Rakastan

The last sound from the station, echoed around the walls as I covered my ears with my mittens. The biting wind whipped my hair in front of my face. My breath produced a cold still air in front of my eyes as I just stared like a deer caught in headlights, unsure of what to do.
“Jaclyn,” a voice calls.
I turn my head slowly and watch as Sen comes toward me.
“Let’s go,” he says and grabs my hand.
I numbly follow and almost trip over my feet as I trudge through the snow that is soon coming up to my waist.
I climb into the car and my eyes scan the dials, but nothing makes any sense so I try to read the symbols.
“Cold?” Sen asks with a laugh.
I can’t answer, I’m afraid that if I open my mouth the warmth will go out of my body and I will inhale the coldness more.
He starts driving and my knees are shaking so violently, I think I might be having a seizure.
Sen looks at me in my mittens, my coat that is drenched, and the boots that look like I just jumped in rain puddles.
“Told you, Finland winters are brutal,” he says and chuckles again.
I’m beyond annoyed and I clear my throat, but inhaling is not cold but a dry sharp pain and I cough.
“Easy now, breathe,” Sen commands and slaps my back, making the pain worse.
“Idiot,” I mutter, low but audible.
“Are you ready for this?” he asks not paying attention to my insult.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I say in response but feel my stomach going into a knot.
Two weeks, 16 hrs, and 35 minutes ago, I was in warm weather. Then again, two weeks ago I was in NY, not heading North into Finland’s winter snowstorm for a sauna party. NY in November isn’t exactly warm, but it’s a good twenty degrees above what is now. Sen is my guide and the reason I want to run screaming in the other direction. My cousin Euri decided to follow me to Finland until June, to study history while I tried my hand at writing courses. We were both graduating come May from our university, but the Finnish program extended until June, something I was absolutely okay with since, coming here had been a vision for me. I’d fallen head over heels for the country, it’s culture, and the people. Euri was just interested in the quirks of the Finns, although I had yet to figure out what that was.
Euri had fast made friends and been invited to a guy’s house for the weekend. I was skeptical and nervous so I had pleaded with Sen to take me north to his house. Sen was more than happy to oblige, I believed he took his role as my guide a little too seriously. It turned out that his girlfriend Taylor, had a twin, and that her twin brother and this guy were one in the same.
“How awesome if Taylor’s brother was dating Euri?” Sen asked and drove up a path that diverted from the main road.
“Great, but he better not try any funny business,” I replied and rubbed my hands together.
“I can’t wait for you to try the sauna,” Sen exclaimed and pulled behind a rusted red truck.
“Whose is that?” I asked and staggered my finger to the trunk.
“Taylor’s uncle,” Sen replied and ran toward the house as the front door opened and Taylor ran bounding into Sen’s arms. I turned away.
Sen had jet black hair and piercing blue eyes and was considerably handsome. Taylor was extremely gorgeous, a tiny girl with blonde hair.
An older man with gray peppered hair who I assumed to be Taylor’s uncle came over and took Sen’s luggage.
“Do you have anything?” he asked me.
“No,” I replied.
I was only there to see if Euri was okay and then I was going to go back to the station and take the train back to Turku.
“Jac, let me introduce you to my uncle,” Taylor said motioning to the man. I shook his hand and watched as Sen disappeared around the back of the house.
“What’s that?” I asked pointing to a small cabin like structure by the lake.
“That’s the sauna,” Taylor replied and smiled mischievously.
“Where’s Euri?” I asked.
“Inside with Tanor,” she replied.
I raised my eyebrows.
“My brother,” she explained.
“Oh,” I said.
I followed her inside to where Euri and Tanor sat in towels. My face must have registered shock and disbelief because Tanor started laughing.
“Don’t worry, big cuz, I didn’t lay a hand on her,” he said and laughed.
Euri was my younger cousin by five months, but I wasn’t over protective.
“What’s up with the towels?” I asked incredulously.
“The sauna,” Euri explained and stood up.
“Try it out,” Tanor urged from his seat.
“Hurry,” Euri said and started pushing me into a side bathroom.
“Euri!” I protested.
“What?” she laughed and turned around as Sen came in the house.
“Jaclyn won’t go into a sauna for three reasons. The first being she’d have to be naked. Second she doesn’t like heat. Third and lastly she fears she’ll be locked in and die,” Euri finished with an exaggerated sigh.
Tanor and Taylor looked at me and started laughing.
“You won’t die and you don’t have to go in naked,” Tanor said.
“Of course, Jaclyn would never go in naked,” Euri mocked and stared at me from her towel.
Sen sensed my competitive side coming out and tossed me a towel.
“It better be warm, because I’m freezing,” I smiled and grabbed the towel from the floor where it had landed.
In a matter of five seconds I had stripped down and was being escorted out by Euri.
“Go in for like two minutes and then when you’re down, we’re all going to jump into the lake for a cool dip,” she instructed.
She left me then and I went with the towel wrapped tightly around me.
Here goes nothing and with that I entered the sauna while Euri gave me a thumbs up sign.

