Sorry to those still reading for the shaky updates. I'm really thankful that you're still reading even after I admitted this story is less about Jack than most of yall probably hope it is to be.. I'm really sorry for that, I just sort of feel a connection with Grey and Ilia and them and it's more reaching out to me to write about them more. The guardians will still be included, definatally. They're all very important, how could they not be? Especially Jack of course.. But again, thank you so much if you're still reading. Please ask me if theres anything you want me to add or to happen to this story. I'll do my very best to add it to the plot I've got planned out. I'm trying (and I know some of you will hate me for this) to lower the torture.. my mind's been pretty corrupt lately and I've decided to start to work it out slightly. This wont be a 100% happy story but there wont be any mass slaughtering without a heavy reason and plot to go behind it. Still I'll try to add in elements if yall want me to.
But without further ado, it's 12 in the morning right now and I have one of the end of the year tests tomorrow morning at (get this) 5 am, so I'm going to be dead, but I cant sleep for the life of me, so here's the update ^^ again.. thank you so much if you're still reading. You're not just motivating me to write but keeping my confidence about myself up, something i've needed a lot lately. It means a whole lot.
Wake up.. He didn't want to. His eyes were sealed and refused to meet the demands of his persistent conscious. It wasn't even as much of him choosing to not awaken.. his body just decided for him that awakening to the situation he was in currently was far worse than just keeping his eyes closed.
This had all been his fault, the pain he knew was hitting Ilia, the pain he knew for complete sure was wrecking its toll on his body, and the damage he had and would cause. Maybe even the pain he was putting on Jack.. Grey had always been cautious to accept but the guardian's warmth even in the darkness of the time was forcing the sturdy stone doors of his sealed heart to fissure open.. to crack. He didn't like it.. if a rock was cracked, it was far easier to break and shatter than a rock that was hard and strong. This went for the heart as well. He felt himself easily angered, easily upset.. easily caring. And it made his confidence sink slightly to know that the guardians had unwillingly left the cold man with enough warmth to melt his wall. Still he was strong enough to keep tears back easily, there was no way Pitch would see him without having blood red eyes glaring back.
Grey was in less of a cage and more of a container. It was a large cube made of a clear, glass-like material but no matter how many times his powerful fists slammed into it, the glass didn't so much as crack. If only I were as strong as this thing.. he mumbled inside of his head. Your feelings don't make you weak, they give you a reason to live. A deep, frustrated sigh blew raven bangs from the reaper's face, eyebrows pulled together to show the cogs turning in his head. "Look at you, all deep in thought. I forgot you got like this, Death, going into your own little world." The voice snapped the reaper from his mind and he looked up coldly as he cold towards the horribly familar voice. He hated the smirk that always seemed to return, the jokingly crude smirk that declaired who was really in control in this situation. He gave a small growl. "I know what's going through your head too.. funny, I used to never understand you. Guess sleeping for a thousand years gets you to be really understanding huh?" There was no answer. Chaos' voice when he said that, 'sleeping for a thousand years' lost its calm tone in replacement for something more angry, blaming. Yellow eyes flashed with anger despite the easy, cool look on the bringer of panic's face. Grey stared quietly up at his captor without a word. Maybe if he didn't seem amusing Chaos would get bored and leave.. or just force him to be intertaining somehow. The thought didn't sound good at all.. "But anyways.. the King wanted to visit you.. ya know, see how you're liking your new home." The smile that came with those words was far too happy for anything Grey wanted to hear, but just as the words came out, a new figure came in the room. Black sand sprouted from his feet into the ground and faded as his soles left the ground, a horse of the same sand trotted behind it's master with pupiless eyes facing the bringer of death with a wary look. Even the sand was afraid of him still but the horse held confidence as long as it was by Pitch's side, protected from the monster before it. Up until his first visit to Pitch's lair, Grey had been immune to nightmares, including the shimmery sand that seemed to be everywhere.. but once Pitch stuffed his head so full of it he could barely think straight, the horrible dreams seemed to follow him without ease. Probably payback for all the times he could just shoo the black steeds away without any fear at all. Now they haunted him.
Pitch smirked as he saw the cold glare gazing up at him, a look he expected to walk into but pleasing all the same. The glare wasn't as intemidatingly angry as it had been when the man was free, his scythe was in his possession and the child by his side. It was like some sort of wolf.. cautious and quiet until provoked, fear striking when angry, but when caged, it just gives that glare. The glare that's meant to scare the predator away but still holds the ounce of knowing, the fear.. oh how Pitch Black loved Death's fear. It wasn't strong, no, there was only a slight trace of it, but that trace was so powerfully intoxicating, he couldn't get enough. The reaper didn't get fear of his own pain, the nightmare king beat him beyond a human's life and he still was strong through it. But now that the guardians and that girl were in danger at his hand and he had no control, no way to stop it.. oh there was fear. And it was amazing to soak in.
