Frozen Heart - 20. Chapter 20 - The Return

Snowflakes feel around Maximilian from the pure white clouds above him. All around him was immaculate and silent, and nothing moved, all was motionless. He had his head thrown back, eyes closed, and the icy crystals lightly stung on his face. He liked this feeling, a slight chill on a single nerve at a time. Maximilian stood there, as still as the valley around him. Alone, he was alone, and for some reason he was bothered by it, he felt like something was missing.

He was about to remember what when a blazing ray of pure, golden light fell from the Heavens. Piercing through the clouds as a hot knife passes through butter. As the light hit the ground the snow melted almost instantly. It warmed Max, and it warmed his heart as well. The light danced around Max, lightly touching his skin, and where it did, glowing arabesques appeared, dancing on his skin. Curves and circles writing themselves in intricate patterns.

The snow however was not pleased, an angry snarl echoed through the valley, and the snow whirled in a miniature storm. Out of the storm stepped a humanoid monster made of snow and ice. Angry blue eyes glowed on his face. The thing bellowed at the sky, at the light. It thrust his hands towards the Heavens, and ice shot out to push the warm light back. At first startled, the light fought back and glowed a little brighter and a felt a little hotter. For some reason though, it did not counter attack, it defended Max but nothing more. As if waiting for his command a ray of light coiled itself around his neck as a serpent, but Max knew it was to be close to him, to protect him. He ordered the light:

"Go!"

And he pointed at the abomination in an imperious gesture. Immediately the ray of light became much warmer and started expanding rapidly. Snow melted around Max, and soon all that was left of the ice was a much smaller ice monster, shrieking in pain and rage. Max casually advanced toward the demon while he looked around the valley. Wild flowers were blooming all around, releasing a sweet smell in the air that a gently breeze carried. A few trees starting growing, soon they were a few yards tall and full of vibrant green leaves. A river gently made its way in the rich soil, pushing flowers to the side without harming them. Max could see a deer a little further down in the valley, and birds sung in the new trees. He reached the ice monster and looked down at it. He could see the anger, the hate, and the fear in its eyes. The monster was too weak to do anything, and Max almost felt pity for it.

"No, you must not let it survive, or all this will disappear."

The light around his neck was now next to him, it had taken on a familiar form, though Max couldn't quite say who it had taken the appearance of.

"Is there no other way?" he asked.

"No Max, you must choose, this or a frozen wasteland."

"Then begone!" He shouted at the monster.

"Aaron! Max! Time to get up! School won't wait for you!" It was Sally on the other side of the door.

Aaron groaned and held Max tighter in his arms. Max nuzzled Aaron in the neck, and then slowly started to untangle himself from his boyfriend's arms. He rolled Aaron on his back and got on top of him. He laid a kiss on his lips before stretching, making sure Aaron got a good look. Once he had his attention, he got up and stretched again, this time because he needed to wake his legs up a bit. He then went to Aaron's bathroom and turned the shower on before returning to the bed to coax Aaron out of it.

After a warm shower together, they got dressed and headed downstairs to the kitchen. Max's stomach growled when it smelled pancakes!

"Good morning Sally."

"Morning Max, did you get a good night's rest?"

"I had a strange dream but other than that was good!"

"Good, now eat up before you head out!"

The pancakes were delicious, and Max had to stop himself from taking too much, he knew that when it came to pancakes he could go overboard and get sick.

Once he and Aaron had eaten their fill, they grabbed their bags and got in Aaron's car. They drove to school idly talking about the day ahead of them.

Alice was waiting for them in the parking lot. She hugged Max first and started pestering him with questions.

"Did you two DO it? How is Aaron in bed? Does he snore?" And so on, though Max didn't answer all of them and Aaron laughed at most. They came in school as a trio, Aaron on the left, an arm over Max's shoulder, Max in the middle, and Alice on the right, an arm over Max's other shoulder. People got out of their way, most looked startled to see Ghost smiling and laughing. They whispered amongst themselves, and pointed at them. Peter and his crew saw them and were about to bother them when Alice shot Peter an angry look, daring him to say something. Peter had already opened his mouth, but shut it without a sound coming out, he turned and left, his crew followed him. One of them didn’t though, not that the other noticed. He looked at Max, smiled at him and winked before going off in the opposite direction. Mara was at her locker and joined them as they passed her, and their group was complete.

They met up again at lunch, and after buying their meal decided to go outside under "their" tree. It was a nice tree. It provided a lot of shade and had a few roots to sit on almost comfortably. They had elected it their tree after they had spent a few lunch times under it. They had a great time, sharing jokes and laughing. It felt so good to have friends, and Max had two of them and a boyfriend close to him. Mara had probably been briefed on the weekend’s events by Alice, which Max was grateful of as she didn't ask any questions.

The rest of the day zipped past, and soon Aaron and him where in the car. They had said bye to Alice and Mara, and had headed straight for it. Max because he was eager to see his aunt and Aaron because he knew that. During the drive Max couldn't stop talking, which was for him very awkward.

"Are you ok Max?" interrupted Aaron.

"Yeah why?"

"Because you're talking more than me, which has never happened before."

"Really?"

"Yeah, don't worry about it! It's a good thing actually, and I never get enough of your voice."

Max blushed and remained quiet, but not for long.

Max almost flew to the front door once they arrived. He fumbled with the keys and finally opened the door. He took a deep breathe before stepping inside.

"Aunt Elizabeth?" he called out.