Liberation

Chapter 19

Peter's point of view:

Snow is evil.

Some would call it beautiful, a white substance so pure and clean, a dusting that makes the world look as if it has been thrown into a salt-shaker.

But only those who trudge through it, feeling it's icy fangs sink deep into the body and injecting the venom of hypothermia, know that the beauty of snow is a mask.

I long for autumn once again, to watch the leaves transform before my eyes into rubies and gold, to see my surroundings become jewels of nature. I miss even the scent of autumn, fresh and welcoming.

Now, the frigid air of winter seeps deep into my lungs and robs them of precious warmth, leaving me feeling cold and empty.

I cannot see where I am going, the winds pushing thick flurries of snow into my eyes all at once, blinding me.

What an idiot I am. I knew I had to get out of the house, but I really should have thought this out better.

I remain baffled at Julia's words to me, so icy and cruel that they make even this winter storm feel warm and inviting.

We've never yelled at one another, never gotten angry at each other. I can't understand why she's behaving this way.

Was it something I said? Something I did to put her off?

I'd like to go back and apologize for whatever it is that I've done, except for the fact that I'm stranded and blind out here.

My teeth chattering, I try to look around and squint through the snow, but my vision remains obscured, my eyesight withheld from my own eyes.

The wind whips the scent of smoke into my sinuses, the smell making me cough. A horrible reminder that the great forest fire must only be hours away by now.

I look around frantically and decide to run in the direction that I presume I came from.

The cold bites at my face and forms tiny ice crystals in my hair, making me shiver so hard that I might as well be having a seizure.

I keep running until I knock into something, falling backwards into the powdery snow with a thud.

Confused, I try and make out what it is that I've hit, but suddenly the wind stops blowing and a pair of green eyes are looking up at me.

Julia has virtually stopped the storm around us, controlling the winds to avert them away from where we stand.

"Peter," she says, almost guiltily. "I'm so sorry...I don't know what's wrong with me."

I look at her and commence an evaluation, curious to see if her change in personality is her doing.

Her heart rate and blood levels are normal, but a scan on her brain suggests that she's being targeted by an outside force. I can see that even now she's fighting against it, trying to restrain words that are not her own.

"This is the work of Henley," I tell her.

"How?" Julia asks. "She's not close enough to me to control me."

"I'm not sure, but that's why you snapped at Adam the other night, and why you yelled at me in there. Henley's targeting all of us in hopes that we'll turn against each other," I say.

"Well how are we supposed to stop her? I'm nowhere near her level when it comes to the power of control. I can't fight her on this," Julia brings up.

And then that's where an idea hits me, an idea that sickens me to my core but yet is the only way I can think of to get Henley to leave us alone.

"Well, what if..." I trail off, the words difficult to say.

"'What if' what?" Julia asks, looking at me expectantly with sad puppy eyes, like she already knows what I'm going to say.

"I'm not saying this because of anything you've done, but for the sheer purpose of Henley leaving us alone," I begin, taking a deep breath to say the last of my sentence. "We need to break up."

Julia looks down, her black hair veiling her face. "It wouldn't be forever, just until the battle is over. We can't win with Henley playing us like this," I ramble as I put my hand on her cheek and lift her face upwards to meet her eyes.

She looks up at me, her eyes blurring with tears like swimming pools of green. Warm tears make trails down her face, falling into the snow covering our feet. She pulls my hand gently away from her face and turns her back on me. "If that's what you think is best," she says, her voice breaking like glass.

Julia turns away from me and begins to walk back the way she came, letting her control over the winds stop as they blow once again.

I follow her back to our house, being careful to keep at least ten feet of a distance between us.

In uncomfortable silence we walk back home, not uttering a word to one another. But despite the winds' best efforts to drown out any noise with its beastly howling, I can make out her quiet cries.

We reach home, and Julia wastes no time flying through the door and disappearing up the stairs, notably slamming her bedroom door and locking it.

I turn my head one last time to look outside, making out clouds of smoke off in the distance of the fire approaching. I can only hope that we can use it to our advantage.

I walk over to the couch in the living room and plop down on it, angrily knowing that my back will be killing me in the morning. However, I begin to think of Julia and how she's barricaded herself in her room. Instead of sleeping, she'll probably spend the night cursing the day she ever met me.

I sigh and bury my face in a pillow, already regretting my choice.