Whatever After #6: Cold as Ice (2 page)

A
aaabbbbby …”
a voice says that night.

I sit up in bed.

Did I just hear my name?

It’s eleven forty-five and I haven’t been able to fall asleep. I am too upset about the Robin situation. Also, my room is very cold. There may not be snow in Smithville, but our house — which is really old — is freezing. My parents keep trying to fix the heater but can’t seem to get it right. Tonight I put on two pairs of socks, green flannel pajamas, a fleece sweatshirt, and a blue-and-white striped knit hat to go to bed. Yes. A hat.

Next I hear,
“Jonah …”

The voice is faint and sounds a little bit like wind chimes. Is that Maryrose? Maryrose is the fairy that lives inside our magic mirror. At least, I think she lives inside it. Maybe she’s trapped. Or maybe she’s hiding. To be honest, we’re not exactly sure what her housing situation is.

Anyway, is Maryrose really talking to me all the way from the basement? Did anyone else hear her?

“Step through!”
I hear her say.

Step through the mirror? Does Maryrose want us to go into another fairy tale?

“Please come!”
the voice chimes.

Part of me wants to yell,
Maryrose! We can’t go through the magic mirror! I promised my parents that I wouldn’t!
But I don’t yell, because that would
so
wake my parents up.

Last time Jonah and I were visiting a fairy tale, my mom and dad woke up while we were away. They couldn’t find us and called the police. Seriously. The police! Luckily, we came back through the mirror before the police actually arrived and before flyers with our pictures were taped all over the neighborhood with the word
MISSING
stamped across our foreheads. And luckily our parents didn’t realize where we’d been.

But it was very, very close. My parents made us promise that we would never disappear at night again.

We promised.

So now we can’t go.

Even though it’s awesome. Even though I miss it, and Jonah misses it.

I cover my head with my pillow.

Creak.

Wait. Is that a door opening? Oh, no. Did Maryrose wake up my parents?

My parents will not be happy if they discover that there is a talking mirror in the basement. Although, if they did find out, then at least I wouldn’t have to lie about it anymore.

But I bet they’d be pretty freaked out.

Maybe they would give the mirror away. Although it’s bolted to the wall. If they couldn’t get it off, maybe they would want to move. I’d have to go to another school. I bet Robin would miss me
then
.

I hear another creak.

The sound is coming from right next to my room. Which means it’s my brother’s door, and not my parents’. Maybe Maryrose woke up Jonah, too.

I glance at the clock. It’s 11:56. Maryrose only lets us through the mirror at midnight.

Is Jonah sneaking down to the basement? Is he planning on going through the mirror without me? He better not be. He knows he’s not allowed to do that.

“Jonah?” I say quietly.

No answer.

I push off my covers, jump out of bed, and hurry to stop him.

But he’s not in the hallway.

Our puppy, Prince, is.

I should have guessed. Prince always sleeps in my brother’s room. Right now, his ears are perked up like little triangles, meaning he’s listening to something.

“Come down!”
calls the voice in the basement.

Prince’s tail wags. He’s eyeing the staircase.

“Prince! No!” I whisper. I reach out to try and grab him, but he slips out of my hands and scurries down the stairs.

“Prince, stop!” I whisper furiously. “She’s not talking to you! She’s talking to
us
!”

It’s not his fault he listened. The word
come
is one of his command words.

He won’t be able to go far
, I tell myself as I race down the stairs. I’m sure the basement door is closed. It always is. Prince may have pushed Jonah’s door open, but that doesn’t mean he’ll be able to do the same to the basement door. On that one, you have to actually turn the handle. And anyway, even if he did get into the basement, it’s not like the mirror would suck him inside. He’d have to knock three times on it for Maryrose to take him. And Prince might be smart, but he does not know how to knock.

I reach the basement door.

It’s wide open.

Hmm.

Okay, I wasn’t expecting that.

Who left the door open?

