Chapter 1

At the time that I had found the pond, I was happy. To be true, I felt like I was myself for the first time in a slow life. My dad had repeatedly advised me to be miserable, put pain on others, scare others. But I’m not like that! I need to be myself, but I can’t if he tells me who to be.

I’m Mariana Black. The daughter of Pitch Black or . . . The Boogie Man. To me, he is a terrifying person to get furious. So far in my time, I’ve never gotten him delirious. When I was the age of four, he informed me of the laws of living.

1. Never grin unless it is an evil grin

2. hate others, never love them

3. the fellow on the moon is a threat

4. The guardians that the humans look up to are not heroes, they are villains that capture what we live for

5. Constantly be a nightmare

At first, I consistently listened to these policies. But then, when I first saw Sandman, the father of dreams, I didn’t believe a single word that my father had said. One time when I was 15, I stumbled upon a frozen pool of water. That was the day that I learned how to create a wooden rod. Yes, not very impressive, but I was very excited. Then . . . The ice broke. Quickly, I dashed behind a shrub and waited for the reason it was cracking. A silver-haired guy lifted from the icy water. He gasped for air as he noticed the moon. With a smile; I examined him. There was a burst of energy inside of me. The fellow had a blue sweater and old brown pants. His feet were bare, like mine. He landed and kicked the slab on the ice. I made a high-pitched noise and hid behind the bush more. He turned around and looked. My heart pounded as I observed him cover the stick-comparable staff in frost. The breeze blew around him. With a laugh, he allowed the wind to lift him everywhere. I squeezed my eyes shut and thought about what I needed to produce. Vines, vines, vines! I wish to follow him! A long vine shot out of my hand. I squealed and wrapped them around trees and I swung behind him. He looked at a child and their dog and ran to ask the child about where he was and everything, but he passed right through him.

Here is the cruel truth; not everyone will believe in you. Like my father and I. And now . . . this guy. He freaked out, and I needed to walk over to him . . . but I was terrified too. With a sigh, I rushed off.

---

It’s been a while. And by that I mean . . . years. My dad does not realize where I am anymore since The Guardians scared him off. It’s not like they Know that he’s my dad, but to be honest, I’m glad he’s gone. I see him every day. The boy. His name is Jack Frost. He loves flying in the wind and to be honest, it’s cool watching someone smile so much.

There are 4 guardians. Santa Claus, Bunny (Easter), The tooth fairy, and the Sandman. Sometimes, I’ll watch them fly around. Jack watches Sandman every night. He’ll go to the top of a building and just watch. I’ll go to a nearby building and watch him and most of the time, Sandman will give me a nice, warm smile. Ever since my father was driven away by fear, I had learned how to grow things and give them life. I create plants, flowers, trees, and I am always with animals. It’s nice to watch Jack. That may sound extremely creepy, but I love watching how much fun he has flying at night.

When the moon shines at night, he returns to the frozen (mostly anyway (seasons)) pond. Sometimes, he just sits there and watches the moon and the stars. There are always days I want to sit with him, but I know I can’t. He might not see me. Many people . . . well, all people, don’t see me since I'm nothing. I’ve seen the Tooth Fairy at work and the others. I’ve even talked with the Easter bunny and Santa before. The Sandman knows that I watch him because he sees me. Of course, the guardians can see each other, but my question is, why can’t people see me? Technically, I’m a dark spirit, but I’ve done nothing to harm anyone. I have learned to make life! I have learned to protect! But why can’t people see me?

I hung upside down from a tree branch as I created flowers that fell to the ground. 506, 507, 508. Footsteps thumped behind me. Which, of course, startled me and I fell to the ground. When I’m scared, I make a bush or a ton of leaves. When I pushed the leaves off my face, Bunny was there with a grin. I smiled and stood in front of him.

“You still make these . . . leaves?” He asked, playing with his boomerang. I nodded and ran my hands down a strand of hair. Most of the time, I don’t talk back to him since I don’t want other people to hear me. He hit his foot twice on the ground, creating a hole.

