The day had been beautiful, the perfect day for a picnic and watching a band from the grass. Now it was getting late, though not dark quite yet, and the bus was heading back to the city. You got all sort on busses like this, offered free by events to attract people out from the city. Martha was sitting next to her sister and father. It had been a very exciting day out and she was still squirming in her seat with unused energy.
Martha reached into her pocket and felt the peashooter she had bought with her allowance money. Her father hadn’t liked that idea; he had tried to dissuade her from the purchase, but it had been her money and she was allowed to spend it on whatever she wanted. Immediately her father had implemented a new house rule about shooting peas at people but Martha wasn’t very good at following rules. She whipped the peashooter from her pocket and aimed it at her sister before her sister could defend herself.
“Marthaaaaa!” her sister squealed. “Daddy, Martha is shooting me with her peashooter.
“Tattle tell,” Martha hissed.
“Martha, don’t shoot things at your sister. You were already told that if you did things like that the peashooter would be taken away.”
“Alright, alright,” grumbled Martha, sticking the peashooter back in her pocket before it could be confiscated. As soon as her father turned around she pulled it out again and reloaded it. Once again her sister was pelted; she screeched and ran up the aisle of the bus. Martha fired after her, disturbing all of the other people on the bus in the process. Finally a pea hit a man in the face and Martha froze.
“I’m sorry,” Martha said quickly while her sister gave her the, you’re going to get in trouble, face. The man stood up and advanced towards her slowly down the aisle of the buss. Martha looked up at him in horror; he was a monster, literally. He was encased, head to foot in ice. How he was able to move at all was a mystery to Martha, but somehow he could, though he was rather stiff and slow. She could see his face move under the ice even. At first she thought maybe it was only fake ice but she could hear the water dripping from him and feel the cold air that was released as the ice melted. Her father put a protective arm around her, his anger with her at having played with the peashooter forgotten, she shrank into his side. Still the man didn’t say anything, he just loomed over them.
“I’m very sorry my daughter hit you with her toy, I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again,” her father said. The man still didn’t say anything but he reached a hand out towards Martha and she could feel his icy fingers on her cheek, she drew back and the man smiled, it wasn’t a nice smile. Again his hand advanced and this time she didn’t let it touch her, instead she dodged it and ran up the aisle to join her sister towards the front of the bus.
“My daughter doesn’t seem to like you much but I assure you she is very sorry for hitting you,” Martha’s father tried again. The man in ice ignored him and turned to face Martha again, Martha shuddered as the man advanced in her direction.
“I really think you should leave my daughter alone, she won’t trouble you anymore,” Martha’s father said, putting a restraining hand on the man’s shoulder. By now everyone else on the bus was watching this show. Almost all of them seemed to be on Martha’s side, few people were willing to side with someone as unnatural as a human who was covered with ice and yet still moved.
To be continued...
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