Probably Jonah. He’s usually to blame when things go wrong, like most little brothers. Although maybe my parents
were
working in the basement before bed. All I know for sure is: It wasn’t me. I am not to blame. I am never to blame. At least, not usually.

“Prince!” I call down. Should I go get him?

Yes. No. Yes.

No.

I can’t. I specifically promised my parents I wouldn’t go into the basement at night. If I take another step, then I am officially breaking my promise.

I do not like to break promises.

Unlike
Robin
.

“Prince! I’m waiting here for you,” I whisper-yell.

Prince doesn’t answer.

“Prince, if you come back upstairs, I’ll give you a treat! Do you want some peanut butter? Mmmmm. Peanut butter. I’m eating peanut butter right now! It’s delicious. I will eat all of it by myself if you don’t come back up the stairs!”

Come on, Prince, come on.
I do not want to stand here all night. It’s cold! But at least I’m wearing two pairs of fuzzy socks, a fleece sweatshirt, and a hat.

I am making fake food-slurping sounds when I see it.

A purple light radiating up the stairs.

Oh no oh no oh no oh no.

I hear a whimper.

“Prince, no!” Without thinking, I run down the stairs.

Prince paws the glass. The reflection in the mirror starts to swirl like a tornado.

“Step back, Prince, step back!” I yell.

What do I do? Do I try and grab him? What if the mirror pulls me inside? I promised my parents I wouldn’t go into the basement! And I can’t go without Jonah!

My heart is racing. Do I go? Do I not go? Do I go? Do I not go?

The mirror turns into a vacuum cleaner, and with a loud slurp sound, Prince is sucked inside.

AHHHH!

I hold the banister tight so I don’t get pulled along. After a few seconds, the mirror stops swirling.

“Abby?” I hear.

I turn around to see Jonah standing at the top of the stairs.

“What’s happening?” he asks. “Where’s Prince?”

I catch my breath, and then I say, “Prince escaped from your room and got into the basement and went through the mirror!” I try to keep my voice down so I won’t wake my parents. But it’s tough. This is a crisis.

Jonah’s eyebrows shoot up. “Alone?”

“Of course alone. I’m here, aren’t I?”

Jonah runs down the stairs. “ABBY! YOU LET MY DOG GO THROUGH THE MIRROR ALONE?”

“First of all, he’s
our
dog,” I huff. “And second of all, this isn’t my fault. You didn’t close your bedroom door properly. And you probably left the basement door open, too!”

“I did not,” he says. “I wasn’t even in the basement today. You were the one making up dance routines with Frankie down here.”

Oops. He’s not wrong. But I’m sure I closed it. I must have.

Jonah twists his bottom lip. “Do you think Prince will come back on his own?”

I stomp my foot. “No, of course I don’t! How can he? He’s just a dog!”

Jonah cocks his head to the side. “But he’s a smart dog.”

“But still a dog, Jonah. A
dog
. What do we do?”

He points to the mirror. “We go after him.”

I feel frantic. “But we promised Mom and Dad we wouldn’t!”

“But we don’t have a choice.” Jonah looks at his new Spider-Man watch. “We have to go now. It’s midnight.”

He’s right. “Wait! Should we get shoes?”

“No shoes! No time! Let’s go!” Jonah knocks once. The mirror makes a hissing sound. He knocks again and a purple haze falls over the room. He knocks one more time. Fast. The mirror swirls like a washing machine. I feel my curly brown hair twisting and twirling, and see Jonah’s hair flapping like a flag in the wind.

“Maybe this time, it will be
Jack and the Beanstalk
,” Jonah says hopefully. Jonah is always hoping it’s
Jack and the Beanstalk
.

“That would be fun,” I say. Then I add, “As long as the giant doesn’t step on Prince.”

Jonah pales.

“I’m only —”

Before I can say
joking
, the mirror sucks us both inside.

G
oing through the mirror never hurts. It feels like you’re walking through an open door.

This time, I land on something soft. And cold. It still doesn’t hurt. It’s just … cold.

Really cold.