“Let’s go.” He said, jumping down. I was beyond terrified. What do you mean ‘Let’s go’? Without giving another thought, I jumped down and screamed. AS the tunnel continued to swirl, I continued to scream. Before I knew it, I was at the north pole. Santa looked down at me with a smile. His giant blue eyes looked into my soul. Sandman and the tooth fairy look at me with warm smiles as well.

“How is it, little one?” Santa asked me as he held a sword in the air. I shrugged in response and the flower crown on my head fell to the ground. Normally, he doesn’t bring me here for fun. Now and then, they’ll check on me just to make sure that everything is okay. They don’t know that Pitch Black is my father, but they know he tormented me. The tooth fairy flew over to me and opened my mouth and looked at all my teeth.

“Woah! Pearly whites!”

“Tooth . . .” Bunny said to her. She sighed and apologized as she darted through the air. I just wanted to go back to where Jack was to see if he was getting into trouble like he normally was.

“How is the Jack Frost boy?”

“I’ll answer that! Nothing but trouble!” Bunny yelled, slumping down to the floor on his hind legs. Bunny has an issue with Jack Frost. It may be because he makes fun of ‘Peter CottonTail’, as he calls him. With a giggle, I watched the two bicker. After a while, they brought me back home. Once I was back, I sat on the cold ice. While closing my eyes, I pictured meeting the man on the moon. All I could hear was silence, though, whenever I asked him a question. I felt something on my shoulder and I, once again, made a pile of leaves as I squeaked. I poked an eye out to see . . . It was Jack. His face was as pale as ever and his eyes sparkled. He looked curiously into the pile of leaves. On the count of three, I’ll run away, I thought.

“What are you?” He asked, using the stick that had once been mine to brush the leaves away. I stood and soon realized he was tall. He was only a little taller than me, but he was tall. Vines, moss, leaves, and other greens came together to create a new skirt for me and a top. Vines wrapped around my arms gently to create a sleeve-like effect. My hands and feet had dirt all over them and there was a dark spot on my arm. He looked at me and tilted his head.

“You . . . can see me?” I asked him in a quiet voice.

“And you can see me!” He jumped onto the top of his staff and beamed a bright white smile. I laughed and inspected him as he did the same. We sat together on the freezing ice and just talked. He told me how he didn’t know who he was, but how he wanted to figure that out. I said nothing about how Pitch Black was my father, because it scared me that if he knew, he would think of me as a bad person, so I just said how I didn’t know who I was, either. We laughed about the stupid things we’ve done in our lives. I even made him a flower crown that didn’t stay on too long. We climbed to the top of a house and he told me to breathe.

“You’ve never done this before . . . have you?”

“Nope! I stick to the ground.” My hands got colder as we walked to the edge of the roof. He told me to be calm and not think about what’s going to happen. And so we flew together using the wind.

It was, once again, a long time. About a month or two. Jack and I hadn’t talked at all. It was night, and I was resting in a tree. Once I rolled over to my side, I saw a bright, scary, bone-chilling grin. It was my father. He wrapped his hands around my neck and then whispered to me, “Nightmares never leave.” Before I could respond, he was already gone. While shivering, I stood on a tree branch and breathed out. He’s back. This isn’t good at all. I thought to myself. There soon was a dark shadow on the moon. I froze dead in my tracks. I just couldn’t move. Jack was sliding around on ice and noticed me, frozen in terror. He put his freezing hand on my shoulder and tilted his head slightly. I turned and ran away from him.

I ran for a long time. I found a small cave and rested there. As my eyes finally got heavy, something pulled a bag over my head. I struggled to breathe, and I wiggled around to open the bag. Then I fell and began rolling around. Suddenly . . . black. THUMP. They plopped me onto the ground. I guess I had passed out because there was another person in the bag. We tried not to be so close, but this was hard since this bag was such a tight space.

