Chapter 9: Anger and Loneliness

The next memory opened in a blur of color and chaos. Frost had broken into North's Workshop again, and been caught by Phil. Though the Yeti seemed put out, he also seemed to slowly be growing fond of the young winter spirit.

"How many times did you try to break into workshop?" North asked, curious.

"Hm... well if I had to guess, I'd say probably at least 15 times a year, if not more." Jack answered after a moment.

"Didn't you have somethin' better to do?" Bunny shot Jack a disapproving glare.

"No, not really. Other than spreading Winter, trying to break into Santa's workshop and pranking the random bystander was my only real pastime." Jack shrugged.

"What about hanging out with friends?" Tooth suggested worriedly, and Jack couldn't help but scoff.

"What friends?" He muttered lowly, but they all managed to catch it.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Bunny furrowed his brows.

"You guys really don't get it, do you?" Jack huffed. He was becoming frustrated with how the other Guardians kept trying to sugarcoat his 300 years of solitude. They had this idea in their head that he'd had people to rely on. That he'd had friends or something... He had no idea where they got that notion from, but it was wrong.

"I'm sorry?" Tooth tilted her head. She was somewhat offended at the tone Jack had taken with them, but figured that her Sweet Tooth was just stressed from watching these memories.

"Hey, now, there's no need to go bitin' people's heads off." Bunny twitched in irritation.

"I think I've every right to bite people's heads off. You keep making light of those three hundred years of Hell. You have no idea what I went through! None! Do you have any concept of how lonely it is?! When nobody can see you! Or hear you! And those that can want nothing to do with you?! And if you're lucky, they'll simply ignore you, and pretend you don't exist. For three centuries, that was all I'd ever known! And while you guys sat around, bribing children into seeing you, and became drunk off your belief, I was running for my life and scavenging trash bins for my dinner! But oh, who cares about Jack fucking Frost anyhow?! He's a spirit, so nobody really cares! Nobody likes winter anyways, so we'd be better off with him dead! Yet no matter how many times they tried, I just wouldn't die. Guess I'm just cursed that way. And you know what?! Jamie was the first kid who wasn't dying to see me, but he'll die one day, too! And with him and his friends, my belief will be gone again." He took several deep, calming breaths.

He didn't realize he'd started yelling. These words had been locked up within him for so long, and now that there were people to listen to him, it'd all come bursting forth like the breaking of some great dam.

The Guardians stared at him wide-eyed. Tooth had tears running down her face, and Bunny looked like he'd been punched in the gut. Sandy looked angry (on Jack's behalf), and North had paled quite dangerously. The silence rung in the ears of all five people.

Luckily, before anyone could say anything else, the memory took over again, having finished the little montage of breaking into the Workshop.

"Hey, Wind... did you know? The Japanese word for you is 'kaze'." Frost grinned as he leaned back against a snow bank. "If you want, I can call you Kaze, like a name. Wind is kind of more like what you are, rather than who you are." He laughed as the newly dubbed Kaze ruffled his hair.

"Good to hear! I was thinking..." Frost cut himself off when he heard a branch snap. His head whipped up, and he took a defensive stance, startling the Guardians.

"Jack is 73 in this memory." MiM informed, causing Jack to wince. Ouch... this won't be fun.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" A man with a dark tan and flaming red hair stepped out from behind a tree. The snow beneath his bare feet melted instantly, and steam rose from the ground where he stood.

The instant Frost caught sight of him, he paled dangerously. He trembled in fear. "D-Damian!" He stuttered as he backed up, trying to put as much space between the two of them as possible. "W-what're you doing here? It's the middle of January... We've still got at least a couple months of winter left..."

Damian took a step forward and smirked wickedly. "Oh, I know. But I'm not here to warm the weather... yet. I'm here for you."

"I've done nothing wrong!" Frost defended himself. He tightened his grip on his staff, ready to run at the drop of a hat.

"Nothing wrong?" Damian laughed. "You're existence is wrong! Nobody needs something like you. You're useless! Winter can spread on its own; there's no need for a mistake like you to run around causing trouble for everyone. So do us all a favor... And die." He grinned as several summer sprites came out from the foliage behind Frost, and quickly knocked his staff out of his hands.

The Guardians watched in horror as they forcefully held him up, their touch burning the winter spirit with a terrifying hiss. Frost's eyes were wide with terror, and he cried out in pain as Damian took his face in his hand, blistering the skin he touched.

