Frozen In Love

Chapter 17

It's been snowing today (!) so I was reminded of this and wanted to upload. This chapter is where the two main characters finally meet face to face! It's been a long time coming so I hope you enjoy.  <3 L xx

17

(JACK)

        Years back, when I first was able to use my powers, I used to sneak out all the time, catch the air so it lifted me from the ground and cover the nearby area in a blanket of frost, simply to prove to myself that I could still do it. It would be too early sometimes, with winter a good month or two away, but I couldn’t wait, the pull was too strong. As I brushed my hand over the fences and branches of trees, watching the frost spike and glow in the moonlight, I realised I wanted to share that with someone. Of course, Kyle was my only support at the time, so I went to him. He promised to trust me if I promised to stop sneaking away.           

Consequently, I thought my days of creeping silently out of the window were long gone.

            Obviously, I thought wrong.

            Since Kyle had forbidden me to see Alice, I had been taking more and more risks. It was like the inescapable pull all over again, except this time I wanted to share things with Alice instead. Compared to the thrilling rush of adrenaline I felt whenever I stood at her window or called her phone, sneaking out of Kyle’s house in the middle of the afternoon was nothing.

            In a few short seconds I had left a note on the frosted glass of the window (should anyone intrude) and made my way outside, feet crunching in the poor excuse of snow that clung to the ground. I really needed to renew this sometime soon.

            As I walked I passed my hands along the fences and plants like I used to, mind consumed by a memory, not even needing to watch as the frost claimed the surfaces. I thought as I went, invisible of course.

            I had been talking to Alice for a good two weeks now, almost three. I knew almost everything about her- she wasn’t as evasive as I was. And she obviously trusted me enough to want to meet me. So why did my heart race faster every time I took a step? I had taken control here, told her exactly where to meet me and when. If she was with anyone else I would be invisible, and if there was the slightest glimpse of a mirror anywhere in sight, I would be gone from her life completely before she could even breathe my name.

            Finally, I reached the clearing at the back end of the forest, the one that contained a large weeping willow, bent double over a small stream like a giant, crooked old man. It was possibly the largest tree I seen this side of the forest.

            Yes, I remembered this one. This was the tree I had to work hardest to frost over, the one that frustrated me each and every time I covered this area. I had a history with this tree, as strange as it sounded.

            Which was why it was the ideal place to meet Alice. I knew every angle and the placing of every branch. I used to hide out here when I was young and afraid, confused with why I had been chosen for this job. I could manipulate the ice-cold weather to my advantage and the stream, when not still enough to be a mirror, was no threat to me either.

            Wandering over to it, I made sure to peer beneath the snow covered branches of the willow in case Alice had already arrived. When I found nobody there, I moved to the frozen lake and walked confidently out onto the ice, never afraid that it would break- that was another perk of being who I was. When I reached the other side, I leapt up onto the bank with ease and looked down at the unmoving water, momentarily entranced.

            No matter how long I had lived in an endless winter, the signs of the season somehow still managed to take my breath away.

            Ridding myself of the threat the mirrored surface bought with it, I sent my fist slamming into the ice and within seconds the water was flowing once more, the layer of ice swallowed up by the force of its escape, never to be seen again.