Chapter 17: Frozen

With Asa in isolated suspension, I was able to enjoy the rest of the week. I even got moved to a new room because of my position as head prefect. Head boy/girl and head prefect were generally given their own private rooms as a reward for their grades. Because the last two head boys had been Manfred and Salem, they already had special rooms since they lived in the academy full time.

The head prefect girl's room was definitely unused for a long time but the cleaning staff made it sparkle by the time it was done. The bed had a thicker mattress, I had a private bathroom and I didn't have to worry about my sleep being disrupted by the noises of other girls. I was elated. I was in such a good mood that I didn't even argue when Dr. Bloor asked me to stay behind until Friday evening to catch up on all of the paperwork Asa had let fall behind. There was actually so much that was left undone that Salem and Manfred even had to help me.

"Has there ever been a time when you put Asa in charge of something that it didn't come back to bite you in the ass?" Salem asked as we all sat in the Prefect's lounge. "School has been in session since September and it is January now. How did no one notice that none of this paperwork was done?"

"Actually, Salem. That's your job to make sure that the head prefect is doing what they are supposed to be doing." I noted.

"Really?" Salem looked up at me with a blank look on his face. I couldn't tell if he was kidding or not. "I thought it was just a glorified title to be honest. Manfred, did you have to babysit your head prefect last year?"

"No." Manfred murmured. "Zelda wasn't an idiot."

"Well, it's not my fault that you picked an idiot just because you wanted someone to antagonize Charlie all year." Salem huffed. "Infinity should have been made head prefect from the beginning. Even after severe head trauma she is still the top of the class."

"Wait, If Zelda was the head prefect last year, then why wasn't she in the private room?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"To keep an eye on you. She was in the private room until you transferred here." Manfred didn't look up at me. "Salem, you did make a good point about Asa." He backtracked to Salem's original comment. "He has been messing things up and making more work for me a lot lately. I'm just waiting for him to slip up one more time so I can dispose of him."

Dispose of him? That made my stomach churn. I always thought of Manfred and Asa as friends, but then again Manfred didn't care about anyone that he couldn't use. "What do you mean, dispose of him? Are you going to kill him?"

Manfred said nothing. He didn't even look at me. He continued to sort through paperwork. "Can I do it?" Salem asked.

I glared up at Salem and went to reprimand him, but Manfred cut me off. "I'll give him one more chance to redeem himself. Asa can be a useful beast occasionally. I want to give him a chance."

"Fine, but when he inevitably screws up, I'm going to be the one who gets rid of him. I call dibs."

I was horrified by what came out of Salem's mouth. It made me question if he was really that different from his brother at all. I could understand being angry about what Asa did, but that didn't mean he deserved to die. I found myself getting angry. I wanted to get out of the room and away from both of them. Salem really wasn't different at all. Someone did something he didn't like, so he wanted them to suffer. I picked up my speed on my paperwork and finished quickly

"Where do you think you're going?" Manfred asked.

"Home." I murmured. "So you can keep plotting whatever shitty things you two want to do to people. I don't want any part of it." I grabbed my coat off of the desk. My things had been sent home with Charlie on the bus. I didn't need to sit in the car with Salem to get home. I would be able to walk just fine without him.

"Let me drive you home, Fin." Salem began to stand up.

"Don't bother." I pulled my coat over my shoulders and grabbed my bag. I opened up the door and stormed out, slamming the door behind me. I was incredibly happy that I chose to wear fleece tights that day because of how cold it was when I opened the main door of the academy to leave. I pulled my hat and hood over my ears, covered the bottom half of my face with my scarf and pulled on my gloves.

It was dark out and I had no doubt that Asa was lurking about but I would take my chances. I had just stepped off of the property of the academy when I heard a snarl that made the hair on my neck stand on end. I didn't have to turn and look to know what stood behind me. I had seen Asa's beast form before. It was ugly and terrifying and I knew he was itching to rip me apart. I was afraid, but I held my breath and turned to face the beast that would more than likely kill me once we made eye contact. I had actually thought I was going to make it home alive.

I could only see one glowing and yellow eye in the dark. The other was still slightly swollen from hitting him. What I had not been expecting was the blood and the lacerations covering his body. He let out a pitiful howl before collapsing to the ground. "Asa!" I knelt down next to him and was able to get a better look at the skin under his fur as we sat under the street light. There were deep lacerations, more than likely caused by a whip. He was very badly injured and needed medical attention. I didn't know what to do. I needed to help him but it was too cold for me to be able to focus and do it out there, and I couldn't have gloves on my hands while I worked. I looked back at the big academy doors and heaved out a loud sigh. I wrapped my arms around the beast's mangled body and hauled him over my shoulders. I had watched my "father" carry a deer carcass this way once and found that it was just as effective for werebeasts. I walked back up the stairs and managed to push the massive doors open with my body weight. I sat Asa down on the floor in the corner and looked around. No one was there.

"Okay." I said to myself as I surveyed the damage. I reached out to touch one of his wounds to see what I was working with. This caused Asa to let out a sharp howl and he bit down on my hand. "Ouch!" I drew my hand away and stared into his one good eye. He was terrified. "I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to help you." I said softly. "But for me to do that, I need to touch where you are hurt."

