Storybook Ending, Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The cool air betrays
the balmy remembrance of the day
as the small lights in the sky shimmer
against the dark, creating an unstable glow
over the field

The pinpricks of light extend
down among the tall, green blades,
elusive to any attempt at capture,
but taunting, winking, on and off,
mesmerizing to the eye

The hours of heat will fade
into a calm drowsiness
where the lights blinking in the sky
are as hard to catch as the ones
dancing on earth
 
Gwen felt like she was going insane. Oz hadn’t told her, but she knew he was about to lose his mind as well. Both of them were cooped up at home, prisoners of their own house, because nobody knew what was wrong with them. Correction, nobody wanted to admit what was wrong with them. Gwen felt like if she spent one more minute in bed, she would scream. But all the doctors said the best thing for her mysterious fever that wouldn’t go away would be bed rest. She knew the doctors didn’t know anything. They had no idea. Or at least they were pretending the didn’t
Because of the fever, the beautiful spring weather felt like hottest summer day in the history of man. To her twin brother, Oz, they might as well be living in the North Pole. For some unknown reason, his temperature was drastically dropping. It was hard to tell what would be worse, slowly cooking to death or slowly freezing.
Yet, in a screwed up kind of way, this berserk fluctuation in body temperature was the least of their problems.
Gwen, sitting in bed, started to float and spin her favorite teddy bear in the air by thinking about it. This not only kept her mind occupied, but also seemed to channel the heat from her into the object she was moving. The bigger the object, the better. Mr. Fluffles was the biggest thing she could move. As she thought about it, she got angrier and angrier. What were people to judge? Just because the two of them could do stuff like this didn’t mean they were going to cause chaos everywhere they set foot.
The teddy bear burst into flames. Shit! She thought. What am I going to do now? She just sat there frozen as the bear slowly burned, hoping it would burn itself out before anything else happened.
As if on cue, Oz walked in. He looked at her, sighed, and looked at the bear. In an instant, the fire went out and the bear was covered with ice. It fell into Gwen’s lap with a heavy thud. The frigid ice felt wonderful on her feverish legs as Oz sat down on the bean bag chair next to her bed.
“You don’t seem too surprised to have seen that,” Gwen commented while staring at the ruined bear.
“You don’t seem too surprised to have seen what I did.” He answered. He could hardly talk through the shivering.
There was a long silence where they both sat staring at the wall, and it wasn’t even a very exciting wall at that. There were no pictures, Gwen didn’t like the clutter. All that there was to look at was the calm cream blandness with occasional shadows where imperfections of old age and error showed through.
“Who said you could be in here anyway?” Gwen snapped.
“Geeze, sorry. Warn me next time I try and help you will ya?” Oz stood up and began to leave.
“No. Wait. Come back.” Gwen folded her arms.
Oz sat back down on the bean bag chair. He was in a pair of flannel pajamas, wrapped in a blanket, and still shivering. His blue eyes seemed even bluer than usual and his black hair, even though it wasn’t wet, looked as if it was so frozen it would break off at the slightest touch.
Lucky, he had the looks of most of the family. But not Gwen, no, she was stuck with stupid red hair, and not only red hair, straight red hair. The stupid red hair of their grandmother, who was a total bitch. Her eyes didn’t even match. The right one was the normal color for the family, an icy blue, but the left one was a horrible bright green. Heterochromia, they called it. Horrible. She hated it. And her freckles. You would think that since they were twins, they would be more similar. Because of their difference in looks, people always seemed surprised by the fact that they were twins. Truthfully, they were very similar in almost everything else, it was just the way they looked that was different.
Breaking the silence, Oz spoke first. “So, the voices are pretty bad huh?”
“How do you - never mind, don’t answer that. Yes, of course they are, people ramble all the time in their heads. They never shut up in there. Whenever anyone but you is in here there’s a constant buzzing. Be glad we at least don’t share that one.” Gwen finally looked over at her brother, her twin brother who had always understood her, listened to her, and protected her. He was now a shivering, helpless, ice ball.
“I’m afraid of what will happen when people find out.” Oz was still looking at the wall.
“Fear is idiotic and weak.” She looked back to the wall.
