the terror of the night.
Wanted to believe that he would wake up in his own bed with Abby lying in the
foot of the bed, while the sound of his mother in the kitchen would reach him
with the smell of coffee. That he could go to work and stand behind the counter
in the gas station, while his friends texted him over the phone.
That he still had friends and a home to go home to.
Whispers and murmuring voices began to slowly approach the trunk and Jamie
clutching the flashlight and sword to his chest. He wasn’t brave like Tooth or
strong like Aster. Felt no solace or comfort from the idea of dying in the name
of justice or fight to the bitter end without fear in his heart.
Jamie was scared, more scared than he had been in his entire life. He was no
hero, he was only fear. He shivered as claws ran across the tree trunks bark
and a prayer flowed from his lips as the fearlings began to remove the snow in
front the trunk's opening.
Jamie heard his heart beating like a cannon in his ear and his heart flutter
like the wings of a trapped bird. A black claw broke out of the snow and began
to reach into his hideout slowly.
Jamie pushed back as far as he could and fumbled desperately with the
flashlight. The claw suddenly shot forward and grabbed his hair. He screamed as
it pulled and dragged him out from his hiding.
His ribs pushed against his lungs like knives and he curled up in the fetal
position in pain, lost his grip on the sword and could only watch as it
remained inside the trunk. Couldn’t breathe.
The shadows above him reached down towards him and he trembled as their bodies
shut the moonlight out and darkness became his whole world. He screamed as they
grabbed him and struck out against them with the flashlight.
A beam of white light bathed Jamie in a blinding sheen and the shadows pulled
away in screams.
Jamie squinted and slowly raised a hand up in front of his eyes. The shadows
around him ran for their lives and Jamie looked up into the light, where the
sound of a resounding machine working at full speed resched down to him.
Jamie lay back down on the snow and stared into the sea of light.
It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
-
The snow crunched under Aster's heavy boots and he hugged his arms tightly
against his thin sweater. He could still hear the fearlings behind him,
although it could be the howl of the wind for all he knew.
He kept asking himself if the hideout he had left Jamie in had been good enough
and doubted his decisions. Hoped that he had done the right thing, made the
right choice. That he hadn’t been responsible for yet another person's death.
He tried to remember back to the beginning and imagine ways in which he could
have prevented the numerous accidents, while his brain continued to run in
circles and force him into seeking urgencies, like shelter, warmth, rest and
Jack.
Aster still didn’t know how he was going to cure Jack, if he even could and in
this hell of winter, he had gradually questioning started to question himself
whether still believed that Jack could be alive.
The bloody jackets and sweaters seems to testify major injuries and Aster could
only imagine what a monster like Pitch could have done to Jack to get his back
to bleed that way. Had he got tired of Jack? Wounded him lethal? Killed him by
accident?
Aster shook his head to escape those images.
He hadn’t found any trail of blood on the snow yet, but feared to find a trace
of red that would lead him to Jack's corpse. Lead him to a scene similar the
one he and North had found, when they searched the forest after Sandy had been
dragged into the darkness.
Aster didn’t know if he could remain sane after such a sight again. Didn’t know
what he would do if he came across Jack lying cold and destroyed before his
feet, surrounded by a pool of his own frozen blood.
Aster could only hope.
He had more expected it than feared it, when a lone figure awaited him in the
snow. Jill stood alone without any shadows to guard her and her orange eyes
followed him as he trudged forward.
He stopped a meter away from her and returned her gaze. Waited for the attack
that was bound to come. He blinked in surprise when Jill simply stepped aside
for him. Gave him free entry to continue forward.
"Why?" he asked, and she looked away.
“Just take what you came for, before the prince sees you and leave. Don’t ever
come back here.”
She had tried to sound threatening at the last part, but Aster had heard the
husky undertone in her voice and nodded gratefully. There were dark tears in
her downcast eyes as he patted her head and continued his journey.
He didn’t look back and instinctively knew that this would be the last time he
saw little Jill Overland.
He could only hope that one day she would find peace.
