ice

- chapter 2. -

           I woke up to Fletcher hopping off the top bunk of the bunk bed, he walked over to the dresser, and opened a drawer. I sat up, the bed creaked. I rubbed my eyes, and turned on the bed-side table lamp.
           "I'm coming with you." I said, without explanation.
           "Not a good idea, Celeste." Fletcher said, fixing his messed up, long black hair.
           "What? You think I'm afraid?" I said, standing up.
           "No! I just don't—"
           "Look, I know everything's so fucking easy for you. But don't worry about me. I can take care of myself." I said, sternly. Staring at him.
           "Look, I know it bothers you for some reason that—"
           "Some reason?" I paused, scoffing, "You know what it feels like, always having my little brother be better than me?"
           "Not my fault." He said, rolling his eyes.
           "Then we moved to this fucking ice ball, and every kid's modded like you. "Different." That's what the grown-ups say, but they mean "better." I said, ignoring his comment.
           Fletcher stared at me, with remorse. He sighed, "Fine." He turned back around, continuing to search through the dresser. "If you're coming, hurry up and get dressed." He said, flatly.
           As we stepped outside of the small complex, I closed the door behind us. Fletcher leaped off the metal stairs, doing flips.

           Before we left, I put on a thick sweater, and then an enormous jacket on top. I put on some baggy cargo pants, and some shoes. I never had worn a beanie before, but today was the today where I'd wear one for the first time.
           Fletcher stood at the bottom, waiting for me.
           We started to walk from the complex towards the small town community. Fletcher jumped onto a snow-plower machine, it had a red flashing light on top. He did a hand-stand on top of the machine, with one arm. I continued to walk.
           "Hey, Celeste, check it out." Fletcher said, smiling.
           "Quit screwing around. It'll scan you." I said, referring to the red flashing light. I could see my breath from how cold it was, I cupped my hands and tried to warm them up by breathing on them.
            Once we got into the small town, there we people lying around everywhere, most drunk, passed out, or smoking. The town was trashed.
            The snow crunched underneath my snow boots as we walked through-out the town.
            I heard conversations going around as we passed by.
            "Look at that one, not modded." One murmured.
            "Hey extro!" Someone cackled.
            This felt like another version of catcalling in a way. I sighed.
            We continued to walk.
            One silent man, who sat on the curb, struggling to light his pipe gave me a weird look. Then, he spoke up.
            He said something in a completely different language I wasn't able to process. I looked at Fletcher.
            He shook his head, signaling me not to worry about it.
            As we got further away, the man stood up and pointed at us.
            "Bet you wish you were back on Earth!" He yelled as he laughed.
            As we stepped out of the busy part of town, we walked onto some sort of empty court. There were four people.
             A woman did pull-ups with one arm, dangling from the tall lamp post. The three others played some sort of game.
             I looked at Fletcher, but he quickly ran up to the group of four.
             He joined in on the game, kicking a ball mid-air.
             I stood back and watched. One of the four smoked, "Lame."
             That would be Oxo.
             Another laughed, "Four, guys.", Brume.
            A silent girl looked at me, tilting her head to the right. As if she was confused. Pressima.
            The woman jumped down from the light post, and walked up to Fletcher.
            "Oh, Fletch!" Logan said, smiling.
            "Hey, Logan!"
            They did some sort of handshake. Fletcher chuckled.
            I looked away awkwardly.
            "Who's that." Logan asked with her strong, thick accent. Pointing at me.
             I looked at her. Fletcher looked at me, then back at Logan.
             "Celeste. My older sister."
             Oxo spoke in a foreign language, the same one as the man in the town.
             Logan turned her head towards Oxo, "Shut up, Oxo."
             He cackled.
             She looked at me, leaning forward a bit to get to my level of height. "So, so, so.."
            She circled me, "Extro. Not modded. Why you bring her?" She asked Fletcher.
            She stared at me judgemently.
            "She— She wanted to see the Frostwhales." Fletcher explained.
            The group laughed.
            Logan grinned at me, and shrugged. "Okay. So.. you run fast, extro?" She said, rolling her r's.
            Her hot breath turned to cold steam, as she got inches away from my face.
            "Fast enough." I smiled.
            The group laughed, again. Logan walked back over to the group.
            "We'll see." She mumbled as she walked.
            They slowly walked into some sort of tunnel, talking and laughing loudly.
            "Benga, benga!" Logan shouted, laughing.
            I stared, still confused by this language.
            The long tunnel slowly got more difficult to walk through as the piercing cold wind rushed through it unforgivingly, and the snow got slightly deeper.
             As I walked slowly behind the rest, I saw their hot breath turn cold.
             I breathed heavily, it got colder and colder, and harder to breath.
             As we walked out of the tunnel, the wind got worse, and nearly pushed me over. The others seemed unbothered. It nearly took off my jacket and my beanie.
