Fangs of icy despair dig into my mind, jolting me awake into a frozen wasteland. For a moment, I just shake violently as the freezing torment wraps around me. All I can feel in my legs is a frigid numbness, my arms dull and lifeless as they tremble.

When I realize I can't even feel my heartbeat or anything in my chest, only the weak thud of my pulse traveling up chilled neck, I quickly try to scramble into action. I must find some sort of warmth, I need to find some sort of heat.

Thrashing out of the thin frozen fabric and over some pillow or something, I crash onto the ground. Forcing my bitter frozen muscles to push me up into an unsteady balance as I wobble towards the door.

"Jesse?"

I ignore the panicked voice and continue to fight through the glacial air, everything's just so lifeless. Dull and cold, lacking any sort of heat at all. I have to find some sort of warmth though, anywhere. Right now.

Fire. The only wisp of a hope spurs some sort of life into my icy muscles and chilled bones. Staggering through the artic air full of small daggers of ice, I push myself to the library. I can start a fire there, I can be warm again, I'll live, if I just get to the library.

"Jesse!" Some evil person grabs my arm, the arm already so freezing cold I can't even feel his fingers. But nothing's stopping me, I have to get to library.

Mustering up whatever strength has survived this frigid misery, I shove this person off of me and scramble back towards the library. Moving just quick enough that right before a leg collapses the other hits the ground, although I can't even feel the muscles giving out anymore.

As I quickly stagger through the frozen hallways, a brief flutter of relief when that bitter parasite yells for something behind me. That thing needs to stay away because I need to get warm, I need to get to a fire.

Icy hopelessness chills my mind as I slowly feel the last wisps of my warmth begin to die out. I try to push it away as I flail, semi in control, down the steps. Just a wee bit longer and I'll be there. I can save my life and put a stop to this unbearable life sucking frozen misery.

The doors burst apart and I stagger in. There's the fireplace, the flint and steel should be right next to it in the chest. Only a few more moments and I can have my fire.

"Stop him!"

I panic and try to just go a little faster when my momentum is halted, the gray sweatshirt stopping me. I desperately claw at it, I tear the fabric when my arms just fall. I can't feel them at all anymore.

Then everything follows suit. The distant sensations I still received from my body go out like a candle. Somehow though, instead of just falling into a blissful darkness which would have been nice, I can still see.

"Did he faint?"

And hear apparently. But this just completely sucks. I can't move at all, paralyzed in the frozen air. I can't move my eyes, I can't blink, and my sight is so blurry too, why can't I just actually faint or something. Instead of slowly fading away, slowly losing myself to this cold.

"No no no! Check his pulse!"

I can't even hear correctly either, just dull words floating in my head. They all sound weird too, if only one monotone voice was speaking. The volume rises and falls, but sounds like a fuzzy mix of words.

"It's there, he's still alive. But it's fading, and his neck is burning."

"Lukas, do your weird magic thing and get him better. Like right now."

"That might not work though! In fact, that might be the thing that kills him!"

What an interesting thing to listen to before I die. Too bad my sight is too blurry to see these people, at least then I could watch something entertaining too before the cold claims me. And man would it be great if I could actually tell the voices apart, it would make this even better.

"Why in the Nether would it not work!? Jesse's going to die if you do nothing!"

"But Jesse's going to try to fight my energy off before he accepts it! It was pretty bad last time, this might just- just-"

"Come on Lukas, is there anything you can do at all? Anything to keep Jesse alive at this point."

"I-I don't know, j-just give me a moment to think."

"We don't exactly have a lot of moments to spare here!"

Right as I think my dying entertainment is fading away, a blotch of red and brown fills my blurred vision. There are faint mummers drifting in my head, but way too quiet for me to actually hear.

"Guys, there's something black on his chest..."

I can't feel it, but I figure the red creature is getting a better look at my chest. Well, as long as they keep distracting me from the fact I'm about to die, I'm fine with it. They just need to keep talking.

"Oh my..."

"What the heck is that thing?"

"Lukas! Did you know about this?"

"I had no clue, Jesse must not have known about it either."

"So Jesse didn't know he has a huge fireball tattooed on his chest? That's believable."

I have a tattoo? I didn't think I had a tattoo. At least they're talking louder, it's getting harder to hear and everything's just kinda going gray in my eyes.

"Petra, this isn't a tattoo..."

"Uhh, I don't know Liv. It looks a lot like a tattoo to me."

"No no, Olivia's right. The black part is slowly seeping towards the middle. Look you can-"

For a spilt moment, something in my mind spurs to life. Coughing and sputtering like a worn out engine trying to come back. I reach to grab it, but it then just vanishes. Leaving me to die. This really does suck.

"Oh my gosh! Lukas, you just it made glow!"

"I saw that! But what do you want me to do about it? I-I don't anything more than you guys right now!"

"This must be some sort of symbol or something, maybe a rune that correlates with his fire?"

"Who cares about that right now? Lukas, use your special powers! Like right now!"

"I don't know enough about them!"

"Then try everything! Just save Jesse!"

That same thing sputters to life, but I don't care anymore. Everything's so distant, so cold. Words now are slipping past my ears, all the grays in my eyes dimming into black. My own thoughts becoming slower and slower, harder to form harder to hear.

Yet as I fall back into the darkness I was awaiting, that string thing roars to life. I don't care anymore, and the darkness consumes me.

****

Yes, I'm painfully aware of how short it is. But I like this, if I change it I might ruin the tone or mess up what I'm trying to do with this scene.

But because the next chapter is going to be long, weird, and really important, so it makes up for it! So sorry, I don't really like how it came up so short, but unfortunately, that's the way it's going to be.

So I'll just leave you with that. Until next time!