Jack tried to stand up, but his arms burned with numbness. He was tired of fighting against the cold. He was tired. His mind drifted about, but he found no escape. There were only trains of thoughts he had abandoned in fear. There were only reoccurring memories he had always overplayed with anger.  

     His fingers grew tired, his toes grew numb. He slowly lost the feeling in his hands and feet too. He rolled around trying to wake up his limbs. Jack panicked, but he could not do more than he already was.   

     Click, clack,  

     The frigid wind howled overhead. Jack felt colder, but the weather wasn’t getting worse. He felt dizzy and his breaths grew shorter, more desperate as the polar air became painful to breathe. And he still refused to acknowledge the wet lines flowing down his watery eyes.  

     Click, clack,  

     He heard steps approaching, but he didn’t look around. He was too preoccupied with his anguish. Instead, he closed his eyes trying to shut the world out. He knew that nothing had gone after his plan. He knew he wouldn’t impress anybody now and he didn’t want to think about it.   

     With his eyes closed, he inescapably focused on his other senses. He felt numbness in his entire body, and where he had moved, he felt a buzzing fuzziness. His hearing had become acute, and he could hear footsteps clearly behind him.  

     Click, clack,  

     Click, clack,  

     He turned around far as he could and looked behind him. He saw nothing. His eyelids did not open and he painstakingly touched his face in confusion.  

     He touched cold beads streaking down his face. They did not move, but they formed a trail of tears frozen in place. As he reached up to his eyelids, he could feel clumps of snow and ice forming on his eyelashes. His eyes have frozen shut.  

     Jack spoke fearfully, “who are you? Are you here to mock me?” He knew how he would act if he was the one approaching.  

     “Oh,” rang out from nowhere and everywhere, “I am not. I am here to prove a point.”   

     The blinded Jack sputtered in pain, “what point is there to be made? Are you here to argue with me?” He hated to be scolded, and now he was in an indefensible position. He could not run, nor fight. He thought that the frigid air burning his lungs and the dizzying numbness in his limbs were repercussions punishment enough.  

     “No,” the voice boomed over the wind, “I do not wish to argue with you. No, quite the opposite. I believe we are kindred souls.”  

     Jack felt a cold, misty haze passes over him. He could hear the clacking of the being’s shoes, as it walked. He could not see how its sleek, spindly hands hovered above him. “Kindred spirits? How?” he croaked through his scarf. He had pulled it up to shield his jaw and checks. He had raised his arms above his head to shield his forehead and eyes, but he did not know how the falling snow had ripped open above him. He did not know that the approaching cold was of a different origin  

     “Yes, haven’t you been mistreated by your family? Haven’t you been ridiculed by your peers? Haven’t you been punished unjustly?" the creature spoke confidently.  

     Jack groaned as he was reminded of his treatment. He agreed silently.  

     “Have you not wished for understanding and admiration? I shall grant it to you,” the being finished.   

     “Yes, I have been forsaken!” Jack cried out. “I had been judged unfairly and came here!” he ranted. “And, and I," he said painfully, “I just wish to be understood. Why does everybody hate me? Why is the world so pitched against me? Can you tell me?”  

     “Yes, I understand you,” the creature said. “Indeed, the world is hateful. You have to take everything from the world before it takes it from you,” the creature continued. Its hands moved closer to Jack. “Become a monolith and you shall never suffer from the cold world again,” the being finished.  

     Jack felt the cold limbs over him and reached out. He felt accepted. Never had someone spoken to his feelings of abandonment so clearly. He agreed, he would become as powerful as the pillars of creation. He would stand alone, but he would overcome his hateful world.  

     Their hands touched and Jack felt nothing ever again.  

     “I am right,” the being stated. It refused to see that it was alone and more disagreed. It was sure the fires of the radiant marketplace would eventually burn out, but the people of the marketplace held together. The being had convinced one to its cause, yet it continued to stand alone.  

     A crack opened in the falling snow and the hazy figure stepped past the monstrous buildings of grey heartless concrete.  

     Click, clack.  

     A foggy, cloudy body wobbles around like a cloak of living sheep clouds. Its hazy contour connects with the falling snow and returns to form an endless circle.   

     Click, clack.  

     Propelled by long strides of cold precision it leaves, the snow parting to give way.   

     Click, clack.   

     Soon shine of the boots disappeared, leaving Jack behind under the shadows of towering buildings of concrete and steel.  

     The twilight wind ushered in the night.