Chapter Text
In Burgess, four boys sat around a small and neatly kept campfire. The woods closed in thick around them, tall and flush with leaves, given the warm time of year. Summer was just beginning. School was almost over, with only a week or two to go, and this weekend found the Burgess boys camping in the woods.
It wasn’t the first time they’d been allowed to camp without their parents. Earlier that year, following an eventful Spring, the group had argued with their parents for more independence. And in Jamie’s case, privately, he wanted more time with his new friend, Jack Frost.
So, they’d begun staying out later, on the promise that they would be careful and stay in contact with their parents to the best of their ability. They wouldn’t talk to strangers, and they’d stay together. They’d also began camping, only twice since Spring had begun to wane and the days became longer.
Their fire crackled quietly, sparks flying into the evening air. Jamie winced and shuffled over on his log, away from the flames.
Now, while their parents knew that they were camping, they weren’t aware that the boys were having a campfire. Jamie shuddered to think what his mom might say about it, but then both Caleb and Claude had started Scouts last year, and they said they could keep a campfire in check no problem. Even so, Jamie prayed their parents didn’t find out.
Somewhere in the trees above them a bird cawed, drawing the boys’ attention to it. Monty shivered and moved closer to Jamie, nudging his glasses up his nose as he did. He wished he’d been invited to the girls’ sleepover party instead.
‘Problem Monty?’ Claude called teasingly from where he was stoking the fire.
‘N-no. I was just keep an eye out,’ Monty stammered back, eyeing the trees anxiously.
Jamie rolled his eyes at the teasing.
‘Sure,’ Claude said, drawing out the word and dusting off his hands on his jeans, ‘just try not to be too scared. It’s no fun if someone has to go home early.’
Suddenly, Monty’s face became very flushed. ‘I’m not gonna leave!’
‘Whatever you say,’ Claude said with a grin, throwing a look at Jamie on the log.
For the past year, every sleepover that Monty had been invited to at the twins’ house had resulted in the blonde calling his mom to pick him up early – usually before they could go to sleep for the night and after they’d watched a scary movie.
Claude never tired of teasing Monty about it, and Jamie was tired of them acting so childish. He was much more grownup. Like Jack.
Speaking of, Jamie let his shoulders fall in a slump. He hadn’t seen Jack in a while, only a handful of times since the ‘Battle’ at Easter – still so cool! – and he only wished he could see him more. He was hoping Jack might show up soon, maybe join them on their campout. He probably knew tons of cool things about nature and survival tricks!
But he hadn’t come around. Not lately anyway. Jamie sighed and dropped his chin into his hands.
‘What’s got you so down?’ Caleb said, emerging from their small tent with a flashlight and his rucksack.
‘Huh? Oh, nothing,’ Jamie said, waving them off.
‘Oh please,’ Claude stepped in over his twin, ‘you’ve been sighing for ages.’
‘Have not!’
‘Have to.’
‘Have – ’
‘Guys,’ Monty complained, ‘can we not?’
‘Yeah,’ Caleb said, ‘it’s time for marshmallows, not arguing.’
‘We’re not arguing,’ Jamie muttered to his feet, but accepted the skewer and bag of marshmallows that Caleb handed him. More harshly than he meant, he shoved the sweet onto his stick, wiping his sticky fingers on his muddy jeans.
‘Whatever,’ Claude rolled his eyes again and sat down between Jamie and his brother.
The fire was still sitting in its neat circle of rocks, safe from causing any forest fires or accidents. Jamie watched the flames flicker, felt a smidge of heat on his face and then shoved his skewer above the fire.
Slowly, the treat began to melt. Sugar dripped in short lines from the sweet, curling black around the edges where the flames were too hot. Before he could lose the whole thing, Jamie retracted his stick and blew harshly on the marshmallow before shoving the entire sticky thing into his mouth.
He chewed fast and open mouthed to get some air on the hot sugar, laughing as the twins did the same and Monty cupped a hand around his and blew over it like a birthday cake.
Jamie swallowed and flicked his tongue over his teeth, sucking sugar from them and around his lips. As he rubbed a hand over his mouth another bird call sounded above them, then two more in sequence. Jamie looked up at the darkening sky, feeling a breeze in the air following the bird call.
