The Ice Skates

((I do not own Jack Frost, his family, his appearance, or the town. All rights to those belong to Dreamworks. (Let me know if I've forgotten anything.)

This story was based off an rp with a friend, so it may not be my best. Therefore, ALL THE CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM!!! Every little nook and cranny. Every tiny thing you think no one else would notice. PLEASE LET ME KNOW!! I also know that transferring from Microsoft Word to St.ash writer would cause some problems... Please point those out too so I can go back in and fix!! 

Thank you very much! Hope you enjoy!!))

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‘She watched him carefully, knowing his next movement could be the line between life and death…’

Caught up in his book, Jackson Overland sat motionless, except for the occasional turn of the page. He sat with his back against a tree, facing the village. He came here often to read after lessons. While most days of winter were frigid, gloomy, and filled with snowstorms, these past few days had been sunny, though equally as freezing. Patches of snow littered the streets, though in the woods behind him a thin layer of snow laid, kept cold by the trees blocking out the warm rays of the sun. Every night it had snowed lightly, bringing a new, sparkling layer of ice crystals to the village. But every day by noon only a few patches were left, allowing Jack to read his book in the warmth of the sunlight.

He heard the snap of a twig a little ways away. Looking up, he saw the red-haired girl he’d known since childhood. She walked by about 15 feet off, taking no notice of him. He closed his book. 

‘Probably headed to my house anyway since I wasn’t at the bridge. Perfect.’

Smiling deviously, he got up carefully and got a good handful of snow, and after shaping it into a good, round ball, chucked it at his unsuspecting prey.

It hit its target with a flurry of snow.

Stopping with a gasp of surprise, she turned around, shaking the snow from her ginger hair.

“Thank you Jack. I really love walking by and getting pelted with snow.” Despite the good smack, she didn’t seem too hostile. Instead she held a familiar smile, the one she usually wore whenever Jack played some sort of trick on her. 

Laughing a little, he picked up his book and jogged over to her. “Gosh Anna. You should know me well enough that a little snow to the head isn’t any surprise.”

“You are highly unpredictable Jack, and you know that!” 

He hurried the last few steps, carefully avoiding sharp leaves and pebbles because of his bare feet. “I figured my unpredictability was quite predictable by now.” He chuckled a little.

She laughed in return. “You are so annoying!!”

He shrugged casually. “Annoying, maybe. All time best prankster in town, yes.”

In a fake exasperated voice she replied, “Why do I even put up with you?” She laughed before adding, “Come on snowman. Let’s go.”

He chuckled, muttering, “And yet you put up with me anyways.” Raising his voice to a normal volume, he added with a challenging tone in his voice, “Race you to the bridge?”

Without a moment’s hesitation, she shouted “GO!” and took off toward the village. He took off after her, keeping at about the same pace for most of the way.

Laughing and avoiding icy patches hidden from the sun, they made their way through the streets. They dodged their way around people walking through the streets; men running errands, women with baskets of food, and children playing together in the snowy patches. With a last turn of the corner, the bridge was in sight. Jack smiled. With a sudden burst of speed, he dashed ahead of his opponent, catching a glimpse of her surprised expression.

Though Anna desperately tried to catch up, she couldn’t make it past him. They ran straight, onto the dirt road leading to the bridge, and made the sudden turn left to run across. When they reached the middle of the bridge, Anna began to slow down, expecting Jack to do the same. But without even a hint of doing so, he sped on ahead into the woods beyond.

“Jaaack!” She whined when she saw he wasn’t stopping, but even so, a smile made its way onto her face.

Jack looked back for a split second, a large grin spread from ear to ear. Though he didn’t stop, he started to slow down, and by the time he stopped they were a good 20 feet in from the edge of the forest. She caught up in less than a second, and after catching her breath, remarked, “You’re pretty fast, for such a pipsqueak!”

