Chapter 11

Chapter 11 ~ Ice

Frost Bay

~

Seattle, Washington, United States of America 


 * “Alice!” I screamed as the ice below her broke, sending her down.

I threw my stick down and ran to the hole, even though it was difficult with the skates on. At the hole, I fell to my knees (minding the cracks) and looked into the dark abyss of the water. I could barely see her, but when I tried to reach out to her, she was out of my reach. I did the first thing that came to mind; without a second thought, I jumped in after her. The water was too dark to see anything and I couldn't hear anything over the sound of my kickin, but I knew I had to be careful not to kick her. She was nowhere to be seen and I was running out of breath fast and my body was starting to freeze up down to my bones. Before I could run out of breath, I swam straight up to the hole and gasped loudly for air. The wind hit my face like a punch and almost immediately after coming out of the water, my teeth began to chatter and my body began to shake.

She wasn't there. It was like she had disappeared somehow. We were both natural born swimmers so Alice should've been able to get out of the water easy. I didn't want to fear the worst, but I couldn't help it and it was hard to tell the difference from water droplets and tears.

The temperature outside was worse than the temperature in the water, and the ice was just barely holding me up, so I heaved myself up and laid on my back on the thicker ice. Blindly, I patted down my pocket for my car keys, and patted more furiously when I realized I wasn't finding them; they must've fallen out when I jumped in. I pushed myself up and stumbled my way back to the safety of the shore. My other shoes were still in the car, along with everything that could help me, but it was no use breaking in without the keys. All I could do was sit and wait. I wasn't going to leave Alice, I just had wait for someone to come by to help me. My whole body shook wildly, all my clothes were soaking wet, my breath cloud was pure white, and when I looked up, little white flurries started to fall from the sky, which was now an orangish-pink.The lake was in the middle of nowhere and cars rarely drove by. I could feel my bones grow more brittle from the cold and my mind was going numb; I was frozen in place. The snow started to fall harder as the sky turned a dark blue, like the water. I tried to stand up, but it hurt way too much and the wind whipped from all directions. I went light headed and fell immediately back down, forward onto my face. The gravel was cold and sharp against my skin, and hurt just as much as the wind, but my mind was so far gone, I didn't care anymore. It was strange; though I was so cold, my body felt like it was burning, probably from the wind burn. Slowly my senses started to go; first touch, then hearing, and my vision; that took the longest. Everything was blurry till it hurt too much and was hard to keep my eyes open. I was getting tired...I just couldn't stay awake anymore. The time finally came when my eyelids fell and they didn't open again, leaving me in a cold dark world of darkness and silence. But yet...warmth. It wasn't much, but I could definitely feel it.


 * “Frost...Frost, wake up.” A deep gravelly voice said, in almost a singsong tone.

My body tensed up at the sudden change in temperature and I stirred, concerned greatly by the voice in my head. I rubbed my eyes with the heels of my hand and mumbled slowly. “What's going on?..”

I took my time taking my hand away and blinked up to find a figure in all black, the only color seeming to be a light blue crystal hanging from his neck.


 * “It is exactly as it looks, but I am not. All I want to do is to help you.” He said slowly.


 * “Help me? Why would you help me? And who even are you?” I repeated, looking over the figure, trying to decide if I should believe this was actually happening before believing he could help me.

He noticed my skepticism and opened up his overcoat to pull out a rolled up sheet of beige paper with black writing and held it out to me.


 * “What's this for?” I muttered, only staring at it.


 * “It's how I can help you, and here, you'll need this.” He went back into his jacket to pull out a jagged silver knife. The figure held it by the handle and held it out to me after flipping it and resting the blade against his forearm. I couldn't help but stare, bewildered by his actions.


 * “You're to be king, Frost, this will make it real. You could see your brother and sister again.” He said softly, still calling me Frost for some reason, but I felt my heart skip a beat when he mentioned Anthony and Alice.

I wanted to trust him. He knew where my siblings were, but there was just so much about this man that couldn’t be trusted. I wanted to know more, to make sure he was telling the truth about what he knew or at least find something I could believe in, but instead, it felt like something was controlling my brain. Before I could try anything, I took the knife from him and ran the tip against my palm. A small pool of blood started to form and I tipped my hand over, so the blood dripped off. Nothing happened until it fell onto the "sign on the line" line. The man quickly took the paper from me and looked down at the pendant which somehow changed from the ice blue color to a bright grass green color. He took that as his signal to leave and walked away without another word, leaving me in the black. I started in the direction he left in, completely confused.

But my attention changed when my breath start to get cloudy again and the temperature dropped dramatically. In less time now, I was back on the floor, shivering from the cold. It was hard to tell whether or not I blacked out again.