“I didn’t say put them in a bag! You yeti, you were supposed to bring them to us with care!” A familiar voice shouted. Santa? I thought to myself while I was trying to break out of the giant sack. Thick and pointed sticks crawled off of my legs and poke gigantic holes into the bag, releasing us. Jack Frost rubbed his head and held his staff high at the surrounding people. I jumped to my feet and looked around at all the small elves and the tall people around us. Jack and I looked at each other, then back at the others. We rested our “weapons” and listened to the small elves argue with each other. Santa lifted Jack into the air and kissed his cheeks.

“JACK!” He yelled, squeezing him tightly. The dangerous spikes I had made soon turned into fireflies that flew out of the observatory-like roof. A cape with a hood made of many roots and leaves popped onto my shoulder. Pulling the hood over my head, I looked at the others. Bunny and Jack bickered already, and the tooth fairy had already filtered her check-up on Jack's teeth.

“Tooth . . .” Santa raised an eyebrow as he stroked his beard.

“Why did you bring us here?” with my arms crossed I looked at all of them.

“Why, the man on the moon! He chose the two of you to be guardians!” Santa yelled at the top of his lungs as he grabbed a book and looked at us. A small elf brought shoes over to Jack and I. We looked at each other and scooted them away. Another small elf was playing a trumpet rather loudly.

“Enough!” I yelled while throwing leaves everywhere and covering my ears. After seconds, I looked up as the leaves turned into butterflies. My hands fell to my sides. Everyone stared at me . . . even Jack.

“What makes you think we want to be guardians? Not that it wouldn’t be a terrible idea, but you can’t just shove us into a bag and expect us to say yes!” I flipped my hood up and crossed my arms as I looked at Santa who was giving me a confusing gaze. Jack looked at them as if he agreed with my statement. Santa gave us a gentle smile and took us with him to the workshop where all the toys for the children were built. My eyes glittered as tears were ready to have their escape. Jack looked around as we passed small elves and giant yetis.

“But I thought the elves built the toys?” Jack said in a questioning tone. Santa tilted over to us and whispered information to us.

“We let the elves think they build the toys, the yeti’s really do all the work. I will help, though.” Santa continued to walk as he rolled up his sleeves, exposing his naughty and nice tattoos. He brought us to his office and closed the door. Santa threw Jack something. I just sat on the windowsill and looked out. It was a matryoshka doll. I laughed at just the thought of what Jack was going to find on the inside. My finger looked pale as I held it next to the frost-covered window. While Santa showed him the wooden baby, I noticed a shadow horse outside. However, I ignored it, thinking I was paranoid. Jack looked gloomy and thought about what he did before he turned into who he was. He said that he remembers nothing more than before he came out of the frozen lake.

“We can help you! Your teeth hold all of your memories.” Tooth exclaimed and flew around in the air. Santa grabbed his fluffy red jacket and black hat and called the reindeer. He held a glowing ball in his hand and mumbled the words: Tooth Palace. While we were all sitting in the sleigh, Jack stood on the side while Bunny hyperventilated, as he was afraid of heights. Jack flew out, though I saw he was on the golden sleigh metal. Before we knew it, we were there. The palace was rusted and worn down. I tripped out and looked around. All the fairies were gone. None were buzzing around and none were informing Tooth of what was happening. There was only one that curled up on Tooth’s shoulder. He’s been here. I thought to myself. Lifting my hand into the air and pulling up my hood, I was ready for him.

“Oh, the poor tooth fairies . . . What’s this? Jack frost? Oh, don’t tell me you brought him to stop me.” A shadow darted past us. I trembled at the thought of him realizing who I was. I knew he would find out, though. He’s my father, after all. Bunny looked at me, not knowing what I was afraid of. All of us held up some sort of weapon. Jack with his staff, The Tooth Fairy with her fists, Bunny with his boomerang, Sandman with . . . to be honest, I have no clue, and Santa Claus with his two swords. This is when we noticed the teeth were gone too.