“Yes, I suppose,” Oz finally turned in Gwen’s direction, “but look at us.” He looked down at his lap. “I’m scared, Gwen. I am more scared than I have ever been in my whole life.”
Oz was the one who would always get rid of the spiders from the woods that she screamed and ran away from. He was the one who, when everyone didn’t know what to do with the runaway coyote that somehow got into the house, took a piece of raw meat and calmly lead it back outside. She wondered how she had not picked up on this fear. She had always been able to tell what he was feeling up until now.
In the past month, she hadn’t seen him smile once.
And he couldn’t stop shivering.
A quiet knock on the door announced the next intruder.
Mom entered with a careful smile. “Hey you two. You ready?”
Gwen scowled and retreated back under her flowered comforter as Oz obeyed their mother’s command.
After a few minutes the whole family was on the tram to Prima Island, the center of the seven archipelagos, and where they expected to finally get some kind of answer to how they might solve their little core temperature problem. It was a complete bullshit appointment, of course. Everyone knew what was going on.
Nobody said anything as they flew over the open sea among a handful of others. Gwen cracked the window herself to help cool her feverish forehead. Mom sat quietly by Oz, cradling him in her arms to help still his uncontrollable shaking. A perpetual frown plagued her face as she sat as motionless as possible. That wasn’t hard, seeing as how calm and quiet the tram was.
“Hey, Bumble Bee, look!” her father said with a goofy smile on his face. “One of those wacky birds you only see on Prima. Wow, we must be getting close.”
Inside, his thoughts were racing about how worried he was and what he was going to do after the verdict from the oh so recommended physician.
Gwen rolled her eyes in disgust and continued to stare out the window at the rolling waves and infinite expanse that was the sea surrounding all of the Archipelagos. It took all she could muster up to ignore the thoughts of the others in the tram. Looks of mistrust and fear haunted them the second they had stepped onboard, and Gwen couldn’t help but notice the thoughts of
Freaks
What the hell are they doing here?
Their parents should just do what’s best for everyone
Who are they kidding?
It was sick. Gwen was sick. She moved to focusing on the great expanse of cable the tram was riding on and anything else that might be at least marginally distracting.
And then they arrived on the island.
All the hustle and bustle of the city bred a relative ocean of thoughts, movement, and energy that Gwen had to put all her energy into just to function and move through the crowd with her family. She spent most of the walk to the hospital huddled under her hood hoping that people would ignore her as much as possible.

Next thing she knew, they were all sitting quietly in the waiting room. Evidently, they had already checked in. In about ten minutes, which was a relative hour what with all the clock watching and watch checking, a Dr. Amead walked out and called Gwen and her Brother. He was tall and dark, probably originally from one of less southern islands in the Solas archipelago, the one that had recently brought a ban against all the “tainted”, as they were called.
In a blur of an appointment, Dr. Amead asked them a series of innocuous questions about their health, took vitals, and talked with Mom and Dad about their situation. He didn’t look in their eyes once and routinely went about his work while Gwen glared.
The glare was not for his behavior as much as his thoughts.
As he went through his routine work his thoughts flew freely through the air. I can’t help these little freaks and they know it. They should just turn themselves into the government and do what needs to be done before they turn bad just like they all do. The world would be better without these freaks terrorizing us and the rest of the world. Now remember, don’t touch them. You never know what kind of horrible curse they might put on my.
At the end of the appointment, Dr. Amead flashed a giant, fake smile. “Well, we’ll send in these tests and see what might be the problem. Hopefully we’ll have an answer for you in a couple days. Until then, you guys just get some rest and work on getting better.”
Gwen knew the code. Let’s wait a couple of days for us to put in these tests so that we can identify a couple more “tainted” and put them in their place.
Mom and Dad exchanged a knowing look as they moved on out of the office.
The ride back was even less eventful than the ride there as a numb feeling took over all of her senses. Dad, the usual motor mouth, stayed quiet and looked forward the whole trip. Mom just sat as motionless with a perpetual expression that said she was about to throw up. Gwen wouldn’t have put it past her if she did.
All in all, the whole tram had the atmosphere of a funeral, and it didn’t get any better when they finally got home. Gwen went straight to bed and fell asleep before she could change clothes.

