Whatever After #6: Cold as Ice Read online

  I make a very small air-guitar pose, for my brother’s sake, hoping for a reaction.

  There’s no reaction. Just more frombie eyes.

  “I did?” Sharon asks. “I didn’t know it was yours, I swear!” Then she adds, “It was a really nice sled.”

  “You won’t be stealing anything anymore,” the Snow Queen whispers before puckering her lips. “MM-WAH!” White steam shoots toward Sharon’s face.

  When it lands on Sharon, the light goes out of her eyes. “Cream cheese,” she says in a flat voice. “Cream cheese.”

  “Now, where did the big sister go? Come out, come out, wherever you are,” the Snow Queen says in a singsong voice.

  I don’t move. I can’t let her see me. I can’t get caught. I can’t! I am the only one left. If she turns me into a frombie, then no one will be able to save us. We will be stuck here forever.

  “If you don’t come out, I’ll just blow your friends more and more kisses,” she says. “Then they won’t be able to move at all. Like your dog.”

  I shiver. I also remember what Ralph said. What if she gives us enough kisses to kill us?

  “Come out now, and I’ll just blow you a little kiss like your brother and your friends. They love it here. I knew they would! I went to pick them up myself at the robber house. They were just standing outside. I blew them a kiss and brought them to their new home.”

  Oh! So that’s what happened. That’s why they left. The Snow Queen put a spell on them and forced them into her sled.

  “Don’t you want to be happy?” she asks. Then I hear, “Mm-wah! Mm-wah! Mm-wah!” She’s blowing kisses around the room. If they hit someone else by accident, it will make everything so much worse.

  She doesn’t see me yet. The kisses are ricocheting everywhere, making snow turn to ice and ice to shatter.

  I look back up at the mosaic mirror.

  Hmm. Is there any chance this mirror is my portal home? Sometimes the portal is a mirror. It doesn’t have to be, but it could be. If there is any chance that it is, I could go back through the mirror and get help. I’ll get my parents. We’ll come back and save everyone.

  I step up and knock once on the mirror.

  It starts to hiss. It is the portal! I knock again immediately and it turns purple.

  “Look at you, playing with fire,” the Snow Queen says. “That’s the mirror that did this to me, you know.”

  I pause. “It did?”

  “A troll tricked me. He knew I was lonely since my mother died, my father was cruel, and I had no siblings. He was standing on the top of an evergreen tree and asked me if I wanted to be the Snow Queen and have everyone be nice to me. I said yes! Of course I said yes. I was only ten! What ten-year-old girl doesn’t want to be a queen and have everyone be nice to her? He said, ‘Then here’s your crown!’ And he threw the mirror down on me and laughed as it shattered into glass pieces all over my head. My hair turned silver. After that, I had the power to freeze people. I quickly realized that everyone was scared of me. No one wanted to be nice to me. I had to make them be my friends. And the next time I saw that troll, he got what he deserved.”

  “What happened to him?” I ask, my voice a whisper.

  “Let’s just say I gave him one too many kisses.”

  I shiver. “Can you go back to being normal?”

  She laughs a sad laugh. “No. I’ve tried. Besides, I don’t want to change back anymore. I’m powerful. Look what I got a nice group of builders to make me! This amazing castle!”

  “ ‘Got?’ ” I ask. “Do you mean you put them under your spell?”

  “Exactly,” she says. “Usually, I just let the people go after they cook or clean or build for me, but then last year, I thought, Why not keep one? I’ve always wanted a little brother! So I took my sled out and found one — Kai. And then you and your brother came to me. And I thought, why not grab two more? So I took my sled out to get you. I found your brother and Gerda instead. Now look at my wonderful life! I have so many friends!”

  “Friends?” I look over at the frombies. “They’re not your friends.”

  Then I glance back at the mirror. What do I do? Do I knock a third time and jump through? Can I really leave my brother? And Gerda and Sharon and Kai?

  No. I can’t. If they’re staying, I’m staying. We’ll all be frombies together.

  Unless I can somehow convince the Snow Queen to let us go.

  “They’re not your friends,” I repeat. “You’re forcing them to hang out with you.”

