Hush

Chapter Twenty

Hush tried to close the door immediately, yelling as he shut his eyes, so accustomed to the dark his eyes were. Even so, the light felt like it was burning through his eyelids. And the cold, oh, the cold, it was crawling across his skin, freezing him alive. It stung and burned furiously. His eyes started to water. It went straight through his sweater, chilling him to the bone.

The door wouldn't close, though, and his fingers were already numb. What kind of place had this door opened to? Hush had never felt this cold in his life.

And even so, even with the cold angrily attacking his body, he felt an urge to step forwards, a pull to move forward. Hush thought it was the most ridiculous thing in his life to want to head farther into the cold. There could only be one explanation: He must be going mad.

Hush, deciding that there was nothing else left to do, started to open his eyes, slowly and carefully. At first, all he saw was white before his eyes started to water, which didn't help the stinging. He blinked a few times and forced himself to open his eyes more so, and even after all he saw was white.

His body had become numb at this point, making it impossible to move. When he did try, his knees couldn't seem to support his weight. Hush fell, catching himself with his hands. Somehow, they became impossible colder, painful. He looked down at them -it didn't feel as if they were there- and found that they had disappeared into the white. He lifted his hands, seeing that the white lay on top of them. There was no way it could be what Hush thought it was. Snow?

He looked up, seeing miles upon miles of snow. How? He looked behind him and his eyes couldn't make out a single thing in the dark. He looked back, bewildered. This house never ceased to surprise him, but... where had it led him to? A vast wasteland of snow? Was it playing with his mind, disorienting him?

But Hush felt no violent intent coming from this place. Instead, he felt as if this place was welcoming, somehow.

There was no way he was sane. His skin burned and his fingers had gone blue, and yet he felt as if this place was friendly?

Hush knew that if he didn't warm up somehow, he would surely die. Be he also knew that if he wandered through the dark hallways, he would still die. Certainly, there was no winning in this situation, so Hush decided. He didn't quite know what spurred him to do it, but he managed to crawl forwards, past the door and into the snow. He'd rather freeze in clarity than wander in mindlessness.

As he crawled a bit farther, he noticed that feeling was coming back to his limbs. Sure, it felt as if he was being stabbed with a thousand tiny daggers, but he was starting to feel again. His body was starting to warm up. But how? It seemed impossible. Hush was surrounded by miles and miles of snow and he was becoming warmer?

There was no way. No way at all. But with each movement forwards, he was definitely growing warmer.

Hush looked up, confused, no explanation to this. And that's when he saw it.

The Aurora Borealis.