The trees began to thin out and he understood that he would soon get across a
clearing or other natural opening in the forest. He slowed down hesitantly when
a white shimmering glow appeared behind the last trees and raised his nail gun
before he continued.
He stepped out between two old crooked trunks and locked eyes with the wide
lonely forest lake in front of him. The moonlight reflected in it as a crystal
mirror in the frozen ice that covered the lake's surface in a smooth layer and
provided an effect of shining silver.
A beautiful sight to behold.
The tree's dark contours were reflected in the ice and the thousand stars above
him flashed as was the lake the night sky, in a world where everything had been
turned on its head or went two ways.
Aster sought over the lake to find the safest way across the ice and then he
saw him.
Aster dropped his nail gun.
A young man stood in the middle of the ice. He was naked except for a pair of
dark jeans and shone as white as new-fallen snow. His white hair tresses rose
slightly in the cold night wind and his lean arms seem to reach up and his
hands caress it.
The pale teen was turned half towards him and Aster’s eyes darted from the
white hair to the two large red wounds on his back. Two large wings emanated
from his shoulder blades and caused the bleeding that still dripped silently in
thin red lines from the end of the wings.
They were long and transparent as a dragonfly’s and studded with framed panels
of blue and ice patterns in silver. They fluttered swiftly and gleamed in the
pale moonlight.
Aster could only stare, enchanted and bewitched in his frozen state. It took
him more than a minute to remember how to talk again.
“Jack.”
The winter changeling stopped his play with the wind and turned towards him
slowly. Aster lost his breath as Jack's face turned to him and he was met with
two eyes as blue and piercing as the Antarctic ice.
Jack's black eyebrows curled in recognition and he took a precarious step
towards him.
The only warning he got was a loud groan from the ice before it opened and
pulled Jack down into its cold deep.
"NO!" Aster screamed and ran over the ice. He heard the creak and crack under
his boots, but had only eyes for the hole Jack had broken through and slid the
last stretch on his hip before he plunged under.
The dark deep was cold in a way he had never known cold before.
Aster felt how the muscles around his lungs and heart went into spasm and tried
to force the air out of him. He shook convulsively and clung stubbornly on to
his breath, as all feeling in his hands and feet disappeared completely.
He turned around in a somersault, pressed his feet against the ice above him
and set off to dive deeper into the darkness.
The Moon's light penetrated through the ice surface in pale rays and
transformed the lake into a world of alternating dark and shadows, with the
bottom as its black bottomless depth that threatened to swallow him whole.
Jack's pale body stood out of the dark like a pearl encased in black silk and
decline steadily towards the darkness. Aster swam toward him with the water's
woolen silence filling his ear and coldness pressed against his eyes.
Jack's own eyes were closed and remained such as Aster grabbed him by the waist
and started kicking his legs. With Jack in tow the ascent became twice as hard
and Aster soon began to struggle as his lungs began to burn and the pressure on
his eyes increased.
The hole above them seem so close and still so far away and panic gripped him
when he felt how they fell instead of rising towards the surface. Aster tried
to speed up and felt a bit of propulsion.
His legs began to feel heavy as lead and the chill had reached him to the
marrow, if not the soul. The moon’s pale disc rocked and sloshed right over him
as the symbol of life and Aster sought towards it with everything he had in him
and tried to grab for it.
His fingertips bumped into the cold ice and he lost half of his oxygen as he
exerted himself to grabs hold of the ice edge. Aster gasped and coughed when
his head finally reached the surface, swallow as much precious air as he could.
He sputtered and coughed as he pulled Jack after him and began to climb up on
the ice. His whole body shook uncontrollably from the cold and his teeth
chattering rowdy in his head.
He grunted strained as he lifted Jack from the water and began to pull him up
on the safer part of the ice. Jack was like a cold wax doll between his hands
and Aster pressed his ear against his chest.
Listened to his heart.
A weak but persistent heartbeat reached him and he laid his hands around Jack's
face.
