The Ice Wolf's Prisoner

I stood to grab my jacket out of the closet, and then my mask followed. It was a black KN95, the most comfortable one I had that also provided the most protection. I slipped on my shoes and reached for my cane, and an icy clawed hand reached through my back.

I froze as my body lit up like fireworks had gone off within my veins, and shards of ice formed and melted in my chest; formed and melted. I grew dizzy as the icy claws flexed another burst of frigid shock through my body, this time shooting down to my stomach as the hand reached farther.

"This is ridiculous. I have to go to the store, why are you pestering me now?"

The clawed hand sent another icy shock as I squeezed my cane. 'Because it's not safe out there, you know it isn't. Stay here, where you don't have to worry.'

I sighed and turned around to see a blue clawed hand withdraw from my chest, and a beast covered in ice, dripping all over my carpet, stood in my small apartment living room. It was bipedal and hunched over like a werewolf, and its eyes were as white as winter's frost. It breathed the visible smoke of dry ice out into the air.

Fatigue washed over me as my stomach grew queasy and dropped. My intestines let their irritation be known. "You know, I know you want me to stay here with you," I said, "but you have to realize that I'm coming back. And you know, when you just invade my body like that, it hurts. You screw up everything and my illnesses flare."

The icy beast looked at me with sad eyes; small white pearls resting above a snout that puffed more dry ice fog into the air around its head. 'You'd leave for sure if I didn't take drastic measures,' it said sadly. 'Something is going to happen to you today, I just know it. I'm keeping you safe.'

"Making me ill and hurting me isn't keeping me safe, it's just making my life harder." A dizzy spell overwhelmed me and I turned to walk toward the balcony. "Can I at least step outside and get some fresh air?"

The icy beast nodded, and it followed me as I stepped out into the cold. I checked my phone as I leaned against the metal railing of my second floor balcony. Twelve degrees Fahrenheit. Feels like two.

'I like this,' it said. 'Maybe more deer will come to greet us from the woods like they did before.'

I shrugged and ignored the large beast as I watched the cars speed by. The road was a ways up the sidewalk and past the parking lot, and it was like experiencing two worlds at once. On the other side of me, there was nothing but a chain-link fence and trees; nature existing peacefully up until the trees were surrounded by stone and cement, and then farther still until they were mowed over to make room for pavement that served as the parking lot for a bank.

And then the sidewalk that stretched into the city. The path that led to everything I yearned to experience.

'Stop thinking too much,' the beast said with worry. 'You can't leave, you just can't.'

"Yes, I think I can," I said defiantly. I stood tall and turned to face the icy monster. "In fact, I think I will." I ignored its pleas as I stepped back into my apartment and headed for the door. I'd had enough. Anger bubbled inside me as I thought of all the time I'd spent indoors, trapped by a selfish parasite that wanted me all to itself. "I just have to pick up a couple of things and I'll be right back."

'No. You won't.'

I stopped and my eyes widened as the voice growled, and the icy claws reached into my body and grabbed my chest tighter than before. A second clawed hand held me in place as pulsing shocks of electric cold shot through my body, and I felt like I would faint. "But I have to."

'You're staying here,' a voice rumbled next to my ear. 'You are in danger. You will listen to me. I will not let you ignore me while your life is on the line.'

"What could possibly happen? I'm not going far."

The beast squeezed tighter as I tried to walk forward. The world spun.

'The worst accidents happen closest to home. Remember that time you...'

"But I ended up being fine." I slipped my jacket off, and the claws receded. My stomach gurgled and heartburn made my insides ache. The shock to my system always made me sick.

'But what if you had been alone, like today? No one would have been there to help you. To console you when you had to lie down or fall.'

"That was in the past," I said, annoyed. I moved into the kitchen to pick up an empty pizza box. "And I know why it happened. It's because you have no sense of personal space and you invaded my body, like you always do, trying to control me. You're so selfish, you know that?"

The beast remained silent and watched me as I grabbed an empty soda water box.

"Can I just take my trash to the trash room? It's down the hall is all."

The beast nodded hesitantly. 'I will follow, just in case you need a warning. Just in case I get another premonition.'

I took a deep breath, grabbed my cane, and opened my apartment door. A jolt rocked my body as I felt the cold, icy breath of the beast on my neck. It followed as my vision grew fuzzy from fatigue, and my body wanted nothing more than to sit down. My head was heavy and full of pressure, an effect of the presence of the beast that begged me to hurry.

'I like watching you play games and stuff,' it said calmly. 'We can't do that when you're not home. I can't do those things myself because I...'

I turned away from the trash room after dropping the boxes down the chute, and the creature stood staring at its hands in the middle of the hall. The lights seemed so dim, and I knew if I didn't get back soon I'd become more and more fatigued. "Because you..?"

It looked at me again. 'Because I melt all over anything warm. I freeze anything I touch. So I have to watch you, and I enjoy living through you. Would you be so cruel to me and rob me of that?'

I brushed past the ice wolf and leaned a little more on my cane until I reached my door, and then stepped inside. I dropped into my chair and angrily put in an order for grocery delivery. "There. Are you happy now? I'm exhausted because of you and I don't even feel like playing games anymore. So you didn't get what you wanted after all."

The beast smiled. 'Of course I did. I saved you from danger, like I do every time. That is enough for me, to keep you safe so we can continue to have fun here together.'

I sat back as the apartment grew darker. Night was approaching, and the ice wolf walked outside onto my balcony to take in the frigid air.

I was a prisoner. And I didn't know how to fight back against something that could send me crumbling to my knees with just one touch.

©2025 Shane Blackheart