Keepers of Ice

Epilogue

Travelling around the City of Melbourne all day had been exhausting. Estella had insisted that they spend a couple of hours doing clothes shopping, but it ended up taking the whole day. If David was honest, clothes shopping was not anywhere near his idea of fun. Nevertheless, he could not help enjoying himself and smiling when he noticed how cheerful and happy she was.

"Today was so much fun!" Estella admitted as she clutched two big bags of branded clothing with both hands.

"I'm glad you think so," David replied with a smile. "Though, I'm getting the feeling it's because you managed to do more than a just a couple of hours of clothes shopping."

"Hey! I had fun with you too." Estella planted a kiss on David's cheek. "You know my parents wouldn't let me travel to the city alone. So, when you asked me out on a city date and they said yes, I was really thrilled!"

David confidently placed an arm around her waist. It had been a year since their time in Polarfrost and even though they had confessed their feelings for each other at Jackson's birthday party, he had waited a few weeks after to finally ask her to be his girlfriend. "Yeah, I guess it was a lot of fun exploring the city with you. It's my first time in the city so I was a little worried about getting lost but it's a good thing you know your way around."

"There's this thing called a map, Dave."

David screwed up his face in disgust. "More like a bunch of random lines on a piece of paper to me. How do you read those things?"

Estella giggled. "Gosh Dave, you're so dramatic." She peered up at the orange-coloured sky with the sun slowly descending to the horizon. "Dave?"

"What is it, Ella?" David and Estella had chosen to call each other by their nicknames rather than cheesy couple names a long time ago. Somehow, 'babe', 'cupcake' and 'boo' sounded too mainstream and stupid for them, much to Stacey's disagreement.

"It's getting dark. We should head back home soon... I don't want my parents to worry."

"You're right. Where's the closest train station?"

"It's in that direc—" Estella stopped suddenly. She was staring at something in the distance with her eyes wide open.

David squeezed her side gently. "Ella, what's wrong?"

"See that man over there? The one crossing the road and heading towards us... the one in those dark red robes... I saw him watching us an hour ago. I didn't think anything of it at first."

He grabbed her arm and started pulling her in another direction. "We need to lose him. Do you... do you think it's Order behind this?"

Estella shook her head. "I don't know. I'll admit his choice of clothing is kinda strange, but Order's goons wear black clothing, not red. Plus, we haven't come across them ever since your sister was attacked last year at the cinemas. I really thought they had given up on us."

"Order or not, he doesn't seem very friendly." He led her towards a big park just around the corner. It was surrounded by trees and gave off a gloomy atmosphere as there were very few people in sight. It was also getting darker by the minute and David suddenly remembered that one of the train stations was on the other side. They ended up power walking away rather than running as Estella's two bags of new clothes were not exactly suitable for physical activity.

They were now in the middle of the park and the sky was now turning to the colour of night. The lamp lights along the footpaths were now turning on, but the atmosphere felt cold and eerie. David could feel his heart beating faster and he cursed the fact that the train station was still not in view.