Chapter 1: The Ice Crystal
The air in Greenland was sharper than a knife.
Sixteen-year-old Elena Vermeer pulled her hoodie tighter as she walked a little ahead of her parents. The snow crunched softly beneath her boots as she wandered through the scattered silence of a summer that still wore winter's skin.
Her parents were busy setting up their tent not far behind. Elena had begged to go explore for "just ten minutes." They agreed—mostly to get her to stop whining.
She didn't go far. Just down a slope, past a jagged ridge, where the glint of crystal-clear ice caught her eye like treasure beneath the sea.
> That's when she saw it.
A small crack in the rock. A barely-there cave, almost hidden under a heavy lump of snow. Just tall enough for her to crouch inside. Most people wouldn't dare to enter, but Elena wasn't "most people."
She crawled in. The cold bit her skin, but her curiosity burned brighter.
Inside, it felt oddly… still. Like time had frozen here long before humans existed. The walls glittered with tiny, shimmering frost veins, and resting in the corner was a long, clear ice crystal, nearly the size of a soda bottle—smooth, flawless.
It didn't even look real.
She smiled.
> "I'll build a snowman."
She scraped together powdery snow and pressed it against the cold floor. The head wouldn't sit right, so she broke a shard off the ice crystal and wedged it under for balance.
Something in the air hummed when she broke it. But she was too focused on her little creation to care.
Before she left, she slipped the broken shard into her pocket.
> "A memory," she whispered.
"From a place where the world is still sleeping."
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🌅 One Week Later — Netherlands
Summer in her village meant sticky air, orange skies, and lazy evenings.
Elena had already told her friends a dozen times about her "epic trip." The glacier, the silence, the little cave. She even kept the shard of ice sealed inside a Tupperware box in the freezer.
But the next day, the power cut off.
The freezer went out.
The ice began to melt.
And Elena… licked it.
Just a single drop on her finger.
> "It's just ice," she giggled.
"The cleanest I've ever seen."
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That night, her stomach cramped.
By morning, her skin had turned pale.
She couldn't eat. Couldn't drink.
Her eyes grew hollow.
Her parents rushed her to the hospital.
Doctors ran test after test—every known virus, bacteria, and parasite.
Nothing.
They found no trace of illness. No infection. No explanation.
And within two days, Elena was gone.
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But her body never cooled.
And three nights after her burial, something stirred in her grave.
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[End of Chapter 1]
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