The Razor's Edge: A Jack Frost Fanfiction

Chapter 5

The wind whipped at my hair furiously. She was pulling me back as if telling me not to go.

"They might need me. Please let go, I need to help them."

The wind gave up its hold on me like I'd asked, but I could still feel her waiting to snatch me up again if she deemed it necessary.

When I arrived at the North pole, it was eerily quiet.

I burst through the front doors and a yeti groaned as the gust of wind brought from outside, knocked over the pile of toys he was working on. Any other time I would have laughed, but I was on a mission.

"North! What happened?" I shouted as I reached the globe room.

Bunny and Tooth shared a look, their eyes filled with worry.

Sandy looked less worried than he did ready to fight. He was making images so fast with his dream sand, I couldn't make out what he was trying to say.

"Jack, it's Manny. He's chosen a new guardian." Said Tooth, her wings flapping fast enough to cause a hurricane.

"You guys look like someone just died, who did Manny pick? Is it really that bad that you had to send the lights?" I was slowly walking toward them when I felt the same chills run down my spine as I did just hours ago at Jamie's school.

"Hello, Jack."

My skin crawled at that voice. I gripped my staff with a familiar rage and whipped my head to see Pitch Black standing behind me.

"What are you doing in here? Get out!" I seethed and pointed my staff right at his face.

I slowly calmed down and lowered my arm as I felt Tooth's hand rest on my shoulder.

"He's the new guardian. Manny changed his powers, Jack. He's one of us now." Her soothing voice caused my breathing to steady, but I still had a death grip on my staff.

"But why? Why do we need a new guardian?"

How could Pitch possibly help the very same children he tried to hurt?

I took a closer look at Pitch and realized that he was no longer all gray and black. He had normal skin, but still wore black clothing. How could he have changed so much in a matter of weeks?

"What we've come to understand is that Manny changed Pitch's powers mate. He can't make nightmares anymore," explained Bunny. "He sent Pitch because there are many children that are depressed. There are too many taking their own lives. His new powers will help find them and tell us what they need to be happy again; That is his new purpose."

Bunny's calm act was betrayed by his eyes, he felt just as much resentment for Pitch as I did.

"We can't just trust him after all the bad he's done-"

"Do you trust Man in Moon?" North asked, a seriousness replacing any other feeling once held in his eyes.

The answer should have come easy, but this time it wasn't so simple.

*****

After we ended our discussion about Pitch, he didn't say a single word. He just stared at me with pitying eyes that made me sick.

The other guardians eventually left us alone to talk, but that was the last thing I wanted to do.

"I'm so sorry, Jack. I know now that what I did-"

"You're sorry? How could someone like you ever understand what it's like to be sorry?" Pitch didn't respond, but instead gave me another disgusting look of pity.

I felt so much rage it needed somewhere to go, but I couldn't show any weakness while Pitch was here. I'm sure it would only satisfy him to see me in such a state.

"Jack I know you're depressed."

I shot him an icy cold glare. "I don't know what you're talking about, you know nothing about me. How could the guardian of fun be depressed? You're just full of it aren't you."

"Jack, I can help you."

"Help me? The only way you can help me is if you stop talking about me like you know me. Like you understand what I'm going through. I don't need your help."

I couldn't take another second of this, but my feet didn't have enough energy to take me anywhere else.

Just when I thought my knees would give out, the wind came through a window and took me into its graceful arms. Before I knew it, I was far away from the North pole and far away from the suffocation of everything that happened today.

For the first time ever I swore I heard the wind talk to me, but it was swept away as she set me down. I could no longer feel her mothering touch and tears came to my eyes. I needed that affection, I couldn't bear this without it.

My mental stability was a balancing act. I was leaning father and father over the edge of the tightrope until... until I leaned too far.

I stare at an ice dagger that glinted under the light of the moon.

"I'm sorry Manny, I know I'm not who I used to be."

The skin on my left arm had seen better days, same as me. How funny.

My skin was a reflection of everything I've lost, and everything I couldn't be. Maybe this wasn't the best idea, but it was the only one I could manage.

I was falling, falling, falling off the tightrope until all I could feel was the cold of the dagger in my hand.

My arm enveloped in red, made it seem like I was never made of skin at all.