AN: Idk I sorta had this one rattling around my head today and just had to get it out. not my best. deal with it.

WARNING: Self-harm

Jack was hiding.

He had been hiding for weeks, since he'd emerged from that pond, in a clump of briars next to it. He didn't want to move, or live. He just wanted to fade away.

He felt so alone.

Curled into a ball to protect from cold that no longer bothered him, he lay in the snow, shielded by branches covered in thorns that didn't hurt him, no matter how hard he stuck them into his skin. His ice-cold skin, almost blue with frost. He watched the blood as it welled up from the cuts, and the tears froze on his cheeks. He just wanted confirmation that he was there, alive, that he existed – but there was no pain, and he knew he would never be alive.

A breeze swept through the area, and Jack's cloak flapped around his shoulders. He shivered, and pulled it closer around himself, imagining that the wind was actually affecting him. Frosty designs spread along the ground wherever he moved, creating an intricate deathbed in the snow. They continued along the ground, running over the edge of the lake and reinforcing the already thick ice layer. Making their way over to the opposite bank, they stopped at a pair of boots.

It was then that Jack realized he was not alone.

The clearing, so very quiet before, was filled with the soft sound of crying.

He stood up suddenly, the briars snagging on his cloak and ripping bits of fabric from it. He looked across the pond to see a young girl sitting on the shore, head buried in her knees, shoulders trembling with muffled sobs. Her thick brown hair blew in the wind, and Jack wanted to smooth it down on her head, and wrap her in an embrace, and tell her it was going to be alright. He allowed the wind to pick him up and drift him over to where she sat, and crouched next to her, reaching out to put a hand on her shoulder before remembering that he couldn't touch anybody.

"What's wrong, little girl?" He muttered, more to himself than to her. "Why do you cry? Are you lost?" He looked behind her, examining her boot tracks. They seemed very purposeful, and he concluded that she meant to be here, at this pond, the place of his emerging. He wouldn't say born – no, born would imply that he was human. He knew that no real person was born from a lake. He wasn't a real person. He didn't apply.

Before him, the girl was still crying, her small frame wracked with such a deep sorrow that Jack knew he had to do something, anything, to cheer her up.

So he threw a snowball at the back of her head.

She jerked forward, and immediately looked around for the source. "Mary?" she called to the trees. "Is-is that you?" Her voice was thick with tears. Sniffling a little, she wiped ar her nose, then called, "This isn't funny!"

But it will be, if I have any say in it, Jack thought, and, blowing on his snowball for good luck, sent it flying toward the girl. It hit her square in the face, and he winced. "Whoops." But, as he watched, something odd happened. A blue light sparkled around her eyes, and her anger slipped away, replaced with a slowly growing grin.

"Okay, if you're not going to show yourself, I'll just have to guess!" She began hurling snowballs into the woods, first missing by a great deal, then getting closer to the mark as Jack began retaliating and she was able to tell where he was standing. It quickly became a huge battle of wits and stealth, her using intuition to find her mysterious attacker, him creeping around and dodging bullets, trying to go in for a sneak attack.

The clearing, so very quiet before, was filled with the loud sound of laughter. And, with a loud, wet smack and no small amount of luck, the girl hit Jack straight in the face with a snowball. He fell over in shock, landing hard on the ice of the pond.

"Got you, ghost!" she shrieked, smiling triumphantly.

A loud crack sounded through the air, and the ice split in two, right up the middle, the hairline cracks spindling away from the central line like veins from a heart. The girl stumbled back from the shore, suddenly very afraid, and Jack flinched away from the suddenly unstable surface below him, flying high up into the air. He watched silently as the girl turned and ran, and he did not follow.

After a long minute of hovering in the air, Jack allowed himself to land, staring at the mess he created. The ice floated around on the pond, drifting towards him accusingly, You did this, you destroyed us. Jack was frozen in place, I did this, I did this, and he shuddered, turning away from the water. He couldn't stay in this place anymore, not with this lake. He had to get out.

As he flew up into the air, he felt haunted and ashamed, and he remembered the little girl. He remembered her fear, and decided that he didn't like it. He remembered her happiness, and a warm feeling spread through his chest. I did that, he reminded himself. I gave her that happiness. He smiled, and knew what he had to do.