Jack's eyes eased open to a haze of gray. Dark shapes crisscrossed his vision, sharpening into the crisp lines of tree branches. He blinked, and a thin film of ice crumbled from his cheeks; he tried to move his arms, and felt the popping and snapping of ice breaking. He turned his head to take in the sheltering boughs of the tree around him, cradling him inside a small hollow. Distantly, he could hear the crackling of ice as it shattered down the branch, and tumbled to the frosty dirt below.
He leaned away from the hollow, peering out around the tree. The woods around him were still and barren. The overcast sky above cast a dim glow on the surface of the frozen lake below. The underbrush around the lake was torn between flowering and death, creating bizarre patches of dark green and bristled gray. Leaves dotted the branches of the trees, but they were curled and brown at the edges.
Jack kicked the last of the ice from his toes, and ripped his staff away from the trunk of the tree with a loud snap. He pushed questions of when and why aside in his mind. He knew he hadn't been sleeping, but couldn't recall what it was he had been thinking about, or what had happened in-between. A spark of irritation pierced the lassitude that clouded his mind, and he swung his legs over the branch, peering down at the lake below, searching for what had brought him back to himself.
There was a rustle in the undergrowth, and through the woods stepped the small, bundled shapes of three children. The leader, a tall boy, was rapping a large stick against the tree trunks as they passed; it was making an incredible racket. Behind him cringed a smaller boy, tugging on the frayed seams of his overcoat; and behind him, a girl, holding up the bottom of her dress as she picked her way through the brush.
The tall boy stopped when he caught sight of the lake, and he swung his stick around to halt the other two children. The stick knocked the breath out of the other boy; the girl wisely stepped aside at just the right moment. "See, what did I tell you?" the tall boy said, waving his hand at the lake. "I found it, didn' I! And it's frozen, just as I said!"
"What's the big deal about some frozen lake?" the girl said, picking burrs out of the edges of her coat.
"Because... it's the middle of summer?" the small boy said, a little breathless.
"Yeah, since when's a lake freeze in the middle of summer, Abby?" the tall boy added.
The girl folded her arms. "In case you two haven't noticed, it's freezing just about everywhere lately!"
The small boy anxiously rolled a loose thread around his fingers. "My dad says it's a bad omen. He says he's never seen a summer this cold."
The girl gave an indignant sniff. "Superstitious nonsense!"
"Oh yeah?" the tall boy chimed in. "You know what else they say? They say these woods are haunted."
"Haunted?" the smaller boy squeaked.
Abby waved her hand. "Don't listen to him, Charley."
The tall boy cradled the stick around the back of his head. "It's true, I swear! I heard it from my Gran. She said some kid died in this lake years and years ago."
"Died?" Charley squeaked at an even higher pitch.
"Drowned. And you know what else she said?" He stepped a little closer to Charley. "They never found the body."
Charley gave a frightened squeal. Abby gave the tall boy a hard shove. "Cut it out, Ben!" she said.
"What? It's true. They say the ghost of the dead boy still wanders around the woods, looking for kids to drown in the lake."
"Who says that?" Abby said, eyes narrowed. "You're just trying to scare us, and it's not working!"
Charley was practically beside himself, clutching the sleeve of Abby's jacket in terror.
Ben chuckled. "But you've heard it too, right? That eerie crying in the woods?"
Abby tossed her head. "That's just the wind."
Ben pointed at her with the stick. "Or, it's the cries of the ghost!"
Abby seized Charley's arm and began to drag him away from the lake. "Come on, Charley, we don't have to listen to him."
Ben's face fell, and he jumped in their way. "Wait wait wait! Don't go! I wanted to prove it to you, Abby!"
She glared back at him. "Prove what?"
Ben swung the stick over his shoulder and backed up towards the lake. "That there's no ghost!"
Jack leaned forward, brow creasing, as he watched the boy step out onto the ice. The boy tested the surface with his stick, tapping it, before taking a cautious step forward. When nothing happened, he took another step, and another, his boots squeaking against the ice. An occasional slip would make him mill his arms wildly, before catching his balance and continuing forward.
