A chill story

Chapter 2

Frost looks at Mark with anger and incomprehension.

"What are you doing here?" she asks not very politely.

"You put me in jail remember Snowflake?" he says still with his smile on his lips as he climbs down from the bunk bed to stand in front of Frost, shirtless.

"Don't call me like that. And you could put on a shirt, right?"

"Okay okay Elsa, calm down, I'll get dressed." 

Then Mark complies and slowly puts the orange prisoner shirt back on. Frost might grumble about him calling her Elsa but she says nothing and starts looking around, discovering her, well their, room. Meanwhile the now fully clothed muscular man stares the young woman in the eye with his little smile still on.

"What?" she remarked.

"Nothing." answers Mark simply.

Frost sighs and puts back her white lock of hair that came to stand in front of her eyes.

"You're probably wondering why we're in the same cell, in the anti-meta wing of the prison." adds Mark.

It pisses her off that he anticipated her question but she answers him anyway.

"Yeah, and in case you forgot, you're not meta, you don't belong here." Reminding him at the same time her victory in the bar fight.

"I haven't forgotten," he replies, touched in his ego "but the authorities don't know that, well, I made them believe I was a meta."

"And what for?"

"To have a chance to see you again in the prison corridors." Mark says with his charming air.

"Don't you want to stop all this? Romance doesn't suit you at all." she replies in exasperation before going to sit on the bottom bunk.

"Don't get mad, the truth is I thought it was cooler to be a meta, I always wanted to be one."

Frost doesn't respond and just lies on the bed, rolling onto her back and thinking about everything she has lost. She runs scenarios in her head, recreating that day, imagining what would have happened if she had taken the damn meta-cure. The young woman would be lying on her bed today, under the same roof as her sister, who she misses terribly. Meanwhile Mark looks at her, not knowing how to figure her out or how to talk to her so he quickly resolves to get back on the bunk bed to go read an Agatha Christie mystery novel.

----- A few hours later, around 7pm. -----

The guards open the cells one by one to allow the prisoners to go to the refectory at the end of the corridor. Mark closes his book and gets off the bed.

"Are you coming to eat Frost?" he asks quietly.

"No, I don't feel like it." says the Ice Queen without moving from the bed.

Mark leaves her alone and goes to eat in the canteen. He knows well that the first days are complicated, even for the most hardened criminals, and the coldest heads. About 20 minutes later, the handsome prisoner returns to his cell after eating.

"Hey, I managed to get you an apple."

Frost doesn't respond, lying on bed and facing the wall.

"Are you sleeping?"

Still no answer so he puts the apple on the small bedside table next to his fellow inmate, who wasn't sleeping but didn't feel like talking or eating.

"I know we got off on the wrong foot with what I did at the bar but I'll make it up to you. And you'll get used to being here, you're tough Frost." says Mark thinking she was asleep before climbing the ladder to the top bunk.

However, in the night, when Mark is snoozing above her, Frost sits on the bed, picks up the green apple lying next to her and takes a bite. She was hungry since the young woman had fasted the dinner so she eats the apple entirely, leaving only the core on the small table, she will throw that tomorrow morning in the trash. Then she goes back to bed, gently puts a rough blanket over her and manages to sleep for a few hours.

---------- In the early morning. ----------

Mark, who slept on the high bed, climbs down the ladder and sees that Frost is still sleeping. But he notices the apple core and smiles, happy that she has eaten even one apple. He then sits down at the desk and takes out a sheet of paper and some pencils. From there he begins to draw. About ten minutes later, Sleeping Beauty wakes up in turn and sits on the edge of her bed, looking at her fellow inmate.

"What are you doing?" she asks by way of greeting.

"Oh you're awake. Well, um, I'm drawing. Gotta find something to do to pass the time." Stopping drawing to look at her as he speaks.

"Can you draw? Let me see." Asks the young woman as she stands up, curious.

"When it's over, I promise."

"OK..." she replies a little disappointed.

"Don't be disappointed Fro..."

"I'm not disappointed." Frost concurred, cutting Mark off.

She doesn't want to show her weaknesses, and doesn't want to make Mark think he knows her well enough to know what she's thinking. The man thinks for a few seconds about how to spare his roommate.

"I saw you ate the apple, I was pleased. Breakfasts are at 8, which is soon, are you coming?" he asks gently

"No, I'll only get out of here for the visiting rooms. Seeing Caitlin is the only thing I care about. But if you can bring me something I'll eat it."

Mark doesn't want to force her to come, nor does he want to yell at her that she's going to be here her whole life and she'll have to go out for some fresh air or food so he simply adds:

"I'll see what I can get you."

Frost nods gently in agreement and then sits on the edge of her bed and begins to comb her whitehair with her hands. The designer watches her do it for a few seconds before the door opens for him to go get breakfast, he takes his drawing and puts itunder his pillow to keep it a surprise for Frost and then goes to eat while his cellmate stays here.