The Circle in the Ice
“Alun?”
She looked back.
“Yes, Dean?”
“Are you alright?”
“I will be. It’s just… I was remembering.”
“This was the lake.”
“Yes.”
“Where you almost died.”
“Yes.”
+++
“That’s it, Alun,” Master said in her ear. “Go on.”
“But it’s too cold! I’m cold!” Alun said.
“You can beat it. I taught you how. You can.”
“All I have is a hoodie!”
“It’s not a hoodie, Alun. It’s a cloak.”
“The lake is frozen!”
“Yes.”
“I’m cold!”
“Shut up and go on!”
The snapped order put her in immediate motion. Alun tried to run, then skidded and fell. She hit the frozen surface, and the cold bit her even deeper. She tried to stand up but couldn’t.
“Get up.”
“I… I can’t… cold…”
“Concentrate it. Control it. Don’t think you can, just do it.”
Where Alun’s reserves were, she didn’t know. But she tried, harder, and to her surprise, there it was: a warm sensation. Just a flicker, just for a few seconds. Enough for her to get up and keep walking.
“You can do it again. You’re almost there.”
Alun stared ahead. There was something on the frozen surface, a dark patch. As she came closer, she saw it was a circle. The irregular layer of ice had been smoothed inside the circle.
“There. Step inside.”
Numb, Alun did as she was told. All she wanted was to lie back and let sleep take her away, and rest.
“Gather your strength. Kneel.”
Alun toyed vaguely with the idea of throwing the communicator away and just letting go. She doubted Master would mourn her. But after all, kneeling was almost lying.
She knelt.
“Touch the surface.”
“I… I don’t have gloves.”
“Touch the surface.”
If Alun had thought she was cold, she was wrong. The instant gelid sensation froze the palm of her right hand, and started crawling up her arm.
“Fight it. Fight it.”
Numb, numb. What was that song? Oh, yes, comfortably numb. Head dizzy.
“Fight it. Fight it.”
Master. His voice. he was always right. Always. Life made no sense if he wasn’t.
So she fought.
Warm radiated from within her. Alun felt better at once. Her dizziness remained, but the cold was receding.
“More.”
She pushed with her mind, like Master had taught her, and the heat grew. A crack formed under the palm of her hand and quickly traveled to the edge of the circle on the ice. Then another and another, like irregular spokes on a wheel. They grew tendrils and expanded.
Alun could only stare, fascinated. Was she really doing this? Had she become so powerful?
“More.”
“It’s nice… So nice… Like a sea star… Rivers on Titan…A brain cell…”
She started singing. Something about daisies.
“More.”
The voice. The voice. Master’s voice, always there, always telling her what to do. He was always right. Always.
If he was right, why was he ordering her to heat up that patch of ice while she was standing on it?
Alun took her hand away.
The fissures had grown. Huge chunks of ice were breaking off.
There was a loud crack.
+++
Alun simply glared at the frozen surface of the lake. There was a creak. A screech. A bang. Then several more, and cracks.
The surface became liquid, and started boiling.
And Alun just gazed into the lake.
“Alun, Master is not there. Let it go.”
“What he did, Dean…”
“I know. We’ll make him pay — you will make him pay. But that’s useless.”
Alun didn’t say a word, but she turned and walked away. Dean followed her.
He wore a heavy coat. She had only her jeans and a T-shirt on. Behind them, the water calmed down.
~~~~
This is my accompanying entry for the Weekly Writing Exercise: January 9–15, 2017 on the Writer’s Discussion Group in Google+. I am responsible for creating the prompts for the Exercise, so I don’t take part, but I still like to write a story each week.
These last weeks I’m always late writing my own stories. That means I can read all the other entries for the exercise beforehand. While I prefer not to, it’s also interesting to see if someone has similar ideas to mine. To me the image said “superpowers”, but that’s a direction nobody took.