Abby ran to the edge of the lake, Charley clinging to the back of her dress. "Ben! Ben, get back here!" Ben ignored her, picking his way towards the center of the lake. He turned and shot her a triumphant smirk. Abby balled her fists at her sides. "I mean it, I'm going to tell!"
Ben looked around, spreading his arms. "Come out and get me, ghost!" he shouted, his voice echoing through the woods. "I'm right here!"
Abby began to pace around the edge of the lake. Charley peered around her, got one glimpse of Ben out on the ice, and ran back into the woods with a frightened squeal. Abby spun around. "Charley, wait!"
Ben turned to see Charley disappear into the woods. "Coward! There's no ghost, see?" He began to hop on the ice, and then stomp on it, laughing.
Jack gripped his staff with both hands, ice sparkling around his tense fingers. "Kid's gonna get himself killed, all for some dumb lie," he grumbled. He glanced back at the empty shelter of the hollow, still sparkling with frost. "Why should I care? I'm a demon... isn't that right, Tsukiko?"
Down below, Abby took a tentative step onto the edge of the ice. "This isn't funny anymore! We're really going to get in trouble!"
Ben stopped jumping. He gave the woods around him one last look before heaving a sigh. "All-right, I'm coming back." Abby sagged with relief. "But you saw, right? You saw there's no-"
There was a loud crack like the shot of a musket, and the ice splintered beneath the boy's feet. Ben looked down in panic, and tried to run for the shore. The crack was faster; it spread out in every direction, branching out like veins, breaking up the ice. Ben's foot caught on the edge of an upturned shard, and he fell hard, snapping his forehead against the ice.
"Ben!" Abby screamed. She tried to step forward, but the moment her foot touched the ice, more cracks spread out.
Jack looked away from the hollow, his gaze transfixed on the boy as he laid motionless on the ice. Chunks of ice rammed into each other and splintered, creating gaps in the frozen lake. The ice beneath the boy fractured, and in the next moment, he disappeared into the water. Abby gave an anguished wail.
Jack froze. Darkness. The suffocating darkness of water around him. Falling through the darkness, falling away from the light, falling- Jack clutched his head, clenching his eyes shut. Ringing laughter echoed in his ears, blue light dancing behind his eyes. [Maybe you can protect yourself, but you can't save them!]
His eyes burst open. His gaze darted back to the broken surface of the lake. The little girl kneeled at the edge, sobbing. Jack felt himself shaking. "Tsukiko's right," he mumbled. "I can't save him. I can't." He glanced back at the hollow once more. "I don't have to do anything. I can just go back to sleep, and all this will go away. And I... I'll be..."
The girl staggered to her feet, her gaze searching. "Help! Help, somebody!" Her cries choked off into a sob.
Jack gritted his teeth, clenching his eyes shut again. "I'll be a..."
A glitter of blue, and behind his eyes, a scared little girl laughed and chased after a glowing rabbit. The tinkle of laughter grew into a chorus, as children lobbed snowballs at one another; a elderly man danced and sang and spun a woman around by the hand; a white hare raced through the snow, chasing after two children; it clung to his back, wind whistling through their ears, shrieking and laughing.
Tears stung his eyes, and he flung himself down from the tree, racing towards the lake. He hopped across the chunks of ice, so light his toes barely brushed the surface before continuing on. He reached the gaping hole in the ice. Beneath the dark surface, he could just make out the faint outline of the boy, slowly sinking.
As he stared down into the water, fear gripped him, holding him in place. "What do I do?" Jack whispered. "What do I do..." He leaned down and reached through the surface of the lake, the freezing water nothing to him. His fingertips brushed the top of the boy's head, but passed through in a haze. Cursing under his breath, he pulled his arm back and looked for something, anything, anything at all. His staff clunked against the ice behind him, sending a jolt shooting up his spine. He gave it a hesitant look, and plunged it down into the water.