  “Who cares?” she asks with a toss of her silvery hair. “I can make people do whatever I want! I can force them to stay with me.”

  “But that’s not what friends are,” I argue. “Friends want to be with you.”

  The mirror is no longer purple. The portal timed out. Now it’s just a mosaic mirror. If I want to turn it into a portal, I have to start all over.

  The Snow Queen cocks her head to the side. “It’s true that they aren’t my equals. I have always wondered what it would be like to have a true equal.” She eyes me up and down. “Maybe that could be you.”

  “Me? Huh?”

  “Yes. You. That mirror. It gave me the power. It can give you the power, too.”

  “What power?”

  She stomps her foot against the snowy ground. “The power to have all this! To have whatever you want! To be able to freeze people into being your friend.”

  So the mosaic mirror has two powers. It’s a portal and it gives people freezing magic. That is one extra-special magic mirror.

  “My kiss is my only power,” the Snow Queen is saying, “but it’s an amazing one. Don’t you want it?”

  I stare at her. I can’t help but think about Robin. And Frankie. Was that kind of what I did yesterday? Tried to force people to do what I want? Tried to basically force Robin to be my friend?

  “I can see you want to do it,” the Snow Queen tells me. “Do it. Smash the mirror on your head! Become like me! We’ll be snow queens together!”

  Wow.

  I did not see this coming.

  I wish we could, um, freeze time for a minute so I could think everything through. Of course, part of me is intrigued by the idea of having snow queen power. OF COURSE. How awesome would it be if I could just blow kisses at people and force them to be my friend? Robin would apologize. Frankie would be my friend forever. Even Penny would want to hang out with me — not that I want her to.

  But a much bigger part of me thinks that the Snow Queen is totally insane.

  Does she really think I’m going to smash a mirror over my head? First of all, that would hurt. A lot. I would most likely get a concussion. And second of all, breaking a mirror is seven years of bad luck.

  And I can use all the good luck I can get.

  “C’mon,” she purrs. “You know you want to.”

  “I really don’t,” I say. “I’m not actually great in cold weather. I sleep in two pairs of fuzzy socks. And I’d prefer to make friends the regular way.”

  “Forget it, then!” she huffs. She pulls her fur cape around her shoulders. “I don’t need you, anyway! MM-WAH!”

  Oh, no.

  My head starts to tingle. My eyes burn. I suddenly have the urge to build a snowman and to yell out, “Hot chocolate!” and “Best friends!”

  “One more for you,” I hear the Snow Queen say, as if through a fog. “I offered you a gift, and you said no. Silly girl! MMMM-WAAAH!”

  My skin starts to tingle. Everything gets cold. My legs. My hands. My face.

  I lift my hands to block it, but it’s too late. Now my hands are stuck in front of my face. I can’t move them. I can’t move anything.

  I’m completely, one hundred percent frozen.

  I warned you I was going to do that,” the Snow Queen says, wagging her index finger. “Tsk-tsk. You are not a very good listener.”

  I am an icicle. No. An Abby-sicle.

  I can’t move at all.

  Not only do I not have powers, now I am also truly po
werless.

  The only good news is that I am still alive.

  Also, I don’t feel cold anymore. But I do feel numb. Like when your leg falls asleep before the pins and needles kick in.

  I see my hands. They are both open. They look like my regular hands, only covered with a thin layer of frost. Move, hands, move! I push. But they don’t budge. It’s freaky. It’s scary. Poor Prince. He’s been like this for over a day!

  “You should have joined me,” the Snow Queen chides. “There’s nothing you can do to save yourself. No one will help you. No one cares about you.”

  “I care about her,” I hear.

  Huh? Who said that? Everyone else here is a frombie!

  I would turn around to see if I wasn’t frozen and all.

  Ding, ding, ding! Is that Ralph’s bell? It is! It’s Ralph! He’s back!

  “Do I know you?” the Snow Queen asks.

  Ding, ding, ding.

  Ralph is standing in front of me now. I can see both of them without moving my head. Which is a good thing, considering I can’t move my head.

  “No,” Ralph says. “But I know you. I remember hearing about you, many years ago. I remember how you chose power over friends and family when you were young. I remember how everyone was scared of you and ran away.”

