The Lake

1/2

The air was cold. Hot breath rose up as thick smoke to the sky. Eyes looked with unease at his friends and back to the ice beneath his feet. Jamie shifted his weight slightly, hearing the thin ice shift. He instinctively grabbed a tighter hold of the rope tied around his waist.

"How long 'till it's midnight?" He asked softly, voice breaking as he spoke. A snort was his response.

"Not getting scared now, are you Jamie?" Laughed one of his friends from safe land "I thought you said you weren't afraid of Jack Frost.".

"It's not that! It's just that… I mean…" Jamie began to defend himself, but fell flat. A scowl made its way up his face as he glared up at Caleb who grinned back at him. He jokingly threatened to pull the rope again and bring Jamie off balance, but Pippa quickly snatched the rope from him and pushed him aside. The thick snow made it almost impossible for Caleb to regain his footing, he instead fell and almost entirely disappeared in the massive white wasteland. Some of the other boys snickered as his head popped up again from underneath the snow.

"That's not funny, Caleb." Pippa growled, glancing over at Jamie to make sure he was okay. Jamie smiled back in return. He appreciated Pippa standing up for him. The ice was thin enough as it was, with or without a curse. It would break easily under the slightest force. Just the air moving was enough for the frozen water to creak painfully from underneath him.

"Just a few more minutes." Pippa called out to him. Jamie nodded.

The moon shone brightly above them, along with many other stars and a single lone airplane blinking on and off in the distance. Jamie released a tired sigh. It was taking too long, and beside him, his friends were growing restless. Caleb was playing a bit in the snow which he hadn't bothered getting up from, while his twin stared off into space. Monty was standing a bit further away, loudly chewing his gum which everyone was still a bit angry about for him not sharing. Only Pippa he saw still looking at him, worriedly, mittens gripping tightly onto the rope. He tried to give her a reassuring smile, but failed to disguise his own nervousness.

He was really starting to sweat. It almost felt like the salt water was starting to freeze over on his back and bite into his flesh. He dragged a trembling hand over his face, unfeeling fingers numb from the cold. Rooting around in his pockets, he found that he had forgotten his mittens and he sighed again loudly as result.

"You okay?" Pippa asked.

"Yeah." He responded "Forgot my mittens, stupid really. But I got pockets, so…" Jamie shrugged. He gestured to his wrist, and Pippa checked the time again.

"It's midnight." She deadpanned, raising an eyebrow as the tapped the glass to make sure.

"For real?" Monty asked. He picked the gum from his mouth and kneaded it with thumb and index finger, before flicking it in the snow. "Well, that's a disappointment." He sighed, annoyance clear on his face.

"One past midnight, actually." Pippa corrected. A small smile played on her lips, rosy cheeks lighting up her face as she glanced at Jamie. "No Jack.".

"Myth busted." Claude said.

"Bummer." Caleb added.

"Be glad I didn't die." Jamie shot back angrily, but couldn't hide his relieve, nor the lopsided grin on his face. The tension building in his chest left in waves of trembles while the grip around his heart loosened. Nothing had happened. The ice still stood firm. "Now get me off this ice. I'm freezing my butt off.".

They carefully began pulling the rope as Jamie shuffled over the ice. It was a bit bumpy from old snow, and gave him at least some grip on the slippery surface.

Yet he still fell. The result was a horrible tearing sound as he clashed down, ice giving away underneath him. It crumbled around him in a perfect circle, cracked ice forming a webbed pattern that zigzagged across the lake. The last thing he saw were Pippa's wide eyes, face white with fear, before cold engulfed him.

He gasped, water forced its way through his nose and down his windpipe. It stung and hurt and it felt like his lungs were about to burst. It didn't matter if he tried to hold his breath as he only coughed out air and drew in more water. Desperate hands reached to the black mass above him, legs kicking with great effort in the dense water. However his muscled quickly grew rigid under the cold, limbs stiffening, becomming useless. His heart pounded loudly inside his throat, making him want to swallow the water that was already slithering its way inside. Still Jamie fought, with the weight of the water pressed against his ears and his head begining to thump. The dark hole only grew smaller. Panic suffocated him further.

In desperation he cried out, but there was no air left in his lungs to bring forth sound. The pressure in his chest stabbed at his ribcage, it was a sharp pain, tearing at his muscles. His eyes felt dry, dirty water hitting against them, stinging, clouding. Yet his chest still burned hot with hope as he felt the rope tied around his waist pull him to the surface. Only it hurt. The combined force of the rope crushing his midriff and bruising his bones, freezing him in the body of water. Something else was pulling him down.

Gripping a tight hold onto the rope, Jamie closed his eyes and whispered a silent prayer into the darkness.

A muffled voice answered, the words drowned by the water and unrecognisable. Yet they felt soothing, echoing through his head. It created a low buzz which filled his head like static.

When he opened his eyes again, Jamie found a face staring back at him.

He was beautiful. The surface laid completely forgotten as he looked at him, thoughts swallowed by his presence. The noise in his head called out happily as he watched the stranger, singing a soft melody alongside the stranger's low murmur. He was beautiful, so incredibly beautiful. Just his eyes, a piercing blue, looked straight ahead and were solely focussed on him. They were an unbelievable blue. A cold, hard and vibrant blue, shining brightly even in the dark water.

Jamie brought a hand up to the stranger's face, his fingers brushing lightly against his incredible pale skin. It shone, like crystallised sugar. His own hands were rough, and felt like an impossible contrast to the stranger's soft skin. A compelling need to apologize overwhelmed him, as if it was wrong of him to have touched him. Faint blue lines ran up his neck and drew beautiful patterns across his jaw and cheekbones. Thin dry lips, deprived from any colour, were pulled into a warm smile and revealed just a glimpse of his teeth. And dancing around his head like a aureole of pure light, was his stark white hair, almost a silver.

His touch was as cold as ice.

Jamie smiled back, tired eyes staring ahead unseeing as his eyelids grew heavy. The moonlight hitting the water remained unnoticed as the world around him dimmed. Blue eyes. Beautiful blue. He wasn't cold, he couldn't think.

Ever so slowly, he opened his arm, welcoming Jack's deathly embrace.

Jamie didn't die.

They had managed to get him to the surface in time and even through none of his friends knew CPR, they were able to get most of the water out of his lungs before the paramedics arrived. And on his way to the hospital, with the sirens blaring loudly on the background, Jamie opened his eyes and cried, his broken throat calling out weakly.

"Jack Frost.".