~ Nightmare Guild ~

Chapter Thirteen: Losing Control!

Of course Treecko wouldn't admit it to the others, but as he stared at Snivy's cold, frozen body, his heart felt condensed. Here was Snivy Tsutarja, the little princess who decided to stop acting like a little princess. The girl who decided to get over their rivalry and work together for their own good. The grass snake who tried to adapt and tried to keep hoping.

And now she was dead.

Roselio was right when he said the grass snake was frozen solid. Her body was an ashen white and ice-cold when you touched it. Her face and the leaves on her collar and tail were tinged a pale blue. There were bluish-black marks around her neck - it seemed as if she had been strangled to death by the culprit's ice cold hands which eventually froze her solid. She was lying on the ground, and her bedcovers had been disturbed.

Frozen solid, huh...

Treecko's mind wandered to absurd distances.

Snivy Tsutarja had been frozen solid... and one of their friends happened to be an Ice-type.

OK, Treecko actually hated linking Snivy's untimely death with someone he found admirable and someone he liked a (whole) lot, but however you looked at it, it was simply such a huge coincidence.

Too huge a coincidence...?

Huh. He uncharacteristically found that he didn't know what to think anymore. However, just a few glances around told him that Lombre already did. She was shooting dark looks at the Snow Country Pokémon, and in turn the Ice-type was pretending not to notice.

»̶✽«

After all the commotion was over, Treecko went to the lab to look for Froslass. The door was locked, so he knocked on it softly.

"Froslass... It's me, Treecko. Please open the door."

The door opened to reveal the Ice-type glaring right at him. "I am not going to answer any questions, so do not even bother," she said coldly.

Treecko held up his hands in surrender. "I am not here to interrogate you."

Froslass squinted at him. "Really?"

Treecko nodded, wishing he believed that himself.

She finally relented. "OK, you can come in."

He went in.

"Are you feeling all right?" The wood gecko wanted to roll his eyes. Feel. Right. That's new.

Froslass nodded. "Yes, I am. Well, a little bit annoyed since I saw one of your Team Overgrow comrades shoot the most displeasing looks at me, but otherwise OK."

Having brought up the subject of the suspects of the newest murder slightly hurt Froslass' already volatile mood. She turned to Treecko with a questioning gaze.

"And you, what exactly are you looking for here?"

"Nothing," he answered coolly. "Can I not simply give you some company?"

"Company, sure." Froslass still held her questioning look, but she didn't ask further. Then she turned away with a deep sigh. "In that case..." she whispered ever so softly, "...thanks."

Treecko swallowed and nodded. "I'm just glad you're OK, as in not punished by Guildmaster C or anything."

There was a silence for a few seconds before Froslass spoke again softly. "Me too."

»̶✽«

...

At lunchtime, they all gathered in the mess hall. Froslass came too, although Treecko suspected that she was still in a rather bad mood.

The atmosphere during lunch was subdued. No one really said anything - everyone was lost in his or her own thoughts. The only one who did actively speak was Lombre, who found it necessary to constantly remind Froslass not to freeze anything.

When the Ice-type reached out for a spoon and a fork, she said, "Froslass, uh, be careful to not, oh, I don't know... freeze the utensils or anything, yeah?"

She spoke up again when Froslass took her glass to the water dispenser for a refill.

"Careful, mi amiga, or you'll end up freezing our whole water supply."

She frowned when Froslass put her elbows on the table.

"Be careful now - you wouldn't want to freeze the table, would you?"

Finally, Froslass couldn't take it anymore.

"If all these have been your endeavors to imply that I was the culprit, please just say so directly," she said coldly, the temperature in the room dropping by a few Fahrenheit.

Lombre stood and put her hands on her hips. "Ah, finally she understands."

Froslass stood up also, her hands clenched into fists. "And why would you conclude that? Just because Snivy was frozen solid?"

"Well, who else could it have been?!" Lombre exploded. She looked at the others in bewilderment. "What's wrong with you guys? Isn't the culprit already obvious enough? Come on, it can't get any easier than this."

"Just because she was frozen solid does not mean anything," Froslass argued. "Everyone knows that."

It was a lie.

The Snow Country Pokémon may not show it, but a quick look at the others' faces told her that they were quickly losing their trust in her. She may not show it, but Froslass Yukimenoko was scared.

She faced Treecko. "Right, Treecko? It does not mean anything."

