Chapter 2:Hell Is Cold (2)

1.

Huff

Huff

Shit, this sucks, climbing up this mountain sucks, everything sucks.

And I lost my bag, well it's not that I could've climbed this with my bag, but how am I going to collect things now?

I need to get back to this cabin, if there are monsters here that look like humans, I need to protect Amelia.

The jagged rocks on this side of the mountain keep cutting my fingers, but I’m too much in a rush to care, I’ll heal, I’ll be fine, all of this will be fine.

One step at a time, a fall from this height will surely kill me, my coats are slowing my down and restricting movement, so I decide to take them off.

They float down all the way to the base of the mountain, blowing in the wind.

I’ll be fine, I should be able to make it there before hypothermia hits me.

On this side of the mountain, the view was beautiful, I had to take a few stops just to admire it, on a clear day like today with little snowfall, I can see into the distance easily.

This was the sort of view Amelia would want to hear about when I get home, I memorize it so I can describe it in detail.

My shoulder seems to be fine; I can barely feel pain from it and it's not limiting my movements, lucky adrenaline.

I'll definitely have to check the wound once I'm inside though.

Wind begins to get intense higher up on the mountain, this would’ve been an issue but luckily the mountain near the top begins to get less steep, there is even grass and some shrubs up here now.

When I finally make it up into the forest area, I take a break to think about my options.

I have no weapons except for a dull knife at home, that’s not going to do much against someone trained with a bow.

And I’m not built for fighting, my weak small body would be easily overpowered by an adult… God when can I finally grow up…?

I walk slowly through the uphill snow, this part had always sucked, but it sucks worse now that I am possibly dying from a wound.

The cabin. The cabin, I see it, ah, here comes my heavy breathing, just a few more steps.

I swung the door open and collapsed onto the floor.

"Big bro!! What happened?" She says as she drags me further into the cabin.

"Rest now, I'll treat you, patch you right up."

The headache is back, I hate these god damn headaches.

I feel sick to my stomach.

My eyes close, but I can't open them, my eyelids feel like they are glued together.

I'm falling asleep, am I dying?

No. Amelia wouldn't let me die, she will help me, I just have to leave it in her hands, leave everything to her.

"Just rest now big bro"

I fall asleep.

2.

"Amelia, we can't just take a random detour!" jack screams as Amelia walks fast through the snow, breathing heavily.

Sophie, who's considered to be the protector of the 3 arrives, she has bluish tinted white hair which reaches her shoulders, her face is pretty and doesn't have a single scar, something that was rare for snow hunters.

Her pure silver eyes makes her look especially unnerving to people who don’t know her.

She likes to wear light clothing which allows her to move with ease, somehow, she never feels cold.

"Let Amelia do what she has to do you prick" Sophie scorns Jack without even knowing the full context, the fact is, Amelia had been a very levelheaded individual and almost never does anything for her own gain.

"If we make a random journey to a random cabin which will take who knows how long, it might be night by the time we get back to the city, I'm trying to keep all our lives intact here" Jack explains.

"Cabin? Like as in Amelia's old place, why would she want to go back, is it because of the mimic?"

"Yeah, I mean she has seen awful things before, but this seemed to shake her, I don't think she is thinking rationally"

"Well... it's our jobs as friends to help her, dontcha think?"

She does a small twirl and follows Amelia, catching up to her quickly, Jack grunts and begins to walk faster as well.

"So, Amy, what's with the big frown on your face?"

Amelia doesn't reply, she is annoyed that she has convinced herself her brother is alive, she knows it can't be true since she saw what happened to him all those years ago.

Sophie doesn't say another word and merely follows Amelia, she easily walks through the snow which both Amelia and Jack are struggling with.

Time passes.

"How far away is this cabin anyway?"

Jack shouts, still lagging behind.

Amelia doesn't respond, she keeps moving forward, even though her body is going to give out soon if she continues at this pace.

"Sophie she is clearly having psychological problems, I can restrain her and we can take her back" Jack says, finally catching up

Sophie gives him an annoyed look.

"If you want to go back that badly then go, we can handle ourselves"

"No, it's... okay fine we can do this pointless excursion and waste time and energy"

"Good!" She gives Jack a fake smile, she then turns back to Amelia who is keeping the same pace.

She sees ahead there are rocks that will need climbing.

"Jack you can stay here, okay? I don't want you to overexert yourself, especially since you are carrying all our stuff"

She gives Jack a patronizing pat on the shoulder.

