Chapter Text
Noelle felt strange. She wasn’t sure why. But something had felt off for the past few days. As if the world itself was askew, that existence itself was tilted by 38 degrees. The computer lab at the library began smelling ever so slightly of spoiled meat. Everywhere she went the temperature felt 5 degrees cooler than it should have. Her friend Berdly was nowhere to be seen. Everything felt at a distance.
Her finger had cuts that would not heal, requiring her to change out the bandages every day or so. The finger was numb, so this didn’t hurt. And although this should have worried her, she didn't feel very concerned. It was almost as if the numbness pierced into her very soul. She knew she probably should have told someone about it by now, be she hadn’t for some reason. Maybe it was because she didn’t want to worry her family any more than they already were? That sounded reasonable to her. Maybe that was why.
Noelle stood up from the couch. She had lost track of time. She had been sitting there for hours now lost in… thought? She wasn’t entirely sure. But she did know that she needed to make dinner for herself. Her mom was staying late for work again, so she was alone and had to depend on herself. She walked into the kitchen looking for something easy to make, and opened the fridge.
She felt the frigid air and cool light wash over her. It was almost relaxing. The fridge was fairly barren. Noelle’s mother hadn't had time for grocery shopping this week and Noelle hadn’t been able muster the motivation to buy more herself, so most of what remained was leftovers. She considered her options. Not many options, huh… she thought to herself, there’s still some lettuce left, I could make a salad. Or there is some leftover pasta, I could have that. There’s also some…
some……
some…………
Minutes passed. Noelle snapped awake. She had lost herself again. She grabbed a tub of leftover spaghetti and put it in the microwave. This had been happening much more often lately. She zoned out before but since Tuesday it had been happening more and more. She’d sometimes wake up to find hours had passed without her knowledge. She was also having strange dreams recently. Whenever she went to sleep she dreamt of blizzards and hailstorms, of death, and heard faint whispers.
They promised to tell her the secrets, the secrets of ice and snow, the secrets of a man and a girl who were on the outside, and the secrets of a demon who could possess souls. She didn't know why this was happening, and she didn’t really want to know. They’re just dreams, she told herself, they don't mean anything. She didn’t entirely believe that, but she didn't want to believe otherwise either.
The microwave beeped. She grabbed her pasta and began eating. The food wasn't good. But it was edible, and that was enough. She could go to bed full instead of hungry, and hopefully sleep well and dream very few dreams. As she finished she rinsed her bowl and placed it in the dishwasher.
The house was almost pitch black. Noelle shambled upstairs and to her room, illuminated by faint shafts of cold moonlight spilling through the windows. Her room wasn’t very messy but it was certainly getting worse. After narrowly avoiding tripping over a few pieces of dirty laundry she crawled into bed and slowly fell into a restless sleep, dreaming strange dreams.
Once more she dreamed of the cold, of a frozen alleyway, of a blinding snowstorm. She dreamed of her friend saying something in a voice that was not theirs. She dreamed of ice sculptures. She dreamed of a voice telling her to use an icicle to stab herself in the gut. She dreamed of listening to it. She dreamed of begging a higher power for forgiveness. She dreamed of her sister watching her from the outside. She dreamed of a mysterious man who looked less like a person and more like an idea. She dreamed of dying from hypothermia. She dreamed of being an angel cast into the coldest bowels of hell. She dreamed that she woke up and everything was fine, and that everything was just as it was a week ago.
Then she actually woke up, and almost felt ill.