Re: The Frozen Masquerade
OoC: Let's start this with a bang.
IC:
The snow fell gently at first, nothing more than an icy whisper escaping from the clouds’ grasp. Slowly it accumulated, until a sizable sheet of pure white blanketed the land. Fields, mountains and forests vanished beneath the encompassing flakes. With the disappearing nature there vanished another thing, hope. The first flake of snow heralded a halt to all transport and jobs. With one flake people shut out the nothingness with a slam of the door and a whine of sealed windows. They lay in their rooms, fires blazing madly, radiating heat too tiny to warm the closest hands. Like that, the sly snowflakes began their frigid reign over everything.
*
Nathan awakened with a start, feeling colder than he had in months. The inn obviously wasn’t looked after very well. His sheet lay on the floor, unconsciously discarded during the night. He hastily shrugged on his overcoat to take a look out the window. Nothing. It could only be described as a white darkness, blocking out everything with its shimmering brilliance.
“Perhaps I shouldn’t go anywhere today,” Nathan chimed inwardly. He detested any kind of cold, snow even more so. What joy was there in inflicting chilling irk on others with a frigid ball of ice? He didn’t even try to understand it; better to stay put by a fireplace. And that was what he planned to do, until the cries began.
“Evacuate now!” The voice was frantic and fuelled by adrenaline, with just the slightest edge of fear. Nate didn’t even try to make sense of it; he just grabbed his hat and dashed out of the room. He jumped down the stairs three at a time, landing in a murky foyer filled with screaming visitors. There was no use making sense of the dithering cries; nothing more than a terrified cacophony. Everyone was running towards the one wooden door out of the inn, so Nate decided to follow.
Once outside, everything could unfold clearly before Nathan’s eyes. The first thing he noticed was a huge dancing flame on the roof of the house opposite. Charred figures intermittently burst out of the giant bungalow, their shrieks piercing the very air around them. The person who called to evacuate was in the centre of town: well-built with a simple crop of hair and powerful arms. His hands were cupped around his mouth as his deep, amplified voice roared above the anarchy. “Everyone out of your houses; it’s not safe!”
Nate looked away, just in time to see the next building along catch fire. Luckily, everyone seemed to have abandoned their homes as requested. The flames dashed along the side of the house and immediately set the roof alight. The street was swarmed by a throng of screaming locals.
He didn’t need to see any more. Before the entire town went up in flames, Nate dashed away, onto the rapidly disappearing path. He walked until he couldn’t see the shining buildings any more, then stopped to take a short break. “That was mad,” he coughed. “I should check up on the place some time to see if everything worked out.”
The snow began to fall faster, until it was nothing short of a blizzard. Nathan was scared. Scared of freezing to death; scared of never fulfilling the mad dreams that were always cooped up inside him. He could feel the hope slipping away with every misleading flake of snow that landed on him. “Snow and hope can’t coexist," Nathan decided then. And, since the horrible white gems were everywhere, Nate was reduced to a quivering mass. Until he saw the mansion.
Such a house he had never seen before. It was abundant in elegant spires, tipped with the very purest of snow. Its central roof rose to impossible heights that had Nate dizzy with vertigo. The windows were thick and had a ripple effect that obscured the chance of peering inside. The thick stone walls – ancient and rustic black – fit the timeless house perfectly. The oaken double-door was gargantuan and deep brown. There was a giant black knocker on one side. Nathan let his mind mull over the people that might have resided there. “Fabulous socialites,” he guessed. “Unspeakably kind, with such manners and etiquette the Queen herself would be sick with envy. I’m sure they will facilitate me for a while. " The boy threw caution to the wind and ran towards the mansion, thrusting himself into hopeless depths the snow couldn’t hope to compete with.
Last edited by Euphoria; 02-29-2008 at 11:39 AM.