I Wish

Chapter 61

How I didn’t freeze when I stepped out of that door, because yeah I did that even knowing that this couldn’t end well, was beyond me. It was… beautiful. There was snow in Melbourne, if you went to the right place but I’d never been. Probably because dad had gone to Europe in their winter for a work thing when I was little, like pre-Jeremy little, and had come back hating snow. Furiously and with a passion. The only reason I’d even been to an ice arena was because mum took pity on us, and took us one summer where it was absolutely stinking hot. 

“If I wasn’t going to die here, this would be awesome,” I murmured in awe looking at the winter wonderland paradise around us. It looked like some place that Elsa went to kick back on vacation. Sparkling snow sat, fresh white and cleaner than should have been possible, coated every surface. There were some trees that had no leaves at all, and others that did, but all of them were covered in thick layers of ice and I could see my breath in the air in front of me. It was out, but where did I go from here? It wasn’t like there were any helpful signs that pointed which was the way out of here. Nor anyone around to take a risk in asking, but I swear this is the last straw. Once was a coincidence, twice is a pattern. Everyone has heard that saying, and considering that this was my second time being kidnapped Ivy and I really needed to find a better way to start tracking each other down, because I was not liking my options here.

Eventually I decided that higher ground was the way to go. There was no guarantee that using vantage to walk my ass somewhere with a higher temperature was going to work. Not in this crazy ass world, but it was the only plan that was worth even attempting. From what I could see around me, if I walked directly into the woods and kept a somewhat straight path then maybe I could reach the taller trees in the middle and climb them. Surely from there I should be able to work out an actual direction to travel. So that I was what I did, taking one step and then another. Following the closest thing to a path that I could find between all the trees and vegetation. I thought a lot less things would grow here, and while it was true that a great many things seemed to be doing some kind of weird hibernation thing, there were plenty that weren’t. Had I been here under better circumstances then I might have stopped to have a better look at them, but with the noises… Well, let’s just say I didn’t feel like it was a good idea to linger. 

It may have been light now, but I didn’t know how long it had been like that for or when that would end. So I didn’t want to count on that, and at the very least I wanted to find somewhere to hole up when it did get dark. I could hear too many animals already. Birds chirping. Other animals chattering. Punctuated by rustling, and howling in the distance. f**k knew what kind of animals were around this joint, I certainly did not want to run into them after dark. Did I look like a snacksident? No. No I was not. 

It got darker quite quickly, before stalling at this odd twilight stage of afternoon inching into night. As predicted it got darker, and you could hear more wildlife prowling around. I’d never heard a wolf howl, but I was pretty sure that was what I was hearing ring throughout the forest now. I’ve never heard the purring of a big cat outside of the zoo, but I could now. It didn’t help that this whole business happened on an incline that changes from the slow sloping to something really incredibly steep. I didn’t do uphill, and they didn’t even have the decency to be upfront about it. No, at first it seemed fine, and then all of a sudden you were pulling yourself along on tree branches because climbing almost vertically up what was clearly becoming a goddamn mountain. A mountain that was covered in snow. As I slipped again, because although I was sure that I medically wasn’t supposed to have toes right now and it was nowhere near that bad, barefoot was not ideal in this environment. In fact it downright sucked.

I could hear my breath. I had for longer than I would have liked to admit. If netball was still an option I would have been nowhere near this bad. Sitting around the house for two years had its consequences, I guess it was only a matter of time until I paid for it. My arms had started to ache, and my fingers were numb. Slipping on branches, and being scrapped raw while I pushed forwards on shaky legs. If I made it out of here, without becoming some kind of pet and I wasn’t entirely sure I wouldn’t need to have Ivy come save me, I was going to start working out again. Zumba in the living room or something. I shuddered, and shivered, as the howling moved closer to me. Wind whipping against my face I pulled myself up the final stretch, and the soft skin behind my ears hurt like someone had taken a pair of icy cold knives and just rammed them right on in there. I swallowed and hoped I could warm up somewhere soon, because I wasn’t even sure that it would go away any time soon after that.

I stopped thinking about that rather soon, because I’d reached the top and what I saw… Oh, somewhere deep inside my soul was an inner child that was dying with joy. That would have taken this as cue that I was right for believing. Sitting alone on the top of the mountain was the biggest tree you have ever seen in your life. A pine tree that made ancient redwood look like a joke. No plastic replica, no light up fiber-optics would ever cut it. 

“That’s one big christmas tree,” I said in awe, staring up at where it parted the clouds. Actually. I think that was the Christmas tree. It certainly looked like everything, and everything, that anyone could possibly imagine. Right then and there I made a resolution. Necessary or not, I was going to climb it. As high as I could. Just you watch me.