FROST- Jotun Chronicles #1

Freak Out

I was dragged into another Aryan meeting when the lunch bell rang. Amy was all gung- ho to talk about our dreams.

            “I was in some kind of battle,” Margaret was saying. “I killed people.” She shuddered. “It was horrible.”

            “Same,” Stacy said, eyes shining. “I had armour and everything. How cool is that?”

            I tried to remember if I’d had armour. The dream seemed to be fading now, as if I hadn’t really dreamed it, someone else had.

            “I felt like it was me…but it wasn’t,” Amy said. She glanced sideways at me. “Megan?”

            “I…I guess so.”

            She looked triumphant. “This is proof!”

             “Proof of what?” I said sharply.

            “That we’re all related somehow! Twins share dreams all the time!”

            “Do they? I’d never heard that before.”

            “What other explanation is there?” She frowned, as if she couldn't understand why i was arguing with her impecable logic.

            “That I’m insane,” I muttered. That I hallucinated frozen boys and thought I couldn’t be touched by the cold. Why not add a little head chopping dream to the mix? Obviously I was slowly going mental.

            A couple of boys walked past our group, chains hanging out of every pocket, hair long and shaggy. They snickered, and one of them said, “Clones.”

I looked up abruptly, looking around at the other girls. It was sort of creepy. I had a horrible crawling feeling, like I was a part of something I didn’t want to be involved in. Something I’d been dragged into against my will. I turned and went to find Charlotte.

            The foster parents were out that night. Date night, they called it. The monster baby was with a sitter, since Janet didn’t trust me. I never complained about that.

            I played music way too loudly while I tried to get  homework done, enjoyed a long hot shower without her screaming through the door to quit wasting the water, and then made myself a sandwich and left the kitchen a giant mess just for her when she got home. Finally I retreated to my bedroom with satisfaction, flopping onto my bed with my sneakers still on.

            The night table rattled suddenly, making me jump. A text from Charlotte, asking if I wanted to hang out after school tomorrow. Hey, it was that or Fevero with the Aryan group. I texted back YES, all in capitals and then flopped back onto my bed and did a snow angel on the feather comforter.  After watching TV for a few hours the alarm clock read eleven.  Time for bed. It was tempting to be rebellious and stay up, but I didn’t want to be the walking dead tomorrow morning. Seven o’clock isn’t pretty on six hours of sleep. I brushed my teeth and slid between the sheets, turning my phone on silent after I read Charlotte’s excited text message. Apparently I could come to her house tomorrow after school. Cool. I must have been tired, because my eyelids drooped shut and then I was gone.

            A rattling sound woke me. At first I thought it was Dave and Janet arriving home, bumping around downstairs. Maybe Janet had had too much wine again and was rearranging the furniture at two o’clock. That had happened before. I forced my eyes open and squinted at the clock. Only eleven-thirty. Probably not them. They weren’t usually finished their alcohol-fuelled dates until the wee hours of the morning. The rattle came again, and it was frighteningly close. My window. My gaze flew to the dark window pane, expecting to see something. A hand, a face. My heart was doing a hundred miles an hour, practically beating out of my chest.  There was no noise for a second, and then I heard a scraping sound from underneath my window. I whimpered, and slid under my sheets a little. What was that?

            A ladder, my brain told me unkindly. Someone is sliding a ladder under your window.

I stretched down, the edge of the bed pressing into my stomach, groping for the heavy flashlight I kept beside me at all times. Not only would it light up the bedroom, it would be awfully handy if I needed to knock someone over the head. My dream suddenly came back, and I had a vision of me fighting fearlessly. Could I be that person? Could I kill someone? My searching fingers closed around the cool surface of the flashlight. I slowly climbed out of bed and tiptoed my way over to the window. Pointing the flashlight outside, I clicked the switch. The light flooded outwards, momentarily bouncing off the windowpane, blinding me. Panic flashed through me and I cursed out loud, blinking furiously. The white spots faded and now all I could see was white. The snow filled yard was silent and empty in the beam of my flash light.

            It wasn’t good enough though. I had to be sure, in order to sleep. I stuck my phone in the pocket of my night gown just in case, and slid down the staircase one step at a time, as quietly as I could manage. The front door was still safely locked, and I let out a shaky breath.  The house was huge and full of creepy shadows. I swung the flashlight around, the beam of yellow light bouncing off the walls and sliding into the dark corners of the house.

Nothing, deep breaths now. I stretched out a shaking hand and touched the knob, daring myself to open it.

            Do it. Open the door, make sure there’s no one lurking out here waiting to kill you.

            The lock clicked, and the door creaked as I opened it, making me wince. The night air wasn’t as cold as it should have been, considering that my flashlight beam showed a flurry of snowflakes falling from a grey sky. Again I wondered at myself as I stepped with bare feet onto the cement steps. I wasn’t cold.

            I should have goosebumps on my bare arms, my breath should be rising in clouds around my head, but it isn’t. What’s wrong with me?

            Something in the bushes beside the pathway moved, making me jump. My foot slipped on the icy cement, and I yelped as I lost my balance and pitched backwards. The beam of light swept the yard wildly as I fell, and then I was on my back in the snow.  My peripheral vision showed me a rabbit running across the lawn, tiny feet crunching as it raced over the snow. I’d just freaked out over thumper the fluffy little bunny. What a coward.

I lay there for a moment, perfectly still. My bare legs and arms touching the snow.  I could feel the texture. It was wet, and crumbly, the feeling of ice. But what it should have been was cold. It wasn’t.

I didn’t get up; just lay there, with my flashlight beside me, staring up at the black sky.

            “How am I not cold right now?”

            No one answered. I could feel moisture seeping into my thin night gown, but still no cold. Did that mean my nerves were dying?

            Something made a crunch noise, and I sat up with a gasp. There, in the halo of my flashlight stood a man. He was very tall, taller than me in fact, with brilliantly blonde hair and matching eyebrows. He had on a black t-shirt and blue jeans, and he was standing quite casually in my yard. I clutched the flashlight till my hands hurt.

            “Who-“

The man’s eyes went wide, and he began to move toward me, hands reaching out for me. “No! Don't- "

That’s when someone gripped me around the shoulders from behind, and a damp, smelly rag was suddenly smothering my nose and mouth. I thrashed and kicked in the snow as hard as I could, trying to scream, trying to breath, trying to make it stop. Then it was gone, and I saw nothing but white snow.