Battle of the coffee shops

A midnight ride

Jack regretted ever entering the coffee shop. The place that was so warm and lively in the daytime was one of the eeriest places he had ever visited at night-time. He cursed himself for not bringing something to use as a light. It was, excuse the pun, pitch black and the silence that surrounded him was deafening. The prickling sensation that developed on the back of his neck when he entered the shop hadn't gone away yet, in fact it seemed to have intensified. The hair on the back of his neck was standing on edge and despite the fact that the shop was seemingly devoid of life, Jack knew he was not alone. The air was thick and even though the street lamp outside was directly facing the shop's window, no light made it into the building. Out of the corner of his eye, Jack saw something moving from within the darkness. Jack spun around, clutching the package tightly to his chest.

Nothing was there. Jack's palms felt sweaty against the package despite the low temperature around him. His heart pounded hard against his chest, nothing was there. The movement seemed to have moved to behind him now and he could feel something drifting right against his sweater. He froze in fear, the thing behind him seemed to grow even larger and now it's hulking presence was now pressing up against his neck. It was slimy and sandy all at the same time. It felt like...He didn't know how to describe the feeling it gave him. He felt like the all the hope was being drained out of him, like he was back under that cold, cold water. His sister trying to scream out for help, but no sound coming out of her mouth, or at least none that he could hear. The water had blocked out everything.

The creature behind him moved back, preparing for an attack, but the absence of that terrible feeling, even if just for a moment gave Jack just enough time to lunge forward and on to the cold, white tile. The creature let out a low hiss and Jack could hear something charging towards him, their hooves clapping down hard on the tile. A strangled scream leapt from his throat as the creature drew closer. He threw the package over himself, cowering behind the only thing he had that he could use to defend himself. Clenching his eyes shut and pressing himself even farther into the floor he prepared himself for the oncoming attack. Just as the monster leapt, a bright light filled the air. The package in his hand burned like a hot stove and he shoved the offending object to the floor beside him. Snapping open his eyes and scrambling back from where he was sure the creature would be by now Jack looked over with wide eyes as he realized that there was absolutely nothing there. Black sand littered the floor, that was the only clue he had that that had actually just happened. He reached over with shaky, hands that were intent on delivering the package and high-tailing it out of there as fast as he could. When he gripped the brown package however, he bit back a gasp and drew back his hands. Turing them to their palms he was shocked to see red blisters on his fingers where he had been holding the package. They looked red and angry, but how could the package have burned him? It was fine until whatever had been in here had attacked. Jack shook his head and tired to clear all these thoughts out of his head. He just wanted out of this shop.

Using the backs of his hands he manged to get a grip on the package, which seemed heavier now for some reason. As quick as he could be without running Jack made it to the cash register and dropped the package down next to it. There was no way he was going anywhere near Pitch's office, especially if there was a chance that more of those...Things were in there. Besides, he didn't think he would be able to grip the door handle anyway. The door was probably locked anyway and there was no way he could maneuver the bobby pin around with his hands burning like they were. Fanning his hands with the cold air from the room, he made his way to the exit. Pushing open the door he gave an audible sigh of relief as the snowy wind caressed his skin.

A low and angry snort came from behind him, Jack felt that paralyzing fear wash over him again and with slow movements he turned around to face the darkness.

North, Toothiana and Aster all watched as Jack made his way out of the darkened building. Relief was so clear on his features that they could make it out even from their place across the street. Aster scoffed, of course the white-haired traitor would make it out of Pitch's shop unscathed. Pitch wouldn't want his poor, new worker injured on his property, after all Workman's comp was murder to the pocketbook. North however did not share the tan man's attitude, if anything, he looked like he was about to start flying around the room from happiness.

"Ooh I have good feeling in belly about this year, We will win!" He exclaimed giving his wife a celebratory kiss. Toothiana was jumping with excitement, her multicolored dress was swirling and her earrings were dangling around like air fresheners hanging in a car. In fact they were probably big enough to pass off as air fresheners.

It was Bunnymund who first looked back over to Jack, and Bunnymund who realized that this wasn't going to end quite as well as he believed it would. A well-built nightmare was pawing the ground right behind Jack, shadows spilling out around it.

Jack's face was pale enough to be used as a lighthouse beacon and his face was frozen in a mask of horror.

"North, Look a nightmare's behind him!" Aster shouted, drawing the other man's attention away from his wife.

"Man-in-moon! We won't be able to get there in time!" Tooth fluttered by the door, but even she was unsure if she would be able to take on a nightmare without the right spells at the ready. Before North and Aster could run outside, The nightmare attacked.

Jack barely had time to lock eyes with the golden eyed beast when it pounced, biting out with sharp, sandy teeth. Jack pushed back with his arms, ignoring the sting from his hand in favor of not getting mauled to death by something that shouldn't even exist. The shadowy horse bit at his arm, but he luckily only bit off a piece of his sleeve. Jack shuddered, that had been much to close to not being his sleeve. Jack's push knocked the horse off-balance, who clearly wasn't expecting Jack to fight back so much. Jack saw a red light that he hadn't noticed before shining in a corner as he looked up towards the nightmare but seeing as the Nightmare was just now getting steady he took that time to sprint to his car. He had left the door unlocked and never had he been so happy he had done so before. He threw the door open and fell into the seat, pulling his legs away from the door and shutting it again. He turned the car on and sped off as fast as he could, his hands gripping the steering wheel as tightly as he could. He was glad for the rush of adrenalin that was still pumping through his body because otherwise his hands would be unmovable in pain.

Jack was too focused on escaping this town as fast as he could, but if he had looked into his driver's mirror he would have seen a strange gold light coming from Bunnymund and North's hands and hitting the Nightmare. Jack didn't calm down one bit until he was out of that town and safe on the busy highway. Driving slower now, and using only his unburned palms to drive, Jack began to think through what had just occurred. He knew that that horse thing definitely wasn't there when he walked in or when he exited so he had no idea where it had hidden, or what exactly it was. It was made of sand and it's eyes...Jack shuddered at the thought of them, they were feral and dangerous, he never wanted to see those yellow eyes ever again. Then there was the package that burned his hand even though there were no scorch marks on the package itself, Jack was sure there had to be some logical explanation for all this. Finally, Jack's thoughts traveled to that last strange thing that he had seen; The red light in the corner. He hadn't noticed it before when he was in the shop, in fact, the only thing that had been in that corner when he was there for work was-. Jack slammed the brakes and nearly caused the person behind him to ram into the back of his car. Ignoring the cursing from the car behind him, Jack finally processed what he had seen in the corner and when he realized what it was he felt like pulling over and puking out everything he had eaten today. His hands were shaking and he felt like he couldn't breath. In the corner of the shop was a security camera.