"Jack! Mate, wake up – Jack ya gotta come back to me, ya gotta ... "
He started giving Jack CPR and had reached the tenth push when a cold hand
reached up to lay down over his own two. Aster gasped with relief and hugged
Jack's hand. Unlike Aster’s shaking ones, Jack's hand was perfectly still, but
there was no warmth to find under the skin.
No heat or steam rose from Jack's pale lips and when he opened his lidded eyes,
his blue orbs was dull and lifeless.
“You came back for me.”
“Of course, I did,” Aster whispered with trembling lips and helped Jack so that
he could rest his head against Aster's shaking chest. Jack smiled and the light
shone in ice that had strated to cover his body.
Small frozen beads hung from his black eyelashes and Aster felt his heart
dropped by the sight. Jack slowly began to tremble as well and his wings
fluttered weakly. His breath became weaker and Aster pressed him against him,
tried to hold him close without harming him.
A light stream of black blood had slowly begun to gather under them and
reflected in the ice, where his wounds were depicted in all its cruelty.
“What’s happening?” Aster asked quivering and Jack blinked tired.
“I’ve used up all my life energy. I’ve drained everything I had and lost my
magic. The storms, the snow, the ice...that was all me, Aster. I did those
things, I didn’t mean to, but I couldn’t keep it in….it’s all my fault and now
I’m paying the price.”
“Don’t,” Aster warned and hugged him closer, “don’t ever apologies. Not for
this, not for anything. Don’t you ever tell me to ask ya for forgiveness again,
Jack.”
He felt how tears gathered in his eyes and Jack pressed his face against his
chest, clutched his hand and tried to become one with him while the blood
trickled down his back.
Aster let him in, tried to give him his fledgling warmth.
“It’s me who should be sorry. If I had just trusted ya and been there for you,
this would never had happened. I was the one who let ya come here, who wanted
to argue and send ya out on your own. I was supposed to be there for ya and
help you though this place and I didn’t. I didn’t and I can never take it back.
Please forgive me.”
Jack was shaking and the tears froze on his cheeks, “I don’t wanna die, Aster.
I don’t want this to be the end of us.”
“This isn’t the end, mate” Aster whispered, trying to find a convincing voice,
“I promised to take ya fare away from here, remember? That we would get old and
tanned together on a sheep ranch and live in the sun. Take ya to Australia, ya
remember that promise, right?”
“Australia?” Jack repeated weakly and Aster pulled him into his lap, rocked him
quietly and pressed his face against his. Jack lifted a shaking hand to his
cheek and almost seem to see right through him with the ice blue eyes of his.
Stared right into his soul.
“Promise you’ll take me there?”
“Promise,” he said and placed his hands against his.
“Do you promise to protect me and watch over me as long as you live? That you
will always repay my love for you tenfold, until the day you draw your last
breath and remain by my side in spring, summer, autumn and winter? That you
will be my heartbeat and soul, draw every breath for me and be my shield in the
sun?”
Aster kissed him gently, “I promise.”
Jack closed his eyes and his wings beat one last time in the puddle of blood.
Aster pressed his face against his and hugged him close. The silence of the
deep woods fell lightly around them and Aster remained as he was. He had
promised to remain by Jack's side.
He would stay, he had promised.
He had lost the feeling of his legs when a small cloud of steam touched his
cheek. He opened his eyes, regarded Jack's unmoving face and waited for
darkness to claim him, when yet another small cloud met his cheek.
Warmed him for a second.
Aster blinked the ice out of his eyes and stared for a time that felt like
eternity, before his chilled brain came to realize that the little breath of
clods came from Jack's mouth.
The two dragonfly wings stirred for a second, before they slowly began to pull
and folded into themselves. As a flower closing its petals after sunset, they
dwindled and retreated into Jack's back.
The wounds closed themselves layer by layer and the bleeding stopped. A slight
redness emerged across the pale limbs and Aster’s eyes widened as a blush began
to spread through Jack's skin.
The white color withdrew from him as a smoke and the skin blossomed with life.
A dark tone spread through Jack's scalp and soon spread the brown color out
through the hairs and made his tresses dark again.
