Frost Vs. Ice (RotG)

Chapter 24

Chapter 24

*Jack's POV*

I was at the Pole, standing outside, waiting for everyone to leave. Why had they all stayed so long anyway?

I'd just sat through Aly's funeral, and every spirit had attended, including Manny. I barely restrained from screaming at him about saving her, but I did. My voice would've broken, and I didn't want that to happen. That's why I didn't speak. After watching her die, being there, knowing that there was nothing I could do, I wasn't ever going to be ready to speak about her.

All of them were still here, and had moved on to other topics. I couldn't stand them, they all disgusted me. They were treating this like a reunion. While I was trying to mourn, they were all just in there talking and laughing.

"Have some respect for the dead, why don't you?" I said, hearing someone come out behind me. "Just go back inside and pretend like she didn't just die like the others."

"I just wanted some quiet too. It's all really overwhelming." I turned and saw Mair there.

"That's one word for it."

She walked up beside me. "Moser left as soon as it was over. He couldn't be here."

"And what of the other Guardians?" Aly was a Guardian. Don't let it get you down, don't let it-I found myself looking up at the sky to keep the tears from being noticed.

"They've all gone, it's just the spirits who didn't know her or knew her for a few days that are left."

I nodded and kept my gaze from meeting hers. It was back full swing, I couldn't talk anymore.

"Jack, I'm going home. I don't know what's going to happen now and I don't want to be caught somewhere other than home."

I nodded and she rubbed my back comfortingly for a few seconds. Then, before flying off, she said, "I'm so sorry, Jack. I know how you feel and I wish I could change it." She called me Jack. Perhaps I should call her Tracy then.

I sighed when I heard yet another presence behind me. "Is Tracy out here?"

"She just left." I mumbled out, clearing my voice of any lingering thickness. I didn't turn this time, as I didn't care to know who it was. Probably Sami.

"Oh. Are you okay?"

"Do I sound okay?" I said sarcastically, leaning defeatedly against the Workshop.

"I believe that this is what one of your relatives felt like, isn't it?" I didn't really pay attention to who it was as they came to stand beside me and I just stared at the sky. "Meg, right? She was told to run inside, then she came back with help and you were both gone. What she must have felt."

"If I could go back to that day, I would only make her stay inside, that way she didn't have to watch us drown."

"Jack, do you know why they're laughing? having a good time?"

"No, and I don't care."

"Well, I would hope you do." The mystery person stopped talking, making me look down in curiosity.

What I saw made my heart stop.

"A-Aly? B-bu-but, y-you..." I stuttered, my staff falling and clattering to the ground.

She was standing here, in front of me. She was smiling at me. She was alive.

"I was never really dead, Jack. My spirit just went to fight Pitch for a little bit, and I believe I've weakened him now."

"...Three days...?" The breath was sucked out of me. Aly was here. In front of me. Alive. With a beating heart and the healthy paleness that I had been missing.

"Did you miss me?"

Swallowing my pride, and a few happy tears, I nodded. "More than you'll ever know." I pulled her into a tight hug, trying to believe that she was really here.