A relative two minutes later, Gwen woke to find it the middle of the night, well past the time when any sane person would be awake, and her mind was racing. She jumped out of bed and started pacing back and forth.
Fuck it, she thought, and she glided across the hall to her brother’s room where he laid motionless on his bed under what looked like five layers of blankets.
She shook him awake. “I have an idea,” Gwen announced as she took him by his frigid wrist. All the covers flew off onto the floor as she dragged her brother to the window where they quietly climbed down the ever useful oak tree.
“Bug, where are we going?” Oz inquired.
Bug. Short for lightning bug. She hated that nickname from everyone but Oz; the one who came up with it. The only explanation he ever gave was that she was bright and flighty, like a lightning bug. From anyone else it sounded wrong.
Without an answer, she took his icy hand and dragged him outside. The view from outside was breathtaking. Their house sat on a cliff that overlooked the whole city. Tonight it looked especially dazzling with the lights illuminating the life below and the fragile crescent moon just beginning to set below the horizon. The city buildings sat motionless, tiny dots of light radiating from the windows. They were the light skeletons of the sky scrapers; beautiful, bold, and calm. Every busy person in the city was evenly muted down in the massive valley. If Gwen would have looked hard, she would have been just able to see the moonlight glistening off the calm waves of the sea held back by the colossal levies. She could usually sit and stare for hours at the glowing city.
But tonight, Gwen and Oz didn’t even look. As soon as they were down from the tree, they ran, holding hands, into the part of the woods that only they knew existed. It was sheltered, yet open, and the perfect place to either warm up or cool down.
“We’re going to the sanctuary, aren’t we?”
Gwen just smiled and continued to lead.
When they got there, Gwen looked back and saw Oz smiling as wide as ever. Ah the sanctuary, Gwen thought; a perfect circular clearing in the middle of the woods just the right size for sparring. It was easy to take a few sticks and pretend they were swords or just do hand to hand combat whenever they wanted. They had learned a lot about fighting in the city and taken classes since they were seven.
Gwen lit the candles in one sweep of her hand and walked to the small lake a few steps away as Oz began to fight his invisible partner. Without words, they went their separate ways.
Watching Oz fight was always remarkably calming. Every move was perfectly calculated and right where he wanted it to be. No move was wasted. It was like looking at water move down an easy river.
Gwen herself had a completely different approach. She attacked as fast as possible, leaving no time for the other to attack or block. When fighting, she exploded like a firecracker. Her style probably looked like nothing compared to his, but it worked. She often won against Oz.
Turning to look at the lake, Gwen noticed all the fireflies that were out with beautiful green and blue lights blinking in the calm black. Lightning bugs just like her. The moon was perfect as well, just beginning to set, giving off a white glow from through the trees. Through the trees, it was hard to pick out the fireflies from the stars. All she saw was bright colorful dots of light against a vast blackness. The night would have been perfect but for the damn fever she couldn’t escape. She was disgusting from the sweat and could hardly think of anything else.
Closing her eyes, Gwen imagined colors moving in front of her. Those colors morphed into a blue, flowing motion and a bright orange, quick motion, almost flickering. These two masses collided and mixed, almost as if they were fighting, but not quite. It was more like a dance. At one moment they would be calmly coexisting, and at the next, they would clash and attack each other. A fight between light and dark, black and white, hot and cold, good and evil, right behind her eyelids. This went on for longer than Gwen could have told you until something brought her back to reality.
But what?
Oz was calmly attacking the air in his fluid motion. The water was also moving in a lulling manner. The bushes were rustling. Wait a sec, she thought. Those bushes were moving more than the others. As Gwen studied the odd bushes, a face appeared between them.
In the moonlight she could make out messy hair above a long face. Two slightly slanted eyes stared at her and brought with them a sense of ease. When they noticed her staring back, they opened wide and the owner of those eyes quickly disappeared among the bushes. Before he was completely gone, she heard a voice call quite clearly in her head, “Don’t go home!”
Don’t go home? What kind of command is that? It didn’t make any sense, yet, she was somehow compelled to follow the order as if she knew the reasoning behind it.