             We stood on ice, thick ice.
             As I struggled to stand up properly, the group stood around.
             "These whales, how big are they anyway?" I shouted so they could hear me over the wind.
             Logan spoke in the foreign language.
             I sighed, "Someone, please translate that.."
             Oxo chuckled, "It means fucking big, extro!" He yelled as he lit a red flare. "Big enough to eat you up, one bite."
             I put my hood up, and shoved my hands in my pockets.
             "You scared?!" Brume grinned, lighting another red flare just like Oxo.
             "Fuck off." I shouted.
             They all laughed.
             They continued to light red flares and lay them on the ice as we walked.
             "Okay, stop." Logan said, stopping.
             She turned away. "Whales.. don't like the machines. The sound. Too much. Once they are off the ice, then.." She stopped, and then continued in the foreign language, then back to English. "Frostwhales, up! Fucking danger. Okay?" Logan explained.
             Everyone nodded.
             "Whales break ice for breathing. They won't stop til they breach. They always hit seven times. Seven."
             "Minimum.." Oxo paused, blowing the smoke from his pipe. "Seven."
             "When Frostwhales hit, we run from here.." Logan paused, kicking a small lantern sitting on the ice, enabling it. Then turned around and pointed to the flare we planted at the beginning, "To there."
             "Got it Fletch?" Logan said, looking at Fletch.
             "Benga!" Fletcher said.
             I assumed that "benga" meant got it, or ready. Something along the lines of that.
             Logan looked at me, "How about you, extro?"
             I sighed, "Uh, yeah. Right. Benga.."
             "When the Frostwhales hit," Logan paused, she said pulling out a pipe and lighting it. Took a puff, and then blew it out. "We go."
             Everyone but Fletch and I did the same. We didn't own a pipe. Logan handed hers to me. I looked at her, and took it, unsure.
             I sighed, and took multiple puffs, handed it back, and started coughing. They laughed.
             Everything slowly turned to white. I looked around, confused. I looked at the ground, it was slight dark blue ice.
             I laughed and stepped forward, "Woah." The ice glowed.
             I stared in amazement. I felt happy, unbothered. I could stay here for eternity and I would be fine with it.
             I heard noises, that sounded like machines powering off. I looked around confused.
             Soon enough, I heard Fletcher trying to snap me out of it.
             "We have to go! Celeste, snap out of it! We have to go!"
             Finally he grabbed my shoulders and shook me, I snapped out of it. I heard the group yelling.
             Seconds later, everyone started to run, and suddenly, the ice cracked as a whale slammed its body into the ice. It didn't break through.
             Fletcher and I were farther behind than the others.
             I felt like I was panicking, like I couldn't breathe. One mistake could get me killed.
             The whale hit again, the cracks got worse, and I nearly slipped and fell over. But I kept running, looking back. The group whooped as they ran far ahead.
            Another hit.
            Fletch turned his head and yelled. "Celeste!"
            Another.
            I grunted, "Fuck!"
            "Come on!" Fletch shouted, still facing me.
            Another. This time it hit directly underneath where Fletcher was running, and he went soaring through the air. He did a flip, hoping to land safely.
            He failed. He landed as another hit directly under him again, and this time he hurt his ankle. in the crack. He fell over, and slid across the ice. The others lept over him, practically leaving him for dead.
            "Shit." I murmured.
            "Ow, fuck, my leg!" He yelled.
            I quickly ran towards him, dropped to my knees and slid. I picked him up, he was quite light considering he's modded.
             I slowly walked, attempting to pick up the pace. Logan stopped dead in her tracks, turned around and faced us.
             "Come on! Come on, run, you fucking extro!"
             I picked up the pace, and once again I was running. I watched the ice slowly start glowing underneath me.
            "No, no, no— FUCK!" I shouted as the whale hit, fully breathing through this time, Fletcher and I went soaring even higher than he did.
            The group stared in terror as we soared.
            Fletcher and I screamed.
            As the whale slowly soared, I got only inches away from it.
            It was beautiful, more beautiful than you could ever imagine. It glowed a beautiful shade of blue, with deep, dark, glowing, red eyes. It looked like lightning was zapping out of it. Some sort of electricity bursted through it.
             I watched, and once again felt like I was at peace with this gentle giant. Those thoughts quickly shattered as I hit the thick ice and went sliding towards the group, Fletcher did the same.
             "Fuck.. my head.." I rubbed the back of my head and looked at the group. They stared in amazement at the Frostwhale in its natural beauty.
             The group whooped and laughed for us.
             "Sometimes.. six hit!"
             I rolled my eyes and smiled.
             "Fuck.. off." Fletcher said as he flipped her off.
             We all laughed.
             "Amazing run, Celeste." Logan complimented.
             I nodded, and wrapped my arm around Fletcher to help him stand, he stood and limped on one leg.
             "Wow. That's amazing.." I said, staring at the Frostwhales, leaping into the air.
             "Yeah it is.." Logan agreed.