Its hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep, because my dreams are bursting at the seams.

The only thing Pippa was aware of was the voices resonating through the halls. She had been drifting in and out of consciousness for a while now and at the moment it no longer mattered whether she was dreaming or not, for the pain still remained either way. She thought sleep meant the solace of a lie, which is why she had drifted off in the first place, although matters were entirely different when sleep came in the painful reminders of a nightmare. She could see her brother's face in the periphery of her vision, skin ghostly pale and pupils white as chipped diamonds; nothing but a lifeless corpse.

With much gathered will, she thrust the image out of her mind and slowly opened her eyes. They still stung with tears even though there was barely any light to the room and her lids were still heavy as if her skin was layered with lead. The first thing she noticed once her eyes adjusted to the contrast was the gloaming in the sky. The darkening firmaments turned the western clouds in to ash and as the sunset slowly began to settle beneath the distant rooftops, watery lights from the afterglow streamed through the misted glass of her window. The darkness leant an eerily shade to the beams.

Looking at them from where she was, Pippa closed her eyes again.

The beams resembled the rippling waters of the ice bound lake…..

The second time she awoke, the air was heavy with a nauseating scent. She turned towards the source and found her dinner settled on the nightstand beside her bed. She grew sick of the scent. She grew sick of everything around her. She swept the plate off the side table with one furious swipe and watched the shattering glass settling between the floorboards' paneling, her cheeks now stained with rivulets.

The sound reminded her of cackling ice and her tears burned against her face, just like it had been when she was standing alone in the middle of that accursed lake.

Pippa shut her eyes once more and wished for pain and grief to leave her alone...

The third time, Pippa woke to the faints hum of her parents' voice drifting through the adjoining hallway, the only thing she could comprehend was her brother's name being spoken in past tense and the word 'therapist' being thrown into the mix. Pippa propped herself upright, relishing the satisfying clicks of her joints and the feeling of her stiff muscles gradually loosening. She allowed her gaze to wander across the room until her eyes settled back to the window near the foot of her bed. The thin veil of curtains gave way just enough for a streak of moonlight to pry through. There was somewhat of a soothing quality to the light that temporarily chased the grief away from her mind, although the small amount of respite soon faded once she caught sight of the lambent splash of silver illuminating the patterns across the oak wood floorboards.

The iridescent lines splayed across the floor looked like the faults in the ice…

She could take it anymore.

She opened her mouth and let out a blood-curdling scream.

She screamed until her voice gave out, screamed until her throat felt raw, screamed until her ambience shattered into the confines of her own mind.

There were hands on her shoulder trying to shake her out of her chance, frantic voices trying to pierce through her thoughts.

…and then there was nothing more but darkness…

The only thing Jack could feel was the wild erratic beats of his heart against his chest. The rest of his body only felt numb, as if it was non-existent and no matter how absurd he thought it was, he felt as though his heart slip right through his body as well. When he held out his hands to examine them, his skin still held the stark pale shade he had grown accustomed to. It certainly did not look like something that belonged to a ghost, although he still considered it as a possibility no matter how much his logic told him otherwise. Everything ceased to make sense the moment he woke up at the bottom of the lake and he was just beginning to wonder whether he'd ever even find a proper explanation at all.

He heard Tooth call out to him again—or perhaps she had been trying to speak to him the whole time. He couldn't tell, his thoughts were ringing unbearably loud through his head and his mind was still flooded with unspoken questions. He was given an ample amount of time to think when he was alone by the lake and yet he hasn't given much thought on just how long he had been gone.

"Jack," there was a hand on his shoulder, trying to shake him out of the reverie, it made him realize he had hid eyes closed. He absently leaned into the touch, although when his vision focused again, he found himself looking at a stranger—not the Tooth he had always known. Her eyes were wide, yet unreadable. He couldn't tell whether it was a look of shock or dismay, although he didn't seem surprised at all. Jack felt a small trickle of anger beginning resurface as he thought of what else she was hiding from him.

Before he could say anything however, Tooth cuts him off. "Jack, listen" she flitted over in front of him to block his path then hovers there uncertainly as if she was expecting him to bolt. "This is what I wanted to warn you about. We are spirits now and-" she nodded towards the direction of where the woman from before had disappeared to. "They won't be able to see us but the children can…that is if they believe…"

Despite the secrets she managed to keep from him, Tooth had always been easy to read. Judging by the way she couldn't properly hold his gaze, he knew she was trying to come up with a lie.

