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Closed In - Chapter Six: Shadows in the Dark

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Closed In

By Shinku

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Chapter Six: Shadows in the Dark

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Pitch Black bit back a whine as Frost shifted where he sat across from him, flinching at his own shadow.

Usually when Pitch went out to nurture and harvest fear it was to support an army. But with the binding around his core cutting off his connection to his soldiers he was quickly recalling just why an excess of something good was typically avoided.  

The Shade’s skin felt tight and over sensitized, his internal reservoirs of magic stretched to the limit of what they could hold.

If Pitch couldn’t get the Winter Spirit to calm down soon, he had little doubt that the Fearlings inside of him would take drastic measure to ensure his survival.

Whether Jack would be able to tolerate such a thing was another matter altogether.

“Are you sick?”

It was the first thing Frost had said to him since he had woken a few hours ago and took to shaking in his own personal little corner of their shared cell.

Pitch really wished he would have just stayed silent.

“No.” The Shade denied.

The younger spirit cocked his head slightly to one side, his fear abating slightly as his focused shifted to Pitch.

The Boogeyman wasn’t sure whether to be thrilled at the lessoning of magical pressure inside of himself or offended that the brat didn’t seem to hold any fear of him.

He decided to go with offended just to be contrary and glared.

The Winter Spirit snorted at the expression, and Pitch had the horrible suspicion that his glare had come off as more an irritated sulk.

Seraphina had always said that he was at his least intimidating when he was ill.

“You look like the walking dead, and given what you normally look like that’s saying something.” Frost quipped.

Pitch allowed himself to truly sulk at the remark, and the younger spirit actually looked a little taken aback at the expression.

He must have truly looked awful.

“You have no right to make fun of me.” The Shade sniffed, miserable. “It’s your fault I’m like this.”

The Winter Spirit looked amused. “Oh really, did I give you a cold or something?”

“I am overdosing on your fear you insufferable brat,” he snapped, and immediately regretted saying anything when the child-spirit seemed to recall that he actually had things to fear.

The pressure of the younger spirit’s recalled terror slammed into him again with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer, and Pitch couldn’t help the pained whine that clawed its way up his throat as the pressure built up to unmanageable levels.  

“Stop...” He wheezed pleading, his breath coming in sharp quick pants. “You need to stop...”

But telling the Winter Spirit to stop was as good as telling him he had no reason to fear the size of their cell. Fear was not an emotion that functioned on rationality. It was raw instinct and the pure ingrained animal understanding that there were things in the world that could jeopardize your continued survival. Fear was about movement, whether physical or mental. It was fight or flight.

And something primal in Jack knew that he could do neither in this room.  

The fear continued to build up, higher and higher until Pitch quickly began to realize that he truly had no control over the situation, that if something didn’t give soon that the brat was actually going to kill him.

And then… for a brief moment he was more Pitchiner than Pitch, his body moving of its own accord as he was forced into the role of observer as he distantly felt his arms and legs rush to push his body onto all fours, the rest of him bracing as his stomach heaved…

The moment of separation did not last long, and all too soon Pitch felt the choking, wiggling, weight of a Fearling forcing its way up his throat as it struggled to free itself from his body, it’s thick inky form sliding heavily across his tongue and out of his mouth as it fell with a dull splat onto the stone floor beneath him.  

“Oh, man…” Pitch heard distantly, the relief from the magical pressure and the exertion from expelling the Fearling leaving him weak. “What is that thing, Pitch? …Pitch?!”

But the Nightmare King couldn’t answer as the last of his physical strength gave out and he fell to the side in a dead faint.

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Jack felt his tremors increase as the oily glop of… something seemed to twist in on itself, gradually growing and shifting, taking shape as it appeared to slowly soak up the dark fluid around it.

“Oh man…” The Winter Spirit breathed as he watched arms and legs curl out of the central mass, squelching, cracking, and crunching as muscle and bone formed and snapped into place.

“Please wake up, Pitch.” He pleaded with the unconscious spirit. “Please, wake up.”

It was like seeing something out of a horror film, dark and eerie and… Oh crap! It was looking right at him! When did it have time to grow a head? And were those fangs?

With a sharp toothed smile the creature began to stumble over to him, it’s staggering almost drunken gate smoothing out within a few steps before it began to truly prowl towards him, it’s grin widening with each stuttering shaking breath the Winter Spirit took.
 
Within moments the thing was at his feet, cocking it’s oddly shaped head at him as large bat-like ears pricked forward excitedly.

Jack whimpered brokenly, and the creature shifted its balance to its hind legs as it reached up to place raccoon-like hands on the younger spirit’s knees.

The teen stiffened at the touch and the thing seemed to sniff at the air around him curiously.

