CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
Gory Details
Chloe felt a bit disappointed; Until now she was certain that Clijsters had been her friend from the moment she met him. She turned away slowly, avoiding looking at him.
She stood there admiring him for some time, until she had another thought coming to her. She went over, maybe to try and talk to him, she thought. He looked at her.
“Are you alright?” was all that he said. “You look completely lost.”
Meanwhile, Chloe began thinking; “I would rather have come this far without him.” He was ignoring her and completely disregarding her, and had her thinking that finding the forbidden gate was going to be the end of her.
Having seen most of the place, her hope was getting gaunter and more hollow with time. Clijsters had changed, getting angry from time to time. Outside, she could not guess in which direction lay the forbidden gates.
‘Why do I bother about him not being good with me?’ she asked herself.
She walked by his side though, in the direction of a place where Clijsters knew of a safe chalet which they could inhabit for some time and wait for the snow plow train, which used to pass through the ancient town once in a week. However, he wasn’t sure whether it was still operational. Except for mentioning the snow plow train, which Chloe had never seen either, Clijsters didn’t speak of anything through their stroll.
They reached to the chalet, which was old and partly buried into the snow.
“Stop here,” he said.
She didn’t want to enter the chalet directly with him, so she stopped. She asked him whether the train he mentioned passed near this chalet because she saw no rails there at all, nothing except the snow.
“There’s a plow train that used to pass here” said Clijsters, “its railroad ends at the forbidden gates, but it’s better to wait for it here, if it will come.”
He then asked her about her wound on the hip, whether she was able to move without any serious pain.
“Don’t worry about me,” she said. “You’re not going to need to redress it, I’m a big girl.”
She also wanted to sound more serious than usual, but without a change in her tone. He immediately looked at her as if he had noticed something in her response.
“I’m not asking you again about that wound. It seems it doesn’t hurt you anymore,” he said.
He didn’t sound quite happy and it was very unusual of him. She had not realized since meeting him, he had always expressed his kindness and care for her. She realized he had slightly changed and she wanted to ask him what the reason was for this.
But on the other hand she was not surprised by his behavior; maybe those were his true colors, because she had not known him for a very long time. She had just met him in this icy world, and maybe he wanted to be kind in the beginning. But it was a concern to her, why did he have to change his behavior towards her all of a sudden?
After they had entered the chalet, Chloe was a bit nervous and Clijsters must have noticed this. He asked her to relax as they waited for the snow plow train.
“If you manage getting onto the train and discover the forbidden gates, which will be your destiny, so many things will be revealed to you, as long as you keep that moon stone crystal with you,” he said.
Chloe was listening, but she didn’t look at him, his voice sounded sincere with all the kind of sadness she had only witnessed from him.
“What about you?” she asked, but he didn’t respond immediately. He kept her in more suspense and she couldn’t relax anymore. She began to think about his statement while she tried to relax.