Oz was off in his own little world. He hadn’t noticed the person or heard the words. She was getting ready to lie back down and relax when something huge, noisy, and bright flew overhead.
This Oz noticed.
Gwen and Oz looked at each other. “They’re here,” they said in unison.
The League was here. Gwen and Oz had known it was only a matter of time before The League made their way to their home town. Now they had finally come in their death vehicle to terrorize the people throughout the city until everyone gave up.
Gwen did the first thing she thought of. She grabbed Oz and ran toward home. It seemed a little odd that they were moving in the same direction as the ship, also that she was running when she had a fever; a fever that, despite the rest by the lake, had gotten worse. By the time they got to the house, she was completely out of breath.
The view from the cliff was still dazzling, if somewhat disturbing. The huge ship hovered above the city, waiting for the people to be done doing their job, if you could call them people. Everyone in the League was a freak, really. Freaks, the lot of them.
Faint screams and sounds of destruction floated up from below. Small sections of fire and smoke could be spotted in small sections of the city. Near those sections, the lights were out. All of the miraculous skeletons of light destroyed. Despite the light, it was impossible not to know exactly what was going on, especially during an earsplitting crash, louder screams, and rush of water could be heard on top of their safe little cliff. A dark pool of the city sat underneath a blinding airship. Gwen just stared at the scene. Nothing else seemed important. Her city was gone.
Oz’s voice broke her from the trance. “Come on, Gwen, let’s go inside.” He started to walk to the house.
“The levies.”
He stood in front of her and grabbed onto her feverish shoulders. “Gwen, they’re down there and we’re up here. We’ll be safe inside. Let’s go.”
“No.”
“No? Why not?”
Gwen couldn’t tell him about the person she saw in the woods. “No.”
“Don’t you want to see if Mom and Dad are okay? Make sure they haven’t been here?”
Oz’s argument was reasonable. “Yeah.”
“Then come on.” Oz turned away from her to the house.
Gwen grabbed his arm. “What if they’re here? Aren’t you afraid?”
Oz smiled. “Come on, you’re asking me if I’m scared? You know better than that. Plus, with what we can do we could probably take on any freak that’s in our house. They probably aren’t even this far yet.” Oz thought for a beat. “But you know all of this. Why are you making up excuses?” He stared at her with a searching gaze, trying to read her. She knew he would get through soon, but tried to keep it from happening.
It was hard to make up excuses that were half truths, but Gwen didn’t want to lie to her brother. She also, for some reason, felt like the command not to go home was secret meant only for her. She decided to stall some more. “Something isn’t right here.”
That broke Oz’s concentration. He threw his hands in the air. “Of course something isn’t right here! The city is being attacked. Hell, it’s a giant swimming pool. You were all for danger before we went into the woods. Why the sudden caution? What happened out there?”
They had always been good at guessing what the other was thinking. Before it had always seemed like fun, a person who just understood you. Now it was a curse. She hated keeping secrets from Oz. If anyone else would have put this much pressure on her telling a secret, she would have gone into a fit of rage. With Oz though, she just looked at the ground.
“What happened out there?” he repeated, patiently awaiting an answer.
“Nothing.”
“Great, then come into the house.”
“Why the hell should I?” She almost yelled.
Oz took a step back, unaccustomed to her fury being directed toward him. Even so, he came back with a quick answer. “Why shouldn’t you?”
Gwen was about to give up the fight. “You really want to know?”
Oz nodded.
“Fine! I saw someone out there, and then I heard in my mind ‘Don’t go home!’ There’s a reason and I think I’ll follow that advice, thank you very much.”
“So you’re going to listen to a complete stranger you either imagined or actually saw after taking a nap?” Oz was almost smiling.
She stubbornly folded her arms over her chest. “How did you…I didn’t…never mind.?”
“I’m just saying that you shouldn’t listen to every person you meet in the woods at night is all.” He flashed a smile and walked toward the house.
Damn Oswald! He always knew how to get her to do things he wanted her to do. She stormed in after him.
Inside the house, her anger melted away. She realized another reason she didn’t want to go in the house. There was an odd feeling. All the lights were out, but that made sense, it was late. Everything else seemed to be in order, as she always remembered. Every rock, nook, and cranny was in place. Gwen couldn’t place it, but something was off.
