Thursday morning was slow and Stacey could not help yawning throughout English class. The last three days of camp had been incredibly fun but exhausting. Somehow, returning to school the very next day just did not seem right and only half of the junior students had attended school. She was amongst the unlucky half, as Aunt Yvonne would not accept 'I'm too tired' as a legitimate excuse for taking the day off.
Stacey tried to keep her eyes on the teacher, who was writing some instructions on the board. But her eyelids felt heavy and with a groan, she slowly lowered her head and rested it on her desk whilst using her arms for support. She closed her eyes and the noise around her dulled as her mind drifted back to the night before, where her uncle and aunt had told her about her powers and the history of the Keepers of Ice.
"The Keepers of Ice were once a large group of humans who had the ability to manipulate ice in many ways. The offspring of such a group sometimes developed similar abilities to yours." Aunt Yvonne paused. "Although it is still unknown to us how such powers were developed, your parents were thought to be the last survivors."
"What happened to the rest?" Stacey asked as she took another bite out of her aunt's delicious cookies.
"We're getting to that part. Be patient, please." Aunt Yvonne scolded with a smile. "The Keepers of Ice were not originally from this world. They were from another world completely. Your ancestors decided to leave their world and live in secret in ours. However, a dangerous organisation known as Order started assassinating and killing off the Frost family one by one until it was just your parents. Your parents were a smart couple, but even they couldn't escape Order forever."
"Are there any other Keepers left?" David asked.
Uncle William shook his head. "I'm afraid you two are the very last. Unless..." He cleared his throat. "Regardless, we will protect and train you. And hopefully one day, you will be able to defend yourselves in the case that they do find you."
"Stace, wake up," Hailey whispered as she nudged her friend.
Stacey jumped in her seat. "Huh, what?"
"You fell asleep in class," Hailey smirked at her.
"No, I didn't. I was just thinking." Stacey frowned. "To be honest I'm still really tired from camp."
"Stacey and Hailey. Would you both like to share what you were discussing with the class?" Miss Bryce said sternly.
"Sorry miss. We'll stop talking and pay attention like we are supposed to because English is so interesting." Hailey answered sarcastically.
Miss Bryce raised an eyebrow at Hailey but continued to teach. "Okay class, as I was saying, the assignment is due next Monday. If there are any questions, feel free to ask me before the weekend."
Stacey was grateful, but she wondered how Hailey was always able to get away with her sarcastic remarks. Does she bribe them or something? She shrugged. Hailey was Hailey. She could get away with anything.
❄ ❄ ❄
"Ugh, I cannot believe something this horrible would happen to me!" Hailey wailed.
"What happened?" Stacey asked as she took a bite from her sandwich.
Hailey inspected her red hair with shock. "I have split ends. This is terrible!"
Chloe and Stacey exchanged looks. "Oh my gosh, will you just chill? It's not the end of the world or anything close so stop overreacting," Chloe stated with exasperation.
"I'm so not overreacting. This is a life or death situation!"
Whilst Chloe lectured Hailey about life, Stacey spotted Cody in the distance making his way towards the library. She noticed his neatly combed hair and felt her heart racing.
Cody turned and noticed her, waved with a nervous smile, then entered the library in a rush. She noticed that his cheeks had turned red, and she smiled.
"He totally likes you." Hailey giggled.
Stacey's cheeks turned the colour of a tomato. "What? We're just friends." Why do I even bother?
"Yeah, totally just friends. Nice try Stace, but you're a terrible liar, you know." Chloe teased.
Stacey tried to hide her face from embarrassment. "Okay fine, I have a crush on Cody. There, I said it. Are you satisfied now?"
Hailey beamed. "You two would make such a cute couple!"
"Oh my gosh Hailey, leave me alone!" She gave her a playful shove and the three of them started laughing.
❄ ❄ ❄
Stacey and her brother had just returned from school. When her guardians did not greet her like they normally would, she did not think it was anything important. But when she noticed the broken kitchen windows and the kitchen tap still running, she had started to panic. They're not here. Stacey's heart raced as she searched around the house with trembling hands. Where could they be? "Uncle William? Aunt Yvonne? Where are you?" she called out.
David reappeared from around the corner. He was panting heavily and sweat glistened across his forehead. "I searched outside and around the whole neighbourhood with no luck. Where could they have gone? They wouldn't leave us alone in the house without telling us first."
