They were in the hospital. After Ivan discharged his cold, they went on with their journey. Ivan assisted Melissa to walk until they found a road where they waited for a kind stranger to drive them to the hospital. It didn’t take long. Two kids covered in mud, one with an injured leg, even a neutral citizen would help them out. And one did.

Ivan sat on the lounge, staring at his hands dried with blood and mud. The nurses handed him a towel which helped little in cleaning him up. Nevertheless he used it to wipe himself dry. The scenario was fresh inside his mind. His eyes were open yet the images of armored men curling on the ground were vivid like daydreams.

They had been frozen from the inside, Ivan thought. Their skins were bluish grey and looked rotten…curled up on the ground as if they were shriveled. What is to become of him now? Is Rhodes gonna put his face on the screen? No…Rhodes doesn’t have any evidences. Even if there were, the rain would have washed it away. He didn’t remember doing anything. He was just sitting as the men died…perhaps it wasn’t his fault but then again, who was it Melissa and those men called a Kryo? Whatever that meant could be the only explanation how those men died.

“Calling Ivan Greene, please proceed to the nurse station on the first floor,” the speaker announced.

Ivan sighed, pushing his face back with both hands. He refreshed himself a bit before getting up and walking to the nurse station which wasn’t so far from the lounge.

A slender woman in her forties’ waited for him there. She had eyes and dark hair of the same palette as Ivan’s only that her eyes were shadowed making her look perpetually stressed but everything else about her was well kept.

“Ivan!” she ran toward Ivan.

“Mom…” there was something that blocked Ivan’s throat—a poking feeling that made him want to cry but he held back. He didn’t want his mother to see him cry.

“What have you gotten yourself into?” she embraced Ivan and cupped his face. She grimaced but didn’t keep her hands off. Thereafter, she hugged Ivan again, careless of her son’s filth. She was just glad that Ivan was alright. “When the hospital called, I didn’t know what to do…” she sniffled. “I thought something bad happened to you. You’re alright though, aren’t you?”

“I’m fine, mom,” Ivan held his mother by the shoulders and gently pushed her off. “I’m cold…”

“I’ll warm you up—”

“No. I’m cold and I don’t want you to be cold either,” Ivan said lowly.

Although his mother knew, she didn’t let that hinder her from hugging her son. There were times when Ivan would get too cold as a child whenever he felt sad and lonely. His mother would always embrace him to sleep. She would wake up the morning after with a cold. Ivan knew which is why he denied physical affection from his mother as much as possible.

His mother had him checked at different hospitals after the incident with his father. They went to every clinic and hospital in town but no doctor could explain Ivan’s condition. There wasn’t an anomaly in Ivan’s physiology, according to the doctors although there obviously was. Anyone could tell from touching Ivan that his temperature wasn’t natural anymore.

“Mom…” Ivan said after a while. He still wasn’t sure if he should tell his mother about everything that happened…about what he did. “My friend…she…”

“Melissa?” his mother’s response startled him.

Ivan was surprised. Not once he told his mother about Melissa. She wasn’t so important to Ivan until just recently and he didn’t recall his mother ever seeing Melissa before.

“How did you…?” Ivan trailed off, eyes wide open.

“Come…let’s visit her,” Ivan’s mother turned away, “It’s time I give you an explanation.

Melissa was in the public ward. Her leg was wrapped in bandages without a cast so that could only mean her bone wasn’t damaged. She still wore her light pink sweater which had dried with stains of crisping mud. Her lips were still pale from the blood loss, almost blending in with the tone of her once rosy face.

Ivan and his mother approached and the moment they saw her, Ivan’s mother acted in haste to embrace the redheaded girl as if they already knew each other.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Mrs. Eva Greene,” Melissa said, placing a hand around Eva’s back.

“I’m sorry, Melissa,” Eva apologized as if she was involved in the incident. Ivan could only watch as he waited for the promised explanation his mother mentioned earlier.

Melissa chortled just to lighten up the mood. “Occupational hazard in my line of work…it couldn’t be helped,” she said.

Eva munched her lips and nodded her head as if unsure whether to agree or not. Line of work, she thought… poor girl. She masked a smile and pulled out a wheeled stool where she sat. Melissa patted an area beside her bed where Ivan could sit but the Kryo refused to settle while his mind had lots bothering it.

“You owe me an explanation,” she looked at Melissa and then to his mom. It was his nonverbal way of saying that his mother owed him just as much. He couldn’t handle the transition of events that happened so far. He left school this morning thinking it was just another boring day—that it was just gonna end same old until graduation but now…he wasn’t even sure if graduating was possible.

