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Cinnamon wakes up to a snowy day that's filled with surprises, hopeless love, deadly knifes, and an icy demon man. This short story is told through Cinnamon's eyes and takes in the characters from the Close to the Ground series into a day of her strange life. The story takes place before the events in my book Too Close to the Ground.
The cloaked figure took a swing at me. He missed. I grabbed the cloaked figure's arm and quickly yanked him at the brick building. The figure flew at wall and fell to the hard ground. Two more cloaked figures approached me. I flew into the air and landed on top of the large garbage container. The figures came after me. I kicked them away and jumped off the container. The one I had thought I had knocked unconscious reached out and tripped me onto the ground. All three of the cloaked figures surrounded me. I had tried to get away from them, but now they had me. They had me trapped without any hope. "Hey! Leave Cinnamon alone," Russell shouted from behind. The figures faced my friend. "Yeah, what are you doing to do about it?" Russell pulled out a big shinny laser gun. He fired one blast that took out all three of the figures. There was nothing left of the shadowy figures except their cloaks. "You need to me more careful, Cinnamon." "Russell," I said as I walked toward him. He swept me up in his arms and kissed me with the greatest passion. His hands flowed through my long, wild red hair while my hands played with his spiky brown hair. We were interrupted by a loud ringing noise. My alarm woke me up. It was only a dream. I slammed my alarm button off and laid back in bed, trying to soak up the wonderful dream, but I just couldn't. Russell was such a wonderful guy. Why would he never notice me? Besides, he does have a girlfriend, so why bother dreaming of a future that would never come? But, I still liked to dream. After a moment of hopelessness, I got out of my bed and got ready for school. I took my shower, letting the warm water flow on my body. After I got dressed into some blue jeans and a black sweater, I quickly checked my e-mail - mostly jokes from friends. I shut my computer off and looked outside. Snow had fallen some more last night. I wondered if school is canceled? I hope it wasn't because I liked school. I went down stairs and turned on the TV. Sure enough, school was canceled. Disappointed, I slumped into the comfy, dark red couch. I wiggled around it to get nice and snug. The remote for the television was up by the TV. I didn't want to get up. I concentrated for a moment and the remote gently flew toward me. I grabbed it from the air and started channel surfing. My powers were sort of a mystery to me. I'm not a demon or anything evil - I just had these powers. Well, I should say my family has these powers. We can just sort of do stuff, but only good things. The powers can't be used for evil no matter how hard a person tries. My grandfather told me that our bloodline could absorb the energy of nature. That's why sometimes any nature around us dies when perform a powerful trick. They're not like spells or anything similar for we don't have to chant any words - just concentrate - though I sometimes like to say words just for fun. For fun, I tried to look for something good on TV, but there was nothing. Early morning shows really do suck. I forced myself up and out of the couch and then I shut off the TV. With nothing to really do, I decided to visit the library. Hopefully they would be open. I waved my right hand and created a note with lights to let my parents know I went out and that I would be back in a couple hours. I figured they were still asleep and I didn't want to wake them. I wish I were still in my dream... I got all bundled up and walked outside. The snowfall was mechanical like, drifting from one place to another on command by the wind. As I walked down the sidewalk to my green beetle of a car parked along the street curb. On my command, the snow pushed itself off the sidewalk to the sides. I carefully looked around the street to make sure no one was watching me. Everything was clear. I waved my hand over the hood of the car and all the snow on top of it melted away. I pulled out my keys from my pocket and got my car ready. Then I drove off to the library. "Hey, Cinnamon," he said. "What are you doing here?" "Oh, me?" I stuttered. "Well, nothing now. The library's closed." "Bummer. I was going to take advantage of this weather and get my English essay finished early." He shrugged. "Well, since I can't work on my essay, you want to going bowling?" "Me? Well, I'm not sure," I said while looking at my feet. "Come on, it will fun. I'll nag a couple of my friends to come along and we can have a match." "Well...I'll think about it. I really should go visit my grandfather first." "Okay, that's cool. I'll seeya you later." Russell walked back to his car while I stood by the library doors, dreaming. I really wanted to go bowling, but I wasn't that good. I would probably make a fool out of myself. But