FROST- Jotun Chronicles #1

Charlotte to the Rescue

    It took about ten minutes before I had the courage to open my eyes again. Of course, the horrible sight was still there. I uncurled and took a deep breath, climbing to my feet slowly. Now what should I do? I couldn’t just leave the body there for the house cleaners to find in the morning.  I already had a bunch of different people looking for me already. Being the subject of a murder case wasn’t going to help matters, and I didn’t fancy seeing my face on the news. I’m sure they’d play footage of the security cameras when I’d checked in. No, that couldn’t happen. I bit my lip. There was no way I could do this alone, I needed to talk to someone, and there was only one person I trusted.

            For a brief minute I wondered if I should make the call from downstairs. Could the giants be monitoring all out going and incoming calls in Grande Prairie? That didn’t seem very likely, and I couldn’t very well explain to the front desk lady that I wanted to go for a walk at four in the morning. That would seem more then a little fishy when they later discovered a body in the room. I took a deep breath and punched Charlotte’s number into the phone on the desk, telling myself to be brief. It took them a minute or so to trace a call, I knew that much from the movies.

            Charlotte picked up the phone on the second ring, her voice groggy with sleep, “hello?”

            “Charlotte! It’s me, Megan. I can’t talk, but I need your help…” I paused, reluctant to say the name of the hotel on the phone, even if I didn’t believe anyone was listening. “I’m staying here in town at a hotel. Um…the one that was in that movie we talked about.”

            There was silence on the other end, and I desperately hoped that she would remember the movie we’d been discussing. One that Charlotte had said we had to watch when we got together. Anyone else who might be listening would think I was referring to Holiday Inn. But Charlotte would know better, I hoped.

Finally she said, “I got it. I’ll be right there.”

I could have kissed her! “Just tell the lady at the desk my name and she’ll call up to the room. She’s on our side.” I hung up, relief coursing through me. Thank God for Charlotte’s ridiculously accurate memory when it came to movie trivia. It was an almost useless talent the rest of the time, but it had certainly just come in handy. I waited, pacing back and forth impatiently, heart thrumming like I’d just run a marathon.

The fake detective had started to melt slightly, the droplets of water making a slow "plick, plick, plick"  as they hit the hardwood floor. I tried to avoid looking at him as much as possible, and every time I thought about it my chest restricted into a tight knot and tears prickled behind my eyes. I had killed someone. I was a murderer. He was just standing there frozen, dead. Maybe I should be in jail, before I hurt anyone else. The thought of seeing Erik tomorrow helped a little bit. I had a feeling I could tell him about this and he wouldn’t be judgemental, or tell me I was a horrible person. I tried to tell myself that too, tried to tell myself that it was self defense, that he’d been choking me. He would have killed me if I hadn’t struck first.

“It was an accident,” my voice was startling even to me, interrupting the silence. But I kept talking, murmuring to myself, “It’ll be okay. It was just an accident. I didn’t mean to. I can’t control it. I’ll go with Erik and he’ll teach me how to control it so this never happens again.” I couldn’t help it, I glanced over at the frozen man at the foot of the bed, and the anxiety surged again. How did you hide a body? I hadn’t read enough murder mysteries. Did you chop it up and smuggle it out somehow? The very idea made bile rise up in my throat, and for a second I thought I was going to be sick. I stopped pacing, bracing myself with one hand on the wall, trying to force myself to take deep, even breaths.

No, I was already a killer. I wouldn’t add to the horror of this by doing something so grizzly. There had to be another way. The phone rang, and my head jerked towards it so fast I nearly gave myself whip lash. Charlotte!

I picked the phone up with one shaky hand, my voice was faint when I managed to get the word out, “Hello?”

“Ms. Sanders?”

A moment of confusion before I remembered I’d checked in under a fake name, and then I found my voice, “Oh, yes. Yes, hello.”

“it’s Jenny, from the desk,” her voice was soft, sympathetic and almost motherly, and it made my heart ache. For a second I entertained the ridiculous notion of asking her to take me home with her, just pretend to adopt me. Then I told myself to snap out of it, grow up. I wasn’t little anymore. I thought I’d gotten past all that abandonment crap when I was a kid.

Jenny continued in her soft tones, “there’s a young girl here to see you, she says her name is Charlotte. Is she okay to come up?”

I could have hugged her, and Charlotte. Just a big ol’ group hug, “Yes! Thank you so much, you can send her up.”

“Okay, darlin’. You two take care of yourselves.”

I spent the next minute or two pacing, and then a soft knock came from the door. I raced over and yanked it open. Charlotte was there, concern plainly written on her pixie-like features. She was dressed in a bright red coat and black boots, and she had a knapsack slung over one arm. “Megan! Are you okay?”

To my horror the tears broke free of the dam again, and I struggled to remain calm, “No! Charlotte…” I lowered my voice to a whisper, “this man attacked me, in the middle of the night, trying to kill me…and I accidently froze him!”

Charlotte’s brown eyes were huge, “You what?”

I rubbed my forehead, “it’s a long story, but, sometimes I freeze stuff accidently. Oh, what the hell…” I opened the door and gestured for her to come inside.  Charlotte entered the room slowly, as if she thought that maybe someone might jump out and yell, “surprise!”

When she saw the frozen statue at the foot of the bed her eyes went even bigger, it would have been comical if I weren’t so scared of what she might say next. Would she accuse me of murder? Or worse, would she be scared of me?

When she finally turned to look at me her eyes were shining, “Megan, that is so cool!”

            I blinked at her, “Cool? Charlotte, the man is dead!”

She frowned, “didn’t you say he was attacking you?”

            I nodded, and Charlotte began circling the body, hands on her hips. “Well then, self defense.” She shot me a coy look, “my foster dad is a lawyer you know. You wouldn’t believe some of the stories he tells at the dinner table.”

            I rubbed my forehead, amazed she could be taking this so calmly. “What the heck do we do?”

            She looked excited, “I can’t believe you have powers! You can freeze  stuff! I’m so jealous, you’re like a super hero or something!”

            “Charlotte!”

            “Sorry, sorry,” she bit her lip, staring at the frozen corpse. I could almost see the gears turning in her head. “I just saw this movie where these two guys accidently killed this guy at a hotel, and then they stuffed him in an ice chest.” She lifted her brows at me, “I just passed an ice chest, on the second floor. We could put him in there and they would find him later. Maybe days later. No one would know it was you.”

            My mouth dropped open. Since when was little Charlotte a criminal mastermind? “But the cameras in the hallway,” I protested, “and in the elevator? How are we going to drag a body down to the second floor without anyone seeing us on the cameras?”

            Charlotte’s grin was wicked, “how cold do you think security cameras can get before they break?”

            Her plan was slowly becoming clearer to me. The crazy thing was, it was smart. She had something, “I can’t believe you,” I shook my head, “how…?”

            She grinned, “I watch a lot of movies. Now…” She gestured to the door, “let’s do this.”