When you awaken, the room is dark, lit only by the gleam of the Fountain and something… more. Though it calls to you, begging for you to return home, you are distracted by the larger, grander thing in the room.
Pink and yellow spotlights dart around, attached to a body silhouetted by a gentle, rainbow glow.
"IS IT COLD IN HERE, OR IS IT JUST ME?" The spotlights say, and you go still.
You recognize that voice.
It is fear, and it is hope, and it is horror, and it is love, love, love, love.
Love for the man with the sky-high dreams, the award-losing smile that'd won your heart. Longing for the days before, when you'd held him in your arms, back in the adlit days of 1996.
You love him like you'd never lost him. Like he'd never picked up the phone, like he'd never 'died' all those years ago, like he'd never abandoned you to pick up the pieces of your shattered heart.
"Spamton… please, won't you come home?" They plead, taking him by the hand. A pair of engagement rings sit on the table beside them, simplistic in their beauty.
Cam's is a simple, silver band with a jewel placed snugly upon the top. No diamonds nor opals were available to the denizens of the dark, so Cam made do with a shaped piece of glass.
Spamton's is a band of rose gold with flowers engraved on the outside edge, camellias and lilies carved with a careful hand.
He takes one, but does not reply.
It warms you from the inside, this love. A bitter contrast to the snowstorm raging around you, digging daggers into your silicone and threatening to tear you apart. The ice swirls about, gathering strength for the spell your jailer prepares to cast.
Like frost over grass comes the realization that the spell is meant for him.
They sit in their shop, clutching a ring close to their chest. Their grief has changed it; the glass that was once in the shape of a jewel has gone smooth, circular. It has grown foggy and dark, and a crack stretches across its surface.
And still, they pour their hurt into it, bent over and clutching the remains of a broken love as they cry. Eventually, the tears will evaporate away on the floor, returning to the Fountain that created them.
The bell jingles, and blue light fills the empty shop. Vivi approaches her friend, placing a hand on their shoulder.
"It's closing time, Cam. Let's go home." She coos, voice soft as a caress to their grief-stricken heart.
Wearily, Cam nods, allowing Vivi to pull them to their feet. They leave the ring behind in a darkened shop, along with all the memories it contains.
Neither of them notice the man in the nearby dumpster, the ring on his finger growing jagged spikes to match his embittered heart. After all, one does not go searching for the dead.
The Lightner's magic pulls at you, and you scream. She has no interest in your safety or well-being, only your power, and she leaves you trapped in the storm.
Every flake that hits your body tears through the metaphysical, ripping you apart with icy claws, taking what little you have away to power the Lightner's spells. It hurts.
You cry out, you scream, but there is nobody left to hear you.
"May I interest you in a FreezeRing?"
Her Light calls out and blinds them, taking hold of their Darkness and twisting it to her desires. It hollows them out, and they are but a tool, a vehicle for the Lightner's desires.
Cam does not recognize the words they are saying, and does not realize that they've offered her their ring, the last thing they have of Him. Cam does not notice the little red spot beside her, commanding her, controlling her.
They spit out a random number, too preoccupied with gazing into her Light to concentrate on the art of the sale. Her focus is on them and they bask in it, unable to do anything else as their sun-choked mind fills with a static haze.
The Lightners converse with each other, but to Cam, it comes out as nothing but garbage noise.
And then, suddenly, it is cold.
You only catch a glimpse of his terrified face through the glass before the wind picks up and it all
"HOLY CUNGADERO!"
