Ariana's Trials

Part 15

Jack's POV

Ariana-the girl I adored, was now under the influence of the evil dude in the shadows. We had set up a place in the back of the big house where she was restrained, a heat lamp made especially for this purpose by cabin nine keeping her from making her frost. After she woke up from her unconsciousness, she either screamed through her gag or slept off the strain of her power.

"NICO!" I said. He was walking away from the training courts. "Nico, how can I help Ariana?" I asked

"Pitch has her mind under his control. My possession was my physical body. I was still seeing through my own eyes and watching as my body did his bidding. With Ariana, he has her mind. Something that she uses often to communicate got into her head and stayed there. To free her, we have to get into her head, find the anchor Pitch is using as the base of his control, and destroy it"  

"How do we get in her head?..." I realize "Sandy"  

A few hours and a short flight later, Sandy was in front of Ariana, who had stopped struggling.

"Sandy, I don't want to say this, but Pitch has her" Sandy makes a frowny face. "Yeah, it sucks. And according to our expert on Pitch's possession tactics, he has Ariana under his control by anchoring his power in a memory" Sandy makes a question mark and then turns to her. Summoning a sand ball, he flings the sand onto her, then grabs my arm.

We're inside a huge mansion of some sort. Paintings of death, pain, and destruction line the walls of the hallway. Voices echo from a room to our right

"Keep trying, pretty, and my grip will only get stronger" Pitch's cold, nails-on-chalkboard voice filters down the hallway. I slide forward to the doorway, and see Pitch, who is sitting on an obsidian throne, watching a snow globe?-no, a glass sphere, where Ariana is pounding on the glass, trying to get out, and with every punch, the glass gets thicker. meanwhile, Ariana herself is holding the globe...F***. Pitch has her underneath both controls-No, her mind came with her body. I shudder as I watch Pitch laugh as Ariana keeps trying to break the glass, even striking it with her sword, to fail endlessly. He stood up and plucked the sphere from Ariana's hand, rolling it around in his grip. 

"You" a great voice rumbles "have the girl"

"Yes, acquaintance, I do," Pitch says

"You said once she was under your control, nothing would happen. Why, then, did the place get attacked?" The voice grumbled

"All of them know my name now, and all of them shall face your wrath. We both have the power we need to proceed" Pitch grins

"This girl destroyed half my armies in a single blow. She is mine to kill. Mine to take the power from, as she did from me" Pitch bows

"Then, when I have had my fun taunting her, she is all yours" He laughs. "And then we will both have some fun" I nearly charged forward, but Sandy held me back, holding a finger to his lips. "I will never be done with you, pretty" Pitch whispered into the Ariana-doll's ear "This is fun" I charged forward and struck Pitch on the back. Enough was enough. I was going to grab that glass ball and run out of here, wherever I could find an exit. I kept tossing ice shards at Pitch, who keeps trying to fight off Sandy too. Four wolves made of shadow snarl and lunge at me, so I have to beat them too.

"Just-Die-Already!" I shout at the wolves, who keep reforming after I hit them.

"ARIANA!" Pitch howls "FIGHT!" Ariana, who was standing limply in the shadows, shuffles forward. I then notice how different she is. Her attacks are slower and more sluggish, a broken puppet only connected by a few limp strings and not a dancer twirling across a stage to bedazzle her audience. 

The glass sphere has been left on the throne, unguarded. I just have to grab it and Sandy then run... Ariana takes a wild swing at me, her sword not following her commands. It refuses to hurt me, instead making her swing toward Pitch and not me. Her sword, it seems, has a mind of its own.

"Ariana, I am Jack Frost. Guardian of Fun. Your Boyfriend" Ariana keeps swinging

"Aw, little Jackie is in luv" Pitch mocks

"And I will not hurt you. And you would never hurt me" I keep talking, hoping to rekindle some of the old Ariana from the lifeless doll she was under Pitch's control. I manage to get a hold of the glass sphere just as Ariana is swinging at me and I hold it forward...

"STOP!" Ariana's blade is mere centimetres away from the glass. I can hear singing coming from it, in Ariana's heavenly voice. "So Jack, You have the first barrier keeping your precious Ariana from you" Pitch is held back by Sandy "And, I have complete control over her as long as she's in that ball. How about this-You give me the ball and leave with Ariana's physical manifestation. Then we both have what we want" He grins evilly. Sandy gives an almost imperceptible shake of his head. I can take the deal and get half of Ariana back...No. I can see Ariana's blade just itching to finish the strike. "Just say the words Jack" Pitch urges

"Finish it," I say

"Finish it?" Pitch squeaks. Ariana takes this as an order, and slices into the glass ball, resulting in an explosion knocking everyone off their feet. Standing in the middle of the room, are two Arianas. One is the doll under Pitch's control, the other is Ariana that was trapped in the glass ball, now trying to wrestle the sword from each other, rolling around along the floor, spitting curses. Sandy takes Pitch's momentary confusion to wallop him across the head and put him on the floor too. I try to identify which Ariana I have to attack and come out with an unclear answer. They are both doing the same thing, trying to get the sword, making it hard to find which Ariana was the good one and not the doll, so I held off the shadow wolves in the hope that the non-evil Ariana would prevail.

"KeKeKe" A strange clicking noise came from the corner, and a monster lept out, using long, metallic fingers to try and slice open my flesh. I roll away and face the new monster, a flesh lump of muscle with two long, needle-like arms with knives for fingers. Nightmare fuel in real life. "Food?" It whispered, then lunged again. 

"Food" I pointed at Pitch, and the monster made its way over

"Lie" it snarled, and then we got locked in combat, it trying to eat me and me trying to stop it. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw an Ariana succeed in getting the sword and then sliced into the other Ariana. For a scary moment, I thought the doll had prevailed, but it was the actual Ariana, who did a swirling stab to plunge her blade into the fleshy monster. I caught a look at Ariana's face, and tears were streaming down from her eyes.

"Sandy! Lets go!" I shouted, and we ran from the room, Ariana making the most headway as we tumbled from the dream and back to the real world