Something Quite Peculiar - Chapter 08

Chapter Eight: A Strange Beginning

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“Jack was utterly cornered as the maid listed off every terrible thing that he had done, a fire in her eyes as she accused him, the pair still cramped in the hall closet and speaking in whispers,” Jack read aloud, leaning back in one of Rowan’s dining room chairs, her battered notebook in his lap. “ ‘Just how stupid do you think I am?’ she demanded at last, her immaculate hair falling from place. ‘Did you truly think you could just take a position here, in the house I essentially run, and rob this family without me finding out? You must think you’re so clever.’ Jack opened his mouth to respond but Miss Gates’ gaze warned him against it.”

Jack turned the page, finding that the passage he’d been reading had come to an abrupt end, and he had once again stumbled upon nothing but notes and shorthand. He sighed, letting the front legs of the chair hit the ground as he set the notebook back on the table. Miss Gates, the maid, was proving to be a fascinating character with lots of spunk. He wanted nothing more than to know what she and the character, Jack, were going to do next.

He stuffed his hands in his front pocket, glancing around the apartment he knew very well by now. He wished he could say that it was the first time he had slipped in since that night he had followed Rowan home. The truth was that he had managed his way inside several times as the school week progressed, though he usually didn’t stay long. However, today was the first day that Rowan had left her notebook behind, the first time he’d gotten to read her new ideas since his initial break-in.

Standing up at last, Jack wandered over to the kitchen counter where the roses he’d left her a few days earlier still sat. They were still in the same state as when he’d left them: still the same vibrant colors, still in bloom, and most importantly, still covered in a layer of frost that had failed to melt yet. He’d seen Rowan take a picture of the roses every morning before she left for class.

She seemed to have liked the roses, and Jack had wasted little time using them as a means to justify further break-ins. Lightly touching one of the petals, Jack began to wonder just how long it would be before North would drag him back to the North Pole for another lecture. Half the reason he kept coming back was to prove a point that North and Bunny couldn’t keep telling him what to do.

When Rowan had taken her notebook with her the past few days, he had lingered for only short periods, browsing through her books and the drawings pinned to her wall. As long as he was in the apartment, even briefly, he was proving North’s lack of control.

It was dark outside, and Jack had closed Rowan’s window earlier when he realized that leaving it open caused the heat to work overtime. The heat was already kicking into higher gears from him simply being in the apartment, he dared not make the apartment even more uncomfortably warm.

He sighed, watching the snow outside hit the window. Rowan would likely be home soon, which meant he should probably leave. The cool temperatures he caused would do nothing but confuse her and he was sure he’d managed to do enough of that in the past few days with each time he had the wind open and close her window. Not to mention the still-frozen roses.

As though on cue, the sound of a key sliding into the lock on the front door filled the apartment. Jack turned, startled at the sound, having never been in the apartment when Rowan returned home before. He had been certain he still had more time before she arrived.

He slowly crept back toward the window, eyes fixed on the door as it began to open. He would have to wait for, or create, some kind of distraction so that he could get the window open again and leave, he decided.

He turned his attention to the window, stepping atop the bookcase directly below it as the door swung the rest of the way open.

“Hey!”

Jack froze in place, turning quickly to find Rowan pulling something from her backpack and hastily pointing it directly at him. A crackling, electronic sound emitted from the device as a string of electricity danced at the end.

However, this was not what had Jack’s attention at that moment, but rather, the fact that Rowan’s wide, scared eyes were staring directly into his.

“What are you doing here!?” she demanded after Jack failed to react, the taser still aimed directly at him.

“You can see me?” Jack said softly, watching her in confusion. No human over the age of twelve had ever acknowledged him. It simply didn’t make any sense for her to be looking and speaking directly to him. He couldn’t help but hover a few inches above the shelves he stood on and approach her slowly in curiosity.

This only caused Rowan to jump in surprise and take several steps back, nearly dropping the taser as she went. Her eyes darted between his face and his feet, which were very clearly not touching the ground.

“… Look, I don’t want to harm you, Ghost,” Rowan said quickly, shutting off the taser and clumsily setting it on the counter behind her. She rose shaking hands in front of her to display that she was now very much unarmed. “I just want to peacefully coexist without any curses or hauntings, or-”

“Ghost?” Jack repeated, cutting her off. He was still very much confused about pretty much everything that had happened since she entered the apartment. The shock and fear she displayed confused him the most, as whenever a child saw him, they were usually pleased, excited.

