Frozen

Nine: Numb

She sat on the cold, icy ground; snow seeped into her clothes, melting against the heat of her skin. The heat seemed to dwindle down to a point slowly, each section of her body being torn apart by the small fragile flakes that murdered people of the past, and possibly present.

            Elizabeth still looked up at all of them, the beauty clearly contained in their small ivory faces, but nothing else looked the same.

            A tall, sturdy boy stood there, back facing the trees as he stared down at her in awe. The thoughts that raced through his mind, was first, and if not last, was how gorgeous she appeared even with her paled ivory skin. Her skin matched nearly his own, but his was a slight shade darker, and held underneath the blue irises that stood proudly next to his blackened pupil, was slight bruises.  The black and blue stood out in a clear result of exhaustion.  A sturdy square frame wired his face, giving the boy an appearance of a god, but in this exception a god who tried to portray as a mortal, but failed humbly as he moved swiftly forward in less than a second down to Elizabeth’s face.

            As the heat from his breathe blew into his façade, she took in the details of the boy that stood proud amongst them. Short black hair sat on top of his head, the front styled into a perfected flip, the same shade grew on the bottom of his chin as stubble.

            The angel grabbed her hand gently, pulling her up with him. And as she stood in complete awe at the perfection that stood in front of her, the breath had been taken away from her.  She didn’t know a thing about him except he was beautiful.

            “Jace,” Warmth hit into her face as he spoke the ever so silent words to her, a whisper barley capturing around her.

            “Elizabeth,” Shock flooded through her at the surprise she could speak, that words could form in her brain and meet her lips.

            Owen grabbed her back gently, taking her waist into his grip. Until then she didn’t realize the temperature that stung the air around her; that crawled under her skin and jabbed it with a thousand knives of pain.

            “It’s cold,” She whispered solemnly, her voice flat with no other emotion. He smashed her closer into his body, a feeling of comfort overwhelming her as she snuggled in deeper.

            “I know,”

            Blackened pupils scanned through the scattered people who stood surrounding her. One was a girl, maybe the same age as her. Dark brown curls fluttered down her small face, her olive tone skin matching as if it was made to replicate. Similar brown eyes stared daggers at the girl who snagged onto the boy who saved her so little days ago, Owen. A pure hatred, or jealously, shown fiercely in her eyes and for one thing Elizabeth knew immediately was that she wasn’t innocent.

            Her small build appeared tinier when she should stand near Jace. The gentle curve of her hips stood out in the tight black shirt and jeans the girl wore.

            “Jordynn,” She sneered as she turned away from Elizabeth, her hair swishing back and forth as she swayed in motion over to Ethan.

            “Eliza-” She held up a hand to her, the angered angel showed a fierceness in her eyes to Elizabeth, which she towered above Jordynn by at least three or four inches.

            “I know who you are,” Venom laced through the high pitched voice, a growl forming in the back of her throat. 

            “Ignore her,” Ethan murmured as he grabbed her hand and pulled her with him.

            Through the blinding white that snatched the color from the world, stood the one thing it did not touch fully. For in the distance mounted a cream color mansion, with a gate standing proud in front guarding the people who hid inside its closed door. A grand staircase led up to the small inked door, brass knobs fitted perfectly into the swirled design of the exterior of the thin piece of wood. The only relief of the dark was a small peep hole in which they could look outside into the harsh world they all called a home, the world that was so cruel but still begged to us with the only innocence it had left, for it was under control of something greater.

An evergreen branch arched down to touch the frozen each it was rooted in, to feel the soft snow that glistened for over a thousand miles and protected the sweet colors winter had stolen from them.

She could hear the light crunch in the icy solid that lay underneath her screams, perhaps they were the screams of each flake as they were crushed under her measly weight of 97 pounds, the snap of a twig that hid neatly under the white, so stationary a simple touch could make it collapse. 

In the almost silence she realized that she could not take it, that her moving around so often harmed her so that a deep ache of pain could not wash over her. She could not mourn the death of her mother she could not recall, or be surprised by the shock of the cold or presence of a new person in her life. A certain type of numbness was all she knew, a numbness that so far had not faltered in its job.

She didn’t notice the distinct sting in her eyes as water started to build up, rising over her bottom lashes, the perfect small curls being weighed down by the simple complexity of tears. They ran down her cheeks, leaving perfectly demarcated trails along her skin.  Owen’ voice has to echo in her mind before she got the message- she was crying.

“Elizabeth, what’s wrong sweetheart?” His voice soothed her as he pulled her up against his chest tighter, until then she also didn’t realize how badly she shook from the wind. No jacket, no boots, just jeans, sneakers and a sweatshirt.

“I… I don’t know.” The lie came out so convincingly he didn’t even dare question it, but she did know. She knew that the reason the small droplets raced down her face was because of so many varying reasons. There wasn’t a day she could remember except the last week, an event that happened she could never recall- every one of her memories was gone. Erased. Wiped out. All of it, forever.

“We’ll be inside soon, okay?” It was a different voice now, one she almost forgot. It was that silliness and drowsiness that made giggles arise from her throat. The strong voice belonged to Ethan, of course it was him. Who else would it be besides the only other person who wanted to keep her alive, protect her? “She’s tired.”

That was true, she was exhausted. No matter how much sleep she could get, she felt that if they let her she would sleep forever and never wake up. Just let each dream or nightmare come as it pleased, let it consume her mind and thoughts inside of her.  She didn’t care what happened in her head because it wasn’t real, all she wanted was sleep.

And that was what she got.

A sharp needle slammed into the back of her neck, she could feel a cold liquid of some sort squeeze into her blood stream the longer it stayed there. Someone grabbed it and tore it out of her, begging her to stay awake and not to go into the darkness. But that’s what she wanted isn’t it? She wanted to sleep, to fall into the greatly welcomed darkness.

This, however, was unnatural. This wasn’t the type of sleep you could rest from, this was the type of sleep you would keep running from in a nightmare and even after you woke up, you might has well of been awake the whole time.

“Ethan…” The words feel out of her mouth sloppily as she fell to the ground, knees digging into the cold ice and snow underneath her. “Ethan…”

Her eye lids flickered open and close, trying to keep awake like they told her too. Each sound she heard was blurred almost, as if they were talking in water. The English language seemed foreign.

There was a voice she didn’t know, and grunts all around her as she heard Ethan screaming for someone to get away from me.  He frantically tried to push him away as far as she saw, as Owen held onto her, half dragging half carrying her nearer and closer to the house.

“Ethan, you wouldn’t want to keep her away from her father would you?” Blue irises shone through her eyelids, eyes growing wide from the words even though she desperately wanted to sleep. The voice belonged to her father, she could make out his figure oh too clearly standing in the rising sunlight.

“What…” And then she blacked out.