"Leave the miserable beast alone. He'll survive." A dry voice said from the hallway. Mr. Weedon stood at the end of the hallway. He had blood splattered on his shirt. It looked just as fresh as Asa's wounds. I let out a sigh of relief because a part of me had thought that Salem was the culprit. "You're getting blood on the carpet."

"I'll clean the stupid carpet." I muttered as I turned back to focus on Asa. His breathing was getting shallow. I reached out to touch him again and he howled even louder than last time but he did not turn to bite me. I focused all of my energy into my fingertips and my hands began to glow. The warm light seemed to calm him because he did not make another noise until I was done. When I had finished, he then let out a malicious snarl and jumped up.

I thought he was going to turn on me and kill me. I closed my eyes and turned ahead, but instead of feeling pain, I heard Weedon let out a frightened yelp and slam a door somewhere. Asa had placed himself between the two of us when Weedon tried to roughly grab me. His hand had never made it to me. Asa had snapped at him. He was protecting me. I quickly threw my arms around his neck. "I'm okay, Asa. Thank you."

I don't know if he was still getting magic from my healing spell or if my gratitude was enough to make him feel human, but Asa began to glow before my eyes. He ran down the hallway on all fours faster than I had ever thought possible and out the courtyard door. He was heading for the ruin. I was worried so I quickly healed my own bleeding hand from Asa's bite, pulled on my gloves, and followed him.

By the time I made it down the hall and out the door, Asa was already out of sight. I frowned. There was no way I was going to go into that ruin at night. I tried calling out to him, but I got no reply. I waited for a few minutes, but then it started to snow. I let out a defeated sigh and decided to finally head home before Salem realized I was still in the academy and tried to drive me home. I was still angry with him for the things he and Manfred said about Asa.

As I walked under the streetlights, I thought about what they had said. Manfred had called Asa "disposable" and that almost made me sick. He was a person. Sometimes he was impulsive, clumsy and stupid but he also wasn't fully human. He just wanted to fit in and he was able to do that because Manfred had taken him under his wing. He trusted him. But I wouldn't have expected any less from Manfred. He was selfish and didn't have a kind bone in his body. Everything he did had a motive.

Then there was Salem. Thinking about what he had said made my heart drop. He really wasn't different from the other Bloors. If someone wronged him or got in his way, he was willing to dispose of them as if they were garbage using any means necessary. I guaranteed he would do anything to save his own sorry hide. That's why he wouldn't tell us where my father was. He didn't want to be cut off completely. He had his own selfish motives and I didn't need to be around someone like that. I decided I would go back to the academy the next day and break everything off with him. Nothing, not even his mental manipulation, would change my mind.

Charlie had gone out on an adventure of some sort before anyone had gotten up this morning. When he ran up to our room after the delivery of Paton's food basket from Kingdom's (It had been delayed due to the owner's sudden and unexplainable death) I could see that he was dying to tell me something. "I went somewhere today. I can't tell you the specifics but I found all of the animals. But that's not the important part. I met someone who gave me this." He thrusted a photograph towards me. It was of a man in heavy snow gear on top of a snowy mountain.

"Is this supposed to be dad? Is that why you're excited?" I asked. I had wanted to tell Charlie that I was planning to go to the academy and break up with Salem, but this was much more important. "I can't tell what he looks like under all of that gear."

"It isn't dad. It's a friend of his." Charlie said, sadly. "But dad is the one who took the picture. While you were in your coma, I learned that I could physically go inside photographs and paintings, remember?" He didn't wait for me to nod. "Well, what if I went inside of this one and turned around? I could see dad! I could talk to him!"

I got an uneasy feeling in my stomach. "Charlie, what if you go in there and you can't come out? What if the climate affects you, too? You really shouldn't do something so major before you know how to fully utilize your endowment. Maybe I should go get Uncle Paton." I was incredibly uncomfortable with the idea and reached for the door.

"No!" Charlie grabbed my arm and held be firmly in place. "That's why I'm going to do it with you here. You should be able to pull me back into reality. Please, Infinity. We need to be able to find him and I can't do that unless I know what he looks like."

I knew it was a bad idea, but I would rather that he did this with my help than go behind my back and possibly get himself killed, so I begrudgingly agreed. When Charlie traveled, his eyes glazed over and it seemed like his very soul left his body. He stood stiff as a board in the middle of the bedroom, holding the photograph in front of his face. He didn't move, he didn't make a sound and I wasn't even completely sure if he was still breathing. "Claerwen." I called out softly. I didn't trust in my own abilities to bring Charlie back if I needed to, but I did trust his moth. She was way more powerful than I was.

The tiny white moth flew out from behind our curtain and rested on Charlie's head. I wondered when it would be a good time to pull him back out. My question was answered when his fingertips began to turn blue. I didn't care if Charlie wasn't going to get the answers he wanted. I didn't want him to die of hypothermia. I panicked and Claerwen was able to pull him out by positioning herself on his nose. He was surprised when he realized that he made it back home. "Claerwen brought you back." I explained. "You should make sure to keep her with you at all times." I watched as she fluttered back to her sanctuary between the folds in the curtains. "Did you get to talk to dad?"