The crook of the staff sunk down beneath the boy. Through the water, Jack caught a glimpse of blue light like firecrackers sparkling around the staff, and he felt a weight settle onto it. With an enormous heave, he pulled the staff up. The boy crashed through the surface of the water, buoyed by a sparkling block of ice. The staff ripped out of the ice, showering Jack with a puff of snow. A wave rippled across the lake, pushing the chunks of ice outward, leaving the boy floating in the middle. Jack jumped on the other side, hovering just above the water, and knocked the butt of his staff against the ice. A burst of wind shot the boy and the ice forward towards the shore. The girl gasped, scrambling to back away as the ice collided with the chunks cluttering the shore, and the boy rolled off onto the pebbled ground at her feet.
"Ben!" she cried, falling forward. She grabbed him by the armpits and pulled, dragging him further away from the water onto a soft patch of dry earth. She ripped her coat off and threw it over him.
Jack leapt over beside them, peering down at the boy's face. It was deathly pale, his lips tinged with blue. The girl bent over him. "Ben?" she said. "Ben, wake up!" She gently shook his shoulder, but his head just lolled back and forth. She began to sob once more. "No... you can't... wake up, you have to wake up!" she cried, shaking him a little harder.
Jack crouched next to them, a lump forming in his throat. He looked around, not sure what he was looking for, but hoping for anything, knowing he could do nothing. Over the girl's sobs, he thought he heard something approaching the clearing. His grip tightened on the staff, but in the next moment, a blur jumped out of the woods - Charley, his jacket ripped and sagging off one shoulder, his knees smudged with mud. He caught sight of Ben and ground to a halt.
Abby spun around in alarm. "Charley!" Her face scrunched up in pain. "It's Ben, he... he..."
Charley struggled to catch his breath, leaning on his legs. "I... I brought..." he waved weakly at the woods behind him.
Through the tree line crashed the figures of three men. Jack jumped to his feet and backed out of the way as they rushed to the children's side. One of the men knelt to inspect Ben and, to Jack's surprise, appeared to kiss him on the mouth. He did this several times, pausing, and Jack realized he was trying to get Ben to breathe. It worked; just as the man was bending over to try again, Ben coughed and rolled onto his side, vomiting water and gasping. There was an audible sigh of relief as the other two men patted the man on the back, and murmured encouragement to Ben. The boy gazed hazily up at the crowd around him, and for a moment, his gaze settled on Jack. Jack felt a jolt of alarm, but the boy's eyes were unfocused; in the next moment, he looked away, his eyelids drooping shut.
"Come on, let's get him warmed up and get him to a doctor," the man said. He scooped the boy up, wrapping the girl's coat tighter around him. Together, the men ran back into the woods, Abby and Charley trailing behind. The girl paused for a moment, casting her gaze uncertainly back at the lake, before leaping after them and disappearing into the trees. Just as soon as they had come, they were all gone again. Jack was alone once more beside a broken lake, the water lapping softly at the pebbled shore.
Jack picked his way across the rooftops, leaping from one to the other, peering briefly into the windows of houses before continuing on. He stopped at a warm, glowing window, the shutters crooked and the pane creaked open. Swinging down from the roof, he clung to the windowsill and peered in.
Inside, an oil lamp burned on a night stand, illuminating a bed and a boy tucked under the covers. In a chair next to him sat a girl, her cheeks red and a bit tear-stained. She was clutching one of the boy's hands above the blankets, gazing down at his face.
The boy's eyes eased open, and he looked around for a moment, blinking, before his eyes fell on the girl above him. "A- Abby?" the boy croaked, and broke into a fit of coughs.
Abby dropped his hand as if burnt. She scrubbed at her cheeks. "Ben? You're awake?"
Ben stopped coughing and tried to sit up. He slumped against the pillows. "What happened?"
Abby bit her lip. "Well, you... you fell... you fell in the lake. Don't you remember?"