“Mar . . .,” He spoke in a dark, slow voice. My heart dropped. “Are you turning my daughter against me? Now, my nightmares and I know that is not fair.” His voice was right beside my ear, causing me to fall to the floor. Tears poured from my eyes as there was a sharp pain in my temples. Then it stopped. Bunny stood behind me, holding his boomerang straight ahead of him. My father's cackles echoed in my head and the palace. Then, as soon as he had shown up, he disappeared.

“We’re going to get the teeth back.” I mumble as salty drops enter my mouth. Santa questioned what I had said. This is when Tooth gasped as feathers fell from her. She slowly fell to her knees as she spoke. “The children aren’t believing in me anymore.” I stood and backed up from the others.

“You may not trust me anymore for who I am the descendant of. But I do good. I create things. I don’t wish bad on people, only him. However, I want to help you. I will go out and collect teeth and leave gifts for the children in order for you to be believed in! I hate being this. All the time. Who I am is a curse. Which is why I am going to fix it. They may not believe me, but I believe in you all. Even . . . even you, jack. I know that you’ll be believed in soon.” My grip grew tighter in my fist as my black hair flowed like a river in the wind. A smile rolled off Bunny’s face as he walked towards me. The others followed. Sandman gave me a warm smile as he made a butterfly out of his golden sand. They trusted me. Jack nodded and waved his hands around.

“So what if you’re his daughter? You are never truly like your parents, anyway.” He rested his face on his staff and smiled, too. By this, I was sobbing and hugging everyone. We had all agreed to help tooth. We started off by using Santa's sleigh to travel. After hours and hours of collecting teeth and leaving gifts, we all gathered on the roof of a building. Santa asked how Tooth was doing and she was beyond happy. I smiled and hugged her gently. This was working, and I knew it. I was glad it was. There was one last house. Jack and I filed in through the window and then we realized the others were still talking. The two of us shrugged it off and grabbed the tooth. My hand glowed as a flower gently fell onto the nightstand. My gift to you, Jamie. The toy robot that sat just next to the flower had a light attached to it, illuminating the entire room. A picture that stuck to the wall caught my attention.

“So he went sledding? Did you know about this, Jack?” I asked with a slight grin as fixed his blanket.

“What can I say? I like the cold.” He returned a grin back as he played with the pocket of his hoodie. A book on the floor caught my eye, and I looked over. My hand reached for it and the window opened. Quickly scooting over to the front of Jamie's bed, I waited for everyone to file in. Santa whispered to Tooth, asking her how she was. She continued to tell him how amazing she was feeling. Everyone showcased the amount of teeth they collected. Jack and Bunny started bragging to each other about the amount that they had.

“Shut up.” I whispered to them both as I laid my bag of teeth down onto the ground to stretch my arms. It wasn’t the largest out of everyone else's, but it wasn’t overly small either. Santa smiled and told us that this wasn’t a competition. Then he paused.

“But if it was,” He pulled a giant sack filled with teeth from behind him and slammed it onto the floor, “I win!” He yelled and did a happy dance, causing so much ruckus. A beam of light shot at the faces of the Guardians, blinding them. Jamie was awake. He called out their names in amazement. But when he got to me and Jack, he said nothing. He couldn’t see us. Bunny looked at me and sighed. I smiled gently as I shrugged my shoulders. Jack was confused and he looked at me. I mumbled: He can’t see us since he doesn’t believe in us. Tooth covered her mouth and I made my way over to Jamie, who of course, didn’t know I was there. I sat on his bed and held a small picture that was on the nightstand. Everyone began to make noise and before we knew it, everyone was asleep.

We woke up. There was nothing but silence. My eyes fluttered open and I saw bright colors surrounding me. I itched my head and looked up to see a small girl with butterfly dress up wings strapped onto her back, touching my cheek. She giggled when I stuck my tongue out at her. Bunny picked her up and handed her a colored egg. The two smiled and watched a bunch of eggs get dunking into paint, while I sat on my bottom, overly confused.