Once jack and pitch arrived to pitch's lair , pitch was exhausted, but he decided that he should get on with it so he gave jack a quick tour around his lair.
Pitch's lair looked like a huge, apartment on the last floor of a building, the only thing that isn't casual about it are the colours.
Everything was shaded with different degrees of black , grey and occasionally some dark brown.
First it was the living room which had three black sofas , the kind that would fit for two people, one was in the center and the other two were on both sides.
There was a fireplace across the room , ( jack made a mental note to stay away from it ) it was accurately centered nineteen meters away from the sofa in the middle . In front of it was a wooden armchair with a small coffee table next to it .
There were bookshelves on both sides of the fireplace, filled with various kinds of books.
" wow ( whistling) , who thought that you could read !!" Jack commented .
" ow shut up " pitch demand.
Jack laughed .
Then the kitchen, which was a basic one , a few cabinets and drawers that were lined with different shades of grey, a sink , stove, oven and a tall bench with three chairs in front of it .
After going out of the kitchen, there was a door next to it , that was the first bathroom.
They walked along a corridor that connected the living room with the bedrooms, there was two paintings hanging on it's wall , one was a beautiful woman with black hair, and violet eyes, she was wearing a long , purple gown that matched her eyes.
The other was a little girl that had grey eyes and purple hair, she was wearing a pink short dress with floral printings on it .
" who are they ?" Jack heard himself ask .
" my wife shade , and our daughter umbra " pitch said in a mere whisper .
" how come none of the guardians or the spirits mentioned them before? !! " jack wondered.
" because they killed them " pitch stated darkly.
" what ?? " jack flinched at the anger in pitch's eyes.
" it happened long time ago, I don't want to talk about it " pitch said looking down.
" please pitch, I want to know , you need to open up to someone and right now I'm the only person here , please " jack pleaded .
" it was 50 years after I was created, at that time I wasn't stealing dreams, I feed on normal fear , I was minding my own business, then I met shade and we got married and had umbra , it was going well, I wasn't alone ... " pitch paused .
" then one night we were all sleeping, when suddenly a few spirits showed up, they were the previous guardians and the Mother Nature , they thought that I was going to turn evil on them, no to be accurate they thought that I was evil since the moment I was created so they had to kill me .
I hid my wife and kid and I fought the guardians, while trying to make them understand, but in the end they already made up their minds , so I fought them with out holding back , for they were blinded by hatred. I managed to hold them back and told my wife to run to here place , but once she and umbra got out from their hiding place , Mother Nature killed them. And so I killed her and all the guardians, and became the boogeyman to make sure that everyone suffered"
Pitch ended .
" I see " was what jack Said.
" if you want to Leave now that you know the truth, you better go"
Said pitch blankly.
Jack didn't say a thing, pitch thought that he was leaving. Instead he hugged pitch out of the blue .
Pitch was shocked , he was hyperventilating by the swirl of emotion he was experiencing at a single moment : pain of loss , grief, anger , guilt and surprise. He took a minute to gather himself back together.
" let go already " pitch said as he patted jack's head .
Jack didn't need to be told twice, he let go slowly, looking at the ground as he blushed.
" well you are surely not going anywhere " pitch teased .
" I was trying to make him feel better while in return he mocks me " jack muttered.
" jerk " jack whispered.
" hey language " pitch warned .
" someone is being cranky maybe it's time that we retire to bed " he continued.
" I don't need to sleep, you do " said jack.
Pitch just ignored him .
" this is practically my lair, one more thing to conclude the tour , you see this door on the left, right next to second bathroom, that is my office and it's off limits " pitch said.
" I know what you're thinking, don't worry nothing for you to mess with, it's just a couple of ancient books, scrolls and statues, if anything happened to any of those stuff, I swear Jack, you won't be able to sleep in your whole life , after I fill your mind with horrifying nightmares " pitch threatened .
" ok , ok got it , geez you are so not fun when you're past your bed time " jack said.
" good " pitch said.
" now go to the door at the front, it's the room I brought you in when I saved you that day "
" fine " jack said with a huff .
" bad night " pitch said.
" yeah, whatever , you too " said jack.
And so he and pitch retired to their beds .
Jack lay on the bed staring at the ceiling, the room was exactly the same as he remembered it, except for the hole that pitch made him to get some light, it was no longer a hole, now it was covered with a transparent Dom.
