Chapter 7: "The Frost Plague"

Later that day at Krauxorth Academy, in Alchemy class, students were learning about the 4 main elements: Earth, water, fire and air.

They were doing an experiment while taking notes during the lecture.

When Hanna and Alison were doing their experiment together as partners, they sighed in relief, thinking that they didn't get caught for skipping class or sneaking into the school's secret room. Although, they were late for Alchemy class, only Professor Higginson gave them a warning and deducted 5 points on their overall grade in his class on their academic record for their tardiness, but the girls couldn't care less; as long as they promised they were best friends forever, they could accomplish anything. Even though Hanna was a little traumatized by what she saw in that secret room. 

'No wonder Violet said it was forbidden,' she thought to herself, 'Lucifer has an evil, dark past.'

As they were doing the experiment, they whispered to each other.

"Did you find anything interesting in the-- you know where?" Alison whispered first.

Hanna was hesitant at first, but after giving it a lot of thought, she whispered, "Yes, only it's a little...scary."

They decided to not think about the secret room and just remained focused on their assignment.

In their minds, they prayed that, hopefully, nobody would tattle on them.

Until...they spoke too soon.

Professor Higginson was teaching the class when suddenly, there was a voice coming from the intercom. It was Principal Aanenson and his voice sounded angry and unpleasant.

He said, with calm anger, "Excuse me, class, Princess Hanna Maeland and Princess Alison Olsen, please come to the principal's office, thank you."

The students jeered, "Ooohhh!"

Professor Higginson silenced the class and said calmly, "Princess Hanna and Alison, I will give you two passes for Principal Aanenson's office." He conjured up two hallway passes and gave them to the girls.

Hanna and Alison looked at each other, hearts beating fast and scared looks. They grabbed their belongings and with their backpacks hung on their backs, they held hands with their heads low, walking out of the classroom and heading to the principal's office, fearing their punishment.

As they were walking in the hallways, Alison asked Hanna, "Do you know who told us?"

Hanna shook her head. "I...have no idea."

Just as they were walking, they could hear silence in the hallways.

Once they reached Principal Aanenson's office, their hearts raced faster, their hands sweating and bodies shaking in fear.

When they went inside of his office, they were shocked when they saw their parents standing up, anger in their eyes, arms folded, tension rising up.

Hanna and Alison gulped hard, fearing that their punishment is going to be worse than they thought.

**********

Hanna sat in a chair, following after Alison, sitting in a chair, quietly as Principal Aanenson was angrily staring at them with a disappointed frown.

Hanna could feel her adoptive mother's disappointed frown upon her face and truthfully, she deserved it.

Principal Aanenson spoke first, disrupting the silence. He said vigorously, "Miss Princess Hanna Maeland, why were you and Miss Alison Olsen skipping class and sneaking up to the 4th floor on top of Krauxorth Academy's library, in the secret room?"

Hanna was quiet as a mouse, too nervous to speak. She stuttered, "W-w-well, Alison and I...w-w-we thought if we went to the secret room, we could learn more about-"

Queen Patricia crossed her arms, staring coldly at her adoptive daughter, sensing that she was disappointing her.

"Princess Hanna Mirabel Maeland," she said crossly, "What were you thinking about skipping class to even...investigate?"

Hanna finished, "-We wanted to learn more about Prince Lucifer, the Prince of Darkness and his long-lost brother, Prince Johan, the Prince of Light."

Stunned, Principal Aanenson gasped in shock. He never knew one of his first-year students would sneak up to the top 4th floor and learn about the two magical deities in all of magic history.

He cleaned his monocle and cleared his throat. "Well," he said, "I highly commend that you two are such brave and fearless girls, but that doesn't change the fact that you violated the rules of the Krauxorth Code of Honor and skipped class."

Hanna asked, hesitantly, "So, does that mean we're gonna be punished?"

Principal Aanenson sighed. He didn't want to punish his new students, but he had no choice.

He cleared his throat and said, with a solemn look, "Well, since this is your first year at Krauxorth Academy, I'm going to give you two girls only a lunch detention for 1 week."

He waved his finger and conjured up two pink slips, a pen and wrote them down.

Hanna and Alison nodded in agreement, accepting their punishment.

As their parents left, Alison looked at hers. Her mother and father, Queen Lily and King James of Valhalla, had given their daughter the cold shoulder, as if she was given a slap on the face. Alison flinched in fear, her blue eyes stinging like bees.

'They're angry with me,' she thought. 'They're gonna find out...sooner or later.'

Alison was thinking all kinds of worse case scenarios: being disowned from the castle, becoming exiled from the kingdom, not hanging out with her friends, especially Violet. 

Alison gasped in fear, thinking about her biggest secret: being a lesbian, afraid of coming out to her parents, revealing that she wants to date Violet.

Her thoughts were like a train, running and choo-choos, the cruel remarks she would receive from them, the inability to accept her as a new person.

This made her stomach churn, like soft butter.

