Chapter 93: Mr Snowman

CASSIE'S POV

A freaking snow mountain!

How the hell did I go from a blazing, red-hot volcano to a bone-chilling snow mountain?

And the worst part — how am I supposed to find Damon here?

The cold chill ran through me, making me shiver. Thankfully, I was still wearing my jacket. I quickly pulled it tighter to my body. Not that it did anything to ease the cold. But it was better than nothing.

I moved through the blizzards of snow, looking around for any clue that would lead me to Damon.

After walking for miles, I was starting to lose feeling in my feet and hands. My eyes were heavy, and my nose was probably runny and turning pale now.

I was shivering, my teeth chattering slightly.

This is getting tougher than I thought it would. I don't know how long I can last in here. I need to find Damon quickly before I freeze to death.

"Damon!" I yelled out into the air.

The howling blizzard swallowed the echo of my voice. It was barely heard.

"Damon! Where are you?!" I tried calling to him again, but it got me nowhere.

I hated the cold. I've always hated it, ever since I was a little girl. Winter was my least favorite season, and I hated whenever my Mom moved us to a town where the sun was rare to find.

And now I was risking it all for a guy I just met a few months ago.

I was risking it all for all of them. It seems they have me wrapped around their little fingers now.

I gave up the search and decided to rest a little. My bones were starting to feel like jelly.

And just when I was about to lie down, I heard a growl that definitely didn't come from me.

Uh-uh. What now?

My eyes snapped sharp again, and some energy came back to life inside me. For some reason, I felt a strange warmth growing within my body.

Where's all this heat suddenly coming from?

I thought to myself.

I stood up straight and decided to trace where the growling was coming from.

I hope I don't get eaten by mountain wolves though.

What am I saying? I'm inside a person's mind. I can't actually get hurt.

Can I?

I followed the sound until I reached the source.

Ohhh, for the love of God!

Is that a snowman?

My eyes widened as I took in the scene before me.

An enormous snowman was trying to break through a snow cave wall, and on the other side of that wall was what very much looked like Damon to me.

I have to help Damon quickly before that snowman gets to him and possibly squashes him into tiny bits.

Okay. All I have to do in a situation like this is create a distraction.

I scrambled around, packing snow into my hands and molding it into solid balls, enough to throw at Monster Olaf.

I ran to the opposite side, made sure I was well hidden, then started throwing snowballs at the snowman one after the other.

The snowman roared. Yeah, it was probably pissed now.

It turned its head and marched in my direction.

Quickly, I escaped to the opposite side.

Once it was out of the way, I ran toward the cave where I saw Damon, glancing back to check if the monster had noticed me, and ended up colliding with who I prayed was Damon instead.

"Cassie???" Damon looked completely shocked to see me.

"Ugh... hi," I groaned inwardly as I tried to get up from the ground.

"You came back for me!" I was suddenly picked up from the ground and swung around.

"Whoa... okay. Are you that excited to see me or what?" I tried to tease him.

"Are you kidding? This is like the happiest moment of my life. I didn't think you'd come back after what you saw last time," he said, finally letting me go.

"Well... don't worry. We'll have more than enough time to celebrate after we get you out of here. Like, fast. I might not have much time left to stay here."

"Okay. But I'm not really sure how I can get out of here, though. I've been trying to escape since those monsters dragged me down here. Using my own ice powers against me," he said, shaking his head.

"And that's why I'm here. To help guide you out, or something," I said to him.

"Okay then, Guide. How do I get out of here?" Damon asked, looking hopefully at me.

"First, we check for the most dangerous spots we can find on this mountain," I said. And when Damon gave me a questioning look, I nodded at him encouragingly.

~

After checking a few spots that looked potentially dangerous, there was no sign that any of them were the way out.

"We've been at this for a while now. Are you sure none of the places we passed were the potential escape door?" Damon asked, kicking his feet in the snow.

"No. If it was, we'd know it. I think. I don't know, it's just none of those places seemed life-threatening enough to me," I said, just as confused and fed up as he was.

"So you're saying the way out of this place has to be 100% life-threatening?" he asked me.

"Yeah. I think so."

"And how do you know that?" he asked me.

"Well, that's how I got Jake out of his trap," I muttered.

"Wait... you got Jake out first?" he asked, his voice suddenly lower.

"Yeah... I mean, it just came to my mind on the spot. I didn't really have time to pick who I wanted to save first or anything like that," I said quickly.

I didn't want him thinking I prioritized Jake over everyone else. Even though I kinda did.

He nodded quietly, but I noticed the slight change in his mood.

"So... do you have any more places in mind we can check? I really do need to get you out and get my mind back to my body," I said to him.

"We've already gone over half the dangerous places here. Though there are a few more left we could check," he said to me, and I nodded.

After taking a few more steps, a thought suddenly came to me.

"Hey, why don't we just skip all those places and go directly to the most dangerous thing on this mountain?" I said to him.

He looked at me, completely confused.

"Think about it... What's the one thing that's been life-threatening to you ever since you got in here?"

His lips twisted, and he groaned out loud, touching his temple. "Mr. fucking Snowman," he muttered.

"Exactly. And I have this feeling that if we find him, we might also find your way out of here too."

"Fine then. No matter how scary it might be, let's go find ourselves a snowman," Damon said, and I nodded at him.

~

It didn't take long before we caught up to the snowman. Its tracks were so huge and heavy on the ground that it made tracking it much, much easier for us.

"Okay... now what?" Damon asked me in a hushed whisper.

We were hidden right beside the snowman as it took its nap. A deep one, I hoped.

Like it wasn't crazy enough for a freaking magical snow creature to exist, now it took nap times too?

So bizarre.

"Are you asking me? We're in your mind, so you should know what move to take next," I whispered back to him.

"Aren't you supposed to be my guide?" he asked.

"Sure I am. But you still know and trust your mind better than I do. So you should be the one to make the final decision," I tried to explain.

"I don't know, Cassie..." He shook his head.

"Jake did it. He made the decision himself. I simply held his hand through it. So now it's your turn," I tried to encourage him.

That seemed to boost his spirit.

"Okay. I say we go closer to Mr. Snowman over there and see what he's made of," he said, and I nodded at him, giving him a nod and a smile.

He took the lead, and I followed.

Once we got closer, we noticed what looked like the entrance to a spiral ice slide hidden by the corner, close to where the snowman rested its gigantic legs.

Both our eyes met just as we realized the same thing.

An entrance. Which could also be a doorway!

That had to be the way out of this place. It had to be.