Chaos stepped back. The look on Pitch's face clarified the obvious, Grey Loss was nervous. Nervousness was fear in itself, its the fear of what might be yet to come, the fear that something might go wrong, but it's overall fear. Though the glare Death held was strong, it was, again like a caged wolf's fear when he realizes there's no way out. He refused to show it but his look betrayed him.. and it showed in the deep redness of those bright orbs on the dark figure. "Good morning, Grey," Pitch said nicely, his smile wide enough to show the sharply uneven but bright white teeth that he held in his grey-lipped mouth. The reaper looked around automatically, obviously searching for a window, his mind too scattered to remember that the lair was underground and there would be no way to tell whether it was really the next day or the same cold night as before. How long had he been out? Pitch gave a laugh and shook his head, smiling yet again as the cold glare returned to meet his own eyes, the watered down golden color brightened just slightly as the wiff of nerves hit him yet again. It was like an aroma that got his chest rushing, it was addicting especially when it was so hard to draw out. Jack's first fear had the nightmare king tempted to throw the boy into one of the cages he held the fairies in and never let him go, just waft in the fear and fill himself with strength on it.. but that proved to be impossible once the boy rejected the trap to come to Pitch's side. But now.. now he had someone else to charge on. The nightmare king crouched in front of the large container, acting cheerfully surprised to see such a cold but anxious look in the usually careless and powerful glance of Death himself. "What's wrong, reaper? I thought you might like it in there. Quiet, comfortable.. wont break if your little monster tries to come out again.." Red eyes narrowed but he stayed as silent as he had since he awoke. There was no way he'd give the satisfaction to Pitch, though he still felt his own nerves and knew with a sense of dread that Pitch could feel it too. "Oh, and while you're in there you wont have to worry about your little job for a while. I'm sure the Man in the Moon will understand of course.. if the Grim Reaper takes a little break." The words pushed in like a dagger and Pitch's smirk widened drastically as a burst of fear rushed from the grim into him before hiding itself away again within a second. The look of shock stayed though and the thoughts rushing in and out of Grey's panicked mind were almost readable from how wide his eyes were, the slight gaping of his mouth.
Grey felt himself lose the tension he held as the pictures fell through his mind. If he couldn't reap, if he couldn't do his job, things would get bad, fast. Countless people died every day and with more being born just as fast, just a few weeks without the reaper guiding the dead to their destinations meant the population of the word filling up. If someone fell from a tower and was crushed on the ground they would still have to live through the horrible pain and agony of having shattered bones and an unstopping heart. The elderly would begin rotting as they breathed, the human's word 'zombies' would come to life. Humans didn't heal as fast and efficiently as Grey could when he got seriously injured, their bodies would die as their souls lived on.. it would be painful and devistating. So many people would suffer, not be able to reach the heaven they had awaited for so long. If someone were to lose their heads then they would have to walk on without, if someone were horribly ill they would suffer for all of eternity.. the humans declaired how much they hated Death.. but without him, all that would be left in the world would be suffering. The cycle of life that was so delecately balanced would tumble if the reaper was pulled from it. Chaos gave a cackle of a laugh.. this had to have been his idea as well. Of course the maniac spirit would love this, the suffering around the world would stir up fighting and despiration, madness and humans driven insane by their own pain.. it would be Chaos. It would bring him to power just as much as the fear going around had pulled Pitch up from his own ditch of failure. "I see you understand," the nightmare king continued, rising from his crouched position. "Fear will strike the world as they realize there's no escape from their pain.. and you can't do a thing about it but watch and know that this pain, all the suffering is all.. because.. of you." Death's head bowed, his black curtain of hair falling to cover his face. He wasn't crying but the defeat, the shatter of the heart that showed upon his face was too strong for his cracking heart to hide. He already had to deal with his job.. knowing that he was hurting so many people everyday for eternity, making children cry and spirits fall.. but this would be far worse. His burden was already too heavy for anyone to hold. Now the weight of the world was pressed down upon him.. even Grey Loss couldn't keep his lack of caring up for that. Chaos cackled, flicking his index finger upwards carelessly. The reaper's head rose with it like a puppet of some sort, lifting so that his hair fell from his face and the look of pain showed to the two sadistic men watching. Grey looked so much less than he usually was.. less like an older stronger man and more like some kid just becoming an adult, confused and hurt, being pressured to be strong but being weak on the inside. Like an agressive dog after getting hit, the look of pain that he had held back was showing through.. it was amazing for the two men of darkness watching on. Chaos smirked and dropped his hand, Death's head falling back to his chest with it as he turned out of the room laughing. Grey kept his head down.. he couldn't show his face if he wanted to. They saw it, the pain he had always managed to hide so well. They saw his weakness behind the invincable wall..
I sort of created a.. whats it called with Grey. Sort of how his feelings match his body. His body's invincable when he has his scythe, he's powerful and can't get hit even barely no matter what comes his way. But when his scythe gets taken from him he can get hurt badly sometimes.
Sort of like how he feels.. he puts up a wall to block out everyone and everything, he manages to hide his feelings from the world but when that wall gets pulled down, all in all he's hurting on the inside, just as weak as anyone else would be if they had to deal with the burden he does. Sorry for such an in depth thought, back to the story.
Pitch gave a final smirk before rising and walking to the doorway, stopping at the frame and looking back at the reaper. He didn't look so powerful now.. his face was hidden behind his hair, his head bowed and his arms crossed tightly across his chest, nails digging into them. One of his knees was pulled up.. he looked so confused, agonized by the knowing that he couldn't do a thing about it.. The nightmare king took a deep breath of the fear he so loved before leaving the room. He had always wanted to be believed in more than anything, no matter what it took. And if it took a mass of destruction, havoc and pain.. then so be it. Fear would finally rule the world.