Stacey felt herself panicking even more and she ran to the kitchen and searched the front and sides of the refrigerator for any helpful notes. She had searched twice before in a rush, but she was determined to look for a note carefully this time. Sure enough, she spotted a small note at the side of the fridge that was not there before. How had I not notice this earlier?
"David! I found their note!" With relief, she snatched the paper and read it frantically. Her eyes widened in horror as she realised what has just happened. "Oh no. Not them too," she whimpered and tried to force back the tears that threatened to escape her eyes.
"What does it say?" her brother asked before grabbing the note from his sister. He read the note aloud as if making the writing audible would help them understand the situation better. "Greetings. We have your loved ones with us. If you ever wish to see them again, bring only yourselves to the dark alley in Swanston Street tonight before midnight. Do not be late, or your precious uncle will pay for your tardiness, and we do not mean with money. Yours Truly, Order."
David let it sink in and shook his head, not believing what he had just read. "They're kidding, right?"
Stacey felt a few tears escape her eyes. "What do we do now? Should we call the cops?"
"No."
"Then what do we do?"
"We do what they say, and get them back."
Stacey frowned. "You do know that this is a trap, right? For all we know, they might ambush us in the dark alley and kill us. Just like they did to our parents."
"But if we involve the police in this, Order might hurt them both." David paced around the house. "Here's my plan. First, we pray. Then we go to the dark alley at Swanston Street tonight, and we fight them back if they try to hurt us."
Stacey's eyes widened. Had my brother gone mad? "Fight them back with what?"
"With our powers. You can freeze them, right?"
Yup, he's mad. "David, I've never tried freezing anyone before, let alone even learned to control my powers properly!"
"We have to try sis." David walked towards the fridge. "Get yourself changed, I'll make dinner."
"But you can't cook."
"I'll work something out."
After Stacey had taken a shower and changed out of her school uniform, she ate leftovers with her brother in silence. They then practised using their powers, just as their guardians had instructed them to. Stacey noticed that she and her brother had different ice abilities. She could shoot out a mist that could freeze anything. Her brother, on the other hand, could grow a thick layer of solid ice around him that would not only act as armour but also strengthen his punches and kicks. But they could not imitate each other's abilities.
We're coming for you Order, and we're going to make you return our guardians. The clock struck nine and the siblings left the house and walked towards Swanston Street, which was not far from their home. Along the street, tuckshops and quiet restaurants inhabited most of the area. Only a handful of people were around, and the streetlights gave off an eerie glow. They came across the only dark alleyway in the small town, where dumpsters and cobwebs were lined up against the cool brick walls.
David scratched his head. "There's no one around. Maybe we're in the wrong place?"
"They could be late... or hiding in the shadows somewhere," Stacey whispered as she tried to keep herself from trembling.
"Then we better keep our guard up." David grew a layer of ice that covered his whole body except his eyes. "Stay behind me."
Cautiously, Stacey followed her brother through the alleyway that reeked of garbage. Her eyes darted around for any signs of movement among the dumpsters or any moving shadows. Her heart was pounding at a rapid rate but at least she was on full alert.
"I don't hear or see anything out of the ordinary," David whispered.
"Since when was walking into a dark alleyway late at night ordinary anyways?" Finally, they reached a dead end, where a brick wall stood ahead of them with trash scattered all over the ground. "There's no one here. Maybe they set us up?"
At that moment, a full moon reappeared from behind a cloud and shone with intense brightness. A ray of moonlight shot down towards them, and a two-dimensional oval with silver-coloured mist formed a metre away from the wall. It was about three metres high and two metres wide, with a vivid but faint image of snowy forests and plains within the oval. Stacey gasped at this.
"What the— what is that?" David questioned.
"It looks like some sort of portal. But how's this even possible?" Then again, the last time I checked, creating icy mists from my hands wasn't supposed to be possible either.
David raised an eyebrow. "I don't know, but let's see if we can go through it. If it really is a portal that will lead us to our uncle and aunt, then we should try."
Anxiously, they forced themselves to walk through the misty oval and as soon as they had entered, their feet started to sink into something cold and soft. What lay before them was something different altogether from the quiet town they had just been in. Stacey realised with surprise that they were now in a land completely covered with snow and with many trees around the area that swayed gently to the frigid winds. In a way, she could feel the bitterness of the cold on her pale skin but was not shivering. Maybe Keepers of Ice are immune to the cold. But where are we?
