Thaw Fickle Buskin

Stuck in Colder Weather

"Hey!"

    No answer.

    "Kanoa, come back!"

    There were people passing me warily on the streets. An elderly couple wearing thick fur coats rolled their eyes and did their best to avoid me. Every time I thought I had found her, it was just another disappointment. The fog was crawling through the air, dispersing in a thin veil and lurking between the bare skin of the trees. Everything was unbelievably silent, muffled by the thick layer of white covering the town.

    Then, I saw her. She was bent down, grabbing the back of her skirt as to not expose anything. With her free hand she was stroking the store cat with no ear. It was shivering in the cold, its small breath puffing out in uneven strokes. Kanoa swept the cat in her arms and stuck it underneath her jacket.

    I strolled up to her without saying a word. Her eyes were frozen with tears. The corners of her eyes had crystals forming. The blue of her eyes was filled with storm clouds, a conflagration of rawness that was more frigid than the dying autumn. The cat peaked its head out from the top of her shirt and meowed faintly.

    "We have to take it," she said quietly.

    I stared at her. "No, what we need to do is get you to someplace warm--"

    "We have to take it," Kanoa cried. She brought the cat closer to her chest, wrapping her arms around its small body.

    I lifted my hands in the air. "Okay, okay. We can bring it with us. But we have to go."

    Kanoa nodded weakly. I took that as a sign that she was satisfied enough to leave. I brought her back to Garrett's car, where he was waiting with the engine on. The soft melody of a song I didn't know broke in and out of the thick waves of snow. Kanoa sat in the backseat, petting the cat and not making a single sound.

    -----------

    She's trying too hard to feel something--

    The cat is just a distraction from what she really wants--

    She wants terror--

    Give me that poem back--

    If you don't, then I will find all three of you and murder--

    Kanoa leaned over and placed her head on my shoulder. The cat hadn't left her side--not once--since we returned to my house. My mom was working overtime at the hospital, so we had the entire place to ourselves. Garrett had his feet dangling from the side of the chair, sitting sideways.

    "Are you comfortable?" I asked him.

    He tilted his head and looked at me upside-down. "Yeah, why?"

    "No reason," I said simply.

    I reached up timidly and pulled Kanoa closer to me. Her whole body felt cold and limp. I wondered what was going on deep inside her; the glacial winter brewing in her heart and making its way to her skin.

    "You don't need to worry, Kanoa." I said. "We'll all figure this out."

    She shook her head and pulled the cat closer to her. "How can you be so sure?"

    My entire body was shaking with adrenaline. The voices of the man echoed through my head, bouncing around and causing my eyesight to go blurry. I tried to shake them away, but it was nearly impossible. I reached up and grabbed my head. A ringing buzzed steadily in my ear. It felt like I was bleeding out of every pore. I was drowning, I couldn't breathe, the voices were everywhere--