This is a translation of DjinnAtwood's story Deathly Cold, which was written in French and has a story id of 10896593. This was posted with his/her permission. None of this is mine in any way, shape, or form. I only translated it to English

North understood that Jack was a spirit like the others when he had the occasion to feel how low the boy's body temperature was.

You could have thought that spirits related to winter were naturally cold – in truth, that was far from being the case. They all had a temperature more or less normal, even if it was a bit lower than average.

Except that Jack was veritably icy.

And then, there was also his appearance. Okay, North had seen others – he only had to take Tooth and Bunny – but something in that pale teenager bothered him, seemed unnatural to him in that juvenile face.

He did not know what.

He had not known until that fateful afternoon when Jack had come to chat with him – more like spilling out words while Santa examined his latest creations.

"And then, I iced over the surface of the lake, as well! Nice and thick! At least five centimeters thick!"

"That would be a bit much, no?" North commented distractedly.

Jack shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, yes, but drowning is not fun. At any rate, I didn't like it."

Santa Claus raised his head and stared at the teenager.

You… drowned?

"Well yes. But I saved my sister! That was how I became Jack Frost, in fact."

And there, all of the sudden, the ex-Cossack knew why Jack was so cold to the touch. And what was wrong with his appearance.

Jack was cold because corpses were cold. Even more so corpses that had been immersed in icy water.

And Santa had had the opportunity to see other children similar to the youngest of the guardians during the winter. Children outside in the snow, eyes closed, motionless forever, sleeping too deeply. Children disguised by hypothermia, face whitened by frost, lips and eyelids thoroughly blued.

Jack was icy, a face too pale, lips the color of azure.

Because Jack was dead. Because the teenager who had become Jack Frost had drowned in a lake to save his little sister.

The last of the Guardians was a child deprived of the afterlife.

"Helllloooooo? Earth to Santa! Is everything alright? »

Jack had eyes twinkling with mischief, he smiled and he was dead.

"…Jack, I'm sorry."

Stranded, the teenager frowned.

"Why?"

Because you should not be here anymore. North maybe was not on very good terms with religion, but that, he felt it in his belly.

No child deserved to not be able to rest in peace. That was the reason for it.