There are some secrets that should never be told. Some people are willing to express them to certain people, and others would do anything to keep them hidden away. For me, I’d rather not have anyone find out what I can do. It seems to happen randomly, and when it does, I can’t seem to control it.
When I’m at school and it happens, I would hide in the bathroom stalls until it went away. I would watch my skin turn blue and icy cold as it spread across my body. Anything that touched my cold skin would freeze, so I was careful not to touch anything while this epidemic occurred. Then, one day, I finally said enough was enough. I had to learn to control whatever was happening to me.
It was Thursday and I went to my room, explaining to my parents I had to study for a test. This was kind of true because I was going to test how to control my powers. I rolled up my sleeve and I looked at my hand.
Nothing happened. The one time I wanted it to happen, it wasn’t going to. I didn’t know how it happens, so I tried imagining it. I imagined the cold feeling I get and the chills that crawl up my spine when it pops up. Then suddenly, a blue spot appeared on the palm of my hand and slowly started spreading across my arm. I started to panic suddenly regretting my decision. How was I supposed to stop it once it started?. The ice on my hand suddenly began to spread quicker. Now I was scared. I knew I shouldn’t have messed with something I didn’t understand.
I shook my arm trying to make it go away. I pulled the blanket off my bed and wrapped it around my arm and tried to take my mind off of it. I thought it would go away if I ignored it. I tried thinking of warm things. I felt the blanket getting heavier. I thought of the summer and a warm camp fire.
I tried to slide the blanket off my arm, but it was stuck and didn’t want to come off. I pushed harder trying to get it off, but it didn’t budge. I flailed my arm around trying to get it off. Then it suddenly came sliding off when I threw my arm down. It smashed into the ground into a million pieces blanketing the ground with shards of ice. My whole arm was a light blue and cold to the touch. My eyes widened in horror. My arm had never completely frozen before. There was nothing I could do. I felt the ice spreading across my chest and down my body. I thought I was going to turn into a frozen statue.
The door to my room swung open and my dad came running in. “What was that noise?” he exclaimed. His eyes then caught my pale blue arm and he started coming towards me. “Your arm,” he said. “What happened?”
“Stay back,” I said backing up and holding my arms up to block him. I didn’t want to hurt him, but that thought didn’t matter as a gust of cold air hurled toward him and completely froze his body leaving him as a sparkling statue.
“What have I done?” I gasped not fully understanding what was happening. My mom was standing down the hall and screamed when she saw my dad. I didn’t want to freeze her too, so I opened the window and jumped out and ran down the street.
The ice was already half way down my other arm. Where my body was iced, I couldn’t feel the cold winter air rushing by as I ran. “I’m a monster,” I said to myself. “I can’t help it.” I then noticed there was smoke in the sky. I thought there must be a fire and, for some reason, I ran toward it.
I turned around the corner and found a house where it was set ablaze. A man was in the yard shouting to the upstairs window while a woman stood in the street with her head bowed and her arms crossed. The man was yelling for someone to come out, but there didn’t seem to be a response. Without thinking, I ran past the man and into the house. “Don’t go in there,” the man yelled to me. I went through the front door and saw fire all around me. Though the fire was bright and intense, I couldn’t feel the heat. I looked at my arms and they were completely frozen.
I looked around the house and found the stairs. I ran up and entered through the first door I saw and found a little girl lying down on a pile of ashes. The girl’s hair was on fire, so I rushed to her and, instinctively, put my hands on her hair and the fire went out. Suddenly, the house seemed to be getting hotter. I then picked up the girl and ran down the stairs.
When I exited the house, the man didn’t seem too excited to see the little girl out of the house. The woman ran up to me and took the little girl in her arms and thanked me. “Careful, Charlotte,” the man warned. “She might set you on fire too.” The woman gave the man a disgusted look. “I’d rather that than be with some coward like you,” she shouted. She then turned and ran away. “Fine, burn up for all I care,” the man shouted back.
That girl has a problem too, I thought. How many people have these strange powers they can’t control? I looked down at my arms and confirmed I was no longer one of those people.