1 Is he really gone?

She lay there, too scared to move. He had just fallen through the ice to save her. She had to skate on the thin ice! She was always getting into trouble and he always saved her. Now, he was gone, his body had sunk so far below the water that she could no longer see him. The water actually started freezing over. How long had she laid there? Would she ever be able to move again? How would she tell her mother? Jack, her older brother, the trickster would do anything for her. He always played with her and encouraged her. Now with him dead she is left to find her way on her own.

"I'm scared, Jack," Jeannie cried.

"We are going to play a game instead," Jack said smiling at her. He knew how to calm her. Hopscotch! It had worked to get her off the thin ice but if he hadn't had to save her they would be at home sleeping on their beds instead of him sinking deeper into the frozen water and her laying in the cold. She wished Jack could play a game with her. He always had a way of making everything funny. He would climb trees and put sticks on his head. Today he was taking her ice skating and he told her to stay away from the center of the lake; the ice is always thinnest at the center. She did a spin until she became dizzy and had to stop, she stopped by putting her toe of one boot into the ice and the other sideways. A beautiful stop but it broke the ice under her feet.

Jeannie looked at the icy hole where her brother had just fallen and tears rolled down her face. Jeannie hadn't trusted him when he said it was going to be alright. What would he remember in the other world? Would it be that she was a bad little sister who had killed him?

A sound came from in the woods around her but she still didn't move. She felt a presence over her, it picked her up and asked her something but her ears were numb. It sat on the side of the lake and pulled her tightly into its arms. Fear was surrounding her but also leaving her, like a deer from a hunter, only she was the hunter out for fear's antlers.

"He is dead. It is my fault," Jeannie looked at the almost closed hole where she had lost her brother.

This time when the man spoke she heard him, "You didn't kill him, but if you did, that would be something. I am here for you, if you help me."

Jeannie looked at the man now, his face pale and shadow like and his black hair spiked back on his head. He was a shadow, creepy looking, and Jeannie started to be afraid. The man smiled, "I love fear, that is the only reason I am here."

Jeannie wanted to cry, "You came to me because of my fear? Who are you?"

The man laughed, "I am Pitch Black, otherwise known as the Boogeyman. You can call me Pitch. I am here to help you."

"Help me?" Jeannie asked. Wondering why would the Boogeyman help me? Unless I am evil now for killing my brother and now I will become a monster like him.

"I need an assistant and you a perfect for the job. You will live your life normally until your eighteenth birthday then you will become like me. Is that agreeable?" Pitch asked her.

"I…I'm not a monster. I am just a little girl. I cannot help you," Jeannie said trying to get out of his arms.

He hugged her tighter, "it is too bad you do not have another choice. You are not just a little girl. You are a girl who has just watched her brother drown. You do not fear much anymore, you lay in the middle of a lake that is freezing and watched the hole where a person fell in to save you. Now you will watch as he comes back to life and you will be nothing to him. I will sit with you if you would like."

Jeannie didn't speak just nodded and laid her head on his chest.

The hole was completely frozen over and the moon was full shining brightly on the spot where the hole had once been.

"The moon is beautiful," Jeannie said seeing one bright thing in her life again.

Pitch pulled her tightly into his arms, "I hate Man in Moon! He is the reason I only hide in the shadows! He is the one who made the Guardians. I am a shadow and so are you."

All of a sudden the ice began to break apart and a boy with white hair lifted out of the lake where Jack had fallen in. The white-haired boy looked at the moon with joy and when his bare feet touched the ice of the lake he found the stick Jack had used to pull her from the broken ice before she fell in. She watched him play with the wind and laugh, painting pictures with frost using the stick. Pitch got up and carried her in the shadows after the white-haired boy. They went into town. She watched people walk through him; she saw the fear in his icy blue eyes. He was lonely. She wanted to call out to him but Pitch told her not to say a word. Pitch then took her back to the lake and put her on the edge.

"Your mother will find you here," Pitch told her ready to sink into the shadows.

"Please don't go! Was that my Jack? Is he a ghost? How will you find me? Will I be able to see Jack if I go with you? Please Pitch!" Jeannie cried grabbing Pitch's hand.

"Yes. No. If you need me I will be under your bed, just have a nightmare and I will be by your side. And yes, you will be able to see Jack and hold him again if you come with me. Do we have a deal, sweet fearless girl?" Pitch answered her calmly stroking her hair like her father use to before he died.

"Okay, Pitch. I will be your assistant when I turn eighteen," Jeannie said looking towards home watching a light coming near; her mother's voice calling her and Jack's names. When she looked back, pitch was gone. Jeannie called out to her mother, "Jack is dead, Momma! He fell in and it is my fault he did. I didn't listen to him and I broke the ice. Momma please, don't be angry with me."

Her mother came to her side and pulled Jeannie into her arms. Tears rolled down both of their faces, "let us go home my sweet child. It is cold and dark," Mother said to her as calmly as she could. Mother was not as good with words as Jack and she did not know how to handle the situation.

"Okay Momma," Jeannie held on to her mother burying her face into her mother's shoulder.

When Jeannie got home and looked under her bed, she saw those two shadowy eyes and jumped into bed and covered her head with her blanket. She had sold her soul to the Boogeyman.