Frozen

The Diadem

Danny stood in the waist deep well water staring upwards at the blackness as he waited with his arms out for Anna to maneuver her way into his perimeter. Anna's elbow came down hard and just barely scraped against the tip of Danny's nose as she tumbled down limply into his arms and the two of them slammed hard into the shallow water. As she struggled to find the surface of the water, Anna could feel a slow current tugging at her soaking wet winter coat and her left foot skidded downwards on a slight, declining tunnel in the bottom of the well.

"Alex is going to die!" Anna shrieked as she thrashed about in the water, trying her hardest to scale the wall in a desperate attempt at rescue. Danny wrapped Anna up in his arms and held her tightly as the sound of six gunshots rang out in the peaceful, winter silence.

"Shh, shh, we're going to die if we don't get out of here," Danny began, "I need you to be strong and think, we can find a way out if we put our heads together." Anna's foot slid backwards down the ramp behind her and, without a word, she let herself slide fearlessly down into the deeper water. Danny shoved off of the wall and rushed quickly after Anna as the two of them slid into an open, air-filled chamber and fell downwards for twenty feet into a deep, black liquid. Anna surfaced first and instantly raced for shore as Danny's head popped up into the open air and he sucked a loud, desperate breath into his lungs. The two crawled out onto the metallic platform and Anna collapsed to her side exhaustedly as Danny remained on his hands and knees, panting heavily, before resting his forehead on the cool floor beneath him. "We could've died that way."

"We would've died anyway," Anna struck back as she rolled over to her knees and stood up strong on her own. A small, elevated piece of the platform holding a small, silver tiara with a large amethyst stone planted stiffly in the center of the headpiece stood like a vigil in the center of the room. Danny approached the tiara cautiously as his left hand subconsciously rubbed his uneasy stomach and the color began to flush from his face. Anna reached forward and came less than two centimeters from touching the gemstone with her middle finger as Danny's hand shot down to her wrist and clasped tightly around it. "Fuck off, Danny, it's just a princess tiara."

"I think I'm going to be sick," Danny stated calmly as he made an about-face and marched to the edge of the black moat to release the watery contents of his nearly empty stomach. Anna's eyes glistened as she stared at her reflection in the beautiful gemstone and crouched down to level her eyes with the fascinating bauble. Her left hand reached out in front of her and she felt the skin of her ring finger barely brush over the polished silver, and a burst of warm energy blasted through her frame from her hand to her hip, stunning her and forcing her machete to morph into a useless, bubbling liquid.

"Daaaaaaniellllll," a raspy, ancient sounding voice boomed throughout the chamber as Anna clasped her hand over her left ear and scurried across the metal surface, safely away from the Diadem. In the middle of a horrific dry-heave, Danny's spine stiffened out and he stood up straight, not even reacting when bile spilled over his lower lip and coated his chin and the collar of his shirt in thick, disgusting smelling liquid. Anna's head snapped to Danny as she watched him scrape the soles of his shoes across the metal surface and she pushed herself to her feet to try to stop him from advancing. Danny swung a heavy elbow in Anna's direction as she ducked the swing and her flat, soaking wet sole squealed across the metal as her shoulder slammed into Danny's waistline as hard as she could throw herself. The two of them slammed against the floor with a heavy clang and Danny immediately pierced through Anna's double-armed defense with his right fist to clasp his large hand tightly around her thin neck.

Anna's face contorted in panic as Danny's grip tightened around her throat and he rose to his feet effortlessly to toss her aside like a piece of garbage. Anna slid, disoriented, across the sleek metal and rolled off the lip into the moat as Danny advanced on the diadem with an expression of awe plastered across his catatonic face. Anna thrashed through the moat until her fingers clasped the lip of the platform and she pulled herself out of the water, determined to stop her friend from making a fatal mistake. The re-solidified blade at her side slapped against her thigh and her left hand wrapped around the handle as she ripped the blade from her belt loop confidentially. Danny hooked the diadem in his belt loop as he turned around slowly and caught a glimpse of Anna sprinting towards him with a gleaming, four-foot broadsword pointed in his direction.

Danny's right fist closed in the air as a bright, orange light moved through the stagnant chamber like a scanner, and out of thin air, a long katana was produced in his hand as he back-stepped and spun his blade like a fan around his hand to deflect Anna's brutal stab harmlessly. Danny caught his katana by the handle and swung it at Anna's neck level as she ducked the attack and swung upwards in an attempt to non-lethally disarm her friend. Sparks flew in each direction as their blades clanged together and Anna pulled off a back handspring to put some distance between them. Danny rushed to advance with his brow furrowed in concentration as he brought his katana up above his head and slammed it downwards brutally. From an unfocused kneel, Anna brought her blade up instinctively and felt her own sword cut a nick in her forearm as her right elbow crunched beneath Danny's impact and his blade sliced a slit into her cheek, eyebrow, and forehead.

Danny used Anna's immobilization to flat-foot slam the sole of his boot into her injured arm and sent her skipping across the metal surface as her sword slipped out from between her fingers. Anna lied on her stomach with her broken, right arm underneath her small frame as Danny stood like a statue across the chamber with a stony expression locked onto his opponent.

"You were stronger than the rest," Danny's voice spoke in unison with the loud, echoing of the villagers far above their position as Anna kept her injury close to her body and pushed herself to her knees one-handed. "However, I suspect that you will not join us in our endeavor, isn't that right Annalise?"

"Fuck you," Anna growled through her clenched jaw as she wiped blood out of her eyelashes with the back of her hand and wheezed in pain as a stabbing sensation jabbed powerfully at her right side. "I'll never give myself over to you."

"That's a shame, you could've been so great." Danny's distorted voice spoke with genuine disappointment as Anna ignored her pain and lunged forward into a roll to rearm herself with her broadsword. Danny's inhumanly rapid dash nearly caught Anna in the kneecap as she barely managed to sidestep the attack and plunged the length of her sword hilt-deep into his stomach, piercing outward through his back. Thin, broken streams of lime green light projected in both directions from beneath the blade as Danny's utter confusion surfaced on his rigid, mind-controlled face and both of his hands gripped the sword tightly. His expression morphed from disbelief to maniacal rage as he tightened his grip on the blade and dragged the razor-sharp broadsword out across his torso as his gory, gaseously steaming stomach, liver, and small intestines spilled to the ground below him with a thick slapping noise. Danny pulled his head back and slammed his face against Anna's as she toppled over backwards and watched with her splayed vision as Danny took the Diadem from his belt loop and lifted it to his head as a bright flash of violet light filled the room instantly and incapacitated Anna as quickly as a solid right hook to the jaw.