by Holly Hook
Water always paralyzed her. She couldn't. Sophia--or her hitchhiker--had effectively gotten away from her.
Leslie tensed, ready to run. If that winter demon went off again, she didn't want to be around. This building was much smaller than the library. Having all that cold and frost explode in here might give her worse hypothermia than Paul had taken.
"Help," Sophia yelled. She was crying. Leslie could tell by the hiccup in her words. "She's taking back over. I didn't mean to run from you."
"Can you turn off the showers?" Kenna was struggling to stay calm, it sounded like.
"No. I can't."
A third girl entered the bathroom from outside. Pink-laced shoes swung past the stall. "Sophia? Your nightmare. What did you see?" Callie asked. "It had to have been something. Your skin felt like the inside of a freezer."
No one said anything for a while. Leslie strained her ears, but only the hiss of the water responded.
"You can tell us," Callie pressed.
Nothing. Either Sophia didn't want to say or she couldn't. Like her.
Kenna sighed. It was more meant for herself than anyone, but Leslie could detect it. "It might be important."
Silence again.
Callie couldn't quite mask all the hurt in her voice. The girl had gone through so much, Leslie was amazed that she managed to sound even this upbeat. "Come on. I'm sure we'll understand."
"No," Sophia said at last. It was barely there over all the showers, but there was no missing the struggle in it. It was the struggle Leslie now knew.
"Yes, you can," Callie argued. "Come on. You know I won't judge you about whatever it was you saw in that nightmare."
A couple of defeated footsteps sounded out in the shower area. Sophia's. They couldn't be Kenna's. She couldn't set foot in a room full of steaming showers and flowing water. And sadly, she was the only one who could safely get Sophia out of there. Maybe she and Callie needed backup, but Leslie didn't want to appear around Sophia again so soon. Her reading out Hyrokkin's name had set off the attack at the library, a fact she still didn't forgive herself for. Would seeing her face do the same thing?
Leslie wished she hadn't left her phone charging back in the camper.
Callie spoke slowly and carefully. "Sophia, what happened?"
Silence for a second. Sophia coughed. "I think she'll let me tell you." She cleared her throat. "The end of the world. Hyr--I mean, the Other--wants to help end the world. All I could see was a huge blizzard, burying everything. Here, even. The drifts were about ten feet deep, If she finds Andrina, I think she could if they work together."
Leslie backed into the wall, making an almost-silent thump.
No wonder Andrina had made it her mission to find Hyrokkin. Somehow, she'd known about this. Sensed it, maybe. She seemed to be able to sense a lot of things.
"Oh, great." Kenna whirled around and walked past the stall door. Leslie heard a slap as if she'd just let her face fall to her hand.
"I knew you wouldn't understand," Sophia managed. She hiccupped again as the showers continued to hiss, but there were no more footsteps. The demon still had some handhold on her. How much, though?
Leslie could smell the hot vapor now, creeping in under the stall door. Moisture started to form in rivulets on the red paint.
Kenna whirled around on her socks, marching back towards the showers. "Sophia, I do understand that one all too well. You're right that Andrina will want to use you. Use you, and then dump you. Did Janelle tell you what she almost made me do?"
Sophia muttered something.
"Yes. If Yellowstone had blown up, it would have created the biggest disaster in the history of mankind. It almost happened, too. There are things about me I can't control. If I'm near a volcano, it's will explode. So yes, I know what it's like. All we have to do to keep it from happening is keep you with me, and make sure Andrina doesn't find us. You'll have to make up an excuse for your grandmother."
For the first time, Leslie noticed the trembling in her limbs.
Andrina finding them could mean the end of the world, not just a war on civilization.
Leslie knew how close that was, and she still couldn't say a word. Her silence could mean millions or billions of deaths.
Nausea gripped at her throat, and she turned to start retching.
It was because of that that she dropped the notebook to the floor by mistake. It slid to the edge of the stall, stopping with its bottom half out the door.
Leslie had forgotten about it until now, and about what it contained.
