Frozen Memories

Running Into A Familiar Face

The air around me was windy and fresh in comparison to that of the stuffy yellow bus and classes that I had to attend. I’d grown, over the short amount of time this year, accustomed to the fog-filled and rainy days, finding them quite fond; along with the sunshine.

    I’d barely been attending the school long enough to consider myself familiar with the people that attended nor their personalities. However, even in my short time attending I found that the word gloomy was a constant term when describing how they felt of the days’ weather; whereas I placed the foggy days on as high a pedestal as the sunny, as aside from the fact that I was allowed to awaken to it, the foggy days had a calming effect on my senses.

    As the day began to dim during my walk, the sun slowed its appearance to a rarity between the clouds. I closed my eyes ever so often, allowing the leaves to flutter against the trees around me. The sweet mix of nature surrounding caused a rare feeling of pleasure through me. And it was then at that moment for the first time that I felt that of an icy like chill envelop me; more prominent than what I felt that night I confronted Jessica. It was something more pure; stronger; almost as a spark. I inhaled deeply as a random giggle left my lips. The feeling was so familiar in a sense yet still felt lost to me. I was so glad to feel this, it almost brought a tear to my eyes. I was suddenly glad to have decided to take this walk.

I continued down the street, time starting to fade into the evening when my phone rang. I pulled it out and quickly answered.

    “Hello?” Excitement followed my answer. Listening to Dr. Byrne, it was clear that Mrs. Falton’s hateful attempt to convince me that Dr. Byrne wanted nothing to do with me was just that-an attempt.

    Following her inquiry of my well-being and my telling her about my newfound comrades, she let me know that Lisa Jones asked about me, relaying that her phone was not working as to the reason why she hadn’t made contact and she’d been ill with a flu. Her many reasons were very justifiable but even if they were not, I had come to realize that while Mrs. Falton was being hateful, she was right in a sense. Neither Dr. Byrne nor Lisa Jones’ life revolved around my own. And I would have to get used to that fact.

    “Receiving your calls are satisfying enough, Dr. Byrne.” I assured her after she continued to explain to me how work left her unavailable to contact and visit me as much as she would have liked. “And please relay my greetings to Lisa Jones.”

After a moment or two more, Dr. Byrne regrettably had to go on a call at the hospital. We said our goodbyes and I continued down the street when my cellular telephone vibrated incessantly through my pocket once again. It was Max Powers. She had apparently forgotten that I was not as experienced at texting as I was at answering the phone.

I stopped walking and read the text. She was asking me of my whereabouts. ‘Nearly ho me’ I replied before putting my phone away again.

    “Hey pretty lady!”

    I glanced back, noticing a man behind me. There seemed to not be anyone else around but I did not want to just assume that he was talking to me, and decided to keep walking, quickening my pace.

    “Whoa! Wait! Where you rushin’ off too?!” he called, the sound of his voice signaling his nearness. I started to break out in a sprint; something I had no reason to do until this moment, when underestimating his closeness, he grabbed my arm so quickly, I nearly lost my balance.

    “Excuse me sir! But I-” I rushed when he caught me off guard with the odd specked look in his dark brown eyes.

    “You must really have a powerful hold on a man with that walk of yours.” He grinned. “I’ve been following you for a block now, and you barely noticed me.” He feigned a sad face before he laughed again.

    “I have to go.” I urged and tried to leave when he tightened on my arm.

    “But, you seem so alone.” He rebounded, his smile suddenly gone.

    “Well I assure you that I am not.”

    After a moment of sizing me up, he laughed and shrugged. “Oh well. Doesn’t matter. You’re too pretty to let go.” He grinned.

    I jerked away from him and started away again when he took and shoved me against the sidewall of a building. I looked around, realizing that to my misfortune, there was no one around, save that of a rare few passing vehicles. And they had not even noticed my assault.

    His wince at the feel of my skin seemed to catch him off guard. Unfortunately, still not long enough for a distraction pending my release. “So cold sweet cakes. I must have come right on time.” He laughed. “Now papa’s here to warm you up.” He then pulled out some small instrument and opened it, revealing a blade. “Just don’t yell again, cause I would hate to mess up that pretty face of yours.” He threatened, placing it to my cheek.

Seeing that blade reminded me of the scars on my body already. How I was found bruised and cut up; the dark way that my body was used for torture and injection experiments. It then hit me that I had been through worse in my past life than what this man was threatening to do. And I was still alive. In thinking of this, I was no longer afraid of this man, nor was I intimidated. I was…livid.

    “Your eyes are-” he started. The whole time he spoke, my mind wondering of different ways to escape his grip. So consumed in my thoughts of anger, my body began to develop that familiar chill once again.

    My thoughts escaped me when I heard a choking sound come from the man holding me hostage. His hand started to stiffen, losing power in his grip, though simultaneously beginning to become hardened. Horrified, of his sudden paleness, I pushed away from him. Losing my footing I tried to regain and escape when before I could recover, I heard his swift break. The man looked back only once before he continued to run swiftly into the darkness.

    I had no idea how to categorize how I felt at that moment before I hurried down the street, suddenly feeling a tinge of regret at walking home alone. And furthermore, fearing intensely what I had just witnessed. It was as if the man nearly iced over in front of me and oddly enough, it was easily apparent that he was under an impression that I was the cause. Even crazier still, I could not shake the feeling that maybe he was right.

    I quickened my pace down the street, attempting to piece together whether what I just saw was the truth. And while I was not sure if I wanted to be the cause, a part of me held an intense excitement that maybe it was.

    My eyes wandering unintentionally, I hadn’t noticed that I bumped into someone until my form came to an abrupt and rock hard stop, nearly knocking the wind from me.

