Snow Days Ch. 2

Patricia awoke to find herself on a couch and a warm blanket on top of her. She yawned and sat up, and her eyes widened with awe. She stared at Santa's workshop and examined the fancy woodwork all around the room. She took her ear muffs off and attempted to fix her now electrified hair when the door suddenly opened, and she turned to see Santa, Jack, Sandman, The Easter Bunny, and Tooth walk in. Not knowing what to do, she simply stood and made a bun, waving shyly after she finished.

Jack walked over to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Guys, this is Patricia Avery."

Tooth flew over. Three of her small, identical fairy helpers were with her, including one identical to Tooth. Patricia couldn't help but stare in amazement at the small fairies. "I'm the Tooth Fairy." She said with a smile, and she all of a sudden grabbed Patricia's mouth and looked in. "I've seen better teeth, but…" Patricia pulled away and rubbed her mouth in annoyance. "I'm gonna get braces soon." She said shyly.
 
"That over there is Bunnymund." Jack said with a grin. Bunnymund smirked. "Call me Bunny." His thick, Australian accent came as a surprise to Patricia, and she stared and walked over, leaving Jack to play with his staff. "Wow. I never thought the Easter Bunny had such a cool accent!" Bunny shrugged with a grin.

Sandman came over and tugged on Patricia's coat sleeve. She turned and crouched down to Sandman's level. "I know who you are. It's thanks to you that I have such awesome dreams!" Sandman winked.

"And we all know who he is." Jack continued, looking over at Santa. Patricia smiled and walked over. "It's nice to finally meet you. All of you." Santa chuckled and patted Patricia on the back. "Yes, yes it's very nice. It's too bad that we had to meet on such bad circumstances." Patricia nodded solemnly.

"Alright, let's get down to business." Santa said. "Jack, Patricia, what exactly happened to you two?"

Jack explained his part first, about Pitch chasing him and seeming more powerful than before. "Hmm. I knew it." Santa remarked. "I wonder how he got so powerful again…"
Patricia then went on with her part, saying how she didn't understand what was going on until she saw Pitch appear before her when she found Jack. Santa looked thoughtful, as did Tooth, Bunny and Sandman.

"We need a plan." Jack said. "Thank you, Captain Obvious." Bunny retorted. Before Jack could reply with his own come back, Santa intervened. "Now, now, I know this is frustrating, but we can't panic." Tooth sighed. "I don't want him destroying my home again and taking all my fairies." Her helpers hid behind her back in fright, remembering that awful day. "Yeah, and since he's more powerful this time, there's no tellin' what he'll pull this time around." Bunny added. Sandman nodded in agreement, making pictures of his own home being destroyed above his head in dream sand.

"Oy!" Santa shouted. Everyone suddenly turned quiet and paid full attention to him. "We do our regular procedure. Pitch wants us to panic. We cannot panic." He turned to Jack. "You need to go back to your hometown and search for any clues he might've left behind when we defeated him last." Jack nodded. "The rest of us will secure our homes and gather any weapon we have to fight against Pitch. We'll leave the sleigh as a last resort if worse comes to worst." The rest of the guardians nodded, and they headed out.

"Alright Patricia, I need to take you home first. This is getting way too dangerous." Jack said. "What? How dangerous can it be? I wanna help." Patricia replied.

"Jack." Santa called. Jack walked over while Patricia moped behind them, playing with a lose strand of hair. "Jack, you need to take her with you." Santa whispered. "Are you out of your mind?" Jack whispered back. "She's just a human."

"That's where you're wrong, Jack, me boy. Have you listened to the moon lately? It says she's of use to us." Santa replied. Jack looked down, bewildered. "I would've known if the moon had spoken to me." Santa patted him on the back. "We'll talk about her later. In any case, the girl has something special inside of her. And you are the one that needs to bring it out of her."

Jack looked at Santa, confused and almost unwilling. "Why me? Why is it always me?"
Santa sighed softly. "The moon hasn't told me that yet." And he winked. "Now, go. When you come back, I need to talk to you and Patricia separately." He handed Jack his magic snow globe that constructs portals, and he walked out. Jack stood there, pondering what he just heard. Nothing's wrong with her. She survived that walk all the way out of Colorado from her home…that's definitely not human. She would've frozen to death…

Patricia walked over. "Well?" She asked, shattering Jack's thoughts. Jack turned to face her and smiled to cover up his confusion. "Looks like you're coming with me. You'll get to see my home." Patricia squealed and threw her arms around him, and he stumbled back a little in surprise. "That's awesome! Oh…" Realizing what she'd done, she let go and turned away, hiding her flushed face.

