Captured Tales – by Bill Tiepelman
Mysteries Under the Aurora Veil
The aurora whispered across the sky, bands of green and purple light weaving together in a spectral dance. Alone on the ice, Nathan stood mesmerized, his breath clouding in the cold night air, his eyes reflecting the surreal brilliance above. The frozen lake stretched endlessly, an ocean of ice under his feet, its cracked surface branching out in jagged patterns that glowed under the starlight. But it wasn’t the aurora or the empty, frozen landscape that kept him rooted in place. It was the face beneath the ice.
He had noticed it first from afar—a dark shape under the lake’s surface, looming as he walked along the creaking ice. Curious, he’d drawn closer, only to find himself staring down at an enormous face, trapped and motionless, just beneath the fractured ice. Its eyes were closed, lashes rimmed with frost, its expression one of haunting stillness. But it was not a normal face. The skin was etched with cosmic patterns, veins that glimmered faintly, as if they held the very stars themselves within.
The sky shifted again, a burst of emerald green illuminating the night, and in that light, the face seemed to stir, almost as if the frozen figure were breathing beneath its glassy prison. Nathan stumbled back, but his gaze remained locked on the face, his mind racing to make sense of the impossible sight. The figure’s eyes fluttered open slowly, revealing dark, glittering depths that reflected the stars above, as though the eyes themselves were windows to the universe.
His heart pounded as those ancient, unfathomable eyes met his own. He felt a sudden, dizzying pull, a sensation as if he were being drawn into that endless darkness. He wanted to turn away, to run back to the safety of his cabin on the edge of the lake, but he found himself paralyzed, transfixed. He felt the weight of the being's gaze, pressing into his mind, stirring memories that weren’t his, ancient images of worlds and stars long forgotten.
The Frozen Revelation
With a deep, tremulous voice, the figure beneath the ice began to speak, though its lips never moved. The voice filled his mind, resonating within his bones, like a song vibrating through stone. The words were old, their meanings fragmented and elusive, yet Nathan understood them all the same.
“I am the keeper of lost memories, bound by the ice, held beneath the veil of the aurora. For eons, I have watched worlds rise and fall, my eyes locked in slumber, my spirit shackled by cold and time. Those who look upon me are rare; those who listen, rarer still.”
Nathan tried to speak, his voice a mere whisper in the vastness of the frozen lake. “Why… why are you here? Why are you trapped?”
Silence stretched, thick and heavy. Then, the face's eyes narrowed slightly, as though pondering a question it hadn’t heard in eons.
“I am here because I was made to watch, to witness the cycles of time and existence, to remember what must not be forgotten. Yet in remembering, I am forgotten. I am the memory of this world and others—a story carved into the bones of the earth, a watcher buried in the ice.”
The aurora brightened, casting vibrant shadows across the landscape. In that otherworldly glow, Nathan saw images flash within the figure’s eyes—vast cities made of dark stone, crumbling under the weight of storms; forests twisted and overgrown, vines reaching like fingers toward an endless sky; civilizations extinguished, their names lost to the ice. He saw fragments of worlds he didn’t know, felt their despair as if it were his own.
A Descent into the Abyss
The figure’s voice continued, softer now, almost tender, like an echo from another time. “I have seen so much, and yet the world forgets. Each new cycle, new faces come and go. They look upon me as you do, then leave, only to be forgotten by time itself. I hold their memories, their fears and dreams, locked beneath this ice.”
Nathan’s body trembled, the chill of the night seeping into his bones. “Why are you telling me this?” he managed, his voice breaking as the weight of those visions pressed down on him.
The figure’s lips curled into a slight smile. “Because you are the first to listen. And for that, you have earned a choice.”
A sudden crack echoed across the lake, and Nathan felt the ice shift beneath him. He watched in horror as fissures spread outward from the face, thin lines of black threading through the white frost. The lake was coming alive, moving and groaning as if it, too, held ancient memories it could no longer bear to keep hidden.
“Stay,” the figure said, the voice slipping into a whisper. “Stay, and you may join the others beneath the ice. You will see the world as I do, bear witness to eternity, to lives that fade like winter breath. Or you may go… but know that you will remember me, and you will carry my stories with you, as a weight that grows heavier each night.”
The Haunting Choice
The aurora pulsed overhead, casting Nathan’s shadow long and thin over the face beneath the ice. He felt an overwhelming urge to let go, to surrender to the timeless void, to sink into the ice and let its cold fingers pull him under. A strange peace washed over him, a longing for release, for silence.
But then he thought of the world above, the light of dawn he’d never see again, the feel of warm earth underfoot. He closed his eyes, inhaling deeply, letting the icy air fill his lungs one last time. “I… I choose to go,” he whispered, though every fiber of his being fought against the decision.
The face beneath him looked sad, an expression of profound sorrow crossing its cosmic features. Its starry eyes dimmed slightly, and for a moment, it looked as if it might weep.
“Then go,” the figure murmured, its voice like wind over frozen water. “But know this—you will dream of me every night, and in each dream, you will return to this place. And one day, when you are weary of life and memory, you will come back, and the ice will claim you as it has claimed so many.”
Echoes in the Night
Nathan turned and walked away, his feet heavy, his heart pounding in his chest. The aurora flared one last time, a brilliant burst of color illuminating his path. He did not look back. But as he reached the shore, he heard the faintest whisper, a voice carried by the wind.
“I will wait.”
In the years that followed, Nathan found himself haunted by dreams of the lake, of the face beneath the ice, those dark eyes watching him, beckoning him back. Every winter, he felt its pull, the frozen lake calling his name in the dead of night. And each year, he resisted, though the dreams grew darker, the weight of forgotten memories pressing down on him until he felt he might break.
One day, he would return. He knew that now. The lake had etched itself into his soul, bound him to the frozen face and its ancient secrets. One day, he would walk across that ice again, alone, beneath the dancing lights of the aurora veil. And when that day came, he knew, he would never leave.
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