Status: Written for a Contest. We shall see how it goes.

Crystal Patterns

The Reality of Eternity

His words struck like lightning into my heart and I could only stare at his picture perfect face. "Go home?" I stuttered, glancing around. I barely knew where we were let alone how to return home, and the last thing I wanted to do was leave him. I felt my soul detaching from my body and my body felt like it was bursting into small fragments of myself.

"Trust me," he said, his voice strained. The world around us was seemingly warping until I recognized the path to my house. "Please, Natalia. I beg you," he said, closing his eyes and looking away from me. The confusion I felt was swirling inside of me and the sense of myself disappearing intensified. "I'll come back for you. Just go," he finally said sternly.

In a whirl of both confusion and pain, I turned and started to walk away from him. I felt like this newly found heart was being ripped out of my chest and I was started to feel light headed. Perhaps this was what all the books explain love as because I can't feel my toes, my fingers and my head. "Run!" He shouted, from somewhere behind me. With that, my feet picked up speed until I was sprinting towards my house.

It wasn't until I was half way home that I realized this separating sensation was not just mentally, but physically as it seemed small pieces of me where swirling away to blend into the white landscape. Panic began to set in and it no longer felt like running, but flying towards my home. Around me my name echoed in my father's voice, both urgent and scared. My heart was shattering and I whispered to myself, "Daddy, I'm coming."

The door was open when I arrived at the little brick cottage in the woods with smoke billowing from its fireplace and there were muted moans of pain coming from within the house. At this moment, it seemed my entire body physically to reveal only a small shimmering white formation of myself. I didn't have time now to rationalize what was happening to me before I ran inside and collapsed beside my mother.

"Natalia," my father moaned. "Polina," he echoed in this same desperate and broken tone. "Oh, it's time, isn't it? Both of you at the same time, how could that be? My sweet Polina," he whispered, planting small kisses onto her hands. "Natalia," he whispered again, glancing towards the snow falling outside. It was this strange sight of a broken man that caused me to stop in my tracks and wonder why he no longer saw me.

"Dad," I said, "But even my voice sounded like a detached version of what it once was. It was distorted and seemed to be something that he could not hear any longer. My heart panted deeply, but it was when I moved my eyes to my mother that (whatever form of) knees I had buckled underneath me. "Mom," I cried, my shimmering voice turning into broken sobs.

She looked weak, her eyes were closed and she was barely moving. Her breathing was so shallow that it seemed she was not breathing at all and death was masking her porcelain skin tone, her ruby red lips and even her beautiful lavender eyelids. She was whispering so softly that I was surprised my dad heard her calling my name. I wanted to touch her, but my fear that it would not be felt was worse than watching it happen.

Shimmering tears fell down my face as my dad cradled my mother in his arms and rocked back in forth, crying himself. "Oh, Polina. I am so sorry. How could I have done this to us? Fabricated our daughter, knowing she would leave us far sooner than she needed to. And how could God do this to us?" He stopped then, his breath to shaky to continue. "My sweet, Polina." He choked again on his words and his tears and stopped talking completely to cradle her softly.

My hand slapped over my mouth watching the scene spill out in front of me and I not able to do anything but watch my family fall into pieces. Nothing felt crueler than to leave my father alone, but I didn't understand anything any longer; everything I ever reasoned with myself made no sense. The only thing I could focus on now was the broken feeling, this overwhelming sense of grief pushing me under. I was drowning in the first intense feelings I had ever felt in my entire life. To lose my mother, I knew was coming, but to lose my father simultaneously was the worse. Yet, the worst was knowing that my dad would never get to say goodbye to me, bury me and receive closure for both his loses. Instead, he would live forever with the grief of losing the love of his life and the disappearance of his daughter.

It was then that my hand fell delicately on my father's shoulder and the other grasped my mother's hand as if I would never be able to let it go. Her fingers moved softly against my hand and my dad moved his own hand on top of mine. At the same time, my parents whispered my name and a smile formed on their faces. "Oh, baby." My father said, "It's okay. You're alright. Everything will make sense soon."

It was this moment of calm that my mother took her last breath and my father and I broke into sobs that neither of us could control. It felt like we cried for ours and I wanted nothing more than to hugged my dad and cry with him. Instead, he held my mother and cradled her; it was the most emotional thing I had ever seen.

"I love you," he whispered to my mother. He repeated the phrase, glancing out the window.

"I love you," I whispered back.

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"Natalia," Jack called, wrapping his frozen frame around my own shimmering body. The beauty of this mythical body was something I suppose I would never get used to, but it was nice to learn that slowly I can make my body appear as Jack can. Until then, we leave together blissfully unseen by the world around us. "You're beautiful," he muttered, kissing my roughly.

"Wanna hear a secret?" He asked, the playful sparkle in his eye returning. The playful look I learned to love and even cause at times. It was this playful look that helped me float within the sea of grief that drowning me, this undeniable attraction that made me realize it was with Jack where I belonged. It had been weeks since my mother had died and I still avoid the cottage that my father left bare not even a week after she died. Regardless, Jack has made me see that the human world was not a place for me, it was temporary. I was made to be with him and it was right that I was taken away; I don't let him know that it doesn't really ease the pain.

"Yes," I answered, realizing I had let my mind wander, a thing the old Natalia would have never done.

"I will be with you forever. I'm not leaving," He said, smiling and kissing me softly.

"And I will never leave you," I answered.

He smiled, "I know! That's exactly how I planned it." He flopped onto a branch and smirked at me, chuckling softly. My mind was spinning again and my lips puckered awkwardly in an attempt to understand why I he wanted to tell me that. "I love that look on your face. When you finally stopped rationalizing everything and just began to open your mind to any and all possibilities. You're adorable."

My feet landed softly on the ground as I solidified to a real human body. "You're thinking too hard. What is it?" He asked, coming towards me. He grabbed my waist, pulling me tight against his body. I shook my head, unable to figure out what I was even thinking of.

"Natalia, come. We have so many adventures and so much time!" He said, grabbing my hand and pulling me away from the real world once more. I giggled as we soared over our city and twisted and turned in the air, playfully like birds. He kissed me and pulled us downwards as we landed in a secluded little area decorated with flowers and snow, glittering like diamonds. A bed lay in the center and he smiled at me, "Come on, then."

We crashed onto the bed and he smiled again.

"I love you, Snegurochk." He said.

"You too, Jack Frost." He tweaked my nose and chuckled before the glittering lights dimmed and the reality of eternity set in.