Black In Black

Baby Come Home In A Melody Of Tears..

After showing me all their items of torture-- they called them just tools but I was convinced otherwise. Large Scissors, scalpels, dark metal knives, bone saws, gags, what I guessed were poisons lined the shelves. Panic was slowly overwhelming me, because of the crazy thoughts coming to my mind. What if the only reason they wanted me is to do some sick ritual and sacrifice me to like-- lets see, the man in the moon must be the good guy-- to like the sun, and dad and the guardians are never going to find my mutilated body, because prices of me are hiding in all the cages--
A sharp smack to my arm brought me from my panicked stupor, and also made me jump about a mile out of my skin (I bet if I actually did I'd still be miles till the freaking surface). "Ellie? Cmon, sis." Eva said, rushing forward to follow our mom. I was slowly figuring out she interacted with violence more then she used violence to be violent. Rubbing my shoulder I nodded numbly and stupidly followed.
God, where were they?

-----

The moment Ellie's sister looked away everyone ran to the sleigh to follow. I, on the other hand, stood still looking at the last spot she had disappeared.
Damn, was a stupid to let her go.
A thousand what if's came to mind. What if they know our plan? What if her sister is planning to make her fall off her fiery strings? What if she ran out of fire and fell? Would her sister have enough heart to catch and carry her? What if she let her fall and get hurt? What if Ellie--
"Jack, come on. We need to catch up," called a collected voice from beside me. Tooth, who had a small hand on my shoulder, pulled me from my thoughts.
"Y-yeah," I said surely, but it was only a facade. Inside, my body already felt crazed and electrical with worry. What if what if what if.. What if I'm not there to save her if things go wrong?
I followed her to the sleigh and we instantly took off. Bunny, white knuckling it as always, kept his head up enough to keep a look out for her. The rest of us besides North, who had to fly us where we needed to follow, kept our eyes trained in the two who were steadily climbing just below the clouds. Ellie, the ant like figure she was now, had her arms splayed with worry that she might fall.
"We need to get under her, she has a fear of heights!" I yelled to North, who was already climbing a little higher but keeping a unnoticeable distance. He started to curve towards her when a wall of fog took us over. But no, it wasn't a wall, it must have been a freaking brick. We all lost sight of the two that sent me to panic mode. I jumped off the sleigh and bolted towards her. Blindly, I flew around till I heard giggling surrounding me. Letting a spiral of ice shoot out around me, I was left with seeing the transparent white icicles fall into oblivion.
Then she screamed.
It was Ellie, it had to be. Somewhere close, but I couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from. Suddenly, her screams faded, faded downward. Like a bullet I followed, hoping I could catch sight of her before she crashed into the cold icy ground.
Oh god, what if I didn't? What if I was to come across-- no. I can't think about it.
And just as I was going to anyway, I hit ground. Well, a few feet of fluffy snow that did nothing to break my 'fall' then the cold , rock hard, ground.

-----

Our mother led us to a small office like room covered in papers. Everything was clean, perfectly placed, neat, and well organized. Even the walls of papers seems to be organized somehow, then I realized why.
Each wall was given to each of the Guardians, besides Jack and I. Drawings, lists, their names spelt out, clear bags pinned to the wall that held their possessions, newspaper clippings, video screenshots of 'caught on tape' like videos. Photos. Blurry, secretly taken photos of them. For north it was many photos of his sleigh. For tooth it was what I suspected were flocks of her fairies. A few of her. For Sandman, photos of the short gold man sending out lines of light to the houses in many different towns. For Bunny, half closed holes, grey blurbs racing across the screen, his Eggs being placed and taken by kids.
I let out a line of curse words under my breath as I stared in horror at the walls. I was breathless, wordless, and with every scrap of paper my hope of getting out of here alive was dwindling.
What kind of shrine did they have for Jack? What about me? I didn't want to know.
"Beautiful, isn't it? Let's get started Elanora. First, getting the rest of the guardians out of the way, and that sore excuse of a father--"
"Wait what?" I interrupted rudely. " out of the way? What do you mean, out of the way?"
"Kill them, Insnare them, put them out of their jobs. We'll take over, do their jobs right. I was thinking starting with the boy, easy target.."
I felt sick. When I took the job as bait this is not what I had in mind. I wanted to go home. I wanted to warn them. I wanted to get out of this claustrophobic death trap of a cave.
"Yes, start with the boy. Eva-Anna, out of my way. Go get that dress you wanted to give her, huh? Just get out." Our mother pushed Eva from her path and she scurried away. "You, Elanora, you can help with offing the boy. "
"How?" I squeaked.
"Why, with your gift, of course! "
"Gift?" Ah, full of one worded questions.
"Yes, your gift. Eva-Anna is hatred, you, my dear are love. You can make the boy fall in love with you, can't you? "
It hit me like a ton of bricks. My center. It has to be. Jamie's mom, my presence must've helped her hit it off with the man next door. The face that Tooth has been making love hearts at my dad. Jack, who's been at my side since I first met him. My center must be love.
"No." I numbered, stepping away. "No, I won't hurt him."
"I know you might have developed something with these Guardians, but their bad news. They just want to use you for their needs, Elanora."
"No they wouldn't do that.. They don't even know my center," I continued, my back hitting Bunny's wall.
"Cent-- whatever. Listen sweetie, I just want to get rid of them because they will get in our way, in our way of becoming a family again."
"I-I still won't do it.." I said after a moment under her stare. She continued, watching me like predator spotting it's prey. I quivered under her stare.
"Eva has been gone for too long, I'm uh, gunna go find her." Making my getaway, I face waked out and straight up the stairs to the hallway, and into the main room. I would've made my way to the trampoline but Eva caught my eye.
"You love him, don't you? " She said quietly. "The white haired boy? "
I stopped in my tracks an stared at her. Am I in love with Jack? I cared for him a lot.. And I know he cared for me in the same way. Did he love me?
Horror took over me. My center, what if my center is just making something out of nothing.. Maybe I without thinking made him fall in love with me?
"I-I-I--" I stuttered out, my hands flying to my stomach. I felt sick. I wanted fresh air, to get out of here.
"You do, don't you!" She exclaimed, coming towards me.
I instinctively put my hands up as if I could stop her. "A-and what if I am?" She almost skidded to a stop in front of me.
"You have to get out of here," she said quietly, shoving go me suddenly out to the rocky hallway.
"Wait--what--"
"Go!" With a final shove she ran back into the fancy center room. I wasn't going to argue twice. I ran for it, leaving the stuffy cold stone and creepy lair of doom to my back.