Before she could turn to face her brother, a volley of arrows landed around them, forming a circle. She took a step back and gasped. About a dozen people in thick, dark clothing appeared from behind snow-covered trees and began to close in on them with loaded bows aimed at their direction. David, with his glacial armour still protecting him, tried to step in front of Stacey protectively with fists raised.
A tall man appeared from the surrounding archers and began walking towards them. Even with a thick hoodie covering his head and some of his face, Stacey noticed the huge scar that marked his left cheek. "I see you've received our invitation. I suggest you follow us and don't try anything funny or my trained archers will have no problem shooting you freaks down. Do you understand?"
"Understood," David said as he lowered his fists. He gave Stacey a look before following the scarred man, which seemed to be the one in charge of their oppressors. Archers marched alongside them from all directions, and they knew that if they tried to make a run for it, they would be shot.
Stacey refrained herself from kicking the nearest archer right where it really hurt. She decided to first find her guardians before she kicked anyone. They followed the scarred man – which she nicknamed scar-face – for what seemed like an hour through the snowy forest.
Finally, they stumbled across a huge building made of metal. It looked like some kind of bunker. Scarface opened the door and his crew led Stacey and her brother down towards what seemed to be some sort of underground lair. The place was surprisingly warm with dimly lit lights and doors that led to other rooms. How big is this place?
"Now that we're here, what do you want? And, where are we?" David demanded.
Scar-face chuckled. "Why, haven't you figured it out already? We want to keep our world free from dangerous freaks like you. We would have exterminated you already, but the boss has other plans for you two. Scar-face gestures at two of his nearby henchmen. "Take these two to their cells. And make sure to tie up their hands."
Stacey's hands were instantly pulled behind her and tied up with metal cuffs. "Hey!" she cried out in anger.
"Move!" the henchman ordered as he shoved her towards one of the doors. She looked behind her and saw her brother being led away through another door. Stacey wondered if she would find her aunt and uncle wherever they were taking her.
The door led to an old-looking hall and at the very end was a large prison cell. Even from a distance, she could see that there were two other people already in there. They opened the cell door and forced her in before locking the cell door again. After they left the hallway, Stacey turned and saw two other prisoners with her.
Stacey's eyes lit up. "Aunt Yvonne, you're here!"
"Stacey, how did you get here?" Aunt Yvonne asked as she wrapped her in a hug.
"Those creeps left us a note on the fridge to come to this dark alley in Swanston street so David and I went to look for you there. Then there was a beam of light that created a portal, so we went through it but then we ended up in this world of snow and then we got ambus-"
"Whoa, slow down a bit Stacey. Explain what happened from the beginning."
Nodding her head, Stacey carefully explained all that had happened to them. In exchange, her aunt told her of how five mysterious men had suddenly broken into the house through the kitchen window, rushed inside and knocked them unconscious.
"The next thing I knew, I woke up in this cell. But I wasn't alone. She was already here when I woke up," Aunt Yvonne said and pointed at the other prisoner who was sitting down nervously on one of the plain beds. The girl had long black hair and judging from her facial features, Stacey figured she was Asian.
"Hey, I know you, aren't you David's girlfriend?" Stacey asked.
"That's David's girlfriend? I didn't even know he had a girlfriend!" Aunt Yvonne intervened.
Estella's cheeks turned red. "No! I mean, we're not... we're just friends."
Stacey raised an eyebrow in a playful manner. "Right. Just friends." Then she remembered Chloe, and she cringed.
"Stop teasing her Stacey," Aunt Yvonne scolded. "Well, I guess you've both met."
Stacey watched as Estella stood up with shaking hands. She was taller than she was. "W-Where are we? Why are we h-here?" Her eyes were darting around wildly.
Stacey approached her and looked her in the eye. "Let's just say my family is being hunted down by an organisation called Order. I don't know why they brought you here too but I promise if we make it out of here alive, I'll explain everything. If you promise not to tell anyone else that is."
"What do you mean if we make it out of here alive? Are they going to kill us? And where is here?" Estella took a few deep breaths and tried to calm down. "They kidnapped me on my way home from school and dragged me through this portal thing like you said. Then I was freezing in a completely different place that was covered in snow." Estella explained. "They told me I was being used as bait."
Stacey could only imagine how scared she must be feeling. "I'm not sure where here is. Did they drag us to Antarctica or something?"
"No." Aunt Yvonne stared grimly at a prison wall. "We're not on Earth anymore. They have imprisoned us in your ancestors' own world: Polarfrost. The original homeland of the Keepers of Ice."