Ice Cold

Chapter 6

"J-Jack, I'm scared.." Flee stuttered. The ice that spiderwebbbed from beneath the young girl slowly grew.

"It's ok...we're...we're gonna play a little game!" Jack tried, hoping his little sister would calm down.

"No! You always trick me! I'm gonna fall!" Flee snapped.

"Well, not this time, I won't let you fall. I promise." Jack racked his brain, trying to think of a safe way to safely get her off of the ice. "That's it! We're gonna play a little game of hopscotch!"

When Flee gave a slight, panicked nod, Jack lightly leapt off from where he was standing, "One," he paused, "two," Jack leapt again, this time feigning to fall, "wooah! And three!" He leapt the final time and crouched down to pick up his staff.

"Alright now it's your turn..."

Flee, finding it hard to step with heavy skates, slowly put her right leg out in front of her, "One," Flee looked up at Jack for reassurance that everything was going to be ok, but stopped in her tracks and gasped.

"What? What's wrong?" Jack desperately tried to get Flee to hurry up so he could save her.

Flee's gaze never left Jack's, "Y-your hair! It's white! A-and your eyes are blue!"

Jack, now confused, felt like something wasn't right. And that's when his body began doing things he didn't want.

The 'possessed' Jack smirked and used the butt of his stuff to push Flee back. The girl fell: right onto the thin, cracked ice.

Jack skated to her side, "Goodbye." And with that, the ice shattered and a terrified Flee fell in to the freezing waters waiting below.

****

Wind desperately tried to awaken its son. But no banter what Wind did, it couldn't awaken Jack.

Wind noticed something was wrong when Jack began tossing and turning in his sleep, his eyes were screwed shut, his hands balled into fists, and he kept muttering something. Wind was torn between what it wanted to do and what he needed to do; it wanted to gently rock Jack, lulling him to a peaceful sleep while promising that the winter spirit would be ok, but it needed to somehow wake him up and alert the guardians that Jack was having a nightmare.

Knowing the right thing to do, Wind gave a forceful shove to Jack, who tumbled out of the tree and landed on the snow.

"I DIDN'T DO IT!" Jack yelled as he awoke. Puzzled and panting, Jack climbed his way out of the snow and looked around.

His staff was propped against the Pine tree, the sun was now up, and Jack's bare feet frosted the snow he was standing on, to give it a sheen to it.

The winter spirit immediately remembered his...dream, and suddenly ran to the frozen lake. He frantically searched the ice for cracks: there were none. There was no evidence of what he had "done" to his sister.

Oh spirits, what had he done?! Jack didn't remember that at all- he knew that not what happened. Somehow, his memory of that day was corrupt when he was dreaming.

          Jack loved his sister...Loved his family...and was even able to smile and make others laugh during the hardest of times. Flee never ever deserved anything bad I happen to her. And now, Jack felt an enormous weight of guilt pressure down on him. He didn't know why he suddenly felt so emotional. He had no clue to why he felt guilty, angry, sad, and fear all at once. But he was to shaken up by his dream to really care.

The guardian of fun couldn't hold it back anymore: he cried. He never cried- NEVER. But he did now. After seeing what he saw...after feeling so much guilt for something he knew he didn't even do, he was an emotional wreck.

        Wind wrapped around him, caressing his cheek, trying to comfort his old friend. Jack thanked Wind as he regained his composure; why was he crying anyway? It's not like he killed Flee. It was only a night mare. Jack gasped. It was a nightmare. The spirit scrambled to get his staff and Wind, already knowing what Jack wanted, lifted him up and took him to Santof Clausen.