Euri’s POV:
“Euri,” I heard a voice call.
I turned around and jogged the short distance to Tanor.
“Hey change of plans,” Tanor shouted coming up in shorts.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Some of my cousin’s friends are here, they want us all to go for a swim,” Tanor said and pointed to his shorts.
“Alright I’ll just tell Jac,” I told him and turned around to go back to her when I heard a blood curdling scream echo from the sauna.
“What was that?” Tanor asked.
Before I could respond, he was running to the sauna and I was right on his heels.
He yanked open the door and from the few feet I was behind him, I saw him carry Jaclyn out.
“Is she okay?” I asked gasping as I reached him, hopping over the snow that weighed me down.
“Yeah,” he replied and pointed into the sauna. I peered my head around the corner and saw a huge winged thing in the corner of a bench.
“What is that?” I asked horrified and stepped back.
“A dead bat,” Tanor said trying to suppress his laughter.
He stepped in and flung it at me and I screamed.
“Tanor!” I shouted.
“It’s fake, chill. Taylor and I got it on Sen’s advice that Jaclyn spooks easily,” Tanor said.
“That’s not funny,” I said and bent over to where he had placed her. She was still out.
“She probably fainted,” Tanor said and picked her up.
“Hey, careful. The towel’s slipping,” I chided him and held her towel as he carried her to the house. Her long legs dangled over his arms and I couldn’t help but feel a tinge jealous. I wanted Tanor to hold me like that, but I knew that was next to impossible.
Sen greeted us at the door and slid them open.
“You guys are real jerks,” I exclaimed as we were let inside. I heard unfamiliar voices coming from the kitchen and raised my eyebrows.
“My cousin and his friends,” Tanor said and laid Jaclyn down onto the couch.
“I’m going to stay with her, you can go on ahead,” I said and sat on the edge of the couch.
“Can you grab her clothes,” I ordered.
She started to open her eyes and I smiled at her.
“What happened?” she asked.
“Sen pulled a bat prank,” I explained and put a hand to her forehead. She was burning up.
“Stop,” she chided and swiped my hand away.
“You don’t look good,” I said.
“I just want to take a shower and go,” she said standing. She was so out of it, she didn’t bother to wrap the towel around her and it started dropping as she stood.
“JAC!” I said too loudly and pulled the towel around her.
“Sennnn,” she called.
“Yeah?” he replied coming out of the kitchen with a man I didn’t recognize.
“Where can I shower?” she asked him with her back to him. I knew she was fuming mad at him and didn’t want to say anything mad at him.
“In the back,” he said showing me the direction.
“Alright, thanks,” she said coldly and started to walk out of the room.
“We’re going for a swim, maybe you shouldn’t shower yet,” Sen said and exited with Tanor out to the water.
“Let’s go,” she says and grabs my arm and pulls me outside where I can see everyone running wildly and jumping into the water.
“Go,” she says and jerks her thumb to the dock.
It feels like cruel payback, like she thinks I was in on the joke. I am a great swimmer, but I hate my body and if I run and jump I’m sure I’d make waves. I’ve never been proud of my curves and I’m rather bashful about it especially in front of Tanor.
“Well?” Taylor calls and runs wildly past us in a blind strike. I realize she has just skinny-dipped.
“Whooooo,” Sen shouts and jumps in after her throwing his trunks in the water.
Jac shoots me a dirty look guessing at me being uncomfortable and grabs my hand.
“Your beautiful, don’t think otherwise,” she whispers in my ear and squeezes my hand.
Assured, I get a running jump and I’m out flying high over the waves. Before Jaclyn can jump, the same stranger that was with Sen earlier emerges from out of the water for a second water.
I notice two of his friends must already be in because I don’t recognize them. They look oddly familiar and Jac must share the same idea because as the guy runs past her she stops, as if recognizing him. He’s a burly guy with brown hair and flies by so fast, I can’t quite get a good look at him.

Jaclyn’s POV
The guy speeding by me catches me off guard. I was about to take my running sprint when he flies by out of nowhere. Miffed I’m about to say something when his laugh freezes my windpipe. I shrug it off and drop my towel. I’d managed to grab shorts and a tank from the house. Sen lets out a disappointed boo that I haven’t skinny dipped and I just laugh before I’m off and my feet barely touch the dock.
The water stung my body in a sharp frenzy, the biting cold was completely unexpected.
I struggle to breathe to calm myself and just want to get out. Euri notices, but I push past her to get a gripping handle on the dock.
“Is she alright?” Sen calls swimming over.
He’s by my side.
“Your lips are blue,” he says in actual concern.
“Jac, get out,” Euri advises.
I swim to the ladder and grab the metal but it’s a shaky climb out of the water and once I;m on the dock, my eyes start darting for the towel I had dropped earlier.
“Here,” a voice says and hands the towel over my shoulder.
I swing it over my shoulders still shaking and scan the water. Taylor, Sen, Euri, Tanor, and three unidentifiable men. The water drips from my hair that is plastered onto my face. I peek closely at the water and notice the burly man again. He strikes my nerves and I can’t identify him with water in my lashes. He calls out to me though.
“Take her inside, make sure Phil sees her,” he shouts.
Phil is Tanor’s uncle, a physician, but who’s the her?
I realize maybe he isn’t speaking to me but to whomever is behind me.
I clutch the towel tight for more warmth and eagerly turn around for a warm house, when my eyes take in the person standing beside me.
The laughter of the burly man hits my memory and through a haze of water drops I make out bright green orbs.
I pause, and do the only thing an un-normal person does, when they think they’ve gone delusional, I laugh and think this must be the greatest prank ever set by Sen,
Because there is no way Ville Valo is standing two inches from my arm.