He wasn’t sure how to react to someone who was afraid of him.

“Is ‘ghost’ not politically correct?” she said quickly, still visibly shaken by his presence. He lowered himself to the ground, hoping it would calm her nerves a bit. “Would you prefer ‘Spirit?’ ‘Apparition-American,’ maybe?”

“Calm down, calm down,” Jack said, reaching a hand out to her, which she quickly backed away from until she was up against the counter. He set his hand back down. He wasn’t sure what his next move should be, all he knew was that he wanted her to calm down and realize he wasn’t a threat. “I’m not a ghost.”

“You’re not?” Rowan said. For a moment she seemed conflicted over this information but quickly picked up the taser again, pointing it at Jack as she had earlier. Jack put his own hands up as she had done moments before, dropping his staff to the ground in the process. He suddenly regretted telling her he was not a ghost. It was supposed to make her less fearful, not prompt her to pick up her weapon again. “Well then what are you? Because... because I keep seeing you everywhere but when I point you out to anyone else they never see you. ‘Oh, Rowan, finals are getting to you.’ ‘Rowan, are you getting enough sleep?’ I thought they were messing with me at first but obviously they’re not.”

“Hey there’s no need for the taser,” Jack said. “They can’t see me because they don’t believe. Honestly I’m surprised that you can see me, no one your age has ever seen me.”

“They ‘don’t believe’?” Rowan repeated, not lowering her taser. “What do you mean? Don’t believe in what? Why are you in my apartment and why do I keep seeing you everywhere?”

“One question at a time, huh?” Jack said, lowering his hands to his sides, eyes still fixed on hers. “To see me, you have to believe in me. You have to believe in the Guardians.”

“The Guardians? So, what, are you some kind of angel or something?” she asked. Despite the tense situation, Jack couldn’t help but laugh at the implication, which served only to puzzle Rowan more, her brows furrowing.

“I’m gonna have to tell Bunny that one later. No, I’m not an angel,” Jack said, still chuckling slightly.

“Well then what the hell is a Guardian?” Rowan demanded, seeming to lose patience as this conversation continued and Jack felt the need to laugh at her angel comment.

“The legends from childhood. We, well, guard childhood and protect children. Hence, Guardians,” Jack explained.

“Legends from childhood? What, like Santa Claus?” the girl asked, skepticism clear on her face.

“Yep,” Jack said, glancing briefly at his staff. He wanted to pick it up off the ground, but didn’t want to spook Rowan in the process. He felt like she likely wouldn’t do anything with her weapon but didn’t want to give her any more reason to think she needed it.

As soon as she calmed down he’d figure out what to do about the fact that she could see him. It wasn’t like when Jamie finally saw him; everything was on edge now.

“And the ‘Bunny’ you just mentioned… the Easter Bunny?” she clarified.

“Exactly.”

“And that makes you…?”

“Jack Frost.”

Rowan lowered her hand with the taser at last, nodding slowly and beginning to turn away from Jack as she raised her other hand to her forehead. She leaned back against the counter once more.

“Jack Frost… I’ve gone completely bonkers,” she mumbled.

“No, no, you haven’t,” Jack said, hoping to reassure her. Granted, this was the first conversation he’d had with the girl, for all he knew, she was completely insane. She was pursuing the arts, after all.

For the time being, however, Jack decided to operate under the assumption that she was not insane. Just understandably baffled.

“I feel like that’s just what a hallucination would say,” Rowan said, starting to look a bit pale as the conversation continued, her eyes fixed on the floor directly in front of her.

“What makes you think I’m a hallucination?”

“Jack Frost is in my apartment, after I’ve seen him lurking around since I was in Burgess-”

“That long?” Stealth clearly was not Jack’s strong suit. Not that he had been trying to hide; as far as he was concerned, up until a few minutes ago at least, Rowan couldn’t see him.

“-and no one else I’ve pointed him out to has seen him. And now, now he’s telling me that he’s best friends forever with Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. How is this not a hallucination? Next thing I know, you’ll be telling me you play poker with the Sandman.”

“Bunnymund and I are barely getting into ‘friends’ territory. North… well, he and I go back and forth, definitely not shopping for friendship bracelets right now. And I don’t even know if Sandy plays poker,” Jack said, as if his relationship with the other Guardians was the most problematic part of Rowan’s statement.

“And let me guess, you’re dating the Tooth Fairy?” she said, pulling her gaze up from the floor and meeting his yet again.