Freezing, in fact.

I open my eyes and all I see is white. What is happening? Am I in a cloud? Are we in the story of
Aladdin
? Am I on a magic carpet?

I try to push myself up, but my hands sink lower.

I think I’m in snow.

I spit out what tastes like ice. Yes! It’s snow. I roll over so I am finally looking up. There is blue sky everywhere. And I am definitely in a pile of snow. Snow! Beautiful, crisp white snow! How I’ve missed you!

Wait. What fairy tale takes place in the snow? Let’s see. Well,
The Little Match Girl
takes place in the winter….

WAIT.

Oh! My! Goodness!

Snow! So much snow!

We’re in
Frozen
! We’re in my favorite movie!

I’ve watched it about eight hundred times. I know all the songs by heart!

“I guess we’re not in
Jack and the Beanstalk
,” Jonah says, shaking white flakes out of his hair.

“Nope,” I say with a laugh. “We’re in —”

“Frozen!”
I shout just as Jonah calls out,
“The Snow Queen!”

“Huh?” Jonah asks. “Didn’t you tell me
Frozen
was based on a fairy tale called
The Snow Queen
?”

My cheeks heat up despite the cold. He’s right. Of course he’s right. The movie
Frozen
is based on the story of
The Snow Queen
, which was written by Hans Christian Andersen. I can’t believe I thought we were in the movie. Of course we’re in
The Snow Queen
. Maryrose always takes us into the original stories.

“Yes! I knew that,” I sputter. “I was just, um, testing you. We’re in
The Snow Queen
. Obviously.”

“Good,” Jonah says. “I only know the
Frozen
version, but at least you know the original. So we know what’s going to happen.”

My nana is an English professor at a university in Chicago. Before we moved to Smithville, she used to read us the original fairy tales all the time. I paid a lot more attention than Jonah did. Also, ever since we started going through the mirror, I’ve been rereading a lot of the tales on my own. I’ve read
The Snow Queen
. A few times. Not as many times as some of the others.

It’s broken up into seven stories, or chapters. It’s really long.

And parts of it are kind of confusing.

“It’s pretty here, huh?” Jonah asks.

“It definitely is,” I agree. We’re standing in the center of a flat, snowy field. It reminds me of a resort we went to last winter with our parents. They wanted us to try skiing.

Jonah loved it. I did not. I spent most of the time tripping over my skis as Jonah sailed down the mountain.

Anyway, the setting here looks a lot like that. Except without the chairlifts. Or skiers. Or people at all. It’s just snow-covered mountains, pine trees, and blue sky as far as the eye can see. No houses or cabins in sight. I take a deep breath. The air is crisp, fresh, and cold, but the sun feels warm against my face.

Jonah examines his bare and now slightly red-with-cold hands. “Do you think our fingers will fall off?”

I bend my thumb back and forth. I wish I’d slept in mittens.

“Maybe,” I say. Then I wiggle my toes inside my socks. Good thing I’m wearing two pairs. At least the snow is soft and powdery and not soaking into my feet. Not yet.

“I wish we’d put on shoes,” I say. “Or better yet,
boots
.”

“I’m wearing slippers,” Jonah points out.

“Lucky,” I say, looking down. His slippers are warm and fake-fur-lined. He got them for Hanukkah. I wish I had a pair.

Like me, Jonah also has on a fleece sweatshirt over his cozy charcoal-gray pj’s. His sweatshirt has a hood. I reach up to adjust my striped knit hat. Suddenly, I’m glad our house in Smithville has heating problems.

Wait a sec …

Is it possible that Maryrose caused the recent heating problems? So that Jonah and I would sleep in really warm clothes and be better prepared to visit this story? Hmmm.

Jonah reaches out his ungloved hand and pulls me to my feet.

“We can’t stay long,” I warn, standing up and brushing ice chips off my flannel pajama bottoms. “Let’s just get Prince and find our way back to the basement before Mom and Dad wake up. We have no idea what time it is at home.”

