The Gift of Chaos

10 - Icy escape

It seemed we were the only ones in the street who hadn't run. We should have done, and my brain was screaming at me to get the heck out. But I couldn't. I was cold and hot at the same time, my chest about to explode, my blood howled in my ears as it rushed through me as fast as my racing heart could beat. I could hardly hear the groans of the beasts rampaging the street.

"Where did those things come from?!" Lucy asked in a trembling voice.

I tried to answer, but my voice was caught in my throat. I felt a hand grasp the clammy mess that was my fingers and squeeze them tightly. It was small, and I immediately recognized Lucas. I pulled him towards me, wrapping my arms around him, ready to gouge eyes out to protect him if I had to. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mary and Lucy, both clinging fearfully to their brother, whose expression told me he was only just holding himself together. Just like me.

All of a sudden, one of the giant men of ice spotted us. The window was so big, the room so bright it would have been nearly impossible to miss us. We all froze, waiting to see his reaction. It tilted its head to one side, as though wondering why we weren't running. Or else, what he was going to do with us. Then, slowly, he raised a huge hand. A swirl of snow surrounded it, followed by a giant snowball. It was over a fifty feet away, but even from there it looked the size of a watermelon. The creature eyed it speculatively (or so I thought), then tossed it sharply in our direction.

"Everybody out of the way!" Scott yelled, pulling his sisters aside.

I grabbed Lucas and flung myself to the ground, pulling him with me. The enormous window exploded under the impact of the snowball, showering us in pieces of glass and icy snow. I moved over Lucas to shield him with my body. I winced a shard cut my shoulder but stayed still. A glacial wind filled the room, making me shiver.

"Luke, you okay?"

He looked round at me.

"Yeah... thanks, Riley..."

He eyed me a second.

"You called me Luke."

"What?" I asked, taken aback.

"You haven't done that in ages."

I blinked. But he was right. When we were smaller, I had called him by that nickname, and he'd called me Ri. As I'd grown up, however, I'd found it childish and stopped doing it.

"We'll talk later. Come on, we have to move!"

I tugged him to his feet. I heard a loud groan which seemed to be coming towards us. We had about two minutes, at best.

"Everyone all right?" I asked.

"Yes," Scott said. "I'm fine. Girls, you hurt?"

"No," the twins replied, their voices shaking.

"We can't stay here, not now they've seen us." I said. "We need to hide."

Scott nodded at me and led the way to the back door. He was already reaching for the handle when I stopped him.

"Wait, we need to grab our coats."

He looked like I'd spoken Russian and Bavarian at the same time.

"You're joking, right? We don't have tim-"

"Do you want them to freeze to death?" I asked, pointing to our siblings, who were huddled together, their eyes wide and staring. I'd never seen any of them so pale. "It's freezing outside."

He glanced briefly in their direction, then back at me.

"Fine, but hurry."

I pelted to the entrance, where the coats were hanging. I grabbed the first ones I could get my hands on and rushed back to the others. I tossed three to Lucas, who stumbled slightly.

"There's one for you too," I told Scott. "I doubt you'll want to became a human ice-cube."

He didn't answer and flung the door open just as a tremendous crash made us jump out of our skins. We knew without looking it had come from other side of the house. I pushed them all outside and glanced fleetingly over my shoulder as the ice monster broke through the wall.

"Run!" I shouted. "Lucas, stay close to me."

"Riley, we have to split up."

"... Okay. We'll head to the woods, you try and contact someone in the neighbouring towns."

Scott nodded.

"Be careful," he said.

"You too."

Grabbing Lucas's hand, I tore towards the woods while Scott led the twins in another direction. I heard the ice monster rip the door open. It glanced in the direction Scott had gone. I let go of Lucas and skidded to a halt.

"Lucas, run. Run, and don't stop until you find a hiding place."

"But, Riley..."

"Go!"

He gave me one last, scared look, then turned and hurried away. I turned to the ice creature.

"Hey! Ice-face!" I called. "Over here!"

Whether he was insulted or just decided I was closer, I never knew. But he marched towards me with a menacing growl. My breath so short I could hardly believe it was still going through my body, I raced towards my grandmother's garden shed, praying the others didn't notice me. The ice monster followed. I grabbed the large shovel we used to clear the driveway and spun around before climbing onto the stone bench outside the house. With a scream, I flung the spade as hard as I could at the ice monster's head. With a sickening crack, it came clean off, making me yelp and jump back as the body stood very still, then dropped to the floor soundlessly.

Gasping and shaking, I looked around, watching for signs of movement. The monsters were all too busy to notice me.

"Lucas..." I whispered.

He was alone in the woods. I had to find him. Carefully, I walked to the edge of the fence surrounding my grandmother's garden, looking for Lucas's footprints. To my relief, I soon found some. Glancing over my shoulder to make sure no one had noticed me, I clambered over the fence and chased after my brother.