V.I.R.A.L

It had begun to snow. It had begun to snow in the middle of summer. Of course, this wasn't normal, a side effect, a curse bested on Alton. He had managed to break free from his chains and defeat the Moss and save everyone. This would come at a cost, however. Amid the battle, only he and Scarlett had survived. The lost children had fallen to the garden, Alton was now carrying Scarlett on his back wandering through the forest aimlessly hoping to find the way back. This would be now near impossible thanks to the night sky blinding his view and blended with the exhaustion and injuries he faced he knew finding the village before dawn would be pointless. Nonetheless, he kept walking never giving up hope.

"We should stop," Scarlett whispered, leaning in on Alton's shoulder breathing heavily. "You need to rest."

"And you need help. We can't stop now."

"Don't be stupid. I'm fine. I can keep going!" She waited. "Alton."

"Have some faith in me will ya? This is nothing." He crocked falling to the floor all the energy almost gone. Scarlett collapsed as well as both lay back looking at the night sky through the cracks of the trees. "Alright. We'll stop."

"Thank you."

"I'll start a fire."

Scarlett stopped Alton holding his arm. "Not right now. Let's just lie here."

"But it's cold. We'll freeze."

"Alton it's boiling." She whispered. "Yet it's snowing…"

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Alton stayed put, feeling his eyes becoming heavy. "We couldn't save those children."

"Is that why it's snowing?" She asked, moving her hand away from Alton as she went numb. "You can't control your powers."

"Not these ones no. I've been using them carefree for a while now. I'll say ever since Vanguard I've used the frozen wasteland inside of me like it was nothing. I forgot the repercussion, the reason I don't use this curse."

"It's an incredible power. Freezing anything in sight. Being able to change the weather for it to snow. Why don't you want to use that power?"

Alton placed Scarlett's hand on his chest. She was shocked by his heartbeat. It was slow. Much slower than expected. "Alton. Are you?"

"I'm fine. This is what this power does to me. The more I use it. The more I play the hero without a care in the world, my heart freezes. Slowly but surely it will slow down until it is frozen solid."

"That would kill you."

"I really wish that was the case. I wouldn't be so fearful. No. With my frozen heart, I will still live. But I won't be me anymore. Alton Brantley will die. But I will still live on robbed of compassion, robbed of mercy, kindness or justice. I will become just like him. Just like my father. I don't want that day ever to come; I would rather die."

Scarlett moved her hand back in horror gulping. "There has to be a way to stop it? Reverse the effect?"

"No. I can only stop it by not using the powers. These days I find that harder and harder to achieve. I'm going to make that fire now." Alton forced himself off the ground dragging his feet. He turned to Scarlett who was now resting by a tree. "Do me a favour. Don't tell Zinnia about this."

"Why not?"

"If she finds out. She'll think it's her problem one which she can fix. She had enough to worry about than me."

"You care about her that much?"

"What do you think?" Alton sighs refusing to look at Scarlett. "She reminds me too much of Sam. I can't go through that again…"

Walking off Scarlett fidgeted around shaking her head in disapproval. "That isn't going to get you anywhere."

****

Alton lowered his head as the fire crackled, keeping him awake. He peered over at Scarlett, who was fast asleep. However, they hadn't seen a sign of any Moss in hours that wouldn't allow him to keep his guard down. It was still lightly snowing as the fire didn't help keep him warm at all. Shivering Alton curled up, breathing into his hands. He still felt guilty for not being able to save the children for allowing Lucas to be kidnapped. He wasn't quite prepared for the reaction he would receive when they do arrive back at the village. Resting his eyes for a short moment, they soon snapped back open as a voice called to him. "Alton Brantley, denier of the past."

Alton stood up, looking around on confusion. Scarlett hadn't noticed anything. Playing it off as his imagination, he sat back down, letting his guard down falling fast asleep. Little time past as he awoke. He was no longer in the forest but a frozen wasteland dead of life. Scarlett was gone. In the distance was serval buildings all frozen over. In the snow evident remains of people. Alton stepped back paranoid. "What the hell is this?"

"This would be my powers gifted to me by the Garden. A Pocket dimension. I can snatch people's minds casting them into a world of my creation where they are trapped forever, or until I decide to release them. Unfortunately, my powers aren't nearly as they use to be. I will only be able to hold you for a short while."

"This place. I recognise it. Where am I?"

"Of course, you recognise it, Alton. This is your home. This is what remains of Sunset Peak."

"Impossible! How can I…" He stopped calming himself. "Who are you?"

