“ZIMMERMAN!!!” Jack could hear his coach screaming at him. “GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME!!!” Right as the coach said that a puck was passed right to him and he just took it and threw it away. He could hear everyone on the bench sigh, groan and shout with huge disappointment and frustration.
Jack shook his head. ‘Back in the game. Head in the game.’ No more thinking about Bitty. He focused his eyes on the puck and took off. He checked the guy holding the puck, snatched it from him with ease and made a break for the other side. After sidestepping the defenseman he shot across the blue line and looked at the goal. Time seemed to slow down, just as it always did in these moments. ‘Their Goalie had been showing slow reaction time for the top right corner of his net' he thought back to when Tater had managed his goal in the first period. Taking a deep breath he raised his stick back, snapped his wrist back, and the puck lifted up and right into the net. The end of period bell blared and the crowd went fricking bonkers. Looking up at the scoreboard he realized he had just scored a tiebreaker in the final seconds of the 3rd period. Felt like a slap to the face and he realized how out of it he had been. His teammates then collided with him and he snapped back to the game. He couldn’t hear anything in particular but everyone was screaming at him. Happy screams, he realized.
Suddenly his feet were lifted off the ice and he suddenly was being picked up by his teammates and being paraded around the ice like some Rockstar. He felt a smile come to his face as he saw all the fans in the rink going crazy. He heard cursing under him and then suddenly he fell down on his ass. Apparently Tater had tripped and brought everyone down with him.
Smirking to himself he rolled off the pile of teammates he was on top of so they could start to move. Standing up, he lifted his face and looked out the boards. The world stopped. Everything stood still for a moment. It was Bitty. Standing right behind the boards and looking right at him. Jack raised a hand to the boards and mouthed Bitty’s name. But then he was hauled up by his team who dragged him off. When he was able to turn around and look back at the spot, Bitty was gone.
Jack ran through the emptying stadium. He had never changed clothes faster than he had. He’d practically ripped his shoulder pads off. He knew his teammates were celebrating back in the locker room and that they would be wondering why he had bolted out of there so fast, but he didn’t honestly care, he had a mission. Find his fiancé. He ran through the Arena, running up and down the stairs looking for anyone who looked like Bitty at all. Many fans recognized him and congratulated him, asking if he wanted to join them at various parties. He declined when he could or just ran away sometimes. Jack had no desire to go to any party if he had a chance of finding Bitty instead.
After about ten minutes he ran into his friends.
“JACK!! Hey, we thought you’d be partying or, doing some… “ Shitty started to say.
“Not important,” Jack interrupted
“What's wrong dude?” Holster asked. “Everything okay?”
“No,” Jack replied. “ I saw Bitty”
“What?” asked the whole group.
Jack explained everything to his friends and they immediately agreed to split up and help search for Bitty.
About half an hour later Jack was anxiously waiting for Lardo and Shitty to get back and join everyone else waiting on in the bleacher seats. Chowder patted his back
“Everything will be fine man. He’ll turn up Jack…” Chowder said consolingly
Then Ransom pointed out Shitty and Lardo re-entering the Rink and Jack practically teleported over to them he ran so fast.
“Sorry man,” Shitty said, sounding utterly depressed at having to bear the news. “No sign of him dude.”
Jack looked heartbroken. He looked like a wreck. His friends came in to console him.
“Wait,” said Dexter suddenly. “There he is.” Looking up Jack saw that Dexy was pointing out onto the ice. Following his finger he then saw him. Bitty was sitting out on the away team bench out on the ice. As if in shock Jack stood up. Everyone was looking between him and Bitty, as if unsure as to what was about to happen. Jack slowly and carefully walked over to the door that would lead him onto the ice. Opening it, he started to walk over to Bitty. His friends also came out onto the ice but held back about twenty feet.
As Jack approached Bitty he could feel his heart pounding. He didn’t think he had ever felt this nervous before. As he reached the bench he looked at Bitty, hoping he’d look up or say something. But he didn’t. He just sat there and kept staring forward. Jack hopped up and sat on the boards next to Bitty, still no reaction.
“Bits… where?” Jack began to say, but Bitty interrupted him.
“I saw your game. You guys did great,” he said.
“Oh… Yeah we did. Thanks…” Jack said awkwardly.
The two of them sat there for a moment. The silence felt deafening.
Bitty turned to face Jack. “ I’m sorry Jack. Not just for disappearing, but for what I put everyone through.”
“Bits… we’ve been worried sick. Your parents have been going crazy. Where have you been!?” Jack asked fervently.