Aster lost the breath he didn’t know he had held as Jack finally opened his
eyes. Two dark hazel eyes stared up at his gray ones and Aster broke into a
choked grin.
“I love you,” he sobbed and hugged Jack close enough to break every bone in his
body. Jack buried his face in his hair.
“I know.”
They both stared up as a flapping sound broke the night's tranquil silence and
made them aware of the dawning sun in the horizon. Two rescue helicopters broke
through the darkness of the forest and a beam of light blinded them with its
white light.
Aster noted that Jack wasn’t burned by the light and only appeared bothered by
its strength on a human level. He almost cried from happiness.
It became a confusion of people as the two helicopters landed and the
paramedics came out to get them on the ice. Aster tried to explain, but could
only stutter with chattering teeth and tried to answer as many questions as
possible, but the paramedics would have none of that in his condition.
They were quickly wrapped in thermoprinting blankets and down on each stretcher
for further care. Aster felt how fatigue and exhaustion finally broke out to
the surface, made him heavy with sleep.
He sighed with relief when he saw a stretcher with a safe and sound Jamie
Bennet asleep on top of it inside the helicopter.
Jack's stretcher was wheeled in next to his and Jack turned his weary head
toward Aster's with a little smile. Aster took his hand despite the IV and kept
watching Jack till sleep overpowered him. Jack sighed and turned his head the
other way, caught his own reflection in one of the shiny surfaces.
Onyx face smiled mockingly in return and she pinched one of her cheeks in
satisfaction. The glamor was working perfectly and the protection spell was
flawless. As long as this human lived, he would be her life-force and keep
Pitch's magic from burning her in the light.
She pursed her new lips and played a bit with one of the brown locks.
Australia ... there had to be woodlands there.
New territory for the clan ...
  
  Epilogue
The sun's rays warmed the old pickups hood and the summer heat called the many
insects and birds out from their hideouts to romp in its tranquil atmosphere.
Jamie sat alone and silent on the car and let the world pass by him. His phone
buzzed beside him and made vibrations on the hood, but Jamie paid it no mind,
he had only eyes for the forest in front of him.
Even in the bright morning it seemed gloomy and sinister, with its moody
shadows and crooked trees that had seen more than any living man.
The last half-year's events rolled over him like a faint dream, while his
greyhound Abby ran around in the dry grass, chasing small birds and rabbits
with her tongue hanging out of her mouth.
Jamie sighed and straightened his cap to give some air to his sweaty neck.
His mother and several of the elders from the village had been arrested after
he, Aster and Jack had testified against them last winter. Jamie had been
detained in Virginia Hospital Center, to heal his three broken ribs and ankle,
while Jack and Aster had been declared healthy enough to go back to Burgess.
Both Jamie and Aster had feared the doctors would find something strange about
Jack during the blood samples or tests, but no one had seemed to find anything
odd or remarkable about Jack and let him go without further remarks.
Jamie continued as a witness after his mother was taken in for further
investigation, but Jamie knew it wouldn’t lead to anything in the end. Things
out here always got bottled up, hidden away from prying eyes, and forgotten
just as fast.
Up here it was almost a law of nature.
The elders had been released after only a few days of investigation and the
case was closed due to "insufficient evidence" and "lack of useful witness
statements." Jamie could only watch from the sideline with a bitter taste in
the mouth and had avoided the village like the plague ever since.
You didn’t have to be a genius to figure out you didn’t exactly get popular by
getting grannies arrested.
The only consolation he could still feel good about, was the fact that his
mother had been remanded in custody because of murder. She had shot after the
police officers who had tried to arrest her and even though there was nothing
to gain in the larger case, she couldn’t go unpunished after shooting a
policeman in the head.
Jamie had been able to stay alone in the house by himself for few months, but
it wouldn’t last forever. His mother hadn’t been sentenced to life in prison or
the death row, but a mental institution, which meant she still had a chance of
getting out some day.
Even if she didn’t get out and back into the mess that was his life, everything
would still return to the same with time. Like it was meant to. Everything out
here had its way of returning to the same as always.
But not Jamie.
