It had been a week since Alexandria’s strange disappearance, yet she hadn’t returned like she’d stated in her letter. Jack was exhausted, but most of all he missed Alexandria. He was lonely and had gotten worse physically, and hadn’t eaten in a couple of days. What was worse was the fact that Jack had overheard a radio saying that a snowstorm would hit the area later in the day.
Jack had no idea how he was going to save both him and Angela during the night. He’d used all his resources on her, yet she barely woke up. She mostly fell into a deep sleep the majority of the time. Even when she did wake up she only ate without saying a single word, not to mention her eyes, they were off every time she would be awake just for two minutes, but they always looked dead. So her doing that consistently made Jack feel just as alone. It was like watching a doll come to life.
He wasn’t sure if they could survive after tonight if they survived. Joseph was dead as well and without the help of someone familiar with medicine, Jack no longer had any hookups to get Angela the medication she needed. He wondered if the crazy deep sleep was either a side effect of the medication from before, or due to her current illness.
“I have to figure out a way of getting us to a better shelter or we’re dead.” Jack shivered and placed his blanket over Angela to warm her even more. “Damn it! What am I supposed to do? Alexandria hasn’t returned and freaking Joseph’s dead.”
Jack waited to see if Angela would awake or respond, instead all he got was her soft snoring as a response. “What’s wrong with you sis… why don’t you stay awake, let alone say something. What’s gotten into you?”
Jack stood up and walked out of the shack. “Either way I have no choice. I have to find a place for us to stay. Hopefully someone will take us in for the night.” Jack looked back one more time to see if Angela wasn’t shivering and that the fires were still running. “I’ll be back Angela. I’ll find us a better shelter. I promise.”
Jack headed out into the snowy environment. The winds were harsh, and the cold was that of an arctic vortex. Jack headed into the white street to see if there were people around, but nobody was in sight. He checked the homeless camps. It seemed like the rest of the homeless had moved to a different location because it was completely empty, to the point it seemed like people were never there to begin with. The only items left behind were just cardboard boxes or trash, but to a normal person walking or driving by it would only be your typical litter.
Jack walked into town and saw people warm inside restaurants and stores, which made him gloomy. He watched cars pass by, thinking about how warm those people must be inside their vehicles.
Jack tried his best to walk during such heavy snowfall, but the depth of the snow on the ground kept burying him the further he walked. His feet were beyond freezing and his hands felt extremely numb. However, there was no time to worry about such a small thing. His main objective was getting both him and Angela into a warm enough area to survive the storm.
He shivered violently as he hugged himself for warmth. “I-I feel like passing out. I-I can hardly breathe with this strong wind! Bu-But I’m not giving up!” Jack forced himself to keep going, even if he would get frostbite along his journey.
Jack walked for hours in the hopes of finding shelter, but so far he had failed to find one place. He was agitated and extremely disoriented, and he wasn’t sure if he could continue going. He checked the street signs and noticed he was at the opposite side of town, even though he was close to Flint’s river. He walked along a sidewalk that oversaw the river in its entirety, then spotted a neighborhood close by.
“I-I wonder if anyone in that neighborhood wi-will take us in?” Jack asked himself while his mouth trembled. “Hopefully someone will, it’s worth a try.” Jack started walking towards the area to inspect it better.
As Jack walked on the sidewalk, he spotted something along the riverside and presumed it was just a small log washed up. He kept walking straight but noticed that the shape he presumed was a log started to turn into something else as he stepped closer.
When Jack was close enough, he realized it was a person. There was a pretty bad smell coming from them too. Jack walked a little closer and noticed that the person was a girl. He spotted the bracelet on her right arm, and her hair color resembled…
“No… this… isn’t real…” Jack said, walking slowly towards the corpse.
He noticed the outfit right away and the scars on her arms… it was Alexandria with half her body face down in the water, floating lifeless like some dead fish. The other half was exposed and looked like a beached animal rotting away.
Jack’s eyes expanded with shock. He stayed paused, shaking his head at the unforgivable sight, not believing what he was witnessing. He dropped to his knees and crawled towards her, then grabbed her body and dragged it out of the water. Jack was emotionless and seemed broken. He didn’t know how to react. His heart pounded slowly and his face became pale.
Jack turned her body around and her face had already dissolved and decomposed, which exposed more rotting flesh. Her eyes were gone and her skin was palish green. Jack continued to examine her body to see what the cause of death was and noticed there wasn’t a single stab, shot, blunt bruise, or wound on her. Feeling hopeless and disgusted, Jack turned his head to the side and threw up.
