Believe in Me

Only a Setback

There were heavy taps echoing against the dark tiled floors, the noise radiating through the opened door for the entire lair to hear. Pitch was furious, smoking with the heated anger he hadn’t felt in so long. Everything had been going right, perfectly, then the stupid traitorous brat ruined it all. He had been on the verge of doing everything he wanted to do, beating Jack until the arrogant boy bled, renewing that look of surrender in Grey Loss, locking the nature spirit up, wiping the guardians right off the face of the planet, and causing a worldwide panic, complete fear from every human giving their feeble breaths, every second of every day. He was so close… his goal was right there, one more step on the staircase of success to be king of the world and it was all taken, just stolen right from his grasps! He had taken that boy in when even the ‘lovely’ guardians wouldn’t care to notice him, Pitch took less advantage of the boy than they did for sure! For one he actually felt like he was doing good for someone despite it being to his own advantage in the end and the boy grew so full of it that he would just tear it away in a sudden change of heart. He was going to pay, no, ALL of them were. Every time the nightmare king saw that look any of the guardians gave him when they saw or spoke of him there was that look, either one of cocky, brave anger or of all things pity. Pitch HATED pity. The weak weren’t to be pitied, they were made to serve the strong. And he was NOTHING near suiting the term ‘weak’, nothing! It was his own cautiousness that ended up ruining his plan, if he had just killed them all the second they stepped foot into the layer, brought them as close to dying as possible and forced Grey back into letting them die to spare them from the agony they’d all face if he didn’t, none of this would’ve had time to have happened! But he was glad at least that he got to throw his anger out, laugh as he saw the winter spirit curled up in pain so great he couldn’t do anything but let the tears run down his cheeks and his body scream when his mouth wouldn’t… that was worth most of the waste of effort. Revenge was so sweet… so, so sweet. But it wasn’t enough, it was like candy to a child, Pitch couldn’t get enough of seeing that horror in the boy’s once completely confident eyes, to feel his fear at its peak and to sense how badly he just wanted it all to end… He didn’t want Jack to die, no, he felt like he would never be satisfied of this longing to see that boy pay for messing up his plans in the first place with a smile on his face the entire time… The spirit of fear wouldn’t be taken so lightly this time, he wouldn’t be humiliated by a spirit that only knew how to throw snowballs and play with children. Jack Frost would be his… but the guardians, they were going to die. They only got in the way, they’d just take the boy from him and it was too much of a bother to constantly shoo them away like flies from a dinner plate. Jack would be his, not theirs, and they wouldn’t just give up, it was annoyingly obvious in the way they cried for him, laughed with him, and protected him with everything. It would be far easier to take down Grey, the guardians really probably didn’t care about him in the end, they just wanted Jack to be safe and the humans to be alive so they conned the reaper into believing that they wanted him back. And the blonde child with them was so naively stupid that she’d believe that lie and help them bring him back. There was no way they could care for him, he was strange, freaky, darkness in an essence and an emptiness in his soul that would never be filled. Why would anyone want Death as a friend? Not even the guardians were that dumb… but it wouldn’t matter anymore. The only question left in Pitch’s mind on how the next step of his revival to victory was if he was going to keep the nature spirit or kill her with the others. She was easily manipulated but no doubt would cling to Grey no matter where he went. It would be better to just get rid of her… but Pitch still felt an annoying dominance that he couldn’t satisfy. He had her on a leash, literally, at one point… and she had ran away. And like any dog that runs away, whether he wanted her or not, he’d bring her back. Besides, whether she wanted to be one or not, a servant was a servant. What could she do about it? It would be extra work but that would come with extra hassle… He decided he’d figure it out when the time came. But for now… he would plan. The sandman came first last time, and the nightmare king mentally slipped a joke on how unfair it would be to allow him to fall first once more to the sand-horses that pranced around him. They snorted and nodded in agreement, leading him back to his thoughts. The fairy would be the easiest, but that would mean it would be boring… Did he not learn his lesson the last time? He had given up efficiency for entertainment… no, he would go for the fairy first. Whether boring or not, the result of all of his efforts would be the most fun of anything. Every human in the world would be a slave to fear, every spirit a slave in the physical form of the word, all under him with no end in his reign. The man in the moon wouldn’t be able to make spirits fast enough to keep up with the pace that they’d either be forced into his kingdom or killed off if they denied… Pitch couldn’t help but give a snicker, the first form of a smile after the long period of scowling as he paced the now empty cell room. This incident would only be a bump in his plan, a minor detour… but everything would still work out perfectly.

