Believe in Me

Fear of the Inevitable

In the darkness nothing could be seen besides the faint silhouettes of the others around him. Everyone’s breaths were suddenly louder than before, echoing down the halls in the eerie silence that had ensued, their hearts beating in an unfamiliarly rapid tune, leaping with tiny jolts in their caught chests. They shouldn’t have stopped, Jack thought. They needed to keep walking if not running, they needed to get out of the dark where Pitch could jump out at them…. but a feeling in the back of his mind knew completely that there wasn’t a single bright area in the pole. Every light had been extinguished, leaving their eyes flickering hopelessly for something to lock onto and their minds flailing for a form of comprehension. Darkness wasn’t anything scary, it was the tension that was held so tightly between the four of them as they awaited anything, a noise, a subtle scent or motion in the backdrop of blackness… It was like suddenly their heads were desperate for ANYTHING despite how badly they wished that the nightmare king wasn’t in the proximity. They were quiet as if they thought that being quiet would keep him from knowing where they were, frozen, not in fear, but in a sense of knowing that something was going to happen. But the only sounds to somewhat break the dead silence was the mental timer clicking, the thoughts screaming and crying in panic and worry, and the rapid thumping of their startled hearts. Then they all jumped in unison as the noise they had been awaiting was blasted into their ears from not beside or far from them… but above them. “Take a look at yourselves… trapped in your own home. It’s pitiful really.” The voice they had been expecting was ringing and booming as if Pitch were speaking from the ceiling into a nonexistent loudspeaker, so close but so far away; they couldn’t tell where it was coming from. Jack shifted uncomfortably, his grip on his staff deathly tight but his muscles too stiff to actually take a swing if he needed to. He begged himself mentally to loosen up, but he was nervous… Pitch wasn’t the same Pitch as he was the last time they had truly fought. “I thought I should warn you all though out of simple politeness. The entrances are completely blocked by spirits that have devoted themselves to my cause, spirits that hate each and every one of you. I admit, I plan to have nearly every one of you dead in a few days tops, but I figured I should let you… think it over… for a few hours. Be prepared.” And that was it. Think it over…? “What does… he mean..?” Wind slowly asked after assuring that the nightmare king wasn’t going to start speaking again. The boy’s voice was lined with nervousness and directed towards Jack, who looked down sightlessly. “I think it means that we need to find the others and get out of here…” he muttered in reply, looking down at where his staff would be if the darkness hadn’t completely covered it from his vision. There was silence once more, a heavy, weighted silence that seemed almost painful to break by speaking. “We should light some candles,” he heard Jayna finally say, barely making out the motions of the female’s head as she looked around the dark hallway. “We’ll never find them all if there ain’t no light.” Jack nodded in agreement before realizing that no one could really see him, grunting to announce that she was right. Something brushed passed his shoulder and he jumped slightly away from it, only realizing that it was North’s bulky form passing him. “I know halls by heart, I can take us back to others without needing to see,” he stated, obviously trying to keep a confident cool but the anxiety in his tone was apparent. “Right…” The groundhog woman muttered almost inaudibly…. They had taken one step before they heard it. A distant noise that was so obvious and yet so fear striking that they froze in their tracks, eyes wide and zoned out…. An explosion. Silence once more… “We need to get back… now,” Wind said shakily before they broke out into a run. The winter spirit’s ears slightly rang with the quiet being barraged by the pounding of their rushed steps, but there was no time to waste. They had to find the others… they had to make sure there were still nine guardian spirits breathing in that building.