Jack coughed as his eyes turned red from the sheer burning of his own vile. Tears filled his entire vision from his own helplessness. “Alex… why? Why did you go alone?” Jack leaned her lifeless head against his chest and finally broke, crying. “Why did you lie to me! Alex!”
Jack grabbed one of her hands, noticing a piece of paper clenched in her hand. He opened her hand out and took the paper. He looked at it and read her last words before leaving this life. Reading those words once filled with her joy and love… now seemed meaningless and empty. He broke down even more and clinched onto her lifeless corpse.
The paper had a stick figure drawing of Jack and Alexandria with a heart symbol over them. It read, Together forever! I’ll always love you, my honey!
Jack’s face was covered with her rotting blood and his own tears. He was full of sorrow and hopelessness, but he didn’t care if he was freezing, or was being covered in her decay. He had lost someone who he’d known for a little while, but it was enough to be called a friend. It was the same feeling Jack had when he lost his parents.
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His mind went dark, just like it did when those robbers killed his parents, back from when both him and Angela were escaping, but this time the darkness was blacker. His mind seeped with loss, rage and agony. Everything around him became blank as he reaped his emotions away. He screamed and screamed until he let out a haunting cry that broke building windows that were nearby. The skies above twirled around Jack and the snow around him blew away exposing the cold ground.
Water in the river rattled violently until Jack came back to his senses. He calmed down and looked around at what had just happened. His head throbbed with such severe pain that he didn’t notice the girl giggling inside his mind.
He picked up and carried Alexandria’s body through the harsh weather, not caring if he got sick. He managed to carry her to an open field that was close to the shack and placed her body down. He didn’t want to leave her body to rot in the river, and wanted to give her a proper burial. He dug, not caring that his hands were turning blue with frostbite. The blisters on his palms were beginning to erupt and spilled puss.
Before he could properly place her body in her grave, Jack removed the bracelet she had on her arm. It read, Jack and Alexandria forever.
Jack removed the bracelet and placed it into his pocket. He paused for a second with such a broken look on his face, then removed his scarf and wrapped it around her face. He whimpered, placing Alexandria in the hole, then buried her. He made a makeshift cross out of stone and placed it on her grave. Mourning, he looked up at the gray sky, wondering why his life was so miserable.
Why is God punishing me… for nothing?
He looked at Alexandria’s grave as icicles started forming around his eyes. “Goodbye… Alex.”
Hatred filled Jack’s eyes as he walked back to the shack in a broken and angry manner. He kicked the door open. Winter wind filled the shack and he took off his sweater. His face was angry, his jaw clenched, his eyes burning red as tears kept flowing out of his eyes. He placed the sweater onto Angela and wrapped all the blankets around her. Deciding to leave the bags behind, Jack picked and placed her on his back. He started walking out of the shack, not caring how cold it had gotten. Jack, with that angry look on his face, managed to calm himself down and turned his look into a face full of determination.
“Le-Lets go… Angela!” Jack walked into the white apocalypse and proceeded onward to the neighborhood he’d found earlier, the one close to Alexandria’s death.
The snowstorm was upon them but Jack didn’t care. All that was running through his mind was not to lose Angela, the last person he had left to care, love, and was his last vessel to have a purpose in life… Otherwise he’d rather succumb to the white hell around them and freeze like a human popsicle so he could end his never-ending misery.
Jack struggled so hard to walk through the storm. He could feel frostbite building up along his arms and chest. Carrying Angela and walking in the deep snow was tormenting him, but his legs trembled with chilling pain. His teeth clattered from the extreme frost brushing against his face. If hell was ever cold, then this was it.
It was getting darker and the storm had worsened while Jack was teetering on the brink of hypothermia. His eyes were looking more dead, his breathing sounded as if he were dying, and his body shook violently. But Jack didn’t care if he was slowly dying, he needed to find shelter for the two, or in this case, for Angela. His last glimmer of hope and love.
At last, after hours of walking, Jack arrived at the neighborhood with frozen brows and his skin was almost blue. He looked up at the entrance and took a step, then lost his footing and tripped. Angela fell off him first and he too fell to the ground. Angela, who was wrapped in layers of warmth, lay there like a russian doll, but one hand did fall out. Jack, on the other hand, couldn’t move a muscle and his entire body was almost frozen. Jack was experiencing hypothermia, but he didn’t care.
Determination riled up inside him again and drove his dying body to seek warmth and potential shelter, even if it was temporary. His trembling hand reached out towards Angela. Jack grabbed her one exposed hand and got the courage to stand back up. He grabbed Angela again, then carried her. He was shivering so much that he could barely stand, but he ground his teeth in frustration and finally walked into the neighborhood street.
