Putz12 Plus One

TWENTY EIGHT | ICY GAL

As they approached further Northeast, the weather shifted inconsistently. It would get cold, hot, and everywhere in between. They thanked their stars there was no rainfall. The path appeared to be a dead end, however. As they noticed. There was only a giant icy rock, grey and blue -- though beautiful -- useless in the grand scheme of things. And a bunch more trees. Who was to say it wasn't a trap?

"That's it!" He shrieked. "I hate this place! I fuckin' HATE IT! It makes no sense, how the fuck did you guys live through this squit?!"

He was almost pulling out his ponytail. While he muttered and cussed his woes, Pheobe could only hope to convince her sister out of what was certainly a suicide mission.

"Look, you see that?!" He pointed to the distance, and for a second, a glimmer of hope entered her eyes. "There's not even fuckin' SNOW!"

He was now rocking back and forth neurotically, cussing out everyone they've ever met, even Sera, The Order and the ink suckers. She found it sweet in a way, but brushed off such nonsense and returned her heart to set sights on the mission.

"What is snow?" Asked Pheobe, regretfully as it seemed to trigger him even further.

"Forget it, oh fuck's sake forget it." He was crying now out of pure frustration. Shivering, too.

Iza said not a word. Her sister held her hand out, noticing her face had lost all expression. Never in her life or relationship with her had she seen her like this. She was known as emotionally resilient, perhaps it explained why she reacted to loss in such a way most would deem most crazy. "I know how this thing, it means a lot to you."

A lot to me. I risked my life several times. She swallowed in air, finding her composure and exhaled. I guess it isn't about The Order anymore. And she looked at Putz and held back her stinging, insistent tears. He's going to go away, you know that right? And you'll never see him again.

"But what if there is nothing? There's just ice, Iza. There's nothing as far as I can see, and it's a death wish to conti-tinue." The cold was now getting to her, and her skin grew wan.

She continued talking. Iza tuned her out. Scanning, through concealment of her bangs, the ice floor which separated them from their goal, which seemed invisible from the distance. When she finally lifted her head, they looked at her as if waiting for an answer, like she were their commissioner. What she had noticed was the frost, gathering on his tentacles, his skin turning a subtle blue beneath the pallor. Hissing inward, she took a step on the sheet of ice. Pheobe screeched and lifted her up.

"Don't! You're crazy! Do you wish to die, IZA?!"

She said nothing, and Putz stared, unravelling her through her stoic façade. In her eyes were a hint of fear only noticeable for a second. Her legs, falling on the massively slippery surface. "You may not control me!"

"Yes, I can!!"

"No! Let me go! Let me go! I'm not gonna have you ruin my chances of--" She wasn't sure what she was fighting for anymore. Her remaining friends could be dead. There was no more Sector Nine. And the other sectors have been silent since day one of their journey. The place was a total wreck, and surely if other sectors existed, they'd have come across Free or Five at some point, right? "Please, I'm an adult I--"

"Yeah, barely." She dragged her off of the ice, and she plopped right down on the cold, icy white sand beneath.

She looked at Putz, hoping he'd vouch. "Come on!" Her voice was trembling and weak like she.

There was that trembling lip, the cracking of her voice which told him she wasn't sad, she was heartbroken. It came to him in a word in his mind: Marcus. Whoever he was, she still harbored feelings and her soul had shattered. Her friends, her family, her... everything.