Treecko didn't know what to say. What could he do? His dependable logic said that Froslass was the culprit. Yet his inexperienced heart told him she wasn't. It was weird - he had never felt this way before.

In the end, he simply settled on a vague "Someone is innocent until proven guilty," which he ruefully knew wasn't enough for Froslass.

He was right, for she turned desperately to her teammates. "Right, Staraptor? Right, Roselio?" Her message was clear: Hello, I need some help here.

However, even her teammates didn't look sure of her anymore. Whom she saw weren't the Staraptor and Roselio she'd gone on a gazillion rescue jobs with; whom she saw were the Staraptor and Roselio the day she first met them. They didn't seem to know her at all.

After all, Roselio had on a face expression that showed he was trying - and failing - to believe her. Staraptor was even pretending to not hear anything at all.

They really believed she was the culprit.

"Well?" Lombre demanded. "Have you got anything to say in your defense, mi amiga?"

Froslass didn't.

She could only hover there limply, her hands still clenched tightly in fists. She was shaking like a leaf in a blizzard.

Tyrogue frowned. "Strangling and freezing people to death is really mean. No. That's an extreme understatement. It's none short of horrible."

Breloom mumbled under his breath, "At this rate we'll all be frozen solid."

Tyrogue was shaking his head now. Lombre looked victorious. Froslass' teammates were still silent.

Silence...

The Thorn Pokémon smiled what Staraptor would have called a psycho smile.

"Snivy was frozen solid."

"Froslass, uh, be careful to not, oh, I don't know... freeze the utensils or anything, yeah?"

"So, if the only one to have entered the lab around the day of the murder is Yukimenoko, that means the bombs were accessible by her and her only. Right?"

"Careful, mi amiga, or you'll end up freezing our whole water supply."

They thought I did it.

"So is it not logical to assume that the culprit is most likely to have been Froslass Yukimenoko?"

"Be careful now - you wouldn't want to freeze the table, would you?"

"Strangling and freezing people to death is really mean."

But I didn't do it!

"At this rate we'll all be frozen solid."

Why won't you BELIEVE me?!

"It's none short of horrible."

Silence. I need to

Escape.

Today was the day Froslass Yukimenoko finally cracked.

...

... ...

Roselio knew that quiet people are actually the ones you have to watch out for. OK, so they didn't get angry often, but whenever they were, they were really angry.

Suddenly a feral-sounding cry escaped out of the quiet Froslass as she clutched her head in frustration.

"Ggg...gaaah..."

She bent over as if she was having a really bad stomachache, still screeching like a howling banshee. Flakes of snow appeared around her like a veil. By now, the mess hall was extremely cold.

"Ngghh... Agh..."

Lombre gasped as the others' eyes got as wide as saucers. "¡Dios mio! Crud! She's gonna hurt someone if she doesn't stop-"

"GYAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGH!"

Froslass suddenly shot up from her bent-over position, her eyes wild and insane like those of a mad scientist. At the same time, she let loose a blast of ice, cold and freezing with lots of tiny icicles, sharp as a thousand needles.

And it was aimed straight at Lombre, who was rooted to the spot in surprise.

Quick as a shot, Breloom sprang out of his chair with a cry. He didn't even hear it topple backwards onto the ground as he bounded over as fast as he could and tackled her to the ground. They both landed hard - Lombre went down first, Breloom landed on top of her. There was a whoosh and a frosty crackle as Froslass' ice blast froze solid just inches away from where Lombre had been standing.

Everyone gasped, half in relief and half in horror. If anything, they now looked even less sure of Froslass Yukimenoko, who had the nerve to attack one of her own friends.

When Lombre and Breloom sat up feeling rather dazed, they saw that Froslass' ice blast had frozen solid so that it now almost resembled a sculpture - a ghastly pale blue sculpture decorated with pointed icicles that could have taken out an eye if Breloom hadn't pushed Lombre out of the way.

Froslass knew she'd done it. She'd stepped past her boundaries; she'd lost control; she'd failed. A lot of painful memories of herself losing control all over Roselio and Staraptor such a long time ago assaulted her, and she felt herself under the attack of a foreign emotion.

Could this be her long-lost anger?

Whatever it was, Froslass knew she'd done enough damage here. She would get to know this anger somewhere on her own.

Without another word, she turned and rushed out of the mess hall.

7 Pokémon remaining