Melting the Ice: Short Story (pls read lol)

Hi! My name's Kales, and I wrote this short story :D. It takes about 5 mins to read, so maybe consider it? I think it's pretty good, and if someone reads it, maybe you could put your perspective on it in the comments because I'm curious :)). I hope you like it!! <3

I hated the skating rink. It was cold, my feet always hurt, and my laces were loose. Yet, It was what I did best. My foot was a feather floating on the glossy surface, and you could hardly tell I had entered. There was no sound except for the scraping of the ice turned to snow and the quick but sudden breaths I made every stride. My hair acted as a ribbon around the sides of my neck and wrapped the surface of the ice as my face got closer. The only thing that mattered was that I succeeded and did not fail.

I made a quick turn; my foot slipped. I glided gracefully across the ice; my blades were dull. I turned to get ready for a jump; my feet hurt. I started accelerating as I jumped off with the back left inside edge of my foot and used my free leg to hurl myself in the air. My breaths were no longer sudden; they were timed; the scrape of the ice was gone; it was silent; it was me. I did a salchow; it's an easy jump; why did it feel so difficult? I want to be able to fly, yet I don't have wings. How can something fly without wings? How do you land once you're flying?

There was no more sound. Do you make a sound when you land? Was it graceful? Was it 'good enough'? Am I 'good enough'? I felt my body wrapped in a cold aura encapsulating me; I was swallowed. My fingers were frozen solid, and the tiniest movement would snap them off. Swooosh, Scerrr, the ice—I could hear it.

 "Who's there?" I yelled. A figure, or a shadow, not even a shadow, a presence, was in front of me with features not concrete enough for the senses to recognize, other than the soul.

I reached my arm out with its crystalized crevices and edges, submersing my arm with its blueish tint. I felt the pain of the presence, its piercing cold hands, or air, or soul touching my face. How could anything on Earth be more frigid than one encased in ice? Was It space that was touching me? I wanted to punch it; my pain was insufferable. I would cry frozen tears if it touched me any longer. I wailed like a banshee from the pain; my mind was fogged, and I couldn't hear myself, only the caress of the soul on top of my cheeks. 

I screamed as loud as I could without cracking the ice around my mouth, "WHO ARE YOU?" I could hear myself crying now, and the soul was no longer in contact with me. 

A familiar voice asked, "Are you immortal?" The cold went warm momentarily, almost as if my body was numbing from the freezing sensation. 

"I'm human; I live until I die. Everyone knows that." I was almost angry at it. I considered not speaking a word until it asked a question so dumb it would be stupid not to answer.

"Who's everyone to you?"

"What?"

"When you close your eyes, who do you see? What do you see?"

My eyes fell to the ground as my knees did as well. "That's not important."

It reached for my chin and raised my face to eye level. The numb presence held me, and I became submissive. Slowly, it said, "What do you see?"

I closed my eyes while it held me, "I see expectations that succeed me, a future that is put onto me without room for mistake, a rink that leaves a circle for me to roam in, not a sphere, a circle."

"Whose thoughts are these?"

"The ones who expect-"

It gripped me tighter, "They are yours."

I kinked my head to the side to remove its presence from my chin. I no longer wanted to talk to it. How would it know my struggles? How could something I can't even see understand what I have experienced? It's not fair. 

"Are you immortal?" It asked that stupid question again.

"No, again, I'm human. There's no afterlife, there's no pre-life, and when my body dies, so do I."

"What about your soul?" 

I looked in its general direction. "What soul?" I said. It guided my hand to my heart, and it became warmer. I stared at the yellow glow underneath my hand. Who would have known it did that?

I shrugged my arms, "I guess my soul may live on."

It let my hand free, "So you are immortal?"

I paused momentarily and glanced at my hands on my knees; they were beginning to melt ever so slowly. My previous tears unfrosted and fell down my face for the first time. I was still looking at the ground, "What are you?"

The presence went as close to my face as possible. It was as if we were one, sharing the same body, memories, and experiences and learning the same behaviours; we were taking our first steps; we were one. "I'm the universe."

I wasn't startled but curious, "How can you be the universe? You have no vessel; you're just an idea, a mere thought. You wouldn't be able to talk to me."

It was talking with me; we shared the same mouth that moved when we spoke, lungs, brain, and heart; it was me; I was no longer myself. 

"I'm not talking to you; I'm talking to myself; I'm talking to me."

"I'm the universe?"

"Yes."

"That doesn't make sense. You don't know what you're saying." I watched my body freeze up again, and the numbing sensation was gone; it was only cold now. From the sudden change, I began to cough and fell to my hands and knees, pounding on my chest.

"Look at me; look into yourself; what do you see?"

"What?"

"What do you see?"

I curled into a ball on the cold, hard surface, "I see atoms, I'm biotic, I see my purpose, I see the light. Am I the light? My soul is the light; my soul is me; everyone has a soul. I am everything."

The presence guided me out of my ball, and I lay flat on my back, staring above. The fire in my bones grew: "You are not alone; the light in your soul is the universe, everyone is the universe, you are everyone. What do you see?" it said.

"I understand my expectations. It doesn't matter if I succeed; I control my atoms, and my atoms control me; they are everything, and I am everything."

"What do you see?"

"I am not confined to mistakes; I will grow, the fire in me will grow, and when I am put out, I'll light again. The light in my soul will light again, for it is my drive, it is me, I am everything."

"What do you see?"

"I'm no longer two-dimensional; I can feel the next dimension. I can move however I please without the limitations of my world. My circle has depth and has become a sphere. My sphere is the Earth, and the Earth is me. I am everything."

My body was red hot, and my flame of passion grew brighter and hotter. The once invisible presence turned to smoke, waiting for me to breathe it in and consume it. 

It was no longer ice. I loved the water. It was warm, I could think, move, feel, and breathe when I pleased. I floated amongst it like a feather on its reflected surface. I made a huge splash when I entered; I was significant. My laughter and tears were loud, and I wasn't ashamed of the noise. My hair was submerged in the water and was a ribbon around the waves, free to be wherever it saw fit. The only thing that mattered was that the ice that once froze me shut was melted into a thousand worries to be forever washed away.

My face was cold again, this time with water, not ice. I felt a cloth brush against it as I looked down at the crimson ice beneath me. It covered me whole, and my once-white uniform turned red. A man held me in his arms, shouting incoherent words. Voices around me yelled in panic, and I felt the embrace of a familiar presence. A light shone directly into my eyes, calling out to me. It wanted to speak to me.

"Are you immortal?"

"I am immortality."

By kaleszomb