After what he has seen and borne witness to, he would never be the same again.
The mobile buzzed again and he finally lifted it without a word. It was a
message from Aster. He opened the message, where a picture popped up. Aster and
Jack both smiled broadly from a white sandy beach.
Both tanned and hand in hand. Happy.
He read the text and smiled sadly. Aster had invited him to Australia and
offered to pay his ticket. Jamie closed the phone and put it back into his
pocket. Asked himself again and again whether he should tell Aster the truth.
But what good would it do? What good would it do to tell Aster he lived with a
disguised changeling?
Jamie got a lump in his throat and remembered how he had rolled into Jack and
Aster’s room in his wheelchair back at the hospital and been ready to knock on
the door to see if Jack and Aster was asleep, when he had caught a glimpse of
Jack through the crack.
Jack had sat in the windowsill and stared out into the night.
A serene expression had laid on his face and his brown eyes had seemed almost
supernatural. Jack had looked up at the moon and turned to his reflection with
a slight smile. Jamie had had to cover his mouth not to let out the gasp that
had nearly escaped him, revealing he had been prying.
A woman with a black and white lined face had stared back at Jack and they had
smiled in unison.
Jamie shivered by the memory and asked himself again and again whether he
should have warned Aster. Told him that he was forever bound to a changeling by
a fae contract. Told him the truth and broken his heart.
Jamie hadn’t had the heart to do it.
He had always been a coward. It was also the reason why he fled now. Behind him
in the car were boxes and bags packed and ready for the journey. Jamie had
finally made a decision and prepared for leaving.
He had decided to leave this place forever and put it behind him as far as
possible.
He would never forget what had happened here, but he could at least allow
himself to move on instead of staying and be forced to remember it every day.
He wanted to go somewhere without forests, a place where people were not
identical and the children did not fear the darkness of the woods.
He laid a hand on his bag where his books about the supernatural rested. He had
found a team over the internet that had planned to go to Alaska and search for
Bigfoot and Jamie had agreed to meet them half way in the next city.
It was settled, there was nothing holding him back anymore.
He was finally leaving.
He nodded to himself and jumped down from the hood. Opened the door to the
front seat and whistled for the greyhound.
Abby came sprinting towards him and he cuddled the narrow head with a small
smile. Glad that he at least had one good memory of this place where he grew up
and kissed the dog's snout. The dog licked his face and jumped to get into the
passenger seat.
Jamie opened the door for her and made ready to drive when the dog suddenly
began to growl.
Jamie followed the dog's gaze and saw her.
A little lone shadow stood at the edge of the forest. She remained in the
forest shade and avoided the sun's light, just looked at him from her safe
darkness.
They looked at each other for a while without any of them moving and Jamie
heard Abby barking next to him. The small shadow raised a hand and waved to
him.
He didn’t wave back.
Without taking his eyes off her, he slammed the door to the car shut and
started the engine. He turned the car away from the forest and steered it
toward the main road that would lead him out of the area.
The small shadow began to run after him along the forest border and follow him
as far as she could. Jamie kept watching her in the rearview mirror and saw her
stopped at the last bit of the forest.
Abby licked his hand with a whine and Jamie let go of Sophie with his eyes and
focused on the road.
Turned his back on her and the rest of his childhood.
He had decided never to come back here, but in his heart, he knew this was
untrue. There would come a day when Jamie Bennet would return to this place and
when he did, he would be older, wiser, and prepared.
Vengeance would call him home and Jamie forced that knowledge aside, pushed it
away and exiled it to the place in his mind where oblivion lived. Right now, he
just wanted to forget. He just wanted to live.
Sophie looked after the car and stared after her brother until the last trace
of his existence had disappeared with the car’s dust cloud. She began to
whisper a song their mother would sing to them before they would go to sleep
and returned to the forest.
The shadows danced in a tranquil woodland and she jumped easy and fleetingly
above the many roots and tree trunks like a bird. Songs from the heart of the
forest called her as a siren melody and she mingled with the many fearlings and
nightmare-men that romped among the trees and the forest's dark realm.
