Every night, when I closed my eyes, his image would be branded to the backs of my eyelids. That same smile, so gorgeous yet so deadly. Those deep blue eyes, like the treacherous oceans you find, the ones which sometimes have those desolate lighthous...
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"Is it getter colder in here?" Grace shivered, her quiet words mostly masked through the sound of her violently chattering teeth. "Or is it just me?"
"Maybe he's making it colder," I said. I couldn't feel my fingers but they somehow still hurt.
"No, it would be Corina doing it," Xander murmured, his body shivering next to mine. Shivering was one of the ways the body kept itself warm because the action required muscles to vibrate. So why was I just getting colder? My tongue was getting heavier. My thoughts were getting less clear and that scrunched up, writhing ball of anxiety that lived inside me was in overdrive. It should have been making my heart pound with the power to crush a small boulder, but the cold was making it slower and slower.
"I hope she can save us," I muttered without much emotion. Xander looked at me through slanted eyes, his eyelashes almost touching my face. "She will," he told me, and although his darkened, clear green eyes only showed assurance, I knew that he wasn't so sure.
"My f-fingers are s-so.... cold..." Grace chattered.
"My ears are g-gonna fall off," Simon whispered.
As another ball of terror exploded inside me, instantly crystallising into a sphere of icicles, I thought desperately. Please, Corina.
Please save us.
***
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Meanwhile ~
"Okay, I'll just... I'll just press one," Corina said aloud, talking to herself as if hearing her own voice would possibly knock some genius idea into her head. She had no idea what to press, and no clues. She had to trial and error this shit.
"What's it the least likely to be?" she whispered, biting her lip, her eyes scanning the sixty, luminescent white square panels in front of her. She doubted she'd even be able to reach the top ones.
"That's it!" she suddenly gasped. The ones she'd have the most difficulty reaching; at least one correct panel should be there!
Standing on her tip-toes, Corina craned her neck and reached up with a bloody hand, her fingers outstretched —