Jack could feel himself blush slightly at the implication (which he was surprised he was still able to do, when was the last time he had been embarrassed enough to actually blush?). “Tooth? Nah, I think she has a crush on my teeth but that’s about it.”

Rowan rubbed her temples with her free hand for a moment. “I’ve gone insane. This is insanity.”

“Hey, hey!” Jack said, leaning down and picking up his staff at last. He approached Rowan slowly. She could see him, which meant she believed in him. The last thing he wanted was for her to talk herself out of believing. “I’m not a hallucination… and I’ll prove it.”

Rowan lowered her hand from her face and looked up just in time for snow to begin to fall inside the small apartment, dancing gracefully in a downward spiral before her face. With a chill, a few snowflakes landed on her cheeks and nose.

“This could be a really elaborate hallucination,” she mumbled.

“But you feel the cold, right?” Jack said, standing no more than two feet away from her now.

“Right,” she mumbled, meeting his eyes again. “So, my friends can’t see you because they don’t believe in you, right?”

“Right.”

“Well I don’t think I ever sat down and thought to myself, ‘Yes, Jack Frost, he definitely exists.”

“Hey I’m just as confused as you are,” Jack assured her, offering her a smile in the hopes that she might see that he was being sincere. At least her weapon was down and she seemed less fearful now. As long as things continued like this, Jack could figure out what to do about this new believer. “Like I said earlier, I’ve never met someone your age who can see me. But, you’re related to Jamie and-”

“How do you know Jamie?” she asked suspiciously, her stance straightening as she re-adjusted her grip on the taser in her hand. At this point, Jack made the snow stop falling.

“He was my first believer, we’re friends,” Jack explained. “Where do you think he came up with the name for the character in your story?”

“What does me being related to him have to do with me being able to see you?”

“Well, if you wouldn’t interrupt me. Jamie believes harder than any kid I’ve met. Maybe it’s the same for you,” he said.

“I’ll interrupt you all I want, this is my apartment, and you have yet to actually explain why you’re here, Mr. Frost,” Rowan said, crossing her arms and raising her brow expectantly.

“Right, that,” Jack said. Well, this was awkward. She was never supposed to see him; she was never supposed to know that he was ever there. No harm, no foul.

But now she knew. She knew he’d been lurking around (she’d seen him since Burgess for crying out loud) and she knew he’d broken in at least this time.

And what was worse? Jack actually felt sort of guilty about it. He made a mental note to never admit that to North.

“Well?” she demanded when he remained quiet too long for her liking.

“Okay, so back when you were visiting Jamie, he asked me to come listen in on the story you were telling him because he insisted your stories were the best. I was skeptical, of course, but I went anyway, and truth be told, I’ve been curious about the story ever since. So, I’ve been sneaking in here to find out more about it. I’m sorry,” Jack said quickly, deciding that telling the truth, and hastily, was likely his best option right now.

“This isn’t the first time you’ve been in here!?” she nearly shrieked, her eyes wide in a mixture of surprise and rage. “You’ve been breaking into my apartment? For how long?”

“Just a couple days,” Jack said, smiling sheepishly. So far, Rowan had gone from fear, to confusion, and was now at a place full of anger. This was certainly not what usually happened when he encountered a believer. He briefly wondered if anything like this had happened to the other Guradians.

Were believers Rowan’s age common? Something told him they weren’t, and that both excited and intrigued him.

“That is so not okay!” Rowan hissed, closing some of the distance between herself and Jack in her rage. Jack leaned away. Even though in the back of his mind he still knew she was simply a person, a mortal human being with no abilities that could match him in a fight, her tone of voice was enough to make him nervous.

“Well-“

“Who do you think you are?” she demanded, taking another step forward, causing him to take a step back. “What, just because most people can’t see you, that gives you the right to just waltz into my apartment any time you want?”

“That’s not exactly-”

“Not exactly what? You said you were sorry but are you really? Or are you just saying that because you were caught? What the hell kind of person is my little cousin palling around with? Are you even a person? Do you have any morals, any sense of right and wrong?”

“Hey-!”

“No, I’m talking, you’re listening,” Rowan said. Jack found himself closing his mouth despite his desire to defend himself. The fact that she could see him was no longer on his mind so much as the fact that she was now lecturing him as North had attempted to days earlier. It was sort of annoying to be receiving the same speech he’d already heard before, but it would be a lie to say that Rowan was not far more justified in delivering it. “How did you know when I would be gone so that you could break in? Have you been spying on me? Is that why I keep seeing you in the corner of my eye?”

