Trapped by Fear

Chapter 2

(Elsa's POV)

I didn't know what was happening. It had to be a trick. No one was ever meant to come for me. No one cared. That was what he told me every day, among other things. He would enjoy punishing me for trying to escape. No doubt this was all just a test to see what I would do. Or perhaps just another means to torment me. Giving me hope of escape, only to dash it to shreds when whoever this was turned around and told me it was over, that I had failed. Despite all of this though, some small part of me wanted to believe him. Why was I risking everything when I knew it was futile? Why was I securing myself more pain for the future? I didn't know. All I knew now was that my feet were carrying me down an endless, dark hallway while someone with white hair dragged me along by my arm.

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(Jack's POV)

This was not how I expected my day to go. I wasn't expecting to travel to Pitch's lair, and I definitely wasn't expecting to now be running through a maze of dark passageways with a girl who looked as if she would faint any moment. What had I gotten myself into this time? What was I thinking? She wasn't chained up, she was probably a minion of Pitch. That would not go down well with the guardians. But I couldn't just leave her there!

We turned a corner and found ourselves in the antechamber where the guardians had split up earlier. There was no one else there. I stopped and let go of the girl's arm while I tried to order my thoughts. We would have to wait here for now and hope the guardians rendezvous soon. The girl let out a small gasp and tumbled to the ground. She stayed there. I helped her up but she fell down again. Again I helped her up and again she fell. I was about to get annoyed when I heard a spinechilling shriek. I didn't know for sure what just happened but I assumed the other Guardians found Pitch for him to yell like that. But as usual I was wrong. Tooth, Bunny, North, and Sandy came tumbling in from different directions.

"Where's Pitch?"

"Who found him?"

"Battle stations!"

"....."

"Jack, look out behind you!"

What was behind me? Pitch? I turned but didn't see what they were making a fuss about. Then just before they could strike, it dawned on me.

"WAIT!" I yelled. "That isn't Pitch." By the light of Sandy's glow you could just see the form of a girl on the ground, clutching her head. But before anyone could ask any questions Pitch appeared.

"I SHOULD'VE KNOWN IT WAS YOU GUARDIANS!" Pitch cried in rage, his eyes darting around frantically. "AH HUH!" He yelled triumphantly as tendrils of darkness shot towards me. I flinched but nothing happened. Huh? I thought. Then I realized that Pitch wasn't aiming for me, he wanted the girl.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry!" she cried. As Pitch's dark tendrils ensnared her. I thought she was apologizing to me; for tricking me and leading Pitch to us. Then I realized that she was talking to Pitch. What in the world was going on here!

"Fool! Did you really think I would let you go that easily? My use for you is far from over!"

"Please, please I-"

"Enough!" Pitch hissed and slapped her. Immediately she fell silent and stared at the ground. Then Pitch turned his attention to us. We guardians looked at each other. One thing was clear; whoever this girl was. We needed to get her out of here. Apart from the fact that she was clearly being mistreated, Pitch wanted her and that meant we couldn't let him have her. He only wanted something if it helped him gain more power, and moon knows we didn't need that. The battle begun.

North drew his blades and lead the charge. Pitch dogged and shot out volleys of black sand. Bunny cut through them with a throw of his boomerang. Then Sandy smothered Pith with dream sand, and we thought we'd won. But then Pitch burst free and summoned some of his nightmares. North, Bunny and Sandy focused on the nightmares while Tooth and I zeroed in on Pitch. Dodging his nightmare arrows, I blasted him with my staff but he blocked it. Sandy managed to explode some nightmares and then shot at Pitch. Pitch turned to fend off Tooth and Sandy and the nightmares were focused on Bunny and North. I saw an opening and blasted the girl free with my staff. Infuriatingly she didn't run away. In fact she didn't do anything. She just stayed there kneeling on the ground with her head down and hands clasped tightly across her chest. 'Oh, come on' I thought as I raced over. I grabbed her arm and pulled her roughly out of the cave. Just then the others came racing out and I once again grabbed her by the arm and roughly hauled her into North's sleigh. We were in such a hurry that even Bunny was on the sleigh. He realized his mistake, though only after we were in the air.

"YAAARGGH" yelled Bunny as soon as we were in the air. "PUT ME DOWN RIGHT NOW"

"No can do Bunny" North replied "we in air and Pitch waiting on ground for us. We fly."

"I aint a fan o flyin mate."

"That much is clear" I laughed. Bunny tried to glare at me but gagged instead. He really did not like flying. I wasn't about to let this opportunity pass though. This was the only time I could one-up Bunny. "What, I thought you were the fearless Easter kangaroo."

"Frost, wen I get down from ere it'll be lights out fer ye." Bunny stuttered. It was hilarious seeing the usually so confident and unruffled Easter spirit scared out of his mind. Man it was funny

Once I got tired of laughing at Bunny I remembered the girl. The others seemed to remember her at the same time I did. Looking around I saw that in the back corner of the sleigh, was the girl. Once again, she was curled up into a ball with her eyes squeezed shut.

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(Elsa's POV)

I knew it, I knew it, I knew it! I knew it was too good to be true. No one was coming to rescue me. This was all another one of Pitch's sick games. Now I'm stuck in the back of some stupid something, going who knows where, with some random strangers. Great, just great. My arm hurt from where I was thrown into this blasted contraption and the light was blinding after all the darkness. I could hear voices whispering and picked out a few words "...Pitch...her....problem...hurt...unsafe...she..." Whatever they were talking about- it would not end well for me. I could always run, throw myself off whatever we were travelling on or even try and attack them. But I had learned long ago that it's useless to resist. It just tires you out and earns you more punishment later. I felt someone coming closer to me an instinctively flinched even though I knew it wouldn't help.

"excuse me, miss? Are you okay?" someone asked me, a deep voice, a man probably. I wasn't in the mood to play along. If they were going to do something to me, then they should just do it. Cut out these cruel mind games and get it over with already. I said nothing. I had learned to remove myself, to go to a place in my mind where they couldn't touch me. Unfortunately this didn't always help, but sometimes it was enough. Then I was on something bed-like. It couldn't have been a bed. There's no way anyone would give me something so nice as a comfortable place to sleep. And yet I felt myself drifting off to a world of sleep, a sweet dreamless sleep.

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(Jack's POV)

Who was this girl? What did Pitch want with her? And more importantly what were we going to do with her now? Looking at everything, she probably wasn't a minion of Pitch. She was clearly scared and had bruises on her arms and legs. She seemed harmless but was very strange. I tried to talk to her on the sleigh ride but she just silently stared at the floor, as if it held the secrets to life itself. Tooth gave her a brief checkup when we got back to North's workshop. Then we put her in a bed in the infirmary and Sandy tried to give her good dreams but all that happened was that she didn't dream at all. That was another odd thing about both her and this situation as a whole.