Guardian with claws (A RotG fan-fic)

Chapter 24

*POV North*

The days following went by so fast, even us guardians got tired. We spent day after day making the children believe in us again. Jamie could now tell us what Pitch had done, how he'd managed to stop all of the children from believing.

'He had something made of that black sand of his and he did something with it and then I stopped believing. It made me think you were all just myths,' Jamie said, frowning. 'He even said to me, right before it worked, that everytime I'd talk to a believer, they'd stop believing. I didn't think he was telling the truth, but just as I forgot about you guys, I forgot what he had said. But he was right. I caused this.' Tears formed in his eyes.

               Anna hugged him.

'No, it's not your fault. It is Pitch's fault,' she said soothingly. 'All we have to do now, is help the other children, just like Britt and Robin helped you.'

'But,' I asked. 'what do we have to do?'

*POV Jack*

That was the question. What did we have to do? I had no idea. It made me angry to feel so powerless.

'What did you say to Jamie?' I asked Britt and Robin, hoping this would give us something to start with.

'Uh, nothing special, really,' Robin said.

'Yeah, we only told him that you guys really are real, and that we believe so too,' Britt added. There was a moment of silence.

'That's it!' Jamie then exclaimed happily. 'We need to show them that it's not silly to believe, that you guys are real! Come on, let's break Pitch's curse!' A smile split open my face and I followed Jamie to the sleigh.

*POV Bunnymund*

I had no idea what the kid meant, but a plan was a plan and even the sleigh couldn't get my spirits down.

'Let's start with my friends!' Jamie said. 'They can help us to make the other kids believe again.' And we did as he said. Soon we had a small army of kids, running all around Burgess, to make each other believe again. All seemed to be right again. But of course there was a catch. Pitch noticed we were ruining his plans.

'What do you think you're doing?' he asked casually, leaning against a street lantern. I quickly got my boomerangs out.

'Pitch!' Jack yelled. 'Why can't you just leave us alone for once?!' Chuckling, Pitch strolled over to us.

'Why would I do that? Where's the fun in that?' he asked sarcastically. Jack sent him a death glare. Unfortunately, it didn't work. Pitch looked around, seeing the kids trying to break his curse, as Jamie called it. 'Do you really think you can win? My nightmares are spread all over the world. It would take you years to destroy all of them, and they would just keep on coming back.' Hesitating and even scared expressions were to be seen on my companions' faces. Oh no, we were not losing hope! I, being the guardian of Hope, would not let that happen! Sadly, I didn't have a clue on how to stop Pitch.

'Are you afraid now, of the Boogeyman?' Pitch grinned.

'You know,' Robin said. 'Bogey is that green stuff coming out of your nose. Boogey sounds an awful lot like bogey. You should change your name.'

               Pitch looked at her, open-mouthed. Seeing Pitch speechless after a speech about 'bogey', made me laugh. The kids, who crowded around us, were already wiping tears of laughter of their faces. I was not even very funny, but it worked nonetheless. Soon Pitch was yelling at us, trying to make us stop. But it was no use for him. He had lost.

               Meanwhile, Robin just looked around a little confused. She had clearly been serious. That made it even better.

*POV Anna*

'Leave, Pitch, while we still let you,' I said, hoping he really would leave. I didn't know how we should deal with him otherwise.

'You can't get rid of me! Not forever! There will always be fear!' Pitch exclaimed.

'Yeah, yeah, you said that two years ago. Now leave,' Bunny said. Pitch sent us a last angry glare, then vanished in a cloud of his balck sand. This wouldn't be the last we heard of him, but at least we got the children back on our side. That was all that counted, for now.