Chapter 2

"Jack? Jack? Wake up Jack." Jack's white eyes opened with a slight surprise. He quickly jumped up from his place on the bed, and wrapped his arms around Pitch's neck. The Boogeyman unprepared for the boy's hug immediately lost his balance and fell off the bed. Seeing Jack still clung to him, Pitch laughed. "I can see you're affectionate."

"Yeah." The Nightmare King stood up, but the frost elf refused to let go. Not minding Jack's sentiment, he simply held the guardian as he headed out of the lair. The two headed out into the cold night, where a small army of nightmares awaited for them.

Although it pained him to do so, Pitch removed the boy from his person and placed him upon a nightmare. The Boogeyman placed himself behind jack, just in case worse came to worse, he'd easily be able to grab the frost elf's neck and return him to an obedient state. "Jack be prepared to hold on."

"Okay." The nightmares took to the sky and they headed towards the nearest neighborhood. Meanwhile, the guardians headed into the forest looking for Pitch's lair. They were in the middle of the woods heading towards the area were they last saw Pitch's hideout. The bed frame was gone, as was expected, but the hole was still filled to the brim with dirt.

"They're not here," Tooth said, sorrow obvious in her voice. They all new from the start that it was very unlikely Pitch would reside in the same spot, but now since they had no idea where to look, it filled the guardians with dread.

"Well," North stated authority in his voice, "if we can't get Jack easy way, we'll have to do old fashioned way."

"Let me guess," Bunny said with sarcasm, "it has something do to with tossing him in a sac."

"Ah, so you have same idea? Good!" An encouraging smile appeared on North's face. "Lets go!" As the guardians set out to find Jack, Sandy wondered how they'd ever get Pitch to separate from the guardian of fun.

In the middle of town Pitch and Jack stood on a cloud of black sand as they turned the children's dreams into nightmares. The boy would add the slightest amount of frost to each strand, which only added to the fear the kids' would experience in the night. Black frost appeared on the windows, which would conceal the moon's comforting light. One could easily tell they were pulling out all the stops.

Jack continuously rubbed his eyes, desperately trying to stay awake. The black sand was making him extremely tired, but wouldn't give him nightmares, for he had about a pound or two flowing through his veins. The frost elf started to lean up against Pitch, fading fast. The Boogeyman grabbed the guardian's shoulder and shook him lightly. Jack looked up at the Nightmare King and smiled weakly.

"Now Jack," Pitch scolded slightly, "I know you're tired, but we aren't finished."

"Pitch, I want to go home."

"Soon, we are almost done." Pitch grabbed Jack's chin and kissed the boy repeatedly. When satisfied, he pulled away, only to have a golden whip separate them more so. Pitch glared at the Sandman. The Nightmare King made a scythe out of sand. "Jack, would you be a dear?" Pitch asked holding the end with the blade towards the boy. Jack touched the scythe, leaving a thin layer of ice upon the weapon, so Sandy wouldn't be able to turn it into dream-sand.

Sandman and Pitch began to fight vigorously, when North and Tooth joined in. Pitch had enough sand to hold them off, but Jack still felt the need to fight back. Suddenly a boomerang flew through the air, and the boy had to push Pitch out of the way to stop it from hitting him. Jack looked down angrily at Bunnymund, and flew towards the guardian.

Bunny started to run down an alleyway and Jack chased after him. "Come on Jack! Try to keep up!" The guardian of hope was far ahead of the frost elf, and when Jack was distracted Bunny ran back and stole his staff. Jack looked around, unaware of Bunny's location.

Before he could react, all Jack could see was burlap, and then was quickly lifted off the ground. "PUT ME DOWN!" Bunnymund slung the guardian over his shoulder.

"Sorry mate, not yet." He thumped his foot on the ground, and headed through his tunnel. Suddenly Sandman blasted a wave of sand at Pitch, and when he could finally see again, the guardians were gone.

Pitch looked around, and became worried when he couldn't find Jack. The Nightmare King headed into the streets, and found a small flower growing through the concrete. He grabbed it, and glared at it viciously. "You want to play that way?" Pitch said crushing the flower in his hand. "Fine by me."

To be continued.