Battle of the coffee shops

A strange occurrence

Pitch gripped the steering wheel tight. Grey hands clenched against the material and dug their finely cut nails into the sides. His amber eyes watched the road like a hawk and his foot pressed down hard on the gas pedal.

The moment he had realized the date he had thrown on his black cloak, slipped on his bunny slippers (Which had been the closest things to the door) and was running outside to start up the car. Normally he would never be seen anywhere without being completed covered by clothing, except for his hands, neck, and face; But the last time he had taken too long in a situation like this...Well, Loki had never been the same after that. Pitch had lost the battle that year, but that had been the year that Nicholas St. North had taken it too far. He could only hope that it wasn't the same case with Jack. The poor boy had only been working with him for two days, he surely didn't expect to be dragged into all this mess when he took the job. Nicholas and him had at least been born and raised into this lifestyle, even Loki had to some extent but Jack was nothing more than a bystander. With a sharp right turn he pulled up to the front of his shop. Everything on the street was silent and dark, which was good for him; Now there would be no witnesses. After taking a deep breath Pitch switched the car engine off and hopped out of his car.

A cold gust of wind knocked into him and his cloak fluttered with it like it was trying to say. Pitch threw his arm over his eyes to shield them from the harsh winds. When the winds finally died down Pitch dropped his arm, but he had to blink once more when he saw what was across the street.

In the window of their shop, Nicholas and Toothiana stood with their hands pushing up against the glass, grins stretching both of their face. However, these stretched faces seemed to be a twisted mockery of what a grin should look like. Their eyes held no joy, only something much darker. The only light in the shop was coming from back in their kitchen where a series of flashes were emanating, the bright flashes lighting up North and Tooth's faces like lighting. Before Pitch could step forward and out of his shock the couple waved mechanically before disappearing into thin air; The light in the kitchen had stopped as well. Pitch, not for the first time, cursed his families magic.

The North family had a long line of teleporters, but all the Black's had was the ability to rule the shadows. All his family had was the ability to make him look like some Grey freak. Pitch let out a frustrated growl and stormed forward, Unsure what he was going to do as he knew they wouldn't leave without their wards up. Something crunched under his feet and the sound was completely different compared to the light crunch of snow he had been hearing as he walked. Pitch looked down to see what he had stepped on and as he caught sight of it his eyes widened in horror. The ground seemed to be completely covered in black sand. Shadow sand that he had made his Nightmares with.

Pitch spun around and began sprinting to his shop.

"How did they get in?" he muttered disbelievingly under his breath, "There was no other way for a Nightmare to get out than for someone to open the door." He reached a shaking hand out for the door and gave a light push; It opened. Someone had been in his shop. Pushing a hand to the wall he felt around for the magic he had left to insure that threats couldn't get in, expecting to find it destroyed, Pitch felt confusion take hold when he saw that it was still perfectly in tact. But if his rivals hadn't broken the wards, then how did someone get in?

Pitch stood Irresolute in the dim doorway. Something felt off about the room, like there was a dangerous presence lurking in the darkness just waiting for him to step in. Pitch took a deep breath of air before raising his hand up, calling all of his shadows out of the room. Instantly shadows flocked from every corner of the room and into his hand. They ran along his skin, darkening it even further where the mass of shadows touched until they disappeared, seemingly into the man himself. With the shadows gone out of the room, Pitch could see what had happened in his absence. A shimmer of light shined in from outside and lit up the area by the window where dark sand lay scattered. Another Nightmare down.