Rise Of The Guardians: Bloody Mary

7) His City Of Shadows

Bright yellow light swirled around Mary as she was violently thrown back into reality. She had flung the golden cylinder with her teeth in it away from her, and had fallen into the still dark grass. Lying on the ground and sputtering, she tried to call for help. Only choking sounds escaped her lips. Tears poured down her face. Her head spun, her eyes wouldn’t focus, and the grass seemed to tie her down to the cold dark ground. She fought with all her strength against the grass, she was so weak, so helpless. Her voice, cracked and weak, managed a single syllable “no.”

Suddenly she felt hands drag her up, and she struggled against them, weakly colliding with whatever they could find. Her eyes were squeezed shut, and she could feel herself being held upright, still trying to break free.

“Mary, stop.” Pitch’s cool calm voice ordered, “It’s me. Stop fighting.”

Mary opened her stinging red eye to look at him. She felt delirious and couldn’t form a single thought. She couldn’t even speak. She just let her head roll around on her neck, uttering little sounds of protest. Pitch picked up the box of her teeth, and motioned for a night mare, which came trotting out of the shadows, black sand tendrils flying out behind it, “Just hang on, Mary, it’s going to be ok.”

Pitch mounted the night mare, pulling Mary up into the saddle with him. She leaned all her wait on him, her head resting back on his shoulder not even fully conscious. Pitch steared the galloping night mare away from the field and deep into the forest to a huge old tree. It’s gnarled knotted trunk parted in a darkened doorway. Riding into the tree, and down a seemingly endless ramp smothered by the dark, they finally emerged into Pitch’s new home. It was a huge underground cave, the roof dangling with stalactites ten stories up. Huge castle like pillars carved into the walls, a thousand rooms jutting out from the slippery black rock. Bridges connected the two sides of the cave, and stair cases twisted and turned in ways that no human could walk on. From the back of the cave a rushing waterfall poured down into a shining lake that engulfed the majority of the floor. Bioluminescence in the water danced like a million shooting stars. Jutting from stone were tons of porches and terraces built into the huge lake, little row boats tethered to each of them. The cave seemed like a crack in the Earth, extending out in all directions, and the abandoned underground city following it.

When they reached one of the docks in the water, Pitch pulled Mary out of the saddle. She collapsed onto the slippery floor and looked around dreamily. Pitch looked at her concerned, “Mary are you alright?”

She didn’t answer. Pitch knelt to the side of the dock and scooped up a handful of the glowing water, and through it onto Mary’s face. She jumped at the cool, coughed and sputtered, but it had brought her out of her dream state. She looked around the cave, the water casting a dancing light show across her face. “Woah,” she breathed.

“Do you like it?” Pitch asked motioning to his city of shadows, “I hoped you would.”

Mary seemed to have overlooked Pitch, and now fear crept into her mind again as she took notice of him. “Pitch? What? What’s going on?” Then her face changed from confusion to horror, “My teeth! My dad. He… he hurt me. And that little girl! Did she make it? I was murdered! He cut me up into little pieces… And the moon!” She looked frantic, then pointed her finger at Pitch, “and you… You were there. You were always there.”

“I promised I would be.” he whispered.

“You…” she looked at him questioningly, “You helped me? You protected me?”

“Yes. Yes!” He said, smiling and kneeling to the ground where she sat and taking her hand, “Yes, I was always there for you, just like I promised.”