The Cold Ones

So cold

-Fourteen-

It's always been so dark. Nothing but darkness, ever since he could remember. Just blankets of thick darkness, ever present, not the slightest sliver of light penetrated this darkness. He could almost begin to think that it clung to him, that he could never escape it.

-Thirteen-

He was always alone, so when the guards came for him, their presence made him shiver in his skin. Heavily shrouded with traditional armor, he didn't even know if they where human. They made the air around him cold. 

-Twelve-

Cold.  So cold. He shivered. The air stung his skin. Of only he could make it all go away. Cold

-Eleven- 

It had been so long since he had even been outside. His senses where tingling, every nerve on edge. They lead him out, odd shapes that could be trees, but didn't seem so to him. They didn't fit in the image that he had conjured up after years in solitude. Why didn't the world look like the one in his imagination. 

-Ten-

The fire was odd. Years in darkness melted away after seeing the bright pillars of flame dance up to the sky. The cold melted of his skin, and for once, he felt warm. A minute felt like a century in the glow of the fire. 

-Nine-

The cold, it never left him. One step out of the flames light and the cold set back apon him. Why? So cold...

-Eight-

Never seeing the world for what it was made his imagination take hold on reality. The forest was unruly, there was no one to control it. He couldn't tame the forest even with his imagination.

-Seven-

The darkness returned again, but not the same he had always felt. This darkness was alive, watching him, things he could understand or see where hidden.

-Six-

So cold....

-Five-

He had heard the story's of the stars, how the gods created the earth and that the stars watched down and protected all of them. One star shone more than the other. Was it a star? It blinded him, a luminous blue glow that swathed him in light.

-Four-

This person wasn't human. He could identify humans. That glorious blue light was coming from this......thing, but they smiled at him.  The first smile he had ever seen. They smiled, reached out their hand and cupped his face.  Words where spoken between them but nothing he could remember in the next few seconds. The world seemed to quicken, everything was happening in a blur. How long had he been there? The being let go of him and left him in the cold.

-Three-

The cold, the cold, the cold, the cold he only longed for warmth.

-Two-

The world tumbled and fell as if the entire forest had caved in on itself and he went tumbling down into darkness. Cold. Cold. Cold. 

-One-

Tumbling down in the cold. He couldn't claw back up, this was the end. The weight against his chest was excruciating, he couldn't breath. Dead in the cold.

-Zero-

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"Now, Maeve, you know that the ice is thinning,, we can't go ice skating." Alan sighed, stuffing his freezing hands deep into his pockets. Maeve bounced along side him, agitated.

"But we can go one more time! At night like we always do! " Maeve whimpered. Alan noticed how her dark brown eyes did the puppy-dog thing that always got to him.

" Okay, one more time before the ice gets too thin. We don't want to fall into the water." Alan gave into his cute girlfriends plead. Maeve gave a high-pitched squeal.

"Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!" She lifted herself up onto her tippy-toes and planted a kiss on his cheek, and Alan couldn't help but blush.

" Now lets get out of the cold. Want a coffee?" Maeve giggled, looping her arm through his as they both walked away.

-Underneath the ice, something began to stir.-

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Hope you enjoy this first part of my story ;)