“It’s twelve-oh-one at home,” Jonah says, holding up his wrist. “I’m wearing my Spider-Man watch.”

“Oh! Right! Good. We’ll wait and see how the time passes here.” Sometimes a day in a fairy tale is an hour at home. Sometimes an hour in a fairy tale is an hour at home. The watches we wear from home keep track of the time back there.

Whenever we go through the mirror, we’re always desperate to get back before seven
A.M
., when our parents come into our rooms to wake us up.

“It’s pretty bright here now,” Jonah says, blinking. “Maybe it’s the middle of the day? Around noon?”

“Feels like that,” I say. “We want to be out of here before it gets dark.” Without the sun, we’d definitely turn into icicles.

“Look at all the snow!” Jonah cries out, scooping both arms full of it. “I miss snow!”

“Me too,” I admit.

“It’s like Naperville but even better! Let’s build a snow fort!” he exclaims, crouching down.

“Jonah, I just told you we’re in a rush. We have to find Prince, and we have to find the portal home.” The portal home can be anything. A chimney. A window. A mirror. And we never know what it is until we knock on it. “No snow forts. At least, not until we find Prince and the portal home.”

“What about a snowman?”

“Jonah, we are not making a snowman!”

“Hey! It’s like I’m Anna and you’re Elsa,” he teases. “You’re refusing to build a snowman with me!”

I smile. “You know we’re not going to meet Elsa or Anna, right?”

His face falls. “What? How come?”

“They weren’t in the original story.”

He pouts. “What about Olaf? Kristoff?”

“No and no.”

“Is there even a snow queen?” he asks with a sigh.

“Of course there’s a snow queen,” I say, struggling to remember everything. “That’s the name of the story. But she’s much, much different from what you’d expect. She’s evil and scary.”

His eyes light up. “Really?” Jonah loves the evil and scary parts of stories.

I nod.

“Can you tell me the original story?” Jonah asks.

I rub my hands together to warm them. “Let’s look for Prince while I tell you.” Suddenly, I have a sinking feeling in my stomach. “Jonah, what if Prince isn’t in this story?”

“Huh?”

“We didn’t go through the mirror at the same time he did. He could be in a totally different fairy tale from ours. Like
Beauty and the Beast
! Or
The Princess and the Pea
!” I swallow hard. Prince could be taking a snooze on a hundred mattresses while we’re trekking through mountains of snow to find him.

“No, he’s here,” Jonah says, his voice confident.

“And how do you know that?”

“Because those are his paw prints.”

Jonah points up ahead in the snow. I see the small paw print — a circle with four smaller circles on top of it. It looks like the outline of a flower. There’s not just one paw print, either. There’s a whole line of them leading through the field and toward one of the mountains.

Yay!

“Prince
is
here!” I say, relieved. At least we are not on a fairy tale wild-goose chase. “Let’s go,” I add, tugging Jonah’s arm. Then I stop when I realize another potential problem. “How do we know for sure that those are Prince’s paw prints and not, say, a wolf’s, or something?”

Jonah’s eyes light up again. “Like the wolf from
Little Red Riding Hood
? You think he’s here, too?”

That’s another one of Jonah’s favorite stories. Jonah only likes — and remembers — the ones where people get eaten or lose toes.

“No, Jonah, I don’t think the wolf from
Little Red Riding Hood
is here. Have you noticed the piles of snow?”

“Yeah, but couldn’t there be another fairy tale that takes place in the winter? It’s not always summer in Little Red Riding Hood’s forest, is it? It must snow there sometimes, too.”

Oh. Right. “Good point,” I sigh. Jonah’s making
a lot
of good points. “So we might not even be in
The Snow Queen
?” I groan.

“Maybe not.”

“I guess we’ll find out soon enough.” I motion for my brother to follow me. My foot sinks into the snow with every step. My socks are starting to get slightly wet. Great.

I hear Jonah’s slippers crunch the snow beside me. “In case we are in
The Snow Queen
,” he says, “why don’t you just tell me the story like you were going to?”

