Frozen In Love

Chapter 8

8

(JACK)

I couldn’t get his image out of my mind. Just before he died, that poor man had looked at me as if I was his only hope. Perhaps if I could have just fought them then and there he would have been alright. But I didn’t, and the man wasn’t alright.

He was dead.

I couldn’t believe how I kept walking into their traps. It was like whenever I thought I was one step ahead of them, they would appear from nowhere, having anticipated my next move. I may have won that battle at the forest, but they were relentless. We would meet again, of that I was absolutely certain.

 I couldn’t face them without a plan. It had been far too risky when I had been that angry. I could have bought an icy doom to all living in that village. I could have killed countless people just because I let my emotions take over. This I knew: I needed advice, and I needed it fast.

Before I really had time to consider, I was standing at the door of a bungalow just beyond the village that had been attacked. The windows were covered and closed and the door was obviously locked and bolted, but I knew those who lived there were inside because of the light creeping out from between the curtains.

I didn’t knock on this door. Instead, I pulled my phone from my jeans and found a number on speed-dial.

Through the walls, I could hear the house phone screaming out some demented version of the national anthem. I shook my head.

‘Hello?’ a low voice grunted down the phone.

‘Hey, Kyle. Open the door already!’ I said.

I barely had time to end the call before I heard the high-pitched scraping noise of a bolt sliding across and the door flew open. A mass of dark blonde curly hair and gangly limbs flew out of the house and knocked me flying, landing in a heap, pinned to the ground.

‘Ha! You’d think you of all people would know how to defend yourself by now!’ a familiar voice laughed in my face.

I couldn’t help but laugh myself, despite all I had been through.

‘Get off me, Shaun!’ I warned him playfully as I struggled to escape his hold. He twisted me around so that I couldn’t move.

‘No.’ he said, obviously pleased with himself. He pinned my arms above my head and prepared to spit in my face.

‘Don’t mess with me!’ I warned again, my voice low. ‘Get off me now or so help me I will freeze your butt to the ground and leave you stuck there all night!’

With a groan of defeat Shaun backed off, reaching a hand down to help me up. I rejected it, trying to brush the snow off of my jeans.

I had known Shaun all his life. After I first showed myself to Kyle, helpless and frightened when I first realised what I was capable of, we had been through many things together. Kyle swore on his life to keep my secrets; he even gave me his permission to end his life myself if he ever breathed a word. Therefore, a long-lasting bond of trust had been created.

 So when I dived through a window one day to save a toddler who was being beaten half to death, I had nobody else to turn to. Kyle, a little reluctantly, agreed to take him in. On my regular visits to Kyle’s house, Shaun seemed to grow every time I saw him. That tiny, terrified kid had somehow turned into a lanky, curly haired expert fighter of a thirteen year old.

‘Shaun! Jack! Get the hell inside! This place was crawling with bloodthirsty murderers not an hour ago and here you two are rolling about and playing silly buggers in the snow! You may as well walk up to the whole lot of them with bloody great targets stuck to your heads!’ Kyle’s voice reached us clearly even though he was inside the house.