Ilia was frozen in the dark, her bright eyes scanning the area nervously to no avail. Everyone was so quiet… she almost wished someone would finally speak up, let her know that she wasn’t suddenly alone in the pitch black mass of darkness that had suddenly flared across the room. Pitch’s voice still rang in her ears, the lack of comprehension making her mind work heavily in frustration but she couldn’t get anywhere. The only sense of comfort she could find was the animal in her arms that obviously knew that something was wrong just as much as she did, Louis’ mind in a panic. She slowly, unconsciously stroked the soft white fur between his ears, glad for the occasional movements the dog would make; it reminded her that at least someone was still here. She could feel the senses and fearful emotions floating in the air, weighing it down and making the entire room suddenly feel heavy on their bodies. She then heard the sudden rustling of fabric, a noise her attentive ears picked up as someone rising from one of the soft chairs in the room. “I’m gonna go look for the others, Jack hasn’t come back yet,” she heard Bunny announce almost anxiously, as if he was worried someone other than the three others in the room would hear. “No, you can’t leave, not alone!” Tooth replied quickly, defiantly. “Come with me, then!” he grumbled in return before his very faint footsteps could  be heard, the fairy’s wings fluttering, making a noise that only Ilia’s animal ears could pick up on. “Sandy…?” She whispered as faintly as she could, remembering that the golden man was mute and wouldn’t reply just a fraction of a second after the name slipped from her mouth. She could barely make out the illumination of the sandman in the corner, a blurry figure of dream sand above his head as if he were making symbols to show he was alright, but she couldn’t fully see what it was from the distance she was at. Louis gave a quiet whine, the girl understanding and giving a small whimper in return, speaking to the animal that she wasn’t sure what was going on, just as he wasn’t… exchanging the emotion of fear, the feeling of not knowing what was about to happen, with her small friend. Finally she couldn’t stand it any longer, just sitting there waiting. She wanted to get out of the dark, to find the light. Checking to make complete sure that both of her daggers were in the sheaths at her sides, she rose and hugged the furry canine close to her before walking him over to where she sensed the sandman was sitting, slowly resting the creature at the golden man’s side. ‘Sandy will take care of you, but I need to find everybody. I’m really sorry,’ she muttered, the words sounding like soft barks and whines to the sandman, but the puppy understood and laid down with a tiny groan of halfhearted disagreement. Then she found herself making her way slowly down the first hall her nearly sightless eyes could find, stumbling slightly, blindly, along for what felt like about thirty seconds… before the silence was suddenly obliterated. A blindingly bright light lit up the shadows just feet away from her, seeming to expand in slow motion as an overwhelmingly powerful force sent her small body flying backwards. She couldn’t hear herself yelp in surprise, as her words were blocked out by an overpowering boom, one that made her ears feel like they were going to explode, a loud ringing following up as she finally felt the slow motion falling end, her back slamming heavily on the hard wood floors. An explosion… that was all she could comprehend. But she wasn’t hurt…? She realized that nearly a minute afterwards.  Slowly opening her eyes, she saw a specific color in blurry vision… red… and red would mean… blood…? Or was it Grey…? The figure before her turned in her temporary delirium, kneeling down in front of her. His clothes were seared slightly but otherwise there was no harm done to the reaper, the blast having had no effect or damage on his body as he shook her back to full consciousness. “Look at me.” His words were firm, strong, overpowering the ringing and the blankness that filled up her hearing almost entirely. She found her eyes wearily meeting his own, feeling so weak and strangely, sleepily heavy compared to the firm alertness of the red circles that greeted her sight… He sighed faintly before kneeling down completely at her side. “You will be fine. Give it a few minutes.” Right… Her head was slowly putting the pieces together. She had gotten caught in the sudden explosion but he had shielded her, and he didn’t get hurt because of his powers… but then… where did the blast come from? It was Pitch, it had to be Pitch, but how did he know where she was? Was he even trying to kill her specifically? “Grey…? Is everybody okay…?” She slowly mumbled, surprised her words even connected as they felt so slurred, the girl slowly pulling herself to a sitting position and leaning against the wall of the hallway. The explosion had made her eyes take a quick test, and while it was still difficult to see, the once completely dark room was fading slowly into her visibility. The rubble from the explosion had piled up, blocking the path she was heading towards… Maybe that meant Pitch was trying to keep them from getting together with each other then, she figured. Still, she waited for Death’s response nervously. “They’re alive… I can’t tell you if they’re safe.” It was a bittersweet thing to hear, but she was glad to hear that they were all at least breathing. “The area is surrounded completely. With Pitch watching the darkness, we can’t leave through my portals, and I’m sure they have some form of block around the tunnels. I used the last of my power to get back in here.” He