Deep within the woods where the sun does not grace, further into the ancient
trees that seemed to stretch father and wider than any known sort to man, the
underbrush stretch far into the fog.
A fog as thick and dim, guarded the veil that shielded the entrance to the
hedge – a thorny unmerciful land of living swamp and vegetation that lived by
its own rules and own personal moral.
Deeper into the jungle of green horrors and past clearings of hungry hidden
mouths, the hedge thinned and the membrane of magic thickened into its many
realms. One of them lead deeper into a hollow and the final edge, Acadia. The
realm of Fae.
In the dim moonlight of the land that never saw the light of the sun, a palace
rose to touch the sky of a million dancing stars. A palace of living shadows,
numerous chambers and halls of black stalactites roomed in all its mysterious
beauty.
In a chamber in the center of the palace, a voices seeped out through the muted
network of black and dark curtains of spider web.
Pitch’s hush voice faded between the chamber walls and whispered sweet nothings
into Jack’s ear. Jack moaned and stretched his neck, offered free access for
Pitch to bite and do as he pleased. Jack forced himself to breath as the
ministration continued.
Dragging him deeper into the darkness that had become his world, until summer
would end and falls awaken. He arched his back in a silent scream as Pitch
continued the steady strokes and Jack crumbled in a sigh of pleasure.
Grabbed fistful of black silk and moss under his fingertips. Feeling Pitch soft
hair tickling his ear. Pitch crackled into his ear and pressed his legs apart,
exposed him and keep him in place.
Jack didn’t mind, allowed it to happen and felt how the sensation drowned him
completely. Both Pitch hands dragged down his body as light wind and stopped at
his knees. Pulled them farther apart.
Jack tensed out of habit and Pitch growled warningly, making Jack whimper from
the vibration against his throat. His thought of old forgotten protests and
ideas of escaping became shattered as ice, at the feeling of Pitch burning
tongue.
A pattern of trails began to run down his body slowly, starting at his jaw,
down his neck, his chest and stomach. Jack moaned and arched even more to
overcome the raw pleasure that was building up. Felling the fire in his guts
building up.
The darkness that surrounded him seemed almost alive and writhed and twisted in
pace with him. Jack barely registered how ice patterns formed beneath his body
and spread through the dark chamber. Decorated the darkness like a web.
Pitch dragged his sharp nails across the ice that had formed on Jack's thighs
and the winter fairy uttered a high-pitched keen from the back of his throat,
digged his nails into the soft ground and clenched his fist.
Pitch smiled by that and continued down until he trailed the teen's length.
Jack closed his eyes and heard how his own breath became labored as the hot
tongue teased him and reached the head of his member. Pitched continued his
teasing, probably punishing him for when he had tried to deny him accesses
before.
Jack's wings fluttered desperately and reflected the light from the glowing
worms and fireflies above them. Shone and deflected Jack's white skin as the
only real source of light in the dark ground of Pitch's realm.
Pitch lips continued to wander and neglecting the only place Jack wished to be
heated. He whimpered desperate when the tongue disappeared and tried to chase
the heat with his hips, getting a friction that could relive him from this
sweet pain.
Pitch keep him in place with his hands, kept him from moving around and
squeezed his thighs in understanding reassurance.
Knowing exactly what he was doing to the winter fairy.
Jack sighed pleased when lips pressed to his length again, moved to the tip and
wrapped around his cock fully. The heat pressed around it and Jack tried to
move again, only to feel Pitch’s hands tightening and dig his long nails into
his pale skin.
The mix of pain and pleasure almost forced him over the edge, but Pitch keep
him on the ground, as he started to move up and down. Jack opened his icy eyes,
watched his prince and lover between his thighs and buried his hand in the
black tresses.
Pitch’s wings fluttered by the sensation of Jack’s fingers and the great black
wings spread wider, swallowed the darkness and framed it with its golden
outline. Jack stared himself blindly in them, allowed himself to stretch his
own wings and led his head drop back as Pitch tongue drove him to madness.
Drove him over the edge.
