Chapter Eighteen

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Marshall's point of view

The dust settled around us, our breath reverberating through the room. My eyes burned from the frost coming into contact. My hands became cold as ice, my legs rendered immobile. Cake struggled to get up, melting herself into a glob and then morphing back into herself upright. Gumball had no trouble getting up, since his gear became hot from overheating in the fight against those things outside. A tingle ran down my spine, the ice crawling up my body. Gumball noticed me, and pressed his gear to various parts of my body. I finally got out of the ice, my back stiff and my blood cold.

"We can't have any casualties, now. We have places to go," Gumball said, his smile almost frightening.

My smile was slight, tired and worn.

The room we were in was a tall, cylindrical foyer, only about 10 feet across and twice that amount in height. The frost covered the floor and all of the expanse, creating a white, almost blue tinge to the room. Cake shivered, the entire room being almost in-the-dead-of-winter. Gumball's gear finally cooled down, so now he starts to get cold. I so want to help him, to hold him, to keep him warm, but I'm cold. I can't help him. But I can tell him it will all be alright. I won't let anything happen to him.

The door to the final room, the penthouse, is large, wooden, and surprisingly not frozen. The frost was coming from the space beneath the door, only big enough for a piece of paper to slide in. I reach my hand towards the door. My hand touches the door handle, anticipation to pull it gets me excited. I look back to the both of them. Gumball and Cake look ready to go, but I still ask them.

"Once we go through this door, there is no going back. We step into Simone's terrain. Are you guys ready?" I ask, concerned.

They both look at each other, then they look back at me, determination flashing in their eyes. "Yes," they say in unison,
although Cake's voice cracks nervously.

"Alright," I say, as I turn the knob until it clicks, and then I push the door open.

A gust of icy wind flows out of the room in front of us. A chill runs down my spine, going all the way down the small of my back. The whole room is blue. It's only icy on the floor, but the walls, the bed, the drawers, the bathroom, all of it is blue. The room is the same as the one before, cylindrical, except it is much bigger, however small, almost like a princess' room, or at least something extravagant. The ceiling leads up to a point, implying it is the highest tower of all. It was about forty feet across, with a Cinderella-type bed directly in the path of the door, along with a heavily padlocked chest in front of it. Computer monitors connected to each other on a desk adjacent to the bed, along with a makeup desk on the opposite side. Windows about the size of a body or so are on both sides of the room, east and west to the door.

Cake looked around the room, and then began to step forward onto the ice. Gumball saw it and screamed, "NO! DON'T! IT'S A TRAP!"

Cake wasn't even listening, and stepped down. Simone's voice reverberated through the room.

"WHO IS THERE? I CANT RECOGNIZE YOUR HEAT SIGNATURE!"

Cake says nothing, her body frozen in time almost, eyes wide.

"Ohhhhhh....I get it. I know who you are."

Just then, a lump appeared in the middle of the floor. And then, out of nowhere, a figure arose from the ice, a crown forming on its head. The ice morphed into the figure of Simone, The Ice Queen.

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