Then without any further warning the creature hopped up to balance precarious on the tops of his knees before deftly slinking over and around his shoulders before settling its exceptionally thin cat-like body around his neck and under his chin to nose almost delicately at his jugular.

Jack made a high frightened reedy sound from the back of his throat and the thing purred happily against his pulse, it’s remarkably long tail coiling around the teen like a living nest.

The Winter Spirit had the unexpected urge to cry.  

“Get off of him.” A rough voice commanded from the other side of the room, and Jack cautiously glanced to where the Boogeyman had collapsed, careful not to move any more than necessary.  

Sure enough, golden eyes were watching the creature with an utterly bland and unimpressed look.

“I said, get off of him.” He commanded again, and Jack flinched as the thing moved its head away from his neck to sniff disdainfully at the Shade.

“Like it here.” It hissed in an odd, echoing voice. “Don’t want to go.”

“I will not have you compounding our problem anymore than it needs to be just because the brat is a convenient food source.” The Nightmare King hissed back. “Now I’m only going to say this one more time. Get. Off.”

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity the creature heaved a great put upon sigh and unwound itself from around Jack’s neck and body, slinking back over to the Boogeyman almost mournfully.  

“Mean.” It huffed as it curled up against the Shade’s stomach, and Pitch snorted at the insult.

“You won’t be saying that if the sprite keels over.” He countered as an unexpected shudder ran through his body.
 
“Pitch…?” Jack questioned cautiously. “You okay?”

The Nightmare King looked like he wanted to laugh. “Do I look okay, Frost?”

The Winter Spirit blushed at the rebuke even as he glanced warily around their small room, half expecting another one of those things to turn up from the darkened nooks.  

“You’re… not going to hawk up another vomit monster, are you?” Jack pressed the older spirit, already feeling his skin crawl at the idea of another one of those things taking up what little space the room provided.

Pitch stared at him in exasperation. “If you don’t find a way to calm down, then yes, I will probably be spending the night vomiting like a vain school girl that can’t fit into her prom dress.”

Jack blinked at him almost stupidly before a faint smile and a half hysterical laugh bubbled out of his throat. “…Seriously?”

The Boogeyman offered him a bland, unamused look and for the first time in over two days Jack Frost found himself laughing.

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It was a rare day when Pitch Black found himself trying to discourage someone from fear, but when the younger spirit started laughing he couldn’t stop himself from sighing silently in relief.

The root of the fear, nor the fear itself were gone, but without the Winter Spirit projecting it so heavily the Shade was doing significantly better than before, like someone had turned a faucet that was on too high down to about medium.  

Running a hand across his new Fearling’s head Pitch was willing to privately concede to himself that he probably was going to be on the receiving end of another forced materialization before either him or the sprite were allowed out of the room. His reserves were still far too full for it to be safe for him to remain like this for long without the need to embody a new Fearling to shunt the excess fear into.

“So… do you mind telling the class just why you seemed to have up-chucked some form of minion?” Frost asked as his snickers died down.

Not really, no.

“I sensed a very powerful source of fear a couple days ago.” He confessed, careful to volunteer no more than what was asked. “Once I was able to move I sought the source in the hopes of regaining some my former strength and during my searched tripped the Wards around your cell.”    

“…Wards?” Jack asked, confused. “What Wards? I’m just locked in.”  

Pitch shot him a disbelieving look. “You’re a lot more than ‘locked in’, brat. The Wards around this room are based off an ancient set that were meant to magically bind and trap my Fearlings and Nightmare Men during battle. They are solid. I don’t think I would be too far off the mark to say that you were never meant to get out of this room without the Pooka’s aid.”

“No… you… you’re lying. You have to be. Bunny wouldn’t do that.” Jack denied. “If something were to happen to him while he was out and we’re in these so called Wards then no one would be able to-”

“…Find us?” The Nightmare King finished. “I dare say that’s the point, Frost.”

“No.” Jack denied again, “You don’t know what you’re talking about. He wouldn’t do that.”

Pitch scoffed at him.

“He wouldn’t do that!” The Winter Spirit yelled.

“Deny it all you want,” the Shade hissed, “but I’ve been around long enough to know what a prison looks like, brat. And this… for all its faults is one hell of a good prison.”

The younger spirit looked absolutely mutinous at the older spirit’s dismissal, and the Nightmare King was able to observe as the sprite’s fear turned into terrified anger.

“And what about you?” Jack snapped, his frost unconsciously spreading to add a new layer of cold to the room. “If you’re so bright than what the hell are you still doing in here, huh?! Why not just shred this Ward and leave?!”

Pitch, to his credit, was unmoved by the younger spirit’s outburst, well used to the way fear worked its way through people.