“I wouldn’t call it spying really-”

“Of course you wouldn’t. I’m sure you don’t think that what you’ve done is wrong at all, or why would you continue to do it?” To piss North off. To prove a point. To read more of the story about the pirate with terrible luck.

None of those seemed good enough to say out loud.

Jack was utterly cornered as the girl listed off every terrible thing that he had done, a fire in her eyes as she accused him.

“I have a right to privacy!” Rowan said, jabbing him in the chest with her index finger. Jack watched as her hand continued to prod at him, only confirming further that she believed in him; she could touch him. As he watched her hand, he suddenly found himself wondering if he could craft a hand out of ice, with long slender fingers and two stars on the wrist. He shook his head of the thought. Now was not the time to consider ice sculptures. “I should be able to sleep, change my clothes, and- and- I don’t know, pluck my eyebrows, in my own apartment without worrying that some immortal son of a bitch is going to be spying on me the whole time!”

“I didn’t watch you change!” Jack said, managing to get a sentence in edgewise at last. He took her hand in his and moved it from his chest. She quickly pulled her hand away, seeming surprised at the temperature. “And come on, the eyebrow plucking wasn’t even that bad. Now, when you were trying to take care of your nose hairs, that was funny.”

Rowan, however, didn’t seem to think this was funny at all, and with her face strictly expressing non-amusement she lifted the taser in her left hand again, hitting the switch that brought it to life.

Jack quickly took another step back and weakly said, “You know, uh, I’m not sure if that’ll even work on me or not.”

“Let’s find out together,” Rowan said, and for a moment Jack was sure it was simply a threat. After all, she had the device in her hand for most of their conversation and had yet to actually use it.

However, in the next instant Jack jolted uncontrollably as electricity pulsed through his chilled veins. He could hear small shards of ice falling to the floor after erratically being conjured up by his staff in response to his sudden change in body language. The extreme discomfort lasted little more than a few seconds before Rowan pulled the device away and Jack lost his balance, gripping his staff tightly. He barely managed not to fall.

“Okay, okay!” Jack said, one hand moving from the staff and over the area on his chest where she had placed the device as he slowly pulled himself back upright. He felt a strange tingling throughout his being and was visibly shaken as he watched the girl cautiously. “You’re right! Okay? I crossed a line.”

“You think?” Rowan said.

“I invaded your privacy and that’s not okay,” he said quickly. He hoped that the speed in which he spoke did not take away from the sincerity. He was only hoping to get this apology out in the open before she decided to tase him again. The smart thing to do would be to leave before she had the chance, but even if he wanted to, Jack doubted he could bring himself to fly for at least another few minutes. His whole body felt strangely numb and he was surprised he managed to stay standing.

“I didn’t think you’d be able to see me or even know I was here- and before you say anything, I know that doesn’t make it okay, but that’s how I was justifying it and fine, I admit, I was wrong,” he continued. “I knew it was wrong. But I swear to you, I was only sticking around because I wanted to know more about your stories, and had I known right away that you could see me I would have just asked you about them.”

“My stories,” she repeated dryly, arms crossed.

“They’re really good, you’ve got a lot of talent,” Jack said, smiling nervously at the girl. He flexed his fingers, hoping feeling would soon return to them.

“How would breaking in here help you find out more about the stories?” Rowan asked.

“Well, I went through the notebook,” Jack said as though it were obvious, gesturing (more slowly than he expected) to the kitchen table where the composition book still sat. Rowan’s face dropped, and the color that had slowly been returning to it while she gained control over the situation drained away once more.

“You read my notebook?” she whispered.

“Well-”

“Oh, this just got so much worse,” Rowan practically whined. Jack was not expecting that reaction at all.

“Why?” he couldn’t help but ask.

“You don’t get it, do you?” she snapped. “That notebook is full of my unfinished ideas, drafts, concepts. They’re my thoughts, good and bad, nothing in here is in any sort of state to be seen by someone besides me!”

“That’s why you’re upset?” Jack said, confused. “Because they’re not done yet?”

“You can’t just go through my story notes, okay? It’s like going through my sketchbook or my diary! It’s personal, it’s a place where I can flesh out ideas no matter how good or bad they are without worrying about how it turns out. I can be myself in the pages of this book and you violated that,” Rowan practically growled. It was clear that reading her notebook had upset her even more than breaking into her apartment or watching her had. Somehow Jack managed to feel even worse.