Holding hands, they searched the house. In each room, Oz turned on the lights, checking to see if everything was normal. The kitchen looked all together. The bathroom downstairs was okay. Oz’s room and her room were fine.
Gwen followed closely behind Oz through the whole house. He reached in and turned on the light lest anyone be in the room to grab them. From outside the room everything looked normal, so he started to walk in. Gwen was compelled to tell him not to. Something was wrong.
“No! Don’t,” cried Gwen. She tried to pull him away.
“It’s okay, Bug.” He let go of her hand and walked in the room. It was true. The room looked completely void of life. It had wide, French doors and there was about enough space in it to do gymnastics, so you would notice someone in there.“See?” Turning around to face her, he put his arms out to show nothing was there. He stood like that for a while, unmoving, almost as if he was doing some kind of statue impression.
She was half tempted to crack a smile and say something snarky when an unseen force threw him to the side.
Gwen ran in to see what happened. A man with a crooked smile had Oz pinned to the ground. She hardly had time to be confused before she heard a voice say something inaudible, got very dizzy, and everything went black. Paranoia confirmed, everything was wrong.



Boy was I wrong, Oz thought. He didn’t think he had ever been more wrong about anything before. In addition to being pinned by some unknown thug, Oz realized he couldn’t move or talk. It was more than just his physical force that was keeping him down.
He had tried to warn Gwen, but at the time he couldn’t speak any more than a whisper. Oz had seen the woman on the other side of the room just before he was pinned down. Gwen had no idea. When Gwen walked in, the woman struck. It was like slow motion. He could only watch as the woman walked up behind her, put her hand on Gwen’s head, and whispered something in her ear. Gwen’s head seemed to glow a bright purple before she fell to the floor.
Oz would have screamed if he could.
“One down, one to go,” said the woman.
She sneered with a pair of bright purple lips that matched the streaks of purple in her hair. A hodgepodge of lines in the shape of a tattoo crept down the side of her cheek. Under her perfect eyebrows stared a pair of demonic, red eyes.
“I think I’ll play a little more with this one. Boss said he’s the weaker. Plus he’s kinda cute. Let him go Jack.” Her voice was icy and calm.
The knee on Oz’s chest quickly lifted along with the mental grip.
“Geeze, he’s freezing,” said the one known as Jack. Too caught up with what was going on with Gwen, Oz hadn’t actually looked at this Jack. He was much plainer than the woman; sandy hair, normal cut. A hint of the same tattoo crept up from under his shirt, though, reaching up his neck almost to his face. A nasty sneer spread across his face.
Both of them wore long cream colored robes.
“Freezing, huh?” She touched his skin slightly. “Well I’ll be. He is cold isn’t he?” She looked at him, as if mesmerized.
“Boss said he could freeze things.”
The woman glared. “Shut up, Jack. I want to hear what he has to say about it,” She turned back to Oz, smiling. “Well, Son, what do you have to say? Why are you so cold?”
Oz returned silence.
“What’s the matter, Ozzie? Lost your voice?” Her smile faded. “Answer me!”
A sudden impulse to talk overcame Oz. “I can freeze things. Gwen can burn things. She has some kind of fever.”
“Anything else?” Jack asked.
Oz didn’t answer. He would have made a run for it, but didn’t dare leave Gwen by herself.
“How sweet, Vi, he doesn’t want to leave his sister,” Jack mocked.
They can read minds? Any kind of plan he thought up would be overheard.
The woman, Vi, circled around him, sizing up her prey. “Yes, I see, maybe we can use that. Look, kid, if you don’t cooperate with me, she’ll wake up screaming. That screaming will never stop. I will plant something so horrible in her head it will drive her insane.”
Oz narrowed his eyes at the crazy woman. “You’re bluffing.”
She gave an amused smile. “Am I?” She walked up to Oz and put her hand inches from his head. A burning sensation started at his head and spread throughout his whole body. It started out bearable, but was soon a searing pain that drove out all other thought. Oz could swear his skin would melt off at any moment. When he realized he was screaming, the pain had stopped.