By now his panting had finished, and he took a step back. “Pipsqueak? Oh-ho-ho, it’s on.” Reaching down and picking up a good handful of snow, he made a weak snowball (which was really more a chunk of snow than a snowball). Without any hesitation to even take aim, he threw it at her and began making more, pelting her with them. She laughed and ran away from the shower of snow.  Reaching down, she picked up her own chunk and threw it at him. He laughed and blocked it easily with his cloak-covered arm. His bare hands grew numb as the good snow he'd been using turned to slush as he picked it up. As it turned useless, Jack stopped and sat down, out of good snowball snow.

Gathering up a good amount of all the dirty snow she could find, Anna walked over to him and dropped it on his head. He shook his head and wiped it off his dark hair, trying to wriggle off the snow that had gotten into his shirt and vest. “Hey! You’re asking for it, ya know!”

“Asking for what,” she asked innocently.

Getting up and holding the ends of his drape to make himself look bigger and more mysterious, he said in a deep, ominous voice, “The wrath of the prank king.”

She laughed. “The prank king?”

He shrugged, letting his drape fall back to its normal position. “Best name I could come up with on the spot.”

She nodded lightly, suppressing a laugh.

“Oh come on. Like you could have done better!”

She laughed again, and after a moment of thinking, replied, “How about annoying snowman?”

“Annoying snowman…. Yeah, not feeling it.” He gave a small laugh.

She stuck out her tongue. “Oh hush!”

Chuckling, Jack turned back towards the village. “Come on. We better be getting back. I promised my sister I’d teach her how to ice-skate after she finished her lessons.”

Anna sighed. “Okay snowman.”

He chuckled in response and imitated her tone, saying in his best girl voice, “Alright flame-head.” Going back to his normal voice, he teased, “Race you back?”

“Go!” she shouting, taking off before he could respond. Chuckling, he ran after her, and, after catching up, didn’t push ahead. This time he purposefully kept the same pace all the way to his house. 

Once they reached it, he slowed down and put his hands on his knees to rest. After catching his breath, he looked up at her and said teasingly, “You’re getting better.” Smiling, he added, by now out of habit, “Meet you at the bridge tomorrow at noon?”

She smiled back. “Of course!”

“Promise?” He gave a teasing smirk. He knew what her answer was, it was always the same.

“Only if you do.”

“You bet.” His face changed to his casual smile and headed into the house, waving. “See ya then!” 

She waved a quick goodbye before turning and heading back to the street. 

~-~-~-~-~-~-~

First she heard the pat-pat-pat of feet running, and then she heard the sobbing.

She ran out of her little house into the darkened street, lightened only by the lanterns on the sides of houses. She got to the street just in time to catch the brown haired girl, stopping her from running any further.

‘Jack’s sister…..’

The little girl was sobbing so hard she could hardly breathe. “Woah there little one. What’s wrong?”

Hardly able to speak, the sobbing girl tried hard to deliver her message. Anna thought she could make out the words Jack, lake, and ice before the waves of bursting tears came again. 

She gave the wet mess a large hug, trying to piece together what she had heard. Attempting to soothe the girl, she squeezed her tight, saying over and over, “It’s alright.. It’s alright..” 

Then it clicked.

The whole world blurred, and for a second she was blinded by disbelief. Faintly she made out shadowy figures coming towards her. She faintly made them out as adults, coming out to help. Apparently she had handed Jack’s sister off to one of them, because next thing she knew she was running, tripping, stumbling through the forest. 

‘No, he’s not gone, he’s hiding…’

Half-blinded by tears, she barely avoided the oncoming trees. Up ahead she saw the clearing, the smooth surface of frozen water. When she reached it, she stopped suddenly. There, near the center of the lake, was a patch of thin ice, hardly taking form over what had previously been a large hole.

“No..” 

