White the Cursed

10 Why, part 1

Jack took a step forward, eyes closed and fists clenched. He was expecting to feel the bite of the cold on his feet, eating it up to the ankle, and he wasn't disappointed by the stinging, burning sensation. He winced but ignored it as he kept on moving. Strangely, he couldn't feel the water rising around him, so there was nothing to stop him now. He kept on moving forward, again and again, forging his resolution with each step.

The cold didn't matter. The pain didn't matter. He knew he was doing the right choice. He should have never survived, he was supposed to have drowned with Emma, that day. He still didn't know why he hadn't died, nor what had brought him back and changed him like this. He didn't know why or how, or if someone, god or demon, was behind this. He only knew it should have never happened, and the time had come to fix this mistake.

Taking a deep breath, he opened his eyes and was about to let him fall backward in the water, when he noticed something was off. He was sure he had walked to the middle of the pond, water was supposed to reach his chest by now, but he couldn't even feel it on his legs. Confused, he looked down and horror struck him as he realised he wasn't even in the water. His feet were resting on the surface of a thin layer of frost, sparkling by the starlight. His weightless body was visibly not enough to break it.

His heart sent in a pounding loop, the frost thickened in response, turning into ice. He looked up around him. He was right in the middle of the pond, the exact place where Emma and him had fallen in, and a frosted path was linking his position to the shore.

''No...'' He whispered, panting in panic.

He looked back down and tried to take a step into the water, outside of the ice plate. As soon as his toes brushed the surface of the water, ice and frost formed to carry him.

''No, no...''

He took another step, then another one, he tried to jump farther, but nothing did. Once again, the pond was rejecting him. Death was rejecting him.

''No !'' He cried in despair.

New tears escaped his eyes as he started to sob. Falling down to his knees, he tried to punch to ice, hoping to break it, hoping to fall in. Each punch and hit aiming to weaken it only seemed to make it stronger. It even started to thicken, to spread in the depth of the pond. Despite of this, he couldn't stop. He kept on punching the ice, punching so hard it was painful, sobbing and wailing, his voice getting higher as he was now screaming.

''Why ?! Why are you doing this ?!''

He looked up to the sky and cried even more, voice twisted and trembling with rage, pain and despair.

''Why don't you want me ?! Is this a punishment ?! For not saving her ?! Why ?! Why can't I just go with her ?!''

His tears submerged him. He collapsed on his side, folding on himself, hiding his face in his arms, knees pressed against his chest as his whole body was shaking uncontrollably. His turmoil kept on feeding the ice spreading around him, to the extend the whole pond was soon frozen solid to the bottom. Jack didn't care, he kept on crying and wailing, his heart bleeding out through his stinging eyes. He couldn't stop anymore. Everything he had been through and accumulated for three long years of loneliness and rejection, it all came back. Each memory, each rejection, each heartbreak was beating him up, beating up his heart and soul, with utmost violence.

He couldn't say how many time passed like this, it could have lasted ages, or just seconds, or eternity. That's when he heard it. A high-pitched noise, like a whine, then something pressing on his back. It felt like two small paws trying to catch his attention. Ignoring it, he burried his face deeper in the shelter of his arms, until another whine reached his ears, and this time he recognized it as a dragon whine.