Vi smiled the worst smile Oz had ever seen. “And what I do to her will be ten times worse. So if you’re not going to talk…” She bent down to Gwen.
“No, wait.” He closed his eyes against the impossible situation. “We can also move things with our minds. Gwen can hear what people think.”
Vi stood up.
“That’s impressive,” said Jack. “Hey, Vi, if they really can do what he says, they would be a great addition. They could be Leaders one day.”
Oz didn’t know what that exactly meant. Why is this guy so impressed?
Before he could think any more about it, Jack started screaming and crumpled to the floor, a look of loathing on Vi’s face. After a few seconds it stopped.
“You’re an idiot, Jack. Don’t put him on a pedestal. We’ll get double marks for this is all that means. Now check him.”
Jack huffed and grabbed Oz’s shoulder. Instantly, Oz got the feeling that someone was reaching into him. It was horrible, like a violation.
The feeling went away and Jack looked at Oz with confusion in his eyes.
“What is it?” asked Vi.
“Well,” answered Jack, “he does have all the powers he says. But…” He looked down, searching for words.
“But what?” Vi was getting impatient. “Has he been telling the truth or not? Are there less powers? More? What?!”
“It’s like there was something there that wasn’t completely defined. It lingered around. Definitely felt like a power. But if it was it was one I’ve never felt one like that before.”
“So he does have another power. He’s lying. That’s great! We can have some fun now.” Vi started advancing on him with a hungry look in her eye. Oz braced himself for whatever might come next.
“Wait,” called Jack.
Vi spun quickly around and glared at Jack. “What is it you imbecile? If he’s lying he deserves this.”
Jack shook his head. “But he isn’t, that’s the thing.”
“You said he has another power you dolt. He’s obviously lying.”
Jack shook his head vigorously. “I said it felt like a power, not that it was one. It could very well be something else. Besides, even if it was a power, it wasn’t very defined. That means he wouldn’t have ever used it before. He wouldn’t know he had it.”
Vi crossed her arms.
Jack shrugged.
“That’s a stupid explanation. He’s been lying.” Vi turned back to Oz.
Jack protested. “No he hasn’t. I’m telling you-“
“- and I’m telling you.” Vi’s hands turned into fists. “You’re wrong.”
“Are you an expert on powers, Vi? I don’t think so. Listen to me. This is an odd case. I don’t think Master will like it if we screw this one up too bad.”
“I may not be an expert on powers, but I know people. It sounds like he’s lying, and that you could be helping him.”
They went on like that for a long while; Jack arguing against the unnecessary torture of Oz and a list of insults back and forth on both parts, calling each other stupid or incompetent. They were two children calling each other names. Each had absolutely no regard for the other and was completely in it for themselves. Oz didn’t mind, it gave him time to think of a way out of this mess.
First of all, Gwen would need to wake up. Oz had the crazy idea that if he could just get close enough to touch Gwen, he could wake her up. He wasn’t sure how, but knew that was what he needed to do. As the two were fighting, Oz edged closer to Gwen, making sure they didn’t notice. The argument had now changed to something about how Vi’s brother was as stupid as a doorknob. Once Oz got close enough he placed his hand on Gwen’s head. First, he imagined energy flowing from him into her, fixing whatever it was that was wrong. Once he felt she was better, he nudged her to wake her up.
Gwen’s two-tone eyes opened with a look of complete peace and happiness. She looked up to Oz and smiled.
Oz put a finger to his lips. Gwen nodded and closed her eyes again.
Vi saw Oz by his sister. “You! Get away from her. There’s no reason you should be next to her. She isn’t waking up until I allow her anyway.”
Oz had an idea. He stood up and retaliated. “No,” he answered, and as an afterthought, “Bitch.”
Vi’s mouth morphed into a grimace and she began to advance on him. “What did you say?”
“You heard me. I’m not going to do anything you say, Bitch. You can’t make me. You or your puny friend.”
Now Jack also had a grimace on his face and advanced on Oz along with Violet. “You’ll pay for that you little asshole.”
Oz knelt down and took Gwen’s hand. The two of them would be more powerful together. He needed her. Hopefully she knew what he was thinking.
“Oh, how sweet,” Vi hissed, “he’s scared and thinks his helpless sister can save him.”
