They stood abreast in the January cold, in a secluded area overlooking the expansive Lake Baikal. The lake had frozen over. An average human could walk across the lake without the fear of drowning in the icy cold depths of the lake.
A gentle breeze rocked their overcoats. One was serene, smoking a cigarette. The other was just as tranquil, breathing deeply, fog emanating from her breath. The breeze dissolved the smoke and the fog into obscurity in seconds. The smoker filled her lungs with deep breaths of cold air between the drags. The other maintained her status quo.
Their stature dwarfed the colossal lake. They were childhood friends. One a relentless force, the other an immovable object. Their competition was motivated purely by the desire to one-up the other. Neither of them was a sore loser or a cocky winner. They respected each other. They had built empires separately, and their conglomerates were the biggest globally, separated by pennies in market capitalization. Now in their early thirties, the two women were sheer forces of nature. They ruled the world together, separately.
The smoker took a deep drag, filled her lungs with the smoke. Then she let it out as slowly as she could, her blood consuming every single particle of nicotine in the smoke. She threw the spent cigarette and crushed it with her shoes. She took another one out and lit it up. She took a drag, let it out, and spoke slowly, every word carrying weight. "Ice, you should have left me alone."
Ice replied, "Yes, Flame." The answer was terse. She knew the fact.
"You had everything you wanted. We achieved everything we wanted. We were sisters". The pain in her voice is evident from the start.
"That is true." Ice replied with the same emotion.
"That night, I had warned you not to come after me." Flame paused before she added, "you broke the cardinal rule."."
The women reminisced the fateful night. That night Ice's decision had thrown their worlds into disarray. They had parted ways with a singular goal in their mind - "annihilate the other." Ice had broken the cardinal rule of their friendship. Do not let emotions rule you. Emotions have no value outside of one's family.
"Yes," Ice replied. "I did not heed any of it. I let my emotions guide me".
"I still do not know the reason behind your incessant craving to destroy me." Flame could feel her eyes brimming with tears. She held them back by sheer will as she knew the next steps. It was inevitable.
She lit another cigarette and placed her arm on Ice's shoulders. Ice waited for her to enjoy the cigarette. The women looked at each other, embraced for one last time. It was a small but powerful goodbye. They shook hands, the two gladiators. They walked a few hundred meters on the icy lake, arriving at the hole.
"Goodbye, Flame. Raise hell". Ice stepped into the hole, and the lake consumed her. She did not fight for life. A few minutes later, her body descended to the lake floor—her elegant visage, radiant under the ice. Flame knelt, set her naked palms on the ice. It was the final farewell to her only partner and adversary in world domination.
She brought her fists down the ice with such force that the ice cracked. She stayed still. "Emotions have no value," she said to herself.
A single tear splashed on the sheet of ice.
--*--
Dear Reader: What do you think transpired between them?
