“Wait, what?” Chassidy asked, sounding a bit scared.
“I’ve noticed that today too. Sorry if I scared you a bit. The way I word some phrases can be confusing. That, and I have the creepiest name,” Guillo said, crushing Jeremy’s theory. I guess I am making a conspiracy out of nothing, Jeremy thought.
“It’s fine,” Jax responded. “I’m sure winter is just early this year. That happens sometimes around here.”
“Yeah. Let’s forget about it. So, Guillo, why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself?” Chassidy said to change the subject.
“Well, I’m a sophomore this year. I used to go to East Valley High a couple towns away. I love classical music and horror movies, and I would do anything to have winter year-round.” After hearing this sort of information from his new classmate and realizing that she wasn’t behind the weird darkness and cold, Jeremy decided that he might find this new girl interesting and exciting. Maybe even get to know her better and become good friends.
“Cool!” Jax exclaimed. “You’re probably one of the most unique people in the school. Most people here only enjoy things because the rest of the school does.”
“You’re going to find plenty of friends here,” Chassidy added.
“Thanks for being so nice to me! I already feel like I’m going to enjoy it here!” Guillo said to her newfound friends. The four high schoolers chatted for a while longer until the bell rang.
“I’m gonna get going. See you guys later!” Guillo said as she began to stand up. As she took a step away from the table, the assistant principal came running into the lunchroom shouting, “The math room has been frozen! Room 205 has been frozen!”
“That’s my homeroom,” Jeremy said, turning to his friends. Several students, including Jeremy, Jax, Chassidy, stood up and ran toward room 205. It took a moment for everyone to process what they were seeing. The door of room 205 was wide open, and the entire inside of the room was frozen. The floor was an ice skating rink, frost was creeping up the walls, and icicles were hanging from the ceiling.
“I told you something weird was going on!” Jeremy shouted to his friends.
“What’s going on here?” A small kid named Jonathan piped up from the back of the group.
“I don’t know, but I’m going in to check it out,” said Kyle, a cocky senior.
“No! It could be dangerous!” Chassidy warned.
“Relax, Chas. I got this.” It was clear in a moment that Kyle didn’t, because, after a few seconds in the room, frost began to form at his feet. It crept up his legs and torso. It almost covered his entire body, but Jax reached into the room just in time to pull Kyle out and keep the frost from spreading.
“Take him to the nurse’s office. Make sure she can thaw him out,” Jax instructed two freshmen.
Okay, this is getting creepy, Jeremy thought to himself. First, the eerie darkness and chill, then the strange new girl, and now A FROZEN CLASSROOM!
Jeremy’s first suspicions might have been questionable, but now there was a room full of proof that there was something unnatural going on. Jeremy’s thoughts were interrupted when suddenly Mr. Walker, the school counselor, rushed into the hall, announcing that the Science, History, and English rooms had also been frozen.
“I have class in all those rooms at the same time as the new girl,” Jeremy heard a sophomore named Stacy say.
“Did it seem cold in the room with her?” Jeremy asked the girl. “Did anything feel a bit off?”
“Well, I guess. It did, um, feel a bit cold.”
“Was there anything else that you noticed?”
“Um, it could have been my imagination or, um, lack of sleep, but, like, when I looked over at her for a moment, it looked like, uh, her eyes were white.” Upon hearing that accusation, it took all of Jeremy’s willpower to not turn to his friends and scream “I TOLD YOU!” In fact, he was about to when all the students that had been in the cafeteria suddenly stampeded through the halls as if they were being chased. It was when Jeremy noticed the ice racing down the halls that he realized that they were being chased. Everyone who had been gathered in front of room 205 took off sprinting down the halls too, trying to keep up with all the other students. Running got harder and harder because the further the students went, the slower they became and the faster the ice moved. Just before the group of students turned a corner in the building, Jeremy made the mistake of looking behind him. Not only did he slow down a bit, but he saw Guillo struggling to outrun the ice.