She choked out the word and ran onto the ice, not caring if it broke from underneath her. Reaching the edge of the patch of thin ice, she broke down, falling on her hands and knees. The ice started to crack underneath her. She didn’t care; she could hardly hear anything over the sound of her own sobs. “Jack.. You annoying snowman, why?!” She broke down, unable to hear or see anything through her tears. Overtaken by grief, longing, and sadness, she lost control of herself. She had no sense of time whatsoever; all she knew was that Jack was gone. He was her brother, her come-to.  No matter how bad things seemed, he could always make them better with a prank, some humor, a laugh, or even a smile. There was something about his words… They had comforted her, protected her, angered her, saddened her, embarrassed her, and guided her. She needed those words now… one of his funny lines to lighten the mood, a snowball in the face to make her laugh… Anything. She felt broken. Losing Jack was like losing one from her own family. He was always there, always ready to help, and always getting into trouble. Now he was just… gone. Trapped forever under the ice. Out of her reach.

 Vaguely she thought she heard footsteps, but her mind ignored it immediately, too overtaken with grief and disbelief. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up, her hopes rising for a second before dropping again with a hard thump.

It was one of the older teenagers from the village. Though she could see the sadness in his eyes, there was no sign of it in his voice as he spoke. “Come on. You’ll freeze out here.”

She turned away angrily. She didn’t want to go. She didn’t want to leave her best friend.

After a pause, he added, “His family will want to mourn with you.”

It took her a moment to process what he said. ‘Yes, Jack would want that… and they need the comfort.’ She felt selfish for wanting to stay at Jack’s icy grave, when others who were suffering more deeply had to sit alone, surrounded by his possessions. His sister was in the village. The one who had been with Jack when he fell into the hole sitting in front of Anna now. The poor girl would need all the comfort she could get. 

Anna nodded in response, wiping her eyes. Though she knew she was doing the right thing, she still was hesitant to leave her best friend. 

With the villager she walked back to the village in silence.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~

‘Promise?’

‘Only if you do.’

‘You bet!’

His laughter rang in Anna’s ears as she remembered the last few moments she had spent with Jack. She wiped a few tears off her face; she still cried at the thought of her now gone companion, her grief holding the same grip from the previous night and making her surprisingly cold, despite the sun’s rays beating down on her. 

It was almost noon. Anna sat curled up with her back against the stone wall of the bridge she had always met Jack at. It sat perpendicular to the streets of the village, allowing her to remain hidden behind the cold wall. This was where they had always met… that is, whenever he wasn’t playing with his sister and her friends. He was always very protective of his sister, very caring, and a good brother to her. He’d always spend as much time with her as he could whenever he wasn’t with his other friends. Whenever his sister was sad, he could always make her smile. Because of him, nothing had made her cry for more than a few minutes, even when she broke her arm or when her cat died. Memories of the utter sorrow and grief filling the little girl’s eyes flooded Anna’s mind, and she covered her face with her arms to try and block out the reminders.

She’d been sitting there all morning, waiting for Jack to arrive. He had promised to meet her here after all, and despite the evidence of his death which she had seen with her own eyes, she couldn’t help but hold tight to the glimmer of hope that he was still alive. ‘It’s only one of his tricks… He just went too far this time… He’ll come back.’ 

She tried desperately to cling onto the frail light of hope that she had left, but with every minute that passed by she felt it wane little by little. Time went by slowly, seconds passing like hours. She took in every detail she saw, every sound she heard, every presence she felt. The cold stone had slowly gotten warm against her back; the snow glistened in front of her. Every new sound or sensation interrupted her. From the forest ahead she heard a few bird calls, and from the village she occasionally heard a door open and close again, or the sound of the church bells bellowing every hour. There would be a church service soon, but she didn’t want to go.  Every now and then a breeze blew softly, adding a slight chill to her neck. From all around her it was still; the birds only came out every once in a while and the village with quite with mourning. It was dead silent.

