Frazil D2

Istood, my feet in the wind-swept snow, staring at the frost that had turned the river into Mother Nature's art project. Shuffling closer, I could see the small, white sparkles that reflected the sun that was barely peeking through the silvery clouds. A blizzard is coming tonight. The weathergirl had said that there would be several feet of snow. I didn't believe the weathergirl. There hadn't even been any signs of the blizzard; no sudden chills, high winds, or days where I couldn't even get to a taxi because of visibility. No, everything was as clear and as nippy as an autumn day.

I turned to my right and trudged alongside of the frozen river, my black boots providing a nice contrast to the glittering snow. No sign of humanity anywhere. The ashy air that required horrendous gas masks gave way to clear, crisp oxygen that made its way to your lungs peacefully. The oil and gas that spewed out of cars wherever I looked made way for wistful snow dunes and light breezes. The tall city skyscrapers with their light pollution fell for the large, sugar-coated fir and pine trees lining where I now stood.

No, nothing at all. It was just me and Mother Nature, dressed in a sweeping ivory furs and her pine needle necklaces; me in my olive sweater and teal jeans and the too-big crimson winter coat. I smiled at Her, hoping that She didn't catch the too yellow-and-black teeth that I now sported ever since the government banned fluoride for its toxicity two months ago. I closed my mouth, embarrassed, and ran my somewhat swollen tongue against the backs of my teeth.

I turned a corner and a welcome sight greeted me of two children. One was a seemingly awkward black-skinned boy, dressed in a colorless chiton that blew in the low breeze. The other was a beautiful girl with bleached skin, dressed in a ragged black cloak (I couldn't help but notice that the cape, nor the hood, blew in the breeze, while her short white hair did). I sighed in relief. Even if they were strange looking—whomever had heard of an African-American with ginger hair?—I was glad that there were humans that still cared about places like this.

I dragged myself towards them. As I got closer, I realized that the ginger-haired boy's robes were in golden patterns that seemed to change non-stop; at one moment, there were trees decorating it. Then, deer. Then, humans dancing around an embroidered fire. I stared at the patterns, feeling hypnotized. A crunch of snow startled me out of my trance. The strange girl had taken a step forward in bare feet.

"I'm Bella," she said, holding her hand out for me to shake. Her fingernails were claw-shaped and looked like it had a fungal infection. "But you can call me Donna." I shook her hand and grinned at her high voice.

In the back of my mind, something faint told me that her name and nickname somehow went together, and not in the best way. However, Donna gave me a flattering smile that people would see in toothpaste commercials and all thoughts went out of my mind.

However, before I could say my own name, the other child also stuck his hand out. "I'm Vivian," he exclaimed in a slightly lower voice. He had knobbed hands, like an older person with arthritis. "Donna's older brother." He shot his sister a smirk that soon faded away when she ignored him while gazing intently at my face. Before I could shake his hand, he pulled it away. I furrowed my eyebrows at him, put off by his rudeness. I opened my mouth to ask where their parents were, but got interrupted.

“Do you like this place?” Donna asked me, rocking on her heels. “I think that it’s super pretty, with the fir trees and the snow and everything.” She gave me another flattering smile, winning me over. I glanced at her hands again. Why did I think that she had infected fingernails? They were a pristine cream color that I would see in the ads back at the city. Glancing back at her face, I nodded.

Unlike Donna’s confident demeanor, Vivian stood there awkwardly. He picked at an old scar on his left elbow and poking at the faint freckles that had populated themselves there. Suddenly, he looked up at me and smiled. “Hey, do you want to see something cool?” he asked me with childlike wonder. “I know something that’s super awesome over the river.”

“But I do too!” Donna shouted out of the blue, as if to compete with her brother. “I had forgotten until now,” she explained with a shy voice. “How about if we go on the other side?” She pointed towards a grove of trees on the opposite side. “There’s something that I want you to see, even more than Vivian does!” She shot me yet another room-brightening, becoming smile. “Let’s go there!”

I looked back and forth between the disinterested, scab-picking Vivian and the beautiful, excited Donna that was jumping up and down with glee. Instantly, I knew my decision. I lifted my finger and pointed to Donna, who pumped her fist in the air. “Come with me!” she proclaimed, and proceeded to began to almost glide on the snow, for lack of a better word. I followed post-haste, though with far less grace.

Step by step, second by second, I trudged faster to keep up with Donna's speed. Snow-heavy pine trees loomed over me and laughed at my efforts; roots stuck out to trip me, branches to smack me in the face, and sudden groves of conifers to block my view. Every time—all the time—when I managed to fight my way through, Donna was further and further away. I ran out of breath quicker than I should have (I work an office. I don't exercise!). Soon, I had lost my gorgeous guide. I searched for her all I could, through a desperate hallucination that blurred my vision with tears. The red-hot burning in my thighs and shins rapidly overcame the rest of my body. Utterly exhausted, I dropped to my knees—going through several inches of freezing snow—and began to sob. No one could help me. I was alone.

(I'm lost I'm cold I'm hungry I want to go home please)

Body shaking, I looked up. I had landed in a clearing framed by a blockade of conifer trees, rustling in the smooth breeze. The illusion of laughter came in small, giddy bursts from the trees and the branches. However, as the last breeze died down, there was nothing. Silence.

Never had I truly known what true silence sounded like. My city-covered world contained little to no nature, except for rare gems like this one. As for me, I lived in the New York area, where the cities were especially thick. My whole life was cars, and sirens, and construction noises. The only noise that I could hear now, however, were my own labored breaths.

I slowly stood up, not wanting to stay in this copse of trees any longer. However, I heard a crunching noise. I gasped softly and turned around.

Hansel and Gretel's terrible witch stood in front of me. Her wrinkle covered face outlined her hollowed cheeks. The smile that she wore was black and yellow (like mine) and had what looked like maggots crawling all over it. She stuck out her hand for me to shake. "It's me, Bella," the hag creaked. "Belladonna. Don't you recognize me?" I couldn’t breathe or move or think, except for the futile thought that I hadn’t grown older at all.

Instead, my mouth dropped open by its own free will, but I couldn't make myself scream for help. I could just stand and shake in horror and the witch opened her mouth and shambled towards me. Her jaw unhinged and, in a blink of an eye, was over my head. I stared at her neck, which had elongated into a snake’s body. The rotten meat smell engulfed me. I gagged, a feeble noise, as she widened the jaw and closed it around my neck.

"Poor Mara Kennedy,” was the last thing I heard before my lights went out. “Next time, you shouldn't discriminate the awkward boy with the knobbed hands, aye?"