NOVEL NEXT [33] Ice Queen
Hyperthymesia. She realized she had that condition early in life as vivid memories floated in her mind.
There was the sound of glass shattering when she first came into the world and a shard of it—the hand brandishing it bleeding—pointed in the face of the woman who hugged her tight.
"You birthed me a demon!"
The enraged male said as she blinked her crimson eyes at a falling drop of blood. It wasn't until years later that she came to believe her original parents were mentally deficient or, as she placed it, 'not well' and unfit to raise a child either way.
The woman smiled down at her and she saw emerald eyes reflecting her large head.
"It's alright honey, we can get rid of it."
She was not talking about her father.
"And then live together."
The shard of glass shattered upon the ground as the man fell to the side of the woman, his body shaking and he held her hand, his voice transitioning easily from anger to intoxication.
"Happy forever."
The next important memory came with frigid coldness as she stared at a night sky, the wailing and cries leaving her body, tears falling from her eyes, and her figure shuddering under the moonlight.
There was rushed steps and soon, the face of a a young male under a cap of blue came above her.
"What the hell—who the fuck put a baby here?"
She had been dumped in a park.
The next vital, and most important memory came to her when the nose of stepping and murmuring awakened her. She opened her sleepy, tired eyes to dark blurriness and she could faintly see.
There was the chiseled beard if a man, then there was ruby eyes like her own blinking down. She tried to reach out her hands. Before long, she could see small tiny arms grasped by the warmth of two larger ones as smiles filled her vision.
"Let's take this one."
There was a nod, "I like her eyes."
"Mhmm, it's just like yours, crimson."
The bell rung and the end of the day came. The classroom immediately sprung up in murmuring, chaos, and noises she feared she would not forgot as she groaned.
Her breath quickened and steps came closer when she took to stand.
"Hello, I'm new here, would you—would you like to walk home together?"
Eyes came the way of the girl that stood before her.
"You're wasting my time, move aside, please."
"I-um—."
She didn't let the female finish and hurried to step outside of the classroom, breathing a sigh of relief as the noise quieted, yet new ones came to her just as quickly.
"Come on dude, just try it."
A boy shuffled up to her in the halls of the school and she was forced to stop in her track as he gave her a rudy smile.
"I-I've loved you for awhile now, please go out with me."
His eyes wavered here and there in the nervousness only a confession could bring, and his voice seemed sincere enough even with the egging of the boys behind him, but she needn't care.
"I'm not interested."
There was laughter and the male shrunk back as she walked on. The chaos returned to normalcy when her foot left the building.
'Walk home together? Dating?'
She was curt, but her bluntness inadvertently affected her socializing. Yet, she could not help it. Boring things were boring. Uninteresting things were still so no matter how much she could try to pretend they weren't. So she didn't.
Ice Queen became a common nickname for her. A person to be looked at and admired from afar, but never to be approached. It was okay for her, either way, she did not feel a part of any other person's life.
No one remembered so well as to know why they were thrown away by their parents. No one remembered the frigid pain of the cold, dark sky, whimpering as their small body froze and their eyes blinked unyielding in the harsh winds. No one remembered every bad that came with the good. She could not help but be an outlier when every moment of her life was an ingrained memory. She didn't want to care about everything, to feel and remember everything, the boredom and uninteresting, or the pain friendships and relationships could cause—she would not forget anything that came her way.
Every moment was painful in its own way when memories stacked upon one another. So she closed her heart. Freezing it in place.
Even when she came to learn that her real parents had reached a deep stage of schizophrenia, escaped their families together, believed their daughter a demon, and had killed themselves years past in each other's embrace with the belief of being hunted by their families, she did not doubt that fact and carried on like usual.
"That's odd. . ." She looked up to a falling ray from the sky.
A blinding light consumed her. Shock filled her face and her bag dropped as she blinked her eyes.
"Are you alright?"
When she groggily opened her crimson eyes, she was met with ones the same as her own. The crystal roof contrasted with golden-blonde hair as a figure tilted her head, fangs showing.
Claire smiled at those words and hugged the girl tighter.
"I am now."
She couldn't help but forever remember those times, but she had already begun to change since she entered this world.
'So this is what it feels like to have someone next to you.'