Sophie adjusted herself to get comfortable on the hard marble floor. The least the police officers could have done was give her a small cot, or let her sleep in a chair, but nope! She was in a rush just to get there, and now she was lying on the cold, hard ground. What Jack had said about her nightmare had really shaken her up, and her own reasoning had even scared her.

Pitch. The name made her shudder. She had been too young during the battle three years ago, only a mere two years old, but she had heard stories. What could Pitch want her for? After all, her brother was The Last Light, the one who caused his defeat. It could have been a trap, but Sophie didn't believe it was. If the other spirits were being affected, he would be too. That nightmare he sent her, it was like a beacon, a flash flare to let her know something was wrong.

If that nightmare had come from Pitch, it must have had some kind of meaning. Certainly Pitch couldn't have been trying to help them. Why would he want to aid the sister of the boy who caused his downfall, and why would he even dare to help the winter spirit who ultimately defeated him? For the same reason why every other mythical creature wants to find whoever killed Jamie, Sophie thought as she drifted off to sleep. Jamie was trying to help them by figuring out who was messing around with their powers and helpers. But then, he was killed by the person who was doing it. If Jack and I could figure out who killed Jamie, that person could probably reverse the effects. That's why Pitch wants to help us.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a pounding of hooves and a neigh. Sophie quickly sat up in the shadowy corner where she was sleeping. The sound of sand dispersing whispered around the ground, like quicksand moving in the shape of a whirlpool. What was that? She heard a soft snort and looked up. A small, black horse with golden eyes stared at her. It was the size of a pony, and Sophie was mesmerized as black sand swished around her new companion.

She stroked its mane lovingly, wondering what kind of creature it was. She thought that she might have been having a dream, or she was having a hallucination from all of the pressure. It lowered its head, revealing a star shaped mark on the top of its head, and it beckoned her to climb on. "Cool! It's like you have a star shaped birthmark!" she chuckled. "I'm going to call you Black Beauty, like the horse in that story."

Black Beauty nuzzled Sophie's cheek with his nose in approval, and then he whinnied impatiently, gesturing for her to climb on. She placed her foot on his side, finding it surprisingly solid, and she sat atop his back. Without warning, Black Beauty raced forward, passing through the wall, and into the lobby of the police station. "Whoa, boy! How did you do that?" Sophie asked, astonished.

"Soph, what do you think you're doing?" a familiar voice called out.

"Jack?" she questioned as the winter spirit came into view. The two policemen sitting at the front desk glanced around as if they had heard something, but they saw nothing. There was just a random draft of cold air.

Jack burst forward with incredible speed and whipped out his staff. He was about to freeze Black Beauty when Sophie jumped down in front of his nose. She spread her arms out protectively in front of her new friend as Black Beauty whinnied nervously. Jack tried to move Sophie as she glared at him, but Sophie stood her ground. Jack was getting exasperated. "Sophie, would you move? I'm trying to take care of that nightmare!"

Baby Tooth backed away slowly, remembering how it was creatures like Black Beauty who had attacked her sisters and dragged them to Pitch. Black Beauty's eyes followed her as if he didn't know what kind of strange creature she was, and Baby Tooth became even more uneasy. Why was he watching her like that? Was he going to eat her? She made a mad dash for the inside of Jack's hoodie, without making a noise.

"Black Beauty isn't a nightmare! He's a horse!" Sophie argued back before she understood the pun. She looked at Black Beauty, then back at Jack. "Oh. He's a nightmare. But… he's a boy. A mare is a female horse."

"Listen." Jack explained. "That is a nightmare. It's one of Pitch's helpers. Can't you tell he's trying to kidnap you?"

Sophie pouted stubbornly. "He wasn't trying to kidnap me. Actually, he was very nice, and he just wanted me to climb on his back."

Her innocence astounded Jack. How could a girl so bright be so naive? "Pitch is obviously just using this as a ploy to get you to go down to his lair. First the dream, and now the horse. It's a trap, Soph!"