“Fine,” I say. “But it’s really long. And kind of strange. I’ll try and give you the short version. There are two kids, Kai and Gerda. They’re neighbors and best friends, and Gerda’s grandma takes care of them. But then one day, Kai disappears. Everyone says he died, but Gerda doesn’t believe it. She thinks that the Snow Queen came and put Kai under her spell. And she’s right! The Snow Queen numbed Kai all the way to his heart with her freezing powers! Gerda decides she’s going to find him. So she goes on a search. She meets all these weird people along the way. At one point, a band of robbers grabs her!”

“A band?” Jonah interrupts. “Like a singing group?”

“No. A band, like a bunch of people.”

“Then why is it called a band?”

“I don’t know,” I say. “It just is.”

“Are you sure they don’t sing?”

“Yes,” I say, trudging over a mound of snow. “I’m sure. They’re not that kind of band.”

At the word
band
, Jonah poses like he’s playing a guitar.

“I said they’re
not
that kind of band.”

“I know. But it’s a fun pose.”

I slip on a patch of ice and fall on my behind. Ouch. I push myself back up and straighten my hat. “Can I go on with the story now?”

Jonah makes one more strum on his imaginary guitar. “Yes. Go on.”

As I talk, we continue following the paw prints through the snowy field.

“In the band of robbers, there’s a little robber girl. And this girl lets Gerda escape. And she lends her a reindeer.”

“Sven!”

“Not Sven. Just a reindeer.” I step around another circle of ice.

“Still. I have always wanted to see a reindeer.” Jonah tries to run up a steep snowbank as we talk.

“Careful, Jonah,” I say. “Well, we might see a reindeer, depending on where we are in the story. If we’re even in
The Snow Queen
. Anyway. The little robber girl helps Gerda escape. Gerda finally makes her way over to the Snow Queen’s ice castle. She sees Kai. He is definitely under the Snow Queen’s spell. She hugs him and cries, and her tears and then his tears melt the spell and unfreeze him. He snaps out of his trance and follows her home.”

Jonah bends down to scoop up some snow and lets it fall from his hand. “What happens to the Snow Queen?”

I shrug. “Nothing. She’s not there.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. She’s away at the end of the story. Traveling or something.”

“Convenient,” Jonah says.

“Seriously,” I agree. We’ve reached the foot of a mountain. The paw prints go up and behind one of the trees. We follow them. I hope he didn’t climb too high.

“Well, the story wasn’t
that
complicated. Or long.”

“There’s a bunch of other stuff that doesn’t make sense,” I explain. “Like, there’s a troll.”

“A troll? A nice troll?”

“No. He breaks a mirror, and the broken pieces fly into people’s eyes and hearts and harden and freeze them.”

Jonah furrows his eyebrows. “I thought the Snow Queen froze people’s hearts.”

“Yeah. That’s the confusing part. I don’t know. Just stay away from broken mirrors, ’kay?”

He nods. “ ’Kay.”

I feel something wet and cold land on my nose.

I look up. Snowflakes. A million of them, coming down hard. It’s snowing.

“Pretty!” Jonah says. “It’s like we’re in a snow globe!”

They
are
kind of pretty. They look like confetti. “We should keep going,” I say. Except, when I look down, I realize the problem with the pretty snowflakes. “Oh, no! The paw prints are being buried in the snow! I can’t tell which way Prince went!”

“Shhh!”

“Don’t shush me, Jonah, this is a real problem!” Now that we’re walking up the mountain and between the trees, I can’t feel the sunlight, and my cheeks are starting to freeze.

“Did you hear that?” Jonah whispers.

“Hear what?”

Then I hear it.

Ruff!

“Prince!” I holler as a bunch of snowflakes fall on my eyelashes. “Is that you? Prince, where are you?”

Ruff, ruff, ruff!

Prince! It’s him!

Ruff, ruff!

I roll my eyes as I realize where the barks are coming from.