Callie gasped. Kenna went silent. The showers kept running outside as Leslie held back her retching fit, very aware that someone's footsteps were drawing closer and that the same person's eyes were no doubt on the notebook that had everything she needed to spill to the rest of the campsite.
Maybe this would work. She could hope.
"Who's in here?" Kenna asked, her voice growing high with concern.
"Leslie." But her limbs were starting to move on their own, following Andrina's commands and turning her around so that she could grab the notebook. It was still lying open on her journal entry. "Can you--" she started before the now-familiar tightness wrapped around her throat again.
Grab it, she tried to finish, watching Kenna's form move through the cracks of the stall door.
But Leslie's two words were enough for Kenna to get the meaning. A tan hand came down and seized the notebook. It slid out from under the stall door as Leslie's hand closed on nothing.
"This it?" she asked.
Leslie wanted to laugh with relief. Kenna had the notebook. She'd see it now and tell the others. But the feeling only lasted a second or so.
She found herself fumbling with the lock of the stall door, ready to go out and wrestle the notebook from Kenna. Her body was still helpless against the commands of the storm goddess. Could she outwrestle Kenna? Probably not, but that wouldn't stop her from ripping at the page and destroying the only thing that might save the world.
Stop me, she wanted to shout. But it was pointless, as pointless as it was trying to stop her hand from pushing open the stall door on Kenna.
The volcano goddess was already squinting at Leslie's scrawl. In the dim light, it would be hard to make out--too hard to make out. Kenna had less than a second before Leslie ripped the page away.
Then Kenna turned away, trying to get into the flickering light better. Leslie stumbled, steadying herself on the wall.
"Is this about Andrina?" she asked, voice rising with suspicion. It seemed she hadn't even noticed Leslie coming out of the stall after her.
Leslie realized too late.
The winter demon was listening in to this.
The temperature in the bathroom plummeted, and the hissing noise of the showers changed somehow, as if they were hitting a different surface all of a sudden. Out in the shower area, the mist dropped to the floor and formed an eerie fog around Sophia's feet as she stared on, her eyes hard and cold with desperation.
Leslie stopped, distracted.
Kenna let the notebook fall to her side. Water continued to spill out everywhere, keeping the barrier up between Sophia and her.
"Sophia?" Callie asked. She backed away a couple of steps.
"Run," Leslie told her, forgetting all about the notebook. It would mean nothing if she and Callie didn't leave the building in the next few seconds.
Hyrokkin was back.
Chapter Twelve
"Kenna, come on," Leslie managed.
She didn't turn. Instead, she continued to stare down Hyrokkin, who had shoved Sophia to the side and come to the forefront again. Most of the mist had cleared now, scattering like a fleeing crowd, and the gleam on the linoleum told Leslie that the floor of the shower had turned to ice.
The demon spoke, moving Sophia's lips as if she were nothing but a ventriloquist's puppet. Was Sophia still conscious in there, helpless to watch this whole scene play out in front of her? Leslie hoped not.
"Give me that paper," H
yrokkin demanded. She growled, a horrible noise that must match that of a rabid wolf. It was the sound of the coldest, most brutal Arctic storm ever imagined. But she didn't dare take a step closer to Kenna, her one weakness.
"Sophia--" Callie started next to her.
"Don't," Leslie said. She knew she should run, but she couldn't. If Hyrokkin got the notebook, she'd know where to start hunting for Andrina. The hospital, where Paul was still imprisoned. Leslie couldn't risk her showing up there or anywhere else in Flint. If she got the news, the demon might never let Sophia go again. "Whatever you do, don't give it to her."
Leslie realized her mistake too late. Kenna started to glance back down at the paper, curious.
She lunged again without realizing it. This time, she caught Kenna by surprise. The notebook came out of her grasp, and Kenna faced her, shocked and questioning. It's safer with me, it meant.
But Leslie turned away, unable to stop. Andrina's command still pumped through her, forcing her to take it away from the only place it was really safe from Hyrokkin's hands.
