Gerda hugged Kai tightly. So happy to have her best friend back, not the cruel boy he’d become before disappearing.

Kai gently pulled back and held both her hands in his. “Gerda, we must flee at once. The Snow Queen has many tricks.”

Gerda nodded. “Let’s go home.” She was worried because he was soaked with her tears, which had formed a puddle around them, and it was freezing outside. But it was more important to get him away first, then dry.

They turned towards the door behind them, but it was already filled with the Snow Queen. She towered over them, tears flowing down her face and soaking her dress, repeating “My baby girl, my baby.”

Kai and Gerda looked at each other, mystified, then back at the Queen who now clung desperately to the doorframe with intensified sobs, then slumped to the floor. A puddle formed beneath her face that was pressed to the ice.

“Kai, look,” Gerda pointed. Transfixed, they watched a thin stream of water flow from the Queen, over the smooth floor in the most unnatural straight line, directly at them. “It’s her tears.”

With their hands clasped tightly, they backed away a step as the stream approached.

“You can’t outrun it. It will have you and your love,” the Queen said weakly.

The stream reached the edge of the puddle of Gerda’s tears and merged with a flash of light over the rippling surface. “Kai!” Gerda called in fear.

“Gerda!” he cried and pulled on her arm, but Gerda was stuck fast in the water that had begun to creep up over her feet.

Gerda’s breath whooshed out of her at the instensity of the cold that seeped through her as soon as the combined tears flowed over the top of her boots. Within seconds the water completely covered her. She met Kai’s terrified gaze through a watery film. When she opened her mouth to call to him, the water rushed inside and down her throat. Her arms shot out straight with the shock of the invasion. She wanted to claw at her throat, but found her limbs frozen in position.

A sing-song voice echoed in her mind, ‘So pure, so full of love, love us, love us.’

Insistent tendrils were creeping their way through her mind. Gerda felt sick as she realised the tendrils belonged to a consciousness that had invaded her. A consciousness she was powerless to stop. It was feeding off her memories that were full of love and happiness. Memories it could replay again and again to feed off.

When the tendrils drew up the final memory of her crying over Kai and melting his frozen heart, the sing-song voice hummed, ‘So much power.’ This being attracted victims by kidnapping loved ones. Waiting for someone like her to rescue them. The real victim.

Her last vestiges of will crumbled, and Gerda flooded with an unbelievable power. She turned to Kai and smiled cruelly, ‘Kai, my love. Let me kiss you.’

Submitted by: AMANDA HARE