Along For The Ride(ROTG Fan Fiction)(UNDER EDITING)

Chapter 17

You know, being here has brought a lot of questions to my mind. I walk out of my room and put on my sweater. I join the others in the dining hall. I take my seat as they all start talking. I interrupt. "I have some questions, North." I stare down at my food. Everyone stops talking. "Ask me anything. What are they?" I look over at him. "Why am I here in the first place? How did I save Jack? Who was I before this? What was my past like? Did I have a family? What were they like-" "Jess, I will explain later. Right now, you need to eat." North says.

I notice everybody looking at me. I continue anyway. "Why am I a Guardian? No one believes in me anyway, so why am I here?" North sets his fork down and looks at me. "Jess, I promise that I will explain later. For now, you just need to eat." He says then goes back to eating. Everyone begins talking again. I quickly finish my breakfast and get up from the table. No one seems to notice me as I walk out of the room. I walk over to one of the windows by the doors and stare out into the distance. I'm there for a few minutes before I hear a door open and footsteps follow.

"Why did Manny choose me? I'm not special." I say. Then I feel a hand on my shoulder. I turn around and see North. He guides me over to the others. "Jess, you are special. You are extraordinary." He says. "Do you really want her to see her past, North?" Tooth asks. North nods and Tooth leaves the work shop. "You saved me by stepping into the path of Pitch's daughter. That's also how you died." Jack says after a minute or two of silence. Then Tooth arrives, holding something that looks like it's made out of gold. She hands it to me and I take it from her.

"It's all of your teeth, Jess." She says as I stare down at the tube. "Your teeth hold all of your memories. All of your memories are in there." I study the tube. My face is on the top of it. I lightly rub my thumb across the surface. Then the tube starts to open and a bunch of images flood my mind.

"Come out, come out wherever you are." I say. Then something jumps onto my back and laughing follows. "Nick!" "I found you!" He says. "But I was the one that was looking!" I tell him. "Oh, right." He says. Then we both start laughing. "Kids," My mom calls. "Lunch is ready. Come inside." "Coming!" We call back as I set Nick down. We run towards the house and inside. My brother, Sam, who's a year older than me, is already at the table. We join him and my mom gives us our grilled cheese sandwhiches.

Nick and I finish our lunch quickly. Nick heads outside to our backyard to wait for me. "Hey, Sam, do you wanna come outside and play with me and Nick?" I say. "I will in a few minutes." He says. "Okay," I say. "Try to hurry. You know that Nick isn't that patient." I remind him and run out into the backyard. I sit with Nick on the grass so we can wait. "I can't wait until tomorrow!" Nick exclaims. Tomorrow is Easter. Easter is his favorite holiday. I personally like Christmas, since you get presents and stuff, but I mostly like it because we get to spend time with our other relatives.

Suddenly, there's a screeching noise kind of like a car trying to stop quickly. Nick and I get up and run out of the backyard and to the front yard. What we see before us stops my heart. It's like all the breath was sucked out of me. I hear my brother crying beside me. A car sits on the road in front of our house, the driver still in it. A few feet in front of the car is my brother, lying on the ground, the pool of blood around him getting larger by the second. Nick clings to me as tears come to my eyes. I hear our front door open and my mom gasp. She runs forward. "Sam!"

*{{She sees a second image and it's pretty much how she died}}*

I stumble backwards as I drop the tube. It clatters to the ground. "I have to go there. I have to find them." I say. "Jess, what are you talking about? What did you see?" Tooth asks. "Nick." I simply say. I think back to what I saw and try to figure out where they are. Then it hits me. They're in that town, the one where I met Pitch in the forest. I fly out of the window without saying another thing to the others. I head of in the direction of the town. I reach it in a few hours.

I float down towards the town a bit then begin my search for the house. After a few minutes, I see it at the corner of the street I'm on. I run over to it. I fly around to the backyard and see Nick, my mom, and a guy who I assume is my dad standing near a tree next to the house. There's two picture frames, a stuffed teddy bear, and a vase of orange flowers at the base of the tree. Tears come to my eyes. "Nick." I say, walking towards him. "Nick, it's okay. I'm here." I say as the tears start to spill down my cheeks. I walk up behind him and place my hand on his shoulder, but my hand passes through him and the thought that I'm immortal, the thought that I'm a Guardian comes back to me.