"Well, maybe he's trying to get me to come down there because he needs our help!" the five year old argued back.

"Why would he need our help? He hates us, remember?" Jack nearly yelled. Why was Sophie being so difficult all of a sudden? Was it all about Black Beauty, or was it about something else?

Sophie's features softened. She really shouldn't have been getting upset with Jack; he had just been trying to protect her when he thought she was in danger. "Exactly. Pitch hates us, which means that he must really be in trouble for him to call us for help." She paused, giving Jack time to argue back, but the words died in his throat. He was just worried. Worried that she couldn't handle it, worried that he wouldn't be able to protect her when the time came. "I think we need to go down to Pitch's lair."

There was a long, awkward silence between the two. Finally, Jack spoke up without daring to look Sophie in the eyes. Instead, he stared at Black Beauty, a feeling of disdain crawling up in his throat. "How do we get there? You can't just walk out of the police station."

Sophie turned around to face Black Beauty, who cocked his head to one side. She walked around him in a circle before she answered. "I think Black Beauty is the answer. Just before you showed up, Black Beauty had fazed us through that wall over there, and we somehow appeared over here. Maybe we could pull the same trick and get into Pitch's realm."

Both Jack and Black Beauty balked the idea. "Are you kidding me?" Jack asked incredulously. "You want me to ride that thing?" Black Beauty whinnied something, and somehow Jack got the message. "Hey man. I do not appreciate being told that I look like your cousin. I know exactly what you mean by that," he commented, narrowing his eyes at the dirty mouthed horse.

Black Beauty whinnied something else, and his eyes turned a fiercely bright yellow color, almost like the sun. Jack hit his forehead and sighed. "How was I supposed to know Sanchez was your brother? What was I supposed to do? Escort him to the family reunion while he attacked my friends?"

Sophie stared at their strange exchange. She questioned Jack's mental sanity, and not for the first time. "Jack. You're arguing with a horse that can't talk." Jack paused, looked up into the horse's face, and calmly took a large step away from the creature.

"Uh…" he began awkwardly. "So… you were saying this horse could help us get into Pitch's lair?"

Sophie shook her head as if to forget what she just watched, and she glided over toward Black Beauty. "I think that maybe Pitch sent him here to come get me, so we can use him to get into Pitch's realm." She sat atop Black Beauty's back and adjusted herself to get comfortable. She looked at Jack curiously and motioned for him to follow. "What? You don't want to get on?" she asked.

Jack took one last look at the horse. "Nope. Never. You can not do anything to get me on that horse," he said firmly. He shook his head and spread his arms out in a fashion that said 'Not in a trillion years.'

Sophie cocked her head. "Are you afraid of horses?" Jack paused and shook his head no. Sophie shrugged. "Okay then," she said as she took a firm hold of Jack's hoodie. The cloth folded in her tiny fist, and she called, "I've got him! Go for it Black Beauty!"

Jack screamed in an un-manly fashion as Black Beauty suddenly fazed through the floor. All he saw was complete darkness, nothing else, as he squealed and tried to squirm out of Sophie's grasp. "How are you so strong?" he managed to choke out as they continued to fall. His legs kicked out, brushing up against nothing as little Sophie tightened her hold on the fabric around his neck.

"I'm not, really!" Sophie seemed to call from miles above. "You're dangling mid-air, and my fist is the only thing holding you up!"

What?! Jack thought. Somehow, Jack's safety and well being was in the hands, or hand, of a five year old that wasn't exactly in the best of moods. Oh joy. "Hey, uh, Soph?" he asked as they continued to fall, fall, fall, keep falling.

"Yeah?" she responded from far above.

"You wouldn't let me fall, would you?" Silence. "Sophie!" Jack called, upset. She wouldn't have actually let him fall, would she? More silence. "Aw, come on! What did I ever do to you?"

A laugh like wind chimes sounded, now seeming to come from below him. "I wouldn't let you fall, Jack," Sophie said, chuckling almost uncontrollably. "Besides, you can fly, remember?"