still, I would get to see Russell and have some fun. I decided to check in on my grandfather first. I pounded on my grandfather's towering blue oak door. I got no answer. I opened the heavy door and stepped inside. The inside looked like a castle scaled down to size. Hard, cement floors, fancy red carpet, knight armor standing up by the door, and big chandelier decorated the entrance hallway. I shut the door behind me and walked down the carpeted path. "Grandfather," I called out. Again, I got no answer. When I got the doorway, I saw eye three sharp knifes flying at me out of the corner of my. My heart raced. I quickly turned to my left and waved my left hand. All three knifes crashed into the wall on the left. I looked through the living room. It too had a castle touch to it, but it had a modern day look with the big screen television and comfortable furniture. I heard someone clapping. "Well done, Cinnamon," my grandfather said as he entered into the living room. "I see that you've been keeping on your toes." "Yes, I have." "Strange weather we've been having," he said as he walked toward me. "Come, warm up and get some hot cocoa." "No thanks. I'm fine." "Are you sure?" he asked. I nodded my head. "Well, okay. Is there any reason you came by to visit?" "I-I just wanted to check up on you and see how things are going." "Everything is splendid," he said as he sat down on his favorite dark green recliner. "Now, go have fun and play in the snow." "I think I will going bowling with some friends," I said. "I'll talk you later." "Goodbye, Cinnamon. Enjoy yourself in the magic of snow's wonder music." I smiled and went outside. I was going to have some fun. "It's Cinnamon!" Chris Rockefeller said as I stepped into the bowling alley. Chris was the funniest person I had ever met. He was a big, strong guy with a loud voice. He one of the high school's best football players too. I remembered this one time we he sang Happy Birthday to me in the school cafeteria. My face was beat red as he sang to me. I tried to hide my face, but I couldn't. He ran up to me and gave me a huge hug and twirled me around a bit. "Hey, you're just in time, Cinnamon," Kyle Reed shouted from over by the lanes. "Come and join our team so it will be even." One team had Russell, his girlfriend Becky, and Kat (short for Catherine). The other team had Chris, Kyle, and myself. The place was rather empty, except for the workers and us. The place had just opened up a few minutes ago anyway and people usually came in the afternoon and evening. I went and paid for a game and rented some funky blowing shoes. The worker gave me some shoes and started two lanes for us. Something was wrong with one of the lanes. As I sat down next to Kyle and put on the shoes (thankfully they didn't smell bad), the worker walked along the side path up the end of the alley. He looked up the machine and screamed. We all turned our heads and watched the worker run away. A man white as snow slid out from the machine. He got up and slowly walked on the bowling lane toward us. The icy man was an outline of body of ice with no clothes. The coldness in his blue eyes made me tremble. I had no idea why he wasn't slipping down because those lanes are extremely slippery. I wasn't sure want to do. Russell grabbed a bowling ball and bowled it at the man's leg. The ball hit his right leg, but he didn't fall like I thought he would. Instead, the foot and part of the lower of his leg shattered to snowy pieces. As he hopped on one foot toward us, the entire lane turned into an icy surface. "Holy crap," Kyle said as Becky clung to Russell. I turned my head away from them. "That is beyond messed up." "Well, let's throw some balls at him," Chris said as he picked up a bowling ball. "Get a load of this!" Chris heaved the ball at the icy man. The icy man grabbed the ball with one hand. He turned it into an ice ball and threw it at Becky. Russell tackled Becky and they fell on the ground and the ice ball hit me instead. I fell backward with a loud crash. I tossed the ball aside and it broke into pieces. I quickly healed myself. I watched Russell kiss Becky while Chris helped me up. More lanes turned into deadly ice. "What are we going to do now?" Kat asked as Russell and Becky stood up. "We're going to fight ice with fire," I whispered to myself. I picked up a bowling ball from the rack and threw it at the icy man. Right before it hit him, I turned the ball into flames so no one would think the wiser. The flame ball hit him right in the center of his chest. Into a tiny billion snowflakes, the icy man faded away. Soon, the ice on the lanes melted away as if it were never there. Then the gang soon made themselves forget about the icy man. They didn't want to believe in such things. Disorientated, we left the bowling alley and found a nice, big hill in town and went sledding. We laughed about our troubles, laughed about our fears, and laughed about the snowy road of life. We had a great day in the snow. I knew I would never be Russell's girlfriend, but I could always be his friend. |