"Stop!" she begged her own legs, but they wouldn't obey her.
Three pairs of footfalls raced after her. "Leslie! Throw it back to me!" Kenna yelled, gasping for breath. "Why are you running?"
Three sets of footfalls echoed behind her. The temperature of the air dropped. Hyrokkin must be running some distance from Kenna, taking advantage of the distraction.
Campers seemed to bounce around Leslie as she ran. Where was she going? Even she didn't know. Gravel crunched under her feet as she ran past the camper she and Janelle shared at the end of the trail. Trees parted in front of her as she bolted forward, down a hill and over a tree stump that someone had left a beer can next to the night before.
The lake.
It spread out in front of her, covered in greenish algae in a few places and threatening to suck in anything that managed to fall in.
She was going to destroy the notebook in about four or five seconds. Right now, it might not be such a bad thing, with Hyrokkin on her heels.
"No!" the demon cried.
Callie gasped somewhere behind her. A frigid snap of wind stole over Leslie from behind, throwing her forward towards the water. She raised the notebook as she stumbled, letting it fly on the wind towards the water. Its papers flapped like wings as it sailed through the air, up at first, then down towards the mirror below it.
Leslie landed on the hardening ground, wrapping her arms around herself for some protection against the cold. It wasn't enough to freeze her out in the open like this, but it was biting at her ears and her fingertips like a monster that wanted to chew them off.
The notebook landed on the lake.
And slid.
Leslie blinked as Callie and Kenna reached her. One of them pulled her up, but she didn't pay attention to who it was. She was too transfixed, watching her notebook dart across the surface of the lake as the wind died down. Finally it stopped, its cover flipping back down and closing it as it remained on the surface, neither bobbing nor sinking.
The entire lake had frozen over.
And Hyrokkin, controlling Sophia's body the way Andrina's command had controlled hers, was already rushing out to claim her prize. She bolted across the ice, feet landing without slipping. She scooped up the mass of paper as if it were a winning lottery ticket.
It felt as if Leslie's heart were being crushed in an stony fist.
Hyrokkin had the notebook, and it could spell doom for them all.
Leslie expected her body to run out there on its own to reclaim the notebook. This time, it didn't. She knew why. Andrina wanted this. It was the only reason the control had fallen away.
"Kenna," Leslie managed as Sophia's hands greedily tore the book open, eager to find answers about Andrina. "You have to go out there and get it. It's important."
The volcano goddess eyed the ice on the surface of the lake. Her posture was every inch tense, not wanting to go out there. Her one weakness would be just two inches under her feet. Leslie thought Kenna was going to back down. The notebook didn't look that important.
But she didn't. Kenna stepped out onto the ice, nearly slipping and going down. She had never walked on it before and was the least likely to navigate it fast enough. But she was the only one who could go, the only one who could drive the winter demon away from Sophia for a while. All she had to do was get close.
Sophia looked up, her face a mask of hatred that made Leslie forget that there was a scared girl inside, screaming for help. "Do you know how long I've been waiting for my release?" she snarled. "You're not going to ruin it. Your kind has taken enough from me."
"My kind?" Kenna tapped her chest, stopping about twenty feet from Sohpia. "In case you haven't noticed, Andrina's 'my' kind too. Did you hear about what a good liar she is when Janelle told Sophia everything about us? Believe me, I know all about it. I wouldn't trust her if I were you. And if you really do intend on ending the world like Sophia said, I don't blame Odin and the others for locking you up."
She was stalling for time, distracting Hyrokkin as she took baby steps closer. About ten more feet or so, and the demon would shrink away in fear, leaving Sophia standing there with the notebook. How was Sophia dealing with this now, listening to Kenna talk about this sentence she and the demon shared like it was a good thing? Of course, Kenna hadn't meant it like that. But when Hyrokkin went, there might be a screaming match breaking out at the very least.
Leslie braced herself for the explosion when Callie tugged on her sleeve.
The Tempest pointed down to the ice at Kenna's feet.