Jack stopped abruptly. “Wait. She’s awake!”
“What? That’s impossible – ”
Before she could continue her argument, Oz squeezed Gwen’s hand slightly. Immediately she sat up and together they used all the power they had to throw the two monsters across the room. They both hit the wall on the other side and slid down to the floor.
Oz and Gwen looked at each other.
“Did we do that?” she asked.
Oz nodded. He hadn’t expected it to work that well. But they weren’t home free yet. “Come on. Let’s get out of here before they realize what happened.”
They dashed for the door, but didn’t get very far before Gwen was pulled back by an unseen force. Oz spun around to see her on the other side of the room firmly in Jack’s grip.
“Are you really idiotic enough to think you can simply throw us against a wall and just run away? I don’t know how you woke her up, kid, but that was a mistake.” Vi faced Gwen and touched her temples. Gwen screamed in agony as a smile spread across Vi’s face. Jack started to laugh as he loosened his grip and stood up. She didn’t need to be confined any more.
“Probably thought you were smart, didn’t you?” Jack snickered. “Don’t worry, she’ll have gone crazy by the time Vi’s done with her, but the boys back at the camp won’t mind. They’ll take anything young and feisty like her no matter how crazy they are.”
Oz couldn’t take it. He just couldn’t bear the idea of his sister being victim to thugs like Jack. He couldn’t stand the ear-piercing, unnatural scream coming from his usually strong and composed twin. I must have some power to fix this.
That was it. He had the power to fix it. He just hoped he had enough power. Oz closed his eyes and searched deep inside himself for the power he needed, tuning out the screams, deeper and deeper. Until…
There it was; a wonderful, bright, icy blue color that seemed to slither around a wonderful white, warm ball of bright light. Oz took hold of the icy part that he needed and brought it to the surface, where he could release it. When Oz opened his eyes he saw the two intruders encased by two separate spheres of blue light. An icy blue snake appeared in his hands, slithering with apprehension. Without warning, the snake flew from his hands and flew to Vi. It started at her feet and slinked slowly upward, freezing every part of her it touched. She wasn’t moving but her eyes were wide in terror. The last thing the snake froze was her fearful gaze.
Without pause, the snake slithered to Jack. This time it started with the arm, forcing him to let go of Gwen as it made its way around, slowly and painfully freezing his body part by part, ending, once more, with the eyes.
Once finished, the ice snake slowly hovered to Oz where it dove into his torso. Oz hadn’t realized he was finally warm until he felt the snake touch him, as cold as if he had jumped into a bath of ice water. The snake found its place again deep inside where it had come from. The only difference was now it was awake.
Oz could hardly breathe. It took all the effort he had to catch himself as he fell, watching his unconscious sister on the floor across the room. All he could do was shiver and wait as the icy snake squirmed inside.
After what felt like hours, Gwen’s eyes opened. She sat up abruptly, noticing the ice figures in the middle of the room, and ran to Oz after seeing him on the floor. “Oz! Ozzie. Come on. What happened?”
It was too hard to think and form the words to explain, so he instead responded, “I’m f-f-f-freezing, B-bug.”
She looked around in panic. “Well, what am I supposed to do? Ozzie, how do I fix this?”
He would have answered if his brain was not moving at the speed of a snail.
Tears began to form in Gwen’s eyes. She frantically searched the room for any sign of hope. Nothing in view was any help at all.
She began to sob and collapsed on his chest. He couldn’t stop thinking of the extreme cold he was feeling. Then Gwen stopped sobbing and sat up. Still crying, she put her hands on his head. Just like that, there was warmth spreading all throughout his body. The icy snake was still as icy as ever, but was somehow subdued by the intense warmth that Gwen was giving him. It was something that would last forever.
But something else was coming in with that warmth. It was dark, and it was quickly overpowering the warmth with a crippling pain. Once again, Oz felt himself unable to breathe against the pain. Everything was going black and Gwen wouldn’t stop, oblivious to the agony she was causing. It hurt so bad he wanted to scream, but was unable to gather enough breath for even a whisper.
Oz slipped down into the spiraling darkness.
This must be what it’s like to die. His last thoughts faded away as the darkness took over.