Cold

Chapter Three

Summer. Justin. Lucas. Von. They will be mine soon enough. I will have my vengeance. I will get revenge.

***

We must've been running for hours. We didn't stop. We couldn't. Von was our only hope. Now, we only have each other. We stopped running finally when we reached a river. Lucas immediately jumped in, feeling refreshed. Justin pulled me aside.

"Should we go and find Von?" he asked. I thought about it. Von was the only masked one that cared to let us go. But everyone knows that this place is survivable. What will happen if we don't get him? Will we survive? Will we be stuck here like they were?

"We need answers. We can live without Von for now. But if we are in the dark away from a huge secret, we need to know" I said.

"So where do we look for these answers?" asked Justin.

I was just about to answer when Lucas shouted, "GUYS!!! Come see this!!!". Justin and I ran over and looked. On the other side of the river, there was a light shining through the trees.

"Should we go see what it is?" I asked.

"No. We......can't. It's probably bad anyways. Random lights are never a good thing" said Lucas. I could tell he was hiding something. He did that thing with his hands that means he doesn't want to tell me the truth.

"What aren't you telling me?" I asked with a little more defensiveness behind my voice than I intented. Lucas just stared at me. He had a blank expression on his face that practically begged me to ask my next question:

"Is it the masked men?"

As if on cue, at least 20 of them came out from the river and ran over to us. Something hit my head, and I passed out. Before dosing off, I could just see Justin lying on the ground, and Lucas being praised by our new enemy.

***

Pain was all I felt when I woke up. Fear was all I felt when I looked around, and discovered I was in a room by myself, with my hands and legs tied to a wall. I heard people through the wall. They were laughing. Having fun. It was as if they were unaware that I was in here, and that my firend might be missing. Or that my brother just betrayed me. Or that I am alone. It wasn't until I recognised one peculiar laugh that I knew where I was. I had studied that laugh. They trained us to stay away from it. I watched movies about her, terrifying in itself to think that it could be true. But this is impossible. She died long ago. Hundreds of years ago to be exact. Why can I hear her laugh now? Why is she here? Is she actually alive? Am I dreaming?!?

Someone suddenly walked in the room. It was my brother, followed by multiple guards wearing masks. Then, behind them, was her. As white as snow, as cold as ice. Her hair as dark as darkness itself. She gave a feeling of death. I came to the conclusion that she was indeed very dead. She couldn't be here after all. Could she?

"Good evening, Summer" she said. Her words filled the air with a feeling of annoyance. Her voice so pitchy, like she is a five year old still learning to speak, trapped in the body of the dead.

"How do you know my name?" I tried to keep my mouth from opening. But it started working on it's own. As if she yanked the words right out of me. Begging me to tell her whatever she wants.

"I suppose you know who I am. You would, I guess. They would teach you to not be me. To do the right thing" she said. She spoke her sentences with a softness that was almost as creepy as her eyes were when she looked at you, staring into your soul. I tried so hard not to look at her, but her stance when she stood gave off a sort of comforting feeling that made me want more.

"We need to ask you a few questions about where you came from" she said. "And hopefully, you will come to realize that this life in here is better for you."

"Why should I answer you?!?" I asked defensively.

"We just need answers on where you come from. You see, I made deals with everyone when they came here. One deal I made was with your brother. He would bring you here and I would ask you questions and you would answer them or I would kill you" she explained.

"Where is my deal?!?"

"Your mind was harder to crack than the others. We didn't get into your head. We couldn't see your thoughts. Either that or you rejected the mountain. You see, the mountain.....". She stopped talking. I guess she realized our roles switched and I was really the one finding out the information.

"Could everyone excuse us please?" she asked. Everyone, including my brother, left.

"You know too much" she said after a minute.

"Don't you mean not enough?" I retorted. She took a step back. And reached for something on a nearby table.

"Just like your mother. So stubborn. So foolish. So.....what's the word....... Unbelievably smart. It's only a matter of time before the smart ones realize what's happening to the world, and what is going to happen. I can't let that happen." She said those words with a seriousness that was almost terrifying. I can't help but wonder how she knew my mother. My mother died giving birth to my brother. I watched it happen. She never came into the Cold. But then again, there were alot of things I didn't know about her. I never met her friends, she never wanted to be near people when she was pregnant with my brother. I guess I didn't really know who she actually was.

"What is that?!?" I asked when I finally saw the scalpel she was holding.

"You know absolutely too much. I must make sure you don't tell anyone. So I'll just have to do a little surgery on your brain" she said. This crazy girl!!! She might kill me!!! She walked closer. Fearing the inevitable, I started struggling. She jabbed her scalpel into my head, and the last thing I felt was the blood dripping down my face.