The Vacant Years(Sequel to Along For The Ride)

Chapter 32

Phil finishes putting that special medicine on my shoulder and sets the container down. "Maybe the real Jack is just buried deep underneath the dark Jack. That's the only thing that would explain why his eyes changed to blue for a second." Tooth says as I slip on my sweater and sit down in a chair. "If we go back, I'm going by myself." I say. Tooth looks at me, and I expect her to disagree, but she doesn't. "Okay, fine." she says. We all just sit there for a second. "I'm going to be in my room." I say and stand up.

I walk toward the stairs. I reach the stairs and walk up them I head towards my room. I reach my room and open the door. I walk inside and close the door behind me. I walk over to the bed and lay down. I lay there for awhile, just staring at the ceiling until I finally fall asleep.

Jack throws me across the room and I hit the wall. I fall to the floor and lay there for a second before I get up. Jack is walking toward me. I just stand there. I don't want to hurt him. Jack stops in front of me and throws a punch at me. I duck before he hits me. Then Jack grabs my shoulder and pulls me up so I'm standing. I shove him away from me, and that's all I do, because I don't want to hurt him. Then Jack steps forward and grabs me. I see him pull out a knife and I look up at him. "Jack." I say, trying to get him to let go of me.

He smirks, and then, I feel pain in my stomach. Jack lets go of me and I look down. The handle of the knife is sticking out of me. I look back up at Jack as I stumble backwards. He's smiling wickedly. "Jack, how... why?" I ask. "I told you I don't care."

I wake up screaming. For a second, it's like I can't stop, and then, I stop screaming and sit up. Suddenly the door bursts open. Tooth stands there with Phil, Bunny and Evie. "Jess, are you okay? What happened?" Evie asks. I sit there for a few seconds. "It was just a nightmare. I'm fine." I say. Evie gives me a sad look, maybe because she knows that Jack was in my nightmare. I stand up and turn to the others. "Well, we're going to have lunch, so you can join us if you want." Tooth says. Her and the others turn and walk away. I follow after them.

We walk down the stairs and over to the kitchen. We walk into the kitchen and all sit down at the table. I realize how empty this room seems without Jack, North, and Sandy. I stare down at my plate of food. I don't even pick up my fork. "Jess, are you going to eat?" Tooth asks. I look at her. "No. I... I don't feel like eating right now." I tell her. She goes back to eating and I continue to sit there, staring at my food. "Um, Bunny?" Evie says. I look over at Bunny and gasp as I get up. He's disappearing. Just like North. I start backing up slowly.

No. This can't be happening. We can't lose Bunny. We've already lost everybody else. We can't lose him. I can see the panic on Bunny's face as he continues to fade. Then, the panic disappears and he seems to understand what's going on, he seems to be accepting it. Bunny looks at everyone, and then at me. We hold each others gaze, and I feel like I have to do something, but I can't. Then Bunny disappears completely. My back hits the wall and I slide down to the floor. I pull my knees up to my chest and look around at everyone.

Tooth stands next to her chair, with her hands over her mouth. Evie and Phil sit in their chairs, staring at where Bunny just was. Then Tooth suddenly turns and runs out of the kitchen. We lost Bunny. The three of us just sit in the kitchen quietly for a few minutes. Then Evie and Phil get up and leave the kitchen. I just sit there, still staring at where Bunny was. I can't believe we actually lost him. I figured that it would be Tooth, Evie, Bunny, Phil and I until we fixed this. Instead, it's just the four of us. I sit there in the kitchen for a while.

Then the door opens and Tooth walks in. "It would be best if you went to get Jack, now." she says. I stand up and Tooth walks away. I walk out of the kitchen and over to the couch, where the others are. Phil takes out a snow globe and says something to it. He throws it and a portal forms. He hands me a snow globe and I put it in my pocket as I walk toward the portal. I step through it. I reach the other side and the portal disappears. I stand in that room, the one where we all were when Pitch took Jack.

Then I see Jack standing at the hall entrance. "Seriously, how many times are you gonna come here? You're really annoying." he says. "Did you change your mind? Do you care?" I ask. Jack seems confused, then he seems to remember what I'm talking about. "No, I don't, and I never did. I thought that was obvious." he says. I sigh, and the two of us stand there for a second. "Jack, please come back to us." I say and walk toward him. "What?" he says. "I know the real you is still there. Come back to us, come back to me, please." I say and stop in front of Jack.

Jack just looks at me, and then he wraps his hand around my throat. I immediately shove him. He lets go of me and stumbles backward. Then he shoots ice at me and I step out of the way. "Jack, come on. You have to remember everyone. Tooth, Bunny, North." I say. Jack shoots more ice at me and I jump out of the way. "You have to remember Sandy, and Evie, and Jamie." I say. Jack stops and I see his eyes change to blue, but his eyes quickly change back to gold. "Just shut up and stop moving!" he shouts and shoots a large wave off ice at me.

I fly out of the way and land back on the floor. "What about Jamie's friends, and his little sister Sophie? Don't you remember them?" "I said, shut up!" Jack shouts and he shoots ice at me again. I step off to the side. This isn't working, or maybe it is, just not that well. Then I fly up to Jack and wrap my arms around him tightly. "What are you doing?" Jack asks. I just hold onto him. This might work better. Jack places his hands on my shoulders and shoves me as hard as he can. I fly backwards and hit the wall.

I fall to the floor. I sit there for a second then stand up. "Of all the people that you'd remember, I figured that it'd be me!" I shout. "Why you?" Jack asks. "Because you love me!" I scream. Jack stops. "Or at least you did." I say. I stand there for a second then turn away from Jack. I pull the snow globe out of my pocket. Maybe it would be best if I just left. None of this stuff is working. I'm not going to get Jack back, I have to accept that. I stand there for a second, still contemplating wether or not I should leave, just in case. "Jess?" I stop. That's not Dark Jack. Dark Jack wouldn't call me that. He doesn't even know my name.

I put the snow globe back into my pocket and slowly turn around. Jack stands there, looking at me. Then I notice that his hair is white, his sweater is blue, there's actual ice on his staff, and his eyes are blue. He's back. He's really back. "Jack?" I say. "Jess, I'm so sorry. I... I couldn't control myself. It's like I was trapped." Jack says. I feel a smile spread across my face as I walk over to him and hug him. He wraps his arms tightly around me. A few seconds later, we let go of each other and I pull out the snow globe. "Let's go home." I say and Jack smiles.