Frozen Hope- CHAPTER 1

The frost bites at my ears which are the only body part of me that isn't covered. I can here the ferocious wind calling my name in it's deathly whisper, willing me to turn back, turn back to reality. I push the voice out of my head ignoring it. As I walk my numb feet fall deep in to the snow, I sink all the way down to my waist, I half pull, half drag my numb body out of the hole. I listen to the wind whispering deadly secrets in to my frozen ears. I stumble out and I carry on walking or to be precise: limping down the steep mountain side until the only strength I have left betrays me and I sink to my knees. Deceived by own energy and fighting back anger and unconsciousness. I think I must be dead because I faintly hear my mothers voice saying

"You can do it Sophia,  just push that little bit further."

"I can't," I say back to the whispering wind. Am I so cold and dehydrated that I am talking to the wind? I don't dare even think about it but soon I know, like my energy, consciousness will also betray me and I will probably freeze to death but I know I'm not dead yet or else I wouldn't know the difference between human and wind. I feel a pang of sudden hunger and remember that I have little food but before I can give it a thought I slip under the spell of the ice and fall unconscious. Everything goes black.

My room is engrossed in old sweet wrappers and dirty clothing. I leap back as I hear a sudden bang at my window but I know its just a tree banging on it. We are in the middle of a snow storm, terrified,  Knock, knock I jolt my head to face the door I am welcomed to another knock, knock, knock. My little sister Mia walks in obviously terrified of the storm.

Snow storms are common in these parts aka the mountains. I cloak myself around the shivering and trembling body of the tiny five year old. Cautiously I open the window but only to be blasted with terrifieingly strong wind, wind as cold as ice but as loud as thunder. The mirror on my wall cracks and I faintly hear footsteps on the landing. I struggle with all my might to close the old wooden window but the storm fights back. Finnally I lock the window and I am consious that my cheeks are blood red and sweat trickeling down my forehead.

At times like this I wish Dad was here but he was murdered by his old friends who are still on the loose apparently. Almost on cue Mom strolls on into my groteseqe room complaining about the mess, acting like there isn't a life threatning storm just behind these very walls. I glare at her equalling in a telling off.

"Sam you cheeky thing" mom says stubbornly, then exiting the room taking a trembling Mia by the hand.

I dream about seeing the unseen and remembering the forgotten. In other words how I got on this mountain. I remember walking in to the small apartment I share, no shared with my mom and sister. I never knew my dad, he died before Alia was born but before that he was a heroin addict, I lost my dad to drugs and gambling. Before I was born he divorced my mom and went to live with his new girlfriend, two years later she left him so dad came back to see me every weekend. I don't remember it. Mom and Dad started hanging out together but one day I over heard them talking, but the talking soon transformed in to shouting and screaming and that was the last I ever saw of my dad.

 I remember searching the small room we share, staring in to every nook and cranny until I come across a body, my mom's body. Her blonde hair was slick with wet blood, it stained her newly washed leggings and blouse. Her eyes staring blank at nothing and her arms dropped limp by her side. Her head had a gaping hole right in the centre and the rest of her body was black and blue. Since I found the body everything changed.

 Alia my little sister came home from school she is only thirteen, not old enough to look after her self yet I still told her to scram, to get out of here, to run away, to run far far away until you find dad even I knew that wasn't going to happen. You might think this was ages ago but it was only two weeks ago. Dads gone, he left us and we will never find him, not that we would ever want him but on that terrible day I needed him more than ever. I needed a man that I have never met.

I wake with a start, I didn't need to look at my hands to know they are cloaked in ice. I try to move them but it hurts. My feet are encased in thick leather boots and four pairs of socks so they are safe, for now. The pang of hunger that once occupied my stomach has disappeared and a new feeling has invaded it: pain. I know this feeling very well it is extremely loyal to me and has stuck by my side the entire journey but never like this. This is desperation. I hug my stomach and throw up or at least try to but nothing comes up.

Mom is getting me to read again. I hate reading I prefer playing on my Xbox or the Wii. I only hate reading because I can't do it, the letters form a mini tornado in my head, they swirl around for however long I try so I shove any books out of sight. Mom calls it dyslexia, that's what my teachers call it but the word has never made sense in my messed up brain and it never will. 

