Elementary

Chapter Twelve

I'm pretty much the only one screaming. Everyone else is calm. Abdalla pushes air out from within the remaining bubble, steadying it for only a couple of seconds. Then, it crashes down on us, and the cold flows through me. It continues to get colder, and colder, and soon, it's unbearable. I turn my head, bubbles floating around from the movement, and I see Meliza. Her chest is rising and contracting. She can breathe. No one else can. I start to swim up, ready to gasp for beautiful air, but as I reach the surface, my hand runs into a cold, solid surface. I find myself staring at it, wanting so badly to scream, and let all of the panic out of my system. I swim back to Meliza, the water burning my hands as I push through, and I try to gesture something. I point up to the surface of the water, and then rub my hands on my arms like I'm cold. She doesn't seem to understand. Giving up on her, I swim over to Abdalla. I try to gesture to make an air bubble by making my hands form a circle, and pretending to blow bubble gum. After waiting forever, my lungs about to explode, and my toes about to break off from the cold, he finally nods. Closing his eyes, he pushes out, making an air bubble. As it expands, I swim closer to it, until I can finally breathe, and I pant. Hunter swims toward it, too. Soon, he makes it in, and gasps too. The only person left is Meliza. She's breathing fine, but she's probably cold. Ignoring the burning, yet freezing pain, I swim back up to the surface, and pound my fist against the ice. My arm won't move fast enough through the water. I swim back down to the bubble, now big enough for us to all stand in. I'm breathing hard. 

"What are we going to do?" I yell, panic flooding through me like the water.

Abdalla jumps in, and swims to the top. He comes back down. 

"We're iced in!" He yells.

"I know!" I scream in what sounds like agony. I can go in one more time. Every time I come back from trying, I feel like I didn't try hard enough. Just one more time.

The water has become slushy, and my fingers and feet have become numb. I can't make it. I swim best I can, scrambling back to the bubble. 

Before I know it, There is solid ice all around me.

Hunter, Abdalla and I are inside the bubble. Meliza is still outside of the bubble. I wonder if she can breathe through the ice, completely frozen.

All I hear is the sound of heavy breaths, and moans. 

"Meliza's out there." Hunter says.

"I know." I press.

"We're gonna die in here." 

"I know."

"Guys, I'm sorry." Abdalla cuts in.

"For what" I ask.

"Anything. If I accidentally hurt your feelings, or physically hurt you, I guess. I just don't wanna die if someone's mad at me."

"We're not mad at you." Hunter says. 

"I don't know- A lot of times I feel like I have no talent. Like the things I enjoy, I'm bad at. You know?"

Hunter nods agreeably. I find myself feeling a little bit less hopeless after he says this. I stare down at my hands. 

"Guys, cover your faces and as much as you can." They reluctantly sit down, and cover themselves, with confused faces.

I point my hands up, and think of fire, and not bad fire, that burns things, and kills nature, but the kind of fire that you and your mom sit by on Friday nights, warming you as you sip hot chocolate and curl up in blankets.

I think of Mom, and suddenly, with a bright, wavering light, the ice begins to melt rapidly upward, where my hands are pointing. It is a straight, strong stream of fire, and my eyelashes feel hot, and my fingernails are on fire. The cold wares away in my body, and suddenly, the dark feeling inside of me feels like it gets pulled out of my chest and buried in the ice. 

With water droplets raining down on me, sunshine reaches inside of the bubble. 

The next step is finding out how to get out of this ice hole.

"Can you guys lift me up? I'll pull you up afterward." I ask. I realize the astonished faces of both of them. Then, they quickly nod after exchanging glances, and approach behind me. 

"One... Two... Three." I jump, and they catch me, pushing me up the side of the ice hole until I reach the top, where I grab the sides and pull myself up to a sitting position. I turn over and reach down, where Abdalla grabs my hand, and I pull him up. He's a lot heavier than I thought he would be. Then, as Abdalla kneels to grab Hunter, I rush over to where I saw Meliza last. I try to imagine fire again, and the image of sitting next to the fire projects in my brain. Then, I remember crying. I remember that I thought that I was bad at swimming, and suddenly, the ice stops melting. I drop down, and scratch the ice frantically. 

I try again. I think of sitting by the fireplace. Then my mind leads to last night, by the campfire. I'm a nature killer.

"Guys, help!" I wail. They rush over, and stop by me breathing hard from the panic in me. "I can't get her out. It's not working anymore." 

Luckily, the ice begins to melt away quickly. From the edges of the block of ice in the river, pieces of ice chip off and flow downstream. Soon, I see Meliza's head, and then her shoulders, and then we can pull her out.