"We will be back before sundown, trust me."

Jack stays behind while Sophie and Amelia begin to climb the rocks that lead to the cabin.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Amelia is looking tired and breathing irregularly, it's worrying but Sophie knows more than anyone that fulfilling base desires like this no matter how stupid can help with sanity in this messed up world.

"So, tell me Amy, who did you see? When you saw the mimic."

Amelia looks a bit back at Sophie before climbing to the top, she sits down and takes a breath.

"Uh..." huff "I uh" a guttural sound followed by her vomiting onto the snow, she wipes her mouth and gets back up "I saw my" huff "brother, he still looked the same age he did back then"

Sophie tilted her head a bit "you had a brother? We've been friends for so long and you've never told me this!!!???”

Sophie pouts.

"Hmph, well I guess I have to be the bearer of bad news, but mimics can be nasty, if you kill the mimic it will turn into its original form and you'll see your dear brother be warped and mutilated into a weird stinky creature, not fun to see."

Amelia doesn't flinch at her words, "I know," and continues walking, "it should only be 30 minutes away, if we keep at this pace."

Sophie smiles "I love it when you push yourself Amy, it makes you seem so strong."

3.

Amelias mind is racing.

Urgh, I don't get it, why'd I have to see a mimic now? Just as soon as I got a good thing going fate turns my life around and opens up old wounds.

Why was it’s hair blonde? Why did the mimic not attack me? Why was it bleeding? Urgh, I hope this thing, whatever it is, can at least explain itself, I'm not sure why I'm even assuming the mimic lives in the cabin, but if it was trying to lure me here, this would be the perfect place.

Huff.

The snow is so deep here, but I can tell I'm close.

"Amy?"

Sophie cares too much, why does she think I'm always in the right?

"What?"

"I think you're crying."

Shit I am, I'm crying, being reminded of my dead brother yeah of course I'm going to cry.

Why do these creatures just torture us like this? I don't get it, I just want to be happy and forget about the past.

I wipe my tears, before they freeze on my face.

I spot the cabin through my blurred vision.

There it is, the cabin, my past is in there, it looks worn and torn, in a much rougher shape, but that's expected, most structures have been taken by the elements.

I stop and look at Sophie.

"You have my back, right?"

Sophie takes out her two knives, something she uses because she thinks it looks really cool.

Sophie is only 17, which means she only remembers the world after it became a hellscape, most people who were born into this world naturally had to learn to survive so a lot of them are skilled fighters.

"I got your back." Sophie holds her knives and effortlessly walks towards the cabin.

I follow her.

Creak.

The door opens, I look at the surroundings, but what I saw was not what I was expecting.

I was expecting a mimic of my brother, trying to convince me to stay with him, with big eyes and a cute smile, but instead, I saw something mortifying.

My brother, no, the creature who looks like my brother on a bed, then a mimic with no form consuming him while he is asleep.

It was another mimic, it was my first time seeing a mimic's true form, it had a skinny humanoid body, but its head was that of a leech, it would make you fall asleep and suck out the life force until you were dead.

But a mimic consuming another mimic? This was messed up even in this world's standards.

The creature notices us and stops consuming the thing that looks like my brother, it spits out gallons of blood, then slowly begins to walk, I see it run headfirst towards me.

"GET BACK!" Sophie pushes me out of the cabin into the cold air again, the mimic follows and tumbles clumsily down a bit onto the snow, still coughing up blood and painting the snow red. it began gaining size, this must've been the first time it went outside because it was getting used to the landscape.

This mimic was becoming huge, the biggest one probably ever recorded, just how many people did it have to kill to get to this size? How much blood did it have to consume?

In the open air the mimic grows bigger and bigger, and begins to crawl towards me, stumbling through the snow, it can't even stand up right but it's almost the size of the trees.

I'm frozen in fear, damn it, it's not time for a pitiful panic attack, I need to act.

The mimics hands, which are now even thinner and bonier, reach towards me, they could pick up my entire body and crush me if they wanted to.

Sophie runs up and pushes me again out of the way and slices the hand of the mimic, cutting a finger clean off.

Now rolling down the mountain while Sophie dodges the mimics hands, I can finally think clearly.

Sophie was fine, I was sure of that, she was masterfully weaving through the hands of the mimic, but the problem was.

How could we even kill this thing? It was too huge, we could go for the head, but its brain is stored somewhere in the lower neck, I need to aim there.

