The Snow Nymph Within

I shouldn't be alive, I should be dead. No, that's not quite right. I'm not that type of person. Here let me rephrase it. I should have never existed. Yep, that's the correct term. I should not exist. Yet here I am sitting in a library and typing my life story out for you. Though it's going to be incredibly dreary, I'm sure. So I don't blame you if you want to stop reading. Seriously put this document, or whatever it is, down and go outside and play in the sun or do whatever kids do these days. I'm not one anymore, more of a young adult.

Let's start with the basics, shall we?

My name is Eira Eddington.

I know I know same letter name, ha ha, very funny. My parents thought so too and called their unfortunate child that. I hate it though. I think I might change my last name to Smith. Eira Smith has a nice ring to it, don't ya think?

Anyway I'm getting off topic again, I tend to do that a lot, so excuse it as my normal behavior. Short attention span you see? One moment I'll be in deep concentration the next, oh my gosh, it's a squirrel! God knows how I managed to focus during my finals.

I am a 18 year old college student. First year actually, and I'm loving it! I took a course in Classical Civilisation and one is Sociology, the latter is very interesting and is the one I enjoy the most, A+'s here I come!

I come from a relatively normal background. Two loving parents, a little sister and brother, with more sensible names than mine; they're called Lucy and Robert. Lucy is three years younger than me while Robert is in second grade, quite a big age gap. We have a dog called Millie and a cat called Dave, which is actually a girl. Do not ask about the cat! Apparently I looked at her when I was five and decided she was going to be called Dave, despite my parents' protests that she was a girl. But besides this and all the protest that aroused, the name stuck.

I come from a one-horse town in Iowa but moved to Minnesota for college. Would you believe there are only a few colleges in America that specialize in Greek mythology? Odd, right? I am doing so well there! Lots of friends and my grades are some of the highest the college has ever seen!

So everything sounds perfectly fine and I seem like this Miss Know-It-All. What could possibly of happened in my quaint life to upset me and burst my happy bubble?

A lot of stuff actually.

For example, I am ninety seven percent sure that I'm possessed or a poltergeist is following me everywhere.

Why do I think this?

Well ever since I can remember freaky things have been happened to me. Not just your normal freaky, real freaky things. We're talking off the freak scale here.

A fine example of this is whenever it snows here, in Minnesota, or in Iowa, or wherever I am, then I blank out. When I try to remember what happened I can't remember anything! All I remember is these massive ice statues appearing out of nowhere.

Also, according to my mother, I can make something grow colder and colder to the point where it feels like it's burning. I don't take this last one to be true, though my mother does have a permanent scar from where something, or someone, burned her when I was little. She persists to say it was I. I choose to say she's loosing her marbles. I mean all I did was hold her hand while we were walking in the snow! How can a small child burn its own mother with nothing around to burn her with?!

Hence I feel I'm possessed or something, it just makes no logical sense!

My father is the same.

He apparently does weird, unexplainable stuff. He detests fire, completely hates it. He won't go near it and puts it out with water when one is burning away in an open grate.

What's his problem, seriously?!

I mean I don't like warmth too much either but at least I don't go along and flipping put out a fire due to my problem with them! Does he have like a fire phobia or something?

I tried asking him once. He just sort of grunted and stared at me. He does that a lot the moment I mention snow or ice. He stares at me long and hard, like he is looking for something seeping behind my cold, blue eyes. He never finds anything. He just says to me "Don't let it out, keep it hidden. The minute they know that you know, they'll be after you." and I'm like 'What the fuck dad? What on earth are you talking about?!" Dad just then simply smiles at me and wanders off. I wish he would tell me what he meant by it all!

Anyway onto lighter subjects.

I am currently single so if there are any incredibly hot guys out there that love Greek mythology then you know where I'm at. There is this cute guy in my Classical civilisation class, he's called Cedric. He reminds me a lot of Cedric Diggory, you know from Harry Potter? God those books were good! The films were okay but nothing that the books could capture. I cried when Cedric died I really did. Robert Pattison was amazing at playing him, and then Twilight happened... What happened Rob?! Enough rambling, Cedric is really cute and quiet. He just sort of watches me and observes what I do. I find that creepy, yet somehow adorable. Like he would take interest in me! Me! A puny girl from Iowa with a poltergeist haunting her, can't get anymore crazy right?

Wrong.

It was Christmas time and I was on my way home from college, heading to New York to stay with my two aunts; who were both terribly dull. However, I loved them so and that little apartment on fifty-seventh street. I had been travelling through the countryside for hours now, and don't get me wrong I love countryside! It just gets a bit boring when you've been driving through it for hours.

My jeep made healthy little engine noises as we travelled along.

It trudged bravely through the gathering snow on the ground as it fell hard.

It had previously been my father's but he had decided that I could have it when he got his new car. So the jeep was mine, my baby.

It was dark outside and I had my headlights on so that I could see. I never really liked the dark so I turned on the radio to distract myself. Counting Stars by One Republic had come on the radio and I hummed along, tapping the beat of the song on my stirring wheel.

I failed to notice the rustling in the bushes or the oversized bird in the trees. Only when something landed on my hood with a loud bang that I stopped the car. "What the heck was that?!" I thought aloud and abruptly stopped the car, turning off the radio. I sat in silence, listening to see if the thing was still on the hood of my jeep.

It was.

There was snuffling sound, like it was trying to smell out something. Little noises were being made was my heart was pounding in fear. Whatever it was it was certain big. I kept listening for the sounds and shaking from fear. I let out a scream when I heard a bang, my hands automatically flying over my mouth.

