Souls' Collision | ✔

F R E E Z I N G

~ Chapter Two ~

It was hard to breath.

The air was harsh, mercilessly pressing down Liz' throat and trying to push her to the ground. With each step she sunk further into the thick layer of snow covering the forest floor and her calves were screaming from the onslaught of pain. But without skipping a beat, she tore her boots free from the ground's white clasps again and again.

The trees whined and creaked, the wind bit and slapped, almost as if the entirety of Bern's forest hated intruders.

"Shit!" Liz yelled out as a branch dug its thorns into her palm. She quickly let go, slid her jacket over her fingers and grabbed it again -- she managed to get past and, with a frustrated growl, broke it off before continuing.

Her eyes went to the forest floor where the footprints she'd been following for fifteen minutes -- at first deep but now becoming increasingly vague -- continued a bit ways before dissapearing.

Liz stopped, ignored the freezing water slithering into her socks and running down her ankles. She raised a hand to cover her eyes and squinted across the harrowing terrain. She couldn't see anyone, nor any path. Just an unbreakable wall of sharp, dry trees. All around.

Any hope of finding her car was probably gone. And now she was exhausted from chasing the freshy.

She took a deep breath and willfully pushed away the panic that was trying to set in.

He had to be close.

She cupped her hands. "Freshy!"

The wind immediately grabbed her voice, tore it apart and threw the remnants back at her.

Liz stayed in place, decided to raise her voice.

"Freshy! Freshy, come here!"

Silence.

Then... something.

Over the wind Liz could hear someone. A voice responding to her. A human -- a human!

Liz quickly took sprain and continued forward, heard the yelling increase in strength.

Yes, she thought. Yes!

The voice dissapeared for a panicked second before returning, now louder, and finally said something Liz could differentiate: "Hurry!"

She obeyed, began trampling through the snow, ignoring the cramping in her thighs. She rose her knees to her chest to be able to get out of the snow and pulled herself forward by the trees.

She was so focused on getting forward that she didn't notice the terrain had changed before her sole beat down on ice.

Her foot slid forward, her head backward and the wind whistled in her ears as her whole body lost orientation. She reached out blindly and, with mere seconds to spare, managed to get herself upright by hugging a tree close by.

Despite the cold, Liz' face became beet red by a surge of blood from her racing heart.

In front of her was a clearing amongst the trees, no bigger than a football field, completely frozen solid. Most likely it was a lake during summertime. The ice looked fresh and dangerously thin. She could've died had she fallen.

"Hey!"

Liz took an instictive step back into the treeline. She squinted through the hail and saw a figure flailing his arms at her from the middle of the lake. Despite herself she eagerly waved back.

"Hey!" she responded.

The freshy shook his head, pointed to the ground underneath his feet, and called again. This time she heard what he'd really said: "Help!"