Jack smiled and twirled his staff around her. A small whoosh of wind twirled around her, making her turn around. She laughed and shivered. "Must you do that?" She asked. He twirled his staff and grinned, but was soon serious again. "Alright, enough messing around. Let's go." He extended his hand. She took it, and he threw the snow globe and it opened a portal.

"Off to Burgess." Jack said confidently, and, clasping Patricia's hand tighter, he led her through.

***

Jack and Patricia burst through the portal and landed on top of each other in a pile of snow. "Sorry!" Patricia gasped, and she scrambled off him, but Jack only laughed and dusted himself off. "Alright, he went down a hole somewhere around here the last time we beat him, but it's gonna be impossible to find since that was almost 100 years ago, and that hole would already be covered up with new dirt." Jack sighed.

"Say, are you good at searching for clues?" He asked Patricia. "Hmm…I wouldn't say I'm too good at it. What clues are we looking for exactly?" Jack sat down on a medium sized rock, looking thoughtful. "Well, he has his Fearlings made out of his nightmare sand. We could look for any traces of those. Do you remember that horse he was riding?" Patricia nodded. "Well, that's one of them." Patricia shuddered at the thought of that thing.

Jack stood. "It's better to search from the air." Jack held out his hand and his mischievous grin played out on his lips. "Are you ready for another ride?" Patricia tried not to blush as she took hold of his hand. Jack pulled her close and lifted up into the air with a sharp whoosh.

Burgess was indeed beautiful. Patricia tried not to get too distracted as she searched for clues. "I'm not flying too high right?" Jack asked. Patricia shook her head. "I can see clearly." Jack nodded and continued looking. "Hey, you see that?" Patricia pointed at a clump of dark sand. Jack flew over to it and landed next to it, letting Patricia go, and he knelt down to examine it. "Now why would a random clump of nightmare sand be here…?" Jack muttered to himself and looked around. "…In the middle of a clearing?" He stood, but before he could do anything else, the sand started to stir.

"Jack…" Patricia warned. He backed up as the sand started to rise up. It didn't change form, but stayed in a swirling cloud. Feeling like something bad was going to happen, Patricia grabbed Jack's arm and pulled him back. "We should go." She said, her voice threatening to crack. But Jack stayed firm and raised his staff, the curled end glowing blue. He braced his body for an attack and pushed Patricia farther behind him.

The sand launched itself rapidly at his face which Jack was too slow to block, and he fell with a grunt on his back. The sand immediately forced its way into Jack's mouth, and Patricia stood there, horrified for a moment before she finally forced her heavy legs to run towards him. Rusty dagger raised, she screamed, "Get away from him!" And she slashed the sand before all of it could get into his mouth. It faded away and Patricia sighed in relief. She looked down at Jack and was horrified at his state in which he was now. His eyes were closed and his jaw was rigid and firm. She forced herself not to cry, and she stood up, feeling lost when his eyes shot open. She smiled and extended her hand. But then she noticed his eyes. Oh God, his eyes…

They were yellow and snakelike now, and he began chuckling evilly, and then he tossed his head back, a maniacal laughter sounding from his lips, which seemed to ring throughout the whole town of Burgess. Shocked, she backed away and lowered her hand. Her stomach churned and she felt nauseated at what happened to Jack. "Jack…" She whispered. Jack finally stopped laughing and sprang up on his feet. "Jack?" Jack answered with a somewhat different and wicked tone to his voice. "Little Jack is gone, little lady. I just happen to be occupying his body."

Patricia couldn't say anything. The sand…Oh my gosh the sand is literally possessing and taking over Jack! She thought horrifically to herself. The possessed Jack took a step forward. "And when I'm done with him, he'll be nothing but a dead body." He chuckled. "The rest of the guardians are next. There will be fear in the world once more, and no light waiting at the end of the dark tunnel, because the light will completely burn out." Possessed Jack laughed once more. "I'll save you for last. He seems to like you a lot." And with that, he turned into nightmare sand and drifted off.

Patricia dropped to her knees and felt the tears streaming down her face. "Jack…oh Jack…I should've done more to protect you." She wailed and punched the ground, not knowing what to do now that Jack was gone. Her eyes were red and her blonde curls a mess; they hung in her pale face. Ok, calm down… She sniffed and wiped her eyes. There has to be a way to get him back. She looked around and suddenly saw the snow globe Santa gave to Jack. She stood and walked over to it, grabbed it and then threw it to activate the portal to Santa's.

As the portal formed, she clenched her hands into fists. He's like a brother to me. He's gone through a lot to protect me. It's about time I return the favor. With that vow engraved in her mind, she walked through the portal.