The Final Home

Chapter 1 | Your Secret

I found myself in front of her house. It was nothing special, just yellow bricks with a brown roof and a wooden fence. I was just about to knock on the door, when it flew open.

She stood in the doorway, golden hair caressing her pale face and straining to reach her lower back. She wore a sweater, a skirt and sneakers, everything a mixture of blues, blacks, and purples that resembled a bruise in the night sky (if that makes sense).

Her eyes were strange though. It was like someone had crushed a golden ornament into pixiedust and sprinkled it into her green eyes to make her even more beautiful. Broken fragments of green and gold, it was almost like she was two different people. I felt like if I looked into those things for too long, I'd get sucked in.

I quickly looked away, not wanting her to catch me staring. Her eyes widened when she saw me. (Yes, I was sucked into her eyes again.) We both stood there, frozen. We stared at each other, waiting to see who would speak first. I lost.

"Punzie?"

She didn't look freaked out, so I suppose that was a good thing. She nodded, confirming my guess and hugged me. She hugged me! I hadn't been hugged in a long time since... No. Stop thinking of that. Forget. Forget everything. Move on.

Punzie's hug felt nice. I held her in my arms, breathing in all of her warmth as I let her comfort me.

"Punzie?" I asked again.

"Yes?"

"Thank you."

My voice was barely audible, like a whisper. I didn't want to break the spell I was in. I was remembering to forget. And it felt good, like I was only living for the pleasure of now.

I was staying away from the worry, away from the shock. I wasn't really paying attention to anything else. Not even to the vanilla/rose/tulip fragrance that Punzie was wearing.

"You're my girlfriend, Punzie. I'll forget about her. Okay? Don't worry about it."

"You're the one whose doing the worrying, Jack. Not me," she accused.

"What? I'm not worried," I lied.

This was not supposed to happen. My not-so-happy, living-in-the-now daze came crashing down. Punzie didn't have to know what I was worried about. How could she read my mind like that?

"You're lying Jack. Stop trying to hide things from me. Everyone knows that you miss... her, Jack. I know how you feel about her, but can't you just forget and know that you have a girlfriend who loves you? That I love you? Jack, I'm here. "

Her words felt like a slap in the face. "Punzie, I'm sorry. I-"

She put her hand up, cutting me off.

"You know what, never mind," she said, her voice cold as ice. "It looks like you have a lot on your mind right now, so... goodnight, Frost. I'll see you later.

She got up, trudging back to her house before shutting the door, leaving me  to stand there... alone.

~•~

I didn't breathe​. I needed to get out of here, but I couldn't move. Dark sand spilled everywhere. I watched in fear as it gathered to transform into something that I'd hoped to never see again. Its eyes glowed a yellowish gold and its shiny coat shimmered in a way that seemed unnatural. A living nightmare was running towards me, and it was ready to strike.

Cackles filled the air, causing the hair on the back of my neck to rise. I never wanted to hear that laugh again.

He appeared from the darkness. The smirk on his face told me that he knew something I didn't, something that nobody else did, something dark, sinister... bad. This could not be good.

"Jack Frost, it's been such a long time since we last saw each other," he laughed before disappearing again. "But... you've beaten me for the last time."

He rose up behind me, making me jump.

"I've become stronger, Frost. Unfortunately, you didn't join me when you had the chance. And... I know your secret. It's time for you to realize that Jack Frost can't win."

He stepped away just before the nightmare slammed into me. I screamed as hot pain shot throughout my entire body. I flew across the ice, slamming into the rock wall. Too weak to stand up any longer, I fell and lay there on the cold, sandy ground. I didn't have the strength in me anymore.

I was going to die.

He stepped forward, prepared to finish me off with one last deadly blow. I hoped it would be fast. Death couldn't have been much worse than what I was feeling then...

"Jack?"

I snapped out of the horrible memory and looked up in surprise at my sister. She was already dressed and was texting as usual.

Emma gave me a look. "I need you to take me somewhere."

"Fine," I sighed. "Give me a few minutes and I'll take you to whatever crazy place you want me to take you to."

Emma rolled her eyes. "Thanks."

She bit her lip and hesitated before leaving the room. It was awfully suspicious.

No, I wasn't being crazy to drop my sister off at a place that I didn't know about. Emma did stuff like this all the time. I had somewhere else to go anyway. I just hoped that what I was about to do didn't hurt me.