What darkened her heart the most was that she couldn't hide the fact that she hated, which was the hurtful thought that her parents were...homophobic!

She could hear their words in her mind, criticizing her decisions.

'You're worthless,' she imagined Queen Lily's harsh words, 'You're too young to date girls.'

Her father chimed in. 'You're only 14 years old! Chase after your education, not love!'

Hurt and angry, Alison shuts her eyes and without thinking, she quickly bolts out of the principal's office, with guilty tears streaming down on her rosy cheeks.

Hanna quickly turns to her friend, leaving so soon, sensing that something's bothering her. "Alison, wait!" She waves Principal Aanenson goodbye before chasing after her.

In the hallway, Alison ran away, her feet trying to catch up to her, her heart beating faster per hour, sweat flooding from her forehead.

Angry tears started to flow; she couldn't get her parents' voices out her mind, criticizing, hurtful, and furious voices.

She kept hearing them, her anger rising.

"Lesbian!" Lily yelled.

"Failure!" James said.

"Whore!" Lily said.

The word, "whore", was the most horrible, most hurtful, most evil word she couldn't eradicate from her mind.

Alison covered her ears with her hands, trying to block the voices. When she saw the girls' bathroom, she hurried inside, locked the door and went to the bathroom sink, and splashed some cold water on her face. 

Once the cold water splashed on her face, she looked at her reflection in front of the mirror.

She could imagine Bella's voice in her mind: "Whore, whore, whore!" Bella echoed.

Clenching her jaw, fists shaking, Alison's self-worth felt like it was shattering into a million pieces of glass.

Alison bursted out hurtful tears, crying with sincerity, longing for acceptance.

Crying and sobbing, Alison walks inside of a bathroom stall, sits on the toilet, hugs her knees and cries until her heart's content.

*******

Meanwhile, in the hallway, Hanna was worried, frantically looking for her best friend.

"Alison?" she called out, worriedly. "Alison, where are you?"

Hanna began to fret. 'Poor Alison,' she thought. 'She must've been so scared.'

As she continued wandering around, she noticed that it was quiet, actually too quiet around the school.

She thought to herself, 'Something's not right; why is it so unusually quiet than usual?'

Hanna quietly walked around the school, looking for Alison frantically. Then, she felt something chilling in the air.

In fact, she sensed a swift coldness spiraling around the hallways. It was odd, no windows or doors were open.

She shivered furiously, her body shaking and numb. 

She thought to herself, "W-w-why is it so cold?'

As she continued walking, she saw a gust of wind coming from out of nowhere and was heading towards the girls' bathroom.

She also saw a trail of snowflake shaped flowers and magical white flowers with ice shaped needles and thorns.

Confused, Hanna decided to follow the trail, hoping it would lead her to Alison.

'What is this?' She thought to herself, picking up the snowflake flower and twirling it in her hand. She looked closely at the flower until it magically disappeared into snow flurries.

Curious, Hanna continues to follow the trail of "magic flowers", until she reaches the girls' bathroom. On the other side, she listened closely to Alison, who was crying. 

Hanna knocked on the door. "Alison," she said softly, "Are you ok?"

No answer. 

Hanna knocked again.

Still no answer.

Inside the girls' bathroom, Alison was still crying and sobbing, which broke Hanna's heart. She didn't want her best friend to be sad.

"Leave me alone Hanna," Alison said between sobs. "I don't want to talk."

Hanna didn't stir or instigate. She sat down on the floor, reached in her pocket and pulled out her fidget toy, a small pocket-sized teddy bear and gave it a hug, which was part of her tactile stimming. 

She stims and stims, constantly engaged by hugging her teddy bear tightly.

She began to say, "Alison, what's wrong?" She asked, kindly. 

Alison still didn't answer, but she was too angry to speak.

She stopped crying, but was now whimpering and sniffling.

Hanna waited for Alison to answer.

10 minutes later, Alison finally said, "You can come in now, Hanna."

As the door unlocked, Hanna stood up, opened the door and walked inside of the girls' bathroom.

*********

In the bathroom, Alison's blue eyes turned dark black, like a porcelain doll's eyes, her back was turned, facing the wall. Her hands were shaking fiercely, her heart was pounding and Hanna saw with horror that the bathroom's floor was covered in ice. The entire bathroom was covered in magic ice; the walls were icy blue with those same white snowflake-shaped flowers from top to bottom, the sinks were covered with ice and needle-like flowers.

Snow flurries began to fall, like Christmas snow and Hanna was shivering. 'What's going on?' She thought to herself, feeling confused.

Just then, Hanna saw that Alison's hands began to bleed red, crimson blood, which frightened her. She tapped on her shoulder, which Alison jumped and turned to face her friend. 

The cold atmosphere was getting frosty and glassy; Alison's heart was cold and numb, bleeding heavily, which prompted her to cough and spit out blood.

Her eyes were dark black, bleeding black blood, her face was glassy and icy. 

Hanna saw that her best friend was weak and helpless. Alison began to levitate, her potent magic energy surrounding her. She began to speak coldly, "Hanna, do you love me? Do you think I'm a whore?"