Too late.

It heard me.

There was an unbearable silence for a few seconds, which seemed like an eternity. Then it pounced, roaring at me from the other side of the window screen. I screamed in pure terror and legged it out of that car the faster than you could say Bob's your uncle!

I had no idea where I was going, I just knew that I wanted to be as faraway from that thing as possible. I managed to get a good fifty feet between the monster and I before it let out a mighty roar and I screamed in return, letting it know where I was located.

Stupid of me really.

I heard the beat of wings above me and- Wait wings?! I did something I promised myself I wouldn't do.

I looked back.

I regret it as what I saw haunts my nightmares right until this day.

It was shriveled up being with wings and very long talons. It reminded me of something from Doctor Who, the Krillitane I believe they were called! They scared me shitless! This being was very similar to one of the Krillitane, yet it wasn't. Even scarier still I recognized it from one of my lectures on Greek Mythology. I gasped and my eyes widened. This was one of the fury trio! Yet how could that be possible it didn't exist! I shook that thought off and focused back on the task in hand, escaping that terror of a beast.

I kept running and running. Maybe if I could hide somewhere then I could be safe. A hill. A white pine tree. Why was it my instinct to go there? It was almost like I was being guided.

I was tired.

I wanted to rest.

I wanted to stop.

Then a voice spoke to me, well it seemed like it at the time. I think it was just my adrenaline and subconscious kicking in. The voice was gentle yet had a firm, proud tone to it.

A few more steps, keep going. Just get over this hill.

So tired. Let me sleep. I protested back and began to slacken my pace. I was not built for running and moaned. I should have gone to the gym and not watched Disney films all day as a kid.

NO KEEP GOING!

The voice was there again and it shouted at me this time. I winced at the volume of the voice that ordered me to keep on going. But nevertheless I did as I was told, trusting the mysterious voice for no reason at all!

I passed the pine tree, finding new bounds of strength in my legs that I hadn't previously had before. I bound all the way down the hill, the shrills of anger of the beast still behind me.

That's it child! Keep running! To the farmhouse! They'll help you from there.

"They? Who the heck are they?!" I accidentally called out. Thank you poltergeist for saving my life, maybe you weren't so bad after all!

I saw the farmhouse.

I ran.

I thought I was going to make it.

I tripped.

I fell.

I thumped to the snow covered ground and landed head first in snow.

I tried to scramble up but the beast was already upon me. It leaned over me, jaws wide, letting out a screech of triumph in victory. I screamed, closed my eyes tightly shut, and the weirdest thing happened.
My hand whipped out and a freezing cold pain ran through my body. It was like somebody had turned on a switch that changed my entire body temperature, I was completely frozen. I felt every nerve, every bone, and every waking cell in my body come to life and I felt a blast erupt from my hand, while my other was resting in the snow. I cried out in pain, the cold consumed my fingers making them freeze.

I collapsed in the snow, praying to the God above us that I would somehow survive this.

Then the screeching was gone and I felt incredibly exhausted, like all my energy had been tapped from me in that tiny blast of whatever it was. I was curled up in a ball in the snow. I shivered from the cold feeling running up and down my body and half opened my eyes.

The thing vanished. Poof! Gone! Where there was once a Krillitane thing, now there was a small sprinkle of gold dust. What had I done? The question played on my mind, though I still felt it was the poltergeist's doing, not mine. I was so cold, my temperature was dropping rapidly. It had been warm in the car and I had foolishly left without grabbing my coat or scarf first. I could of laughed right then if I had the energy. My parents' foolishness was what brought me into this world and it was my foolishness that was going to kill their eldest daughter. Why was I given the Eddington foolish streak! I closed my eyes one last time, preparing to die, when that same voice from earlier spoke to me again in a soft manner.

Child, the farmhouse.

I just want to close my eyes and sleep…

No!

The voice had adopted that shout again and I winced, my poor brain was hurting me. My friendly little poltergeist seemed to realised it was hurting me with its shouting and returned to its soft tones.
Get to the farmhouse then you may rest, my dear. I promise everything will be all right if you get to the farmhouse. Now get moving. Please.

There was almost a sort of begging behind that last line that made me gather enough energy and crawl to the farmhouse. This poltergeist really wanted me to live, even though I knew I was going to die. I mean it wasn't even like anyone lived in that farmhou- Oh! I thought to myself as I turned the knob. It was open. So with that I scrambled inside away from the harsh cold.

"What the?"

"Belkon, no, she's come a very long way."

"I know Chiron but-"

I turned around to face the mysterious voices. What I saw on that winter's night in mid-December is something I will never erase from my mind no matter how hard I try. I saw a horse that was a man from the neck up and a half goat, half human thing. Oh God, Classical civilisation classes, why did I take them?! I knew what these creatures were. I remember the two staring straight at me. The horse man thing tried to approach me in a calm, civilised manner. "Welcome to Camp Half Blood."

I blinked and stared blankly at the two.

Then I started screaming and found the energy that I had previously lost, now that I was a bit warmer. I was running around screaming. "Get me out of this nightmare!" I yelled, it hurt my lungs to talk. "Centaurs and Satyrs aren't meant to exist! This is all nonsense. I mus-"

I abruptly stopped my sentence.

I gasped for breath and my eyes widened, I was panicking. I was about to have a fucking panic attack. My breathing was rapid and only increased as I put my hands to my throat, trying to breath. The pair looked at me worryingly and tried to help. I stumbled back and forth, trying to get my breathing rate back to normal. It was no use, I felt myself going, and soon enough I blanked out.

Notes