Katherine and the Truth About Jack

Chapter 20: The Chance to Fight

It was as if something had literally sucked the joy and color out everything.

His friends and him all shared looks, wondering if they should bother meeting at the lake like they usually did. They hadn't said a word to each other, and finally, with a collective sigh, they all went their own separate directions.

The inquisitive boy knew that they weren't this way on purpose. He also knew that the idea of the entire town should have pushed him to contact Jack. But the truth was, he didn't care, no one did now.

So when Jack landed rather suddenly in front of him, with Katherine in arm he was not surprised by his lack of enthusiasm.

Anything would have been a welcome reaction from Jamie. But he didn't even flinch at the sight of Katherine. She had resigned herself to a sloppy bun and an old button up that didn't quite fit, from the time before she was a Guardian. The boy looked up slowly, and met Jack's eyes.

The Guardian dropped to his knees before the small boy. "Jamie?"

He looked at Jack, with have closed eyes, letting out a little sigh without an answer.

"Look, Katherine is back, I found her." Jack grabbed Katherine's arm and she kneeled before the boy. "She has a plan, she can stop this before it gets any worse!"

Jamie dropped, "How could this get any worse."

Katherine took the boys hand, "It won't we'll stop this. You just gotta keep your spirits for a little bit longer." She took the child's cheek in warm hands, trying to ignore the shock of cold that ran up her arm.

"Why would you leave Katherine, if you knew this was going to happen." The familiar helplessness settled on him again, and his head dropped. Large tears rolled down that child's cheek and onto his snow jacket.

Katherine pulled away her hand, sucking in a breath.

Jack grabbed his shoulders and shook him, "We don't have time for this Jamie! You have to trust us! Katherine says we may be able to destroy the Weepers, you can't give up hope now."

"I'm trying Jack...but...but what's the point?"

Jamie's hair suddenly lost some color and his shoulders drooped further. He didn't move, he hardly even breathed.

"Jamie? Jamie!"

"Jack stop!" Katherine grabbed his shoulder and pulled him away. Then Jack saw, to his horror the gas like substance leaking out of his bag and stepped back. The boy forced himself to straighten, looking around. Everywhere, everyone had stopped moving.

Men, women, animals and children could be seen, their color almost completely drained. They stood in place looking like statues, or slouched over objects as if tired. Some had even sat down, leaning against walls and trees oe anything else they could find. It was as id the entire town had just given up or all been turned to dropping miserable stones. Some of them had streams of tears that was soaking the earth beneath them, some were just stared into space and some had even fallen asleep.

Worst of all, attached to every single one, a weeper. No matter how young or old a weeper or a sob could be seen clinging to people.

Jack turned back to Katherine his heart racing wildly.

"It's going to be okay, we still have the chance to fix this." She took with a sense of weight behind her tone.

His fear melted, his brows furrowed and he clenched tighter to his staff. "I know it will."

"I thought you would be smart enough not to come here." A voice hissed.

Despite expecting it, Katherine still shivered at the sound of the voice. In front of her across the street rose Pitch from the shadows, the Weepers parting for him. As soon as Jack caught sight of the ruined half of Pitch's face, he stiffened. In the streetlights his face looked worse, the scars created shadows, and when his lips curled into a scowl, he looked like some melted wax statue.