When I woke up, I found myself surrounded by dimly lit thick, dungeon-like walls…and something else; a small room-sized cage. How I got into the cage was all a vague, distant memory. I blinked, dizzy. Shapes twisted around each other. I blinked again. Things started to become clearer, but my head still felt like a boulder was dropped on it.
Slowly, I made my way to the nearest edge of the cage and gripped onto the dark bars, looking out. The room was massive; it could have held a whole castle inside of it; maybe two. I searched the dark cavern until I caught a glimpse of a long, tall shadow. Looking down, I found my staff. I reached down to grab it, but once I looked back up, the shadow was gone just as quickly as it appeared.
“Hello?” I called out, my voice small and raspy. The shadow appeared and disappeared again, and then I heard footsteps. A dark figure emerged from behind a pillar. After clearing my throat, I tried again, my voice stronger; “Hello?” The figure passed through the shadows, emerging into the light. One word registered in my head; Pitch.
One corner of his mouth slowly curled up. “I suppose,” he started in his smooth, nonchalant voice, “you’re wondering quite a few things. For instance…” He looked up, straight into my eyes. I crossed my arms, looking away. “…have I brought you here to torture you? Enslave you? Kill you?” I shuddered. “No,” he continued, his voice soft. “I only want to…chat.”
I looked up. He was inches away from me, looking at me intently through the bars of the cage. Surprised, I moved backwards to the very end of the cage, where I cowered away from him.
“Please,” he said, his gaze soft, “don’t be like this.” He started shrinking down to the ground, until there was nothing left. I craned my neck, trying to find where he went. Then I heard him talking under the cage. “I’m only trying to inform, rather warn you…” A shadow appeared on the floor of the cage, only feet away from me. Pitch’s figure rose from it, until he was standing at his full height, towering above me, his head nearly touching the top of the cage. “…of Jack Frost.”
I cowered further into the side of the cage. “W-what about him…?” I stuttered, holding my staff close for protection.
“I suppose I should be more general. The Guardians altogether are what you should be warned of,” he said, stepping towards me. I shrunk to the ground, squatting behind my staff. “The Guardians think,” he spat harshly, walking closer still to me, “that if I am defeated, the world will be perfect.” He stopped walking less than a foot away from me, and his tone softened as he looked down at me. “You know the world can’t be perfect, don’t you?”
I looked up at him. His eyes were soft and curious. I straightened a little and looked him in the eye. “Yes,” I said finally. “Of course it can’t.”
Instead of his usual evil grin, he smiled genuinely. So genuine I almost trusted him. Almost. “You see?” he said, pleased that I agreed. “The world needs fear; the press feeds on it. Without fear, without me, the world would just be a big, plain smile. The Guardians just don’t get that.”
I squirmed in the uncomfortable silence, eventually giving up and standing. I noticed how close we were, and looked away quickly. “So…so what’s the point of this, then?” I asked, brushing my hair out of my face. “I mean…why am I here?”
He nodded his head down at my staff in my hand. “I made you, Lily. That wasn’t the silly Man in the Moon. That was me.” I looked at him blankly. He thought a moment, choosing his words. “I saved your life so you could help me, so you could…so you could open the Guardians’ eyes to the reality of what the world needs. You were meant to work with fear itself.”
I opened my mouth and closed it again. I looked down at my staff. The swirls seemed evil suddenly. Surprised, I dropped it with a clang and looked him in the eye. “No.”
He didn’t look surprised. “Do you need a little incentive?” he asked calmly, stepping even closer. I winced and covered my face, preparing for the worst. Instead, I opened my eyes after a moment to find his hand outstretched. In it was a milk bottle-sized gold cylinder. A third of the smooth, curved side was sliced off, revealing a beautiful, shiny, diamond-patterned surface. “I tried this with Jack. However, it only showed him he belonged with the Guardians.” His voice was rigid. He quickly returned it to calm. “But, it’s your choice. When the Guardians thought they defeated me, Tooth took back all of the memories.” He looked down at the cylinder, smiling to himself. “All but one.”
I blinked. “Is that…?”
“All of your memories from every point in your childhood, and from just before you turned into my beautiful Water Lily,” he finished, smiling lightly. “All of them, right here.” I hesitated before extending a shaky hand. With a nod, I shoved it into my pocket. He smiled pleasantly. Again, I almost trusted him. “Well, whenever you feel like it…” He slowly left the cage the same way he entered. Once he was out, he continued, walking away. “…be my guest.” He turned around suddenly, walking backwards. “Oh,” he added, “sorry for the cage. I didn’t want you running off before we could…chat.” He smiled one last time before turning into a shadow on the wall.
As his shadow floated away, I knelt on the ground and took out the gold cylinder. I traced my finger gently along the beautiful, patterned flat surface, and as I did, it started to glow. The diamonds folded back, revealing a bright, white light…
And then I saw Katelynn.
