The morning felt empty. Today, not even the cold could fill her. The snow felt like needles on her skin. Insignificant. Beautiful. Cruel. She didn't know who he was, or why he stayed with her that chilly December morning. But he saved her that day, and of one thing she was certain; she was going to find him again.
Today Rapunzel looked at the sky. She lay on her back, arms and legs spread wide; like a child making a snow angel, she thought. Her dark hair framed her face like a jagged halo. Clouds covered a pale dome drenched in the morning's mist as she let her thoughts wander, like lost souls looking for answers in a map with no compass.
"Hello again, Punzie,"
She saw a familiar face grinning down at her.
"Hello again, stranger," she tilted her chin up and smiled at him.
"Mind if I join you?"
"Not at all."
He nodded and lay down so that their heads rested beside each other, and their bodies, like the needle of a compass, faced opposite ends of a never ending field of snow.
He turned his head slightly as she turned her own, and their noses touched for a moment before Rapunzel's cheeks grew pink and she looked away to the sky again. He laughed and asked something nobody had ever asked her before.
"So, Punzie – what's your story?"
"Hm?"
"Your story; you know, like, why you come to the graveyard every day and why you don't wear shoes and – what's with all the summer dresses in the snow? Stuff like that. Reasons, I suppose. Reasons that make you a Rapunzel."
She paused and thought for a moment
"Well, I suppose this is just the way I am." she said.
"Really?" he asked. "No back story, no cute fairytales for me to listen to?"
She grinned. "I'm afraid not, stranger." The crinkles around her eyes faded away and her expression grew a little bit sadder, a little more distant. "But … I – I guess …" she couldn't find the words. "I don't know … I …" she sighed. "I, I just don't know."
He nodded. "It's okay, I get it. You're you, and that's that."
It was then that Rapunzel turned to her side and propped her torso up with her arm, her head resting on her open hand.
"So," she said. "What do I call you?"
He shrugged. " 'Stranger's' fine with me, I guess."
She poked his shoulder. "Come on," she said, tilting her head to the side. "Please?"
The boy brought his hands to his side and propped his own torso up with his forearms so that his back was no longer touching the ground.
"How about we play the question game?" he asked in an attempt to dodge the question.
Rapunzel raised an eyebrow. "What are you, like, five?"
He tilted his head so that his ear brushed the hood of his jacket and stuck out his bottom lip. "Come on," he mimicked. "Please?"
"Agh, alright!" she threw her hands up in defeat. "But only if I go first."
"Shoot," he said with a nod of his head.
She leaned forward and said with a smirk, "What's your name, stranger?"
He sighed and fell back to the ground, eyeing the clouds once again. He knew that he would have to tell her sooner or later, so he gave in quickly. "Jack," he mumbled. She saw his gaze fall to his fidgeting hands; they looked so fragile she could see his blue veins pierce through the veil of skin covering his bones.
That wasn't so hard, was it? she thought. "Hey," she said, nudging him. "At least you're not named after a salad,"
His eyes widened and he turned to look at her. "Seriously?"
She nodded. "Uh-huh; a lettuce, actually. Funny enough, the stuff sort of thrives in the winter time," she chuckled. "Kind of fitting, don't you think?" she gestured to the field of white that surrounded them.
"God, Punzie; who knew? You, of all people, are a certified freak," he smiled at her warmly.
She grinned. "I try, Jack. I really do."
That night, Jack leaned against the great oak beside the frozen lake, bathed in the faded starlight of a cloudless midnight, talking to the moon. It had felt like a lifetime ago since … he shook his head, expelling the memory into oblivion, though he knew it would find a way to haunt him in another nightmare. But he would deal with the pain another time.
His mind wandered to the girl with the unkempt hair and the green eyes. He wondered how long it would take for her to realise, how long it would take for him to disappear into nothing but a forgotten daydream.