Chapter Text
The world around seemed to fall apart completely. Breaking every atom down to the smallest atom. It felt like it would go on forever until it seemed to reverse.
Rough sketches began to be clean up, and the space felt lived-in instead of empty; it felt like the air was breathable and familiar.
Until it all came crashing back to the way it was before.
Well, not entirely.
For the Cold was now alone. For the Cold was now the decider, with no other voices to get their say, or a narrator to tell them directives.
This… was different. And that’s preferred.
The Cold sees the interior around him. He smells the cold aroma of dirt in the air. The spiderwebs in the corner, the wind slightly banging the windows. And of course, the pristine blade on the edge of an antique table.
The only thing missing was the mirror, but The Cold didn’t mind its absence.
He now wonders what lies below the basement. This is all too similar to when he saw the specter, she might float up from her corpse. That wouldn’t be different.
Whatever thoughts or predictions that went through his head, he shrugged them off, took the blade, and traveled down the stairs. Something would happen, he sensed, might as well see. He didn’t even have much intention to kill whoever was inside. He had already done that. And he'd already not done that.
He might as well have everything prepared to do anything.
When he reaches the basement, the Cold doesn’t see the rotting skeleton that was there before, or even the ghost. He sees the princess, precisely as she was in the beginning. The only difference was that there was a crossed scar on her chest exactly where he had stabbed her before. And that her wrist was no longer chained. It seemed as though she was free.
She seemed to be back in her body, and she was free as well. She could’ve left anytime she wanted to.
“Heya, killer.” She said, comfortably. Almost as if she didn’t feel threatened.
“Hello.” Said the Cold. As he walked a little closer to her.
“You sound a little different, even look a bit different.” She looked him up and down, as her eyes looked at the dagger in his hand. “I see that weapon you're holding. Before you do anything, can we at least talk first?”
The Cold almost didn’t respond, forgetting that he was in charge of what was going on, until he blinked, moved closer to the Princess, and sat down across from her.
“So…” The Princess patted her knees, “You know what’s going on, right?”
The Cold wasn’t entirely sure what she was talking about, maybe something outside of this, or this exactly. “Remind me.” He said.
“Well, I’m called the shifting mound, that I’m this god of change. Every little thing that never stays the same.” The Princess explained.
Something about that seemed familiar to the Cold. So he just nodded.
The Princess sighed, “I’m supposed to remember them all. Every difference, every change, every… me.”
“Do you?”
“Sort of… Maybe? Urgh! I don’t know. I remember you stabbing me immediately.”
“I remember that, too.” The Cold nodded again. The two sat in silence, as if they were expecting the other to say something about that. “I’m not going to apologize.” He said, breaking it.
The princess's eyes widened before she then snickered. “Weirdly, I thought you would.”
“I’m sorry, but I’m not.” He said plainly. “I was told to kill you, so I did. But now here you are, alive and fine. We’re both fine now, but I don’t mind letting bygones be bygones.”
“Hmm,” The Princess laughed again. “I don’t mind either.” She then looks back at the Cold. “Y’know, I think I do remember you.”
“We have met before, yes.”
“No, I mean, when I possessed your body, or maybe his body. But I did hear your voice. You seemed cold and blunt from what I can tell.”
“That is what I meant when I said we meant.”
“Har har.” The Princess looked down at the ground, almost melancholic. “I think that’s why I have my body right now. At least from that fragment.”
The Cold’s head perked. “Fragment?”
“Yeah, like I can remember another time I changed, but it was separate from the other one? I’m not really sure how it works because I can also remember when I didn’t have a body. Or more, when I didn’t get it back. You were going to leave me alone in here, and I got so… mad .”
“You took my heart straight out of my chest.” The cold said bluntly.
“Heh… was it your heart?”
“It felt like it was. It hurt like it did, too.”
“Hm…” She thinks over what happened in that fragment—the world where that had happened.
