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Even though this came too late, he had finally realized that everything did move in smaller and smaller circles. Patterns repeated at every single moment that they could. How could he have not seen it earlier? Seconds would turn into minutes would turn into hours would turn into days would turn into weeks would turn into months would turn into years... Until finally, decades passed. He wondered if he had grown even the least bit older in his three decade long respite from life. He wondered if his fingers could still move from the ice cold surroundings... Did his lungs still take in air? Did his brain still function?

Did his heart still beat?

That was his real question. When he woke up, would he ever remember this? Would he ever remember? Would he ever remember?

He could go on forever... He just knew that soon enough his decades would return to just years would return to just months would return to just weeks would return to just days would return to just hours would return to just minutes would return to just seconds. Smaller and smaller circles.

Would he remember?

It was bright everywhere around him. The light reflected off the snow in such a way that everything looked like a million suns. He felt his bones go brittle as the sun melted some of the ice. But he knew it wouldn't last long. In fact, he knew that it would take exactly seventeen seconds for the water to refreeze and return him into the soothing state he had been in earlier. And the cycle would restart in twenty seconds. And it would restart again and it would restart again and it would restart again and it would restart again and it would restart again and it would restart again and it would restart again and it would restart again and it would restart again.

Would he remember this when he is finally unfrozen?

Sometimes the sky would light up in a myriad of colors. So many colors. So many. It was brighter than the sun, yet more subtle than a rainbow that formed in the misty morning. Its colors would move in waves, much like the ones in the sea. Sometimes it looked like it was playing with the immeasurable stars. On others it seemed like a blanket that attempted to warm the fireballs. It would light up for hours but he saw it for longer, as the lights seemed to be trapped in his clear and cold enclosure. It would dance around his eyes for seconds that turned into minutes that turned into hours that turned into days. But then. in a blink of an eye, it would disappear. And he wouldn't see these heavenly lights for another month. But then, it returned. like the sun and the temperature. And it was a cycle. And it would restart again and it would restart again and it would restart again and it would restart again and it would restart again and it would restart again and it would restart again and it would restart again and it would restart again.

Would he remember this when he is freed from the prison he learned to love?

Such is the life of a Frozen Man.

But one day, finally they all stopped. He stopped being unfrozen and refrozen. The lights never disappeared, but that was only because they never appeared in the first place. He couldn't see the stars either. They were just gone. His unblinking eyes had missed it. Missed everything as it sped by. And finally, his reprieve was taken. His seconds were just seconds. His days just days. His years just years.

And he did not need to remember. He didn't. In fact, he forgot. He forgot the feeling of being brittle, he forgot the sun that shown every so often, he forgot the lights, he forgot the prison he learned to love. He forgot.

He didn't remember. He didn't remember. He didn't remember.

Such was the life of a Frozen Man.


The idea of the story came out from behind me and startled me with its breadth. This story has gone through at least 3 versions. If you wish to see any of them, feel free to PM me, and I will send it to you xD