I lie on my newly made bed and start reading a book that I can't read the cover of but Mom told me it's called the Tiger who came to tea. I know I shouldn't be reading baby books like that. I am fifteen for Crists sake but it's the only book that I have tried to ever read. Danny, my little brother tumbles in to my messy room on all fours. I put my book down to shoo him out but the second he sees the title he starts laughing so hard he cries. One thing I forgot to mention the book was Danny's before he got bored with it. Another thing, Danny is five.

 I pick my brother up by the feet and carry him out of my room and all the way down stairs to chuck him on the sofa. As soon as she sees me she dashes out from under the oak table in the kitchen. Mia, my little sister also Danny's twin, starts screaming the house down for Mom to tell her that I am 'abusing' Danny. Ever since she over heard her teacher saying the word in the teacher's lounge at school she uses it for everything. She can barely pronounce it she says aboos in stead of abuse and the worst part is Mom thinks it's actually cute, I just think its stupid. Instead of mom, Peony my twin sister comes down. Dressed in all pink with only one sparkly ear phone in her left ear and her IPod sticking out of her back pocket to me she looks hideous but to Mia she looks beautiful.

"Mia shut up" she says obviously irritated but her tone is equally irritating.

"But it's Sam" She argues back. Peony's eyes jolt like lighting down on to me. Her eyes bore through me, I raise my eyebrows.  

"Sam drop the boy" she says with a tone saying her patience is running low. I glare at her but like a dog I obediently obey. She curses under her breath and runs back to her prissy room. I swear at her behind her back but once again Mia finds out and starts to scream.

 Before a sound comes out of her mouth, I wrap my self round her head and bring her up to my room. Mia struggles against my huge arms. She starts screaming but she is silent to everyone but her and I. I thump her down on my bed and quickly rummage through a box under my bed which is full of Mia style sweets. Her long brown hair is wrapped round her mouth so I tug it out and smack her hand which I know will cost me extra sweets for her to stop screaming.

I pull out two gobstoppers but when I turn round I find Mia sprawled across my dark blue bed lying in a pool of her own blood. Her bony arms and legs are black and blue and a gaping hole now occupies her forehead. I can't scream, I can't breathe, I can't think. I put two fingers to her wrist to feel her pulse. I don't know why I did it I know she's dead. Nothing. It's not until I looked at her face that I realised her eyes staring at nothing but they are clamped open.

I call for Peony and Danny I don't know what to do. I rush to Peony's room and I collapse to see she has the same fate as Mia. I rush in feeling my addrenaline fuelled heart pounding against my weak chest. Danny is my last hope. I stand out side his bedroom door picturing his little face limp and caked in blood. Fear takes hold of me but hanging on to the tiny bit of hope I have left I open the door, just an inch at first but when I see him playing with his action figures I open it wide. I leap in and wrap my arms around him leaving him dumbfounded.

"We have to get out of here now Danny" I say with seriousness in my voice

"Why?" He asks "And why are you hugging me?" He continues

"Look something has happened to Peony and Mia, We need to get out of here." I shout

I tell him to pack underwear and socks one toy a few books and a change of clothes. Taking my own advice I run into my room ignoring the body of my five year old sister and collect as much as possible to take with me. Grief struck and helpless I sink to my knees and watch the wet blood on her face dry. I fight back tears but I tell myself to be brave, for both of them. I know where we will go.

I know a safe cave not far from here it is surrounded by ice and snow it's just on the opposite mountain. I try to think back to when the incident occurred but I didn't hear anyone come in or anyone leave and it certainly wasn't suicide. I feel like I am being watched by many eyes peering down at me. It's time to go now!

If I have learned anything over the past few days is to find shelter and I have. With an empty belly and an injured leg I have shelter. I hurt my leg by falling on an icicle I think I have blood poisoning. I light a fire but the smoke travles too far giving my pin point. Staying hiden is hard.

I found four bodies along the way and a dog a little spaniel with long brown fur and brown eyes a little boy. He started following me but I told him time and time again I have no food. That was until I saw him in a fight with some wolves they tore his leg open, so I rescued him.The war-battered pup.

 I took a pair of socks from my numb feet and wrapped them round his little leg. Surprisingly he survived so I took him in and let him wander with me. I found his collar though it had no address or telephone number on it. It just said Wish.