“I’ve been busy. I’ve been surviving Jack,” Bitty said, but his voice cracked and it barely came out as more than a whisper.
Now that he got a good look at him, Bitty’s face was gaunt and his arms were thin, his skin was pale and covered in scratch and bruises, and his eyes looked a hundred years older.
“Bitty… what's happened to you? ”Jack reached out to grab his hands.
Bitty retracted his hands before Jack could grab them. He hopped off the boards and took a few steps towards center ice. He turned around and opened his mouth as he was about to say something.
However, whatever he was about to say was lost when a bolt of black lighting struck Bitty and hurled him across the ice slamming him into the boards on the far side.
“BITTY!” Jack screamed. He moved to run over to where Bitty crashed into the boards but he slipped on the ice and crashed to the ground.
A woman that was enshrouded in a dark light and strange mist floated through the air towards where Bitty had crashed into the boards.
“Jack!” Lardo cried as the group reached him where he had fallen.
He raised his head, having to hold his nose to try and hold keep the blood from pouring on the ice.
The woman landed on the ice right by Bitty. “Now that was too easy. Have you truly become so pathetic in this mortal form?” she said to Bitty’s limp body. Her voice dropped with sarcasm and hatred. “Oh well. No matter. I don’t care what form you take so long as it's your last. She raised her hand and dark smoke started to converge in a dagger like shape floating above her hand. She raised the dagger over her head with murder in her eyes.
Suddenly Bitty bolted up. He flicked his right hand and sent the woman flying back towards the other end of the ice. Waving his other hand over towards Jack and the others they found themselves suddenly sliding over towards the boards.
Bitty then curled his fingers in quickly to form a sort of claw in his right hand and white lightning burst out of his hand which went straight towards the dark woman who had been standing back up. She quickly shot out another bolt of black lightning at Bitty and the black and white lightning collided in the middle of the ice. While the majority of the lighting seemed stuck to the other bolt some of it crackled everywhere and shattered ice all over the place. The black lighting came close to hitting Lardo who screamed and held her hands over her head, Shitty quickly trying to use his body to cover her while also covering his head. The group was in shock and trying to simply stay alive at this point.
Bitty slowly moved his way over to come between the dark woman and Jack and his friends, making the stray bits of lightning less frequent but still dangerous.
Eric Bitty gritted his teeth and pushed his hand forward. The white lighting begins to overtake the black lighting and the woman quickly starts to retreat back a few steps before she swings her arm off to the right cutting off the lightning streams. With her left hand she flicks a massive ball of smoke towards Eric, the smoke ball quickly expands and grows into a massive menacing dragon that quickly rears its head back menacingly and roars at Eric who didn’t even flinch. The dragon snapped its head down where Eric stood but Eric moved blindingly fast and dodged. The dragon lifted its head back up and snapped its head back down but this time it swallowed Eric. Suddenly brilliant rays of light shown through the dragon's head and the dragon exploded into dark mist and then the light converged into a massive bolt of lightning which blasted at the woman who had been summoning more black mist to her. The bolt struck the woman and she flew up into the air. At the same time Eric flicked his hands at her and immediately all the ice melted and shot over towards the woman to surround her in a giant ball of water. Eric held his hands out pointed towards the ball of water to keep the woman trapped.
A few seconds passed with Eric holding the woman in the churning ball of water, when suddenly the shadows in the building seemed to converge into the water and the ball exploded into massive ice shards in every direction. Eric flicked his hand and the ice that was coming specifically at them splashed into water and hit the ground, splashing the friends and causing a few gasps to go up. The woman screamed in rage and hurled a massive continuous stream of both black lightning and dark smoke at Eric. Eric raised his hand into a sort of X as the dark energy slammed into him. The energy then started to condense into a ball of horrific yet entrancing looking energy.
Eric then floated a few feet into the air, threw his arms from out of the X and the ball exploded into lightning that went everywhere in the ice rink. Then it seemed to just freeze in midair. For a few seconds the lightning seemed to just stay still in the air and the whole world started to vibrate so intensely that Jack thought his phone was going off inside his brain. Then Eric screamed and thrust both of his hands towards the woman and all the lightning converged on her and she exploded into smoke.
Eric suddenly collapsed to the ground. His face started to seemingly melt and his body entirely dissolved leaving a new body in its wake. This body looked similar but his hair was darker and slightly longer. He was taller and more muscled, but not by much. But most importantly, that face was not the same face of Eric Bittle.