"Not so tough now, are you?" He laughed.

"H-hey... we should hurry it up. If Freyr catches us, you know there'll be trouble. He doesn't like conflict between seasons like this." One of the sprites spoke up, causing Damian to shoot him a glare.

"Tch. Fine." He pulled out a wicked looking dagger, and Frost's pupils dilated and his efforts to escape increased tenfold.

Jack watched the scene with cold eyes. "If you've a weak stomach, I suggest you cover your eyes now. And possibly your ears."

"Wh-what?!" Tooth couldn't find it in herself to hover anymore. She sunk to her knees in horror. What happened to her Sweet Tooth?! Why would they do this to him?!

North's fists were balled up in anger, no, fury. How dare these summer spirits do this to his son?!

Sandy looked ready to kill. He wouldn't mind sending Pitch after these guys. Even if it was only for a few decades.

Bunny, on the other hand, watched the scene unfold in despair. He'd seen torture before. He'd been tortured before. But most of that was emotional... mental... not physical like this. And to watch such a carefree child be literally sliced up by a blade made of the season that was his polar opposite...

Everybody winced when Frost's first scream tore through his throat. It was guttural... painful didn't even begin to describe it. Baby Tooth hid in Jack's hood, covering her ears and trembling in fear. Jack smiled softly at her, and cupped his hands around her to help block out the sound.

At one point, Damian buried his blade up to the hilt in Frost's torso. That scream was the worst. The group of Summer Sprites laughed as they sent a wave of heat at the Spirit of Winter before they took the blade and left.

The wind swirled around angrily... worriedly.

The Guardians waited for someone to show up and help Frost. Surely, someone had come along to help him?

"Ow..." Frost moved carefully. His broken ribs and busted leg made moving neigh impossible. The stab wound only made matters worse. But he knew that if he were to stay there, he'd die. He painstakingly dragged himself to his feet and started to stumble out of the ring of melted snow that had been caused by the summer sprites and back towards the comforting cold of his season. The trail of red left behind him bothered the Guardians more than they were willing to admit.

After what felt like hours, he managed to stumble into a pristine snowdrift. The white of his season slowly stained crimson, and Frost stared in fascination. "Huh... it's so... pretty." He noted aloud with a wince. His voice was hoarse, and he quickly picked up a handful of snow and ate it like an apple.

He sighed in relief, before picking up more snow and packing it into his profusely bleeding stab wound. He then held one hand over it, and concentrated. It hardened into ice.

"There... That should stop the bleeding..." He muttered. There were several other cuts and countless burns all over his body, but he looked exhausted. "However..."

He looked over at his staff, which had been knocked out of his hands earlier. It lay a good few feet away, and he groaned. "Why is it so far away?"

He glared at the sky as if it was merely an inconvenience before staggering to his feet once more. He used the tree beside him to balance himself as he limped towards his staff.

The moment he grasped it, the tension left his shoulders. He looked like a kid with their comfort object. The Guardians realized with a start that that's exactly what this was—minus the powers, of course.

Frost carefully probed his broken leg, finding the break. "This is gonna suck..." He took a deep breath before setting his leg himself.

He swayed where he sat, nearly blacking out from the pain, before shaking his head to clear the black spots that had intruded upon his vision. He then concentrated his powers on his leg, wincing a bit as the ice crept over the bone itself, holding it in place and helping to reduce the swelling from the inside.

"You set your own leg?" North blinked in shock.

"Yeah, not like anyone else was gonna do it for me." Jack answered sardonically. He was still peeved about earlier, and the Guardians took the hint for once and backed off.

"All right, Kaze... Now we can go somewhere safer." Frost smiled.

And as the wind picked him up as gently as it could, the Guardians caught one last whispered statement from the memory of their youngest member. "You truly are my only friend, Kaze... thank you."

A/N: So my motivation for this story seems to be back... or something. Let's not jinx things. But I hope you've enjoyed this chapter. Lots of heavy stuff in this one. I'm sorry, but Jack's past is not pretty. There will be torture scenes. I will put up warnings at the beginning of those chapters, but they will happen. Jack did cuss and drop the f-bomb, but that's only because he was seriously angry. 300 years of pent-up emotion had to explode at some point, right?

Let me know what you thought of this chapter, and leave a review! And I'm sorry for not updating for so long. Which is why I've updated twice in a row. (No I literally wrote this chapter in 1 hour... holy crap).

Words: 1,716

Pages: 4

Posted: 04/10/2019