Author's Note: Welcome old and new friends! This one is another BunnyxOC, but I'll be delving back into the "romance with adventure" category rather than "completely smutty romance." It's also exciting because this is the first time the OC will be another Pooka. Anyway, thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy this first chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything recognizable from Rise of the Guardians.

Chapter 1:

A dark form hovers behind a corner as two teenagers walk past it, their eyes wide and their breathing heavy. They are covered in scratches and bruises from their attempts to escape the energy following them, and the boy immediately grabs the girl's arm to make her hurry.

"I think the door is over there." He says, and they both run toward it just as a terrifying inhuman screech sounds from behind them. The girl looks over her shoulder and screams, shoving her boyfriend ahead as his hands furiously shake the doorknob. When he gets it open, they stare down at the treacherous staircase that leads to a basement, the light from the hallway ending several steps down into total darkness. The boy looks toward her, his expression apprehensive, and she just nods and yells at him to go. He listens and runs down the first few steps with her hot on his heels, pulling the door closed and taking away their final bit of sight.

"No, no, no! Don't go in there!" Caleb yells at the television, his hand full of popcorn halfway up to his mouth. His friends turn around angrily, shushing him once again for his outburst. Their annoyed expressions make him shrink back into the couch, and they shake their heads before turning their attention back to the movie.

The teens are scattered around Jamie's living room with various junk foods littering the carpet. His parents had allowed him to finally have the others over while they weren't there, breaking through the "too-young" boundary. Pippa and Cupcake had decided not to join them, but the boys were enjoying the ability to watch a terrifying horror movie without adult supervision.

The four of them continue to sit in the dark, staring at the screen as the two characters become even more lost in the haunted building they had been foolish enough to enter. The couple begin to feel that something is wrong, and then suddenly there is a flash of lightning just as they are attacked by some kind of grotesque corpse. The boys jump at the sudden movement and scream, Monty practically beating Claude in his intense reaction, and Jamie cringes at the mess they create as the bowls of food get knocked over.

"I told you not to go in there!" Caleb yells, and is once again shushed.

"Shut up, man!"

"We can't hear!"

"Oh, like you're even listening? You're too busy pissing your pants!"

"There's nothing to hear! They're just screaming!"

"I am not pissing my-"

"Shut up!" They all cut off the argument when their attention is once again stolen as the evil corpse begins to devour one of the characters, now completely unrecognizable in a sea of blood and brain matter. "Was that the girl?"

"No, I think that was the guy." Jamie sighs in annoyance and glares at Monty, who just shrugs.

"Does it really matter? They're dead anyway." The camera pans over the leftover carcass of the unfortunate character, and all four of them cringe.

"Can we watch something else?" Monty asks, bringing about a round of forced laughter. None would admit that they were getting scared by a simple horror film, but they are silently thanking the youngest of them for speaking up. Jamie just sighs and gets up to change the movie, but in the darkness of the room he has trouble finding the proper buttons.

"Can someone hit the lights?" He asks, gesturing toward the wall, and hears someone leave the couch to do so. There is a click as the light is switched on and Jamie smiles as he reaches for the eject button, only to jump and let out a yelp when the lights suddenly pop and the room is once again bathed in darkness.

No one says anything for a few moments, and then there is uncomfortable shifting on the floor and couch before Caleb tries to flick on the light again without success. Jamie turns around to try to find him and the moonlight filters in through the window, casting an eerie blue glow on the now frightened teenagers.

"What happened?"

"The light bulb is probably just burned out." Jamie answers Monty's quivering voice, and he carefully steps around the mess they had made to confirm his guess. He sighs and walks over to the closet, grabbing the flashlight they kept there for times such as this. However, as soon as he turns it on, it goes out as well, making them all yell in surprise and lurch away from it.

"This isn't funny anymore." Claude mutters, his tone echoing all of their thoughts; that something was not right.

"I told you we shouldn't have watched that stupid movie. It's freaked us all out." Monty says, but at that moment no one has the breath to respond, blinking with difficulty as they try to adjust to the darkness, and they slowly rise to stand.

"What was that?" Caleb asks softly, and Jamie glares at him as best he can.

"That's not funny, dude. Knock it off."

"No, I'm not kidding. I heard something." He turns toward the staircase and takes a step toward it, his arm raising to point frantically as a shadow moves on the landing. "There! See it?" His friends take in his frightened tone and hesitantly move behind him, looking up to the stairs for the entity he speaks of, but there is nothing. "I'm telling you, I saw something!"

"What?"

"I don't know." Meanwhile Jamie attempts to get the flashlight to work, hitting it against his palm, and the light begins to flicker, creating even more shadows on the walls. However, Caleb frowns when his friend fails in recreating the forms he had seen, and he tries to figure out if they were real, or if his imagination really was just running wild. He peeks down the hallway again, and then gasps when there is more movement beyond the staircase. "There!"

