Chapter 3: Cold Freeze

Jonas was terrified, every muscle held rigid and stiff, eyes wide and panicked. His heart thudded against his rib cage, and nothing he did allowed him to gain control over it. He backed away from what was in front of him and toppled over his bed roll. He hit the ground and was literally frozen stiff with fear.

Gathering what courage he could muster he raised his eyes from the spot they had been and stared into two pairs of eyes that seemed to pierce through him and look into the very depths of his soul. He cringed against the gazes and braced himself for the worst.

The two misty figures began to close in on him, hands outstretched, looks of hatred etched on their pale features. Jonas yelled out again in fright and scrambled back.

"Get away! What do you want from me?" He shouted out, anything to ward off the two approaching figures and perhaps to call for help. At this point, he was desperate.

He slammed his eyes shut to block out the approaching terrors in hopes that this was all a nightmare and he'd wake up at any moment. He felt a hand of ice touch his cheek and yelled again. The hand made its descent until it was hovering just at his throat he thought he knew what was coming but, was all but, right in his conclusion.

He opened his eyes a slit and was staring into green eyes, flashing with anger and looked down to the hovering hand. It quickly jumped from his throat to over his heart and plunged in past his ribs. It felt as though a spear of ice was being passed through him. He yelled again and didn't stop, he closed his eyes again to shut out the pain and the feeling of ice and felt himself passing over into darkness. He fought with all his will power to stay awake and the icy feeling turned into one of fire as pain coursed through his body.

The second person howled with laughter, dark laughter that shook his bones and invaded his mind. He drew one conclusion, the laughing person was a man. He felt himself slipping into the darkness that was falling upon him with increasing speed and was ready to give in to the blessed beyond when he felt a tight grip on his shoulder.

He yelled out with more force, thinking that he was done for and tried one last desperate plea for assistance.

"Somebody, help me!" He cried out into the darkness, those were his final words before he heard a sound of a different sort, instead of the sounds of laughter and the harsh buzzing in his ears he heard something else.

"Jonas! Jonas calm down!" Came a soothing voice through his mind's haze and body's pain.

He slowly opened his eyes and realized that there was nothing in front of him where the two people had just been. In fact there was nothing there at all. The only thing that kept him from passing out completely was the tight grip holding his shoulder from the back.
He snapped around and stared into the face of a very concerned Major Carter.

"Major Carter?" Jonas questioned through bleary eyes of suspicion and confusion.

"Well that's a nice way of greeting a person, Jonas." Carter joked, trying to make light of the situation she had just walked into.

"Pardon?" Jonas asked, clearly not understanding what the Major was getting at. Then it dawned on him and he forced a smile, despite his ghost white face and shaking hands.

"Oh, sorry about that Major Carter..." His voice quieted to even less then a whisper.

Sam viewed him through concerned blue eyes and diverted her attention when the sounds of footfalls crunched towards them. Jonas immediately became apprehensive and tried desperately to avoid the hyperventilation that was mounting in his lungs. He drew in a shallow breath and his eyes grew wide with fright. He felt a reassuring touch to his shoulder, Major Carter.

"Jonas, calm down." Carter soothed him, feeling him tense up under her hand and hearing the shallow breath he drew in through his mouth. Jonas nodded stiffly and kept his wide-eyed gaze pointed in the direction the footfalls were coming from.

Sam directed her flashlight beam towards the footsteps and Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c came into sight range. She felt Jonas relax considerably under her touch at the sight of the two approaching men, and heard him draw a stronger breath than his previous attempts.

"Hey what happened?" Came O'Neill's voice.

"I was wondering the same thing." Sam said looking into Jonas's eyes.

Jonas hesitated and looked around innocently. He didn't reply.

"Well? What happened Jonas? And what are you doing on the ground?" Colonel O'Neill piped up.

"I uh..well, you see, it's difficult to explain." Jonas replied quietly from his place at the Colonel's feet.

"Explain away, I've got the time." Jack told him.

Jonas continued to hesitate and Jack continued to wait for an explanation.