"You may call me Acceptance, slave to the five stages of grief, burn it into your memory, Alton. For I am your doom." Acceptance boomed appearing before Alton in his usual black suit. "I'm sure you have any questions."

"Let me out."

"Excuse me?"

Alton walked up to Acceptance, holding him by the collar. "I said, let me out. I don't care for your little game."

"Why this is unexpected. Not many get the pleasure of being able to talk to a slave to the five stages of grief and lives, yet here you want out no questions asked. How fitting for a child of the Garden."

"What did you call me?"

Acceptance smiled mischievously. "I've caught your interest, I see. I thought I would, I had the privilege of talking to your friend Gale, but you Alton. You are someone far more interesting. I've been quite looking forwards to this."

"Gale? If you dare harm him."

"Rest assured he is in perfect condition. Now I think I deserve to ask you a question, Alton. Is that fair?" Alton stared at him with glaring eyes as Acceptance nodded. "Good. Let's go somewhere more. Fitting." He placed his hand on Alton's head as he spoke with a soothing tone. "Let your mind drift into the deep."

The location suddenly changed as Alton fell through the floor falling into the abyss. Hitting the floor, he woke to find himself in a classroom. Pulling himself up, his hand rested on a desk as he gave it a worried look. "This, this is my desk…"

"This was your classroom when you went to sunset peak high. Before you doomed this entire town."

Alton ran his hand over his desk in a state of nostalgia. "No, it wasn't my fault. I couldn't stop him."

"Oh, Alton. That was a lie. You cannot accept the truth. Accept my truth before it's too late."

Alton gave Acceptance a strange look walking over the back of the class. He looked down, frowning at Sam's desk. "Sam would always joke about getting the clique protagonist seat. The back corner. She hated sitting here."

Acceptance sat at the teacher's desk, flipping a piece of chalk around his fingers. "Why hasn't the stage of grief consumed you? The darkness should have consumed you inside your heart by now. Oh, I understand. That makes sense. I'd expect nothing less from the child of the Garden."

"What are you talking about? Child of the Garden?"

"Oh, you know. What do you think others would think if they knew the truth? Each of these seats had a person attached to them. A breathing living person with goals and dreams and you took that all away from them."

Alton gritted his teeth together as the air began to damper and freeze. "Shut up. I said, shut up!" A vicious barrage of ice rippled from the ground consuming the entire classroom as the building was torn apart, windows smashing and the floor collapsing. Alton stared on in hate huffing as he tried stopping his handshaking.

Acceptance appeared behind him. Alton went to react only to fall in a single attack. Acceptance pressed his finger on Alton's head, which made him fall to the ground, defeated. He kneeled squeezing Alton's face pressing it to the ground. "There is no need for that. You haven't changed at all, have you, Alton? You run from the very thing your becoming. You will run for the rest of your life unless you accept the past. Accept what you've done. Speak the truth."

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"Never!"

Acceptance stood up, kicking Alton back the impact sent Alton out of the school free-falling into the blizzard. Landing safely into the snow, he saw a figure standing in the distance. The blizzard was making it far too difficult even to see. Alton dragged himself to the person as the blizzard only strengthen. Making it close Alton's whole body froze over as he couldn't move. All he could do was watch as the figure turned around, walking over to him. Beside them, they were dragging a body. Now in perfect view, Alton was held from his neck as he struggled to breathe every breath freezing stabbing at his throat. He glanced up screaming internally, unable to make a noise as the figure was himself. One dead of life. His eyes devoid of colour but the look was of pure bliss and evil. The doubleganger laughed, lifting the corpse of Sam beside him. "Confess your sins. Confess that this was your fault!"

Acceptance appeared behind Alton, covering his eyes as he whispered in his ears. "How long are you going to lie to yourself, Alton Brantley? When are you going to accept the truth? Accept the fact you are the one who froze all of Sunset Peak. You are the monster you run from. This is all your fault."

Alton woke from his dream, screaming. He sat up sweating with a horrified look on his face. He was back. Sitting by the fire as Scarlett lay by the tree looking at him with one eye open. "Are you alright?"

Alton held his arms disturbed by the events. He didn't respond. Scarlett didn't bring it up again. It stayed that way for the rest of the night. He refused to sleep. Alton stayed up the whole night haunted by the vision. The vision he refuses to accept. He knows it to be a lie. Wiping his sweaty head, he looked down at his hands to see broken shards of ice. His sweat had frozen over before it could even drip off his head. Covering his face, he curled up into a ball waiting for the daylight to come as he went from knowing his vision was a lie to being not sure of anything anymore.