This story I have been co-writing with Jetafray Angle, so I hope you guys like it.

"Jack!" I yelled through the ice as I watched his body sink down lower and lower to the bottom of the pond. I was tempted many time's to jump in afterwards to save him.

Now here I was a young girl of the age of 10 who just lost her brother after he just saved her from an icy death now taking her of drowning in the halfway frozen pond. After shacking some sense into myself I did the first thing that came into my mind which was to cry. So, that is what I did as I ran back to my house. I cried for my brother who just saved my life, but ended his in the process.
I stormed into my wooden house and ran straight into my mother's arms still crying unable to get a single word out.

"Pippa, Pippa, what is wrong?" My mother said while trying to comfort me as I was in her arms.

"J-Jack," Was all I was able to get out before I started to cry harder.

"JACK! Pippa dear what is wrong with Jack," My mother asked.

"Um… Me and J-Jack were ice-skating, and the ice started to crack under my feet, and Jack said we were going to play a game. So, he suggested hopscotch. He then jumped three times, and after he did that he told me to jump three times toward him, and I did. On the third time he used a stick he found out in the woods today before we went ice skating that he said he was always going to keep with him because it looked cool. Which I totally agreed with him on that," I said while still crying making it barely understandable.

"Ok, I remember the staff now Pippa tell me what happened to Jack," My mother said now more worried than ever.

'Well after the third time I jumped I didn't get far enough, so he used that stick and pulled me to the other side of the pond where the ice was stable, but while he did that it pushed him back to where I was standing and then the ice broke and he fell in," I said while crying even harder making it able to understand one word every so often.

"Pippa, it is going to be ok. I bet Jack is safe now where he is," My mother said trying to comfort me, because she knew that Jack was my best friend and I didn't go anywhere without him.

"Ma-ma where is he now?" I said now that I stopped crying, and felt happy that at least I knew that Jack was safe.

"Um, he is in Heaven with God now," My mom said now looking like she was about to cry. "Will I ever see him again?" I asked now that I stopped crying because I remember from church that Heaven was a happy place.

"Yes, Pip, but it would be a while though," My mom said with tears running down her face now.

With that I left my mother grip with tears still running down my face, and I went back outside in the freezing cold weather to help clear my thoughts. I first walked to Jacks favorite climbing tree in the spring time where he use to tease me about falling off from one of the higher branches.

This time I actually started to climb it although my fear of heights, but I wasn't able to make it to make it even to the first branch. I took a deep sigh as another tear fell of my face, and I then walked away from Jacks favorite tree because although I want to remember Jack it hurts too.

The next place I visited was the bakery where Jack and I got a roll every morning for breakfast. But, since our family was poor Jack snagged himself and me a roll every morning. We knew it was wrong, but we also had to survive, because since our dad went back to England a while ago. Jack was left to take care of Mother and I until Dad came back. I quickly grabbed a roll like Jack taught me how to do it without being caught, and then I headed to my last stop I wanted to take before going home.

I went back into the forest to wear the pond Jack and I ice-skated every year, and the one that earlier today Jack drowned in. Once I got I could tell that it was almost 9:00, so after this I better head home quickly. I don't want mother worrying that something happened to me.

I arrived there and I sat down on a tree that had fallen over earlier that spring. Jack officially dubbed it our favorite place to play all year round. From swimming in the summer, rolling in leaf piles in the fall, chasing, insects, squirrels, and fish in the spring, and ice-skating and snowball fights in the winter. If we were missing this is where we'd be. But, now this place would only bring sadness and guilt to everyone especially to me.

I then started to cry again only staining my tear-stained cheeks even more. I have now lost all hope that my best friend, my brother was going to return and that he was only playing a Joke on me. Earlier I left too fast to actually tell if he was alive or not, but now I knew for sure he wasn't. Because even if he didn't follow me home he would at least be waiting here like he knew I would return here later.

I then heard a slight cracking sound coming from the ice in the pond which was right in front of me. I glanced still seeing Jack's special stick still lying there, but I knew that the stick was not the cause of the ice cracking, so other than that I was expecting just to see a squirrel who have just wondered onto the iced over pond looking for some nuts he stored during the fall. But to my surprise absolutely no one was there no squirrel, no acorn, no random stranger. It then just cracked again this time breaking the ice open.

This scared me so I ran and hid behind a tree hoping it was not the Boogyman. I still remember Jack telling me stories when I was littler about Santa Clause, The Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, Sandman, and lastly the Boogyman.

I intently watched the ice waiting for something to happen that would either make me run away screaming or make me just pass it off as my own imagination. The next thing I saw surprised me. I saw the ice flatten back down as if something just emerged out of the ice, but I saw absolutely nothing which was strange. Then about 5 seconds later the ice refroze all at once as if nothing ever happened.

Strange. Now since that weird thing the ice just did I slowly walked out from behind the tree that I was hiding behind and slowly began walking toward Jack's stick hoping to take it home as a memory of Jack, but once I reemerged from behind the tree the stick suddenly glowed blue, and then it started floating in mid-air.

I then quickly ran back behind the tree as if was going to protect me from whatever the thing holding the stick was because now that I looked closer I saw that part of the stick was invisible and in the shape of four HUMAN fingers.

Once again behind the tree I snuck a peek about what the stick was doing. Because I couldn't see what was holding the stick I decided to call whatever was holding it 'Stick'. About the third time I glanced over to see what the stick was doing I noticed that it was moving closer and closer to ME.
I instantly panicked and I jumped behind a snow bank for the fear of being seen by the sick.

But, once it got to the tree the stick itself hit the tree lightly. The tree then froze over at the part where the stick touched, and also engraved into the ice was little designs of different plant leaves. I knew that because last spring Jack taught me how to tell all the different types of plant leaves from the good ones to the bad ones.

The stick then repeated itself to the tree next to it, and once again it froze and created those designs into the ice. After icing those two trees the stick then started moving in swift pattern around the lake with the top of the stick down touching the ice creating those designs onto the frozen lake.
The stick the went in different patterns from zigzags then to swrills and then to circles. Until I figured out that the designs could only be made from a kid or someone who acted like a kid and thought like a kid.

Because from a distance it just looks someone is scribbling designs all over the pond but if you look up close it looks like someone having fun, the only person who I ever seen have this much fun was my brother.

"JACK," I said out loud as I finally figured out who was holding the stick, and jumping out from where I was hiding.

This is a two-shot story. However, if I feel enough people have actually taken the time to read it, I may just continue it.

-tini