I take a step back. "I'm sorry, Nick. I'm so so sorry." I say. I fly up into the sky and head back towards the Pole. After a few minutes, I stop and look around. A forest is beneath me. I float down into it and sit in a tree. I just sit there for the rest of the day. As it gets dark, I climb to the top of the tree so I have a view of the sky. After a few minutes, the moon appears. A few stars follow. "This is all your fault!" I scream at the moon. "You ruined their lives!" More tears start to stream down my face. I float up so I'm a few feet above the tree. "You ruined my life!" I shout at the moon again.

Deep, deep down, I know that's not true. I've met Jack, Bunny, North, Tooth, and Sandy, and they're nice and fun and a hundred other things that would take forever to actually tell somebody. I just float there, staring at the moon and crying for a few seconds. "Jess?" I turn to my left and see Jack. "Are you okay?" He asks. I can tell that he sees the tears rolloing down my cheeks. I turn back to the moon as he floats over to me. Then I pull him into my arms. He's taken by surprise and doesn't react for a second, then he wraps his arms around me.

"I let him down, Jack." I say. "What are you talking about?" He asks me. "My older brother died, and then I just disappeared. I was supposed to be there for Nick, I was supposed to be his support." I say. "That's what you saw?" He asks me. I nod. "I'm so sorry, Jess," He says. "Come on. We should get back. They're probably worried about us." I don't want to let go of Jack, he's what's keeping me stable right now. But I do. He grabs my hand and we fly off in the direction of the Pole. We get there in an hour or two. Jack lets go of my hand as we enter through the window and I immediately feel alone.

Jack walks towards the dining hall. I run after him. We walk through the door and everyone looks over at us. Jack gives them a weird look and they go back to eating. I sit at the far end again and start eating my dinner. It's silent for awhile. "So, Jess," Tooth begins. "What happened?" Jack face palms. Tears come back to me as I recall everything in an instant. My mom gasps. "Sam!"  I look up as tears slowly roll down my cheeks. "Oh my gosh, Jess, I'm so sorry." Tooth says. "Didn't the look on my face specifically indicate that you were to not ask her questions?!" Jack says. "I should've gone back. I shouldn't have stayed. Now his life is ruined..." I think about this for a moment and realize that it wasn't Manny who ruined Nick's life, it was me.

"His life is ruined because of me. It was my stupid descision that I made that morning." "Jess, no one's life is ruined. And espescially not because of you." Bunny says. "You don't get it, do you? Our older brother died only a month ago and then I just left, disappeared. I left him. I was supposed to be there for him. I was supposed to be the person he counted on, but now he has no one, and it's my fault." Jack looks over at Tooth. She looks down and sinks into her chair. I get up and walk out of the room. Apparently no one objects to this, as they don't call me back or stop me.

Then I hear yelling coming from inside of the dining hall. I walk towards the stairs but stop when that lonely felling returns and I get slightly scared. I need Jack. I turn around and take a step towards the dining hall when the door opens and Jack walks out. He walks up to me. "You okay?" He asks. "Yeah, I'm fine." I tell him. I turn and start walking back towards the stairs. Jack runs up beside me. We walk down the stairs and into my room. I walk over to my window for a second and look off into the distance. I hear the door automatically close.

I see the moon and smile. I don't know why, but I just do. I turn around and see Jack stretched out on my bed. "Your bed is alot comfier than mine." He says. "I haven't used it as much as you've used yours." I say as I pull the chair up to the side of the bed and sit in it. We sit in silence for a minute, then Jack grabs my arm and yanks me towards him. I land next to him on the bed and he wraps his arms around me. We lay there for a few minutes. Then a wave of sleep washes over me. I start to drift off. "I love you, Jess." Jack whispers. I want to respond, but I don't get the chance because the urge to sleep is to strong to resist.