"Cut the crap Tooth, please." Jack said, his tone was calm, although the underlying edge it held was unmistakable. "I'm tired of your lies. Tell me what else you are hiding and this time do not leave anything out."

"What do you mean by if they believe?" He added after pausing to take a deep breath, as if the inquiry was only an afterthought.

Tooth was trying to evade again, though now she couldn't find a way out. She went over the things she wanted to say and weighed the words carefully as she spoke them. "The…the children need to believe in our existence….they need to believe we are real in order for them to see us. If they don't though, you'll be nothing but…but a shadow to them….and….and your sister…." She hesitated, wondering if it would be best to hold back again but Jack's previous words rang in her head and she thought better than to hide that from him. "The same goes for Pippa too…"

"And she thinks I'm dead…." Jack saved her all the trouble of having to explain all that to him. It wasn't the reaction she had been expecting but Jack just seemed too resigned to say anything further. He heaved a frustrated sigh and turned away from Tooth, instead focusing on a distant point in the street ahead.

Perhaps Man in the Moon would be able to give them a proper explanation regarding all this albeit Tooth supposed that could wait a little longer. "I can help you" she blurted, flinching a little when her voice rang so loudly in the silence that blanketed the air.

She saw a look pass before Jack's eyes and she recognized it as something akin to hope. It was nothing but a glimmer and it was gone before she could fully see it.

"Pippa can see me, I'm sure of it. I can get her to see you too…" Tooth's tone was firm with confidence despite of the skepticism building up at the back of her mind.

Jack raised an eyebrow at her and Tooth was just relieved to see the light hearted gesture lift some of the strained atmosphere around them. "How, do you suppose, are you going to explain all this to her?"

"I'll try my best." Tooth gave the prospect a nonchalant shrug and Jack responded with that she swore was telling her 'good luck with that'. She knew it was a delusion, but she let herself take comfort in the hope that things would return to the way they were. "Hey, maybe if that goes well, we could go to North, I'm sure he knows what's going on by now."

"Sure," Jack muttered and raised his hood. He shoved his free hand into his pocket as he brushed passed her and stalked towards the direction of his home.

"You coming, Tooth?" He asked once he sensed that she wasn't following .Tooth allowed herself to dwell on that delusion a little while longer as she took off into the air and flitted after him.

The living room was empty when they arrived, but the air was tense and heavy with silence. Tooth felt more like she was running her hands over a sheet of thin glass and any slight movement could cause it to shatter. "Jack, be careful. You don't want to startle anyone." She chided, shutting the door behind her. In the stillness, every noise they made reverberated loudly through the paneled hallways ahead of them, even the sound of her own voice was enough to make her flinch.

Burgeons of frost grew underneath Jack's footsteps and the cackling ice only added to the discordant tune of the ticking wall clock. Jack did not notice this however; she assumed he was trapped in the confines of a distant memory. Something glinted at the edge of her vision. She turned towards it and caught sight of broken glass flashing in a trail around an object discarded by the doorway. Tooth recognized it to be a picture frame, though she didn't dare look at what photograph it held. She lowered herself onto the ground and gently nudged it underneath the couch with her foot so that Jack wouldn't see it but when she turned back, she realized that the other immortal had long disappeared into the dimness of the staircase.

Looking around his ambiance, Jack knew nothing had changed since the last time he had been here and yet everything around him held a touch of unfamiliarity. It was as if he was seeing it all through a layer of fog and if he didn't get close enough, he wouldn't be able to tell exactly what was in front of him.

He kept his mind carefully blank, his gait slightly dragging to avoid the resonance of footsteps. It all felt like he was just returning home after a horrible day. Jack allowed himself to rest in that lie as he discarded his staff against a nearby corner and shoved his hands into his pockets, continuing down the hallway as if it was just another routine being carried out on a different time.

His hand absently brushed over the wooden surface of his bedroom door. Jack shut his eyes as he tried to ward off the flood of memories that came along with it. He recognized his parents' voices coming from his room (not his anymore, he had to remind himself) and twisted away before the temptation became too hard to resist. He wasn't taking any chances. He didn't know whether he could take having his own parents run right through him as if he was nothing but dust.

Pippa's door was standing ajar. He didn't know the reason to it, but Jack found that quite unsettling.

