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The frozen lake cracked beneath his feet. Lucas halted, the silence around him shattered by the sudden sound. The icy expanse stretched out in all directions, a wide, lonely landscape beneath a pale winter sun. He looked down, watching as a network of thin fractures spidered outward from his boots. His breath puffed in clouds around his face, and his heartbeat thundered in his ears, amplifying the quiet menace beneath him. "Stay calm," he muttered to himself, his voice muffled by the scarf wrapped around his neck. He spread his arms for balance, hoping the gesture might somehow keep him aloft. The ice was old here, weathered by countless winters, but warmth had seeped through over the past few days. Lucas felt a trickle of dread slide down his spine as he took another step. Another crack followed, sharp and ominous, a reminder of the lake’s hidden depths. Why had he come out here? The answer floated up in the silence, bitter as the wind biting his cheeks. He had come because she told him she’d be here—he’d come for Rachel. He and Rachel had been inseparable once, their bond forged in long winter nights and summer days spent wandering these very shores. But that was a lifetime ago, or so it felt. Life had pulled them in different directions, yet something inside Lucas had never let go of those years. When he’d gotten her message, a text after nearly a decade of silence, he’d felt like he’d stumbled upon a piece of his past. The message was simple, strange: *Meet me at the lake. It’s time.* He hadn't been able to resist. He didn’t question the strange timing or the fact that she hadn’t reached out to him in so long. He’d barely slept before setting out in the early dawn, wrapped in layers against the cold. Now, though, he wondered if he should have listened to the nagging doubts. “Rachel!” he called out, his voice swallowed by the empty landscape. A shiver of unease pricked at him as he turned his head, scanning the shore. It seemed almost surreal that she could be here, out on the lake, waiting. But she wasn’t by the edge, and he couldn’t turn back now. Not with her name on his lips, an echo that rang between them after all these years. Slowly, he took another step forward, carefully shifting his weight as the cracks beneath him settled. The ice held, and he exhaled, steadying himself. The faint sound of a whisper drifted across the surface, carried by the wind. “Lucas…” He froze. That was her voice, he was sure of it, soft but unmistakable. He turned his head, squinting against the glare of the sun. His gaze locked on a small figure at the far side of the lake, wrapped in a dark coat, her hair fluttering in the breeze. She looked different than he remembered, older, her once-bright eyes shadowed. But it was her. His heart leapt as he started forward, carefully avoiding the widening cracks beneath him. “Rachel!” he called again, the thrill of seeing her face mixed with a strange unease. She didn’t move, watching him as he made his way across the ice. The distance between them shrank, and he saw her more clearly now, her expression calm, almost too calm, as if she’d been waiting for him for a very long time. “Lucas,” she said, her voice quiet, barely audible over the wind. “You came.” He stopped a few feet from her, taking in the sight of her as if she might disappear at any moment. “Of course I came. I… I’ve missed you.” His voice sounded hoarse, raw with emotion he hadn’t expected. Rachel’s gaze softened, but there was something guarded in her expression, something sad. She tilted her head, looking past him to the shore, then back at him, as if seeing something he couldn’t. “Do you remember the last time we were here?” she asked softly. Her words sent a shiver through him, as if she’d touched a hidden scar. He nodded. “How could I forget?” They’d been just seventeen, standing on this very lake, watching the first snow of the season fall around them. It had been one of those perfect, magical nights, the kind that seemed endless in memory. They’d laughed, throwing snow at each other, the world a soft blur around them. But something had happened that night, something he hadn’t let himself remember fully. She had slipped, he thought, her foot sliding on the ice. He’d reached out to catch her, and then… darkness, as if his mind refused to replay the rest. “It was the last time I saw you,” he murmured, the memory slipping away as quickly as it had come. Rachel nodded, her gaze drifting down to the ice beneath them. “I never left, Lucas. Not really.” Her words hung in the air, strange and heavy, tinged with a sorrow that clawed at him. She glanced up, her eyes shimmering with something like regret. “You never came back, though. I waited. Year after year. I waited.” The ice groaned beneath them, the cracks widening, and Lucas felt a wave of panic rise in him. “Rachel, we need to get off the ice. This isn’t safe.” But she shook her head, her expression solemn. “No, Lucas. It’s time to remember. You’ve spent so long running from it.” “Running from what?” he demanded, his voice rising in confusion. “Rachel, what are you talking about?” The lake’s surface shimmered, and for a moment, Lucas saw something beneath the ice, a shadow lurking in the depths. His heart pounded as fragments of memory swirled around him, pieces of that night coming together like shattered glass. The laughter. Her slipping on the ice. The crack. She hadn’t just slipped—she’d fallen through. He remembered the rush of panic, the freezing water as he’d plunged in after her, his arms reaching out, but she’d slipped deeper, vanishing into the dark, icy depths. He had tried to save her, but the lake had swallowed her whole. And afterward, he had buried that memory, fleeing the lake, unable to face the weight of his failure. His gaze met hers, horror and heartbreak mingling in his eyes. “Rachel… I… I couldn’t save you.” She nodded, her expression gentle, as if forgiving him. “I know. And you’ve carried that with you all these years. But now, Lucas, it’s time to let me go.” The ice beneath them groaned louder, cracks splitting and weaving across the surface like a vast web. Lucas felt the chill seep through his bones, but he forced himself to stand his ground, meeting her gaze one last time. “Goodbye, Rachel,” he whispered, his voice breaking. A soft smile touched her lips, and she began to fade, her form dissolving into the air like mist caught by the wind. The ice gave one last, shuddering crack, and suddenly, he was alone on the lake, the silence as deep as winter itself. The surface beneath him held steady, and Lucas let out a long, trembling breath. He turned, making his way back toward the shore. The weight on his heart felt lighter somehow, the memories no longer pressing down, but drifting away like snow. As he reached the shore and looked back, the lake lay quiet, still, and whole.

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The The Last Winter Beneath the Ice.

Tamara_Todd

Tamara Todd

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The Ice That Holds Us

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