Thud! Jack and Sophie landed with a hard bump on the ground of some sort of cave. Black Beauty neighed, as if he was finally home, and Sophie groaned. "Are you okay, Soph?" Jack asked, panic building up in his chest. She couldn't be hurt already! They had just landed in Pitch's lair, and something had already gone wrong. It was a trap, and Jack knew it. He knew—

"Yeah, I'm fine. I think this bed broke my fall," Sophie answered from a short distance away. Never mind…

"Ah, you've finally arrived!" said a man's voice with a slight British accent. It was followed by a short clap, and lights switched on. The whole cave was illuminated, and Jack saw that Pitch had remodeled his lair. Sophie was sitting on large, King-sized bed with a black comforter and some bed lining. Apparently, Pitch had dusted because everything looked spotless, not to mention new. There was a fire place made out of Obsidian and Onyx stone in a far corner, and it had evidently been in use before Jack, Sophie, and Black Beauty had arrived. A dining room table sat just in front of it, with seats for three and food already sitting on the surface. All of the cages that had once held mini-fairies were gone, and in their places were chandeliers, paintings, and statues.

"Pitch seems different," Jack muttered to himself without turning to look. No duh, Jack. What was the first thing that tipped you off? The accent, the furniture, or hm, I don't know, the light? What the heck was it with that voice in his head?

"I suppose you like the new décor?" Pitch asked with his hands behind his back. Jack turned to see him, and was disturbed beyond compare. Instead of his usual black dress—robe, I mean—and tights, he was wearing a dark brown, plaid robe with a red handkerchief tucked into his shirt. He had golden rimmed glasses that hung by his chest with a golden chain. In his hand, held a pipe that spewed out… bubbles? "I went with the Gothic Country Cottage feel. It's all the rage in Europe."

He swept his arm out like a proper host and said, "Ah, but where are my manners? Please have a seat on the couch. Sophie, my dear girl, would you like some tea? Coffee for you, Jack?" Pitch, or whoever this guy was, asked as he poured two cups. He smoothed his hair, which was now styled without spikes, and brought the cups to the table in front of the couch the duo now sat on.

Jack had never been more horrified in his life. He had thought Svetlana was bad, but this just topped everything. Pitch… was being nice? Having manners? Acting like a nineteenth-century Englishman? It was just unheard of! Jack and Sophie stared doubtfully at their drinks, each wondering if it had some kind of poison or drug. "Um… I don't drink coffee," Jack said, still wary.

Sophie followed his lead. "Yeah, and I don't really like tea."

Pitch chuckled softly. "Oh, so you want water then? I too enjoy it. Nothing could be more pure, agree?"

"Sure…" Jack and Sophie mumbled simultaneously. Sophie couldn't take it anymore. This guy was nothing like the evil Boogeyman that her brother had told her about. What had happened to him? "Um, Mr. Black, sir," she began, not sure what to address him as or how to phrase her question. "Why aren't you, uh, scary?"

Pitch let out a full chortle this time, setting down his strange pipe. He stared at Sophie with mirth in his golden eyes. When he had finally calmed down, he stood up and walked over toward the dining table. He picked up a tea cake and made his way back to the couch as Jack and Sophie shared a glance. Still laughing, he handed the cake to Sophie and said, "Always asking questions. What a charming little girl. You remind me a lot of my daughter, Seraphina. She was just so curious. Let's not dwell on the past though, alright? Ah! Your question."

Jack watched, careful, as Pitch stood up again. His right hand clenched his staff until his knuckles were whiter than his already deathly pale skin. "Relax, Jack. I'm not going to hurt you," Pitch murmured with his back turned as bubbles came out of his pipe. Jack didn't completely relax, but he released his grip on the staff slightly. "Now, I'm really quite shocked that you two don't understand what's happening."

Sophie and Jack shared a glance. "What do you mean?" Sophie asked.

"All of this," Pitch said, referring to his appearance and the room décor. "is because of Them. I'm not sure exactly who 'They' are, but I know that They are extremely dangerous, and quite possibly the ones behind both of these mysteries."