  “They did run away!” she huffs. She turns her back on both of us. “They left me!”

  “They were afraid of you.”

  “And how come you’re not?”

  “I am,” Ralph says. “But I was halfway home to my family when I decided I couldn’t leave these kids to fend for themselves. We’re JARG.”

  JARG! My heart melts. The rest of me, unfortunately, does not.

  “So you came back to try and save them?” the Snow Queen asks incredulously. “And risk your life?”

  “I did.” Ralph looks me right in the eye. “I should never have left to begin with. Abby risked her life for me. Gerda risked her life to save Kai. And Jonah and Abby even risked their lives to save their dog. A dog! Such a puny animal.”

  I roll my eyes. They’re my only body part I can move.

  “No one has ever risked his or her life to save me,” the Snow Queen murmurs.

  “You have to earn that,” Ralph says.

  “Earn what?” the Snow Queen asks.

  “Loyalty. Friendship. You can’t force people into it.”

  The Snow Queen turns and looks at Ralph. “But how? How could I possibly earn that?”

  “Well, you could start by unfreezing everyone.”

  “Why would I do that?” she asks, her voice chilly. “Then no one would stay here with me! I’d be all alone.”

  “That’s the point,” Ralph says. “You have to give them the choice to stay with you. By their own free will.”

  She shakes her head. “They won’t stay. I know it. If I release them, they’ll all leave. Would you stay?”

  “Me? No. I haven’t seen my family in years. I might visit, though.”

  The Snow Queen is right. I think Kai and Gerda have to get back to their families, and Jonah I need to get home ASAP. But Sharon … Sharon loves this place! She thought it was cool, didn’t she? Sharon might stay.

  Wait. Maybe that’s it!

  Ralph has to tell the Snow Queen that Sharon might stay! He has to give her hope! And it’s not even false hope. Sharon really might. She has nowhere else to go. But I can’t move my lips. How do I tell Ralph what to say?

  Oh!

  I wait until I catch Ralph’s eye and then I do it: two long blinks and one short.

  Then I do it again to make sure he saw.

  At first Ralph looks confused. “Danger? Yeah, I know we’re in danger. No kidding!”

  “Who are you talking to?” the Snow Queen asks him.

  I do the Rorse code again.

  Ralph’s eyes light up.

  “Sharon!” he yells. “Sharon will stay! Sharon has nowhere to live! Sharon would stay willingly! At least, I think she would. But we’ll never know for sure unless you release her. Unless you release them all.” He gives me a wink.

  I wink back.

  I did it! We did it! Yay, Rorse code!

  The Snow Queen looks back and forth between me and Ralph and narrows her eyes. “How do I know you’re not lying to get me to do what you want?”

  “You don’t,” Ralph replies. “But you have to trust me. And I think I’m a pretty trustworthy reindeer. I came back to check on my friends, didn’t I? I’m risking my life talking to you! Never mind that I’m sliding around all over your slippery floors. You do not want to know what happens to a reindeer with a broken leg. It ain’t pretty.”

  The Snow Queen looks at Ralph, and then back at me again. Then she takes a deep breath.

  Uh-oh. Is she gearing up for a huge MM-WAH that will knock Ralph off his feet? Is she going to blow me a kiss again?

  Is this the end?

  But instead of blowing out, the Snow Queen starts sucking in. And in.

  I don’t know where all the air is going, because she’s not blowing up like a balloon, but she keeps inhaling.

  A cold breeze goes through me as she does it. I watch Kai and Jonah and Gerda.

  Their expressions are changing. Almost as if they’re thawing.

  Gerda stretches her arms above her head. Kai rubs his eyes. Sharon wrinkles and unwrinkles her nose.

  Jonah blinks and then blinks again. He shakes his shoulders as if he’s shrugging something off.

  “Abby!” Jonah shrieks. He runs over to me and throws his arms around me. “That was so awful! I saw you, but I couldn’t talk to you! I couldn’t do anything I wanted to do!”

  I want to respond, but since I was more frozen than he was, it’s taking me longer to defrost. Finally, my arms start to tingle and I can feel them again. Slowly, I wrap them around Jonah. I can’t talk yet, but our hug is saying everything our words can’t.