“Do you want me to forgive you for that?” He asked
She smiled, “No, because I’m not going to apologize, either.” She said smugly.
“Good. We have nothing to apologize for.” He said. “We both wanted something and acted accordingly.”
The princess sighs, “It doesn’t feel like it. I mean, I’m still not gonna apologize, but I still feel bad.”
“Well, I don’t know what you expect to do with that.”
The princess looks back at the Cold, “What now?”
“What do you mean?
“I mean, what do we do now? Usually, at the start of one of these things, I get this message telling me this is what I deserve or whatever, that I deserved to be murdered. But I didn’t get that this time.” She then flicks around her wrist. “Plus, I’m not chained up to the wall, so something is different.”
“Hm.” The Cold hums. “Different is nice.” He then looks at the Princess as it seems her eyes have finally peeked at the blade in his hand. “What do you want to do?”
The princess scoffs, “What do you want to do?”
“I asked first.”
“I wanna know more, killer.” She said the last word like a playful tease, almost calling back to her spectral form.
The Cold shrugged, “I suppose I can’t argue with that logic.” He then looked down at the blade, twirling it with his hand as he began to ponder. “Mmm… I guess I don’t care either way this time.”
“You don’t care?” The princess said nervously.
He shakes his head. “It’s like you said, this time is different. Anything could happen, no matter what I decide to do here and now. Whether I kill you or don’t, something new would happen. And as long as that happens, I don’t mind what I do. Even when you were back in your body the first time, I abstained from deciding whether or not to kill you. Not because I wanted you alive per se, this was just too new to let anything happen.”
“I’m not fully sure what you mean by that.”
“It matters not.” He then perks his head again to the princess. “So what do you want to do?”
The princess huffed and tapped her fingers on the wooden ground nervously, “Well, what I want is to get out of here. I kinda did last time, but that didn’t last. But maybe it will this time.”
“Hm.” The Cold twirls the dagger one more time and throws it across the room, the echoing clatter of the weapon booms in the basement. “Then let’s go.”
She scoffs again. “Really? Was it that easy? I could just ask you not to kill me, and you just do it? Because you're bored?”
“Some of that, yes, but also.” The Cold reaches out his hand. “It turns out I’m not fond of being alone. It wouldn’t be terrible to have some company.”
The Princess snickers, “I kinda wish I was still a ghost, so that I can see what goes on in that head of yours.”
For the first time since he had been in the cabin, the Cold smiles. “That would feel nice,” he says.
She then takes his hand with a new sense of confidence. “Alright, let’s get out of here already!” She said, her impatience showing.
With that, the two ascend the stairs, hands still in hand. As they made it to the top, the princess's eyes fixed on the cabin door, as a wave of nervousness washed over her. The Cold grips her hand, a tinge to knock her out of her fixation. “We’re almost there. Don’t get stuck on me.”
“Ha… Sorry, killer.” She said bashfully as they walked closer to the cabin door.
“Are you going to keep calling me that?” He asked.
“Well, it seems fitting. After all, it was probably you who killed me in the first place.
The Cold hummed, “That is true.”
“Heh, you're a bit cold.” She laughed as an idea came to her mind. “Is that one better? Coldy?”
“ ‘Coldy,’ ” He repeats the name given to him like it was a verse to memorize. “It is different.”
“And that’s good enough for you, huh?”
“Yes. But I might keep that the same for now.” Said Coldy.
The Princess turned back to the cabin door again, starting dead at the door knob. “I’m worried that if I step out there, it won’t be permanent like last time. Like I’ll fade away again.
“I don’t think that’s going to happen. This is new territory we're walking into.” He then grips her hand again. “But I can remain by your side if that’s a small comfort.
“It… would be.” She says, giving one last smile before providing a ghoulish one. “You better not change your mind about not killing me or I’ll rip your heart out again.” She smirked.
“We’ll see.”
With that, she lifts the hand that he was holding onto the doorknob, takes a deep breath, and turns it…