Frozen In Love

Chapter 1

The beginning was a bit short and not the best start so I'm uploading again today. Hopefully this bit will be better, but I prefer chapter 3 to be honest! Feel free to comment etc. I'd love to hear from you awesome people! <3 Lxx

1

(JACK)

Not too late. I was not going to be too late this time. I had thought one step ahead of them, I was sure of it. Still, I ran as fast as I could, feet barely skimming the ground, as I approached the little cottage where I had rested earlier on.

I cursed my stupidity. My fault again. Always my fault.

            As I came closer, I noticed the thick looming smoke and the darting shadows that flickered in the alleyways close by.

            No. Not shadows. People.

            I ran faster, screaming at those nearby to run for their lives, not caring that none of them could even see me because I didn’t have time to change. Just a few more footsteps. Just a few more.

            I would not set eyes on that little piece of paper again, not here, not this time.

            I was perhaps ten steps away from the cottage when the alleyway beside it burst into flames. My stomach twisted, knotted with fear, but I carried on. I narrowly missed a falling branch and dived towards an open window, hitting my head hard against the frame and wincing with the sharp pain that darted through me. Then I was inside the cottage.

            But I was not alone.

          Six pairs of piercing eyes glared in my direction, each one flickering with victory as the flames rose. Three of them had broad shoulders and lean, muscly bodies- definitely masculine. The other three were women- they all had long, dark brown hair cascading down their backs in immaculate braids. And they were all wearing masks: green rims, haunting designs and sparkling eyes. As I moved around the edge of the room, those eyes followed me, calculating my every move.

Wait.

How could they see me?

It was then that I noticed the mirrors. Placed strategically on every wall, they shone with a deadly light that caught my reflection and held it prisoner. Every move I made, every way I turned they could see me. I had nowhere to hide from them.

A small whimper came from the other side of the room. The owners of the cottage (a small, fat, creepy looking man, a young boy wearing some kind of uniform and a stick-thin, deathly pale woman) were bound to one of the wooden beams that structured the house. They were gagged and tied tightly- the ropes seemed to burn their fragile skin as they struggled for freedom. Beside them, one of the masked figures gave the fat man a sharp kick and snarled at them to keep still. I met the tear-filled eyes of the woman and her pure terror paralysed me completely for a moment.

However, that moment was all I needed to realise what I had to do. Snapping out of my thoughts, I threw out my hands and focused every piece of my mind on the shining surfaces of the mirrors on the walls. In an instant, each and every one of them had clouded over with thick layers of frosted condensation, obscuring the gang’s view of me completely.

Using their blindness to my advantage, I raced across the room and threw myself down at the beam where the traumatised family were tied. I quickly took a small knife from where it was hidden in my belt and began to hack away at the rope, undecided about whether the panicked breathing was coming from the frightened people or from myself.

I had freed the man and the stick-thin woman and was working on the uniformed boy when I felt a pair of large, calloused hands grab me from behind. Within seconds I had lost my grip on the boy’s ropes and was sprawled across the hard wooden floor, pinned at the shoulders by a man in a mask holding a mirror.