Katherine yawned, walking out of the library, feeling her heavy bag of books. She wouldn't admit it, but since the night before when finding out Jack was indeed Jack Frost she hadn't been able to sleep. She had struggled between scolding herself and scolding him for not telling her, later deciding that it wasn't worth her time. Only to realize it was time for her to wake up.
She almost wanted to go home and take a nap--
"Katherine!"
Jack's tall figure suddenly landed in front of her. She let out a squeal and stumbled backward nearly falling on the library's stone steps. She managed to fix her arms under her so that she didn't crack her head open. But her satchel spilled open, and she landed on her rump instead, in the deep snow. She glared up at Jack, her hand gripping the satchel tightly.
Realizing what he had cause Jack's ears flushed and he held out a hand. "S-sorry."
She tried to ignore him, instead focusing on picking out Qwerty from the snow.
"Look what he did to my pages!"
Jack jumped back, "Who--"
"That was me!" The book shouted, "Stupid, no good--"
"Oh, shush, Qwerty." Katherine began to wipe the snow off, "You've been through a lot worse, and you know it."
The book's pages fluttered, and she showed Jack the spine of it. It featured a somewhat frustrated face with a pair of fixed glasses and many arms, which it used to push up its glasses. "That's no excuse!"
Jack reached out to touch it, "Can all your books talk?"
"Not all books!" Qwerty shouted, "And I am no book, my name is Qwerty, and I am the rare, one of a kind Bookworm!"
Jack sneered, "You said it, not me."
"Why you--"
"Quiet you two!" Katherine said, putting the book into her Satchel with an air of frustration. She brushed the snow off herself, and with a pointed glare looked up at Jack. "He can be rather fussy, I'm sorry."
He shrugged, "No big deal, I can handle Wormy no problem."
"SAY THAT TO MY FACE YOU FROSTY THE SNOWMAN WANT TO BE!"
Katherine sighed at the bag and turned to him, "It would be wise not to provoke him."
"Maybe." Jack smirked, "Where did he learn to talk like that? I mean, books don't normally talk."
"He ate Ombrics entire library."
Jack blinked in astonished confusion and Katherine laughed. "It makes more sense in context."
"I...see... Anyway, I am sorry about pushing you into the snow like that."
"I know you are." She brushed the last of the snow off of her and began to walk down the sidewalk, "And where were you gone all day too."
"I went to go see Sandy," Jack said, putting a hand into his pocket as he walked beside her, "I had a few questions, and I was hoping he could answer them."
"Did he?" She asked, and brushed back her hair.
Jack stared down at her, "No, but I was hoping you--"
She jumped and pointed, "Did you see that!"
Jack swirled around, "See what?"
Without responding she ran following something Jack couldn't make out. It was small black, and scuttling like a rat over the grass.
"Is that another Weeper?"
She nodded her scarf billowing around her as she ran. She jumped over a log and swerved around a tree until they came to a small clearing. Katherine skirted to a stop, her boots carving tracks with the heals.
In the middle of it was a bed, New and made of hardwood. He remembered placing it there after the old one was destroyed. It was a sort of marker for Pitches den, serving as a warning. "We shouldn't be here."
Ignoring the warning, Katherine pushed against the hardwood bed. She struggled with it, and Jack didn't dare help. It cut into the mud, dragging across until uncovering the old, almost entirely filled hole.
He remembered the way Pitch had clawed and screamed as he was dragged down by his own creations, and shivered. "Seriously, this is a bad idea."
Katherine kicked down the packed up dirt and it crumbled under her into the hole. A coldness rose from the hole, not like a breeze, but like that shivering, you feel up your spine from an especially eerie feeling. Despite the wave of timidness, she peered down the hole and into the darkness. "Amazing. Burgess just gets stranger and stranger."
"It's been here forever Kat," He leaned over with her, in spite of himself. "There's nothing so strange about it."
She looked to him, "I was looking through the library archives and I found something about this town!" Her voice rose excitedly as she reached into her bag and pulled out two maps. "I took these from the library display cases—"
"Is that legal?"
