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Church of Bones	By : LuciferDragon Category: +M through R > Rise of the Guardians Views: 1334 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I own nothing in the Rise of the Guardians world, and I make no profit at all from this fiction. All in good fun.

Chapter List
- 7
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- 9
8.
Running through the woods in a nightdress, a loose robe, and no slippers would have been a horrible idea if I had the time to care then. We managed to catch up to Jack, who stopped the horses for us.
"What was that?" he asked.
I took a few steadying breaths. "The howling, it's a sign of a revenant. That shout was Jamie's."
Jack's eyes widened instantly and he turned his gaze to the forest. "We have to find him."
I nodded and Hessian materialized beneath me to save me the trouble of hopping in his saddle and for sure giving everyone a show. So far as I knew, that was something only one person out of all of us wanted to see, though not out here with people. Especially not Jack. I secured the robe closed as the nightdress rode up my thighs. After that night, if I ever left the lair angry, I always put on pants. Pitch mounted Onyx and Drago urged Bellini on while Jack kept up with us using Wind's help.
"I thought the boy was back in school," Pitch added as the horses managed to weave around fallen branches and deep holes.
"He came back for the weekend," Jack answered.
The horses stopped short and almost bucked us off as someone darted in front of us and vanished between the trees again, panting and completely out of breath. After a moment, a head filled with shaggy brown hair popped out of a bush, eyes wide in fear. "Hi guys, sorry I can't talk, being chased by a pack of dogs and a crazy person!"
Jack grabbed him by the back of his jacket. "Slow down there. What's going on?" The howls rose up again, chillingly close.
"We need to get him out of here," Pitch said, looking around for the source of noise. He opened a portal for us and we each shot through, returning to the lair in Italy to get the dogs off Jamie's scent.

I joined them in the center room once I had put on my proper clothes again, enjoying the feel of my black and orange stripped tights covering my legs under the shorts. I could hear their voices echo from the top of the catwalks as soon as I left the bedroom. I sank into the shadows and emerged close to the table, surprised to see Drago there. His pale eyes caught mine and he gave an excited smile on his ashen lips. I said nothing and stood with the others as they got the whole story from Jamie.
"It was so weird. He had two dogs trailing a good distance behind him, cowering and whining. The guy was claiming to be a demon that roamed New Orleans at one point. He…" He scrunched up his face in a form of disbelief. "He asked if I liked jazz music. That was when he looked normal yet. Then he takes out this axe from nowhere and tells me 'Such a shame good music isn't appreciated anymore.' I ran then. When I looked back, a huge dog was chasing me. I took a sharp turn and ran into the woods. Thought I could lose him there. Stupid me didn't realize, hey, he's a fucking dog, he can track you!"
I shivered at his mounting fear and cut myself off from it. It didn't feel right to feed from it. Something didn't add up. Jamie said this man had an axe, but his roommate was killed with a knife. Killers didn't tend to switch up their weapon of choice. And why were they targeting Jamie in the first place? The kid had done nothing wrong, had no connections to anything besides all of us, and it wouldn't make sense to kill one little boy, or ruin his life, to get to us. I frowned. There were so many missing pieces yet. However, it wasn't odd that such activity would happen so close to Halloween. There was more to my job than providing elaborate scares for children and adults alike.
The legend of All Hallows varies between cultures, but one lore remains the same. All Hallows is the night where the void between the living and the dead blurs. That's a double edged sword. Sure, there are good spirits that come back, and why shouldn't they say a few things to their loved ones? If their loved ones stop panicking long enough to say hi to Grandma and Grandpa, of course.
Bad things can slip back through as well if the portals are not monitored closely. The reapers are usually good with keeping an eye on the portals every year, but sometimes things do manage to slip through. And sometimes those things are never caught in time. Which always ended badly. The creatures would lose their powers as Halloween would slip farther and farther into the past, but they'd still be around. They'd just end up in a sort of hibernation depending on how much power they exerted while they were roaming the streets, and how long they stayed corporeal. If they stayed corporeal too long, they vanished completely. No soul, no body, nothing. That was it.
Most of the time we were lucky with that, and the spirits weren't smart enough to drop their corporeal selves. But these weren't the normal spooks that slipped through on All Hallow's Eve. These were different. Revenants are zombies that can think. They can speak, feel, and move swiftly amongst the humans as if they never died. The only thing to give them away was their scent. When they first rise, and until they make a few kills, they smelled putrid, of rotting flesh and bone depending on how long they had been dead to begin with. When they killed, they absorbed their victims' souls. In that sense, they took on the life essence of those they killed. The younger they were, the more they would be rejuvenated. They would take on the specific skills of the person as well. Say one was a good athlete. Well, the revenant would suddenly be able to pole vault. Devour enough of those souls, and it could leap tall buildings in a single bound better than that atrocious Superman. And, devour enough souls, and it would be hard to tell that just a few kills ago their skin and sinew was hanging off their bones and sloughing off in the grass. The smell would dissipate to that of brimstone, very faintly.
