Chapter 8: Burned


I have no idea what happened. One minute I was standing in the woods with him and the next I was waking up in a dark room on top of a bed. My body felt fine so there was no way he hit me to knock me out. Did he drug me? I really didn't know. Was he that paranoid about me knowing where I was going? Well at least the room was cold. I felt groggy. I was awake, but it didn't really feel like it. I shut my eyes. I just wanted to go back to sleep, but I had no idea where I was. I didn't feel safe. I was afraid and… lonely. I was all alone. I wouldn't get to see my parents for who knows how long. I never even got to tell them about my powers and stuff. Sure, I left a letter saying goodbye, but that was it. They would never understand why I didn't like heat and preferred coldness. I'd never be able to finish school, make friends … fall in love. My life was over. Everything would be decided for me now. I would have cried, except I wasn't sure if he was watching me. I would not show an ounce of weakness in front of him. If that meant I couldn't bawl my eyes out then I would do something else. I knew there was only one place where I could be weak and that place was my head.

I sat up on the bed carefully. I felt a little woozy. I was most defiantly drugged. I breathed in and out slowly for a moment before I actually shut my eyes. I did not lift myself up. I didn't really want to do that in front of him either. My muscles relaxed, or at least relaxed as much as they could. I was somewhere new. I was uncomfortable and just couldn't will myself to relax completely. Tears did not build up in my eyes even though I was crying now. Okay, I wasn't exactly crying. I was more of imagining myself crying. It was the next best thing to actually crying.

My eyelids twitched at every little sound, including my own breathing and heartbeat. I was so on edge I couldn't even say my one word that would make me feel better. All I could get out was Ice. I kept repeating that word. My voice stuttered across each letter.

I gave up. I let my fear consume me. My breathing was heavy and my arms were wrapped around myself tightly. Out of the corners of my eyes I could see a faint red color, but every time I looked there was nothing. I shivered. It felt funny. I rarely ever shivered because I never got cold. My teeth were practically chattering. I fell over on my side and tried my hardest to stay strong.

Then all of a sudden it was gone, all of it. Everything that I had felt just left. It didn't make any sense. What was I feeling now? Nothing, absolutely nothing. I was completely blank. My muscles weren't tense anymore, my eyes were dull and even my breathing wasn't heavy anymore. My breath was soft and slow. It almost felt like I wasn't breathing at all.

Surprisingly I didn't dwell on it. I had been so overwhelmed before and now nothing. I didn't want any of those emotions to come back so I didn't even think about it. I slid of the bed and stood up slowly. Each step I took was filled with grace. I ambled quietly over to the door an opened it. I didn't even wonder why it hadn't been locked. I walked down the hall taking long strides, extending my legs fully. It was a dark long hallway. Everything was the same color, a cold medium tree-trunk brown. It was too quiet. I took note of that before heading down the stairs at the end of the hall.

Ice trailed behind me as I walked. Each foot imprint was of ice. Snow literally fell gently from my hair to the floor. Neither the ice imprints nor snow melted. My breath was practically freezing in front of me every time I exhaled. Ice crystals were beginning to spread across every flat surface behind me.

I found my captor in a library filled with tons of books, sitting at a desk with some papers. He did not hear me enter. He wouldn't even have noticed; if it wasn't for the temperature lowering drastically. He gave a small shiver and looked over his shoulder. I stood there, several feet in the doorway, staring at him blankly. He starred back for a moment, before breaking our eye contact and stood up. His voice was soft and supposed to playfully annoy me, and it would have too, except for the fact that at this very moment I felt nothing. I didn't even pay attention to his words. Instead I ignored him and walked towards a book shelf to examine the books.

He grabbed my arm as I passed him. I glanced at him with dead eyes and spoke, "release my arm please."

"Excuse me?" he asked.

I repeated the line again, "release my arm please."

"And why would I do that" he asked trying to be mysterious. Sadly, for him it didn't work. A slight emotionless smile spread across my lips for a moment.

"Why?" I answered softly making him have to strain to hear my voice, "there always has to be something in it for you, doesn't it? … I'll tell you what you get out of it …nothing… absolutely nothing. I will give you no satisfaction."

His grip almost tightened on me, but instead he let my arm go. He could not hide the surprise in his eyes, at least not from me. My eyes were locked on his, waiting to find his weakness.

His face hardened, but he could not rid all the surprise from his eyes. It still lingered within him. He was curious I knew. It would be curiosity that would give me my freedom. Curiosity did after all kill the cat.

"My dear girl" he said slowly filled with a type of fake warmth, "I believe it is time for your training."

I bowed my head slightly in obedience and asked sweetly, "when do we start."

Once again, I had taken him off guard with my reaction, but this would not happen again. He began to play along with my little game.

"Now is as good a time as any." He said a gentleman like tone to his voice.

"Is it?" I asked playfully, "this very moment is a perfect time?" Before he could respond, I attacked.

I wasn't quite sure if he expected this action or not. I moved swiftly and tried to blast him with a ray of frost. He dove out of the way just like I had expected and did a tumble roll, landing on his feet in the end.

"My my, I certainly would be disappointed if all these books were destroyed. That is why training will take place elsewhere."

I raised my hand, ready to shoot at him again, but before I could he pressed a small button on the side of his wrist and metal sprang from nowhere and surrounded my hands all the way down to my elbow. My arms were forced together and bound quickly. Heat all of a sudden seeped out of the metal. My eyes widened, all emotion suddenly hit me and I fell to my knees.

He chuckled at me and wagged his finger at me as if he was punishing me, which he kind of was. "Don't worry, my dear Glacier, you will only be burned if you act out of line."

My eyes continued to widen. 'Burn!' had he just said he would burn me. I had only ever been burned once in my life and it had hurt like hell.

I was little and my mother had just left the kitchen for a second. I instantly crawled atop the counter and stood up. She always kept the cookies up high where I couldn't get them. I quickly opened the cabinet and stood on my tippy toes to get the jar from the top shelf. Once it was mostly in my hands I lost my balance and fell over, straight onto the pan filled with boiling water. I screamed in pain and both I and the pan filled with dangerously hot water fell off the counter and onto the floor. The pan tipped over and all that searing hot water was dumped onto me. my mother had already started running to the kitchen as soon as she had heard my first scream, but my second scream was ear piercing and did not stop. Most of my body was burned. That hot water would have been dangerous to anyone, but to for me it was, I don't even know how many times worse. I was rushed to the hospital for emergency care and I'm pretty sure I almost died twice during treatment.

My eyes couldn't get any wider and they were filled completely with fear and something else … hatred. How dare he threaten me with burning me? I was close to tears at this point, but still too proud to let him see me cry.

He continued to laugh."Oh, I've finally gotten you, haven't I?"

I didn't respond or even move. The metal around my forearm and hands was warm. It hurt. I starred at my evil binds with anger and hate.

"Stand up, and go back to your room like a good girl" Slade said raising his voice.

I stared at him only for a moment before I got to me feet. When I was standing he pushed that same button again and the warm metal fell away from my hands and forearm. As soon as that metal was off, I sprinted out of the room and back to the room I had awoken in. I didn't want to anger him. With the position I had been in he could and would have hurt me. I slammed the door behind me and ran to the farthest corner of the room, where I sunk down miserably and starred at the ground.

I knew I would break soon, not now, but soon. I was already getting close. I would not let myself break yet. I took deep breaths, trying to get myself to relax.

''There will be no tears'' I repeated over and over until the only thing I heard was those words. I fell asleep, curled up in fetal position in the corner chanting that line.