Jack trudged up to the first house and knocked, but no one answered, so he looked through the window and saw people inside. Waving his hands a little, Jack tried getting their attention, but he could hardly shout let alone breathe. That didn’t matter though, because they ignored him like some stray dog.
The folks inside noticed the boy and closed the curtains in front of him heartlessly. Jack got angry but continued forward and went to another house. This time, people did answer.
The man looked down at the frozen, shivering popsicle that was Jack. “Pl-Please sir… Need wa-warmth!” Jack mumbled.
“Too bad kid. Now get the fuck off my lawn!” the man replied cruelly and slammed the door in Jack’s face.
The boy hid his broken face and continued onto the next house. “I don’t want some dirty ass bum inside my home.”
The next house, “Get the fuck off my porch, you little bum!”
Jack showed no emotion. He was extremely frustrated and was far beyond angry.
“No, you’re not welcome, white boy!”
House after house after house, Jack had been rejected, humiliated and cursed at. Someone had even thrown water at him. His mind boiled with hatred and his eyes no longer twinkled. They were as lifeless as a man who’d been through war and had lost everything.
Jack didn’t care about himself. He just wanted to make sure Angela didn’t end up like his parents, Joseph, especially Alexandria. He lost everything and everyone; she was all he had left. Jack realized how horrible and cruel human beings could be, and now he knew what the real world was like. It was unforgivable and full of selfish, heartless scumbags.
Jack walked up a pair of stairs and managed to get to the top. He knocked on the door and laid Angela on the doormat. Someone answered but Jack didn’t bother looking up. He kept looking down and seemed lifeless.
He almost collapsed in front of the stranger who was staring at him with wholesome eyes, but he managed to stand with whatever energy he had left. “Please… take… her-her. Th-Thank yo-you.”
Jack tried to walk away, but he tripped on his own footing. He stumbled and fell down the steps like a rock stumbling down a well. He landed face first through the snow onto the ground below, hitting the concrete.
“Yo!” the man shouted. “Damn, what the hell!” The man tried to take a step forward but noticed Angela covered in blankets. The man walked inside and yelled, “Yo Eric! Come down here and check this out man!”
A man named Eric, who was extremely tall, buff and covered in tattoos, came to the front door. “What’s all the ruckus man? I'm tryna sleep, you fool!”
“Bro, look my guy!” He pointed at Angela lying on the ground. “Lil homie knocked on the door. Said to take care of her, walked off and fell down the steps.”
Eric walked towards the outside steps and spotted Jack lying on the ground with blood pouring out of his head. He recognized Jack’s hair and remembered the incident in front of the restaurant all those months ago. “Poor lil man, he must have come a long way. I’m surprised he didn’t die of hypothermia before. Randolph, you should take the girl inside.” Eric walked down the steps to get to Jack, hoping he was still alive.
“Yeah, we can’t leave these poor kids out here man. Best we take ‘em inside!” Randolph listened to what Eric told him and walked inside with Angela.
Eric walked towards Jack and placed his hand on Jack’s back, hoping to feel a heartbeat. He still felt Jack’s heart beating and smiled. “Damn! You a tough lil man!”
He picked up Jack and carried him.
“Come on lil homie! The outside is no place for children. We’ll take care of both of you from now on.”
Eric carried Jack up the steps, but before he could head inside, he looked back and for a moment. He suspected someone was watching them.
“Must be my imagination? Felt like I was being watched or something?” Eric said, then walked back inside with Jack and closed the door.
The wind grew stronger and snow kept falling. From a distance, a woman in red could be seen standing below a street light. She watched them and smiled, then her hands collapsed as she walked out of the light and stared at the house. The violent wind fluttered her dress as she smiled happily, knowing they were safe and sound… but that happiness quickly faded as the girl in white appeared on the doorsteps of the home.
The two stared at each other. The tension between the two was fierce and agonizing. It was strong enough to create a snowy tornado of black and white. The girl in the white dress giggled as her laughter echoed into the hollow streets, while the spiraling vortex of the supernatural tumbled down, disappearing from the woman’s gaze. The girl disappeared, and everything went back to normality.
The woman in red walked back into the light and said, “The day will come… when you’ll finally be freed from that vile girl in white. And when that day comes, I’ll make sure to watch every single moment of your demise.”
She turned around and walked into the blizzardy darkness, leaving behind a rose of black. Snow quickly buried it, hiding it from existence.