Ben's face scrunched. "I remember being on the lake, and... I turned around..." His face slackened bit by bit. "That's right... the ice broke." Ben stretched out his hand, reaching for something far above his head. "I was under water, and I looked up and I... I saw..." His hand fell, and he glanced over at Abby, who jumped a little. "I saw you," he said to her.
"Me?"
"Yeah... you... you saved me, didn't you?"
Abby pulled her hands away from his, brushing dirt off her dress. "No, it... it wasn't me."
Ben stared at her, and made another effort to sit up. He leaned against the headboard, wincing. "What do you mean? I remember, you were there... I heard you calling my name."
Abby shook her head. "No, I was... I couldn't get to you... I just sat there, and I couldn't do anything..." Her eyes sparkled in the lamplight, and she sniffed. "I just sat there and cried and I... I couldn't save you..."
Ben reached out a hand to her. It brushed her arm, and she flinched. "Don't cry, I'm here now, I'm all-right, see?" he said, coughing a little. He gave her a weak smile. Abby furiously scrubbed at her eyes and smiled back. Ben's smile drooped, and his brow furrowed. "Wait, but... if it wasn't you... who pulled me out?" Abby wrung her hands and looked away, but didn't say anything. Ben stared at her, but she refused to look back. He chuckled. "Come on, you're not serious. The ghost?"
Abby flushed hard and turned away in the chair. Ben began to laugh, sometimes choked by a cough. Abby crossed her arms. "It's not funny," she grumbled. "I know what I saw!"
Ben leaned forward. "Just 'cause I fell in doesn't mean there was a ghost."
Abby jumped to her feet and began to stomp towards the door. "How do you explain how you popped out of the lake, then?" Abby said over her shoulder,
Ben shrugged, and winced. "I don't know... guess I must've caught onto a piece of ice or somethin'."
Abby's lips pursed. "Forget I said anything!" she said, reaching for the doorknob.
"Aww, don't be like that. I know it was you, you don't have to be so modest."
Abby tossed her head. "Good-bye, Ben!"
Ben leaned against the edge of the bed. "I know why you did it!"
Abby ripped open the door and stepped through the doorway.
"'Cause you lov-"
The door slammed shut behind her, rattling the timbers of the house. Jack heard her feet stomping through the house, and she hurried out the front door and into the night. Moments later, Ben's mother entered the room.
"Was that Abigail who just stormed through here, dear?" she said, smoothing out the bed sheets.
"Yes, ma'am," he said, sinking down into the bed, coughing.
"Such a sweet girl. So nice of her to worry about this delinquent boy of mine," she sighed.
Ben frowned. "Yeah, real nice," he mumbled.
The woman rapped him on the nose. "Lucky she and that boy Charley have some sense, or you wouldn't be here."
"Abby says it was a ghost what pulled me out of the lake," Ben blurted out.
His mother shook her head. "Nonsense. Abby's a sensible girl. She knows there's no such thing as ghosts." She reached out to turn down the oil lamp, and the room was plunged into darkness. Jack leaned forward, frost climbing up the windowsill and across the window pane.
"Good night, Mother," Ben said.
"Good night, my dear," she said. In the darkness, Jack could see her lean in to kiss him on the forehead. "Ghost or not, I'm just happy they brought you home to me," she whispered. She stepped away from the bed, and Jack just had time to float away before the window snapped shut.
Jack drifted up to the roof and tossed his staff aside, spinning to collapse on his back. He gazed up at the starry sky above, and the brilliant light of the full moon.
"You were wrong, Tsukiko," he muttered. "You were wrong about me, and you were wrong about us." He held his hands up, his palms tingling as a blue glow formed the shape of a tiny snowflake, dancing around his fingertips. "If only you could see..." His voice trailed off, and his hands dropped to his sides as he gazed back up at the moon. A breeze tousled his hair, but there was only the muffled sounds of the city to be heard. With a sigh, he rocked off of his back and scooped up the staff. He stood up and looked out over patches of snow and frost on the rooftops. "Well, I think it's been winter just about long enough," he said. Clutching the staff in both hands, he looked up to the sky and jumped.
