Chapter 5: Peter, Jack, and Jim

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Chapter 5: Peter, Jack, and Jim

Who is Jack Frost?

Well, no one really knows. Not even Jack Frost.

His memory began with darkness. That was the first thing Jack remembered: he was drifting inside a frozen pond. It was dark. It was cold. And he was scared.

But then, Jack remembered seeing the moon. At first it was a glimmer refracted through the ice. Then the moonlight intensified. Almost magically the ice spider-webbed and cracked. And as the ice broke, Jack was lifted from the pond and into the air.

He remembered gasping. But not from exhaustion and not from fear.

It was because of the moon. Jack remembered seeing the moon. It was so big and it was so bright, it seemed to chase the darkness away. And when it did, Jack wasn't scared anymore.

Jack had smiled.

The Man in the Moon had smiled back. Your name is Jack Frost he had said.

But that was all the moon ever told Jack. And that was a long, long time ago.

Jack had lived 300 hundred years since. And each century was Hell. For even though Jack had no recollection of who he had been, and no meaning of who he was, that was not the worst part.

The worst part was that no one could see him. No one.

Jack had tried to be seen. Relentlessly in fact. But nothing worked. It didn't matter if he snuck up like a cold chill, or smushed a snowball into someone's face, he remained unseen. People just passed over him like a ghost.

Jack began to wonder: who was he? At best, he was a saying, an expression, the personification of cold. "Put on your scarf! Don't let Jack Frost nip your nose!" At worst, he was an invisible boy with no memory of his past and no hope for his future.

It was almost like he didn't exist. And it was unbearable. So unbearable, Jack pleaded the moon for answers every night.

"If there's something I'm doing wrong..." Jack would always say, "Can you... can you just tell me what it is? Because I've tried everything, and no one ever sees me."

The moon would stay silent. And Jack would always end with an angry plea.

You put me here! The least you can do is tell me... tell me why.

But the moon never responded. Not once. Jack would always depart bitter to the bone and tormenting over his unanswered questions.

It was awful.

Why he existed, why he had lived hundreds of years, and what he was meant to do...Jack did not know. A part of him wondered if he ever would.

And a part of him did not care!

Jack was frustrated with The Man in the Moon, but he used his frustrations as incentive for mischief making. And ohhhhhh was he good at it!

There were certainly perks to being Jack Frost. He was invisible. He could fly on the wind. He was on his own. He had no rules and no responsibilities. And...he could magically manipulate snow and ice.

Yup. It was as good as it sounded.

Jack was a winter hellion. Armed with his magical staff and a twisted sense of humor, Jack used his powers to prank The Otherland. He could freeze lakes in summer and frost flowers in spring. He could start a playground war just by throwing a snowball, or start sledding races just by icing a hill.

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