Forcing my shaking hands to move, I grab my bow and begin to pull back an arrow, I carefully aim towards the neck of the mimic.

Meanwhile Sophie is carefully dodging the mimics attacks, trying to tease the creature.

"For such a big mimic you seem to not know how to fight? You've been living a life of luxury I can tell," she teases as the mimic slams its hands down towards Sophie's head clumsily.

she slices through the wrist of the mimic like butter, trying to look cool while doing a flip.

Sophie is what people consider a blessed child, they began to pop up after the snow came, Sophie was born with extraordinary reflexes and strength.

The mimic, now with its hand gone, begins to pulsate its head.

the leech head begins to suck in, air being ripped into its mouth, since the mimics head was so huge the force of this was enough to fling humans around effortlessly.

Before Sophie can be taken off her feet an arrow flies through the sky and hits the mimic right in the neck, it stops breathing and spews out black blood.

I huge high-pitched roar comes from its mouth, loud enough to break glass.

"Oh, silly Amy, you might've just killed me" Sophie can't dodge this, the blood of mimics can easily melt human skin. This was quite the predicament, before the blood could reach the ground, she grabs the huge hand she severed and hides under it, using it as a sort of umbrella.

4.

GRARRRGH

My eyes open, the sound jolting me awake, what is happening, where is Amelia?

My shoulder seems fine, oh god did she go outside?

The door was wide open, and through the door I could see a huge monster, my worst fears came true, oh god I hope Amelia is okay.

I get up and ran outside, the snow was painted black with a weird liquid, the huge leech like creature was rolling in agony, I look around and see a severed hand, and beside it a girl with whitish hair, she was beautiful, no blemishes on her face and her skin melts into the same color of the snow, making her have natural camouflage, the clothes she was wearing were also white, polar bear skin I'd assume.

The girl shouts "AMY, YOU NEED TO AIM FOR THE BACK OF THE NECK!"

Who was Amy? No, who is she? I was scared to go outside but needing answers I began to take the first few steps.

The girl hadn't been focused on me but when I reached closer to her, I grabbed her attention by asking.

"Where is she??? Is she okay?? Where is Amelia?"

The girl looked at me with a confused gaze, she tilted her head, the two knives still in her hands,

Her face was terrifying when I got closer, her silver eyes punctured through mine.

"Oh, it's you."

she said with cold agitation.

"Uh, I'm Amelia's brother, have you seen h-"

My neck, it... it's cold, she had moved faster than I could perceive, blood spewed from my neck as I was on the ground.

"Red blood?"

Oh god everything is cold, is this it? Killed so easily, I just hope Amelia is okay, I hope I'm okay, why do I have to die? What did I do to deserve this? I can survive this... ill survive this and then find Amelia and be happy. I'll be happy.

"Aim for the back of the head Amy!"

A screech.

A thud and gargling, I guess they took the leech monster out, I hope Amelia made it out alive. She's a strong girl.

"Nice job"

Footsteps,

Why am I still alive? Aren't I supposed to fade into darkness? The sky looks nice though, so blue.

"Hey uh I sliced open that, brother thing you mentioned, he's here"

My eyes are still open, I see the white-haired girl... and the grown-up Amelia from the floor, they both look down at me.

"Hey uh Amy? Are you sure this is a mimic?"

The grown-up Amelia looks at me, tears flowing down her face.

Where was the real Amelia? This one had to be fake.

"Wh… where is Amelia?"

I mutter, how did I say that? Isn't my neck cut open?

"Yeah, this isn't a mimic Amy, I don't know what this is, but it's certainly not human."

Not human?

"We should take it, maybe Immy can study why he heals so quickly"

The grown Amelia doesn't say a word, I look into her eyes, tears flow from hers and tears start to flow from mine.

"Put a bag over its head Sophie, tie it up."

Grown-up Amelia’s cold words shoot daggers through my heart

5.

Darkness, I'm not strong enough to do anything in this situation, these ropes around me are too tight, I can't talk since a piece of fabric is covering my mouth, but I can hear, I can hear way too well.

"So, Amy, tell me why this brother of yours has blonde hair and you don't."

"Stop calling it my brother, it's not my brother."

"Okay but the question still stands."

"My brother isn't blonde; this thing must have made a mistake when it copied him."

I'm not blonde?

I swear I always was, in my memories I was, wait, no in my memories I wasn't?

Yeah, at school I had brownish black hair.

This is irritating, I feel like my world has been flipped upside down, all I know is that the real Amelia is missing... or was it the real Amelia?