"You know about Jamie?" Jack questioned.

"Well, of course!" Pitch answered. "We spirits talk too."

Sophie frowned in confusion. "I don't get it. What exactly are 'they' doing?"

"Everything, obviously. They are reverting us spirits and mythical beings back to our former selves, from before we became who we are." He paused, giving his guests time to question his statement, but they did not speak. He continued. "Long ago, during the Golden Age, I was a general named Kozmotis Pitchiner. Nicholas St. North was a robber. E. Aster was part of a tribe of Pookas, an advanced race of, well, bunnies. He created Australia. Toothiana, she was a fearless warrior queen. Sandy was the man who never had a nightmare, only sweet dreams. We all used to be someone."

"So, when you said that 'they' are changing the spirits back to whom you were before…" Sophie trailed off.

Pitch nodded. "Yes. They are changing us back into mortals, slowly but surely." Jack's eyes widened, and then, he was puzzled again. Why wasn't he being affected? Nothing had happened to him as of late, and everything seemed normal. He leaned over to look at his reflection in the glass on the table. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw white hair and blue eyes instead of brown.

"As for the scariness, it comes and goes, comes and goes. When I was Kozmotis, I was guard of the Fearlings and the most loved general of all, if I do say so myself. One fateful day, I was tricked. I heard Seraphina's voice calling me from inside the Fearlings' cage, and I couldn't control myself. I rushed in to save her, defenseless, and the Fearlings over powered me. That was the day I became Pitch Black," Pitch said, a tinge of remorse creeping into his voice. A bitter smile crawled across his face. "I never was one for self control."

That Easter Sunday three years ago… Jack thought. "When I heard my sister's voice," he continued aloud. "That was the Fearlings, wasn't it? They mimicked her voice based on my memories."

Pitch turned to face Jack, his bitter smile still in place. "Can't teach an old dog new tricks, right? I've always hated you, Jack."

Jack rolled his eyes. He saw that coming. "Thanks so much, Pitch! My life is now complete knowing that you've always hated my guts."

Pitch clasped his shoulder as he tried to turn away, and Sophie sprang up to help Jack in case he was in danger. "You didn't let me finish. I've always hated you because we're so similar, but you have always been stronger than me. Take that how you wish, but that—that is why I'm asking for your help."

The winter spirit paused, and everything seemed still. Baby Tooth flew out of his hoodie pocket, having heard everything. She sped up into Jack's face, asking if he was okay. He didn't answer but only jerked his shoulder away from Pitch's grasp, and Baby Tooth flew back to Sophie in shock. The only noise in the room was the beating of Baby Tooth's wings. Jack made a quarter turn so he could see at least half of Pitch, and he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Look. It's just not adding up. If you were such a great guy as a mortal, why would you want to go back to being Pitch Black?"

The Boogeyman sighed, as he was confused about this as well. "I don't know. I have a feeling that it's just who I'm meant to be. Every story has to have an antagonist, right? I believe that no one can play that character better than me, for this story at least."

"We'll help you," a small voice said quietly. Jack Frost and Pitch Black glanced down at little Sophie, who was holding Baby Tooth in her arms protectively. Jack looked startled; he'd almost forgotten that she was there. "I mean, we're helping everyone else. That's why you sent me that dream, wasn't it?" Pitch nodded silently. "And you sent Black Beauty to come and get us?"

"Black Beauty?" Pitch snorted. "Who on the earth and the moon is Black Beauty?"

"My horse…er, your nightmare," Sophie answered sheepishly. As if hearing his name, Black Beauty strolled into the room, seemingly from hiding in a dark corner. He trotted over to Sophie leisurely and nuzzled her neck with his nose. "Hey, boy!"

