-For all the desperate daydreamers, let your imagination be your wings-
Piercing screams tore the night apart and underlined the noise of breaking ice floes. The frozen ground was constantly vibrating as if an earthquake was announcing its arrival. Although Alice‘s feet couldn‘t find grip on the ice, she tried even harder to resist the forces of nature. Desperately she held on to the windowsill and felt how the splinters of wood dug through her leather gloves into her hand. Something on her mission had gone terribly wrong and now the protective mechanism of the haunted house tried everything to eliminate her and her brother, the intruders. „Jonathan, where are you? Come here, we must flee and abandon our mission. The magical spell around the house is definitely too strong! Leave the eye if there’s no other possibility. “, she yelled hoping that he would hear her despite the gusts of wind.
„Alice! I got caught by the roots of this damn tree. I’ll catch up with you later. Don’t wait for me!“, he shouted breathlessly. That wasn‘t good at all. Alice worried about the fact that Jonathan was on the other side of the house and the ground was trembling so horribly that she feared that the cliff would break off soon. As Magnus Atherton’s descendants they had a huge responsibility to carry; collecting the most dangerous cursed artifacts before they could get in the wrong hands. Even if the two of them had inherited a special ability to accomplish their duties (Alice could manipulate objects only with the power of her thoughts since her earliest childhood and Jonathan had conjured his first fire at the age of seven) the risks during their mission were beyond words.
Last week they received the orders to chase after the eye of the Northspirit, the main artifact if someone wanted to perform any kind of necromancy. Its previous owner had done a great job at hiding it in a haunted house located in an arctic tundra – but due to the fact that the servants of evil had been too successful during their investigations, it wasn‘t safe anymore and the Atherton twins had to get it back as soon as possible.
Alice recognized the golden light of fire on the other side of the building. Her brother was a pretty strong magician, able to create powerful infernos but because of the rough climate and the glacial wind he couldn‘t summon more than some flickering flames. The environment seemed to make him as weak as a shark without its ocean.
The house began to tremor and the concrete walls were bursting in the middle with a spooky clicking noise. „Jonathan! Quickly! This barrack is collapsing! “ Alice was petrified, too scared to escape as well as too frightened to run at her brother and help him to get out there. „Alice everything is fine. Just keep calm and go away from here. I’m trying to burn the wood, so that I can…“
Suddenly an ear-splitting crack drowned out Jonathan’s voice. For a moment, the time seemed frozen and Alice noticed every little detail around her. The black clouded sky, the upper part of the cliff that broke away, … and Jonathan’s brown wide-opened eyes which were full of horror and hopelessness before he fell along with the other part of the house into the depth.
„JONATHAN!“ Alice’s heart seemed to jump out of her chest and leave an indescribable pain. No, that was impossible… her brother…the boy who wanted to soothe her with a lie a few seconds ago… the boy who had made dandelion chains with her on carefree summer afternoons… was gone? She moved a few steps closer to the fresh breakage and took an incredulous look over the edge.
A pale spark glowed in the darkness, a real spark of hope. He was clinging to an ice floe and floating on the dark water. He looked enervated but fortunately not injured. Coughing, he tried to climb on it but the water’s iciness weakened him every second a bit more. Alice realized that she didn’t have much time left. Her plan was completely crazy, but there was no other way to rescue him. However, she wouldn’t stand there and do nothing. Not a second time. Then she took a deep breath and jumped.
The temperature shock pressed all the air out of her lungs as she plunged in the water. It was more than bitterly cold. It was mortally cold. The liquid seemed to pull not only the heat, but also her muscular strength out of her body. Would she manage to rescue him ? Her limbs felt extremely heavy after a few swimming strokes already. « What are YOU doing, Alice ? Get out of there… ».
What she was doing ? Other people would describe this as suicide. Alice’s motivation increased explosively, and she felt how the words gave her her forces back when she had heard her brother’s advice.
So she was relatively close to him. « Shut up Jonathan ! Show me where you are instead. », she gasped exhausted. Her body was beginning to prickle, not more than a minute or two and the cold would paralyze her totally.
Ember twinkled not far away. She swam powerlessly in the sign’s direction. At once a growler hit against her thorax and dragged her under. Surrounded by the inky water, she lost the orientation and tried to return to the surface. The shortage of oxygen made her see millions of black points on her field of vision. Was that her end ? Was Alice Atherton destined to perish during a hopeless try to save her twin brother? Certainly she had reached her limits, but sometimes a situation depended on going over them. She went up and fought her way through the water mass, straight to the shining point. « Quickly, give me your hand ! » The familiar voice was like a safety buoy. He had climbed on the ice floe and dragged her on it. « Sister, have I already told you, that you’re seriously insane ? You could have died ! But it doesn’t matter because now both of us are certainly going to die in the glacial ocean ! » Alice could hear the powerlessness behind his criticism. She knew that he only wanted the best for her. In secret, he was glad about her presence. « Yes, you’ve told me that several times. But you still underestimate me. » Dithering she closed her eyes, focused on her last power reserves and touched the ice floe with her fingertips. When she opened them again, a paranormal refulgence was sparkling over her pupil. Slowly the ice floe diverted its course and drifted to the safe shore. When they had arrived, Alice was more than leached out and happy that her brother was holding her in his arms. The heat of tiny flames that he created on his forearms warmed her shaking body.
« I swore myself to rescue you from that situation. We haven’t accomplished our mission, but fortunately we are both alright. », she whispered. « Alice I see, you are underestimating me too. » Jonathan smirked and took a long silver chain with a crystalline amulet out of his pocket. « The eye of the Northspirit is ours, sis. Let’s return to our camp and get some dry clothes »