Pitch released him and crept up to cover his body once again with his grey
slender form. Jack meet him in a fight of lips and tasted his own arousal.
Their tongues fought for a time, before Jack lost the fight for dominance and
opened to give his prince full access.
Pitch hummed in satisfaction and bit his lip, tasted the almost watery blood,
as translucent and clean as spring water from Antarctic.
“My little prince.”
Jack shook by those possessive words and stared up pass Pitch. He thought of
the world that awaited behind the realm's thick lair of dirt, stone, and grass.
Thought of the clear sky and how it soon would be graced by a new moon.
The whispers and songs of the night and wonders called to him in sweet harmony
and begged him to come dance in the pale light from the stars. About the dark
faelings, shadows and nightmare-men that danced between the luminescent
mushrooms and formed rings in the deeps of the forest.
About the changelings who bowed and lived to serve his every wish and thrive is
his presence and cold light.
Jack had a faint memory of a time before all that.
A time in a light as warm as Pitch desire and blinding as the light that
reached them from the human village. There was a face in that light, a human
with pale grey eyes and sandy hair. A man with a warm laughter and sweet scowl.
A man of spring.
Aster…
Jack closed his eyes and forced himself to forget, erase the human from his
mind. It was just a hurtful dream. He didn’t want to dwell on it or the betray
Aster had done. Jack didn’t need Pitch's words to know that Aster had left him.
Jack knew what he was, why he could never be with a mere human. Human’s lives
were a fragile and short as a season and he would outlast Aster as simple as a
blink of the eye. But his ones’ beloved had still been the one to leave him.
Left him behind and forgotten about him, as humans seemed to do best.
Jack had cried bitter tears and accused Pitch of lying to him when he claimed
that Aster had forgotten about him. But as the seasons past, even Jack would
have to acknowledge the truth.
Aster hadn’t come for him. He hadn’t tried to save him.
Even though he no longer wanted or felt the need to be saved or removed from
this place, the sorrow that trailed the deep betrayal was a sharp as the iron
knives the humans armed themselves with.
It hurt and the pain dug deeper than he could endure. Pitch found his lips and
deepened the kiss. Jack felt his heart dull and focused on the present. On his
life by Pitch Black’s side and the sound of Jill’s sweet laughter when he
danced with her in the middle of the storms.
She was a shift as a bird and trusting as any child of his and he couldn’t
nothing but love her.
He would often watch her play with the fearlings and see her run with the four
fearlings she held most dear. A little lonesome girl with fake wings on her
back, a small man with spiky hair and a tall framed man who seemed to be
inseparable with a slender dark woman as hectic and skittish as a hummingbird.
Jack had no interest in the fearlings, they were only empty shells of the
humans he had ones loved and hoping to find some trace of them their new forms
was just as useless, as it was foolish. They were now nothing more than
mindless servants of Pitch’s and simple shadows laced with magic.
A magic that reflected his own and created a pattern of white and black. Cold
and dark. Jack felt his own magic grew for every day and his powers evolve in
pace with his acceptance.
He closed his eyes, tired of fighting and hid his face in Pitch's neck.
Surrendered to the prince of the forest.
Pitch felt how the winter-changeling cracked and offered himself completely. He
smiled and pressed a gentle kiss to Jack’s temple.
“My little light.”
                     Whose woods these are I think I know.
                      His house is in the village though;
                       He will not see me stopping here
                     To watch his woods fill up with snow.
 
                      My little horse must think it queer
                       To stop without a farmhouse near
                       Between the woods and frozen lake
                       The darkest evening of the year.
 
                      He gives his harness bells a shake
                       To ask if there is some mistake.
                       The only other sound’s the sweep
                         Of easy wind and downy flake.

                                        
                     The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
                         But I have promises to keep,
                        And miles to go before I sleep,
                        And miles to go before I sleep…
                                 Robert Frost
End Notes
     inspired by the horror movie "The Hallow" (2015)
     I will update a chapter every friday
Please drop_by_the_archive_and_comment to let the author know if you enjoyed
their work!