Pitch watched the little girl smile, a smile that was so familiar, he almost hugged her. Almost. All of a sudden, his mind was flooded with golden butterflies and afternoons in a European park. He shook his head and cleared his throat to ebb the thoughts out of his mind. Thinking about the past and becoming nostalgic would only speed up the process of becoming mortal. "Well, it seems Black Beauty has taken a liking to you, so you can have him. He runs away all the time anyway, so—"

With the speed of a lightning bolt, little Sophie tackled the Nightmare King in a gigantic bear hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She screamed, then let go and began skipping around him as Pitch froze in that position, mouth gaping and speechless. "I got a horse, I got a horse, I got a horse," she sing-songed childishly.

Pitch cleared his throat awkwardly, trying to recover. "Yes, well, having a pet is a big responsibility, so you need to focus. Now, to take care of a nightmare..."

Jack stared on from the sidelines as Pitch gave Sophie instructions on how to take care of Black Beauty. It was an odd thing to watch; Pitch was acting like a father, and Sophie was acting like a normal kid. As his mind drifted, and he subconsciously wondered if this was how Pitch had acted with his daughter. What was her name? Sarah? Persephone? No, that was definitely not it. Seraphina. That was it. Did he know a Seraphina?

Baby Tooth watched as well, snapping hidden pictures from above. She couldn't help it; they look like a family, albeit a dysfunctional one. There was Jack, the rebellious teenager, Sophie, the innocent five year old, and Pitch, the father with a dark side but good intentions. It was so cute!

Jack paced impatiently as Pitch droned on. "And, don't forget to feed him fear every few hours. Scaring Jack a couple of times should suffice, but you might want to make it three times, just in case." The winter spirit froze and made a low grumbling noise in his throat. This was taking forever, and it seemed like a total waste of time. Pitch hadn't really told them anything, just added on to the pressure. Jack felt that if he didn't get out of there soon, he'd explode.

He pretended to check the invisible watch he was wearing on his left arm, and he spoke up. "Oh, you know what, Pitch? I just remembered that Soph and I have to get to Allentown before the sun rises," he said as Pitch was getting ready to explain why you should never touch nightmare feces.

Sophie gave him an inquisitive glance, but she played along. "Oh yeah! I almost forgot! But, thanks again for the nightmare, Uncle Pitch." That was officially the strangest sentence Jack had ever heard. Apparently, Pitch thought so, too. He balked, but Sophie didn't seem to notice. "Bye!" the little girl called as she climbed onto the horse. She grabbed Jack, this time hoisting him up on the back of the horse, and Black Beauty took off.

Meanwhile, Baby Tooth stared in horror at the creature while it bounded upward. She was most definitely not riding on that monster. Before Black Beauty fazed through the ceiling, Jack cast one last look back at the room. He saw Baby Tooth and sent her upwards before he spoke. He cleared his throat, and Pitch's head snapped up. "Listen," he began in a serious tone. "You and I are not alike, and we never will be."

Pitch snorted and rolled his eyes. "Just get out of here before the Fearlings take control again."

Even the pale light of the moon blinded Jack as his eyes tried to adjust to the outside world again. They'd just broken through the surface of the ground almost a mile away from the police station, and Jack couldn't fly them back to the station if he was about as blind as bat. And of course, their only other mode of transportation was a Nightmare that couldn't function on nights with a full moon—which this one had. As they traveled, Jack told Sophie about Allentown when she had questioned him about why he was so eager to leave, besides the fact that Pitch was totally freaking him out.

"Well, that does seem like the only logical explanation. Looking back at that note, I can see that since Alien Road isn't an address, 4075, written to look like a street number, is actually the beginning of the two latitude and longitude coordinates of Allentown, Pennsylvania," Sophie concluded.

Jack stared at her inquisitively. "How did you know that?" He knew Sophie was smart, but dang. How could she remember that? For all he knew, she could have memorized five hundred digits of pi, and he wouldn't have ever known.

Sophie laughed off the question. "I don't know. I guess it's just stored up there in my brain with a whole bunch of other stuff!" she giggled, and they continued walking.

Baby Tooth peeked out of Jack's hoodie pocket every now and then as the odd group walked, only to shrink back inside in terror from the horrendous black beast following them. The last time she did this, she went in too far and ran into a hard, metal object. Her camera! She'd forgotten to show Jack the pictures she'd taken of Sophie's room. They certainly were peculiar; it was almost as if... "Huh?" Jack asked as Baby Tooth zipped up into his face.