"And look!" She spread out the papers next to the dark hole. Jack peered over shoulder at both of the maps. One showed the town and another only a few years different showed the pond and the rocks all very clearly.
"Wait...what?"
"Think of it Jack, Pitch's lair is situated next to a pond that is unnaturally deep and it appeared out of nowhere, around the same time as..."She cut off then turned to it, "Add to the fact that you also came from that same pond, this entire town is built on top of it, etc. It's almost like, it's all connected. I'm just missing something...a piece to that keeps going missing just as I'm about to reach it."
There was a moment of silence as Jack let her words sink in.
"I have to go down there."
"Then you're not going down without me," Jack said, a new tone in his voice.
Katherine turned to him, looking him straight in the eye. She gave him a long contemplative look then nodded. She began to crawl into the hole, but he stopped her.
"Me first, I've been there before." He pushes her aside, and steps in , holding out his hand to help her as they began to trek through the dark, abandoned tunnel.
***
Jack tried to make his staff glow in the sewers, but the blue light was too dim. He growled in frustration but decided against trying to power it up anymore remembering the last time he tried.
"Hold on," Katherine said, pushing Jacks hand down. She then pressed her hand to the center of her chest. He was shocked to see a golden handprint began to emanate around her palm. When she pulled it away a small, yellow, glowing teardrop was floating above her hand. Jack stared at her jaw-dropping. But she continued down through the cave without a thought.
When the fact that she was walking without him sunk in he jumped to catch up. He ran up to her as she walked on along the side of the dirty wall. "Can we all do that?"
"Do what?"
"That," He pointed to the glowing teardrop.
She looked down at it, "Of course."
He blinked at her stunned, "What is it?"
"My center."
He stared at it in aw, "I thought our centers were like...metaphorical."
"They are," She ducked under a jutting root. "Technically. But our centers, along with being something we protect, become a physical aspect of our immortality."
Jack's face twisted from aw to confusion, "I don't get it."
Katherine sighed, "Listen," She stopped to look at him, her face illuminated by her center, "I would love to explain it in full technicality, but I think we are in the middle of something right now." With another swirl, she walked again down the sinking hole.
"Right," Jack muttered following behind.
The farther they went in, the stronger the darkness became. Shadows seemed to press from all sides. Jack could have sworn he felt fingers and claws brush his cheeks and hair. Yet when he turned to her, he saw that she was completely calm. Was she so focused she couldn't notice? Or was it possible that she had been through a similar place like this?
"Katherine," He whispered, too afraid to speak in the dark, "Have you..."
At that moment the entrance opened, and his question went unfinished. Above him, he could barely make out the thousands of cages, made out of glistening melted lead. The two of them sucked in a breath and voluntarily grabbed each other's hand.
His memories swam with the mere moments he had spent in here, nearly destroying the Guardians in his desperate attempt to find a voice. But as Katherine squeezed his hand, he realized that he wasn't the only one with bitter memories of the place. But she eyed the cages with more fear than him, and her eyes fell on a large black rock with a gold globe mounted on top. Her eyes lingered on that rock. It's smooth polished surface, it deep blackness. Like it absorbed the light around it.
"Are you okay?" He couldn't help asking.
She nodded but didn't let go of his hand, her grip like iron. "Let's move on."
The place was like a maze. Stone bridges lead to dead ends or dark holes. More than once the two had ended up right back where they started. Or where they assumed they started.
"I know it's down here." She insisted her Center brightening. As soon as it did her eyes widened and they both saw a scuttling shadow. Katherine and Jack burst into speed, running down a long bridge until they came to an open passage.
They both exchanged fearful glances, Jack gripping her hand tighter before they both walked in. Katherine was the first to peek inside holding her center in front of her as she did so. As soon as she did, she sucked in a breath.
Jack pushed past her through the crack and lifted his glowing blue staff. His light was met with thousands upon thousands of little eyes and shining purple fur.
It took everything in him to keep from yelling. He pointed his staff at the creatures, ready to freeze them, but Katherine placed a hand on it. "Don't, their sleeping." She hissed.