“Guillo! Run faster!” Jeremy yelled at her. When she didn’t move faster or reply, he yelled again, “Come on! The ice is catching up to you!”
“You idiot. She’s the one causing the ice!” one of the students shouted at Jeremy.
“Guillo. Stop,” Jeremy commanded. To his surprise, Guillo actually stopped. Now that Jeremy had her attention, he didn’t know what to say. Should he ask her why she was freezing everything? Should he ask her why she lied to him about causing the freeze at lunch? Should he ask her how she was making everything freeze? Jeremy finally decided to ask her, “What are you?”
“What do you mean?” was her response.
“You’re obviously not a human. No human can literally just freeze an entire school.”
“Okay, well, I’m actually a creature that has the form and brain capacity of a human, but I have a unique supernatural power. I’m what’s called “paranatural.” Being a paranatural has nothing to do with genetics or where one lives. Anyone can be born a paranatural, but there’s a one in twenty million chance. Paranatural powers aren’t identified until the age of six or seven. The only way parents can know if their child is paranatural is the child’s eyes. They’re completely white. Most parents freak out over the eyes and abandon their child, but my parents wanted a child so badly that they got me some coloured contacts and taught me to control my power. It was hard for me to not freeze any school I went to, so I was homeschooled for most of my life. I finally convinced my parents to let me attend a regular school, but they told me if I lost control and froze a few classrooms, then I would accidentally freeze the entire school. I tried so hard to control it all morning, but it was too hard and now I’m going to freeze the school. I’m so sorry, Jeremy.” After a few moments of shocked silence, Jeremy regained enough confidence to ask, “Are you going to kill us?”
“Believe me when I say that I don’t want to, but I can’t get out of the building without freezing all of it, thus freezing everyone still inside.”
“Can’t you get everyone outside and then get out yourself?”
“The doors are already frozen. I can open them myself, but that would mean freezing everyone else.”
“So it’s all over for everyone inside?”
“Yeah. All the people that weren’t in the cafeteria are already frozen. Even if I don’t move, the ice will move slowly and eventually overtake the entire building, including everyone trapped inside. In the grand scheme of things, only I can survive.”
“Then let’s do it.”
“Do what?”
“Freeze the school. We can get it over with quickly. I’ll walk with you to the main door and you can freeze everyone, then open the door.”
“But, why would you want me to freeze everyone?”
“Well you said it would happen eventually, so why not freeze everyone now to get it over with and let you escape?”
“But that means that you freeze too.”
“I don’t care. If we can at least save you, I want to do it.”
“Okay, fine. If you want me to.”
“Come on. Let’s get you to the door.” Jeremy got as close to Guillo as he could without freezing and they walked to the main door together. When Jeremy saw the frozen door and students huddled between the stationary line of ice and the approaching line of ice, he felt a wave of sympathy wash over him. Innocent kids would have to be frozen, but there was no other option. Jeremy told Guillo to stay where she was as he made his way to the back of the group of kids.
“Now!” he shouted and Guillo walked towards everyone. Some kids cried or screamed. Some fought. Others just stood still and accepted what was coming to them. Guillo stopped as she reached Jeremy.
“I don’t want to freeze you,” she said to him, on the verge of tears.
“There’s no other way. Save yourself. It’ll be fine.”
“It won’t be fine. I just met you and I don’t want to leave you,” Guillo said as she began to cry.
“Just don’t think about it. Don’t look back. I know that you’ll miss me, I’ll miss you too if I don’t die, but you have to do this. So long, goodbye.” Guillo, tears streaming down her face, ran past Jeremy, towards the door, and out of it. Against Jeremy’s advice, she looked back one before running outside and far, far away.
Jeremy watched Guillo leave as the ice crawled up his legs. By the time she was gone, the ice had reached Jeremy’s neck. Before he could think about Guillo again, Jeremy was suddenly staring at a pale blue transparent wall covering his eyes. He knew he wouldn’t last long in this ice suit, so he made his last thought about Guillo, and where she’ll end up next.