Ice Grave

Sometimes, when I have spare time, I go to the local cemetery and read names and dates of the tombstones there, and wonder what they’d put on mine when my time comes. After what happened that day, I’m really not sure what they’d put. But let me not get ahead of myself. Let’s start at the beginning, a very good place to start when you have something weird and disturbing to tell someone.

Hi, I’m Alex. I just turned 21 and I’m about finished with my last year of Engineering at the local university. I’m relatively tall, dark- skinned and I suck at sports. I was born and currently reside on the southernmost Caribbean island about 10 degrees above the equator, where there’s only one type of weather: hot. Looking at me, you could probably assume all these things. But that’s all they would be. Assumptions. You could never guess the earth-shattering truth that I hide within my blood. It all began 5 years ago, when I was 17. My parents weren’t all that rich, but my grades got me into a prestigious school where everyone else’s parents were. As a result, I spent my high school life as a social vagrant, the brunt of several practical jokes. Like that morning, five years ago.I’d just walked through the door of my classroom, when a strategically placed cup of ice cold water fell on my head soaking me to the skin. The class went up in an uproarious laughter. “Geez, you real lame Alex.” someone shouted. I lowered my head and shook the water out of my curly hair. Geez, that water was cold! It soaked straight through my uniform causing me to shiver slightly. “Well,” I said to myself, “At least we got that out of the way. Hopefully they got their daily dose o f entertainment.” I walked slowly on, ignoring the cutting laughs.

I reached my seat and slung my satchel on the desk. “Well, you’re in a mess.” a voice said behind me. I turned to see Drake, the one rare rich kid who didn’t act like a rich kid. I shrugged, “You know how it is. Maybe one day they’ll grow up.”
“I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you.” The period bell rang, signaling the start of an already messed up day. I looked at the timetable. Physics first. At least something interesting to start the day with. “Take care, man” Drake said, picking up his backpack. I nodded as he walked out, and then with a sigh began my trek to the lab. I stepped outside and a blast of wind hit me, cutting to the bone. Like I said above, there is only on type of weather here in Trinidad: hot. Nothing like this ever happens. I shivered. “Must be the water.” I thought. I bent my head forward and hurried to the lab.

I got there just as the class was about to begin. I quickly took a seat next to my lab partner, Allison. She gave ma an annoyed look and turned back towards the teacher. I sighed and put my safety goggles on. “Today,” Mrs. Havelock, my Physics teacher was saying, “We are going to look at latent heat of vaporization. How long something takes to reach 0° solid to 0° liquid. You’ll be using the Bunsen…” Allison shifted suddenly next to me, making me jump. “Everything okay?” I asked.Allison rubbed her temples.
“Just a headache. Now pay attention!” she said harshly. I turned away, slightly offended. “
Well, now that everyone’s clear on what to do,” Mrs. Havelock said “let’s start.” I lit the burner and put the beaker of ice on the grating over it. The ice began melting immediately. I took up the thermometer and started taking readings. “Allison,” I asked, “are you going to help me with this?” She moaned softly.
“My head hurt’s so bad!” she said, unscrewing a bottle of aspirin. I shook my head, exasperated. Something clattered on the lab desk. I looked around and saw a tiny glinting object .I picked it up and held it in the palm of my hand. It felt cold and wet. Like ice. “Must have fallen out the beaker.” I thought. I ran my fingers through my hair. More clatters. I looked down. The desk was covered in little pieces of ice. I stopped, or froze more like it. Here, in the tropics, walking distance from the equator, ice was forming in my hair. I forced the idea out of my mind. The cup of water probably had ice in it. I picked up the thermometer and placed it back into the beaker. Suddenly, I felt that same cold draft again. I shivered. How did a cold draft get inside a sealed room? I glanced around the lab. Not one of the flames had shimmered. I looked at the thermometer. -3°C. “That’s not right,” I thought, “That’s colder than when I began.”
“Hey, how long is this ice supposed to take before it melts?” Allison asked.“It’s already melting.”
“No, it’s not.” I looked at the beaker. The ice was frozen solid. Along with the thermometer. “Wha..” I said, too confused to speak right.“What did you do?” Allison asked. “What’d you do.” I turned, and tried to answer, but my tongue was as frozen as the ice. “Great,” Allison said sarcastically, “A splitting headache and a lab partner form hell. Can you do anything right?” she shouted. I didn’t answer. I couldn’t.

The rest of the day flew by. I kept thinking of the frozen beaker, the ice crystals in my hair. I spent the lunch period in the bathroom combing my hair. Nothing came out. I was so glad when the last bell rang. I hurried out of the classroom, happy to get away from the weirdness of the day. I walked out the gate and turned in the opposite direction to the one I usually take to go home. I walked quarter mile up the road, and then turned into a small track. It led up into a densely forested area. I’d been here before. Last semester I discovered a small pool fed by a spring here. When I was depressed or lonely, would come here and sit at the edge of the pool and relax. Today I sat staring at the water, part of my enjoying its tranquility, part of me fearing it. I wasn’t even sure I was going to drink anything cold after what happened today. Then it began to rain. A slight drizzle at first, but then it began to fall in big drops. Something hit me on the head. I barely had time to say ‘Ow’, before I got hit again. Then I realized. The raindrops were falling everywhere else, but around me, hail was falling. Frozen raindrops. Ice. The cold draft caught me again, cutting to the bone. “No,” I whispered, “No, not again!!”.

The next few minutes were a blur, but they might have very well been the last minutes of my life. I stood up and turned around to run. My foot slipped on a moss covered rock, causing me to fall in. Despite my being there several times I never noticed how deep the pool was, and coupled with that, the fact that even though I lived on an island surrounded by water, I had never learned to swim. As I struggled for breath under the water, I noticed it becoming more and more opaque, colder. I was having trouble flailing my arms and moving around. I could see crystals growing around me. Two thoughts hit me simultaneously. One, it was me. The entire day, everything that happened, was me. I was causing things to freeze. And two, I was going to die. I couldn’t move anymore. I was running out of breath and my eyes were glazing over. Memories and thoughts flying by too quick to see or comprehend. The ice growing around me like a watery weed. The last thing I remember was someone whispering something I couldn’t quite make out, before I fell in to the abyss of welcomed darkness.