The Snow Wraith

Chapter One

The snow blanketed everything and all seemed lost in the white haze. Orenda pulled her coat closer around her body, picking up speed. The noon day bell was echoing throughout the small campus, the sound muffled due to the snow storm. The campus was mostly deserted; students weren’t due to arrive back until six days later. Orenda had come back early to work on a research project she was doing, and had been granted special privileges to stay in her on campus housing for the last week of Winter Break.

The door to the dormitory swung open with the wind, a drift of snow flitting its way to carpet the inside hallway. Orenda placed her bag on a side table as she removed her outside weather gear. Looking out the window, the snow drifts already having begun to build up, she shook her head. She had planned to go on an expedition up into the mountains to gather more information the following day, however, it appeared Mother Nature had different plans.

Piling all of her clothes on the small table, Orenda grabbed her keys and crossed to the other side of the hall to check her mail.

“Orenda, we need your help.” A voice from behind startled her. Whirling around, she instinctually slid her keys in-between her fingers to use as an object to punch with were she to engage in fighting. All that greeted her was a familiar face attached to a familiar body, sitting behind the front desk.

“Merrick... What the hell are you doing here?”

“We need your help.”

“My help doing what?”

“Orenda, there’s been a crossover. Something from a different reality has been stirring up trouble. You’re the only one who can send it away.”

“Merrick, not here.”

“Here is a good a place as any.”

“No, you just don’t understand. I’m certain we’ve had this conversation a thousand times.” Orenda rubbed her temples, crossing to stare out the window once more. “I’m not the same person here as I am back home. Here I study Biology, not ancient, archaic spells. I play soccer in the fall. I swim in the spring. I don’t go around using magical powers to get rid of whatever wraith has decided to sprout up this week.”

“You still chose to deny the power that only you posses?” Merrick stood up and walked over to where Orenda was standing. “And yet you continue to wear the jewel?”

Orenda’s hand flew to her neck where a crystal clear quartz lay. As her fingers closed around the gem, a blue light began to radiate from it.

“I don’t deny any power I may have. Catch me somewhere else and sure, I’d be glad to banish whatever ghoul you have floating around. I can’t do that here.”

“Why not?”

“Do you remember when I was eight years old? I got kicked out of school for spreading ‘rumors’ that ghosts were real. I can’t have my entire life uprooted again. Not for something that most of the world would institutionalize us for believing. I can’t keep doing this.”

“So you will leave all your friends in peril? You will escape to a different country in an attempt to be normal? There is no such thing as normal, Orenda. You know that. And even if there were, you left it behind a long time ago.”

“Go away, Merrick. I can’t help you.”

“Orenda... if I leave we’re all dead. This one is different. It’s not content to just spread trouble in randomly chosen areas. It’s seeking out what is trying to stop it. Savi is in the hospital. She tried to fight it and it wouldn’t listen to her. You’re the only one with enough power to send it away.”

“I’m in the middle of school! I can’t just leave.”

“There are still six days left until your classes start. Tell them you have an emergency you have to take care of. Come back with me, help us. Then we’ll let you alone until you finish school. I give you my word.”

There was a pause as Orenda and Merrick locked eyes and had a silent battle. Finally, Orenda looked away and gave a sigh of resignation.

“Let me get my stuff together and come up with something to tell the school. Come back tonight,” Orenda commanded.

“So it shall be.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The sun began to peak around the Earth as a long, dark car pulled up outside of a large house in the middle of the country. Merrick got out of the driver’s seat and walked to the other side of the car to help Orenda get her bags.

“New wards?” Orenda was staring intently at the house.

“Yeah, we had them renewed after the incident with Savi.”

“They look good. Pretty strong... there’s a small break over the chimney though.” Orenda pointed toward the top of the house. “It’s not big, but it should be fixed if this thing is as terrifying as you make it out to be.”

“I’ll get it looked in to,” Merrick replied, glancing worriedly toward the chimney. “Come in. We need to get you settled in before dark. “

Orenda followed Merrick up the stone steps and into the entrance way of the house. The entrance was lit with candles, light flickering and dancing within the shadows. The room was carpeted with a thick red carpet laying over solid wood floors.

“Well, let’s get started then, shall we?” Orenda dumped her bags on the side of the hallway. “Where is evilness for me to banish?”

“Orenda, go to bed. We’ll deal with it all in the morning.”

“Merrick. I want this over and done with as soon as possible. We can start tonight.”

“Go to bed.”

Orenda glared at Merrick before grabbing her bags and heading towards the staircase that desended down from the second floor with a small landing there in the entrance way, before heading down again to several floors below ground.

“I’ll see you in the morning.”