Pitch heard a noise as the door, already opened wide enough to fit, was pushed to swing further until it tapped the wall. Chaos leaned against the doorframe, his casual appearance still in effect though it was obvious the man was irritated at the least. His hand was bandaged from the tips of each finger up past the wrist… Even Pitch had heard his nightmare steeds murmuring in their own dark language on how the girl had stood up against him. No one acted up against Chaos like that without serious consequences… This was the spirit that made wars happen at just the snap of a finger, worked with the minds of humans to influence rapes, murders, horrible things in the world… The kid had no doubt seemed to have lost her mind, either that or she had just taken a taste of her ‘brother’s’ arrogance. Probably somewhere in between. “Sure smells good in here,” Chaos commented calmly, like he was bringing up the scent of a meal and not the unmistakable smell of blood that drifted in the stale air. Jack had bled quite a bit in his beating, the red liquid puddling on the cell’s tough floors, seeping into the tiny cracks in the uncared-for tile, already rusting to stain the black floors brown.  When he didn’t receive a comment from his leader, the neon-eyed spirit shrugged and paced into the room, sinking down on the floor and resting his head back against the wall, taking a deep breath inwards like he was wafting in the rusty smell, then releasing it in a deep sigh. “So… we lost windy, that damned mutt girl, snowboy, the guardians, and our beloved monster all at once, huh? Least we’ve still got Viola… and the others.” Despite what appeared to be comfort to the nightmare king, Chaos was loving this. More anger was searing from Pitch Black than he had ever felt, more fear from many others… honestly all this situation did was work everyone up more… he always loved it when that happened. “They left in that big red block of wood… It  cant seriously be that difficult to knock them out of the sky, can it? Or follow them home? There’s really only one workshop in the arctic…” Pitch nodded slowly at his follower’s statements, trying to think of the best way to make this work out perfectly, no more flaws this time. “We will knock the sled out of the sky before they get there, see if we can hit them down on land. We don’t want to drown Frost before I get the chance to show him exactly how much I loathe him. Try to get them all split up, that would be easiest. We’ll take them down one by one, they’re not as powerful as they claim when they’re on their own.” Chaos smirked, giving a thumbs up before raising. “Would you mind if I could be the one to... visit... with the kid? Don’t want such a cute little girl all alone out there… someone who would want to hurt her may find her,” he said, his smirk and the tone he used expressing the guiltiness in his request. “Do what you want, just don’t kill her. I might want to keep her, I haven’t decided,” Pitch said, his angered tone returning back to the calmness it had nearly always had. “We can ignore the reaper for now, let him fix the humans, it wouldn’t matter. As long as he doesn’t get in the way there’s no issue. I’ll be going after the fairy. Tell Viola to bring back the traitor.”

“And Snowboy?” Chaos’ smirk had only grown wider as he saw the antics of the nightmare king etching in the metallic eyes that were focused on the wall in resolve. “Leave him be. I want him to think he’s safe. It’s more fun crushing his spirit when he’s not expecting it.” A nod.

“Guess I’m off to blow up a sleigh then,” The brown-haired male yawned, stretching his arms upwards somewhat dramatically. “See you, King,” he waved, turning back with a glint in his almost scarily alert eyes before he was gone, vanishing into the air like he was never there to begin with. Everything would fall to plan… and the first to fall would fall tonight. “Goodnight, dear fairy,” Pitch cooed softly, as if he was whispering to a child about to go to sleep rather than a spirit hundreds of miles away that would close her purple eyes for good. “Don’t think the Man in the Moon can save you from me now.”

Sorry for the horribly late chapter. I've recently started my second round of summerschool (note to self: procrastination kills your grades) and have been going to sleep a lot earlier than normal and waking up much more than a lot earlier than I usually do... so I've been fairly tired and every effort to write has turned into a scrap up until now. In a few weeks I'll be back to updating regularly again, thank you so much for being patient with me. ^^ I hope you all have a great night and than you for reading, I can't tell you how much it means to see comments and reviews, whether complimenting or criticizing, when I come here.