Frozen

Chapter Three: The Unknown

Three: The Unknown

            The small patches of grass were hazed over in dew, tiny droplets of clear liquid sparkled like diamonds as the sun reflected off of it.  Glistening snow covered the rest of the area surrounding it, as if the frozen water itself consumed the color, never letting it return again.

            Even though the house was warm, Elizabeth could still feel the cold radiating from the glass panel that stood in front of her. How she longed to be in the snow, to feel the snow melt on her skin and have the suns warmth contradict with icy fluid that would sit next to her. She smiled at the thought.

            Meanwhile Owen stood behind her, leaning casually against the opal walls that stood around them protectively. A short and stubby shadow stood beside him, a perfect replica of himself. As he continued to gaze trillions of thoughts ran through his mind, racing each other to fill the one space he held as he inspected each one individually.

            He didn’t know what to think of it, to think of her. He knew she wasn’t like him in anyway shape or form, she was just different. Her hair hung down from her head in silk waves just like any other girl he’s met, and her eyes- beside their shocking color- remained the same as everyone else’s. Her lips we’re just as pink as his, or anybody he has ever yet to meet. The only thing that nagged at him, ate at his mind slowly digging away at his sanity was how was she alive?

            Owen recalled putting her to bed, and her dwindling into sleep, all fondled up in the ball just like a cat. Afterwards he took her temperature, and it was 68 degrees. She should have been dead.

How she lived was a mystery all into itself. There was no possible way that her heart could have continued to pound in her chest, her pulse racing just like any other being he knows. It was unfathomable to even think it was a mere prospect that her blood snuck through her skin still, delivering oxygen to every organ; to have her chest still moving up and down, breathe being sucked in and unconfined back out in the cold winter air. 

Yes, she was definitely something else.

The mere thought of not knowing what she was- all the things she could be- tortured him. Her façade as well seemed inhuman like, also the way she carried herself was unlike any other ever seen. The curiosity taunted him; it pulled on his limbs, stretching and twisting them into anomalous configurations.  Pain, so excruciating that he couldn’t even cry out for help because he knew it couldn’t be immobilized, that the monster would continue to toy with him. So he stood there in the silence, not saying a word.

“How old are you?” The whisper wrapped around him, floating into his mind as her head turn slightly towards him. His brain tried processing the words, how they were put together, everything about them, but yet the answer still remained unreached. “How old are you?” She repeated.

“Nineteen,” The answer rolled off Owen’s tongue so easily it shocked him, he thought that he’d have to force the words out of his mouth. “What about you,” He asked her the same question when they first met, it was hard to believe that it was less than twenty-four hours ago.

“Seventeen…” Her words came out on a slur, as if they were blurry like a foggy windshield. She stared out the window, attention clearly somewhere else.

Elizabeth furrowed her eyebrows together, a confused expression engraved into her features. He didn’t know what she saw, or how she could possibly see it through the snow that crashed down to the ground, shattering.

“Owen,” She started as she reached her arm back, beckoning him to proceed forward. “Look,”

She could hear his footsteps as he walked towards her as she continued to gaze out the window. A black figure stood in the shadows, not the shape of a man, but still not of an animal, it was too big to be one.

Elizabeth felt his warm breath as he breathed next to her. The searing carbon dioxide smacked against her face, the sudden heat sent a shock through her system as she inched away from him slowly.

The questions that lingered over them, were so different from each other. The words arranged in different patterns, different phrases completely.

She looked up only to see Owen’s face twisted into an unfathomable expression; his brows furrowed, eyes locked on the figure, jawline set, but the overall read of his face was a mixture between wonder and fear. Something she had experience with.

The man walked forward towards the house, as he came closer the aspects were suddenly magnified by a microscope in perfect detail. Except to him, he saw no man.

Elizabeth backed away from the window hurriedly, she tripped over a wire that rested behind her feet and fell back into Owen. 

The wind got knocked out of her as she smashed into him, the force made his green eyes go wide with alarm. “What’s wrong?”

“That guy, I know him,” Panic set into her veins, it coursed through her, pounding into her heart and mind. Moving away again she slammed into a table, knocking over a lamp and smashing the light bulb inside. She couldn’t let him see her; she couldn’t let him find her. Elizabeth realized that it was already too late, that he already found her.

Why was she so terrified of him? Why was she so scared of a man she didn’t even know the name of yet what he does?

“Elizabeth, what the hell is wrong!?” Owen screamed at her, terror clearly written on his face for the girl he barely knew, the girl that captivated him by the way she moved, talked, listened, everything about her just held him there, stuck, like a fly weaved into a spiders web.

“I don’t know,” She breathed it out slowly, carefully, like she was afraid that the words would come out too fast and shatter on the wooden floor below her.

Her heart raced as he came closer, each footstep seemed to echo in her mind as he walked. The drum in her chest started to drown out the noise and soon she couldn’t hear anything but her drum. The same drum that rested there for seventeen years of her life, silently, patiently waiting for the right moment to deafen her with its beats.

            Hands were all of a sudden grasping her tightly, a voice telling her to look at him over and over again. “Elizabeth, come on look at me. No one’s there I promise no one’s there.” Her eyes snapped towards him in shock. How can he not see it when I can so clearly?

            “Yes there is someone’s there and he’s…” Her voice started with the panic that already coursed through her, but slowly faded out into nothing. He was right, the moment she looked back at the window, the man was gone.

            “No one’s there,” Owen gazed at her, worry bleeding through to the surface of his eyes. His strong hands let go of her, and she back away from him and went back towards the window.

            With her hands on the ice cold glass, that stung her fingers, she started to mumble. “He was just… I swear he was there…” And that was how she stayed for a few minutes, not moving just staring out the window with an occasional blink here and there.

            Elizabeth turned to him, “I’m not crazy.”

            Owen was taken aback at the statement; the thought didn’t cross his mind. “I believe you.” His tone was gentle, yet serious at the same time.

            She nodded and looked down; eyes cast somewhere far off in the distance in the snow. “What is there to do around here?”

            “There’s a diner, Movie Theater, and some other things. Why?”

            “Let’s go there,”

            A smile cast upon his face, as he looked at her in amusement. “You’re in yoga shorts and one of my old blue tee shirts and it’s the middle of winter. If you’re worried I think you’re crazy, if you go into public like that I wouldn’t worry so much about me.” He laughed.

            Her lips reached its hand to pull itself up across her face, showing her teeth in a dazzling smirk; the happiness leaked into her eyes as well. “Do you have a coat I can borrow?”

            He laughed, “I’ll get my car keys.”