Teens > Summer 2008 Teen Writing Contest
Summer 2008 Teen Writing Contest
Grades 6-8 Prose Winner: "Snow Angel" by Crystal LeFebvre
She loved making ice sculptures. The way she could just control the ice and sculpt beautiful things that looked so real just filled her with a sense of joy. When she couldn't control her life…when she couldn't get anybody to listen to her…she sculpted ice. It was the one thing that never changed in her life; there would always be ice and snow for her to sculpt and play with. The snow might melt, but it would come back as itself later on.
He loved watching her. The way her long, ebony black hair would cascade down past her shoulders, sparkling crystals of snow and ice tangled in the silken locks…The way her bright, emerald green eyes would shine with happiness as her slender hands glided over the gleaming ice, and the way her soft, pink lips would curl into a gentle smile as she worked…He loved it all.
And she knew he watched her. Every day, as she began to work, she knew that his amber eyes followed her every move. She had seen him only once, but she remembered what he looked like perfectly; his spiky, white hair dancing in the wind as he sat in the tree, perched like a cat, his pale skin matching the snow and ice she sculpted.
The girl smiled softly as she heard a soft rustling in the tree behind her.
Normally, she would have just put it off as wind in the leaves of the tree. However, there was just one problem with that theory; the tree was dead and had no leaves to speak of. No…she knew it was him.
She sighed and continued to scrape and chisel away the diamond like ice before her; putting the finishing touches on her current project.
~I wonder why he won't come down…why he only sits there and watches me…~
She thought, sliding her hand along one of the statue's finely crafted features with a loving touch.
“Ah!” There was a clang as the girl dropped her chisel and hammer she had been using. They fell to the ground as if in slow motion, a single drop of red following after to stain the perfect snow below.
She had accidentally cut the palm of her hand on the razor sharp ice, and now blood slowly seeped to the top of the long, shallow cut.
She winced and quickly removed her scarf from her neck, gently wrapping it around the cut with a shaking hand. Suddenly, there was a soft sound, as if a bird had lightly landed on the snow, and then he was beside her. She gasped as she looked up at him, but he ignored her; only took her hand and unwrapped the scarf. He discarded it to the side, the long, fluffy white scarf stained by a streak of crimson red flowing to the ground like a ribbon dropped from someone's hand. He gently took his other hand and dragged two fingers across the cut, pulling them away with warm, sticky blood coating the tips. He licked the blood off of his fingers, and the girl gasped as she saw fangs. He closed his eyes, then shook his head and opened his eyes. He quickly pulled out a long, ribbon-like bandage and wrapped it around her hand, tying a tight knot on the other side.
“You should be more careful…,” He murmured, and she nodded slowly.
“Umm…right…” As he knelt down and picked up her scarf, she looked down. “Umm…my name's Chizuru…,” She whispered softly as he slowly got to his feet.
“Chizuru…that's a pretty name…” She blushed lightly, and he handed her the scarf. She lifted her head up to say something more, her hair swirling like a waterfall of liquid night, only to see the young man walking around the large, secluded, walled in courtyard where she did her work. He moved with precision and a dark sort of grace as he walked around the courtyard, looking at all of her work. She slowly began to walk after him, finally catching up with him at a sculpture of an angel that looked somewhat like her.
“I…made that one…for my little sister…,” She whispered softly, and the young man looked down at her as she held her hands behind her back, her eyes lifted up to the angel's.
He stood there for a moment more, as if studying her, and as he did so, he saw a glint of sadness in the girl's eyes. He looked away for a moment, glancing back up to the angel.
“Your sister…is she…dead…?” He asked finally, and Chizuru nodded.
“Yeah…that's…why I made the angel…” He nodded slowly and closed his eyes. “Umm…Could I ask your name?” He nodded again, opening his eyes to look at the angel again.
“My name's Hakachi (me: Hah-kah-chee not Hah-kah-kee)...” She nodded and twirled a piece of her hair in her slender fingers, not sure what to say anymore.
As Hakachi looked down at her again, he noticed how the light hit the ice crystals and snow in her hair, sending rays of light out and making her look like a purer, more real form of the angel statue before him. Suddenly, as a ray of light hit the statue she had just finished, glancing off of the still-wet blood near the top, his attention was turned that way. He turned and began walking towards it, confusion in his eyes.
