Believe in Me

Renewed

“You’re safe now… go back to sleep, we’ll heal you up and you’ll be better in no time.” The female’s words were so fuzzy, the accent not helping, it was like they were just a dream to his mind. All around him were noises, footsteps, voices, echoing, no, booming in his head… he was confused. Something strong but soft was holding him up and Jack could feel his body shifting along with whoever or whatever it was’ hurried movements. “We leave now, Jack is safe, we need to go back to Pole,” another voice said, the accent now different but still strong enough to disorient the words that tied in with it. “It’s this way, I’m sure of it…!” A female spoke, her voice crisper, younger sounding than the latter… Tooth. The word came to his head far before he knew it was there and Jack was somewhat surprised he figured out her voice and not the others before it. He couldn’t see, his eyes must’ve been closed… but he wasn’t going to fight that. He hurt, but the pain must’ve been so strong that he lost feeling because all pain really was now was a throbbing, uncomfortable feeling, sweat beading on his skin, running down and making him itch slightly from the residue the droplets left behind. He was freezing and burning at the same time, but he didn’t feel actual… pain anymore. Just knew that it was there somewhere, somewhere beyond the deep darkness his consciousness had buried itself into to get away from… he didn’t even remember what had happened by now. Just the hits, the kicks, the cuts, not who was dealing them and not why they were being dealt, just that they were there. How badly he wanted to be relieved from this, first from the torture and now from the uncomfortable heavy emptiness he felt. He couldn’t see, didn’t have the ability to open his eyes and wasn’t even sure if they’d still work anymore if he did. He felt like a corpse, he probably was one… but every time his brain tried to bring him back to life from the tiny bit of him that still functioned, it would grow foggy… and he would lose it. The voices were growing even more blurred, replaced with an agonizingly familiar buzzing that grew louder and louder, overcame every other sense he had, until all that was left… was emptiness.

The boy heard noises, rushed footsteps coming up the hill that he rested on. He knew they would come eventually but even still he felt the rush of adrenaline that came with anxiety and fear, his body urging him to run while he still could… but he didn’t. Maybe he deserved this. He didn’t have too many options at this point… Go back to the guardians? All they would do is promise that they’d love and care about him then throw him back into his old situation, just a tool to be used when needed, just someone who didn’t deserve acknowledgement. For all the wind knew, they had forgotten him already, used his help and completely forgot who gave it to them. Without him Grey would be a laugh to Pitch or Chaos, a single order and he’d turn on his friends and shred them to pieces. Without him Ilia would still be trapped in a cage, doomed to whatever blows and torture Chaos’ anger could dish out, whether she would survive it or not. Even if people couldn’t die that didn’t change anything, Grey would have to fix this mess eventually and when he did the people that should’ve died would... probably. At least he hoped… The wind spirit had seen the agony that the humans were going through, every second more and more deaths would come and more and more of them would realize that there truly was no end to the pain of whatever accident brought their ends upon them. It would be him too, he knew. Pitch, Chaos, the other spirits that had sided with the two, someone would come grab him eventually, drag him to the nightmare king and beat him non-stop until the reaper gave the call and his eyes would slide shut for good. They had no use for a traitor, but yet the boy was… somewhat glad that he did what he did. He was mad, furious at everyone, both Pitch and the Guardians, especially Jack… but even with that he felt a small, weakened smile trace upon his pale lips at the thought that they were all going to be safe, the world would be fixed… thanks to him. It would be yet another thing, another time when he helped someone and wasn’t given a single word of thanks for it, but he was still smiling at the thought… Everything would be alright… just not for him. The footsteps were growing louder, but despite his body’s cries, the wind spirit refused to sit up. Those same steps came to a stop… and when the boy turned around he felt almost stupid to be surprised. “….It’s you,” Ilia whispered.