Frostbite

Phase Four

Her scream was barely audible over the flames. Her door flew off the hinge and the fire roared up higher, blowing Eira backwards onto her back. The flames charged, as if they were living, breathing creatures. They started to mulitply inside her room, slowly catching the floorboards on fire. The raging inferno inched closer to her.

Eira screamed. "Ms. Granger! Help me!" Nobody appeared in the doorway. A flame continued toward her.

Eira put her palm toward the fire. "Go away!" A snowball launched from her palm and right into the fire. It melted instantly. "No!" she screamed.

The flames spread across her bed and onto her desk. Her eyes widened and became wet as her journal caught fire. She hugged herself into a ball and wailed.

A voice from behind called her name. She turned wildly to see the terified face of Ms. Granger, standing on a ladder outside her window.

"Ms. Granger!"

The woman reached her hand out to Eira. "Come on sweetie!"

Eira stood up quickly, but didn't reach to her. I can't touch people, she reminded herself.

A spark popped out from a raging flame. It flew itself out the window and flung its existence into the ladder. The ring Ms. Granger stood on caught flame.

She began to fall backwards. A four story fall would kill the woman. Eira didn't know what to do. She bit her lip and reached for Ms. Granger.

And missed.

"No!" Eira shouted, leaning out the window as the ladder deposited the woman. Eira couldn't watch. She closed her eyes and curled back into a ball, the flames slowly engulfing her room.

The sound of crying orphans was present. Eira covered her eyes and shut her eyes tightly, then waited for the end.

She began to cry, her cold tears flicking themselves from her face and into the flames around her, where they melted into nothing.

Right as she was about to give up hope, something miraculous happened. Something inside her body clicked, and Eira could feel it. She opened her eyes wide and stared cautiously at the flames. As if being commanded to, Eira reached her forefinger toward the flame. She wanted to withdraw her pointer, but something wouldn't let her. She wanted to cry, but her eyes refused it. Her legs were on strike and wouldn't move.

The tip her finger entered the heart of the fire. Eira cringed for a moment; the heat was intense. Then it stopped. The flame had frozen in place.

Eira withdrew her finger and stared at it. She wearily looked at the other flames surrounding her. She swallowed and touched another flame. It froze. So did the next one. And the one after that.

Like a master of firefighting, she hurried through her room, turning each raging red flame into a calm blue flame. She managed to rescue her journal, even though a majority of the pages were black, and so were so severely burned, they feel to pieces at the touch. Once it was save, she lost it. She kicked each portion of flames into an unsolvable puzzle of thousands of pieces. Once each flame was reduced to dust, she collapsed and cried.

The air was eeriely quiet. The orphans were silent. She got up, wiped her tears and ran to the window. The orphans were all there, staring up at her window. Their faces were shocked.

Eira reached up to close the window, and a single clap rang out in the audience. She peered down at them. A second clap, and a third. The orphans began to cheer and clap and woop and yell. Eira stared at them.

Ms. Granger had vanished. The ladder was ash. The girl shivered and another tear slid down her face. The orphans saw and stopped clapping.

One of the orphans, a boy of her age, stepped forward. " Miss Eira," he stuttered. "A man come through here and took Ms. Granger."

This got her attention immediately. Without a second's thought, she shouted, "Where?"

The boy turned and pointed across the road, into the forest. He turned back and the window was closed.