Internal Freeze

Changes

As time passed, strange things began to happen. Eliza was usually warm natured, yet she found herself cold more often than not. The other day when she had gotten out of the shower and looked in the mirror planning to pop pimples, she noticed blue freckles peppering her skin. She brushed it off at the time, but not the differences were getting greater and greater.

When she grabbed a glass expecting go fill it with water, it froze once it made contact with the cup. She dropped it, and shards of ice and glass splayed out around her. She would keep that a secret. After cleaning the mess, she then went to the bathroom to wash her face to try and wake herself up, but she barely recognized the girl in the mirror: Her dark hair was now bleach blonde while once rich brown eyes had turned an icy blue, and usually tanned skin was blindingly white. All of these thing scared her. Who was she becoming?

The scariest thing happened in the shower. She had turned on the hot water, having always loved warm showers. She let the water heat up before she climbed in. When the water hit her body, she was instantly covered in a sheet of ice. She let out a loud scream, turning off the water. What was happening?

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From then on it only got worse. She couldn't control herself. Her body temperature plummeted and she couldn't even touch water anymore. Her mother was more than concerned, but she couldn't care less about her. She had her own problems and knew she was only fussing over her because Emily was shipped off. She couldn't wait until the next month where she would begin her first year at college away from home.

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College wasn't much better. Her roommate was suspicious, and Eliza didn't dare trust anyone. She fell k to a routine: Wake up, eat, go to classes, eat again, and sleep. The lack of social life wasn't anything new to her, and she was doing great in all of her classes.

On her free days, she walked around town enjoying the peace. She strolled along the sidewalk, coffee in hand. She was still learning how to use and control her powers and was doing a good job for the most part. She was no where near mastering it, but she'd get there in time. It was as she was thinking this that she heard loud screams and saw a black cloud of smoke from the next block over. As she got closer, she saw a large business building on fire. People were running out of the door, coughing.

She ran up to the building, taking off her wool gloves. She shot her arms out in front of her, snow and ice flying from her finger tips. The flames began to cease, but now that she released everything that she'd been holding back for so long, it wasn't stopping. She had no control over her powers, and the ice was building up. She turned away from the building, striking a few people and cars with large shards of ice. The initial shock of what happened made her powers stop as she brought her hands up to cover her mouth. She could hear sirens getting closer and people screaming and yelling at her to freeze.

She started backing away slowly, gaining speed with each step. Soon she was running into the nearby woods, not daring to stop. The noise of the city faded after about an hour of her going deeper and deeper in the woods. They were replaced by the sounds of birds chirping and branches rustling. Everything but her was at ease.

She came across a bubbling brook and followed it upstream until it widened at the base of a medium sized waterfall. "Perfect." She walked up to it, placing her hand underneath the rushing water. She watched as it froze, the tumbling water being held in place. There was a small opening behind the ice that led to a cave. It was there that she decided that she would stay, for this would be her new home. And it was. She could practice and learn to control her powers without risk. She tried crafting a chair for her to use, but the first few attempts didn't go so well. Then, she got it right and made a few more and accompanied it with a table. She kept making things out of ice, making the waterfall cave more and more like a home.

Thanks to her studies as a mechanical engineer, she knew how things worked and had a tactical visionary mindset. In the mornings she would gather food from the woods and come back to create new things. After about six months, it resembled that of a mansion. She made an ice bed frame with a snow mattress for her to sleep on and a soft couch made from snow. A snowfa, if you will. She even found some magazines on mechanics, and dabbled with creating cars. She stole a few things from an auto shop in a neighboring town and her ice sports car was finished. At the end of every day, she would go out on her balcony or front porch and admire the scenery she surrounded herself in. She didn't mind being alone. She was used to this. And she was looking forward to a life of solitude.