Ch. 10: Frozen Memories

A Chapter by Brenden Brown

Anna obtains her Sun Relic Fragment, and learns some new abilities.

I, Anna Ranford, was just standing in the midst of a blizzard inside a dungeon INSIDE the Amazon Rainforest.
"Keep it cool." I thought to myself. "Haha, get it? Cool? Ah never mind."
It was snowing like crazy but it didn't bother me much, probably because my element is ice or something.
"Okay, let's get started." I said to myself.
I couldn't see much while walking around but I felt like I could get the hang of it. That is until I bumped into a wall.
"Ow." I thought to myself, healing my bruise.
I knew I couldn't go through the whole dungeon like this, so I had to think of a good way to get around.
"Let's see." I thought to myself. "Can my staff make a light of some sort?"
I took a good look at my staff. I hadn't taken a good look at it before. It had a yellow sphere on the top, covered partially by an ice-like material. I thought it might act as a light, so I focused my energy on my staff and, surprisingly, the yellow ball lit up and I could see all around me.
"Yes!" I cheered. "Time to go!"
The area was a lot more narrow than I thought, the width was about the length of a soccer field. There were a few trees but they were all either covered by snow or dead. Of course, the ground was covered by snow too. The ground was hilly at some parts, but it was mostly flat. I walked forward and saw an Akuma. It saw me too, because of the light from my staff. It was a normal sized one, unlike the big ones Frank talked about. I decided that freezing it would be the best way to get rid of it without hurting me. It ran at me, swiping with its claws. Before it got a chance to hit me, I focused my energy and instantly froze it with my staff.
"Wow." I said. "That's pretty effective."
A couple more came at me and I did the same thing. I figured since it's so cold here, there was no chance of them thawing out. Once they were frozen, I ran until I made it to the first obstacle. It was just a giant square hole, with no way to get around it. The other side of the hole was just a wall, so I figured I have to go down the hole.
"Hmm." I thought. "How am I gonna do this?"
I was trying to think and then I remembered something.
"Oh yeah!" I said. "When we were on the island, I tried making an ice path down the ravine! I could do that here!"
I pointed my staff at the hole and focused on making a way down. I looked down and a sloped surface of ice was being made. It took a few minutes, but the end result was an ice slide that led to the bottom. I was a bit scared to go down, but when I did, it was pretty fun. At the bottom was the beginning of an ice cave. All the walls were covered in ice, so when I walked, I had some trouble because it was slippery. I felt like I was getting the hang of it, but then I fell. Midway of falling, my left foot got caught between two rocks so when I fell, and it twisted my ankle.
"Ow!" I yelped, tearing up. "Stupid rock!"
I tried freeing my leg, but every time I did, I'd feel a jolt of pain. I soon realized that I'd be stuck here for a while, which made me even more upset. I had to figure out a way out of this.
"What if I..."
I tried cooling down my leg with my staff, so it'll become stiff and numb so I could more easily take it out of the rocks. Luckily, it worked and I was able to free my leg. I healed the wound, which took a while.
"Ugh." I grunted. "I wish I had a technique that could heal faster."
When I said that, my staff started to glow a bright blue. Then, from the top of my staff formed an ice shard that was stuck to the staff. It had a crack in it.
"What the..." I frowned. "How is THIS going to heal faster? It's a piece of ice."
The ice shard's crack traveled through it, and it shattered into very fine, powdery snow. Some of it fell on my ankle, and it healed the speckles that it landed on instantly!
"Woah!" My frown instantly turned into an excited smile. "This would be a good way to heal if I wasn't there to help! I could put some in some bags and give some to everyone on our next big mission!"
I grabbed the Healing Snow(that's what I named it) that was on the ground and rubbed it in my ankle. Within seconds, it was as good as new.
"Yeah!" I cheered, getting up.
I carefully walked on the ice until I reached the next obstacle. It was a big room with large ice tiles on the floor. There were also large spikes covering the left and right walls, and a door covered by metal on the far end wall.
"Woah." I said. "Brutal, much?"
I put my foot on an ice tile and it turned red and the walls got a little closer.
"Oh no." I gulped. "So I have to GUESS the correct path?"
I stepped on the tile to the left of the tile I stepped on first. It glowed blue, and soon after, so did the all the tiles in that row. I got the next tile right on the first try.
"Nice! Let's see... about..." I looked and saw that there was 8 rows of tiles. "A fourth of the way there."
I messed up twice on the next one, and once on the one after that. The spikes were getting a little too close for comfort. I messed up once on the next one, so I had three to go.
"Okay." I breathed. "Almost there." I messed up twice on the next one, and the only tiles left on that one were partially covered by spikes. I carefully pushed the butt of my staff onto the right one, which made it turn red, and the spikes got even closer. I could barely get the left one, but I managed to, and so I had two rows left. I had to be really careful, because from the looks of it, I could mess up about two more times. I got one wrong on the next row, and so the far left and far right tiles were completely covered by the walls. I had one more mess up, and two tiles. As long as the correct tile wasn't covered by the walls, I had this in the bag. I stepped on the right one, which was wrong. The middle two tiles were half covered by spikes.
"Okay." I took a deep breath. "I got this..."
I stepped on the left one, and unexpectedly, it turned red.
"NO!" I screamed, covering my eyes and crouching down.
Suddenly, everything around me turned light blue, and the spikes slowed way down. They seemed to be traveling about an inch a minute.
"What the..." I opened my eyes. "Is this a new power?"
It was so weird. I could move just fine, but everything around me was as slow as a snail.
"This is my chance!" I gasped.
I froze the metal over the door and rammed into it, shattering it. I fell onto the ground, and my left arm fell on a shard of metal, slashing it.
"Ow!" I shrieked. "B-better than dying... I guess."
I lifted up my arm and saw that there was a long vertical slash with blood running down it. I did my best to heal it with my Healing Snow, but there ended up being a scar.
"Well that's great." I sighed.
Behind me, the spiked walls unfroze and slammed shut, which made me jump.
"Oh... my... GOSH THAT WAS SCARY!" I squealed.
After recovering, I got up, turned on my Ice Lamp(that's what I called it), and headed forward. Up ahead was what looked like a house. I ran up to it to take a closer look. It was a cottage with smoke coming from the chimney.
"Ooh!" I said. "That looks warm for a change!"
Without questioning, I opened the door and inside was a fireplace, a couple chairs, a small table, and some other stuff that didn't concern me.
"I'm sure whoever owns this wouldn't mind if I..."
I scooted one of the chairs close to the fireplace and sat down in it. It was the most comfortable chair I've ever sit in. I practically sank into it.
"Ahh..." I breathed. "This is nice."
I sat there for what seemed like forever. I thought it was too good to be true.
"Wait a minute..." I said. "This IS too good to be true! This is a trap!"
I jumped up out of the seat and ran for the door but it quickly shut on its own. Cracks started to form on the floor of the cottage.
"Uh oh." I gulped. "Frank said that the Akuma spawn from these."
I tried to open the door, but it wouldn't budge. Just then, a couple Akuma spawned out of the cracks. Then a couple more, and a couple more.
"Stop!" I screamed. "No!"
All the Akuma charged at me. They knocked my ice staff to the other side of the room, so I couldn't freeze them. They all attacked me, scratching me all over my body. Why didn't we bring armor?
"Stop!" I yelled. "Please!"
Just then I had a flashback of something that happened to me.

