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The air conditioning in the diner may have been a bit aggressive but Will barely noticed, too absorbed in the sight of Mack across the booth. They hadn’t seen each other since Stockholm, communicating in texts and grainy video calls but the reality of Mack was grounding Will.
A glance around the diner, and seeing no one was watching them, Will reach across the table, his hand eager, “You look great.”
Mack managed a weak smile, but when Will’s fingers brushed, Will suddenly recoiled. “Jesus, Macklin you’re freezing.”
“I know,” Mack pulled his heavy wool cardigan tighter, which Will just noticed that he was wearing, even though it was unusually warm outside. “I just can’t shake the cold. I think I’ve been spending too much time on the ice. I think it’s beginning to form in my veins.”
Will tried to laugh, “You probably just caught some bug.”
But over the next couple of days, the cold became a third presence in their relationship. Mack wouldn’t go outside, wouldn’t even approach the windows of the apartment. He constantly craved warm drinks, coffee, tea, hot chocolate but never seemed to achieve warmth from them. Will bundled him in every blanket that he could find on the sofa, pressing his own sun warmed body against Mack’s frigid skin, which seemed to help while there but as soon as Will would leave Mack would be freezing again.
“The cold is starting to hurt,” Mack confessed late one evening, his breath almost coming out frosty.
“That…that sounds impossible Mack,” Will said, though he was already beginning to doubt the laws of physics around him. “I think that we should take you to a doctor.”
“No, it’s…I’m sure I’ll get over it in a couple days,” Mack protested. “And it’s not exactly a pain. More like…a…dreadful numbness that’s pushing at the edge of me. Like it’s trying to consume me.”
“What? Mack seriously, I think you need to see someone. If you’re not feeling better tomorrow I’m not taking no for an answer.” Will insisted.
The next morning Mack was in the kitchen, not cooking anything but with the oven turned on trying to warm himself as Will watched from the breakfast bar. Will was getting more concerned by the moment and decided it was time to do something about it.
Scrolling through his contacts, he found the only other Celebrini’s number that he had.
“Hello?” Aiden’s voice came through the line.
“Hey, it’s Will,” Will said, intending to find out if anything like this had ever happened to Mack before.
“Oh shit, Smitty,” Aiden said. “Didn’t anyone call you?”
“Call me about what?” Will was confused.
There was a long silence on the other end. Suddenly the air in the room dropped to zero. The cold that he had been trying to ignore for days slammed into him along with a feeling of sheer terror.
“Mack…he’s gone Will. He went out hiking, to close to a glacier, he slipped. They…they just recovered his body.” Aiden choked out.
The phone slipped from Will’s numb fingers, clattering onto the hardwood floor. The sound echo oddly. Will didn’t look down. He couldn’t.
He instead stared at Mack still standing by the stove, the intensity or his stare turned fully on Will now. He couldn’t have heard the conversation, but he’s face had shifted. The denial that had masked his features had dissolved. The lack of blood, the chilling truth of his absolute not temperature, it all made dreadful sickening sense.
Suddenly Mack wasn’t by the stove any more, he was right next to Will, his fingers sliding down t he exposed skin of Will’s throat, the touch feet like dry ice.
“I told you I couldn’t get warm.” Mack whispered against Will’s ear, his voice feeling like frost. “I think I need yours…”