"Well, There...no, I was...no." Jonas started but, he could never seem to find the right words to explain what he had just been through

He idly rubbed at the spot where the green eyed man's hand had entered.
"Spit it out Jonas!" Jack exclaimed.

"Alright! Please, this may sound insane, but here it goes. There was a sound that woke me up and I thought it was one of you. I guess I was wrong. You see, when I woke up I swear that I could hear someone, a woman perhaps, crying. I called out but nobody answered. Then, it was the strangest feeling..." His voice began to trail again.

"Jonas!" Jack said bringing Jonas's speaking level back to an audible sound.

"Right, sorry Colonel. As I was saying, the strangest feeling came over me. It was like icy fingers creeping up my spine and then it felt like a mist or something came from nowhere. It clung to my face and then the icy feeling came back. I closed my eyes for just a second and when I opened them there were two people in front of me. The way they looked at me though, I'm sure it was a look of hatred, for what I don't know but, it was there." Jonas explained. When he stopped, he realized that everyone was looking at him curiously. He was still on the ground and now each of his friends were on their knees next to him.

"One of them attacked me, right here." Jonas motioned in the area of his heart.

"Jonas, there was no one here when I came across you screaming." Sam stated.

Jonas's eyes grew wide once again. There had been someone there and he had been attacked, it still felt as though his chest was in a vice, his breathing proved that, although not terrible, it still wasn't up to par.

"But, there was, Major." Jonas objected.

"No, there wasn't. I'm sorry, I'd like to believe you but, I didn't see what you did." Sam told him.

Teal'c stood by looking on silently and then spoke up. "Jonas Quinn, the fact that you saw something that no one else did, sounds as though you were in the same situation as O'Neill."

Jonas nodded in understanding and looked over to where Jack was kneeling. Colonel O'Neill's diverted attention turned back to Jonas.

"You saw a ghost too, huh?" Jack replied.

"Apparently." Came his reply.

At that point in the conversation the wind picked up once again sending iced daggers through the team's clothes and piercing their skin.

"I think it's time we went back to camp, in your ghost hunting, you seem to have wandered away from our safe haven." Colonel O'Neill stated.
Each member of SG-1 nodded in agreement.

Looking into the darkness, before getting to his feet Jonas caught a glimpse of a strange light, from within the light, appeared the same two people that had attacked him previously. His breathing once again became shallow and panicked, he felt his lungs heaving for air and began coughing because of the lack of it.

"Jonas are you alright?" Came Jack's voice through the wind and his coughing. He shook his head blindly in the negative and kept his eyes glued to the people that were walking towards him.

"Can't you see them?... They're...They're right there!" He gasped out between coughs.

"Jonas! It's okay, there's no one there!" Sam told him, casting a worried glance towards her CO.

One of the figures kept advancing and came to a stand-still in front of Jonas. Jonas's eyes grew wide with terror as he watched the man standing in front of him reach a hand down toward him. He scurried back, using his feet for leverage and his eyes remained terrorized.

"Jonas! Snap out of it!" Jack shook him gently. Jonas's attention turned to O'Neill.

When Jonas looked back to where the man stood, he felt himself lifting his hand to reach the outstretched one of his tormentor. He made contact and immediately he was overcome by a rush of chill and began shivering. Despite the resistance of his body, he grasped the man's offered hand and allowed himself to be helped up. His legs grew shaky and he stumbled but, was held sturdy by the other person from his torment.

Suddenly both men's eyes burst into hatred and Jonas went into red alert. He leapt back, continuing to shake. He yelled out as he felt the icy entrance of the man's hand into his rib cage again and fell to his knees. Jack stepped in front of Jonas and the feeling of ice in his chest vanished. His shivering stopped and his lungs were once again screaming for air.

Before Jonas knew it, his eyes grew leaden and closed as the ice cold feeling hit him full force again. He found himself tumbling from his knees to the ground and felt someone, he didn't know who, but someone, break his fall and he gave into the darkness.