I wish Alia was here she would know what to do she went to numerous camps and went fishing twice. Hunger took hold of my limp almost dead body and let it fall in to unconsciousness.

Ok I addmit it, I packed way too much stuff and both rucksacks are at least a ton each. I waded through the thick snow hopelessly lost. I was trying to keep the house in sight, which failed.

"Sam whats going on?" Danny asks me with puppy dog eyes.

"Danny", I stop and face him to put my hands on his bony shoulders."You know Mia and Peony?"

"Yeah?" he replies with a mocking tone.

"They are dead, ok" It hurt to say it out loud, It hurt to even think about it so I threw up, streeing clear of Danny.

Found it, I think to myself. A small cave opening and a burned out fire, wait, a burned out fire? someone has been here, I think to myself. No wait she is still here. I glance down and my eyes lock with a girls face no older than I am. Brown eyes and blonde hair, rosy cheeks and looks almost dead with a gaping wound in her leg and a dog lying next to her. I think she's dead but the laboured breathes and the movement of her chest tell me otherwise.

I woke with a start, someone was shaking me prodding me. Two fingers on my wrist, on my neck. Keeping my eyes shut I push the shaking person away. A person. I sit up head butting the person. My head throbbed like a dozen books had been shoved in to it. A face peered down at me a male face kind of cute. He looks about my age short blonde hair and deep blue eyes. I faintly hear Wish barking loudly behind me. I sit up ignoring the throbbing and see another male face a younger one about five or six. He has long brown hair and a little stub nose a pair of brown eyes to match his brown curls.

Then I realise that I must look like hell right now, I glance at my reflection in a fallen icicle, my hair is sticking up in all directions and it is no longer mouse brown but dark brown mixed in with sweat, grease and dirt, my face is pale and cold to touch, dry mascara covering my cheeks like a large black blanket and the smell, oh the smell it's an odor of sweat, dirt, urine and blood.

I shuffle back away from the two boys, scared. I glare at the blue eyes but they don't glare back. I try to find a weqpon sticking out of his pockets but he seems pretty defenceless. The younger one just weeps and weeps while Wish licks his face clean of salty tears. 

"Who are you?" I ask the older boy

"I would like to ask you the same question" he replies

I don't want him to know my name but some how I just can't resist telling him everything, I don't want to but I can't help my self. I feel as if I can trust him with my life and yet I don't even know who he is.

"Sophia" I say "Sophia May Crutz" I continue

I clamp my now sweating palm over my mouth. Did I just say that? I haven't said that name for out loud for two weeks but then again I have had no one to talk to.

"Huh, why do I recognise that name?" He asks  " Anyway I'm Sam and this is Danny" He points to the boy playing with Wish. "And who's your friend?" He asks again

"Wish, I...I found him" I stutter

"What are you doing here? This is my cave" He grumbles

Too many questions I am already shocked by his arrival and by the pain in my bleeding leg.

"Long story but I would like to ask you the same," I mutter and after what feels like a century he finnally talks.

"Alright you really want to know?"

"Er yeah"

"Alright then my sisters were murdered and my mom was no where to be seen. They both had the same gaping hole in their forehead and covered in bruises" He says with sadness but also with anger.

"Oh" I mumble not knowing what to say.

"And your reason?" he asks obviously irriated by my reaction.

"Same as you except it was my mom" I mutter "I don't like to talk about it" I say.

"Really?"

"Um yeah I guess you don't either" I say dumbfounded

"No, I mean about your mom" He says helpfully.

"Yeah I just found her in the bedroom and I told my sister to run away"

"That's... crazy" He says. I must have looked horrified I know I did. "No, No I mean that we are lost for the same reason" he says reassuringly I think I can trust him but I don't want to take any chances yet so I let Wish decide, he licks either one of them I will give them a week if he growls then I will kick them out...

"Come here boy" I say to Wish and he comes bounding over to me and jumps up me almost knocking me over. I hold his butt while his front legs are running faster than I could ever run. I tell him to sit but I can't help noticing him glancing at Danny. I let him run to wherever he likes and in no time Wish is licking Danny's pale yet happy face .

"Ok well Sam..."

"Mclean"

"Ok well Sam Mclean, have you got any food?" I ask remembering the pang of hunger now occupying my stomach once more.

