When he felt his senses come back, it was too late. The first breaths cleared a pocket for him to breath, but there wasn’t much space. Water trickled down his nostrils, and his head split with an ache as if it had been hit against many a rock.

And the cold was all over him: constricting him, immobilizing him.

I am going to die.

One side of his face hurt, and the other was too numb to tell him what had happened. Who was he? He seemed to be everyone and no one at the same time. Where was he? Beneath ice. Ice that fell. Ice that destroyed everything in its path. What was he doing here? He didn’t know.

I am going to die.

He could see light. Was it a hallucination? No. His head was buried up, his body buried deeper. Maybe he’d be able to breathe. Perhaps. A game of chance.

I am going to –

“We all must die. Then what are you afraid of?”

Where did that come from? For a moment, he forgot about breathing, and listened. Everything felt muffled, like layers of heavy clothing softening the noise outside. He could hear things. He thought he heard a blizzard blowing outside. Then, his breath returned with an ache, and he felt like he was being suffocated by the same heavy clothes blocking the sounds.

“Fear is the little-death before death; it is the killer of minds.”

There it was again. Clear, as if someone was speaking behind him, beyond his sight.

He wanted to speak, but he could barely breath.

But, I am going to die.

“Then, what have you to fear?”

He felt numbness creep into him. He felt all sensation of his limbs disappear.

“Do you want to live, boy?”

And then, in a rush stronger and faster than the avalanche, the feeling welled up from within, the most ancient and irrepressible desire.

I want to live. He thought.

“Then, grasp me. You might live. But, you will have to die first.”

The little pocket of air in front of his nose collapsed.

“Let fear pass through you.”

The light began to fade from the corners of his eyesight. The world closed in around him.

I will die. He thought.

And, he was no longer afraid.