The next thing I knew, I was on my back looking up at an overcast sky with the tips of trees circling around. I groaned and rubbed my eyes, trying to stop my head from spinning.


 * “Who you?” A voice asked. The voice itself sounded oddly familiar.


 * “I was about to ask you the same thing.” I mumbled, sitting up. A pale cloud came as I spoke, one that resembled a breath in colder weather.

We exchanged a series of curious looks at each other, her bleached blonde hair was dry but the tips were dripping wet occasionally, her eyes were like mine but just a little darker and as similar to me as her voice.


 * “Frost, I think.” I said, as an attempt of an introduction.


 * “River, and welcome to the island, home to the special oddballs, like us, and trust me little brother, you'll fit right in.” She explained with a playful smirk.


 * “Excuse me? If anything, I'd be the older brother, you'd be younger.” I snapped jokingly.


 * “Oh be nice, will yah? Already get this kindness from Twister, not you too! God, just wait until he sees you, it’ll be hilarious! C’mon!” She smiled excitedly at the thought and grabbed my by my upper arm to pull me down the pathway in the forest.

I stumbled to keep up alongside her, nodding along with her small talk; well, it wasn't small persay, just rapid fire sentences that no one could understand. Any questions I had were easily silenced by her constant chatter. My voice was lost when she brought me into a clearing with little wooden cabins lining the field.


 * “Twister! We’re home!” She shouted, barely taking a break from running down a row of cabins.

I could make out some movement through the other rows but River didn’t pull us to a complete stop until we nearly ran into a broad set man in deep green plaid.


 * “Easy there kiddo, you might hit someone.” He chuckled. “And other kiddo-?”


 * “Twis, this is Frost, we’re twins.” River explained casually.


 * “Twins?” It wasn't hard to tell he was a little skeptical of the idea, I would be the same if I were him.


 * “Well duh, we look exactly alike, though I’m obviously the prettier one of the two.” She shrugged, “Can we keep ‘im? Please??”

Twister shook his head, obviously already exhausted by her question, but his lighthearted demeanor never vanished. After a deep sigh, he held his hand out to me to shake. “How about a proper greeting, Frost. As you know I’m Twister and that’s River, there’s a little over half a dozen others living on this island with us. No one is exactly “normal” here, we all got something about us that makes us special, more than usual. You’ll see. That’s about it mostly, so yeah.”


 * “It’s a pleasure to meet you and actually speak now,” I joked, shaking his hand and casting a side eye at River, who gasped dramatically.


 * “Alright, alright, easy you two. We got to find Frost a cabin, now don't we?” Keeping a strong grasp on my hand, he twisted my wrist around. He quickly pushed up my sweatshirt sleeve to bring to view an array of icicles tattooed on my skin, curling down from my palm.


 * “Oh that should be easy, c’mon!” I felt like a child’s favorite plaything as River pulled me from Twister’s grip and down another row. I had to just come to terms with it all.

Twister couldn’t help but smile as he tailed along behind us. “You’ll get used to it eventually!”

I sighed and let myself be dragged along by my sister until she yanked me to a stop in front of one of the cabins.


 * “Here we are! Told yah I knew where it was!” River announced proudly.

It was a quaint little home, not much different than some of the others with one of the more distinct differences being the icicles from my arms were on the door as well, which as of this moment was slightly ajar. River motioned for me to go on ahead impatiently. I took a deep breath and stepped forward and peeked inside. The crystal blue curtains left the entire front room in a beautiful light. Everything was either a pale shade of blue or white. Little snowflakes decorated the couch cushion and the curtains as if it was truly snowing.


 * “You explore, I’m gonna go try out your bed.” Before I could object, River bounded ahead of me and for the metal ladder.

I followed her quickly to find her collapsed onto her back, enjoying the mound of blankets that sat upon my white bed. I will admit, there was an odd amount of snowflakes about the entire cabin.


 * “Alright, alright. Up you go, get your own bed.” I shooed her away with my hands.


 * “I like yours better, plus, you can't lose me that easily.”

I huffed and decided to let my attention stray to what else was around the room and leave her alone. There was a beautiful white and silver lamp hanging above me, just within reach. When I tried to reach to touch it, pieces of ice began to slide from the edge where my fingertips came in contact. A new plan formed inside my mind and I turned back to River and repeated the same process. She yelped out and nearly fell off the bed, sending me on the floor laughing at her reaction,


 * “No fair!” She snapped, trying to regain herself in on the comforter.


 * “All's fair in family, little sister, we got war now.” I smirked, truly feeling at home now, though the world around me might be the opposite.