“As I said earlier, this particular Ward was based off an ancient one used in times of war against my subjects. Its purpose was to magically bind and contain any that fell within its range, and although the Pooka altered it to better suit his needs to contain you, it still bares most of the original Script to do its first job. My magic is now bound beneath my skin and tracked by the Ward. I can no more get out of this cell than you can.” He stated bluntly.

The Winter Spirit’s anger abruptly came up short, and Pitch watched as his eyes widened in frightened understanding.

The Nightmare King cocked his head slightly to one side as he observed and read the fears the younger spirit was now producing, unknowingly seeding the atmosphere with his insecurities.  

…So, that last little outburst hadn’t been just to prove him wrong. Something small and cold in the sprite had honestly hoped that Pitch would have some way to get them out of the room if he was just provoked hard enough.

And now he knew that his only hope had been in vain.  

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The moment they had flown into the Warren proper they knew that Jack was there.

The tunnels had been oddly cold once they had reached the midway point of their journey, but as soon they saw the lush green landscape covered in the Winter Spirit’s namesake it was irrefutable.

“I want three of you to stay here and keep an eye out for the rabbit.” Baby Tooth commanded. “The rest of you pair up and look for any signs of where he could be hidden. I want a solid lead before that idiot gets back.”

“And what do we do when he comes back?” One of her sisters asked cautiously. “Mother said not to engage unless provoked.”

Baby Tooth smiled grimly. “Give him the run around and then take care of business, girls.” She stated, patting the sider of her dolphin.  

The little fairies cast wicked looks at each other at the order.

Yeah… they could do that.

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Activating the magic for North’s mirror took almost no time once the process got underway, the reflective surface ripping like water across a pond as the magic did its work to find Jack.  

For several minutes everything seemed to be working wonderfully, the epicenter of the ripples moving unwaveringly across the northern continents as countries and territories were quickly marked off the list of possible places Jack could be.

Then the epicenter crossed into the southern hemisphere and everything went wrong.

The central point of the ripples vanished completely and the once gentle eddies began to churn across the lower portion of the map as if they were fighting against some unseen force to complete their task.

“North!” Tooth shrieked, frightened at the unexpected reaction. “What’s going on?!”

The Russian growled low in his throat as he waved his hand over the mirror and the surface calmed. “Jack is behind a Ward, a very powerful one if even my mirror cannot see him through it.”

“So… You can’t find him?” She asked him despondently.

North shook his head and smiled. “I never said that. Have a little faith, Toothy. We might not know Jack’s exact location, but we now know he’s not in the northern hemisphere, don’t we? I may not be able to use divination magic again on Jack, but there are always ways to track a Ward.”

The Fairy Queen offered him hopeful smile and nodded.

It wasn’t a lot to work with, but it was a sight better than she could have done on her own in such a short amount of time, and now she knew where to concentrate her girls search patterns.  

Besides, it didn’t escape her notice that Easter Island and the Warren fell within the magic’s range.

Just as North began to detail what they would need to identify and locate the Ward around Jack the study room’s door was abruptly slammed open, and a yeti ran in yelling something frantically in yetish.

The old Cossack’s eyes went wider and wider the longer he listened.

“What do you mean Mother Nature is at the main doors?”

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Poor Pitch, my mother is going to hate reading this chapter. :XD:
© 2014 - 2024 Reborn-Chan
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kidsis5of5's avatar
Um...yeah, 6 1/2 months of vomiting will make anyone hate the subject, but, even I will admit to this being a very devious and ingenuous(did I get the right word?!? SpellCheck says so. I mean genius.) thing to do to Pitch. Add more trouble to the mix why don't you...and that "thing" sounds hideous. I'd wet my pants already. (hmmm, do they still have bodily functions seeing as they're not mortal as we know it???...yes, I do ask the weirdest things.)
Poor Jack, Mommy's coming.(Toothiana) She sent help to find you. And Pitch...if you want to live, learn to shut up while the getting is good! Did you seriously think telling the kid the truth as you see it would help ease your dilemma? I know you can be a real ass sometimes but honestly, have a little heart, if you have any left inside you.
Kudos on Jack asking Pitch if he was going to throw up anymore vomit monsters. Priceless!!! And Pitch's response, just as hilarious!!! I'm sure you heard me laughing! I loved the vain school girl not fitting in her prom dress thing. I laughed so hard and proceeded to read it to your father who also laughed and he said, "my little girl wrote that??? and I told him, "well, she was blessed with his side of the family's sense of humor" and I omitted my family's "twisted" sense of humor, but you get the drift. You're from one mixed up twisted minded family, poor thing...or great if you look at how you've made through our screwed up life. You're normal! YAAY!
Hurry, I'm on an adrenaline high for this fic. Gotta know what's coming next. Didn't see any mistakes but then I was too into it to care.