BACK-ICED

2

The darkness kept Izel locked in its hold, allowing to continue in her sleep induced state. A scream pierced through her sleep. With a jolt, she pushes her body off the bed. The light from the ceiling blinds her for a moment casting shadows over her eyes, the familiar smell of snow lilies clogs her nostrils. After a second or two, she fully adjusts to the light and sees two of her eight siblings, standing in front of her with their mouths hanging open in disbelief.

Confusion clouded her mind, her thoughts jammed and barely decipherable under the sleepy gaze she still operates in. Her eyes slowly draws to the quilt that hangs of her legs, her threadbare sweater and long dark tights filtering back into her line of sight.  For once the cold didn't envelope like it always did, her throat didn't feel scratchy, her nose surprising free from the usual clutter of mucus. For some reason she didn't feel cold, in fact Izel seemed to like the cold.

"H-" Another scream ripped through the room. Izel snapped her head to them once again. Sacnite threw her hands up in the air before letting another shriek rumble through the room. Her twin brother, Luitl turned towards her, his eyes narrowed but before he could say a word, the rickety door behind them bound open, shifting out of place before clambering to the floor.

  Izel's father rushed in, anger burning through his icy blue eyes. An ice spear in his hand, he turned towards them.

"You better not have hurt my daughter you-"

"Father, someone took Izel away-"

"That's Izel, genius. She just manifested." At that, Izel finally threw down the quilt, pushing off the bed before rushing to the mirror that was squeezed between an equally ticket table and a dingy cupborad. Amidst the broken glass, a gasp escaped her lips. Thin white hair had now grown in place of her once dark voluminous hair which stretched down to her waist. Icy blue eyes that stared back at her framed by  thin pale lashes, almost blue eyebrows arched above her eye, all framed in a skin tone that was translucent. With this discovery, the night before came rushing back to her, filling her with fact that the wish had come true.

Izel could barely contain the surprise that crept up on her. Although she had made this wish, she never actually thought it would have come to pass. For a moment, Izel's eyes strayed away from the mirror, masked happiness curling through her as she fought to to swallow the smile that tried to force its way to her plump lips. Her father and her siblings watched her with a myriad of emotions painting their faces in a colorful mirage.

Her father pushed past the twins, shouldering them before his tall and broad frame came to a halt in front of her. His icy eyes swam with a dilemma that wasn't hidden by a wall, left for her to see. Her knuckles clenched and her lips quirked up slightly. Though the smile lost its a momentum when the other parts of her body reminded her of the power the man before her possessed. In the most quiet of voices, he asked,

"How did this happen?"

***
"She sure is a late bloomer." The records keeper looked at Izel again as though trying to decipher whether or not she was a fraud. Her family was well known in the land, even though they weren't exactly the richest but her family had had a winning streak that had won the annual snow fights for the past eight years, the longest record holding family in all of the Icelands. The woman allowed strands of her bobbed hair to hang loosely across her cheeks.

  Sweeping her eyes away from the woman's piercing stare, her eyes grappled onto the bulb that hung up, fixated onto the honey brown ceiling which had matching honey brown walls, though the strong scent of the woman's perfume was enough to make Izel gag from where she sat beside her mother on a bench. Izel lazily crossed her legs over each other as she tried to tarnish the image of the impuissants being dragged away to face their fate. Her breathing barely slowed, pity piling in her gut.

"Come on, Izel let's go."

WORD COUNT: 1590