Claimed

Chapter 11 - Freeze

The silence was steely and cutting. It's not like I wasn't expecting the quiet - that's all we'd come across since arriving, after all, but there was something uncomfortably different about it when we walked into the main hall.

Perhaps it was the bodies, lining the walls and floor.

I don't even think to pay mind to my friends as I practically run to the nearest, falling to my knees at its face in fear and terror.

The boy's eyes were wide and vacant, staring without seeing, his skin pale and fingers cold.
I pulled my own away sharply, as if it burned.
This boy wasn't breathing. His chest was still.

A hand landing on my shoulder made me jump. Of course.
Something had killed all these people.

Evie's eyes met mine as I glanced up, her crystal orbs shining with disbelief.
She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out.
I couldn't say I blamed her.

She instead pressed a gentle finger to his cheek; a shiver ran down my spine.
"Warm..." E murmured quietly, "Yet also ice cold." Her voice wavered. "Hasn't been long."

It was suddenly very difficult to force my breath down my throat.

I stood, wrapping my arms around my torso, and looked away.

These people haven't been dead long, so the danger hasn't passed.
Not really.
Who knows where the killer is now - not far, I'd bet.

<><><>

I couldn't bring myself to check the other bodies.

It was Evie that went around them.

I could see the tremble in her hands as she reached for the next, then the next, then the next.

It wasn't nice to admit that the guilt wasn't as heavy as it should've been either...

Instead, I approached our friends, still stood frozen in the centre of the hall, eyes fixed almost-blankly on the bodies around us.

Approaching Jane yielded no change. I found myself moving slowly and quietly, as if creeping up.
To my own surprise beyond anyone elses.
I was bound to be a bit tense - we were surrounded by corpses, after all - but there was something about this that was just so much more disturbing.

Jane didn't react as I drew closer. Her mouth hung open in silent exclamation, her long dark hair (now much messier than it would be usually) hanging limply around her face.

"Jane?" I waved a hesitant hand in front of her face.
Nothing.
When I pressed the pads of my fingertips to her skin, I knew what Evie meant.

It's not something you can really describe; the heat and the cold, together at the same time, yet neither lessening the other.
Like a fire, caged in a dome of ice, the cold bit my fingertips.
I snapped them back, cupping them with my other hand at my chest.

I tore my eyes from her glassy ones, to turn back to Evie, still on the floor by the first body.

"E."
My tone was tight, limited by barely concealed fear and confusion.
There's no way she couldn't have picked up on it.

My guess rings true as her gaze snaps up to meet mine as she nibbled feverishly on her lip.

"Something's wrong, E. We couldn't have been longer than a minute gone."
Her head cocked to the side, like a confused puppy, but the look in her eyes told me she knew exactly what this meant.

Her movements were slow as she pulled herself to her feet, sparing a last pitiful glance to the boy on the floor, before joining me at our friends.