It was eerie, kinda like -
'Another one, Jamie?’
‘Huh?’ Jamie snapped back into focus, going cross-eyed at the marshmallow bag between his eyes. Claude shook it before his nose.
‘Yeah, thanks,’ Jamie took one with a gap-toothed grin.
They chatted for a while as the sky darkened further and the marshmallows decreased in number. Before long Caleb and Claude were wrestling on the floor while Jamie and Monty laughed.
Soda cans came out and were scattered among the camping gear and rubbish. When the temperature dipped more, Monty climbed inside the tent to grab his jacket. Jamie embraced it.
The night settled over them soon enough, and though the stars were out, they were difficult to see through the dark clouds gathering above.
*
Sometime later, when the stars still weren’t visible, and they’d almost finished the marshmallows something strange happened.
Jamie had been watching Monty nod off sitting up, swaying forward until his body jerked awake again, while Caleb and Claude did something. He could see Caleb reading a comic in the door of the tent, lying on his stomach while his brother rustled around the bushes of their campsite. Jamie didn’t know what he was looking for, but he didn’t really care either. He kept his eyes on Monty's teetering glasses.
All of a sudden the rustling stopped, and Claude came walking backwards slowly to the camp.
‘Hmm?’ Jamie lifted his head up, watching as Claude backstepped closer to the fire. ‘You okay, Claude?’
When no answer came, Jamie furrowed his brow, shared a look with the near-asleep Monty and got up.
‘Claude?’ he said again, and waved his hand in his friend’s face for good measure.
With a blink, Claude snapped out of his funk, immediately turning to Jamie, ‘What?’
‘I asked if you were okay?’
‘Uh, yeah. I just thought….’
Jamie watched him, waiting for an answer but all Claude did was trail off, eyes still staring at the bushes like they might come alive.
‘Okay,’ Jamie said, unconvinced by whatever was happening. He turned to sit back on his log when a rustle and a gasp from Claude startled him.
‘There! Did you see that?’ Claude gasped, grabbing Jamie’s arm while pointing at the bushes with the other.
‘See what?’ Jamie asked, shrugging out of Claude’s grip but eyeing the bushes for Claude’s something.
‘There was something there. I thought I saw something when I was looking for sticks, and there’s definitely something there now.’ Claude was whispering shrilly.
‘I can’t see anything,’ Jaime said, arching on his tiptoes.
‘Shh! Not so loud,’ Claude whispered.
Something shifted behind them, and then Caleb was stepping up beside Jamie and peering over his shoulder at the bushes too.
‘There’s nothing there,’ he said pointedly to his twin.
‘I saw something –’
‘Could it be your sanity gone AWOL maybe?’
‘Bro, it was-’
‘Shh,’ Jamie said, ‘I heard something shift. There.’ His finger rose from the shifting bushes, inching higher as it followed the movement of leaves up the tree. They all watched as something made the branches and leaves shudder before it finally stopped and the foliage stilled.
From inside the cage of leaves, Jamie thought he could just about make out a crouching figure, its back bowed over its front.
Could it be…
Before he could finish his thought, the figure seemed to shrink back, disappearing. Jamie lifted a hand and made to say something.
Then, a terrified scream cut through the camp.
All three boys leapt around, huddled together as they looked back at their camp and fire.
Monty was on the floor, his legs thrown over his log like he’d fallen backwards. If it hadn’t been for the blood-curling scream, and the shaky finger pointed further into the woods, Jamie would have thought that he’d simply fallen asleep and off his log.
‘T-there was s-something, something w-watching me. Over t-there!’
The boys turned slowly to the opening in the bushes, the dark beyond their campfire, searching for glowing eyes or crouched figures. Jamie watched with bated breath for a shock of white hair, or dark, dark sand and the glowing eyes of a nightmare horse.
Neither emerged.
After a minute passed where they all held their breath, Caleb spoke up.
‘Okay, this is getting outta hand now. You guys are probably imagining it.’
Simultaneously, Claude and Monty started shouting.
