Ice Princess Ch 15

Stumbling into a standing position Danielle turned toward the restaurants only door. Realization streamed across her mind like doves escaping the changing season.

"I killed Jack! I killed the man that I loved." Emotion surged into all the parts of her body.

"Danielle!" Danny's voice screamed after her, but she didn't acknowledge it. Jack, she had to see Jack one last time. She had to apologize for what she'd done. She had to pay the price for her mistakes.

She started running toward the cemetery. Each step becane more difficult as she went.

"Danielle, what happened to you?" Jack's voice seemed to be whispering in her ear. His loving arms tried to wrap around her body, but she'd pushed him away.

"You told your friends that they could share me, Jack! How could you!"

"What? I did what?" He'd righted himself before he hit the ground, but that'd not stopped her. "You told them I was a little slut! Now that you were finished with me they could each have me!"

"HOW DARE YOU!"

Fire lit into her soul. In just those few moments and she had transformed into what she was today; a killing machine.

"Danielle!" He'd screamed as she ripped the clothes from his body and drank from him. He'd been her first kill.

The images of his resistance danced across her memory and coupled with her regret. News reports skipped across her mind about what had happened to the band members of a local rock group one Saturday night, following the death of Jack.

The cemetery was a block away. "Jack," she whispered, as she felt her body slowly transforming into something solid.

"Jack, forgive me," she begged... I was wrong."

Her parents had sent her away to a mental hospital, because she wouldn't talk, wouldn't eat and her skin color was blue. She wasn't there long. She'd convinced her attending physician that she was perfectly healthy and he'd released her.

In a week's time he was committed to the same institution due to overwork or so the reports said. She'd heard a few years later that he'd hung himself from the ceiling in her bathroom. She'd though it funny than that he hung himself in the same room he'd often had her give him head in.

Now, she had a different take on the entire situation. If only she could go back.

"Danielle!" screamed Danny, as he tried to catch up.

"Danielle, I can help you! Please...let me help you!"

Little stars twinkled into the space before her eyes, and she knew that she had little time left to right a wrong.

One of her arms felt frozen in place, it hurt when she tried to move it even just a little. The cemetery was still half a block away. She had to make it. She had to tell Jack she was sorry.

Cars seemed to zoom by along the left side of her tunneling vision. She kept running. Nothing in the world seemed to matter except giving Jack an apology and not doing the same to Danny.

She loved Danny too. He was so much like Jack so loving and caring. He had his life figured out. He was totally together. She was a force he didn't need. The cemetery entrance came into her vision and she tried to run faster to close the distance.

Little pins and needles shoot down her legs and tried to slow her down. She kept running as best she could; weaving here and there avoiding traffic, people and things that appeared in her path.

"What's wrong with you lady?"

"Watch where you're running! The sidewalks slippery! What are you a nut?"

Voices caressed her ears but never took form in her mind. She had only one destination, and she wouldn't stop until she arrived there.

Her chest felt like a ton of stones were laying on it trying to keep her from breathing. With each breath another stone felt like it dripped into her lungs.

She ran through the entrance and headed down the last road toward the top. Jack had been laid to rest in a special plot with his family.

Her other arm started to stiffen and she found herself running with both her arms hanging at her sides, useless and heavy.

"Danielle..." came Danny's voice again. He appeared beside her on the left. "Where are you going?"

She kept running, her speed decreasing as she moved ahead because it was becoming too difficult to move.

"Jack," she whispered, realizing that her voice was going. "I have to see Jack." She nodded toward the top of the hill she was already halfway up.

"Help me," she whispered.

Danny put his arm around her waist to and gave her support. "Why do you have to go see Jack?" he asked, allowing her to lean on him as he moved her forward.

Dizziness over took her. Her vision became spotty; sitting down seemed like a good idea. Jack was just ahead. A few more steps and she'd be by his side...forever.

"Danielle," said Danny, as he tried to take hold of her hand which now felt like solid stone.

"Danielle, what's wrong? I can call an emergency squad, the fire department, police back-up...tell me what to do."

Jack's headstone came into Danielle's vision and she sat down before it.

"Let me rest," she whispered, "Just a moment, I want to rest just a moment."

She pulled up her knees to make a place to rest her head. Her arms easily warped around her knees, for support of her head. Her long beautiful black hair fanned out around her shoulders and draped along her sides. Her breathing seemed to slow. A small tear escaped her left eye as she gazed upon the headstone of Jack.

Slowly her clothing dissolved and her body and hair transformed into clear bluish glass.

Within her chest was a big red heart that seemed to be beat every few minutes. Across it, words appeared, as if she were writing them.

"I'm sorry, Jack!

I love you Danny!"

Then they faded away to nothing and never appeared again, but the heart continued to beat and the small tear filled with water every few moments before it dissolved and reappeared again.

Every year, on Valentine's Day, flowers are laid at the feet of Danielle by Danny who became one of the local police officers in Somerset.

Records of the incident/rape have not shed any clues to what might have caused this transformation. She did not experiment with drugs, alcohol or toxic materials according to records. What happened remains a mystery to this day?

"Hey Danny," said Doctor Collins, as he finished writing in his daily log. "Weren't you related to Jack?"

"Yes, he was my half-brother." answered Danny with a sad smile, "but, we didn't hang around each other in those days. I spent my summers with our cousins in Wisconsin."