His Own - Chapter 24：Freezing

“Hello? Is anyone there?” Rosalind called out into the darkness with only echoes to answer her. She shivered.

Where am I?

Nothing could be seen for miles, no matter the direction she walked towards; everything was just the same empty space.

She felt all alone and empty. Fear seized at her heart and gripped at soul as she kept walking and walking and walking and walk-

She halted in her steps, hardly able to take another step from the cold.

She’d been walking for what felt like hours without making progress. Panicking, she crouched into a ball on the ground, blowing into her palms to try and get some feeling back.

“This isn’t real. This isn’t real. Thisisntreal. Thisisntrealthisisntrealthisisntrealthisisntrealthisisnt-”

“Rosalind?”

Quickly looking up, Rosalind saw Adriel standing there with a very confused expression on his face. She couldn’t even stand up anymore.

He made his way to her, taking her into his arms. “What are you doing here? Are you ok? You’re freezing.”

He inspected her, trying to make sure she wasn’t hurt anywhere. Convinced that she wasn’t physically hurt, he relaxed. Taking off his coat, he wrapped it around her.

“Adriel, where are we?” Rosalind pulled the coat closer to her shivering body, darkness still surrounding them.

“This . . . is somewhere you shouldn’t be. You shouldn’t have been able to come here either.” He sat beside her, thinking. “How did you get here?”

“I don’t know.” No matter how much she pulled the coat to her body, she couldn’t feel any warmth.

“Adriel.” Her voice quivered as puffs of steam came out of her mouth every time she spoke. “I-It’s so c-cold.”

“Come here.” He pulled her trembling body closer to him. “You really, really shouldn’t be here.”

Rosalind pressed her body closer to him, desperately trying to get some of the heat that radiated off of him to her.

Her lips cracked while her blackened hands became stiff with the cold. Adriel took her hands in his own, rubbing them as he tried to warm her up.

“A-Adriel. T-Titus?”

“In this situation, the one who is in danger is you . . . But, don’t worry. Titus isn’t here. So shouldn’t you be.”

“That’s great.”

Her eyelashes had little wisps of white on it, clouding her vision as her body temperature continued to drop.

Feeling a pull, Adriel’s eyes widened when he saw that he was back at the camp. It was still very early in the morning so it was still dark outside.

Ralph’s face was the first thing he saw, holding a lantern, before bolting out the tent to Titus’s one. Ralph followed, the face Adena made unsettled him too much to just let it be.

Bursting into the tent, Adena ran into Titus, who looked as disheveled as he was. They both exchanged knowing looks then made their way to Rosalind.

She slept on his makeshift bed of carton boxes and clothes; coats were used as pillow but this time, Rosalind was buried under as much coat and clothes as Titus could get his hands on.

“She’s freezing. I don’t know what else to do. She wouldn’t even wake up or respond to me.” Titus stared at Adena. “Why is this happening?”

“Even I need to figure that out but right now, we need to do what we can for Rosalind. Ok?”

“What can I do to help?” Ralph piped in.

“Aren’t you busy?” Titus stared him down, unintentionally scaring him.

But Ralph still stood firm, with quivering words he said, “Louis and Vincent are with the other doctors and nurses. My shift had just ended but I can’t rest. So please, let me help.”

Adena smiled a little at him. “Ok. See what you can do about her decreasing body temperature. I need to go do something else.”

“Ok.” He walked to Rosalind and touched her face. “Holy sh*t! Why is she so cold? Ok. It’s ok. No need to panic.”

“Ralph.” Adena called from the entrance of the tent.

“Yes?”

“Why?”

Titus glared at him. “That’s not important for you to know. Promise or not.”

He looked at Rosalind’s body as she slowly lost her colour.

“If it’s for Rosalind. Sure. You don’t have to tell me either. Now . . . the best course of action would be to use body heat to transfer . . . we’ll, heat.”

He looked at Titus and smiled sheepishly.

“So?”

He coughed. “Well . . . You may have to remove your shirt and . . . hold, Rosalind. The coats can only keep a person warm, not make them warm. If there’s no heat to trap, it’s pointless.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Titus took off his coat and climbed on the ‘bed’ with Rosalind. Picking her limp body in his arms, he flinched as he laid her on him.

“Hurry up. She’s like ice.” Titus hissed as Ralph covered them in more coats and ran out to make fire so that he could get hot water for her. He rubbed her arms to try and bring heat to her body.

Titus locked eyes with Adena, exchanging a silent conversation between the both of them, and with a nod Adena disappeared in a cloud of colourful smoke.