Before the others can stop him, he is running toward the mysterious figure, ignoring their warnings to stay away from whatever it was. Jamie follows him, directing the now working flashlight ahead. Still, he has to steady his hand as they approach the landing where the energy in the house was much more tense, the four boys' eyes darting around them to search for the intruder.

"What did it look like?"

"Just a shadow. But-" He's cut off by someone's scream when the television turns on behind them, and the previous movie plays without their interference, sending a round of chills down all of their spines. The malevolent entity continues to kill on the screen, and suddenly they aren't so ready to inspect the shadows lingering around the house. It only takes one more dark form passing through their field of vision and a loud thump on the wall next to them, and then they are practically scrambling over each other to get to the front door, shouting expletives as the television flickers before shutting off only to come back on with even louder volume, the shrieks of terror on the screen heightening the boys' own fear.

"Go!"

"Get out!"

"Move!"

Jamie gasps for breath as he throws the door shut, barely masking the sounds of the television, and presses his palms against it as if to keep whatever was inside of his house, in and away from them.

"What was that?"

"I don't know!"

"It was a ghost, what else?"

"No, my house isn't haunted." Jamie manages to get out, but the others stare at him incredulously.

"Well there was something in there. And I sure as hell am not going back inside!" Claude yells, gesturing wildly to the window, and all of them warily look into the living room where the television is now off and silent. But the lights are still out, bathing the room in darkness and not allowing them to see if anything indeed is still lingering.

"We can't stay out here all night." Monty mumbles and wraps his arms around himself, bringing their attention to the fact that though the temperature had been fairly high that day, it had lowered significantly along with the sun.

"I don't care if it's cold. We're not going back in there." Jamie says, shaking his head. Never had he considered the fact that his house could be haunted, but there was no denying that something had happened, and there could very well be something still hiding. Whether or not it was dangerous was unknown, but he wasn't ready to find out, especially with his friends nearby. "We'll just stay out here until my parents get home."

When the car finally pulls up a few hours later and the two adults step out, it is quite a surprise when they see the four teenagers sitting on the steps leading up to the door, all of their expressions tense. They perk up at seeing Jamie's parents though, and immediately stand, all of their voices reaching out at once.

"Whoa, slow down." His mother stops them and glances at the house, obviously wondering what had happened that they were all so upset. "What did you guys break?" That makes them pause, and then they are looking at her in confusion. "If you broke something then it's better to just tell me now-"

"No, we didn't break anything." Jamie interrupts her, and runs a hand over his face as he tries to figure out where to start. "We just… there was…"

"There's a ghost in the house." Caleb blurts out, and the silence that reigns afterward is quickly met with a startled laugh.

"A ghost?" Jamie's dad chimes in, grinning at them as if it's a joke. However, once he sees how shaken they are, and notices that they had left the house without even their shoes, his grin turns into a frown. "What do you mean, there's a ghost?"

"We were watching the movie and the lights went out, and then the flashlight didn't work either, and we saw something moving around, and the television turned off and on by itself-"

"Okay, stop." His mother's sharp tone catches Jamie off guard, and he stops talking to look up at her with begging eyes.

"I'm not lying, there really was-"

"Let's just go take a look, alright?" His father walks past the group and turns the doorknob, wasting no time in entering the house and glancing around the living room. His wife follows, and makes a frustrated sound when she nearly trips over a bowl of deserted potato chips, the snacks crunching beneath her heels.

"This place is a mess."

"We ran out so fast, we must have knocked some stuff over." Jamie mutters apologetically. He and his friends enter the house carefully, still on edge from the unexplainable events, and then his mother's hand reaches for the light switch. "It's broken…" His voice trails off when she flicks it upward, lighting up the room and making them wince. The older woman turns around to glare slightly at him, and then nods at the light.

"It was in the off position." She explains, and then continues to look around the disheveled room. Jamie shakes his head and looks to Caleb for back up. He frowns as well and looks to the light switch, completely sure he had tried to turn it back on, and had left it in the on position before they had escaped outside. There was no reason that it should have been switched back. It makes them both shudder and look toward Jamie's father, who continues to look around the room, and then glance up the stairs, shrugging.

"There's nothing here." He says, and Jamie's mother sighs, crossing her arms over her chest.

"You all just probably got scared from those movies you watch-"

"No, there really was something here." He says firmly, glaring at his parents. They glance at each other with that knowing look, and he sighs, sensing that they wouldn't believe him no matter what he said. It didn't help that the movie was still in the player, enhancing their guess that the horror film was just too much for the teenagers to take. It was the first time they were trusted enough to hang out alone, and it was obvious that they wouldn't get another chance. "Mom-"

"I think it's time that everyone went home." She cuts him off softly, and he fumes silently as his friends begin to pick up their sleeping bags and get ready to leave.

"I'll drive them home." She mutters a thank you to her husband and gestures for Jamie to help her clean up the food ground into the carpet. They remain silent until everyone else has left and the door closes before Jamie speaks up again.