"Yes, Sofia May Crutz I do" He says with a smile on his face

I opened a bag of food but I was still suspicious, I handed her a can of soup and I shared a can with Danny, I tossed Wish a bit of meat he ate it like he had never been fed. I want to find the murderer, I need to. Whoever it is they will pay for not only Mia and Peony but for Sofia's mother as well. 

I don't know what to do, we have nothing to talk about. If we talk about the murders then we feel so depressed and Sofia just cries. If we talk about something else then we feel like we need to talk about the murders. We sit in this cave for endless hours, each minuet feels like an hour. Silent hours with the odd snuffle from Wish or Danny wanting Mom. I sleep next to Danny, keeping him safe and warm while Sophia sleeps with Wish curled up next to her.

One of these days one of us will die from either hunger or infected wounds. Me? probably both. The only noise that fills our ears is the slow whispering of the wind or icelicals falling off of the cieling. Sam and I exchange several hopeful glances, hopeful as if saying we want to get out of this cave but I am still unfit for traveling. I think I might die Sam says I won't but I can see it in his eyes his cold blue eyes. He never catches my eye, he looks away if I want to ask him something. Wish knows I will die soon as well, I can see it in the way he looks at me, the way he gives me those puppy dog eyes and whines when ever I come near. They say dogs can sense things, things that you would never imagine comming true. I stop thinking, I stop breathing, I stop believeing but I listen to the soft soothing whines of Wish.

"Solar eclipse" I hear Sam sudenly whisper so quietly that if I hadn't been listening I would have missed it. So quietly that I would have missed the words yet I know they're there but the whisper was definite.  

"What was that?" I ask at a whisper the words staying definite.

"Solar eclipse" He says again at a whisper keeping the words clear but the whisper fading.

"And...?" I ask my patience running low not in the mood for mysteriosity.

"Tonight, a solar eclipse at midnight it will save you" he says in a voice not his own, a deep dark voice that sounds a little like my dad.

"You what?" I see Danny's face his eyes have gone white and his lips form a neat line on his pale face. Scared. He looks at his brother wondering who is controlling him. I move closer to Danny, my leg throbbing and painful just a little more at each movement. I can't walk yet so I just pull my limp body closer to the scared little boy. I encase him in my arms, sharing the body heat. I am terrified of Sam or what ever has taken over him. He doesn't seem to move, or breathe he just sits cross legged on the icy rock floor of this dark cave.

I am so scared I think I might faint but I try my hardest to fight it back, I hide my fear with confusion. I reach out to grab Sam's arm, as my numb fingers make contact with his pale arm I feel an excrisiating pain fill my arm. Wish starts barking and barking until it tires him and he sits down, silent.

Sam is red hot he is no longer pale but he is red like he has been sunburned. He grabs a sharp cold iceical from the cave floor he rips it off with almighty strenth. Sam stabs his arm and the iceical suddenly turns blood red along with his hand. I cover Danny's eyes shielding him from what his big brother has become. Blood as red as ketchup but as thick as goop travels down his arm.

I grab the icy cold iceical which has now become a dangerous weapon out of his hands, his bloody hands, his burning hands, his murderous hands. It melts suddenly and a pool of blood spreads around my ankles. It erupts like a bomb. Blood splatering everywhere covering the cave floor like a blanket. A peculier odur fills my nostrils a mix of blood and sweat with a hint of garlic.

Sam stood up but his knees buckles and his legs finnaly gave way, he fell hard to the floor of the cave. I put my frozen ear to his chest and I listened to his heart beat, it was there alright going thump thump, thump thump, thump thump.

Danny, who had fallen unconsious, suddenly woke up with a start. The second he woke up he was looking at something, it wasn't Sam, who was sprawled in a heap across the floor, it wasn't Wish ,who was wimpering in a corner, it wasn't me, it was my leg.

 I hadn't realised that the cave floor wasn't covered with my blood anymore only Sam's, the excrusiating pain that once occupied my foot, gone. I could walk. The deep bloody wound on my thigh was no longer there. I hesitated for a moment then brushed a hand over it nothing just my own leg, no pain. No scar, no scab just nothing, just my own pale frezzing cold skin. I said to myself in a deathly whisper that is silent to anyone who wasn't listening but Wish heard it so did Danny, the cave seemed to hear it too. "I won't die". Then the blanket of silence fell upon us.