‘Bro I told you.’
‘There was definitely something there!’
‘Okay!’ Jamie cut in tersely. Everyone stared at him wide-eyed. ‘Maybe you saw something, like an animal curious about our camp or could smell our food or maybe,’ and here he paused, letting his hope show only fractionally on his face, ‘maybe you saw something else. Jack.’
He said the end with a smile but the way Claude and Monty didn’t, made his drop away. They were both pale, and breathing shallowly.
‘No dude,’ Claude shook his head, ‘I’d know if it was Jack. Whatever that was wasn’t him.’
‘You don’t know that,’ Jamie said, ‘You’ve been watching way too many horror movies and reading that crap they sell at Smart-Mart.’
‘Not lately! And besides -,’
‘Give it a rest, bro,’ Caleb cut his twin off, rolling eyes and shaking his head, ‘There’s nothing out there!’
‘Oh really?’
‘Yes!’
‘Then what about what happened to August. And that Donelly guy?’
The clearing went quiet.
‘Are you serious?’ Caleb asked quietly.
‘It’s true,’ Monty piped up. He’d righted himself now and was sat in front of the log, closer to the fire than anyone had been that night. ‘The police still don’t know what happened to either of them, and they died in these woods. Maybe it’s a ghost or maybe the killer is back for more-’
‘Monty stop!’ Jamie said loudly, coming over to crouch down by his friend. His hand settled on Monty’s shoulder, trying to steady his breathing.
Before Monty could work himself up further there was a sharp crunch some yards ahead. Loud and violent, like a small tree or shrub falling. Or being cut down.
The boys stilled.
More crunches followed, branches shifting above. Birds that were nesting suddenly fled, taking to the sky with shrieks. Jamie covered his ears, not taking his eyes from the path of noise.
It stopped suddenly. Branches swaying before coming to a smooth stop, leaves settling again. The birds didn’t return, however.
‘I think we should go home now,’ Claude said, grabbing his brother’s arm.
‘I think you should calm down,’ Caleb answered.
They continued to bicker while Jamie watched the bushes. Monty was breathing way too quickly under his hand now. He turned back around to check him and bit his lip at the pale, sweating face of his friend.
‘C’mon Monty,’ he tried to pull him up and then a cold, unnatural breeze whipped through the clearing.
Jamie ducked his head into his shoulders, feeling the fire whip about with the wind. Caleb and Claude huddled together where they stood.
When Jamie finally looks up, still holding Monty by the shoulder, he’s elated.
Royal blue. White hair. Long, curved stick.
‘Jack!’ He exclaimed with a smile.
The frost spirit stood on the other side of the fire, in front of the bushes where they’d all been watching. The darkness of the woods seemed even darker around Jack’s halo of white hair.
His staff was up in front of his body, but whatever he’s looking for he doesn’t find, and slowly he lowers it and looks over his shoulder at the boys.
‘Hey,’ he says, taking them all in with his eyes.
He hasn’t changed at all since Jamie saw him last; still lanky and strong with his hoodie and hide pants. His hair is all fluffed up, like always, and his face is that pale, pale white, with startling blue eyes. Jamie soaks up the sight of him like a sponge.
‘See guys,’ he says with a sweep of his arm at the spirit, ‘it was only Jack. I told you we didn’t have to worry!’
Where the other boys relax, finally unwinding (even though Caleb insisted there was nothing there!) Jack doesn’t. His body stays stiff and straight, and his brows, just darker than his hair, furrow.
‘Worry about what?’
Jamie opens his mouth to speak but Claude cuts him off, ‘All that rustling in the woods, man! You got us good, hiding out in those branches, watching us, snapping those trees.’
Jack’s brows draw further down. His voice is steely when he says, ‘That wasn’t me.’
Dread fills Jamie’s stomach, fear settling like an anchor.
‘Jack?’ he says, titling his head slightly.
Jack’s eyes dart to him, holding his stare. He opens his mouth to say something when a horrible sound cuts through the night.
It’s high and unnatural. Playing over and over, like a chortle or cackle mixed in one and playing on repeat. Jamie flinches away from it like it’s the sound of someone dragging their nails down a chalkboard.
