Frozen Fence

Violet Neau, Age 13

Violet, age 13, lives on the beautifully strange planet Earth, in the town of Ypsilanti, Michigan. She’s had a habit of coming up with fantasy stories in her head for years, and writing them down tends to help her focus on other stuff when she needs to. She also likes to listen to music, whether it’s to help her focus on her work, or to drown out her surroundings and relax. (Sometimes it’s both.) She likes writing because it can show her view of the world, and it helps her try to understand the things around her. Inspired by the conflicts she sees in life, she tries to make other perspectives clearer.

Frozen Fence

He could feel the ropes of fire wrapping around his body, burning through his clothing, searing his skin. He was probably screaming, but he couldn’t really hear that. He couldn’t hear much of anything. He just felt pain. Pain . . . so much pain. He was on his knees in front of a local officer, a pretty high ranking one if they were doing this kind of magic. That wasn’t normal fire they were summoning . . . . He tried to look up. He could see the officers eyes, hazel, with specks of red from the fire magic. Or was that his imagination?

“Jeez, is she having a heart attack in her sleep or what?” “She’s not having a heart attack in her sleep, Iko. But at this rate, we’re gonna need to drop her off a cliff to wake her up.” Saoirse’s eyes flew open, her heart racing, her breathing ridiculously fast. She was drenched in sweat, but she wasn’t on fire anymore . . . “Hey, are you OK Saoirse?” Her brothers looked up at her, with worry in their eyes. “Heh, don’t worry guys. Just a bad dream. I’m fine,” Saoirse reassured her brothers. She tried to hide the fear in her voice. She didn’t see much they could do to help her, and there was no point in worrying them about this. “Alright! We’re going to eat dinner now,” Iko grinned, back to normal now that he thought his sister was alright. Sean, the older of the two, wasn’t convinced yet. “Are you sure you’re OK Saoirse? You seemed to be having a pretty bad dream. You’ve been having a lot of those lately. Do you know what that’s about?” “Don’t worry, I’m fine. Now, we should go cook dinner.” Mom and Dad weren’t home yet, they were still working, despite the fact that it was already dark. Winter was in full swing, having crept up on them once again, and that meant cold food, cold nights, and even colder guards. The winter chill made them grumpier, and they were a lot more likely to throw fire at you in this weather. Even during normal winters it was hard to forget that danger, but after what happened last week to the boy who'd been attacked . . . She was thinking about it more and more. The image of the fiery whip she'd seen still burned in her eyes. She still had nightmares about it, but they were very strange nightmares. She had them over and over, but the dream changed every night. It was like each time she had the dream, she was a different person. Usually she was just another person in the crowd, watching. But this time . . . she was on fire. Why did she keep dreaming about this, and why were the dreams so . . . unnatural? Normally, she didn’t dream in color, and she couldn’t smell, or feel much pain, but she could sense all those things in these weird dreams. Maybe it was just because she had such vivid memories of those things? But that didn’t explain the pain, because she wasn’t the one who was burned, not when it happened. It was like another person’s memories . . . She sat in thought for a few seconds. “Saoirse! Come help cook!” Iko insisted. "Don't worry! I'm coming!" Saoirse looked around at the room she had just woken up in. It was their basement, which served multiple purposes in the winter. Year round, it was the bedroom the family shared. Five mattresses filled with straw lay on the floor, with rough blankets laying on top. In the summer, they needed to sleep in this cool place, so they wouldn't overheat. However, it also doubled as a storage area. The walls were lined with rickety wooden shelves, nailed into the stoney wall. Some of the boxes held clothing, some held what little tools and supplies they had, and some help containers of food. In the summer, when forageable food was available, the shelves were not as full. But in winter, with their only source of food being the rations given to them by the officials, most of the shelves were lined with food gathered in the fall. There was no meat, as there were very few animals in the “forest” surrounding the village, but there was plenty of plant life, so smuggling food into your house wasn’t too hard. Most of the officials didn’t care enough to stop them anyway, and they rarely entered people’s houses, especially not to look through their pantries.

Despite the fact that the food lined most of the walls of the room, it wasn’t actually that much. The room was tiny. Her parents were barely able to stand up in it, and more floor was covered by a mattress than not. They tried to make the food last as long as they could, but it still surprised her how quickly their food ran out every year. The end of winter was hard, and it wasn’t unusual that many people starved at the end of winter. That was the leading cause of death in the village. Well, that and mine accidents. Both of those things were more common in the winter, making the season the scariest time of everyone’s lives. The basement was usually the quietest room in the house, and after spending most of the weekend watching her younger siblings, she wanted to relax in the basement. She sat on her mattress, trying to patch up Iko’s blanket, but then she just fell asleep. It wasn’t like she was tired, she just fell asleep. And now that she had woken up, she didn’t feel groggy. It was very confusing. She could tell that Sean was really worried about her, so she tried to reassure him. “Don’t worry about me. I just dozed off.” She stood up, leaving Iko's blanket on her bed to finish later. She could finish it after dinner. The three of them walked up the old stone stairs, and took care not to lose their balance on the looser ones. The thin sheets of ice that covered the stairs cracked underfoot, making small noises as they walked. They took little notice of the cold. They made their way upstairs, into the small kitchen and dining room. The short table sat on one side of the room. They did not have chairs, but the table was short enough that they just sat on the floor. The kitchen had a fireplace, large enough to house a cooking fire. A pot filled with boiling water hung in the fireplace, and next to it, a couple of wooden counters lined the walls. In the kitchen, Amelia was slowly and methodically chopping up root vegetables. Sean had taught her how to use the knife, but she was worried about cutting her fingers, so she always did it very slowly. They were going to make a soup for dinner, more filling than most nights. It was Friday. That meant that mom and dad came home earlier than most nights, and the next day wasn't a work day for anyone. After the long week, Saoirse felt like celebrating with a couple of vegetables in the soup. Sean, Iko, and Amelia were too young to work, but Sean would be turning twelve in a couple of weeks, so he would be starting work then. Thankfully, he could stay with Saoirse, as they were both minors. They would not have to go nearly as deep in the mines as the adults would. She could keep an eye on Sean, and try to keep him safe in the unpredictable winter caves. The four siblings paced about the kitchen, chopping up vegetables and grabbing dried herbs from the cellar. They worked together, not needing to speak to know what the others needed, and moving with the certainty and fluidity of a professional chef. Cooking meals together since the age of five can do that to you. After all, if that's what they needed to do to survive, that's what they did. The smell of the almost hardy soup wafted through the room. It had multiple vegetables that weren't potatoes in it, and Iko soon found himself sticking his nose in the fireplace to get a better sniff. Saoirse sighed. "Calm down Iko, I doubt you want to be eating uncooked potatoes." Iko backed off of the soup. They waited in the small dining room for their parents to come. Saoirse went downstairs, grabbed the blanket she had been fixing earlier, and brought it upstairs so she could work on it while she waited. Sean sat next to the small metal sink and started to wash the dishes by hand. Amelia and Iko got out the small basket of rocks they had been collecting over the years, and started to play with them.

