Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

Another Inconvenience

Ice was beginning to crystalize in his bones, following the lines of marrow like little roots penetrating soil. He could feel the crystals beginning to build up in his skin and crystalize causing his entire body to prickle and hurt. Everything about him was cold, even parts of him that had never experienced cold felt cold.

The roots of ice pierced through him like they were taking over his veins, a slow freezing taking place over so many minutes.

Or that's what it felt like.

He sat on the floor curled up in a corner in the fetal position, his arms and legs drawn into his chest, and his head down as he pressed his back against the wall attempting, however fruitlessly, to create a pocket of warmth in the cold room. His fingers had long since lost their color and were completely numb despite him pressing them into the fork of his arms and torso.

He was so unbelievably cold.

His breath billowed around him like the mist from a fog machine, or dry ice dropped into a cup.

"how interesting, 0 degrees F –17c. for almost twenty-five minutes. Well, aren't you a hearty creature. Even with fur most species wouldn't last half that, and there you are without any fur to speak of."

He was shivering so badly it seemed as if the pressure from his locked hips and lower back were about to send his vertebrae shooting out his ass like Pez from a Pez dispenser.

"But what is this, this strange vibration I am detecting."

Adam thought his teeth were going to crack open as he pressed them together, "T-T-T-There's T-this-s think cacalled the i-i-internet you b-b-b-b ....b-bastard. You could just look it up!" His chest hurt from attempting to force out the words. Y-y-you could have just asked! W-we' already know t-the answers to a-all your questions."

He could hear the dismissiveness in the Rundi's voice as it spoke. I am not simply interested in the information, but the process, the journey of discovery is just as thrilling as crossing the finish line. Besides, information that can be gained from a source, which can be accessed by just anyone, can hardly be trusted. For all I know you humans could have fabricated a multitude of stories to make yourselves seem more powerful than you really are and thus gained your power through guile.... No, I think I will find the answers for myself. The truth will be gotten by my own hands!"

"Y-you're insane.' He said jaw clenched so hard it felt like his skull was going to shatter.

"Mmmm perhaps, but I would say less insane and more bored. You don't become an eccentric billionaire like me and not get bored on occasion."

"W-when normal people are bored, t-they do a p-p-puzzle. Or w-w-watch a m-movie. They don't torture people.'

"Torture! I am insulted."

"F-Fuck you."

"Eloquent aren't we."

"I sense you are starting to enter the first stages of a more dangerous phase, so now I want to know. Just how cold can it get and you still survive. Just for a few seconds and then we can stop all of this nonsense and move on to something else. What do you say?"

Adam did not grace him with an answer but continued to lay on the floor and shiver violently.

"Oh fine."

Let's see how cold.

The temperature in the room began to drop. He could feel it like the world around him was plunging. His ears hurt so bad he thought they were going to fall off.

"0 -5 -10 -20 -30 -40 -50."

At this point the cold was so horrifically profound that he could not have described it. he doubted he would be ale to feel it much longer as frostbite set in followed by hypothermia, of which he was already in the first stages. Soon enough his brain would stop to regulate his temperature or recognize it, and he would pass away into a state of confused delirium before passing away.