Nonexistent (Rise of the Guardians)

12. Nope. Definitely Screwed.

I watched Jack's retreating form until he disappeared from sight, and when that happened, I turned to face the Guardians, who were all conversing behind me and to my left.

"Hey, Briez. Get on over here." Bunny said, gesturing me over with a grunt. All of his joy seemed to have disappeared along with Jack and Sophie.

I trotted over to join them in their huddle, where Bunny was explaining instructions.

"Okay, we have seven tunnels and four people to guard them, so three of us are going to have to take two."

"North, you take the Asia and Europe tunnels. There's several large openings in the walls between them so you can jump from tunnel to tunnel. Just keep an eye out and make sure those eggs get to the surface in time for the early morning Easter egg hunters." North nodded and took off towards the tunnels.

"Tooth, you head down the Africa tunnel, and take care of Southern Europe, too. Keep on your guard, Pitch is probably going to try to stop us." With a determined nod, Toothiana zipped away to her tunnel.

Bunny then turned to address me. "I'll take South America, and you can take the North. I'll pop by the Australia tunnel, too, just to make sure there's no trouble. Good luck, Allie." And he was off.

I ran after him, splitting off to enter the North America tunnel at a dead sprint. The tunnel was dark and claustrophobic, and my skin started to crawl with apprehension. The sooner I got to the surface, the better.

I caught up to the eggs in just a couple minutes, floating over the top of the herd to keep from breaking them. I could just barely see them in the darkness of the tunnel, but I managed to get through the darkness without breaking any eggs.

I breathed a sigh of relief when rabbit holes opened up above my head. The eggs below the openings started to float upwards, flying out of the holes in the ceiling of the tunnel. As soon as the little things stepped into the shafts of light that appeared when the holes opened up, they started to ascend and run into bushes where they hid, their tiny legs disappearing as they turned into normal, not enchanted eggs.

Then, the rabbit holes were covered, shrouding me in darkness once again. I looked up through one of the openings and saw one angry yellow eye glaring at me from within a swirling mass of black sand.

"Oh no."

In an instant, I was surrounded. Nightmares streamed in from every opening above me, ahead of me, and behind me as they converged, their black hooves smashing eggs indiscriminately as they pounded across the tunnel to get to me. I drew my knife, dropping into a crouched position and scanning my surroundings for an escape route.

I figured I could pick off a couple of nightmares and fly out through a mostly unguarded rabbit hole off to my left, and then fly as fast as I possibly could to find the others, though they probably had the same issue as me.

I dove off to the right as one of the black horses reared up and struck out at me with its hooves. It clipped me on the shoulder blade as I ducked away, and the nightmare's sharp hoof sliced a three inch gash in the left side of my upper back, across almost my entire shoulder blade. It was about the width of my pointer finger, and it hurt like nobody's business. The skin around the wound turned ashy and grey, and the gash itself started to steam.

An agonizing pain shot through me, spears of white hot iron stabbing into my limbs and turning my blood to fire. I screamed, and the nightmares surged forwards, seeming to revel in my pain. My knife slipped from my sweaty hands and skittered away as I stumbled to my knees, gripping my bleeding shoulder with my right hand while my left hung uselessly at my side. Tears fell from my eyes as my vision started to fade, overcome by the blackness surrounding me. The nightmares split off, apparently aware that I was done for. They bolted down the tunnels, smashing more eggs with their violent hoofbeats. I watched in a daze as Bunnymund's precious eggs were destroyed by the horrors that surrounded me.

Bunny. The Guardians. I can't let them down.

With one final scream, I thrust my hands forward, blasting apart the nightmares with one powerful gust of wind. My aviator goggles were whipped off my head in the tornado, and over the panicked screeching of the nightmares, I heard a metallic clatter and then the small chinking noise of loose parts as my invention shattered against the tunnel wall. The nightmares were blasted back and torn apart by the furious wind I summoned. Nothing survived the wind storm. By the time my power finally gave out, I was surrounded by mounds of black sand and heaps of shattered eggshells. A couple of gears and bent springs lay in front of me, next to a heap of twisted metal and glass shards that used to be my aviator goggles. My limbs were lead, my head had a boulder the size of a house banging around inside it. I couldn't move, I could barely breathe.

I watched as a tall shadow, darker and more intimidating than all the others, loomed over my head as I struggled to keep my golden eyes open. Malicious yellow eyes and crooked teeth came into view as Pitch Black leaned close to me, his breath hot on my sweaty face.

"Fantastic job breaking those eggs, Alexandra. You've made my job that much easier." A wicked smile crept across his face as I feebly tried to push him away, all of my strength gone.

"Now, all I have to do is take care of you." Pitch whispered calmly, his voice coming out in an almost inhuman hiss of malice. With one swift movement, he snatched my wrist up and pressed his long, sharp black thumbnail onto the vein on the underside of my wrist. I screamed and struggled as a stabbing feeling like ice freezing my veins, far worse than the pain of my shoulder wound, spread across my arm and into my chest. It seemed to stop at my heart, and I froze, paralyzed with terror as the world seemed to morph around me. Shadows danced across the tunnel walls, laughing and jeering at my limp form as I tried to wrench my arm out of Pitch's grasp. Only when the world was nearly all black did the boogeyman let go of me, and then disappeared into the shadows with one last chilling statement.

"Enjoy my gift to you, little sister."
With one last shuddering breath, I slipped into utter blackness.

Alrighty! A short chapter, but a crucially important one nonetheless. See what I did there? I just set up the storyline of another book! I'm going to turn this book into a trilogy, but not before this first installment gets a major makeover. I'm going to edit this book once it's all published, because my next book is relying on a certain trait of Allie's that I haven't discussed much as of yet. Hope you're enjoying your read!

~Adria out!