Aspect Of Winter

by Tom Early

  In May, Tyler and I went to prom together, and Sam showed up stag, with a crowd of hopeful boys and girls surrounding her, asking her to dance. Tyler made a fool of himself on the dance floor as I watched, nearly doubled over from laughing so hard, and Sam switched partners at a dizzying rate. The only dance I did was slow dancing with Tyler, and I still almost tripped over my own feet almost twice. Tyler’s warm smile was worth it, though, and later on I switched to dancing with Sam, who ruthlessly guided me through the proper motions, her head level with my chest. Even as she led me around, she still leaned on me, both of us supporting each other peacefully. It was a great night, and I felt more human than I had in a long time.

  There were still the bad days, when all I could think about were the families of the students I’d killed, and all I could feel was the terrible burning of Didas’ knife as he carved into me. But as time progressed, those days started to be less frequent. Aiden never showed up in person, but several more books showed up in the mail for Sam and me, hand-addressed to us from him. They contained hundreds of spells, rules, and other things to prepare us for the upcoming year. I had to learn slowly which spells were compatible with me, innate magic sealed or not. Tyler’s presence helped ease the casting, and I slowly expanded my repertoire, though I had nothing on Sam.

  My parents tearfully took thousands of pictures of me on graduation, and Sam’s dad did the same. Tyler’s parents never showed up. When I pointed that out to my mom, her face hardened and she marched over to Tyler to demand that he get another thousand pictures taken of him by her personally, as well as several hundred more featuring me and him, and then another hundred of me, Sam, and Tyler. I honestly wasn’t aware she could just keep clicking the camera like that without it running out of memory.

  When school was finally over, the three of us met in my backyard one last time. Sam’s dad was taking the summer off, and was taking her all around Europe as “my little girl’s graduation present, so she can draw absolutely everything while her father samples wine.”

  Tyler was going to be house-hopping a lot, visiting all of his older siblings, and I was going to stay home. We promised to Skype each other a lot (Sam helped me set it up a few days ago), and parted ways after one last awkward three-way hug.

  When I was finally alone, I went for a walk in the wooded trails behind my house, stopping when I reached Field Pond. It had been a long time since I’d last come here. Longer still since my life had been normal enough to have the time to just go for a swim. I stared across the pond for a while, then took off my shirt and dove in, the cool water embracing me.

  It might not have been in the way I expected, but I had succeeded. I wasn’t so alone anymore.

  I smiled and walked back out of the water, no longer cold.

  Behind me, the stones on the beach were covered in a thin layer of frost.

  Acknowledgements

  Well. This is done. And it took a hell of a lot longer than I’d thought. Not that six months is long, but, y’know, nevermind. Point is, this was harder than I’d imagined, and it needed a lot of help from a lot of different people. So I’m going to give thanks to them here, because they deserve it and more.

  To my parents, for coupling mild doubt and “we’re behind you 100%” in such a way that I was both offended into persisting and supported in continuing. Thanks also for the many hours you sank into helping me check it over for the endless legion of typos and grammar mistakes.

  To my friends on figment, who took the time to look over what I foolishly thought was a finished copy and show me how very wrong I was. There are too many of you to list, but know that I’m grateful to every one of you.

  To my best friend Shelby. I churned out a chapter every night, and you were there to read them, each time. I’m so sorry about that. Hopefully the mental scars will fade eventually. This has gotten a lot better from what I forced on you back then. I truly couldn’t have made it without you constantly telling me that I could. At the very least, this would be finished several years from now, instead of today. Sam salutes you, her source.

  To Sadie. Artist, beta reader, movie buddy, and awesome friend. Inspiration for some of Sam’s sass, too. I owe the cover to you (so, uh, thanks for that) and so much more. You also tried your best to read nightly, and I looked forward to seeing your responses each morning. Keep being amazing, and don’t ever forget that you are.

  To my other friends. Conor, the person who was in essence the first real reviewer of the piece as a whole. I’m only thanking you because you specifically asked me not to.

  To Andrew, Rebecca, Bryce, Forest, Wesley, Dennis, Jake, other Jake (I’ll let you two fight it out as to who was the first one), and even Charlie. You guys saw it when it was truly awful, and for some reason kept reading (that might have had more to do with the threats than anything else, but we’ll ignore that). Thanks for keeping me motivated.

  I think that’s it, really. Unless I’m going to thank me or something. I don’t think I will. That’s just weird.

  About the Author

  Tom Early is a pseudonym. That means the author (me) isn’t particularly inclined to tell you much about himself. It also gives him a bit of freedom. Let’s assume that the real person is a bit of a bore, and he’s not worth describing. No, really. He’s quite boring.

  Tom Early, however, is obviously someone amazing. He probably travels around the world saving puppies, stopping to bestow a benevolent smile upon the masses that flock to him in adoration. Maybe he has a castle somewhere, and a dragon. I think he’d like that, being fictional and all.

  He can be reached at http://tom-early-author.tumblr.com/ if you’d like to chat, or if you’ve written, drawn, or otherwise created something inspired by Aspect of Winter. He’d be thrilled to see your work. Trust, uh, him on this.

  If you’re more inclined to send an email to him, tomearlythewriter@gmail.com may do the trick.

  That’s it. The end. You can go home now. Fay and Sam and Tyler and many more will be returning in “The Doorway God.” Goodness knows when that’ll come out. I’d guess in about a year.

  All the best,

  Tom.