People died. He killed them out of his own awareness. That wasn’t part of his expectations when he ate breakfast or dozed off in history class. And as much as he knew, he was some sort of inhuman called a Kryo which Rhodes wanted kidnap. There was a powerful man after him and with what Melissa told him so far, the man’s intention is to kill Ivan and others like him.

Melissa fiddled her fingers as her eyes went from Ivan to Eva alternatively as though asking if she should be the one to explain. She opened her mouth to speak but found a hand—Eva’s hand—resting on her forearm.

“You’re going to a safe place, Ivan,” Eva said, “I’m sure Melissa already told you.”

“She told me alright,” Ivan’s tone was sarcastic, “She told me we’re going somewhere safe just like you telling me now but where is that place? And what is it like? Mom, do I have to go to this place? Did you even ask me—why do you know this and didn’t say anything about it before?” Ivan was frantic but mostly he was just scared. He was scared not just because some man was after him…he was scared of what he was. He didn’t want to accept the reality that he was different. Just until this morning, he was just a kid that bade his mother farewell and suddenly he becomes this…this…Kryo. To hell with that, Ivan thought.

Eva went out of her seat and walked toward Ivan. She held her son by the shoulders and guided him to sit at the foot of Melissa’s bed. She hugged Ivan but the stubborn boy tried to get away, afraid of freezing his mother.

“It’s alright, my big boy,” his mother’s voice was shaky. She wasn’t cold…she just tried to keep her voice in control at the verge of weeping.

Ivan sniffled, embarrassed by his mother’s affection especially in front of Melissa. He tried moving away but his mother kept her arms taut around him. And he just surrendered to his mother’s hug. At this point, it was obvious that he was going away with Melissa. There was no guarantee that he’s going to see his mother again so he stopped pushing his her away.

“If you want to cry, just cry,” Eva said, rubbing the back of her son but Ivan didn’t cry. He just couldn’t…not in front of somebody.

Eva began explaining. “Eight years ago, I came across Dr. Loftis. He’s the head of a quasigovernmental facility that housed special people like you. When he heard about my descriptions, he told me to bring you there immediately,” she paused to swallow a heavy lump inside her throat and placed a hand on Ivan’s cheek as though recalling the memory brought back those bitter feelings. She continued, “He briefed me of course…told me about a government rogue that kidnapped special people but I couldn’t let go of my only child. I told Dr. Loftis I’d send you there when you were eighteen. Melissa was no coincidence…I was merely extending the time I had left with you but… Rhodes happened and I can’t let him happen again. You need to go with Melissa, do you hear me?”

Ivan took a moment to absorb it all in. He didn’t like what he was much less accept it but he did wanted to know more about himself and to gain control of his ability for the sole purpose of getting rid of it. If he knew how to control his power, he could control it so as it doesn’t manifest itself and he could live a normal life.

“Mom…” Ivan’s voice was hoarse. “Won’t I ever see you again?” In the end, he was still a boy. He was still the boy that relied on his mother. He was still the boy that hid behind her whenever his abusive father would come home drunk and destructive. Even though his father died ten years ago, the mark of his abuse haunted Ivan as he grew up. There were nights he would still see his father and he would always shout his mother’s name and then everything would be alright. Without his mother…he wouldn’t be able to survive those nights.

Eva didn’t reply and it only meant that they might never see each other again but she did tell Ivan that they would—a lie or a foresight preferably. There were things Dr. Loftis told Eva that were heartbreaking however that was eight years ago. Things might have changed since then. Perhaps their research progressed.

“If I wanted to see you again…” Ivan trailed off, “and they won’t let me, then aren’t they just the same as Rhodes?”

Eva smiled despite the tears that were forming in her eyes. “Even after all these years, you still sound like my little boy,” she held her cry but failed and it went out as weeping gasps. “You need to grow out of me. I won’t always be there for you but I will always be with you.”

Hearing that, Ivan’s arms enclosed her mother and he embraced her for the longest time knowing it would be their last. Thereafter, he broke away and looked at Melissa.

“What would they do to me there?” he asked.

Melissa smiled. “We’ll keep you safe.”

Ivan opened his mouth to say something but stopped. He hesitated, rubbing the back of his neck as he weighed the options inside his mind whether to do it or not but finally, he reached out a hand to Melissa.

“Promise?” he couldn’t look Melissa’s direction as if he was embarrassed by what he was doing.

Melissa looked at Ivan’s hand—scraped and dirty. She recalled how Ivan saved her despite him knowing so little about the situation. She grabbed it, feeling the coldness transfer to her and shook it once. “I promise,” she said.