" ahh , it's still hot in here " jack said frustrated , mainly to himself.
He gestured with hands, changed his eyes and filled the room with soft snow till the bed level .
He rolled out of the bed to the pile of snow , he wallowed himself in it .
" wind are you there ? " he asked.
No answer .
" Uhh I'm board " he said with a huff .
Jack shifted in the snow for what felt like hours until it melted .
The thought of pitch's office crossed his mind.
" what could he possibly be hiding? " he said, again talking to him self.
He thought about the odds of him crashing into the office and satisfying his curiosity , or having nightmares by pitch.
" ah , I don't sleep anyway " he said with a smirk as he sneaked quietly to the door.
Jack tipped toed his way to the office door, he kept looking left and right to make sure that he wasn't seen .
He put his hand on the door knob but the door was looked , he turned his eyes, freezes the lock from inside and cracked it open.
Jack took one quick glance towards the door of pitch's bedroom, cautiously he entered the room .
It was dark of course, but as soon as jack closed the door a couple of candles flickered casting their light on the shadows of the room .
It was huge and the whole walls were covered with wooden dark brown book shelves, in the Center was a long wooden desk, same colour as the shelves, and behind stood a black leather office chair .
The desk was covered with papers and two ink pots with feathers in them, there was also drawers near the desk.
Jack walked through out the shelves, going with his eyes over the books that filled them.
They were mostly historical books about the French Revolution, samurai wars and the Japanese empire , red Indians , and a few books that were about mysteries and mythology, King Arthur and the knights of the round table, Bloody Mary and so on .
Jack decided that he would invade pitch's office and read every time he was here .
" that old man was right, there is nothing here to mess with " jack said to him self.
He was about to leave the room , when he felt a sudden argue to check out the drawers next to the desk.
He ignored it and was heading to the door, but that argue became strong as a silent scream in his head going on and on , so he went to the first drawer , took a deep nervous breath and he opened it.
It was packed with scrolls, jack opened the second one , it was empty, he opened the third and the last one .
There was some sort of a bag , which was made of cloth, jack picked it up , he felt that there is something wooden in it, no it was two things.
Jack's heart bounced .
" it can't be " he whispered.
Jack's heart beat was skipping in his ears , with shaking hands he tore the cloth bag revealing nothing other than the two broken pieces of his staff, which matched his broken heart at the instant.
He took the two pieces in his hand and ran to pitch's room , and banged the door open.
Pitch jolted awake with the sudden loud noise that was a result of the door and the wall impact.
" what the hell frost !! " pitch said frustrated.
Jack didn't answer .
" can you tell me why are you ..." pitch trailed off as he saw what jack was holding.
" you entered... " pitch whispered.
" how dare you?!!" Jack shouted.
" Jack I-I .. " pitch said but he was cut off by jack.
" you what ? "
" you had my staff all along " jack snapped.
" that's what you were going to say!! " he continued.
" I th-thought you would be st-stronger with out I-t " pitch replied.
" that is your excuse, you wanted to see how far I'll go with out it!! "
jack exclaimed.
" so we aren't friends, I'm just the subject of your power evaluation " he added.
" no jack, you are my friend " said pitch.
" my friend huh , you knew I was suffering, you knew I was struggling to hold it back, I didn't want hurt anyone, I didn't want to hurt you !!! " said jack.
Ice started to spread from beneath jack's feet , spreading through out the floor, walls and ceiling .
" jack I'm sorry , I should have told you " pitch said as he watched his lair getting buried underneath a layer of ice .
" no shit pitch " jack screamed as he formed an icy spike and launched it towards pitch .
Pitch stood still waiting the spike to penetrate his heart, granting a death that in his opinion he deserved.
When pitch didn't move a muscle, jack tensed begging that he dodged it away.
Just as the spike was an inch away from pitch's chest , jack gestured his hand and the spike cut pitch's left arm , precociously above the snow flake tattoo that jack gave him .
" that was for saving my life, but the next time I see you, you won't even be able to dodge it " jack threatened.
" and you know what, keep the staff, cause when I see you again, I'll unleash my powers upon you, and you'll know the true meaning of being killed by your curiosity "
Jack left through the door , leaving pitch holding the wound in his arm , along with the shattered remaining of his sentiments.