“Chizuru…what's this one…?” He asked softly, finally stopping in front of the statue.
“Oh…that's…” She paused and blushed as she came up behind him. “That's you,” She finally whispered and he nodded.
“I thought that's what it was…,” He mumbled, looking up at the statue.
It was indeed an ice sculpture of him. It was created in perfect detail, with him sitting on the branch of a tree whose other limbs seemed to be somewhere off the screen as the ice stopped in places. The wrinkles and details of his blue overcoat and black pants, and even the way his white undershirt was always half unbuttoned, as it was now; it was all perfect.
~I must have been so caught up in watching her…that I didn't see…what she was making…~
He thought, just as a sudden glitter of red caught his eye. He looked up and finally saw what Chizuru had cut her hand on. It was on a piece of his hair, sculpted as if it was dancing in the wind; exactly as it had been when she had first seen him.
He reached out and brushed the blood from the sculpture, a strange glint in his eyes. He inhaled deeply, a sweet, delicious scent tickling his nose. He moaned softly, but quickly shook his head and opened his eyes, noticing Chizuru staring at him with a confused look.
“Hakachi? Are you alright?” He nodded and closed his eyes again.
“Chizuru…you are a rare beauty here in this frozen northern paradise…,” He whispered softly, turning to her and opening his eyes. “You who can control and sculpt the ice into such beautiful and life like things as these...I doubt there is anything or anyone like you…,” He murmured, taking a step towards her. She looked up at him in confusion, then gasped as she was backed into a nearby statue. As she stood there, she found a small amount of courage and asked a question that she had been wondering for a while.
“Hakachi…you're not…a human, are you…?” She stated more than asked and he shook his head, walking forward until there was barely enough space between the two of them to drop a sliver of ice.
“No…I'm not.”
“Then…what are you?” He closed his eyes, as if in pain, and took a small step back.
“A vampire…,” He murmured.
“I thought they were just myths…” He scoffed softly and shook his head.
“No…we're real alright.” He looked up at her again, and his eyes widened slightly, his hair hanging like a curtain over one of them. She didn't look scared, or anything of the sort, only had a dreamy look in her eyes as she looked around at the ice sculptures she had created.
“It's funny really…,” She murmured, a sad smile gracing her lips. “I've always read the stories about vampires, but you don't look at all what they're supposed to look like, other than the fangs. In the stories, vampires have blue-gray skin, blood red eyes, and long, dark hair. You…you're different…” She looked up at the sky and sighed sadly. “I've actually always wondered what it would be like to be a vampire…What it would be like to live forever…be able to sculpt ice forever and never have to worry about the things I do now ever again…”
Suddenly, he was in front of her, once more with barely enough room to move, and he was leaning down towards her ear.
“Chizuru…immortality…is a curse, as well as the blessing you see it as…,” He murmured, his breath cold as the ice she sculpted, and a shiver ran down her spine. “Would you really want to give up your life as you know it, only to live forever, where you may never find another of your kind? Where you may never find love or companionship from a fellow vampire?” He asked softly, and she hung her head.
“My life…as I know it…is dead. My parents cared for my younger sister more than me, and I think that they may blame me for her death. I was, after all, supposed to be watching her when she drowned in the lake as we were ice-skating. And…I'm already alone as it is…,” She murmured softly, and then a hand with slight claws tilted her chin up. Another shiver ran down her spine as her emerald green eyes met with his alluring amber pools and she saw herself reflected in them.
~Is that how he sees me?~
She thought, seemingly unable to move for the spell his eyes had laid on her.
“How can you be alone…when you have me?” He asked softly and her eyes widened, her body trembling slightly. He leaned down towards her neck and inhaled deeply. “Chizuru…I've been alive for nearly three hundred years now…and I have never found anything or anyone who holds such an alluring charm over me as you do…I've been searching for other vampires, and yet, even out of the small number that I have found, none of them could compare to you. You confuse and entice me like no other could…” He sighed softly in content and inhaled once more. “If you wish…I can turn you…I can give you the immortality you desire…I would do anything for you…” Her eyes widened, then closed halfway.
“I…Please…,” She begged softly, looking up at him with a pleading gaze. He lifted his head up and nodded.
