After the events in the snowy wastelands and icy glace, Svobodin sat on the snow, processing everything, is he being haunted by the ghost of all corpses?
"As time passes, I'm losing my mind here..."
He glances at the ring he has on his finger, a sudden idea came on his mind. When he wore the ring, everything became an icy hell.
He tries to remove the ring on his finger, but the hole seemed to be tightened, the ring gripped his finger. The ring keeps getting tighter every time he tries to remove it
"What kind of ring tightens when it tries to be taken off?"
Svobodin asked to himself as he keeps trying to remove the ring from his finger, but eventually, he gave up as the ring was too impossible to be removed. Afterwards, he recollected his mind and thoughts, he then saw the shovel on the ground, it seemed like its the shovel of the frozen corpse, he still took it as a way to defend himself.
He then walked the same way he used to run away from the illusionary horde of frozen humans. After some minutes, he finally arrived the apartment. He descends down the basement stairs with caution in cases that something will jump him from the dark corners.
Yet the basement was silent, the shattered mirror was still in place, and the traumatic memory still lingers within, the fears still remains as he cannot even move forward.
With the loots he gathered from the mall, he also gathered some paper, books and some other art materials, with this item, he created his very own journal, used to take notes the mysteries of the snowy wasteland and the enigmatic ring he has on his finger. Trying to solve the mysteries of the snow with his remaining sanity.
He first want to note of how he will remove the ring from his finger. He tried every method he can, he noted that when he tries to simply remove it, the ring would tighten. He then tried to use other method.
He finds something within the closet and saw an angle grinder on the cabinet, it was a risky move but he then soon tried to cut his way through the ring, yet it cannot even scratch the ring, despite the thin structure of it.
The angle grinder was noted as a failure, but he soon tried to cut his own finger as a way, as the angle grinder was close to cut his finger, the finger froze with crystalized, hardened ice that snapped the disc into half.
"What the? Just... What in the actual god's name is this?"
Svobodin asked to himself as he stared at the ice that slowly melts from his fingers, his eyes widened about the sudden thing he see, did the ring protected his finger so it won't separate from the beholder?
Svobodin cannot find the answers, he wrote it down into his journal. He then realized something, from the footage he got from the camera, he then was frightened.
"Hope I'm wrong. Please..."
He then played the footage once again, repeating it over and over... And realized, the ring was the same as his, the ice that the man from the footage released was also the same hardened crystalized ice that formed in his finger and most importantly... The figure is surely blurry, but the same facial appearance was same as his.
"Oh god... It's me... The footage may be blurry, but everything corresponds towards everything happening to me right now are the same..."
Svobodin slowly losses his mind as he conclude that, he was the madman whom caused the endless snows. He laughed, now knowing why he was being haunted by such things.
...
It was now night, he searched more information about the ring throughout the whole day. He concluded that the ring is similar to the folktale of the monkey paw, yet only one desire can come true and afterwards, everything will fall apart.
Every bits of his sanity, every bits of his own mind, he put it all before losing himself. He filmed his last on the camera, despite knowing that it may become useless, he still hopes that someone will find the notes and footage.
...
"The camera is in record..."
He then prepared himself, his appearance was haggard and full of stress... Messy hair, wrinkled eyes and widened eyes.
"Well then, let's start. I do know that this may become useless but what would be in the future is unknown... Right now its 12:02 in the midnight at the icy wasteland where humans turned into frozen corpse... I may not know what would happen to my body, yet I do hope that it may not cause any havoc in this barren lands..."
Svobodin grabbed the camera and pointed it on the messy table full of crumbled paper and his journal
"I'll Save this journal here for anyone that'll replace me, I want you to solve the mysteries of the snow... This insanity of mine is getting worse each time passes, I swear to god, I see figures extraordinary from this world, the ghost of the innocent haunts me... Please, save this town, and also save my soul that may become stuck in this body, The ring is the cause."
Svobodin ends the recording, His head ached in pain, he sat down to relax himself, his tiredness finally reaching out on him, he was scared on what may happen but, as of he knows, the more he lose his mind, something may come at him, he then took his last blink and fully closed his eyes, sleeping into the dark. He now feels floating in the dark void, as his body woke with a new beholder.
...
...
--The Permafrost story Ends.--