The game they played today involved seeing how high they could stack the rocks. Their current record was about twenty-five rocks, but their goal was to hit thirty. They started with the bigger ones, slowly moving upwards as more rocks joined the tower. Every so often, the tower would fall, joined with a loud crashing noise as all the rocks fell to the floor. Most times they only got to twenty, but they were getting better. Amelia looked at the old clock on the wall behind her, "Shouldn't mom and dad be here by now?" Saoirse looked up. It was pretty late . . . "I'm sure they're just tired after the long week. They should be back any minute now." "What if they got stopped by an officer?" Iko squealed. He jolted upright, knocking over the stack of rocks. He didn't realize when one fell on his toe. "I'm sure they weren't stopped by an officer. Why would they feel the need to talk to mom and dad? They don't really break the rules . . . at least not worse than most people. If they were punishing mom and dad, they would be punishing almost everyone in the village, and that wouldn't be done on their way home from work while it was still dark," Saoirse tried to reassure her siblings. She tried not to think about all the things that could go wrong. What if they had been stopped by an officer? Or worse: what if there was an accident in the mines? She had seen what could happen to people who got stuck in accidents like that, and that was just the people who came back . . . But she couldn't think about that. She had to put on a brave face. She saw that Sean had stopped washing dishes. He stared into the tin plate, still covered in suds, and didn't say anything. He must have been scared too. He looked up from the dishes at Saoirse. She smiled and tried to hide that she felt the same as him. Minutes passed, and she found herself growing more anxious. Having finished the blanket, she grabbed the broom mom had made, and started sweeping. The soup was done already, and she didn't want to wait much longer. She sighed, and said, "I'm going to go look for them. I'll see if I can find them and figure out what's going on." Sean opened his mouth, as if to object, and then closed it. He finally spoke. "Sure. Just be quick, OK?" "Yeah! Don't talk to the officers! Tell them to go away!" Amelia ordered, as if you could say 'go away' to an officer and walk off. Saoirse nodded, and started getting ready to leave. She put on her coat and scarf, because she didn't want her snot to freeze, and then her old boots, to avoid slipping on the ice. They weren't in the greatest shape, but the family hadn't saved enough money for her to get new ones, so she used the ones she had. She walked out of my house and onto the streets. The snow almost went up to her knees, but thankfully the front door was at the top of a couple of old wooden stairs. After wading down the stairs, she took a left and slowly made her way toward the center of the town. The square was more populated than usual, which wasn't ever a good sign. She looked around at the people, and couldn't help noticing the worry in everyone's eyes. "Excuse me, do you know what's going on?" a girl with fiery red hair and dark brown eyes whispered to her, looking worried. "I've just got here, I'm waiting for my folks. Was there an accident?" Saoirse shook her head. "I have no idea what's going on." The redhead just sighed and walked away. She walked up to an elderly woman, who was sitting next to the fountain. It seemed that the redhead was asking the old woman the same question, but the woman had a rather long answer. The girl's brow furrowed. She nodded and walked away. Wanting to know what was going on, Saoirse walked over to the woman. "Excuse me, could you tell me what's going on?" "They say the spirits made another stand. They don't like the way we's usin' the land, y'see, and they's getting angry." "Yeah, that's great, but why are so many people late from work, and why are there so many people in the square?" "There's an accident today. Pretty deep, but a ton o' folks is lost in there now. Many won't come back." Saoirse ran off to the northern part of town, breathing heavily. She didn't even remember deciding to leave. She just ran. The snow squeaked loudly under her feet, until she slipped and fell. She pushed herself off the ground, trying to breathe. No, not an accident . . . She looked down at her hands, seeing that they were redder than usual . . . She realized after a few seconds that she was bleeding from the fall. She shook her head and started running again, not caring about her hands. She needed to see them, her parents. She couldn't come home without them. She couldn't. The entrance to the mines appeared before her. She stopped in front of the wooden fence that surrounded it, clinging to the wet wood, staining it red. She was not the only one there. Other teenagers, other children, and the occasional elder stood around the fence, watching the door. The guards standing outside the fence didn't show any reaction to all the people. The weathered doorway to the elevators was open, and every so often a person or two would come out. Sometimes a person would see a family member or friend, and they would rejoice.