Urgh, I don't know, but the Amelia I know is missing, maybe that monster took her… and it's too late.

"Do we need the bag over this things head? I want to ask it some questions."

"I'd rather you don't."

I keep being pulled, they walk so fast in the snow, and these ropes are too damn tight, why are they treating me like I'm cattle?

"That's fair, but Jack will have some questions as to why we are bringing back a young boy, so I will have to do an unveiling of sorts."

"That's fine, just make it quick."

We continue walking

"How are we going to get it down these rocks?"

"I know how, Amy let me hold onto the rope for a second."

I feel myself being pulled, then pushed.

Oh.

I'm falling.

Crack.

A cracking sound echoes throughout the forest.

"I think his spine broke, let's see if he can recover."

It hurts, it hurts so bad, oh god am I really going to die this time?

A giggle comes from behind me.

I feel my body being lifted again; the pain almost gone

"He seems fine."

"Can you stop calling it a he, please."

"Yeah, okay sorry Amy."

More walking, more being pushed down ledges, this is torture, why are they doing this to me?

Are they monsters?

They seem too human to be monsters.

Maybe humans can be monsters.

I don't get it, if only I could talk, I could explain how much pain I am in, then they would stop. They wouldn't be doing this if they knew they were hurting me this much.

"Yo Jack, we brought back a prizeeee."

A deep voice replies, sounds like an old man.

"Is it the mimic? don't bring it back just dispose of it."

"Nope it's something a lot cooler, a creature we haven't seen before."

The bag lifted from my head, the light is so blinding, it's almost afternoon so the sun is directly in my eyes.

"Tadaaaa."

I look over at the blue tinted white-haired girl, she has a grin like she is proud of herself.

"A boy? This is so incredibly weird, are you sure this isn't a human?" The man looks sternly at the white-haired girl

As if to prove I'm not human she grabs a knife and puts it directly into my eye.

A scream reaches through the rags in my mouth, the knife withdraws from my socket, within a matter of 5 seconds my vision regains, and the pain is gone.

The man stands there astonished, "this could still be a human you know? Weirder things have happened, maybe he is blessed."

He looks sternly at the white-haired girl, who then looks at the grown-up Amelia as if she has the answer to why I'm not human.

"It looks exactly like my younger brother before he died, except for the blonde hair… that's why it's not human."

The man still not convinced takes the rag from my mouth so I can speak.

"Can you talk my guy?"

"Uhm yes" I look directly at Amelia, she looks at me with a sharp expression, it hurts me for some reason.

But this is my only chance to plead my case "Uhm... you, you look exactly like my sist-"

A punch hit me in the jaw, it was strong.

It definitely came from her; I blacked out for a few moments.

The bag is back on my head and the rag is in my mouth.

I think I messed up, what should I have done? Acted like I didn't think she looked like my sister, Urgh yeah, I should've, it could've come off as a coincidence that I looked like her brother.

But that opportunity is gone.

There wasn't a word for hours, silence, just the sounds of footsteps, eventually I could hear a crowd, in the distance, it sounded like a lot of people.

6.

The deep voice shouted, "OPEN THE GATE," followed by the sounds of chains and mechanisms.

Footsteps became less mushy and more solid, was there no snow here? It feels like I'm always in the cabin here.

It's warmer here too.

There are voices everywhere, like this place is bustling with people.

"Yeah, we have a thing for Immy, let her know"

the deep voice said, before seemingly fading out.

I was probably passed over to different people.

I continue being pushed and shoved forward until I hear sounds of dampness and echoing water droplets, this area was kind of humid, it was nice, but the smell, oh god the smell left for some things to be desired.

The bag was taken off my head, along with the rag, I could see clearly now.

Two people had been escorting me, they were wearing heavy armor, what seemed like medieval armor. What was weirder was the place I was in, a cave like a prison, the two of what seemed like guards locked the small cage I was in, it was big enough for me to sit upright, but that was it.

It was not like those prisons that had plenty of space, but I guess those would be too nice for me.

I look around more, there's a lot of empty cages, they all seem like dog cages of different shapes and sizes, weird.

The two guards walk up the steps to the outside, leaving me all alone.

Great, now I need to escape this place, which is what I should be thinking, but all things considered, this arrangement was probably better than the one I had in the cabin.

I wouldn't need to constantly go out every day searching for food, I could just be left with my thoughts.

Not for long apparently.

"Oh hellllooooo" a feminine voice called out.

End of chapter 2.