Jackaby Stories

15. Sight (Pt. 2)

Previously: The figure turned around...

Black eyes with irises like frost looked back at me, tiny second and minute and hour hands ticking from pupils like clocks. The- the thing reached out and a vice like hand gripped my wrist. My leather notebook was jarred out of my pocket, but it never hit the ground.

Jackaby's POV:

I frowned and peered at the time-locked person in front of me. A white-ish blue, pale aura surrounded him, but it seemed as if frozen, like cracks of frost etching out from him. The broke apart as I reached for them, growing up my sleeve. I brushed them off hurriedly before they reached my shoulder and stepped back through the crowd of still people. The silence was deafening, waves of nothing crashing down on me louder than any shout ever could have been. I ignored the chills enveloping me and went back to where I had last been with Abigail. She had moved.

"Abigail?" I said, not quite a yell. The sound cut purple ribbons through the fogs of soundlessness. No reply. I tried again, yelling.

"Abigail?" Still, nothing. A dark, slow laugh resonated through the silent streets, like the sound of a bass drum. I whirled around to nothing but a thick wall of ice. A name had been carved into it's surface, irregular, illegible cursive. It glowed stark black. The ice itself was solid and heavy, burning cold to the touch. Around 100 metres away, a second wall of ice had erupted out of the ground.

"Abigail!" I yelled again, cupping my hands around my mouth. Still, no reply. Forcing myself not to panic, I started off along the dead street, sidestepping around people and ducking under a thrown apple hanging above my head. A single drip of water had rolled off it, a frozen drop in the middle of a frozen sky. The pavement crunched with frost, and I shivered. I set off at a jog, glancing around for any sign of my companion. Even thinking about Abigail brought a smile to my face, the way her eyes glinted when she read or finished a report, the way her laugh sounded... I take pride knowing that I know what an angel sounds like, thanks to her. But my heart skipped a beat as I turned around the corner of the last alleyway on the ice-blocked street.

Crystal-ly blue snowflakes crept up Abigails arms and a shocked look was on her face, no sign of who had done it. Her hands were cold to the touch, almost painfully so, but I held them anyways, willing any sign of alive back into them. A slow, dark ticking like that of a clock boomed harshly through the icy street. A deep laugh, the same as earlier, came shortly after it, and I whirled around to a pair of eyes like clocks.

"Hello," said the deep, dark voice, the clock eyes ticking away mercilessly. It- he- reached out a hand and gripped my free wrist. I smiled grimly as he jerked his hand back as if burned.

"Seer," I replied simply.

"Cursed," he responded. "Do you not find it a curse, the Sight?" I shook my head.

"Who are you?" The strange man flung his arms wide and grinned wickedly.

"Orpheus, Time Master, God of Time, if you wish," he said with a flourish.

"I think "bastard." Bring them back, bring her back. They don't deserve this, none of them do. Let them go, Orpheus. What do you want with them?"

"Fun. I haven't been to the mortal realm in ages, only escaped a few weeks back, from the Otherworld. This is fun," Orpheus put it, still grinning sickly. "I am time, and there is no reason you should not fear me."

"I don't fear you. Bring her back, bring them all back." Much to my surprise, and confusion, he snapped his fingers, a black tinted hourglass flipping over in his hand. Water sloshed around my boots and over the pavement as the walls of ice melted. Murmurs of confusion rippled as people began moving, the sudden noise strange in my ears. They were oblivious. They had no idea. But Abigail stayed frozen.

"Wha-"

"Well? Satisfied?"

My hands formed fists by my sides as I looked at him, his oh-so-innocent expression, his clock eyes boring into my grey ones.

"No."

"Whyever not, R.F. Jackaby? I unfroze them."

"No. You didn't. You didn't unfreeze the one person that means something to me in this town. Let. Her. Go," I spat, fury burning in my gut even as my heart cracked. Orpheus chuckled.

"Can't. She touched me first, technically, it was her fault. I can't change it if she chose this, now can I?" he said plainly, a smirk on his face. And he disappeared, leaving the hazy white-blue frost in his way. I pressed the heels of my palms into my closed eyes and I slumped against the wall of the alley, murmuring Abigail's name over and over again.

I pushed myself up and turned back to her, taking her freezing hands once again in mine. I heard her voice in my head then, yelling.

Think, Jackaby. Think. There will be something.

A thought struck me. I could do something. But I might condemn myself.

I rested my forehead against hers, closing my eyes. I grimaced as my mind rebelled against me. After all, you aren't supposed to give up Sight.

But I had too.

I cracked my eyes open as my hands tingled, watching as the Sight's yellow aura traveled down my hands and over her arms. (I don't know if the aura is actually yellow, but I'm guessing.) I pulled back and waited as I couldn't see it anymore.

Tick.

Tock.

Tick.

Tock.

Abigail gave a shuddering gasp and pitched forward, clutching the collar of my coat as I caught her. I helped her upright and tugged her to me, breathing in the lemony scent of her hair and holding back tears of relief. She pulled back and looked at me curiously.

"Are you- are you glowing?" she questioned. I bit my lip.

"Abigail... You're going to see things differently from now on. A lot differently. I- I shouldn't have done that, but I- you have the Sight." I hadn't meant it to come out so bluntly. "I gave up my Sight. You're the Seer now." She went to speak, but I cut her off again.

"I gave you my Sight, because I couldn't stand by and watch you frozen. It ripped my heart apart, seeing you so still, and I thought you would die. So I gave you my Sight so it would repel the time lock. And I'm just an ordinary human now. You're the Seer now," I repeated. She smiled weakly.

"You're anything but ordinary, R.F. Jackaby," she whispered, and kissed me. Her lips were cold from the recent ice, but I couldn't care less. Never again, I thought. I don't want her to go again.

Fin!!

A/N: OMC WOW!!! That was so so fun to write and I'm super sorry it didn't come earlier, but thank you to kiyatehnerd for that wonderful idea and thank you all for 500+ reads!! I honestly never thought I'd get past 50, so this is AMAZING!! And thank you also to Oracle_In_Disguise for always posting such nice comments and supporting this book since the very beginning, and to MidnightGloom for supporting me in all of my life's problems and being a wonderful friend.

As ever, I hope you enjoyed!!