Thin Ice Novels & Stories

I just kept moving, trying to outrun the hurt. My feet took me to the hockey arena without thinking. The building looked empty and silent in the late evening. No crowds, no lights on full blast. I found a side door that was somehow unlocked. Maybe the team left it open after practice. I slipped inside. The place felt huge and hollow. My footsteps echoed as I walked out onto the ice. The cold seeped through my shoes right away, but I didn’t care. I sat down right in the middle of the rink. The ice bit through my pants. Tears fell freely now. I hugged my knees, letting it all out. Quiet sobs that echoed a little. Why did I let myself fall for him? The fake relationship turned real for me, but

David The icy expanse stretched endlessly in all directions, a desolate and frozen tundra beneath an inky sky. The cold felt too close and too distant at the same time, and unlike the last time I had been here, the ground felt solid. The snow beneath my boots glittered, the only source of radiance in this otherwise lightless world, but it didn't crunch the way snow did. It just seemed to shift away like sand almost. My stomach turned the longer I looked at it. The cold air bit at my face, and each breath hung in the air like a ghostly wisp.

Instantly, everyone else disappeared leaving Avril and Prince Dakar behind. And Avril was no longer beside her Prince. She found herself in an icy cage with the temperature inside below zero degrees. The cold instantly embraced her like an obsessed lover, not letting go. Her throbbing palm went numb with cold, her blood turning to ice within her. A terrible wind gust blasted into her, pushing her over unto the floor covered with snow. She gasped for breath but ice began to rain down with near ice water accompanying it. It was almost like freezing rain, except the rain was already frozen into thin shards that sliced her and drew blood.

The cold in this pristine white chamber wasn't just a rapid drop in temperature. It was an absolute, crushing physical weight. The liquid nitrogen hissed violently from hidden vents in the ceiling, pouring down on us like a thick, frosted waterfall. The freezing mist crawled up the flawless glass walls and settled heavily over our combat boots, turning the floor into a slick sheet of deadly ice.

It smells too much like her and the future I’m not supposed to want. I end up at The Ice House—the dive bar near the university where the hockey guys and pack kids hang out. It’s a Friday night crowd, and usually, people give me a ten-foot radius because I look like I’m looking for a reason to kill someone. I slide into a corner booth, hood up, back to the wall. I order a whiskey, neat, and watch the room. Until I hear the name. Aiden. Two pack guys at the next table are leaning in, their voices low, but wolf ears catch every syllable.

"What's coming?" Maya took a breath. "On February 14th, seven weeks from now, there's going to be an extreme cold event. Temperatures will drop to minus forty, minus fifty, lower in some places. Within hours. Most people won't have time to prepare. Most won't survive." Vanessa stared. "That's insane. Climate doesn't work that way—" "I know it sounds impossible. But it's going to happen. Anyone who isn't in shelter with heat and supplies will freeze within days."

"Last day of clinic." "Tomorrow we go home." Julian nodded. Neither of them moved. The snow fell around them, soft and silent. The mountains disappeared into grey. The cabin was a dark shape through the white. "We should go inside," Sebastian said. "In a minute." They stood together, shoulder to shoulder, watching the snow bury the rink. The world felt small and quiet and safe. Sebastian did not want to leave it. But the cold crept through his coat. Julian shivered. "Okay," Julian said. "Now we go inside."

He kept walking for what felt like hours but light never showed up nor did he see anything or felt warmer. His fingers were being attacked by frostbites and he sniffled as he kept pushing through. The longer he walked, the stronger the cold wind and it wasn’t helping if he wasn’t seeing where he was going. His foot hit on something and he fell face first on the icy ground. He got up, shivering as his teeth chatter. Selene never said anything about one of the doors leading to the ice world, why should this place be this cold?

Quin reached the fridge and opened the door, peering inside. She reached past the bottles of water and the snacks along the edge and found the bucket of ice at the back. She barely hesitated before thrusting her fingers into the frozen mass, her fingers sinking into the chunk before it, feeling the coolness sink into her bones, filling her with calm. One large piece of ice was placed within her palm, its edges sharp as she looked back over at the bed and at Hartwell. She didn't move from her place or her fingers as she looked back at him. She could see his gaze on her, could see it in the way his body held, but she didn't care. She wanted the ice.

"There’s a massive deposit of 'Carbonate-Lattice' beneath the ice cap. If we can ignite it, we can trigger a controlled greenhouse effect. We can give this world a blanket." The suspense of the "Polar Expedition" was an epic journey across the sapphire glass plains. The Great Engine, now low on fuel and shivering in the cold, had to crawl toward the pole. Every mile was a battle against "Cryo-Quakes"—the sudden shattering of the frozen nitrogen crust as the city's weight passed over it. "The treads are snapping!" Kael reported, his voice frantic over the short-range radio. "The metal is too brittle for this temperature. We’re losing plates every hundred meters!"