Hanna, petrified, began to slowly take a few steps back as she said, "No, no Alison, you are not a whore."

Alison's eyes shone a magical bright blue glow, she pointed to Hanna's brooch, whimpering. She said, softly, "I want your brooch."

Hanna looked down at her brooch, realizing that Alison wants her magic.

She holds her brooch tightly, protecting it. "W-w-what? Why do you need my magic?"

Alison persistently said, "I want, I want... I WANT YOUR MAGIC!" She yelled.

Just then, the bathroom lights began to flicker on and off, the sinks began to spurt out water, flooding the floor, the ground began to shake underneath, almost like an earthquake.

Frightened, Hanna steps back against the wall, cornered. She saw with horror that her best friend...is in danger!

Alison cried out a demonic cry, charging after her best friend. She lifted her hands as magic ice began to form, knocking Hanna off and throwing her across the bathroom.

Hanna painfully gets up, feeling dumbfounded. Why was her best friend acting like this?

"Alison," she said. "What's wrong? Why are you angry?"

But, Alison wasn't listening; her negative energy was overpowering her, the magic getting stronger.

She kept attacking Hanna with magic as ice began to appear blocking Hanna's escape.

Using her brooch, Hanna quickly summoned the brooch, "Turn into a shield!"

With that, the Phoenix brooch magically shape shifted into a red, orange and yellow shield, giving her the chance to protect herself.

As Alison kept attacking her best friend, Hanna spotted an open window. A chance to escape!

Alison was no longer a human; she transformed into a periwinkle blue demon with blue, fleshy skin, dark black eyes, red horns on her head, sharp claws on her and sharp needle teeth with a long serpent-like tongue with a symbol of the Frost flower on her necklace. 

Hanna looked closer at the Frost flower, which had the same shape and form as the ones around the bathroom. 'What are these?' She thought curiously.

Then, Alison began to sob. The demon-like creature Alison sobbed on the floor, with her rocking back and forth, hugging her knees. She said, between sobs, "Nobody loves me; my parents think I'm a whore. My parents want me to chase after education and think about my future."

Hanna stood there, shocked, listening intently. Her heart broke. She had no idea that Alison was going through negative emotions.

She kneeled down to her friend's level, put her hand on her demon-like hand and consoled her. "Alison," Hanna said compassionately, "You're not a whore; you are a kind, smart, beautiful young lady. You need to face your fears and tell your parents about your true feelings about Violet."

The periwinkle demon Alison looked into her best friend's light hazelnut brown eyes. Tears flooded down from her cheeks, starting to cry again. 

Hanna's amulet began to glow; her kindness was like a warm blanket, enveloping Alison and her negative feelings.

When Hanna wrapped her arms around Alison, she felt a calm atmosphere melting her negative energy away.

Hanna's aura of compassion magically formed into a blue light shaped of a heart and blue streaks of light were emitting from her amulet and entering into Alison's necklace as the Frost flower dissipated into flower pollen. 

As the girls continued hugging, they decided to not let go, enjoying their quiet embrace. Just then, Alison reverted Lucifer's behavior and returned into her human self again, with adding a few scars on her arm, from the dark magic Lucifer placed on her.

Once everything was back to normal, the Frost flowers and Needle Ice flowers began to gradually disappear into white streaks of light as they flew out of the window. 

Hanna lets go of Alison's hug and puts a strand of her black hair behind her ear as she asks her, "Do you feel better now, Alison?"

Alison, who was feeling hazy, said, "Yeah, I'm fine."

Hanna grabbed her hand and helped her up from the bathroom floor and they gingerly walked out of the bathroom and into the hallways.

Once the school bell rang for 4th period class, which was Herbalism class, Alison was holding her chest, which was bleeding profusely. Her head was spinning like a top, sweat began to pour on her head, she was shaking fiercely and her mouth was dry like the desert as she was coughing like a horse.

Hanna was concerned about her friend's health and decided to escort her to the Healing room, as she sensed something wasn't quite right.

*******

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of town, the Frost flowers and the Needle Ice flowers spreaded across Alta, affecting the townspeople, causing them to become cold, negative and mean to each other; hand after hand, heart after heart, each flower was like an infectious disease, causing the entire populace to be cursed under it's cruel spell, making the others fatally sick. The Alta River was even corrupted with Lucifer's curse; causing the creek to turn a bluish-white color, making the fish die and the Viking ships stopped sailing, freezing time.

The sky turned dark gray, with snow flurries precipitating from gray clouds.

The morning sun was no longer shining its bright, rosy light. One of the townsfolk was coughing black blood, their eyes were black and hollow, their skins were turning pale and each had an emblem of either a Frost flower or Needle Ice etched on their jewelry or talisman.

The Frost Plague was spreading like wildfire across Alta and the rest of the 7 Norse kingdoms, with no sign of a cure. 

Even the witch doctors or nurses couldn't cure this magical disease with their magic. 

All hope was lost.

*********