He looked back up, "With their eyes open?"
"They don't have eyelids." She stepped further into the darkness, her center glowing only slightly brighter. More eyes appeared in the light, going on through a seemingly endless tunnel. "Dear heavens."
Jack looked at the endless ceiling of eyes and fur. "How many are there?"
"I have no clue." She murmured. She widened her hand, and the cave lit up more. But it still wasn't bright enough to find an end.
His staff began to glow again, beaming in the darkness, "We should destroy them."
She swirled around him, "There are too many! I haven't seen a sob this big since Disneyland!"
"Disneyland?"
"It wasn't always the happiest place on earth." She looked back up, dimming her light again. "We need a plan."
Jack goggled at the sight of the creatures, fighting the urge to just kill the monsters now. Deep down, he knew she was right. There were too many.
"Okay."
The both of them back up out of the hole, still holding the others hand. Jack was careful to lead her to the entrance. The dark winding paths were confusing but the two of them remembered well enough.
Katherine mind seemed to be churning with thoughts and fears, but she said not a word. Her hand still wrapped around the orb of light. Suddenly her hand went to her mouth and she backed up. Tears filled her eyes, and her lips quivered. Jack felt her hand tighten and he turned to her.
"Katherine, what's wrong?"
She didn't answer, her eyes still trained above her in a direction he couldn't quite see. He followed her gaze and his eyes met with what looked like the helm of a massive ship. The metal had been twisted and bent around it. The massive black haul like a beast in the dimness of their light. It was a miracle they had even missed. It looked like it had impaled its self in the earth above them.
"Oh my god." He sucked in a breath, "How did it...how could it?"
She was shaking at this point, tears streaming down her face as she looked at it. He turned to her again and saw that all the color in her cheeks had drained so that her skin looked like plaster. Jack blocked her sight, grabbing her shoulder in a firm grip, "Snap out of it Kat!"
She blinked and looked at his tall figure. She still looked shaken and she was swaying on her feet, lips trembling. "I thought it..." She muttered something barely audible and he shook her. Katherine grabbed his arm, swallowing hard. "Let's get out of here."
***
Outside Katherine breathed a sigh of relief, running a hand through her hair. "I have never seen so many weepers." She murmured. "I don't know..." Katherine looked up, peering through the trees. A strange feeling ran up her spine, and she grabbed her arm.
"Are we not going to talk about what happened in there?" Jack pulled himself out of the hole. "What was that? Why was it there?"
"I don't know." She whispered, her eyes clouding over.
He stood next to her, "You've said that twice already, what don't you know?"
She stared into the forest, her hand still on her arm. "Anything." Her voice cracked, she grabbed her head, "It shouldn't be there, that thing shouldn't be there! It was destroyed, it burned up in the atmosphere. It shouldn't exist!"
Jack didn't know how to respond. Part of him wanted to grab her and shake her until he got the answers he wanted, the other part of him knew that she was still into much shock to properly answer. Instead, he changed the subject.
Jack frowned, "What are we going to do about the Weepers?"
She wished she could express how terrifying that was. Her stomach twisted, and she dropped her head. "I need to go home, do research. "
He walked beside her, resting his staff on his shoulder. "It's alright, we'll figure this out."
She didn't feel as convinced. Wrapping her arms around herself, she stared blankly up at the sky. She thought for a moment she could hear Ombric whispering in her ear, but knew that wasn't possible. Before long her apartment came into view. She stopped and looked inside, "I need time to think, and work. Is it possible that...you can come back tomorrow?"
He looked at her frowning. While she did her best to keep the worry from her face. It didn't work, because Jack just looked worse the longer he stared.
"I guess I can." He said, still looking concerned.
"Thank you." She forced a smile and without another glance walked into the house, closing the door behind her. As soon as it was closed her stomach twisted in fear. What on earth could have created these creatures? And how could there be so many? And the ship, how did it survive? One thing is for sure, she thought as she walked up the steps, I won't rest until I get to the bottom of this.