was speaking without intent of stopping until he finished, debriefing the nature spirit on the situation, but had left himself unnoticing to the surprised look she was giving him. It was expected that he would come back, but she was still somewhat awed at the fact that he put himself in danger and worked to get himself into a hopeless situation just to come to their aid. “Sandy is back where I came from, Louis too, let’s just go back and wo…” It was as if the enemy was listening. The second she mentioned returning the noise was back. Despite the explosion seeming to be far back, Grey still pulled Ilia close and held his cape up in front of her to block her from any debris that could possibly fly out from the darkness. It had come from around where Sandy was, the child realized, feeling her heart pulse with a sudden burst of fear. Death looked down before shaking his head, exhaling in what Ilia could sense as relief. “They’re alive.” That meant that the sandman and the puppy hadn’t been caught in the blast after all… Despite the lack of information on the situation, Ilia figured that meant that Pitch wasn’t trying to kill them right off, but to separate them to the best of his ability. It hardly made sense to her, but she was growing more and more uneasy as she realized that her and Grey were now completely blocked in, both exits destroyed within sight… they were trapped with about fifteen feet of hallway in space. She looked down at her faded brown boots, examining the unnatural curve that came with them to fit to her unusually shaped feet; Jack had returned with them from a day of visiting Jamie, saying that the boy had them custom made with the money he had saved up, wanting to send her something to show that he wanted to befriend the small spirit as well. That was rather recently, but she had loved how they were light enough for her to run but had a good enough grip on the ground that she wouldn’t slip on the ice and snow that surrounded the pole. She had made note to thank the human but was too nervous to go on her own and Jack had always been preoccupied… Now she wished she had said thank you while she could. Several more blasts boomed in the distance, but they were protected by the built up walls of rubble that had them locked in. She felt unusually hopeless. At every explosion she would glance to the reaper, and he would announce every time that everyone was still alive… but she was sure that he felt just as hopeless as she did. He had come to help them and because he defended her he was stuck with her now… but she could tell that the thought wasn’t even in his mind, though the man was still conflicted over the situation. Time passed, minutes. Minutes of quiet, of not knowing what to say but having so many questions to ask, these questions so fogged and in the back of her mind that she didn’t even know what they were. A cycle of fear, of questioning, of relieving herself, then of a renewed fear dawning back in the pit of her gut. Her fingers subconsciously traced the barely bumped ridges in her stomach from where the dagger had scarred over, the words reminding her of another thing she should fear that could be anywhere near, could attack at any time… they were truly trapped, both in the mind and in the body. Finally, after ten minutes of no blasts, she heard a new noise being reborn into their ears. “I have all the time in the world to watch you suffer, guardians… so I figure I can wait a while for my victory. I can sense your fear from here, it’s so powerful. You all know you can’t do anything against me. Remember that.”

Hours passed… she couldn’t tell what time it was, only knowing by Grey almost silently muttering that the sun was setting, the sun was set, the moon was fully up. His internal clock served a purpose at least. She wasn’t hungry nor thirsty; the nervousness that filled her to the brim left no room for anything else… all that was in her that she could see was the repetitive cycle of the same questions. Were they all okay? Would they remain okay? Would people really die..? Death… she had spent so much time near him and she didn’t realize how afraid she was of the concept that he possessed. She didn’t want to lose any one of them forever, she was afraid of the feeling of knowing that she might’ve said the very last thing she ever would to them and didn’t even know it. She wasn’t afraid of the reaper himself… but of the job that he did. It was as if Pitch was sitting there, watching as their stubborn minds slowly came to the realization that there really was no way out, that they really could lose their lives at any unexpected moment. She slowly found herself whispering out the words that passed through her head next, breaking the silence with an unsteady voice. “I’m… scared to die…” She wasn’t scared of Death…. She was scared to die. He looked down at her, his eyes holding a softness that they hadn’t in a while, silence surrounding the man that she found the most comfort in for a good few seconds before he finally replied, his voice gentle and calming considering the low and slightly gruff tone it had. “Good… now go to sleep. I’m here.” Good… was it good? Was it good to be afraid like she was of the unknown and inevitable? But when she looked up to question him, she found that he had lost himself in a daze of focusless thought, his eyes zoned out to focus on the patterns of the wall in front of them. Ilia felt herself finally give in, sinking down and curling up, feeling the warmth from her ‘brother’, the soft, worn fabric of his cape as it was laid over her, and the slow blanket of sleep fold over her eyes as she sunk out of her worries, out of the world, and into an empty state of dreams.