“I’m sorry,” he said after a pause, with as much sincerity as he could manage. “I mean, I just wanted to know what happened in the stories, they’re really great.”

Something changed in her expression, and for a split second Jack could have sworn she seemed to be flattered by his words. However, she quickly recovered and returned to her stern demeanor. “Look, it’s nice that you like them and all but you can’t just go through my things like that! These aren’t just stories to me, okay? They’re my life, my purpose. If I don’t have these stories… they’re the most important thing to me.”

Jack rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “I really am sorry. Like I said before, if I had known that you could see me, I would have just been upfront about it. See, when people don’t believe in me, it’s like I’m not even there. They can’t see me, hear me, touch me… so asking you about the stories seemed out of the question. I never meant to make you so upset, really.”

Rowan’s expression softened a bit as she watched him curiously. His words seemed to break through her rage, if only a little.

“Look,” he said, hoping for the best. “I’d really like to start over.”

She watched him quizzically and still did not respond.

Hesitantly he reached out his right hand to her. “Hi,” he said. “I’m Jack Frost.”

She watched his hand for a moment before slowly extending her own, goosebumps rushing up her arm as they made contact.

“My name is Rowan Sawyer,” she said as they firmly shook hands before releasing their grasp on each other.

“It’s nice to meet you, I wish the circumstances were better,” Jack said with a short nod. Rowan watched him skeptically and began to circle him, seeming to analyze every inch of him.

“This is slightly uncomfortable,” Jack said as she continued to walk around him.

“So is finding out someone’s been breaking into your home and going through your things,” Rowan retorted.

“Fair enough,” Jack replied.

“So you’re really the Jack Frost,” she said, stopping once she returned to her original spot. She set the taser down again, which caused Jack to sigh in relief. “Old Man Winter, the whole shebang?”

“Yep,” Jack said with a smirk.

“I pictured you older… and dressed more like an elf, like the Christmas special,” Rowan said, tilting her head as she continued to seemingly memorize everything about him.

“Sorry to disappoint,” Jack said, making a face as he thought of the costume the stop-motion animated Jack Frost wore in the obviously-not-popular-enough-to-get-him-believers-any-earlier holiday special.

“How old are you?” she asked. It seemed her curiosity had finally outweighed her anger, and Jack would certainly take that over being tased again.

“I turned 318 this year,” Jack said. Rowan seemed a bit awed at the number but quickly hid it with more curiosity as she turned her attention to his staff. “How old are you?”

“Aren’t you never supposed to ask a lady that?” Rowan asked, eyes still fixed on the frost that twisted elegantly around the staff in his hand. “I turn twenty on Saturday.”

“Happy Birthday,” he said.

“Thanks…” she said, trailing off as she lightly brushed her fingers against the staff, pulling them away as the frost began to climb along her fingertips. She watched the frost continue to spread to her hand until it quickly melted. “Peculiar…”

“So does this mean you won’t tase me anymore?” Jack asked at last.

Rowan crossed her arms and watched him for a moment, as though considering his question before finally taking a deep breath and beginning to speak again. “You want me to forgive you for breaking in and invading my privacy?”

“Are you going to?” he asked.

“I will,” she said, “On a few conditions.”

Jack hesitated for a moment, wondering what on Earth these conditions could be. Deciding that they couldn’t be much worse than being tased, or the chorus of ‘I told you so’s that he’d have to put up with the next time he saw North and Bunny, he said, “Okay. What are the conditions?”

“First,” she said, ticking the conditions off on her fingers. “You will never enter my apartment without my permission again. You have to knock, like decent people do.”

“That’s fair,” Jack said with a nod.

“Next, you have to swear you’re never going to go through my notes or sketches again. If you want to see any, you ask and I will show you what I want to show you.”

“Also fair.”

“And last,” Rowan said, walking over to the table and scooping up her notebook and a pen. She turned back to him and flipped to a blank page before clicking the pen. She looked back up at him, meeting his eyes yet again. “You have to answer all my questions to the best of your ability, and honestly.”

“Questions about what?” Jack asked.

“Everything,” Rowan said. “You, the ‘Guardians,’ everything.”

Jack slowly made his way over to Rowan’s small couch and set himself down, his staff set on his lap as he smirked at her. He gestured to the spot on the couch beside him and said, “What do you want to know?”