It was cracking.
Splitting open like a mouth ready to swallow her as Sophia's mouth bent up into a crooked grin that looked as unnatural as a smile could get.
"Kenna!" she and Callie screamed together.
The icy cover to the lake broke, revealing black water between Kenna's feet. It looked like the portal to some dark, cold underworld.
With a shriek, Kenna struggled to balance on the two halves of ice, wobbling like a tower in an earthquake. Sophia backed away, blinking for a second as if she'd come back, but then the hatred returned to her features, pushing her away again as the lake continued to split. Kenna was still too far away for the demon to retreat.
A horrible cracking sound filled the air, and Kenna fell.
The lake splashed around her, but she didn't struggle. She couldn't. The paralysis was already taking hold as she sank down, rigid, unable to manage even a cry for help. With barely a gulp, the volcano goddess slid under the glassy surface, leaving only a small wave in her wake.
She didn't come back up.
"Kenna!" Leslie stormed forward, fury rushing through her veins. Another piece of ice made a glassy breaking sound under her feet, and she went down to her stomach. If she laid down and evened out her weight, the ice was less likely to break. That she remembered from somewhere. "Callie. Help me!"
She reached the edge of the broken ice and dipped her hand into the water. Thankfully, it wasn't that cold, but the ice was tipping forward, threatening to spill her into the lake. Her fingers grasped algae, but nothing else. She might have to dive in, and pray her new Outbreaker strength was enough to pull Kenna out. The lake couldn't be that deep. The goddess couldn't drown--could she?--but nothing short of a miracle was going to get her back to the surface and moving enough to return to shore.
"Callie!" she shouted again.
The Tempest girl kneeled down on the ice opposite her, but her gaze was elsewhere. Following Sophia was she ran away across the icy lake, not slipping or sliding like any normal person would. Her best friend was hostage to a monster that seemed to be growing stronger all the time.
Leslie's hand scraped hair. Kenna was still upright, at least. The water must be about six feet deep.
I sent her out here.
"We have to grab her and pull her towards shore, where it's shallower," she said, eyeing the sandy line near the water. It must be twenty feet away. Sophia was get
ting even farther away at the same time, notebook in tow. But Kenna had to come first. If they didn't get her out, there would be no point in going after Sophia. "Callie. Go get help. I don’t think I can do this all on my own."
The girl nodded, and with a flash of pink laces, she bolted back towards the campsite, to where someone had started up a car not too far away. Meanwhile, Hyrokkin continued to run farther away, now just a blue blur near the forest line, until she disappeared with Sophia and Leslie's notebook in tow.
Leslie leaned over again, hand grabbing a fistful of hair. If Kenna could move, she probably would have screamed. She pulled, and Kenna came up a few inches, enough for Leslie to see her hair floating aimlessly through the water. Leslie managed to pull her a few inches closer to shore with her trembling arm, but down again she went. Even her strength was no real match for dead weight.
Or maybe it was no match for the horrible feeling welling up inside.
She rested for a second, daring a glance at the campsite and at Janelle, who ran towards them with Callie and her father on her heels. Leslie thought that by writing everything down that she would save all the Tempests here and prevent Andrina from turning Janelle to her side.
Now she had probably doomed them all.
* * * * *
Janelle paced back and forth past the tree where Kenna now sat, wrapped in an old My Little Pony blanket that Leslie had packed at her house two days before. Thankfully, the volcano goddess wasn't capable of drowning, but being fully immersed in water had taken a toll on her. Poor Kenna had staggered up the shore, helped by her and Leslie, until they'd reached a point where she could sit down without rolling back into the water.
It had taken the four of them fifteen minutes to pull her out, and all without anyone else in the campsite noticing. Full dawn was still some time away, thankfully, and most of the vacationers around them weren't going to get up this early even for a first golf game.
"What happened?" Janelle breathed at last, wringing out the sleeve of her sweater. Her wet clothes clung to her skin, sending a chill through her. The melting ice on the lake gave her an idea of what had occurred.