“It will hurt for a moment…,” He whispered, leaning down to her neck and moving her hair aside. His fangs elongated slightly, and he barely scraped them over the soft, vulnerable flesh of her neck, causing a shiver to run through her entire body. He closed his eyes and inhaled her sweet, enthralling scent once more before gently thrusting his canines into her neck, down into the main vein there.
She gasped and yelped softly in pain, then moaned and clutched at his shoulders as a delicious friction shook through her body from his fangs in her neck. It was like fire and ice spreading through her veins; a kind of high no drug could give to anybody. Her mind became clouded and her eyes tried to drag closed; even her body seemed to just grow heavy and light at the same time, as if she was floating and yet drowning in a river as it carried her down the stream…
Hakachi was enjoying a sort of high as well. He moaned softly as he ran his tongue along her neck, swallowing deeply as her blood flowed freely into his mouth; a waterfall of an addicting drug that gained strength with amount and time. The sweet, icy, and metallic taste clouded his own senses and what he was doing became a need to feed rather than a fulfillment of a request. He began to lose himself in her blood, drinking deeply, until he heard her soft whimper and plea for him to stop.
“Hakachi…please…stop…” He immediately pulled away, blood coating his lips and dripping from his fangs, the cloying taste still dancing on his tongue and toying with his senses.
Blood coated her neck as well, and her black dress and ebony black hair contrasted to the paleness of her skin now. He swore softly and wiped his lips, then tore open his own wrist with his fangs, holding it over her mouth as he gently opened it.
As his blood drained down into her throat, she moaned softly and began to swallow urgently, and he smirked.
~She seems to have a need for my bl0od, as I have for hers…It could be…She might just be…~
He thought as he pulled his wrist away and hurriedly wrapped it in bandages, then leaned back down and gently lapped up the remaining blood around her neck.
She shivered and whimpered softly in pleasure as his velvet tongue danced across her skin, and her nails—now claws—dug into his shoulders.
When he had finally washed away all the blood, he pulled away and looked down at her.
“Chizuru…please…I beg of you…Stay with me forever.” He closed his eyes and sighed softly. “Please…become my mate and never leave my side…” She looked up at him with loving eyes.
“What do I need to do to become your mate?” She asked softly and he looked at her with wide eyes, then a smile.
“A kiss and a vow should do it all…” She smiled slightly.
“Like a marriage?”
“Almost…However, this vow and the kiss can never be taken back…Once vampires choose a mate…it is for life; and our lives are eternal…” She nodded in understanding.
“So what sort of vows do we need to make?” He smirked slightly.
“What kind of vows would you think? Just listen to mine, and try to get one close to it.” She nodded and he closed his eyes, then opened them and stroked her cheek with a loving touch. “Upon the dead soul that lies within me, I make this unbreakable vow—the vow of mates—to you, Chizuru. I swear to always be true to you, no matter what, and I swear to protect you with every fiber of my being…,” He murmured, and she nodded, a soft smile on her face.
“Upon the dead soul that lies within me, I make this unbreakable vow—the vow of mates—to you, Hakachi. I promise to always love you, and to stay by your side for all eternity.” He smiled and leaned down so close that she could feel his cold breath on her lips.
“That was perfect, love…,” He murmured before gently pressing his lips to hers. She moaned softly in content, wrapping her arms around his neck, and he placed his hands on her waist, licking her bottom lip. She gladly parted her lips in acceptance and whimpered softly as his tongue explored her mouth, teasing hers and dancing with it.
As they pulled away a moment later, she laid her head on his chest, closing her eyes as he ran his fingers through her hair, lifting the silken locks sprinkled with ice up to his face and inhaling before letting them go and stroking them with a loving touch.
“My angel…My Snow Angel…,” He whispered softly, and she giggled.
“Is that what you're going to call me?” She asked and he chuckled, laying his head on hers.
“Why not? I think that only a Snow Angel could control and shape the ice and snow as you do…”
“Hmm…then I suppose you're right...” He smiled and she snuggled into his chest, a true, calming peace flowing over her like a gentle snow.
And indeed, it was snowing; a shower of beauty fit only for a Snow Angel who had finally found peace, and her lover, who had finally found her.
