Chapter 109: The Night of Frozen Fear (Aspirant POV)

It was an unusually chilly night in Pandora. The few Aspirants who were still roaming the streets at this hour had to bundle up in an attempt to get the chill out of their bones, although some of Pandora’s inhabitants struggled to even do that. The class divide had gotten worse in the last few months, especially with the new arrivals, and the people still on the streets were only here because they had no where else to be. Some, like Alexander and his rag tag group, had struggled to even afford food, much less a warm jacket.

The new group of freaks running these Trials might have said that Pandora was the cream of the crop, but clearly they didn’t mean everyone in it. Alex didn’t feel like he was anything other than unwanted baggage; at least when Kim Jae-Hyun was around the Abyss guild had provided people like him an opportunity to work and make a decent living. Now, however, with Ryan and his group in the picture, he couldn’t even do that. Life was shit, and it had been for the last month.

Rumors surfaced that some people saw the illusive man at the morning’s announcement, but not very many believed that. There was still fools who clung to the hope that the Abyss guild was still there to drag them out of this current mess, but it was all pointless speculations to Alex. 

“It’s cold…” Pops muttered to no one in particular as he huddled closer to the open flame.

He was the oldest member of their group of five that huddled around a little makeshift camp fire. Alex knew the man was in his late thirties at most, but the Trials had not been kind on him. He had lost a lot of weight, and his hair was now speckled with gray. Fatigue was fast setting in on the man’s wrinkled face; no one expected him to last for much longer at this rate. 

“Yeah,” Vicky answered as lifelessly as Alex felt, “It is.”

No one else answered. There wasn’t a point, none of them here were friends, not truly, and they had long since lost the will to chat. Still, these people were the closest semblance of a social relation that any of them had left. 

They waited for the day to end by the fire.

“Say,” Alex said after a while, “How long’s Raymond been gone for?”

Evan, the last member of their group, said, “Dunno.”

Alex frowned, “It must have been more than half an hour now, right?” 

“It’s damned cold…” Pops mumbled again.

“We know, Pops,” Vicky replied, “Feels like it’s getting worse by the second.”

Alex shivered again. It was true, it was getting noticeably colder. He peered down and saw that he could see his own breath in the air, it almost felt like the beginning of winter. Well, they were stuck in this hellhole of a city, normal logic went out the door ever since the start of the first Trial, who says the temperature couldn’t change rapidly?

Worse yet, their make shift fire was shrinking, taking their meager pocket of warmth with it. 

“What’s taking Raymond so long?” Alex said again, “We’ll all freeze to death at this point.”

“I’ll send a message,” Evan muttered, he was the only one who had regular communications with the other man. The others didn’t even bother forming a party together, they didn’t see the point.

Alex waited. Raymond was sent to grab more firewood for their dwindling reserves, but he should have taken maybe 5 or 10 minutes to come back at most. Did the man run into one of those high and mighty Aspirants? But no one should be out in this part of town, especially at this hour. Alex personally saw all those fancy Aspirants leave for their various guild and party houses right after that man’s speech. They should all be busy making plans and getting ready for that useless training.

“Anything?” Vicky asked as she glanced at the ever shrinking fire in worry.

Evan frowned, “No, he’s not answering at all. That’s strange.”

“It’s cold…” Pops said again, “So cold…”

“Shit,” Evan grumbled, “I’ll go check up on him. Just give me a sec.”

“Yeah,” Vicky said, “Good idea.”

Evan got up and reluctantly left the pocket of relative comfort. He wrapped up as best he could and went off towards the direction that Raymond went. 

He never came back.

Frost was starting to coat the walls and cobblestone now. Their fire was little more than smoldering cinders, and the two who left to get tinder never came back. Alex was about to curse at the incompetence of his company when he saw something translucent in the edge of his vision. It looked like a child, but that was impossible. There were no children among the Aspirants, the cold was getting to him.

“Should we go find them?” Vicky asked now that she was forced to do something. She never bothered if any other option was available.

“Cold…” 

“Yeah, we know Pops,” Vicky muttered, “We’re all cold, can you just shut up about it?”

Alex furrowed his brows. The old man had been acting strangely the whole night. It was chilly out, yes, but the old man had been saying nothing but various versions of “it’s cold” the whole time. Was he sick?

“So cold…”

Alex got up from his seat and approached Pops, “Hey, you ok man? You’ve been acting weird the whole night.”

“It’s… so cold.”

Alex frowned, something wasn’t right with the man. He went closer and placed a hand on Pop’s shoulders but almost immediately flinched back. It felt like he had touched a glacier. The other man looked up at Alex.

“What the fuck!” Alex exclaimed.

Vicky came over quickly, “What is it?”

“Pops, look at him!”

Vicky peered over and almost shrieked. The old man had never looked healthy, but this was something else. His face was covered in horrible pulsating blue veins, and his eyes were pitch black, none of the whites showing at all. His lips were a miserable shade of blue as they mumbled the same few words over and over again. Worse still, the tips of his fingers had gone black.