For a few heartbeats, he only stood before it, his fingers gently brushing over the crayon drawings that have been inscribed on it a long time ago. It could best be described as something that happened in another life, although Jack had to stop and remind himself that the fact was true.

Jack took a deep breath, letting the warm air cool in his lungs before letting it out. It wasn't an effective way of gathering his nerves but at least it was enough to calm him down. He turned to Tooth once he felt her presence beside him again, his eyes flicking back and forth from her as if his mind was refusing to accept the oncoming thought forming in his mind. Perhaps it was the lack of warmth he felt but when he looked at Tooth this time, he no longer felt any resentment or pain, instead he found comfort in the softness of her features.

Jack gave her a nod and Tooth returned it shakily as if the gesture already seemed alien to her. Jack had to stop the twitch in his lips from twisting into an assuring smile. With one last glance over his shoulder, he nudges the door open a little wider before slipping inside.

Jack didn't know what he had been expecting, but the scene before him was enough to make his heart wrench. He had never seen his sister's room in such a condition, not even when she was throwing a rare tantrum.

Pippa was slumped over the bed, her face burrowed in her arms and her shoulders shaking with sobs. The blankets pooled around her at her feet along with the curtains that have been yanked off the window sill. The floor was littered with old memories, torn out pages of the books she used to love, trinkets and discarded toys that had long been stowed away in the drawers of her closet. It took a while before it finally occurred to Jack that those things gad once been his gifts to her.

It became clear that Pippa was trying to forget about him and she might as well have succeeded in forgetting a part of him.

Jack didn't know Tooth had slipped into the room after him but when she entered his line of vision and approached Pippa with an outstretched hand, Jack was already aware of what the outcome would turn out to be.

Tooth's hand ghosted right through Pippa's shoulder. She called out her name as she did this, although her voice was nothing more than a whisper of the wind.

His sister was too far gone.

She no longer had the heart to believe in those stories.

They were his stories and he remembered he used to tell them to her every night.

The guardians were supposed to protect children from darkness and yet how can they even achieve that when they aren't even able to protect them from grief?

The tinge of sadness he felt in his heart before suddenly hardened into unfathomable anger. He kept his fists clenched at his sides, trying to contain the erratic surges of power he felt in his veins. The way Tooth was looking at him right now did little to abate it. Jack spun around his heel and strode out into the halls. He snatched his staff from where he had left it along the way; his gait remained unrelenting until he was finally out of the house.

Even now he couldn't seem to break free from the events of the past. A sense of déjà vu settled over him as he heard the sound of Tooth's voice calling after him and felt the cold fingers of the wind rake across his cheek, although this time, Jack stopped abruptly to face her. The sudden movement nearly caused them to collide but Tooth stopped herself just time to land just a few inches away from him. They had never stood so close to each other, not since that particular day in Trinity. Jack found it funny how things that felt so right before could seem so amiss.

"Jack, wait"

He caught a hint of anger in Tooth's voice when she said this, although the waver in her tone made it sound more like a plea rather than a command. He raised his chin slightly, an unconscious gesture that told her to continue. His gaze, however, remained cold and defiant.

"I just…I don't understand why you are so angry with me." The strain in Tooth's words made it clear that she was about to snap. She gritted her teeth as she spoke the next lines, her hands closing hard around her feathers. "Would you have believed me if I told you I was some kind of…ghost? Would you?"

It's true, Jack thought to himself. He wouldn't have believed something as absurd as that. He wanted so badly to understand the pain she was feeling. He wanted so badly to understand her. A part of him still felt Tooth deserved to be heard out. A part of him thought she does not deserve any of that and at the moment Jack was keen on making himself believe that she didn't. "Perhaps it would be best if you just stayed away."

Taking Tooth's lack of response as a form of acceptance, Jack turned away and began to make his way towards the park. A slight tug on his arm stopped him once again and Jack bit back the urge to growl for the sake of listening to what she had to say.

"We should go to North…he'll know what's going on."

The slight glimmer in her eyes indicated the scant of hope that she still clung onto. Jack shook his head and watched as that light slowly died away. "No" he muttered as he swung his staff over his shoulder. "I'm going for a walk. Leave me alone."

He was unaware of the tracks of frost he left behind him as he stalked off.

Inspired by the song 'Fireflies' by Owl City, thank you for reading and feel free to leave a comment :)Reviews are very much appreciated.