Believe in Me

Have Faith...?

Most of this is just a lot of thoughts

The next few days were… silent. The once cheery long halls suddenly felt empty with the lack of the three youngest spirits lightening up the mood with their games and laughs. Honestly it made Tooth wonder how the guardians lived without them in the first place for so long. Hearts were heavy, any joy at all morphed into solid rock, weighing their spirits below anything that could be lifted. She wasn’t sure what to do with the constant flow of thoughts racing through her head. Should she try to forget about the situation, at least for a day or two, and spare herself the pain of the thought? Or should she continuously remind herself of what might be happening to her close friends at that very moment, wondering in every notch of a second if they were in pain right now, if they were even alive at all.

The guardians fought with everything they had to try and get Jack and the other two unconscious spirits back, but Pitch formed a wave of shadows that wiped them back, sparing him enough time to get away with the three. In the few days since then (she didn’t know how many, seconds passed like hours and it felt agonizing to keep track) most of any effort done was put into helping restore the breaks in the pole. Pitch’s small army of spirits had managed to destroy many halls, especially the one that one of the men took Ilia from. She remembered waiting with tears in her eyes as Bunny went in, trying to find a clue, and walked out with an unconscious Grey over his shoulder. The reaper had yet to wake up.

The fairy was sitting at a frosted window, staring through the glass that was too fogged and icy to even see through, watching the crystalline forms of shadows move with the barely visible arctic sun. How long she had been sitting there, she didn’t know… she didn’t care. Jack could be dead, he could be being tortured, and she couldn’t help. She never could… Never had she felt so useless. If only she were stronger she could’ve found a way past Pitch, if only she were stronger she could rush in and take him back… but she wasn’t stronger. As far as she knew, she’d never be. Each of the guardians mostly kept to themselves, a bittersweet reaction to the events that had suddenly exploded upon them a few moon falls before. Occasionally she’d see North or Sandy peek in, blink at her a few times, two pairs of weary eyes would meet, then they would leave in silence. The bulkier spirit had to work extensively with Christmas just around the corner but there was hardly any motivation; he had mostly sent the  yetis to make whatever they felt would be right, the spirit that usually flooded the halls around Christmas time suddenly replaced with a streaming flow of tension and sadness that was so heavy it was nearly visible. She had been there for possibly days but any hunger she might’ve felt was diluted by the pain in her chest that came along with more extreme sadness, any sleepiness was assumed to just be her body wanting to collapse, to give up just for a day… She couldn’t do anything. The thought repeated so many more times than before. When Cloti was being strangled she couldn’t do anything. When Jack, Ilia, Wind… when they were taken, she was stuck, worthless to them. With the three spirits that would normally be the ones to induce cheerfulness gone to a grim fate no matter what the situation turned out to be, and the one spirit that couldn’t die stuck in a coma-like state… they were left with no option on how to take their family back. Tooth wondered if this fight was even worth it, it seemed like every time they got into a fight to protect the humans they’d only end up hurting themselves in the long run. She always considered it a blessing to be a spirit… but currently she felt otherwise.

And yet everything was still going on. Her heart, her mind, her sense of time was altered and frozen, but the rest of the world spun on. Their lives were devoted to helping others and in the end they were only torn apart with grief and misery, how was that fair?! How was it fair… that Jack and the others were taken away..? At first she had been hopeful, figuring they could rush in and take their friends back like they did before. That was the honest plan before North woke everyone up on a grim, weighted morning with a letter on his desk that claimed the exact reason Grey was unable to wake up. A spell to activate the curse, the note had said, somewhat like a dormant volcano. If they did anything he could easily wake the reaper up and have Death himself slice them and the younger spirits that had been taken to pieces. It wasn’t right… It wasn’t right!! They worked so hard to make the world good, stuck to a strong believe that the good would always overcome, but how would this possibly be fixed by them?! The way things were working, Jack would either die or never come home… and either way she’d never see him again. They’d never see that smile again, hear that laugh again or watch him skid along the rooftops. They’d never experience that childlike playfulness that never seemed to run out no matter how many times his heart was stepped on or shattered. They would never see the little girl they had grown close with again, never feel the overwhelming excitement that radiated from her brilliant eyes, the complete innocence that seemed to otherwise be dead in the world. They would never see the wind spirit that was finally trusting them again, never earn the joy of seeing him smile for the first time in decades. They were gone… and they wouldn’t come back. Hope was ruined, what was hope without a single chance of result? Bunny had muttered bitterly that if Chaos had to threaten them to not come after Jack and the others then that meant they were probably alive but… alive didn’t mean safe… ‘Have faith’ a voice in her mind whispered softly, but in what? The Man in the Moon? Where was he, though? How was he helping them, giving them advice or fighting with them? All he ever did was watch from his perch, from his high chair… She couldn’t bring herself to have faith in something that didn’t seem to care at all. They were scared, they were saddened and burdened with guilt beyond anything they’d felt before and the worst part was that there wasn’t a solution in eyesight. She could take the sadness, she could take it easily if only she knew that eventually Jack, Ilia, Wind, that all of them would turn out coming home safe and sound. She would attempt to smile if only she had a clue that they were safe, that they were alive, but there was no sign of that! How was she to hold faith to something that was so completely out of her sight, out of her control?! How was she allowed to say “it’ll be alright” to her fellow guardians when in all honesty ‘it being alright’ sounded like the largest lie that had ever crossed her lips?! It was selfish of her to want to give up this fight, to let Pitch do his damage to the humans in exchange for Jack… but being sad in this situation was also selfish, comparing her sadness and pain to the emotions those three spirits must’ve been feeling.

The sun was falling again, the light fading as it was replaced with the darkness of night… She knew she should eat but the thought of food only made her body groan, the fairy honestly feeling as if she’d rather starve than force the unwanted meals down herself. She knew she should try and comfort the guardians but she could hardly do that if she felt no hope, faith, or comfort herself. She knew she should attempt to sleep but no sleep would come no matter how long she closed her weary, tear-swollen eyes. What were the odds that they would come home…? Not likely at all. ‘Have faith.’ the voice repeated… but in all honesty, Tooth wondered if she had forgotten how to.

The next chapter is going to be timeskip to a month after the events in this chapter. This chapter was pretty uneventful but it's mostly just the bitter calm after the storm. After a month's passed it'll make more sense to get more action flowing instead of multiple chapters of only thoughts and each person doing less important things. This way though it'll make more sense how each character's thoughts change over the time. Hopefully it won't be disappointing... Either way, thank you for reading. I figured I should ask, if you want anything to happen in this story at all, just ask and I'll be fine with putting mostly anything in. This is a weak chapter, but I figured it would be better than just a random timeskip out of nowhere. Once again, thank you for reading and have a good night.