With a sob of defeat she murmured, “I miss you prank king.” Getting up slowly, her shoulders hung low. She sighed. There were still chores to be done, whether Jack was alive or not. 

With a smack something hit her head, hard. Something cold, white… 

Barely able to focus on what she pulled from her flame-colored hair, she sniffled as she looked hopelessly down at it. Slowly she processed what it was. 

Snow.

The faded glimmer of hope which had just about disappeared flared like a spark being blown upon. She looked around, calling in a shaky voice, “J-Jack?”

She didn’t see anyone. Her hopes began to fade again, until she saw something move out of the corner of her eye. She looked, but nothing was there. But there, again! This time she saw it; a shimmer in the air, not 20 feet away. It seemed to be inching its way toward her. She squinted, trying to make out the odd shimmer in front of her. “Jack?”

The shimmer seemed to pause, and then, after a second of hesitation, it moved forward again. Stories of ghosts and spirits crept into her mind, along with hints of fear. But as her hopes slowly grew (though she didn’t know why), the shimmer shifted and changed, making a shape almost human. The hope in her grew and shone through her voice. “Jack?” A happy tear started to form in the corner of her eye. As her hopes strengthened, the shimmer grew clearer, slowly at first, but then faster. As her faith that the person slowly forming before her was Jackson Overland grew, it grew more and more into the figure she longed to see, until in a matter of seconds he had become as clear as the snow he walked on. 

He was wearing the same clothes he had been wearing the day before, only now frost nipped their edges. He held a long stick laced with frost and hooked on the end like a shepherd’s crook. His hair was a white-blue, matching the snow. His eyes were a bright blue instead of their deep brown, and they observed her carefully as he uttered something. But she didn’t notice any of this, nor did she hear what he said. Too happy with his return, she cupped her hands over her mouth as tears started streaming down her face. “But.. But the ice! She said! You were gone!” 

Happiness overtook her, and the burden that had held itself on her shoulders and heart vanished in an instant. He was back! He wasn’t dead at all! He was there, right before her, looking at her with the eyes she had known for years. She knew she should have felt angry, angry that he had caused so much heartache and sadness, but somehow she couldn’t. Any attempt of anger was pushed away instantly by her joy. She felt like laughing and crying all at the same time, and she smiled so wide her cheeks hurt. She wanted to run up to him and hug him and never let go, but she couldn’t. She was too overcome with relief. Everything was going to be okay, and back to the way it was! 

His eyes never left hers. “You.. You can see me?” She nodded, speechless. He had been inching his way closer, and was now near the bridge. He jumped over the stone wall and onto the cold floor of the bridge, still eyeing her. He watched her through narrowed eyes and said almost carefully, as if choosing which words to use, “How do you know my name?... Do you know me?”

Time froze with a cold, sickening wrench. Her happiness fell. Her heart seemed to drop into her stomach and her smile melted away. This wasn’t him.. It couldn’t be. But it was… he had the same face, the same build, the same… No, not the same everything. This time she realized the color of his eyes, the white of his hair, the frost on his clothes... All the joy that had been building up crashed and shattered in an instant. Suddenly she felt sick… woozy in a way that made her want to drop to the floor, through the bridge and the snow, and into the freezing water underneath the frozen river below her. But she couldn’t… she couldn’t move, she couldn’t speak… she couldn’t even breathe. Her best friend, who she had known all her life, who she had shared secrets with and knew all about, who she had almost never gone a day without seeing, stood suddenly a complete and utter stranger before her. Perhaps this was another trick; perhaps he was trying to test her, or maybe scare her….. No. His face showed no sign of his familiar teasing. He showed no sign of any memory or familiarity. She now noticed his stance; he was slightly turned to the side and hunched a little, his arms tucked in and both hands holding the long, icy stick pointed toward her. A defensive position.

 She suddenly felt burdened like she could barely stand, and, partially in a haze, she stuttered and could barely speak the words that haunted her mind.

 “You… You don’t remember.”