Satiness

Chapter 11: Fire and Ice

Chapter 11: Fire and ice

I awoke to a high-pitched scream. By the sound of it, it seemed like it was coming from inside the house. I jumped out of bed and ran out of the room, down the hall and up the stairs. I started running through the house but I got lost and soon realised I had no idea where I was. I ran along a hall that looked as though it had never been walked.

The wooden floor was covered in dust and the walls in spider webs. I shivered. A sudden chill ran through my body. I had a feeling someone was watching me from behind. I stopped and turned around, and came face to face with more shadows. I sighed, placing a hand over my thumping heart. I took deep breaths, trying to slow down my heartbeat, as I turned back and continued down the hallway.

When I reached the end of the hall, I saw that it ended in a large room full of plants. I came to the conclusion that it was some kind of a giant indoor garden. Roses and lilies and many other types of blooms were scattered across the whole room.

Near the left wall of the room was a small, wooden, ran down house, and to the right was a large apple tree. Many of the apples were red and ready to pick. Hanging from the lower branches of the tree was a wooden swing. I smiled when I saw it; it reminded me of a similar one we used to have in our backyard. There was a swing set in school that I loved to play on, but my stepfather wouldn't buy me my own. So, when I was five, I made one for myself.

As I turned away from the swing, a smile still on my face, I noticed the swing move in my peripheral vision. My smile dropped as I turned around, but the swing had stopped moving. I walked around the tree to check if anyone was hiding behind it, but to no avail. This time, I was standing right behind the swing when it swung again, higher than last time. My eyes wide in shock, I ran back around the tree to see if Satiness was around. I thought she was playing one of her tricks on me again. But there was no one there, nor any sign that someone had been. I sighed before shaking my head, turned back towards the swing, and felt my heart jump up into my throat.

There was a girl seated on the swing. I blinked. I rubbed my eyes. I blinked again. The girl hadn't moved. For a moment, I thought she was Satiness, but then I noticed her Snow White hair with a strip of red running through it. Her eyes were the same bright green as Satiness'. She had her hair down around her shoulders. She was wearing a white shirt with a blue skirt, black stockings and black ballerina flats
.
"Who are you?" the girl asked, in a small, quiet voice.
I blinked at her once again, and then cleared my throat. "I'm Lulu. But you already know me."

I was sure it was Satiness. It had to be. She had only changed her hair somehow, right?

The girl shook her head. "I have never seen you before," she said, just as quietly as before.

"Yes, you have," I said. "You're Satiness."

The girl growled. "I am not her. I am nothing like her."

"B-But, you look like her," I stammered. "Except-"

"Except the hair," she cut me off. "I know."

"Why do you look like her?" I questioned her.

"That isn't any of your business," the girl said, her temper seemingly getting worse the longer this topic went on.

"What is your name, then?" I asked.

"I'm Ivvy," she replied, adding loudly, "now go away."

I shook my head; I wanted answers. So, pointing towards the ran down wooden house, I asked, "is that your house?"

The girl nodded. "Yes. Now Leave!" She shouted the last word.

I ignored her, and began to ask, "why do you-" but I never got to finish my question.

The look on Ivvy's face was one that would perhaps haunt me forever. She was really mad.

The temperature of the room seemed to go down a couple dozen degrees. I was able to see my breath. Then suddenly it started to snow inside the room. I looked up towards the roof but there was no hole in the room, only glass windows that let the sun shine through. Then how was it snowing? I looked at the ground I was standing on and found it covered in thick white snow. I wrapped my arms around myself when I realized I was shivering from the cold.

I was in a dressing gown, one I had found in Breeze's room. I looked at Ivvy, her face was red with her anger and she was breathing heavily. A sudden blast of icy wind threw me back a few feet and down onto the snowy floor.

Ivvy got up from the swing and started walking towards me.

"I said leave," said Ivvy calmly, and her calmness scared me a lot more than her yelling. "And never return. I don't want to see you around here ever again."

She now stood above me, so that I had to crane my neck to look at her face. She looked down at me, and raised one hand. A white ball appeared in it. At first I thought it was a ball of snow, but then I realized that was a cold hard ball of ice. She raised her hand higher ready to throw it down on me. I raised my arms across my head for protection. Then, I heard a high pitched scream, just like the one this morning, and, as suddenly as it had started, the snow stopped falling. There was a sound like that of shattering glass. I kept my hands over my head until everything went very quiet.

Hesitantly, I lowered my hands and looked up, expecting to see Ivvy. Instead, I found a wall of fire above me. I was surrounded by a ring of fire. I started to panic, thinking the fire was going to burn me alive.

As I tried to get my breathing under control, I noticed that the fire wasn't moving anywhere. It was as though the ring of fire was protecting me. I looked around the room, the fire gave it a bright glow. Beyond the ring of fire, the floor was covered in snow.

I scanned the room for Ivvy but she was nowhere to be found. My heartbeat gradually slowed down, and my breathing became normal again. Then, the fire began to blow out.