"Wake up, little girl." A voice said.
A seven-year-old me's head shot up, to see my mom tied to a chair, her mouth covered, and a gun to her head. I soon realized that I too was tied to a chair with my mouth covered.
"Little girl, do you wanna know what happens to people like your mom?" The voice said. It was a man, probably in his thirties or forties. I didn't know what he meant by this at the time. I never did.
"Well, let me show you." The man said before pulling the trigger. My mom's head fell forward and blood shot onto me. She was dead.
"That's what happens when you hurt people." He said.
It's scary how in the blink of an eye, a person becomes a thing.
"I'll let you live, and if you tell anyone about this, you'll end up the same as her." He said.
He then grabbed a nearby spray bottle and sprayed my face with it. As soon as he did, I felt super drowsy, so it was probably an anesthetic like chloroform or something. Moments later I woke up, in an alleyway. I walked home, nauseous, and told my dad that I didn't know what happened or where my mom went. Since that day, I swore to never hurt a living thing.

That's what happens when you hurt people. That's what happens when you hurt people. Those words replayed in my head. What did they mean?

I came back to my senses, and opened my eyes. All the Akuma around me were frozen, and no more were spawning. My body had scratches all over it, and I felt like resting, but I knew I had to go or else I'd die. I got out of the cabin and continued forward. Luckily for me, the Sun Relic fragment was right behind the cabin, and so I picked it up and was teleported to the room with everyone else.

When Anna teleported, she sat down and didn't say anything.
"Anna, you're back." Brenden said. "You don't look so good."
"I'm fine." Anna replied, beginning to heal her wounds with her Healing Snow. "Well, I WILL be fine."
"Cool new power." Seth said.
Anna's head shot towards Seth.
"Seth!" Anna cheered. "You're okay!"
"Actually, I'm in great pain, but other than that I'm good!" Seth laughed.
"Anna, what was your area like?" John asked. "I'm starting to see a pattern."
"It was a snowy place." Anna explained. "There was practically a blizzard happening."
"I see." John stated. "So I was right."
"Hm?"
"Well, I'm pretty sure this place we're at was made for us." John explained. "Each room corresponds with each person's element."
"Wait, how does that make sense?" Brenden asked. "We've only had these powers for less than a month! There's no way you could build a place like this in that amount of time!"
"Well, duh." Drew butted in. "Each door leads to a different dimension. How else would there be a rainforest next to a whole mountain next to a blizzard if the doors were only like 6 feet apart?"
"And also I slept for like 2 hours, and got back faster than anyone else." Seth added.
"Hm." Brenden said. "Yeah, that makes sense."
"So what's Drew's gonna be?" Scarlett asked. "A whole bunch of water or something?"
"Well, if John is correct on his guess, then that possibility is likely." Tara answered.
Just then, Drew's door opened.
"Well, looks like it's my turn to go." Drew sighed.
"Good luck bro." Frank said. "Don't drown."
"Haha." Drew sarcastically laughed. "Good one. I'm literally crying with laughter right n-"
"Yeah, yeah. Just go already." Frank frowned.
Drew grabbed his bow, walked into his door, and it shut behind him. Drew took a deep breath in, or at least tried to, but he instead inhaled water because he was in the middle of a large body of water!

prev chapter