Frostbite (Bk 1 of the Elementals)

Chapter 7

After some time thinking through her life, Ariel pulled herself up off the ground, and made her way into the house. Aaron was in the same place as when she left, still staring at the body of his father. Ariel had no idea what to do, she had never experienced anything in life that could have prepared her for this. Eventually, she decided that she should probably get him out of the house. Ariel walked over, and knelt down beside him, looking into his eyes. She noticed the deep, stormy grey color in his eyes. The lightning she had seen in them when he rescued her was gone, the fire fading, leaving an empty, coal darkness.

"Aaron?" Ariel tentatively asked, but she received no reply, just more silence. Ariel thought back to something her mother had told her, "Always be listening. The quiet is dead, just an empty void, but the silence, the silence is alive, full of ideas, drifting freely." 

At that moment, Ariel became quite certain that the room was not silent after all. This room was dead, empty. All the joy and life had been sucked out, leaving four walls with nothing left in-between. No, this room was not silent, this room was dead, dead quiet.

Ariel took ahold of Aaron's arm, pulling him up. He did not resist, but rather just let himself be lead, much like a toddler up past bedtime; confused, tired and just wanting to go to sleep. Ariel lead Aaron downstairs, taking him out to the barn. The air outside was cold bitting at her face, but she knew they would have to put up with it, at least for now; they couldn't stay in a house with two bodies above them. Aaron sat down on a bail of hay, and Ariel covered him with a blanket, before turning back to the house. Ariel went through the kitchen drawers, grabbing matches, a can opener, some dry foods, a pot, and several cans of food. Heading back to the barn, Ariel began to start a fire, and then stopped; this whole barn was full of dry hay, just a tinderbox waiting for a spark. Ariel walked outside, a good twenty feet from the barn, and began building a fire there instead. She did her best to keep the fire hot, but small; she didn't want any unwanted visitors. Heading back to the barn, she grabbed a can of clam chowder and the pot she had brought out, emptied the can into the pot and made her way out to the fire. 

In the twilight zone outside, Ariel made her way to the fire. She was almost there when a coil of old rope tripped her up. She sprawled onto the ground, the pot of cold food spilling on the ground. Cursing, she got up, and brushed herself off, grabbing the mostly empty pot and heading back to the barn again. Grabbing a second can of the creamy soup, she headed back to the fire, this time waiting until she got to the fire to dispense the can into the pot. While the soup was heating up, she headed back to the barn to check on Aaron. He was fast asleep on top of a bail of hay, and Ariel did not disturb him. She returned to the fire, waiting twenty minutes or so for the soup to heat up before extinguishing the fire and heading to the barn. 

She sat in silence eating, thinking through the events of the day. So much had happened, and in so little time. She realized she really had not idea where she was, or who Aaron was, or what any of the things that were happing were. Wolves that weren't wolves? People disappearing? Ariel could've sworn that at that moment she may as well have just walked onto the set of a movie. Ariel finished her soup, and looked at the other bowl. She wasn't hungry, but she also didn't want it to go to waste. Ariel was getting tired, so she decided to go get some blankets, and then figure out what to do with the soup. She headed to the house, pulling a comforter off of one of the beds, and some blankets out of the closet. 

When she returned to the barn, she found the bowl empty, yet Aaron hadn't moved. Ariel felt a chill go down her spine, as she looked around the barn to see what had eaten the food. Out of the corner of her eye she saw movement, and whipped around to see what it was. Aaron was licking his top lip, removing the last bits of a cream mustache from gulping down a warm bowl of soup in a hurry. Ariel's heart calmed down, but her spine still felt like someone was dripping water down her back, the water caressing the curves in her back, the knobs on her spine. A rusty, thick scent filled the air, but when Ariel turned around, it disappeared. Ariel lay down on a bed of hay and went to sleep on the long strands of yellow, dead plant matter, just as two slitted yellow orbs, lifeless in their appearance, disappeared from the rafters.