Project Icarus

Four

After the fire, in came the ice.

I was barely able to move in the beginning of the shot, but now... Now I was frozen. Frozen in pure agony, like a statue in a cemetery. Amias' arms were no longer wrapped around me, and the bloodied Earth was no longer beneath me.

Everything was coated in darkness and chills. And I hated it. I tried to move, concentrating on my hands or legs, but nothing happened. Willpower did nothing, so I finally stopped trying. How long had I been laying here? Minutes, weeks, months... Years? There was no way to tell.

Time and time again, I thought back to Amias. God forbid, if that... Thing had continued its escapade after I'd left, I'd blow a fuse. If it were possible to do that here. Or what if he'd gone another way, one like I had? I couldn't bear to think of that... Just the thought of him going through such pain made me want to die a thousand times over. I'd do that if it meant ensuring his survival.

The best memories would bring me a second or so of warmth in the cold dark, ones of his embrace or his smile. Even the ones of our childhood together came back, and I laid back and watched them all, since that really was the only thing I could do.

Then there was Lyson. The cold intensified as I thought of him, swirling around my powerless being. What must have been the wind cut deep into me as I thought of how I had let him run away. 

...And Mama...

My death wouldn't come as a surprise to her. Maybe she had been right. I'd rot in Hell with my father. I could see her sitting at the table, with no one on the other side to comfort her. Not me, not my father, and definitely none of her family. No one.

We weren't much different in that aspect... We both had... Nothing. 

Nothing but the long, cold road ahead.

*

I waited. I still don't know for how long, and I don't think that I ever will. All the while, I couldn't shake the feeling of being... Watched. Not once did I hear a sound, but I know that someone-- or something-- had been watching me the whole time. Possibly judging me. 

It could only have been a few seconds for all I knew, but once it was over, I was utterly thankful.

I could move. My lungs could work, and I gasped, laying on the ground and clutching for anything I could get my hands on... There was nothing to touch but the rock-hard ground below me, so I stayed where I was, sitting up and panting into the pitch-black nothingness. My eyes were wide, searching for anything, some kind of light, but there wasn't one.

I was surely going to go insane in this place.

Just as the thought of this escaped me, I knew that I already was. A light finally snapped on in the distance, and I stopped rocking in the dark, my eyes fixed on the light. There was nothing to hold me back now, right? There couldn't be. So I rose to my feet, nearly falling from the pain in my chest and felling the warm blood drip down my back. Yet I could walk.