A dazed Charlie dropped down onto my bed. "No, but I thought I was going to die in there."

"Your fingers started to turn blue." I noted. He brought his hand up to his face to investigate but they had already turned back to their healthy pink color.

Charlie opened his mouth to say something to me, all that came out was a piercing scream that made my ears pop. It was a scream of anguish, of someone who was in trouble. And the scream belonged to mom.

Both of us ran for the door and bounded down the stairs. The Flames had told Charlie that we needed to keep an eye on her, but how were we supposed to do that when we were away most of the week? We nearly tripped over each other to get into the kitchen and were relieved to see that mom was fine. But my heart almost stopped when my eyes landed on Maisie. Maisie wasn't moving, or speaking, or breathing. She was dead center in the middle of the kitchen with a look of bewilderment on her face.

Mom was crying and Paton didn't seem to know what to do with his hands as they hovered over Maisie but he couldn't bring himself to touch her. "What is it?!" Charlie cried out, breaking the silence. "What happened?"

"I…" Uncle Paton was at a loss for words. He looked so helpless. "I don't quite know."

"She's frozen!" Mom cried out.

"She's dripping on the carpet! Get her out of here!" I heard Grandma Bone shriek from the corner of the kitchen.

"At least she's dripping." I said awkwardly. Uncle Paton shot me a dirty look. "No, that means she's thawing. Maybe we can put her by the stove?"

Grandma Bone had risen from her seat. "What has that silly woman done? Probably something she shouldn't have."

"That's enough, Grizelda!" Uncle Paton roared. "Infinity is right. We should move her by the stove."

Uncle Paton and Mom managed to move Maisie over to the stove although it had been quite difficult. She was heavy and frozen solid. I turned up the dial on the stove until it couldn't be turned up anymore. Within minutes, the house became hotter than hell and everyone was ripping off any extra clothing that they had on. The heat wasn't working. She wasn't thawing out.

"This has to be a spell." Charlie said, looking at me. His forehead was dripping with sweat.

"You haven't been visiting that wizard Skarpo again, have you?" Uncle Paton asked. Apparently, when I was in a coma Charlie managed pull a medieval wizard out of a painting and into the real world, which was how he got Claerwen in the first place.

"No." Charlie said quietly. But we were both thinking the same thing. Charlie had traveled somewhere cold. What if Maisie ended up in there with him by some weird flaw? I began to get more and more anxious and found myself searching for something to snack on. I grabbed a handful of chocolate truffles from the basket and began to munch on them.

"Uncle Paton, have you eaten any prawns?" Charlie asked suddenly. What the hell kind of question was that?

"No…" Paton then peered into Maisie's mouth. "She's been at my prawns!"

"Paton!" Mom sobbed. "Is that really important right now?"

"No, Amy, My dear. You misunderstand me. She was eating these prawns whenever she was afflicted with this terrible misfortune. They had to be what did this. They must have been poisoned or cursed." All eyes fell on me, and I realized I was still shoving potentially poisoned chocolates in my mouth. "DON'T EAT ANYTHING ELSE FROM THIS BASKET!" Paton yelled as he swatted everything out of my hands.

"Hey…" I looked sadly at the chocolates on the floor. First my boyfriend turns out to be a spoiled tyrant just like his brother, then my favorite grandmother was frozen, and now all of my candy was on the floor. As I looked at my discarded chocolate, a thought struck me. "Maybe I can help her. No doubt that magic is the culprit. Maybe I can reverse it." I knew I would be able to help Maisie. I had been stuck in my own pity party that I had forgotten I was a white witch. I turned my head and noticed that Grandma Bone had turned pale and slipped out of the room. There was no doubt that she was involved in this mess and everyone had overlooked that I could heal people.

"Oh, Infinity, please!" Mom wiped her eyes and for the first time since this situation began she looked calm and hopeful. I hoped that I wouldn't let anyone down. I walked towards her and rested my hands on her cheeks. She was cold and solid, like an ice statue.

I took a deep breath and focused all of my energy into my hands like I always did before I began to heal someone. They quickly began to warm up and glow. It was working. Maisie's face didn't seem quite as blue and her mouth began to turn into a smile. But then, it stopped working. My hands were still glowing but her face lost color again and she wasn't moving anymore. Then my hands stopped glowing all together. I didn't have any more energy to keep going. "What?" I stepped away. "It's not working." I was incredibly upset. I had never failed to heal someone before.

Grandma Bone had come back and she had a triumphant look on her face. "Not as strong as you thought you were, are you?"

"I know who to get." Charlie said suddenly. "The Flame Cats! They can fix this!"

Grandma Bone wiped the smug grin off of her face and retreated to her room. She hated the cats. The Flames were unable to help her either. Mom even called a doctor, but he couldn't seem to figure out what to do with her. Uncle Paton had sent the basket to be tested, but nothing seemed to be wrong and the animals that they had tested on seemed to thoroughly enjoy the basket. This made me feel even more depressed. My grandma was still frozen and those delicious chocolates had been smacked out of my hands for no reason.