She twittered something and motioned toward her camera. "Slow down, kiddo. What are you talking about?" She slowed down, like she was speaking to a dumb person, and she made large gestures to her camera. Jack rolled his eyes, immune to her gimmicks. "Okay, okay. Let me see the pictures."

Looking at the pictures, Jack didn't see anything all that special about them. So Sophie's room was a little messy. What was the big deal? "Oh, yeah. These are, um, really cool, BT. Great stuff."

Baby Tooth rolled her eyes at his bluntness. First of all, he was holding the camera upside down. Once she had fixed this problem, she used her tiny finger to point at the stuff all over the room. Jack stared, eager to figure out what Baby Tooth had seen. Since BT had taken the pictures from above, she had a better vantage point than Jack. Now that Jack was looking down, or at least looking at what BT saw, he could tell what she was trying to point out.

There were five corners in Sophie's room because she had her own bathroom, making it look like a pentagon. In each corner, there was a seemingly random stack of items in a thrown together fashion. One corner held an upside-down pink heart-shaped pillow, an alphabet puzzle piece shaped like a 'C' that had been twisted, and a stationery kit with an arrow on it. Directly opposite this corner was the corner next to Sophie's dresser. In this corner, there was a picture of Sophie tossing money into a wishing well, but the glass was broken. Also, the little girl's lucky green hat had been over turned, and all of the coins that she had collected from the Tooth Fairy had spilled out.

In the corner next to it, there was a flag of the United States, but it had been torn and covered in a copper colored paint. Next to it, there was one of Sophie's toy crowns. It was brown, and the camera flash made it shine like pennies. Diagonal this corner, there was a pillow that had been torn open to reveal a bunch of feathers as well as a deck of cards. The cards were arranged so that if you looked at them correctly, one could distinctly make out something that resembled the flag of China. The white parts of the cards were arranged outside of the red flesh of the cards, which was shaped in a circle.

The last corner was next to Sophie's bathroom, and it contained a spilled jar of sand, a black hair comb, and a pillow embroidered with the words 'Sweet Dreams!' After Jack had seen all of these things, he was confused. He knew that the things in the corners all had something in common, not just within themselves, but also with each other.

Apparently, Baby Tooth wasn't done with Jack. When he tried to pull away, she grabbed his face with her tiny hands and forced him to look back down at the picture. Jack didn't see anything else, and he tried to pull away again. Baby Tooth became more forceful and demanded that he look back at the picture.

Jack sighed, hopeless, until Baby Tooth pointed at something. Directly in the middle, there was a toy so small that Jack almost couldn't make out what it was. When he squinted, he could see that it was none other than Sophie's little toy compass. Well, that made a difference... not. "What are you trying to show me, BT?" Jack asked, frustrated.

Baby Tooth sighed. Somehow, she knew that she would have to explain this to the poor, dim, winter spirit. Okay, so he wasn't all that dim, but she thought that the answer was pretty obvious. She flew in front of Jack. First, she pointed to the corner with the upside-down heart pillow, and she flew in a direction parallel to it. She turned herself upside down and made a heart with her fingers. "Okay, so there's an upside down heart," Jack said.

Then, she pointed to the corner with the shattered picture and flew diagonally from where she was before. Jack tried to follow, but Baby Tooth put out a finger to say that she wanted him to stay exactly where he was. Instead, he just turned himself in her direction. She mimicked the motion of a person flipping a coin. "And, diagonally across the heart is a broken picture of a person flipping a coin?" Jack asked. Baby Tooth nodded enthusiastically. Good! They were getting somewhere!

She glided to her left and gave Jack a salute. Then, with one hand, she held up a twig like a torch, and in the other, she held a leaf like a book. "And, next to the coin flipper, there's the Statue of Liberty?" Maybe this kid's not as dim as BT first thought. She pointed to her head, and then Baby Tooth resumed the position of Lady Liberty. "There's the Statue of Liberty... without her crown," Jack decided.