    “You shouldn’t be out here alone.” I heard an aggravated, throaty familiarly deep voice snap.

    Hesitantly, I looked up. His strange gaze was firmly on me. His, eyes, I perceived, was not as ignitingly blue as they were earlier at school. I realized then that I was probably staring at him longer than deemed normal as he looked away.

    He started to hold his hand out to help me up when he seemed to think twice about it. “Trust you don’t need help to get up.”

    After a moment of watching him, I turned over to get up, struggling from the abrupt weakness in my legs, when I heard a grunt and suddenly felt his grip on both my sides. The chill of his hands traveled through my jacket. That coupled with his firm grip caught me off of my guard. I jumped, nearly falling to the ground again when he caught me.

    “You alright?” 

The inquiry surprised me, and based on the looks of his expression, him too. So before he decided that he did not mean to ask, I answered. “Yes.” Then I began to notice that familiar discontentment in his face. It was almost as if his body was fighting the terrible urge to wretch. Suddenly, I felt the need to ask. “Are you alright?”

My question caught him off of his guard, when his wandering gaze switched to me. “Let’s go.” He then turned and walked away.

“Wai-where? Where are we going?”

“I’m taking you home.” 

    “You really-do not have to do that.” I retorted, currently unsettled at his sudden courtesy. In all honesty, though I went to school with him, it was not certain that he would not attempt on me what the last man had.

    “I said I’m walking you home-” he stopped and turned around with lividity in his gaze. “Stop talking and let’s go!” He exhaled and attempted a calmer manner. “Please.”

    Confused as to what I should really say, I only nodded in agreement and followed along. “Thank you.”

    “Yea.” He grunted.

    We were only a minute or two from the home and I was not sure if it was necessarily a good thing to show someone where I lived, let alone a guy that I had already seemed to start off on a confusing foot with. However, somehow I knew that he had not much of a care where I stayed, it seemed. Hm, seemed I put myself on a higher plinth of importance than he or any of his brothers had. Oddly, I was relieved at this idea.

    “So what unintelligible thoughts caused you to think that it was a smart idea to walk home alone?”

    Caught off guard by his crude attempt to hold conversation, I answered a moment later. “Because, I wanted to.” Was the simple answer to his question “Admire the beautiful outdoors; and be alone for once.”

    “Hmph.” He gave me a sideways glance while he kept to his normal stride.

    “Why are you walking me home?” I asked. He didn’t answer. “I hope you do not feel obligated to walk me home because I was attacked because I-”

“What?!” He turned around so fast, I stumbled back as he cornered me. “Someone attacked-you were attacked?”

My quick thinking came up with a fabrication that even I was impressed with. “I was saying I hope that you do not feel obligated to walk me home because you think that I will get attacked.” I lied. It was official; I’d been around Max Powers for too long.

He watched me for an unsettlingly long moment.“Y-” He grimaced, lifted his arms-seeming so infuriated before turning to keep walking. “Come on.” He gritted his teeth. Reluctantly I kept following.

We walked in silence for around five minutes before I spoke again. “Where did you come from?”

“Around.” He bluntly answered. I could tell by the way he answered that he probably didn’t want to say much-that he probably was still a little annoyed, however, there was something about his voice. Truth be told, it was soothing to hear, though that was not the reason why I asked the question I had.

“Around where?” I further inquired.

“I was driving! Geeze! What is this-twenty-one questions?”

There were so many other questions that I wanted to ask, concerning that response. I looked around, wondering where his car could have been. I started to ask another question when I realized that he was reasonably far away from me; I was clued in at that moment that maybe I should take a break with the questions.

Bizarre was the only way to describe Roman Dharke’s actions toward me, coming to recognize that If I came within an inch of him he would distance himself. Maybe I asked too many questions and he was regretting the decision to walk me home.

I caught up to him, triggering his dark and stoic gaze to turn to me anxiously. He then subtly shifted a couple of inches away from me. Still, though, I neglected the notion to bring it up. I’d stopped my questions and still he refused to be but so close to me- would barely even look me in the eye. Why? I even subtly tried to sniff my underarms to see if I was of an odorous nature but it was in fact, quite the contrary.

    A nagging curiosity bayed me move closer to see if he would shift again. So I did, and not so much to my surprise he did, not realizing that the sidewalk was lined with bushes as we neared into the neighborhood of houses. Losing his footing, Roman Dharke fell into the bushels, crushing them beneath his weight.

    “Oh!” I gasped rushing to him. “Are you alright?” I reached out my hand to help him up but he avoided it, glaring at me.

    “What is your problem?!” he snapped.

    “I fail to see what I have done, when you are the one that seems to be afraid to be near me.” I returned.

    He grimaced and aggressively recovered from his fall. “I should have never agreed to walk you home!” he hissed.

    “Why did you?” I asked.

    “Good question.” He spat, continuously glaring at me.

    “Where have you been-”

    Max’s voice interceded our conversation. It wasn’t until that point that I realized that we were outside of the group home.

    “Hello, Max.” I greeted, my curious stare locked, still on Roman Dharke.

    “Oh-um. Hi.” Max hesitated to Roman Dharke in an astounded manner. Roman Dharke glanced at her, nodding his head in acknowledgment, a prolonged moment I noticed before returning his gaze to me. “Everything alright here, Frost?”

    Intimidatingly, before I could even answer, Roman Dharke’s eyes shot to Max again, in a disconcerting way. He looked at me for what seemed a long hard moment before he walked away. 

When he disappeared, I abashedly looked at Max as she leaned against the doorframe of the house, arms crossed, watching me.

“So-you’re safe, I see.” I hinted the sarcasm in her voice. “Gonna tell me what all this was about?” She asked.

“If only I knew.” I turned around, looking out into the clearing where Roman Dharke disappeared.