“Holy shit!” Vicky shouted, “We gotta get a doctor or something!” 

The second those words left Vicky’s mouth, a feeling of dread permeated the dying glow of the fire. The last of the light’s illumination outlined a form on the edge of their vision. It was a figure that was impossibly large, no, it was a monster. 

“Did someone call for a Doctor?” the thing said with a voice that sounded like the wails of the dying.

Vicky continued to stare at the thing, her features contorted in fear.

“Vicky!” Alex said before the panic could set in, “We gotta run!” 

The woman didn’t budge. Alex tried to shake her, but she still refused to move. It was like her entire body was paralyzed. The doctor was making slow steps closer and closer to their location, and that mounting feeling of dread steadily accumulated.

 Alex was finally able to see, at least vaguely, the grotesque appearance of the so called doctor. He had to stifle down a scream, the thing looked like he came straight out of a horror movie, it’s exposed muscles contorted into an impossibly wide smile as it leisurely walked closer and closer. In its hand was a wicked looking saw, rusted with decades of spilled blood.

“Fuck it,” Alex said, “it’s your funeral!” 

Alex ran. 

He ran as fast as he could, never turning back. The horrified screams of Vicky was the only indication of the monster’s presence. He didn’t want to know what the creature was doing to the woman, but he only wished that it would take its time so he had a better chance of escape. He felt no remorse for the death of the Aspirant, they were barely acquaintances after all.

Alex still remained calm, for now. He had survived worse situations, and he was secretly glad that Vicky had at least managed to occupy the abomination’s time; he never did like that worthless woman. Making up his mind, Alex decided to run towards where the other Aspirants gathered. Those freaks could surely deal with that monster. 

An invisible force bashed into Alex’s side. He flew several feet and crashed into something soft. The Aspirant grunted in pain, but before Alex could collect himself and assess his situation, he saw what he had landed on. 

It was the bodies of Raymond and Evan, or at least what was left of them. A few feet behind him was the vague projection of a small boy, shimmering in the faint streetlights. The ghost child was playing with the severed limbs of his former comrades.

“Hello,” the thing said, “Would you like to play?”

Fuck no! Alex scrambled to his feet and started to shout with all his might. He wasn’t afraid of alerting the Doctor creature any longer, it was more important for someone to help him now that other entities had appeared. 

He looked back and almost laughed in relief when he saw the other creature go back to tearing apart the corpses. It was still too preoccupied with Raymond and Evan! Alex will remember their sacrifice. At least they did something useful in their short, miserable lives.

“Fuck! Is anyone there?” Alex wailed, stretching his vocal cords to their limits, “Someone? Help me!”

No one responded. 

Alex summoned all the reserve energy that he had and bolted away. He couldn’t think straight any longer as panic had long since set in. He didn’t even know where he was any more, but he knew he had to escape.

Something grazed his legs, causing him to trip. Alex frowned and saw that what had caused him to stumble was a bundle of black hair. He picked it up, his curiosity overriding his fear for the moment, but screamed again when he saw the hair dig into his arm. He desperately clawed at the hair, ripping open his skin to get it out, but nothing he did worked.

“Shouldn’t you be running?” the ghost child asked. Alex hadn’t even noticed its approach, “You’re not very good at playing tag, are you?”

“Get away from me, you goddamn freak!” he screamed, crawling back as fast as his injured body could, “Fuck, leave me alone!”

Another invisible force slammed into the Aspirant, sending him crashing into a wall and knocking the wind out of him. Alex’s vision recovered enough to see the faint outline of another ghost kid, this time a small girl. It floated closer and closer to him, leaving a trail of frost in her wake. Alex felt his fingers go numb as he let out another hoarse shout, but there was precious little air left in his body.

“It’s not nice to swear,” the ghost child said, “Mom says to punish people who like to cuss like that.”

“No, I didn’t mean it!” Alex added quickly, seeing no way out of his situation, “I’m sorry!”

Alex felt the the tingling of frost gather around him.

The ghost creature shook her head, “Mom also said that people should admit to their mistakes and not make excuses.”

The air temperature plummeted then. If it felt like the beginnings of winter prior, then it was like the coldest Siberian night now. All of the condensation in the air froze to form small specks of snow, and Alex’s eyes went wide as he lost more of his body functions from the bitter frost. He wanted to run, crawl even, but no part of his body obeyed him. 

“P-please…” was all he managed to say, “please…”

The ghost edged closer and closer and Alex had to pray that it would show some leniency. But there was no mercy for the man called Alexander. The ghost child was now in front of him, and the last thing that the Aspirant saw or knew was agony and the smile of the strange creature known as Alice. 

Similar events played out the entire night, all across Pandora. Its inhabitants would remember The Night of Frozen Fear for a long, long time to come, for the creatures that stalked the night would be a menace that would be a plague upon the Aspirants of Site 1102.