Immediately Jack’s staff is up and a crackle of frost winds around the old wood.
‘Go home,’ Jack says quickly.
‘But -!’ Jamie tries to argue.
‘Go straight home,’ Jack orders, eyeing them from over his shoulder now, facing the path into the woods again. His voice is hard like ice; Jamie doesn’t think he’s ever heard Jack use that tone before.
‘Go! Stay together, in the light!’ He says one last time, before that screeching begins again and then Jack’s off like a shot.
The wind whips as Jack propels himself forward, strong enough to almost blow out their fire, and then he’s gone in the woods, leaves and branches shoved aside as he chases the terrifying noise.
Jamie watches the dark path, but Jack and his light are completely gone. Other than the chasing sounds in the forest and that horrible noise, a crackle of frost, their camp is quiet.
Monty is shaking under his hands, Jamie realises. When he turns his head to the twins, they’re both staring in the direction that Jack went, holding hands tightly.
With a deep breath, Jamie pulls himself together.
‘C’mon guys, we’ve got to get home,’ he says while tugging on Monty to get up. Once the blonde is shakily stood, Jamie shoves the flashlight into his hands and searches for their jug of water.
Snapped out of their trance, the twins drop each other’s hands.
‘What about Jack?’ Caleb says anxiously. They watch as Jamie shoves things into their bags and packs away.
‘Jack can handle himself,’ Jamie says, silently adding I hope. ‘He told us to get home, so that’s what we’ve got to do.’
He isn’t quite sure what’s gotten into himself – a few months ago he was standing in front of Jack, telling the Boogeyman that he would protect the Guardians, and now he’s leaving Jack alone in the woods to fend for himself?
Some Guardian he was.
But then….Jamie reached for the water jug, finally revealed after shoving blankets and jackets into bags. He held the jug above the fire and thought about it. Pitch Black had been awful. Terrifying and powerful and determined.
‘There’s more than one way to snuff out a light…’
But that noise – that cackling, chittering whatever it was. Jamie shuddered.
Pitch Black was the Boogeyman. A tall, dark shadow that warped darkness and sand and nightmares and wanted everyone to fear him.
That noise in the woods was something unknown.
Another thought came to Jamie’s mind.
August Teller. Mike Donelly.
Missing in the woods until found. Dead. What pieces that had been left, torn apart.
Jamie shudders again.
‘Right now, we need to go. Trust Jack,’ he says finally, and douses the fire with the water jug.
The others watch, before shrugging their own bags on, Monty flicking the flashlight on quickly. They don’t bother with the tent, just leave it standing in the dark clearing beside the ashes of their fire. Making a line, they manoeuvre their way onto the path that will lead them out of the woods and back into Burgess Park proper.
All the while, Jamie repeats the words that he’s said to himself so often by now, in his head: Trust Jack.
*
Jack flies through the woods.
Whatever he’s chasing is fast. Maybe not faster than Bunny, but still fast enough to give him a run for his money. If they were in an open field Jack’s sure he would have caught them already, but the branches and trees are making him have to dodge and duck and dive and lose speed.
Luckily for him, not so much for his ears, it's still making that awful noise. Even if he loses sight of it, the noise is easy enough to chase right now.
Jack keeps dodging trees and branches, shooting occasionally when he can, until finally the trees start to part.
Yes!
With a determined smirk, Jack quickens.
Although the trees have parted, the creature or whatever it is, is still concealed by the darkness of the night sky. Jack curses the clouds under his breath and aims his staff.
A bright, freezing blast of frost goes barrelling towards the creature, set to hit it right in the back.
But then the thing ducks.
‘No!’ Jack yells far behind.
By a hair, Jack’s ice sails over it. When it does, the blue light illuminates the whole thing for a second.
Long, stretched and yet coiled. Dark leathery skin pulled taut over bones as it leaps and bounds away. An eerie whispering red glow.
Jack’s confusion is enough to give the thing another second lead and it bounds faster away from the frost spirit. The trees are well and truly thinning now and as they reach a clearing some stars dare to show their faces in the sky above.