  “Gerda?” Kai says. “Is that you? You came to get me!”

  “Of course I did,” she says. She runs to Kai and gives him a tight hug. “You’re my best friend.”

  “I think she looooooves you,” Sharon sings, and then starts to laugh. “I think you looooove each other. You’re gonna get maaaaaarried.”

  “We’re only twelve!” they both yell. But they’re both blushing.

  Who knows? Maybe one day they will.

  My lips start to tingle, and I can finally move them. “I am so glad you’re okay,” I tell Jonah. “I was so worried when I didn’t see you outside the robbers’ house!”

  “The Snow Queen picked us up in her sled. All I really remember is hiding, and then I felt a kiss of cold air, and then I was getting into her sled and we were coming here. And I kept thinking about ketchup and Cheetos.”

  “All I could think about were bagels and cream cheese,” says Sharon, licking her lips. “I love cream cheese. Snow looks a lot like cream cheese, don’t you think?”

  “Great mustache, by the way,” Jonah says.

  I rip it off and hand it to him. “It’s all yours.”

  He cheers and sticks it under his nose.

  Ruff! Ruff! Ruff! I hear from the roof.

  Prince is okay! Hurrah!

  “Prince!” I yell. “We’re down here!”

  He comes bounding down the stairs and leaps onto my brother. He licks Jonah’s face and then bounces over to me and does the same.

  Never has a dog kiss felt so good. Or so warm.

  “Who’s a good boy?” I ask. “Who is? Prince is!”

  “We did it!” Jonah says. Then he looks confused. “How did we do it?”

  “Abby and I did it,” Ralph says.

  The Snow Queen is sitting by herself in the corner. She’s extra pale and her eyes are wide and … teary? Is it possible? Or maybe she’s just cold and exhausted. She did inhale a lot of iciness.

  “Are you okay?” I ask her.

  “I don’t know,” she says, her voice shaky. “I’ve never defrosted so many people at once before. I don’t feel so gre
at. But I’m sure you guys want to get out of here. Go ahead. I won’t stop you.” She sighs.

  “We’re not going to just leave you after you saved us,” Gerda says, hands on her hips. “What kind of people do you think we are?”

  “We’re JARG,” Jonah says.

  “No, we’re JARGSKSQ,” Ralph says. “Is your real name Snow Queen?”

  “No,” she says. “It’s Nicolette.”

  “JARGSKN!” we all yell.

  Prince barks.

  “JARGSKNP?” I say. “We could really use some friends whose names start with vowels.”

  * * *

  Ten minutes and a few blankets later, we’ve all completely defrosted. The Snow Queen — Nicolette — has regained some of her color and doesn’t look as deflated.

  “Thank you,” she says. “I feel much better. You guys can go now. I understand.”

  Relieved, I grab Prince and put an arm around Jonah. Gerda and Kai link arms, and Ralph whinnies happily.

  “Go? I have to go?” Sharon asks, frowning. “You’re kicking me out?”

  Nicolette shrugs. “Don’t you want to go home?”

  “What home? Can’t I stay a little while longer?” she asks hopefully. “I’ll be really helpful! I can cook! And steal!”

  Nicolette looks confused. “I don’t need you to steal. But … you can stay as long as you want,” Nicolette adds happily, and Sharon smiles. I’m suddenly glad for her — she doesn’t have to go back to the robbers.

  “See?” Ralph says proudly. “Told you she’d stay.” He winks at me again and I laugh.

  “How many rooms do you have?” Sharon asks, looking around. “Do you have space for me?”

  “There are ten bedrooms,” Nicolette explains. “I’ve always wanted people to come and stay. But no one ever does.”

  “Oh, I’m staying,” Sharon says. “And I bet we could get other people to come, too. We could rent out the rooms! How fun would that be?”

  “So much fun!” Nicolette says. They grin at each other. I knew it! The two of them will get along like a house on fire. Well, not actually on fire. You know. It’s an expression.

  I grin, too. I notice Jonah, Gerda, Kai, and Ralph also look pleased. The Snow Queen really was just lonely all this time.