The Greatest Fear of the Nightmare King

Chapter 9

Pitch has had the power to transport himself through shadows for a few days now, but still he's unable to scare kids. He suggested he use the technique of turning dream sand into nightmare sand, but Sandy wouldn't have it. Without something to found their fears, it was hard to get them to believe in him.

He's used to it. He's so used to it. Why does it hurt worse than ever when the children walk through him?

After some deliberation, he decided to consult Jack about it. Jack would understand, after all, they had the same worst fear. They were so different in so many ways, but they always had the similarity of their loneliness. They could both understand what it was like to be cast out.

Still, when he'd gone to Jack, he realized what it had been that was making this so horrible before he asked. Feelings, that's all it was. Nasty things, feelings.

He'd temporarily won over the darkness inside him, but the downside was that it gave him room to feel more emotions. Since then, he's experienced mostly unpleasant emotions with the occasional spark of amusement at Jack's antics. Of all the feelings he's felt, none have been as horribly strong as the devastation he only just now felt when a little girl he'd been trying to frighten walked right through him as she got up out of her bed to get a drink of water in the middle of the night.

How incredibly awful.

Just when he thought he was starting to spook her, too.

-

I felt an icy hand on my shoulder, but I didn't move to look. I knew it was Jack. Who else would it be? Who else would care if someone walked through the Boogeyman?

Somehow, it felt nice. Jack's hand was as cold as death, but there was some comfort to be found in it. Regardless of how nice it felt, I have appearances to keep up. I can't just let him coddle me. "Hands off, Frost."

I waited for his hand to drop off my shoulder and the nice feeling to fade away, but something happened instead that I did not expect. He turned me toward him and I raised my eyes from the ground. He's looking at me very strangely. If I didn't think the idea was absolute nonsense, I would think that he looks sad.

-

Jack had been intending to let go of Pitch, but something stopped him from doing that when he heard Pitch tell him to let go.

That something that stopped him was the sound of his voice. In Jack's mind, it was likened to a frightened animal growling in hopes that it would help the situation. For this reason, Jack knew exactly what he was feeling. It was the same thing he'd felt every time he thought he had a chance at someone seeing him, and then having them walk straight through him. It was the same feeling that made him sometimes want to just stop existing.

When he'd turned Pitch to look at him, he could see it. Pitch wasn't one for crying, and no tears fell, but he was as close to it as he could get. He looked devastated and confused. Jack couldn't just keep watching him like that. It was like looking into a really twisted and dark funhouse mirror. He couldn't stand it. In that moment, he wanted to do so many things for Pitch. Help him, comfort him, hug him, make everyone believe in him, but he couldn't do any of those things. Well, he supposed he could try to hug Pitch, but he imagined that would cause more problems than it would solve.