Nightmare Assassins

𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑. 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

Crystal Winter Frost

Run.

Run.

Like the wall I had created, and the rift I had probably constructed between Alanna and myself, my brain froze over. I lost control over my entire being—the guilt, the aching, and the sadness was too overwhelming. . I finally reached my room and shut the door with a loud bang.

I locked the door.

I didn't know how to face them anymore. When Alanna talked about Mom and Dad, it struck a nerve—to say the least. Being a Moon Spirit was a great honor, but an intrinsic instinct to flee took over my being.

I was familiar with this feeling.

It was called fear.

The very word sent shivers down my spine as I recalled the black sand encounter just a day before.

Dad always knew how to tell a joke to get the fear out of me. Mom said meditation would work. Oh, how it hurt to think about my parents and their fate. It wasn't like them to just leave me alone for more than a week. Even if they were on trips like these, Gale would deliver their messages to me. But I had checked with the wind time and time again. The answer was the same—no letters, no sign of where they were.

I heard Alanna knocking on my door—five times, just like how Aunt Anna used to. "Crystal, it's me," she said quietly. Who knows how she had gotten past that barricade.

I shook my head and moved to the windowsill. I didn't want to talk to anyone—I had caused enough harm. It wouldn't do any good confronting Alanna or explaining things to her. She didn't even know about the encounter—for kingdom's sake, she didn't even know my power stemmed from my being, not from my ice gun or wand. Winter was in my name and in my blood, and with the winter came an ice-cold resolve and a tendency to shut others out.

"Crystal?" Alanna persistently knocked on my door.

"I'm a monster." My voice quivered. "Go away before you hurt yourself, Alanna. You don't know how much harm I've caused."

"Don't let fear take the reins. Talk to me, please!" Alanna shouted from behind the door.

"Just leave me alone."

Then came a silence from the hallway.

"Locked behind those heavy doors
Bottled up inside.
I'm waiting for you outside your door–
What have you got to hide?:

Alanna's melodic voice floated from the doorway.

I know, I know,
They told you
'Conceal, don't feel, don't let them know.'
But you've closed all your doors
And there's no way for me to help you grow."

"Satin gloves, what are you concealing?
Satin gloves, tell me how you're feeling.
What are you hiding?
You're so fragile.
Even tough girls let it go once in a while,"

I didn't respond, and so Alanna left my doorway. I leaned on my windowsill as the sound of her footsteps faded into the distance.

Standing up, I walked to the space beside my bed. I looked at myself in the mirror, my right hand covered with ice. It was evident that I couldn't control my fear, and my powers seeped through my veins and out into the open, wrestling with my mind to be free. I shook my head to rid myself of the ice, but it was no use. If I was locked in here, I wouldn't need my gloves. My powers wouldn't harm anyone but me.