Baby Tooth almost did a happy dance. He can be taught! She looked at the next corner that was diagonal the copper crown, and she winced. There were feathers. Holding in a painful tweet, she plucked one of her own feathers. It instantly turned a white color, having been removed from her body. This was one of the harder ones, but Jack got it quickly enough. "There's a bird somewhere without his feathers," he joked. He looked stunned when BT nodded at him.

She was finished, and she twittered something at him. "Why didn't you do the last corner?" Jack asked. She smacked her forehead. He still didn't get it? She flew over to her left again, and she pretended to be a zombie. Then, she made a scary face right in front of Jack. She twittered again, asking if he understood.

Jack stared at her uncertainly. "I...think I do. So, there's something every corner has in common. One corner has a heart, but it's upside down. That could mean 'love,' but if the heart's upside down, it could mean the opposite, right?" BT nodded. He was almost there. "That could mean Cupid, but there's something wrong with him then. So, if every corner has something in common..." he glanced at the picture. "There's something wrong with every creature represented here, not just Cupid."

Baby Tooth sent up a silent cheer by back flipping over and over. Jack Frost was no genius, but he was pretty good at charades! She motioned for him to go on, reminding him about the compass. "But, there's a compass in the middle of all the corners. If the broken corners represent mystical beings and their realms, then the compass represents that we need to visit them. And, we just visited Pitch's realm, which is represented by the spilled sand, the pillow, and the black comb, so there's no need to go back."

Jack stared blankly. He couldn't believe he almost missed that, but he knew this wasn't a coincidence. Someone, possibly an ally, had been inside of Sophie's room to organize the corners as a hint. If so, that person would have also had to be at the crime scene, or else they wouldn't have known that the house was empty. Jack already had his suspicions. He remembered seeing that Bernard James guy walking toward the Bennett house before they left for the police station, and Jack didn't pay any attention to him afterwards. It could have been possible that it was him, but that wouldn't make any sense. He was so sure that BJ was a bad guy, but why would a bad guy want to help them?

"What do you think Soph?" Jack asked out of the blue. He knew she had probably overheard. Then, there was no answer. For the first time, Jack noticed the lack of footsteps and the pounding of hooves. He looked around, as they had now entered the woods, and he realized that it was just he and Baby Tooth. "Sophie? Black Beauty?" he called.

And suddenly, there was a problem. Shocker. "...I think we got separated," Jack said to BT after a pause. He forced himself not to panic for Baby Tooth's sake, but on the inside, he was totally freaking out. What if she'd been kidnapped? What if she'd stumbled in front of a pack of wild coyotes, even though they're not native to Burgess? What if Sophie's mom woke up looking for Sophie, and she went insane from losing both of her children?

Oh, crap. He really didn't think that one through. Who knew what kind of stress and he would be putting on her? "Um...Baby Tooth? I think we have a slight problem."

A/N: I'm just going to go ahead and answer some of the review questions here :)

Amaryllis: Yeah, Jack would definitely be more sad. When I got your review, I looked back at the chapters, and I saw what you meant. Jack seems really passive about Jamie's death after the first time he learned about it, and even then he didn't have enough emotion. Truth is, I epicly fail at writing any emotion other than frustration and anger. All else is just...meh. Sadness is something I'm really working on. Thanks for the critique!

Guest: I have my reasons... I pull author authority! You shall extract no secrets from me!

Readandwrite: FAHRENHEIT451 ISH WINNAR! (Seriously though, isn't it scary how similar it is to our culture?)

Oh, and I know the charades thing seemed a bit pointless. In all honesty, it was. I just have this weird head-canon that Jack is really good at charades. I even put it in a one-shot that I may post later. And that part about Sophie's strength too. I have another head canon where Jack is just really, really light. I mean, he's so small looking!

I think that's it at the moment. If you guys see anything I missed, let me know! Merry Christmas (or whatever else you celebrate!)