The good news was that if a revenant succeeded in what it came back to life for, it would fade away again for good. Say they were murdered in a violent manner. Take for example the character Eric Draven, more commonly known as The Crow. He's the best example of a, I suppose you could say, good revenant. He took his vengeance, killed who he needed to kill, and once his battle was over, he went back to his grave to be with his fiancé. Unfortunately, unfinished business can mean anything to anyone. From what we were seeing now, these two revenants were looking to complete their tasks. Who they were and what they were after exactly, we had no idea. We didn't even know if there were only two of them. It was just stranger that they were roaming the streets now, and not starting their hunting on All Hallows Eve.
They had someone helping them.
I looked to the others as they started speaking again. It was strange seeing the two self-stated rivals working together. The three were discussing what to do, and where Jamie should reside while this thing was taken care of, and while we figured out why they were targeting the young man. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Drago listening to his father intently, absorbing every word. I had to let a smile slip as he adjusted his long black coat back onto his shoulders, underneath the folded collar of his grey thin sweater shirt. The dark circles around his eyes only seemed darker as his pale eyes watched the men talk. My smile fell as I realized what he was listening for. He wanted to help in any way he could.
Over the years I had become a protective mother. Something I never thought I would have. There were times where I would forbid Drago from something, only to have Pitch of all people tell me to ease off. He told me Drago was his son as well, and that I was being too harsh on the boy. I needed to let him experience life for himself to learn anything. I had to realize the boy would be hurt in his life. There was no avoiding it. Being the son of the Boogeyman and the Spirit of Halloween would bring a deadly life for him.
And, as young as he was, he seemed to accept that fate. A lot more maturely than I would have given him credit for.
"So then I'll stay here."
I looked to the men as Jack nodded. "The hounds can't track you here. You're on a different continent entirely. Unless these things can take the shape of a bat, you should be fine." He looked to Pitch. "They can't, can they?"
The Boogeyman shook his head. "No. Just hounds." He glanced at me. "I will go back to Burgess and see what I can find. You stay here and see to it that he settles in well."
"Dad?" Drago's voice was quiet, as if still unsure if he should continue as his father looked to him. "Can I come with you? I promise to stay out of the way."
I wanted to immediately shout that it was too dangerous. That I would not send my baby into a potential warzone, but I bit my tongue. Even when Pitch glanced my way to see what I thought, I said nothing. I only nodded. "The moment I say to get out of there, you leave. Is that understood?" he said.
The child's expression brightened as he got out of his chair. "Yes, sir." He sank into the shadows, most likely to go find Bellini.
I barely noticed Pitch's presence standing next to me. "I won't take him if you don't want me to."
I shook my head at his dropped voice as he didn't look at me. "Let him see firsthand the horrors of the world. You've said it yourself. He will not learn if he is not exposed to the life." I noticed I was rubbing my arms in my subconscious nervous habit. I gripped my arms while I looked to him out of the corner of my eye and smirked. I nudged his hip with mine "Besides, he has his big, strong, daddy there to protect him."
"I'll make sure he stays in one piece, at least."
"Where should I take Jamie?"
"You could take him to your workshop and give him a heart attack with your skeletons, bats and spirits."
"Ah, I wouldn't think that such a good idea. Not when we're supposed to be protecting him from murderous revenants."
"Shove him in a mud pit then."
I pushed his shoulder. "Behave. Besides, you know for a fact I like those pits."
He seemed to remember exactly what I was referring to. There were plenty of times we would escape to the warm natural pits. It wasn't the cleanest thing ever, but from what I understood, humans paid good money to do what we had access to every day. Was good for the skin, from what I heard. And a very good excuse to spend ample amounts of time clearing each other of every spec of mud while under the falls that ran through the lair, or in the shower in our room with quick access to the bed. "Shove him in a cage. I honestly don't care so long as he stays away from our room."
I grabbed his arm as he tried walking away. "Just… don't let Jack get killed if the situation arises. I know you still hate him but…"
"But Drago likes him for some reason, I know," he said with a curled lip while Drago emerged from below with Bellini, both him and the green-stained black mare excited to go out into danger.
I tightened my grip, making him look at me. "And, you owe him now. I would have never forgiven you if he hadn't set my mind straight."
He seemed to succumb to defeat a slight bit and sighed. "Very well. I won't leave him for dog scraps."
I let him leave then without another word. We weren't the type for sappy partings and warnings to be careful. It wasn't necessary after almost four hundred and seventy years. I knew he'd come back, either in one piece or battered and bruised. He always found some way back, even when I believed him dead. I watched as he swung into Onyx's saddle and opened a portal. I felt a sudden lump form in my throat as I watched Drago's giddy face look back at me. When had the child grown up on me?
In an instant they were all gone, and the portal closed behind them, leaving me alone with Jamie. I looked to the young man, and he looked back at me. I cracked a grin. "How would you like to see how Halloween is made?"
- 7
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- 9
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