Jinn & Curses

Chapter 9- Ice Lake

 This chapter as you'll probably guess, has been alter slightly. For those of you who read the previous version, let me know what you think. I have my reasons for changing it, which were mentioned in the comments below. Don't worry, this is better ;)

Chapter 9- Ice Lake

“I’m not going anywhere near that thing. It’s gonna crack,” Alex protested, glaring at the iced-over lake that Rach, Jess, Kim and Sami were standing on.

“Look, it’s safe,” Jess jumped on it and Alex squealed covering her face.

When Alex realized there were no sounds of screaming or cracking ice, she slowly put her hands down, glowering. “Don't do that!”

 Rach and Jess burst out laughing, while Kim and Sami snickered. Pixie eyed the lake uncomfortably from the safety of the lakeside. I stood a few feet from her next to the packs.

 “Look, we need to cross over this lake to get to the woods over there” Sami instructed as she pointed to the thick covering of trees across the frozen lake. “We’ve done it loads of times,” Sami added. I guessed it was to ease my worries, which was confirmed when she lifted her head in my direction.

 I smiled stiffly.

 “We didn’t have to do this last year,” Alex grumbled, scowling.

 Sami rolled her eyes at me. “Ignore her. We do it every year, just normally when it's colder. It will be fine.” I had to give it to Sami, she may seem like a pushover at times but she certainly knew how to handle people like Alex when it was needed. I was starting to dislike Alex’s attitude more and more.

 “See if we can find any game.” Sami said, a grin on her face. Her positive mood was infectious. “Jess, you got the gun?”

I looked to see Jess nod in response.

 “I thought you guys got banned from shooting without your dad around?” Kim asked, addressing Rach and Jess.

 Jess looked up at her while Rach focused on loading the rifle. Jess then sighed, “Only for this trip because Rachael,” she emphasized, shooting her sister an angry glare, “accidentally, so she says, and I quote, 'shot a bullet through the barn window when she dropped dad's rifle.'”

 Some of the girls started laughing.

 Rach looked up for a split second then as she carried on working, she mumbled, “He definitely overreacted.”

 “The man was pissed,” Jess remonstrated in a high voice.

 “It was an easy mistake,” she argued quietly, appearing almost impartial rather than indifferent to her sister’s teasing. She didn’t seem the type to get angry unless really provoked.

 “You shot a hole in the water tank, not to mention the damn window!”

 Rach just shrugged.

 Jess sighed forbearingly. “Anyway, so until he can trust us again because even I can’t use one thanks to her- we aren’t allowed to bring our gun and we can’t use anyone else’s.”

“So who's is that?” I asked, pointing at the gun Rach had finished loading.

 “My dad’s,” Sami said through laughter. “I brought two.”

 “So who’s gonna lead the hunt then? You?” Kim asked, turning to Sami.

 “No, Cora can do it.”