There’s the smallest twinkle of light, wide open sky and field and Jack’s gathering wind to go even faster when –
BASH.
He hits something. Hard. And goes toppling to the ground, head over legs in a heap.
‘Nugh,’ he groans, feeling his head and clinging to his staff in the dirt, once he's finally come to a stop, ‘Ow.’
Everything hurts, just about, but mostly his head, which was what he was leading with. Jack rubs his jaw tenderly, pulling his other arm and staff in so he can push himself up.
A high feminine voice hisses as they likely nurse their own wounds.
Jack has his elbows under him when they speak next.
‘What did – Jack?!’
Shocked, Jack pauses getting up and whips his head over.
‘Tooth?’
Crumpled in the dirt is the Tooth Fairy. Green feathers rumpled and askew from the landing. Wings looking thankfully unbent – but then those strong wings could snap a nightmare in two and then some, Jack remembered.
Lilac eyes blinked at him rapidly.
‘Hey,’ Jack said at last, and finally got up. He walked over and offered Tooth a hand, which she took.
He helped her up, and then from the trees came an alarming number of squeaks.
Five or six mini fairies came flying out of the dense woods, their wings beating fast and their mouths all running. They made a beeline for Tooth, fluttering around her when they reached her.
‘Oh girls,’ Tooth said, reaching a hand up to cup one of her mini fairies. Her wings were beating again, and she was floating inches from the ground, her natural stance.
‘What are you doing here?’ Jack asked, reaching a hand out for a mini fairy to grab when she came near.
Tooth’s eyes darted over to Jack again. She swept a hand over her head feathers and sighed.
‘I was collecting teeth a state over when I saw something weird between towns. There was a house in the fields I needed to check but there was someone outside. I thought it was a spirit so I called out to it but it ran away. When I got down to ground level…’
Tooth paused her story, holding her mini fairy tighter to her chest. She closed her beautiful eyes for a second before opening them again. They bored into Jack with weight.
‘When I got down there, I found what was left of a human. What it hadn’t eaten.’
Jack’s breath left him.
Eaten…? No. What spirit would do that today?
He refocused on Tooth.
‘I quickly chased after it, but it had gotten ahead so fast. I caught onto its track though and pursued it until I ran into you.’
‘Quite literally,’ Jack said drily.
‘Hmm,’ Tooth laughed lightly, despite the tension.
Jack gazed at the ground a moment and then recounted his story to Tooth. When he finished, he looked at her. Her mini faeries wore shocked expressions and chittered nervously. Tooth worried her lip with her teeth.
‘Did you see it? Like, clearly?’ Jack asked her.
Tooth shook her head slowly, ‘Not really. It was dark and fast though. Hunched. Guarded.’
‘Hmm,’ Jack grunted. If it hadn’t been for the size, he would have said it looked like an imp, but then it had been coiled like it had length to spare, and the speed….
‘I think we should tell North,’ Tooth finally said, cutting through Jack’s thoughts.
‘Really?’
‘Yes,’ she said, nodding, ‘it’s still out there, whatever it is. And it’s dangerous.’
Jack nodded. That much was true. It wouldn’t hurt to talk about it and alert the others, especially considering the fact that the chase was over now. There would be no catching that thing tonight.
‘Okay,’ Jack said, ‘But first, I just want to check that the Burgess kids made it home safe. I’ll catch you up at North’s.’
Tooth shook her feathery head, ‘I’ll come with. You check on Jamie and Monty, I’ll make sure the twins got home.’
‘You sure?’
‘Absolutely,’ Tooth said, ‘And then we’ll head to North’s together.’
‘Right,’ Jack nodded. They were team – working together would go faster.
‘See you in a bit! Stay safe!’ Tooth waved and then darted up into the sky, flying above the treeline and back towards town. Jack watched her and her fairies go before calling the wind and shooting upwards as well. He flew fast to his first believer’s house, hoping Jamie had gotten there safe and sound.
The stars were still barely out with the dark, thick clouds above. Jack desperately tried not to think about how hard it would be for a human to find their way home in the dark.
Or how hard it might be to find a body.