"Mom, I know it sounds crazy but-"

"I don't want to hear it, Jamie." She says, shaking her head, and leaves him briefly to grab a trash bag. "I trusted you to make good decisions tonight, and you obviously can't handle that yet." He doesn't say anything in reply, knowing it would be no use. "I don't want you watching any more of those movies, do you understand me?" I'm not a child anymore. He wants so badly to scream the words at her, but he just nods, not quite wanting to relive the fear the movies had caused anyway. But that wasn't the point.

If he were being honest with himself, he didn't even want to be in the house anymore. What had happened to them was real, and not knowing what had caused it was keeping him on edge, looking around every corner and jumping at every sound. Even through dinner he finds himself unable to eat, and it takes everything within him to make his way down the dark hallway to his bedroom when the rest of his family retires for the night.

He doesn't tell Sophie about what had happened, afraid of scaring her too. She always believed everything he told her, and there was no reason to have their parents accusing him of trying to start trouble. Still, Jamie stares at the ceiling as he tries to fall asleep, his fingers clutching the sheets when a tree branch scratches against his window. The eerie sound makes him tense, and every now and then visions of monsters and malevolent shadows force themselves into his mind until he is wide awake, waiting for a sign that he is not alone.

xxRISExx

He can't help but laugh, the irony is so great.

Pitch had no doubt that the Guardians were positive they had seen the last of him that night he disappeared at the hands of his night mares. However, they had made the mistake of assuming that the creatures would really turn against their master. As soon as that hole had filled and his screams had been cut off, he promised himself that he would find a way to return, and to get rid of the Guardians for good.

His yellow eyes gaze down at the unsuspecting city, the lingering trails of golden sand making him smirk. A good job as always, Sandman. But this time your sweet dreams won't be enough to defeat me. The shadows allow him to move silently between the buildings, the low growling behind him comforting even as anticipation makes his hands shake.

It was amazing how much had changed since their last showdown. The heroes' work had sustained the positive energy that allowed the world to continue on, but even as the children grew up, the negative energy continued to thrive below the ground where he harbored his hatred and desire for the ultimate revenge. And even though he was forced to endure even more solitary confinement after so many years, the night he wakes up to the sensation of dread, it seems to call to him, drawing him toward its source.

The instant he realized it was the same children, he wanted nothing more than to make them suffer as he had. It was easy enough to scare them, putting out the lights and messing with the television to make them believe there was something there in the house with them. Still, it wasn't quite enough. Even the scorn they received from the adults wasn't enough to make up for the pain and anger in his heart.

Pitch steps into the bedroom slowly, glaring down at the form in the bed as they breathe deeply. Jamie remains asleep, the sand drifting away with just the boogeyman's presence nearby, and that's what causes the dark man to turn and grit his teeth, waving a hand in front of him as his own sand comes forth. It curls and glides, forming a figure similar to the mares that had become his only solace in his loneliness, and then it changes, lurching and emitting a fierce growl.

Jamie's body flinches and his brow furrows in his sleep as if sensing the change in the atmosphere, and the figure crowds next to the bed, rising up and becoming even larger, its hooves pounding on the floor with enough strength to make the nearby furniture tremble.

Pitch watches the figure snort and continue to stomp, the muscular animal body unsettled while the human torso twists in irritation. The monstrous centaur rears up before leering down at Jamie, and Pitch smiles before gesturing toward the teenager with obvious glee.

"Do your worst." With those few words, the centaur reaches down with a brawny hand, latching onto Jamie's head and squeezing maliciously. Instantly the boy begins to convulse, letting out subdued sounds and whimpering. His feet kick out and his hands flail, but the creature just holds on tightly as it fills Jamie's mind with the terrifying illusions of pain and torture, thriving off of the residual fear from their night of horror. Pitch just continues to laugh as the fear takes over him, and when the boy finally can't take anymore and wakes up, it is to an empty room.

Jamie lets out another cry and gasps for air, bringing his hands up to his damp hair as he tries to forget the dream that had taken over his entire being. It seemed so real, and he gingerly moves his lead-like limbs, feeling his heart pound in his chest. He glances over at his door, wondering if his noises and thrashing had woken his family. A part of him wishes that it had, and that his mother would rush in as she did when he was younger, asking him if he was alright, but then he remembers that now he's older, and those times were over.

He closes his eyes and gasps when the images reappear, and a sob builds up in his throat as he begs the panic to dissipate, just wanting to go back to sleep. But no matter how hard he tries, it remains, haunting him, and he can't shake the feeling that whatever had caused it was still lingering… and waiting to strike again.

xxRISExx

Author's Note: Ugh! I feel like I'm going crazy here. I went through a good week and a half of writer's block, which hardly ever happens to me! I couldn't write anything! Not even a single sentence! So frustrating! Thankfully the stress from finals is gone and I seem to have gotten my stride back, knock on wood.

Anyway, I've missed posting and hearing from you all, so I hope this is an okay first chapter. It feels weird not to update often, so I promise that once I'm far enough ahead in the writing process to edit to near perfection, I will be updating regularly on Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays. As always, this story is completely outlined, so don't worry about it being abandoned. Writer's block will not keep me down! Thanks again for reading! Review please!