Page 51 of Born of Ice

After she made the move to Masso’s team, her life did a one-eighty and then there was double or even triple the number of interviews and news about them. But always them as a couple. As a brand, because I smell the stench of a PR stunt right away, only there is more to it. It’s as if Electra ceased to exist on her own and she and Erik were attached at the hip.

They did nothing to deny their relationship from the get-go. No, they flaunted it all over, starting in hundreds of commercials and ads together. Giving interviews about their future and how they couldn’t imagine it without each other.

Fucking hell, they were more than just athletes, they were fucking celebrities where their love got turned into some kind of religion. People were following their love story as they do of those in the Hollywood.

Jesus Christ, where the hell is this Prince Charming now? Why isn’t he looking after her with that sickeningly sweet gaze that hewears in these pictures. Where is his tender touch now as it was at the end of their routines on the ice?

And she’s no better. She’s gazing lovingly at that fucker with so much emotion, it makes me sick, or maybe it’s not so much sick as filled with enough rage to wreck everything in my way. Starting with my own laptop that's already crunching under my touch from the force I’m gripping it with.

This is not my Electra. This is Elle. Elle Monroe, the Juliet to his Romeo.

And the knot in my chest tightens with every new picture that pops up. I hate it, I realize. I hate seeing it. I hate knowing she gave herself, her heart, and that smile to someone else.

It’s completely irrational, ridiculous, and stupid to feel what I feel…yet I still do.

I almost slam my computer shut and go take a dip in that freezing lake until I can no longer see their happy faces in front of my eyes when another article catches my attention.

Elle Monroe and Erik Shishkov are to represent United States at the Olympics in Canada.

Holy fuck…

I click on it and the air around me freezes. She was going to go to the Olympics. Just a year from now, she was going to take on the biggest stage out there. Their happy faces staring at me through the screen as they give their interviews about how excited they are and what an amazing program they are developing for it. Electra is animated and so fucking happy, she talks about how this was all her mother wanted for her. To have a loving partner and for her dreams on the ice to come true.

I cast a look toward the closed bedroom door where those shattered dreams now reside. I stare at it with a new understanding until my eyes burn and I close them, taking a deep breath to steady my racing mind and heart and make my fingers finally look up the accident.

What was supposed to be a simple routine turned into a living nightmare for our very own, Electra Monroe and Erik Shishov. I think it’s safe to say the whole world held their trembling breath when we saw Erik’s blade slip right underneath him, bringing him to the ground all while Elle was doing the unspeakable in the air above him.

A twist lift with a triple revolt in the air from a horizontal split. It was something we hadn’t seen done in a while, and from what I gathered it was one they created special for the Olympics. And now they may never get the chance to perform it and earn that well-deserved gold as we all witnessed Elle fall to the ice.

But then our ice princess got up. She got up and the cheers and cries of the crowd could be heard for miles. She was walking, she was fine and running to the love of her life who was unconscious on that ice.

Forget all the romantic movies, that was the greatest testament of love I’ve ever witnessed. The sheer will to get to Erik made her get up, but our sources say that was ultimately Elle’s downfall.

According to the report we have from the doctors treating Electra Monroe, the impact of the fall fractured her sacral bone, but it was when she got up that it snapped in half, paralyzing our star from waist down.

Our sources also say she suffered internal bleeding, a fracture to her left arm and a severe concussion in addition to one of the worst sacral breaks one could get.

Electra was immediately rushed into surgery and is believed to make a full recovery, much to our happiness but are we going to see our favorite couple on the Olympic ice? That’s a question no one has an answer to, but their trainer Filip Masso is hopeful.

Erik Shishkov is said to have suffered minimally with minor bruising and scratching.

We wish our stars a fast recovery and despite the great loss they’ve suffered, at least they have each other.

It feels like I’ve opened the Pandora’s box with this one article because now they keep flooding me, each one screaming with speculations and new findings. And with each one I read, my blood boils more and more.

It goes from eyewitness recounts from that evening to hopeful prognosis articles to speculations about her mental state, their relationship, her sudden disappearance and the announcement of Erik’s new partner.

New. Fucking. Partner. The one he plans to go to Olympics with after all, simply erasing Electra from his perfect picture.

I dig deeper and find that fucker blaming everything and everyone under the sun for that accident—everyone but himself—and I may not be the expert in figure skating but even I can see that it was clearlyhisblade that slipped.

A few articles support him by saying Electra distributed her weight unevenly and it caused him to lose his balance. Some paint him the asshole he is, and some don’t care about the accident but want to know why he’s no longer seen with her.

A memory—conversation—from my first time at Blades blares through my mind.

"I have it from trusted sources that that bastard partner of hers talked her into doing a trick they weren't supposed to right before the dance. Can you guess what trick that was and what was the outcome of it?"

My fingers fly across the keyboard, and the leash I had on my temper snaps. The video of her ultimate fall and that agonizing cry of pain when she collapsed on the ice like a lifeless doll. Because he wasn't there to catch her. He let her down.

---