"You'd better. Be careful."
She tossed an enticing grin over her shoulder before bouncing back over to Danielle and Kathleen. She sat on Frosty's stomach, a smug look on her beautiful face as snow fell to coat her hair, and clothes.
"Don't be too long!" Kathleen called after them. "It's going to get dark fast tonight!"
"We won't!" Mike yelled back.
They trudged through the knee-high snow into the woods. "I guess it's all right you told her," Jack said after a while. "She is kind of cool."
"She's more than cool," Mike joked. "She's hot."
"Oh yeah," Jack said eagerly. "She is definitely hot."
"Don't make me have to threaten to kill you again," Liam replied as some of the tension left his body.
"You might have too," Doug said as he slapped Jack on the arm. "I think he's in love."
They all laughed as they trudged their way up the mountain.
Sera clapped the excess snow off her gloves and stepped back to look at their three massive snowballs. The snow was coming down faster, and the wind had risen to a thunderous crescendo. Branches cracked loudly as the trees bent and swayed from the force of the gale.
Her hands and feet had long ago gone numb, and her hair was a tangled, wet mass. Kathleen and Danielle had already gone inside to warm up. Sera knew she should go before her feet froze in the snow, but she couldn't stop staring into the woods.
She turned and headed back to the cabin. She wasn't going to make them magically reappear by standing there and staring. She wiped the snow out of her eyes as she pushed back an annoying piece of hair whipping across her face. "Hello!"
Sera almost fell over as she spun awkwardly around. A young girl waved to her from the edge of the forest. Sera waved back as the girl made her way forward, the snowshoes strapped to her feet made her journey easier. Sera stared in amazement and curiosity. She didn't know what could bring someone out in these conditions. The girl stopped before her; her black hair billowing in the wind contrasted sharply with the white surrounding them.
"Hi," Sera greeted in disbelief.
The tiny girl was amazingly beautiful. She had striking features that were delicate and sweet. Her nose was small and sloping, her full lips a deep blood red color. Her eyes were shimmering, blindingly brilliant, emerald orbs. Sera stared at her in amazement, and the girl stared back with a smile on her pouting lips. She was small and petite, at most she was five three, and only weighed a hundred pounds with all her snow gear.
"What are you doing out here?" Sera asked worriedly. "Is everything all right?"
The girl laughed easily, a sweet, tinkling sound that carried through the air. "Oh, yes," she said happily. "I live in the cabin about a mile down the road. I was going stir crazy, so I decided to go for a walk."
"Well, why don't you come inside and have some hot chocolate with my friends and me?"
"Oh, who are your friends? Maybe I know them."
"Kathleen's parents own the cabin, and she's inside with Danielle now. A few of our other friends went for a walk."
The girl studied her before she turned to look at the woods. "A walk, huh?" Something flickered over her delicate features that caused a chill to run up Sera's spine. The girl smiled as she shook back her midnight hair. "No, that's all right. I was heading to my friend's cabin. They'll be worried if I don't show up. Maybe I'll stop on my way back."
Sera felt as if there was something wrong with this girl, but she didn't know what, and she couldn't just let her walk through a blizzard without trying to help her. "Are you sure you don't want to come in and warm up for a couple of minutes first?"
"No, I really should be going. My name's Elizabeth by the way, but everyone calls me Beth," she said as she extended a small, gloved hand.
"Serendipity, but everyone calls me Sera. It's nice to meet you."
"That's unusual, pretty though. It's nice to meet you too."
"Thanks. Have a safe walk."
"I will. Have a good day."
Sera hurried back to the cabin and climbed the steps. She swung the back door open and stomped the snow from her boots as she pulled her gloves off. She stripped her jacket off and hurried into the warm kitchen. Danielle and Kathleen were sipping hot chocolate and bickering over a crossword puzzle as they sat at the island.
"They back yet?" Kathleen asked.
"No, not yet."
"For not wanting to go very far, they've been gone a while," Danielle said.
"Well over an hour," Kathleen muttered.
Sera poured a mug of hot chocolate and held it in her numbed hands to help warm them up. "They'll be back soon," she said as she took a sip.
"I hope so; it will be night soon."
Sera moved over to the island and stared unseeingly at the crossword. The heat was rapidly sinking into her as shooting pains lanced through her numbed fingers. "I just met a neighbor of yours," she said to Kathleen.
Kathleen frowned as she lifted her head from the puzzle. "A neighbor?" she asked. "Where?"
"Out back, after you guys came inside. She was walking through the woods."
Kathleen plopped her pen on the counter. "We don't have any neighbors, Sera."
Sera frowned as she took a sip of her hot chocolate. "She said she was from a cabin about a mile down the road."
Kathleen chewed on her bottom lip as she glanced back at Sera. "That's funny."
"Why?"
"Well, that would be the old McDonald place. His wife died last
