Vengeance

A Guardian's Fear

Jamie lay on his bed and stared at the wall. His artwork had improved significantly in just five years, and dozens of pictures he'd drawn were hanging haphazardly on his wall. Most of them were of Jack.

Jamie sighed and rolled onto his stomach. He was fifteen now, and he still believed in the Guardians. Unfortunately, his unwavering faith in Jack had not earned him many popularity points in high school, and it hurt him to see Sophie start to run into the same problem as she reached middle school age.

Jamie turned his head and looked out at the starlit sky. The full moon was clearly visible from where he lay.

"Jamie! Can you come down here, please?"

"Coming Mom!" Jamie slid off his bed and ran downstairs. His mother was standing in the kitchen with a bag of trash in her hand.

"Didn't I tell you to do this twenty minutes ago, mister?"

"Sorry Mom!" Jamie called, having already snatched the garbage bag from her and run to the back door. He jogged around the side of the house and tossed the bag in the trash bin. He closed the lid and started to drag the bin down the driveway to the curb when a twig snapped behind him.

Jamie whipped around. "Who's there?" He was met with silence. Jamie shook his head and reached for the garbage bin again when he saw that his shadow was... moving?

"Ahh!" Jamie fell backwards in shock as his shadow stretched down the driveway and took the form of someone Jamie thought he would never see again.

"Hello, Jamie. Remember me?" Pitch asked.

Jamie clambered to his feet and faced Pitch, refusing to let himself be afraid. "What I remember is kicking your butt. Now leave me alone." Jamie reached for the garbage can again, but didn't take his eyes off Pitch.

"It's not hard to leave you alone, is it?" Pitch mused, his voice soft and low. "You haven't seen Jack in weeks. Your peers at high school avoid you. Even your parents are worried that they've let your imagination get out of hand."

Jamie looked down at the driveway and shoved past Pitch, pulling the garbage behind him. "Go. AWAY."

"Do you want to know why you haven't seen Jack for so long?" Pitch asked quietly. Jamie froze as he placed the garbage can on the curb.

"What did you do to him, Pitch?" Jamie asked, turning around to face Pitch again.

"Me? I didn't do anything to him. You're the one at fault this time, Jamie." Jamie shook his head at Pitch.

"I didn't do anything to Jack. He's my friend! You're lying!"

"I feed off of fear, Jamie. Why else do you think I would come here, the very place I was defeated?" Jamie stayed silent, his gaze daring Pitch to continue. "I was drawn here because I sensed the most incredible fear, better than any I've come across in a while. A Guardian's fear."

"What are you trying to tell me?" Jamie asked.

Pitch stepped closer. "I came to Burgess, and followed the trail of fear straight to Jack Frost. He was trying to get your attention, and you walked right through him."

Jamie felt his heart drop into his stomach. "That's not possible! I believe in Jack!"

"Do you? Because what I saw that day tells me otherwise." Pitch was now right in Jamie's face, but Jamie couldn't move. His mind was racing. Was it true? Had he really stopped believing in Jack?

Jamie closed his eyes and shook his head. "No. No, you're wrong. You have to be wrong." When he opened his eyes, Pitch was gone. Jamie stood on the curb a few seconds more, shaken from the short encounter, before running inside and heading straight to his room.

Jamie made a beeline to his desk and pulled out a pencil and paper. He sat and scribbled a short note on it before folding it up and writing on the back. He pulled out a roll of tape, opened his window, and attached the note to the outside of the windowsill, where only one person would see it.

"Jamie! You forgot to replace the garbage bag!"

"Sorry, Mom! I'm coming!" With a final glance at the note, Jamie closed and locked the window and left his bedroom.

~~~

Pitch watched as the boy frantically looked around, seemingly disoriented at Pitch's retreat after the brief confrontation. When Jamie ran back inside, Pitch used the shadows to bring himself to the dark corner of Jamie's bedroom.

He watched the boy frantically scribble something on a piece of paper and attach it to the windowsill. When Jamie left, Pitch came out of the shadows, unlocked the window, and leaned out to see the paper. It was taped securely, and only had one word on it.

Jack

Pitch couldn't help but smile as he closed and locked the window again, and then disappeared from Jamie's bedroom.

He'd planted a seed of doubt, and he would make sure that seed would grow.