Glacial

Chapter 8

Neither the pain on my cheek or her annoying voice that pierced through my ears took my mind away from that trip that changed so many things. Too bad I couldn't see it.
"You think you can just disappear and come whenever you like?! This is not a hotel you understand?!"
Mary Roan continued rumbling on about how irresponsible and stupid among other things I was, but I wasn't listening, my mind still confused.
She eventually dragged me to my small room and threw me in there before closing the door with force.
I sighed behind the closed door while some flames flickered in my fingers, frozen blue, as thoughts of the possibilities my future had, flickered in my mind.

School seemed and was pointless. I couldn't find a reason for me to stay there. At school, at New York, at that non-magical world.
I decided to teleport myself to school that day. I was in no mood to see Kathrine after my two-day disappearance.
Who I wanted to see was Chris. I didn't expect much, and that was exactly why I wanted to talk to him. His indifference would be the push I needed in order to open my wings and fly towards greatness.
And I believe that it would have been...

I walked towards him and sat beside him. He didn't notice me, his focus on his phone. Or maybe he did.

"Hey," I said, eyeing him with disappointment. Maybe I did expect or wanted to expect something other than rejection. 

"Hi." He said shortly.

"Any news?"

"No."

At that point, I just stopped trying. I just let my gaze wander around the school, thinking that it could be, and maybe I wanted it to be, the last time I'd see it.

The day passed quickly. I still hadn't seen Kathrine or the other girls. But my luck had run out.
The three girls and Chris were standing next to the big garden in the middle of the school, while the other students were rushing to leave.

I lowered my head and tried to blend in with the crowd.
But no luck.
Katherine's eagle-like eyes had caught me.

"Alex?" She shouted at me, leaving me no choice but to walk to them.

I slowly walked toward them and greeted them.

"Hey, guys."

"Hey Alex," Christina said and smiled that sweet smile of hers.
I really liked Christina. She was maybe the only one I never thought of killing or torturing.
Mathilde was also nice I guess, but I didn't particularly like her.
"Were you sick?" She continued, referring to my absence.

"Oh didn't I tell you?" Kathrine was the one who had spoken, her tone as always ironic. "I must have forgotten. I guess it's because you are pretty forgettable." She said to me, pity in her eyes like I was seriously ill or something.

Suddenly the scene became familiar. The other students had left. Everyone that was supposed to be there, was there.
I had seen that moment in a vision. I knew what would follow, I knew that something was coming.
But Katherine's voice had already started to irritate me. Too much for me to be able to think anything else besides how much I wanted, how much I could make her suffer.

"So Alex was missing the last two days." She continued. " Where did you go? I guess that you went to a party or something with your friends, maybe you did something wild. Oh! But what am I saying you don't have any friends." That gaze of compassion again made my hands turned to fists. 
"Hm... I wonder why that is... I wonder why nobody really seemed to notice your absence.
But on first thought, maybe it's because you've always failed to make an impression. You know, you are kinda indifferent, unimportant, powerless."

As I already knew, the surprise that took the place of the poison in her eyes, of the amusement on her face, made me close my fists and extinguish the flames.
"What is that?" Mathilde spoke and fixed her glasses on her nose.
"It must be a bird."
"A very big bird." Christina answered Chris as all of their eyes continue to grow bigger, crazier.
I turn to look.
There was a black spot on the sky that keep getting closer and closer. And the closer it got, the more detailed it became. The wings of that very big bird were actually fabric that danced wildly with the wind, around what seemed to be a broom, what was a broom, what seemed to be a person, what was a witch.
"Is it a... a person?"
"On a broom?"
"Come on, there must be something we are not seeing. It's a trick most definitely." Kathrine corrected the other girls with confidence that slowly faded away as the witch got closer. "It must be a trick." She said trying to make sense of the situation.
I did too.
I could understand what I was seeing, but what was she doing there, why was she so confidently revealing magic?

She stepped on the ground, a woman with hair and eyes as dark as night, an aura so strangely wicked, no not wicked, evil around her.
I sighed heavily when her eyes met mine. Something strange vibrated through me. A feeling, a pulse, something I couldn't understand. I felt like I knew her, like I somehow knew her. She was another shiny, foggy memory inside that coal-black night sky that was my very existence. An intense foggy memory she was.

"Hi." I heard her playful voice that I had somewhere heard again.
"Hi." I shook my head and answered, my hands tied on my chest.
Who ever she may was, whatever familiarity among other things she made me feel, she could have been a threat.
And indeed she was...
"No reason to be defensive darling," She said, a confident smile on her lips.
"I'm not here to fight, I'm just looking for something..."
"And what that may be?" I asked her, but Kathrine being Kathrine, just couldn't keep her mouth just. 
"Who are you?" She shouted at her. "And how did you do that... that trick?"
"Who am I? That's a question not for now, but if you shall know I'm no trickster." Her confident gaze made Kathrine seemed inferior, and I'd lie if I say that I didn't enjoy it.
"Then how did you..."
"Enough," She interrupted Kathrine her palm pointed at her. "I'm not here  to speak with the peasants."
"Excuse me?" Kathrine exclaimed, clearly offended.

"Excuse me ma'am," Our principal had shouted as he was walking towards us, but he quickly stopped.
The strange woman rolled her eyes in frustration and with a slight movement of her hand she stopped him from moving, making the other persons behind me blanched and back away.

"How unbearable?" The woman mumbled to herself. "How do you deal with them anyway?" She asked me.

"You said that you wanted something, what is it?" I said severely, not sharing her mood.

"Don't be so serious, come on. Where's your playfulness? I know you are playful..."
Her words confused me but I didn't react, my gaze still serious.

"Fair enough. I'm looking for puppets."
"Puppets?"
"You know, mortals."
"What for?"
"I... have build a game and I need players that's all."
"Oh I see, a game for your own amusement."
"Exactly!" She said, a playful smile on her lips.
"And who do you think you'll find here?"
"I see some very appealing candidates." She said eyeing my... acquaintances.  "Or are you willing to protect them?"

And I guess that was the only mistake she made. She challenged me.

"Don't you think I am?"
"I guess we'll find out soon enough..."
She raised her hand, her palm glowing black.

The wind became wilder, a twirling noise was heard.
I turn behind me to see a dark portal opening that was rapidly growing and spinning fast like a whirlpool. It swallowed all four of them before they got the chance to scream. I was watching with disbelief, as the electrifying air that was now strong hit me mercilessly. As the portal was starting to make me lose my balance, not able to believe that she could actually do that.
"Where did you take them?" I screamed.
"I told you, in my game." She said as shades of amusement colored her face.
"What game are you talking about?" I asked but I had the feeling that I somehow knew the answer.

"Why do you care anyway? You wouldn't be willing to go with them would you?" She said suddenly serious, her playful smile gone.
My eyes shone at her words.

"I wouldn't be? Is this a challenge?"

She didn't answer just continue to watch me with that serious gaze, as if she expected something from me. 

"You don't care enough. I know that you don't, you hate them."

"How would you know anything? Who are you anyway?"

"You'll find out someday dear, but for now my job here is done." She said and smiled.
She seemed amused and that amusement irritated me. Didn't she believe I was willing to go into her game? I was gonna destroy it.

"That's something we have in common." I said, my eyes shining bright by the confidence I felt and let myself fall back into the portal, making her eyes open widely, as if she didn't believe I'd go.

But I did go and did play.