The writing blog of ks_claw

Prompt for miss-evening

Some emotions are easier to play than others. All it takes is the right form of motivation. Especially when it comes to hate.

A key part of hate is reason. You need to have a reason in order to hate someone. Plenty of folk will tell you that there are plenty of ways to hate without reason, but those who do so are usually also the type who lean strongly towards racism or homophobia, simply because they are sheep who follow the rest of the crowd, lest they be gobbled up.

But Jack and Pitch both have a perfectly good reason to hate one another. Everyone knows this.

Pitch hates the Guardians, and Jack is one of the Guardians, so it is only natural that Pitch would hate him as well.

Jack loves and protects children, but the children are frightened by Darkness and Nightmares. So of course he would hate Pitch Black, the very being who rules the dark and controls them.

Sometimes the Guardians worry, because with the hate also comes a lot of anger, a lot of lashing out. Jack takes all the hate and hurt and frustration from his years of solitude, and use them as part of his arsenal. He uses Pitch’s own trick and fires arrows of ice at the King of Shadows.

Pitch returns the favor by throwing black balls of sand at Jack and his fellow Guardians, with Jack usually being a main target, and anyone, with Sandy excluded, being put under the torment of dark nightmares until they wake up. And the fight and the hate goes on and on, because that is what the Guardians and Pitch Black do best.

It is so easy to hate what you don’t understand.

But Jack and Pitch do understand one another. That is why it is so easy for them both to make this all a great game of pretend, until they are both able to meet at a time, and at a place, where no one who knows them will suspect either will be.

In the dark and the cold, that go so well together, they can hold on to one another, and pretend if only for a moment, that they are part of a perfect world where no one judges them for their actions or what they represent. In the dark and the cold, there is simply Pitch Black and Jack Frost too.

from Prompt batch 34 on tumblr, requested by heypapergirl.

Having a family all of a sudden could be rather overwhelming, so once in a while, Jack found himself back in the woods around Burgess, walking alone to think about all that had happened. About Easter, the Guardians, his own initiation, about Pitch… Sometimes he had company from Baby Tooth, but most of the time he was on his own.

And one evening around twilight, Jack found Pitch. He had been walking along one of the many paths, when he thought he heard a voice. It had not been like his sister’s voice, distant and mysterious and alluring. No… this one was closer, more… physical. And yet, it also sounded distant and ominous.

Carefully moving closer, Jack moved up a small hill and peered over, finding himself looking over a small clearing. And there was Pitch… he looked like he had seen better days, but considering how he was being dragged away by his Nightmares the last time Jack saw him…

The Boogeyman sat alone, his tattered robes spread out behind him, seeming to become one with the shadows, as the woods around them became darker. And yet, he didn’t seem to be paying any attention to his surroundings, staring intently down at his hands as he spoke. Jack frowned when he noticed, that there was something there, not between Pitch’s hands, but on the ground, glimmering faintly in the dying light.

“… Sometimes I remember what you looked like… your hair. Your smile. Your eyes… In my dreams, I remember everything! But as soon as I wake up…” He seemed to wince, reaching up to clutch at his head.

“My memories just keep fading and I don’t know why.”

After a long moment of sitting like that, he let go of his head and looked up towards the skies with a harrowed, exhausted expression.

“I’m so tired…”

“Pitch?” Jack didn’t know why he spoke up. Why he tried to draw the other’s attention.

The change was instantaneous. Pitch shot to his feet with a cacaphony of sudden shrieks and hisses, his cloak seeming to come to life as he drew himself up.

“GET AWAY FROM ME! HAVEN’T YOU DONE ENOUGH TO US!!!”

For a moment, his face was almost completely demonic, and Jack felt certain that if he had been human, he would have positively died of fright.

Instead, he found himself jumping back, grabbing his staff and holding it up like a shield between himself and Pitch, the shepherd’s crook glowing a bright white and blue.

Pitch drew back with a hissing screech of fury, his eyes shimmering in pure fury. Then, as sudden as that had happened, his face seemed to change, his entire posture deflating. And for a moment, he looked so miserable, so wounded, so human that Jack was left in a silent stupor, as the Boogeyman retreated and disappeared into the darkening forest.

Though it might have been the wind, Jack could have sworn that he heard a softly murmured ‘I’m sorry… I’m sorry….’ as Pitch disappeared out of sight.

And on the ground, where Pitch had been kneeling, lay an open locket. Picking it up, Jack found that it contained two things:

On one side was the image of a little girl. And on the other was a scratched out image of what might have been a woman.

‘My memories keep fading and I don’t know why.’

For a moment, Jack thought back to how Tooth had punched out one of the Boogeyman’s teeth. Then, he set off, the wind carrying him upwards and in the direction of the Tooth Palace.

He had some questions, and could only hope to find some answers.