Escape from Frosty Pond

I was a non-believer until the day I witnessed out of this world events...

Frosty pond is not your ordinary pond. It's Situated in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. The famous mystery says that escape artist Dimitri Chenko died there in 1971 performing a never-before-seen trick involving him, a cage, handcuffs and 30ft of water. No one was able to solve the mystery... According to witness accounts a local witch attended the stunt and put a curse on the pond as he was performing it. The pond froze within minutes and has been frozen ever since. Chenko is still considered a missing person and presumed dead. Was he frozen alive in the murky waters of Frosty Pond? I am his nephew, Adrian Balashov. I loved my uncle's work and have watched old movie reels of his performance's countless times. He was a genius in his own right. This inspired me, I'm also an escape artist with the stage name Andre The brave, you may have heard of me and my work with escaping burning structures.

Scientist believe Frosty Pond sits atop an ancient glacier that keeps it frozen. They know they are wrong and struggle to explain the supernatural occurrence. I spent a couple years researching the incident, which included looking for witnesses as well as looking for stories of the same nature. I was lucky enough to find two witnesses and a peculiar story of a woman freezing her husband to death in a bathtub. Was this the witch that created frosty pond?

As it turns out, the witch was a science teacher at a middle school, she was fired for practicing witchcraft when she told students she could teach them how to levitate a cup of water. She was never convicted of her husband’s death due to lack of evidence. She has since passed on. I located one of her daughters that said she might be able to help.

I traveled to the pond for the first time ever in 1996 to see for myself. It was frozen solid even though it was almost summer, and the average temperature in the mountains was 70 degrees. The Shimmering shards of ice atop the pond did not react to the heat of the sun. Everything remained frozen. In the middle of the pond was a gray headstone. I took a cautious step onto the solid surface, creating the familiar sound of ice and snow as it crushes underneath the soles of one's shoes. The air surrounding the pond was frozen as well. Every time I exhaled, I could see my breath, it was as dense as the night fog. I walked my way over to the headstone that was cemented in the ice. It was Dimitri's. In front of the stone was a well-preserved bouquet of red roses. I tried to pick them up but pricked myself from the sharp thorns sticking out from the stems. I quickly pulled my hand back with one of the thorns stuck in my thumb. I looked as it slowly became transparent and began to melt. The thorn was made of Ice. It was the first sign of sorcery.

A male witness that I spoke with who lived in the area at the time, said the Witch (her name was Mary Collins) tossed what looked like a long feather into the pond then walked away. Minutes later the pond began to freeze causing panic. Chenko didn't have a chance as rescue attempts failed. Mary was brought in for questioning and her house was raided. Once again there was little evidence to go by and they had to let her go. Her daughter said she was indeed a witch and was heavy into Greek mythology. Khione- The Greek Goddess of snow, kept coming up in the papers Mary's daughter shared with me. According to one Legend, Khione froze men in their tracks for the intended betrayal of her father Boreas- The Greek God of the cold North. Somehow Mary had been conjuring the spirt and abilities of these gods. I came to Frosty Pond to reverse the curse.

I brought with me everything I had learned. I even hired a medium who could channel the dead. She refused to accompany me to the pond but told me what I was in for. She said it was not a curse but a fixation of time and space. Mary had frozen time, and the space was the pond. I didn't know how any of this worked. The medium said she met with Mary's soul during a channeling session. Mary said the only way to reverse the effect was to Pray to Khione. The medium said this wouldn't work because I was a non-believer. She said the only way to reverse it was to sacrifice a red tail hawk and spill its blood around the headstone. I was skeptical of both methods. I cringed at the thought of the mercy killing. I also did not know how to pray to the gods. It was frustrating deciding between the two but figured if one didn't work then I could try the other. I decided to learn what it meant to pray to the gods. It wasn't an ordinary prayer; it was more like a chant. All that was left to do was convince myself that I believe in Khione and the power of the gods.

I set up camp just outside of the pond and got a good night's rest. At the crack of dawn, I went back to the icy wonder that trapped 25 years of mystery within it. I began to chant and chant and chant. I followed every lesson I taught myself about chanting and conjuring. I was a believer. The simple fact that I was an escape artist made it easy to believe in the supernatural. I give the same type of Illusion to spectators at my performances.

I kept repeating the process for at least 20 minutes until I saw something on the headstone in the middle of the pond. It was a red-tailed hawk. Does this mean it's working? I thought to myself. It was definitely a sign... I didn't let the sighting break my train of thought. I kept going and within another five minutes there was literally dozens of hawks flying around the pond. I kept going. The next thing you know several of them started swooping down at me, screeching as they tried to attack. They were trying to stop me! I kept chanting, getting louder every time until I was screaming it. Then I noticed all the birds went away except one, he was back on the headstone. I stopped the chant. It was dead silence at the pond as I stared at the last remaining hawk. Seconds later I heard cracking. It was coming from the middle of the pond. The cracking amplified and intensified, filling the air with thunderous sound. It was the ice. As the cracks formed, they reminded me of lightning strikes following the path of least resistance. And then the headstone disappeared beneath the ice. My eyes raised wide with wonderment at the sight of it plunging into water. The ice was disappearing at an astonishing rate. It was all gone in a matter of minutes. I sat there stunned, out of breath and perplexed.

It was all over. The pond was restored...

I brought an inflatable raft and scuba gear with me to go searching for my uncle or at least the cage he used. I was walking back to the campsite to get all of it when I heard splashing. I turned around and there was someone in the pond. I ran over to the edge and didn't hesitate to jump in to help. IT WAS CHENKO! He was alive and didn't look a day older than the day he went missing. I didn't hesitate to dive in to help him back to shore. Once we were out of the water, he looked at me with eyes full of disillusion and spoke.

"Who are you? Where is everyone? I don't understand what's going on! Just a minute ago this place was filled with people."

I didn't know how to begin to explain to him everything that had happened. The medium was right, Mary froze space and time. To my uncle only a few minutes had passed, he successfully performed his stunt and freed himself from the cage. But the reality was very very different.

My uncle passed away of natural causes a couple years later but not before completing his escape from Frosty Pond. The curse had stolen 25 years from him. His body must have caught up to the missing time and he died in his sleep. I remain a believer in Khione but will never disturb her again. I am very grateful she answered the call, and the mystery of Frosty Pond was no longer. The story will be told to future generations until it becomes the legend it's always been, but with a much different ending.