Frozen In Love

Chapter 12

Thank you all again for your support and comments that are beyond the valley of the AMAZING! Thought I would write from a different P.O.V. to let you get into the head of the bad guy (or girl, in this case).  Enjoy <3 L xx

13

(THE LEADER OF THE MASK)

            I finally let the struggling boy go as my anger subsided. As much as I wanted to kill him right then and there, we needed every one of us if we had any chance of victory. Grunting with pain and gasping for breath, he fell to the floor at my feet. I left him there, not even sparing him a second glance. I had no time to waste as I raced towards the house at full speed.

            Jack Frost had been there, up on the roof, listening. He could have heard everything!

            A new surge of anger formed inside of me, spurring me on. How could those fools have even dared to confront me about their petty issues near the house? How could they have been so stupid?

            Harding had been gone for ages, during which time I had beaten his friend to a pulp, making him a warning and example to the others that next time they would not be let off as easily. Though it felt good to let out my pent up anger, when Harding gave me the all-clear from the other side of the house, I let out a sigh of frustration.

            It was obvious that he was going to escape. But still, my anger flared painfully in my chest every time he managed to evade us.

            Just like he'd disappeared the first winter I saw him, after the avalanche that bought my world crashing through the ground and into the pits of hell. It was his fault, of that there was no shred of doubt. I had known from the start who he was, but nobody else had seemed to notice. Every night as I dream, I still see the name on the gravestone, the way he had looked at me as I vowed revenge. And I still see him disappear, just as he had done that very first time...

            I reached the house and rushed around to the far side where a window was left slightly ajar. Clambering inside and cursing a little too loudly when my braid caught on the windowsill, I headed for the stairs, towards the room that looked out onto the roof.

            Moving quietly as I climbed the stairway, calming my breathing rate and lifting my feet carefully so as not to let a creaking floorboard alert anyone of my presence, I leant against the door at the top until it opened slightly, just far enough for me to squeeze through the gap and enter the room.

            Nothing.

            Nothing but a sleeping girl who was tauntingly at ease and completely unaware. Oh how I envied that girl. She was so totally ignorant it was almost funny.

            Wait- what was that in her hair?

            It was then that I first saw the snowflakes, intricately crafted and placed just as delicately to resemble a hairband. Against the black of her hair and the dark of the room, they were so out of place that they startled me.

            With a sharp intake of breath, I glanced at the window. Two sentences and a handprint stained the condensation, spelling out the key to what I knew could be the Mask’s ultimate triumph. It was so obvious I wondered how none of us had ever thought of it before.

            Jack Frost was a seventeen year old teenage boy. Granted, an incredibly fast, strong and powerful…not to mention invisible…seventeen year old boy, but a teenager nonetheless.

            The key to his undoing had been right under our noses this entire time. And it had nothing to do with heartless murder or the burning of the forest, or the ruthless rampage of the gang. No, it was all to do with this confused young girl asleep on the bed, completely oblivious as to what horrors awaited her.