For those of you who have read the short story version, I assure you that this is the only chapter that will resemble it. This is because the novel version starts out the same way, but as you can see, I have made some changes. All proceeding chapters will be completely new, and will follow the new plotline I've developed. So yes, the search for Alyssa has now become a struggle of epic proportions. Fun stuff, right?

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Crystal loved snowflakes. She loved the way they swirled down from the heavens, coating the ground in white bliss; the way that each individual snowflake seemed insignificant, but was part of something much more beautiful and grand. Maybe that was why she came to this cabin every winter, tucked away in a hushed forest. Just to be away from everything and everyone, to be seemingly insignificant like a single snowflake. Here she felt as if she were nothing and everything at once.

As she sat there near the window, staring at the snowfall outside, these thoughts went through her mind. They were coherent at first, crisp and clear as if she were speaking her mind aloud, but they were soon muddled into fleeting images and broken phrases, finally settling into a rushing sense of joy. This was her love for winter. In winter she felt safe, surrounded by blankets of snow. And winter was even more beautiful here in the forest, where the snow lay undisturbed by the activities of human life. It was peace. It was happiness. It was home.

Crystal rose from her seat by the window and stretched her arms out wide. She watched the last of the fog her breath had made disappear from the window’s surface, and felt the warmth of the living room’s crackling fire on her back. The drowsiness that had built up while she was sitting finally caught up with her, and she felt her eyes heavy with sleep. Time for bed.

Walking across the barren hallway to her bedroom, she slid her hand across the wall’s smooth wooden surface, enjoying its cooling feel on her fingertips. She never bothered to decorate the place when she came. It was better pure. She knew that if she ever put up some ornate wall hangings or even a small figurine or two on the shelf over the fireplace, the cabin would lose its special meaning. It would become something artificial. She knew it was silly to think this way, but it was how she felt.

The door to the bedroom was open a crack, and she peeked inside to find Alyssa looking through a thin hardback book while she lay on bed by the table light. Crystal opened the door a little wider, and it creaked. Alyssa looked up from her book and smiled.

“Hi, Mama,” she said, sliding the book underneath her pillow.

“Hey, sweetie,” said Crystal, making her way over to the bed, “Ready to sleep yet?”

“Can I hear a bedtime story first?”

“You’re not too tired?” Crystal laughed. “Besides, Daddy’s coming home tomorrow morning. Don’t you want to be wide awake when he gets here?” Alyssa fell silent.

“Alyssa?” she asked, unsure if her daughter had heard her. Alyssa still didn’t respond, and only looked down at her lap. “Alyssa, what’s wrong?” After a while Alyssa looked up at her mother, her face solemn.

“Does Daddy have to come home?”

She put her hand on Alyssa’s cheek and looked into her eyes; Crystal knew what was coming.

“What do you mean?” asked Crystal, her voice wavering slightly, “Why wouldn’t you want Daddy to come home?” Before she answered, Crystal saw fear flicker in her daughter’s eyes.

“Because he hurts you.”

It was as if someone had dumped a pitcher of scalding hot water all over Crystal’s body.

“No,” she replied, feeling like she was drowning in her own words. “Daddy doesn’t hurt me, Alyssa. He doesn’t.”

“I see you crying at night,” said Alyssa.

Her vision blurred. How had she let her know? She felt so stupid. Just because Alyssa was always behind a closed door doesn’t mean she didn’t know. It didn’t mean she couldn’t hear the noises: the yells and screams, her pleas for him to stop, the sound of impact as he struck her. It was obvious to anyone who knew her what was going on. And Crystal thought she could keep it a secret from her seven year old daughter. She tried to compose herself, tried to keep her head from spinning. “Mama, what’s wrong?” She heard through the haze, and that was enough to snap her back. She took Alyssa in her arms, shaking her head.

“No, he doesn’t hurt me,” she said softly, hugging her daughter tightly. “He doesn’t.” Crystal just held her daughter that way for a while, rocking back and forth. When she let go, she saw the confused look on her daughter’s face. “Just forget it, Alyssa,” She said soothingly, running a hand through her hair. “Let me tell you that bedtime story. Any one you want.”

A Knock.

Crystal hesistated. Who could be knocking this late? Alyssa tugged at her mother's robe. "Is that Daddy?"

Crystal gently laid her daughter down on the pillow. "No, it's not. Just stay here for a second, and then I'll come back and tell you the story." She pulled her night robe as tightly as she could around her as she walked up to the front door of the cabin. The floors creaked oddly. She had never noticed it before.

Crystal leaned up and looked through the eyehole. There was no one standing outside, just the cold winter night. Crystal went over and pulled the window drapes open as well. Still no one. Then, just as she was about to go back to her bedroom, she heard another knock come from the other side of the cabin, this time louder. She froze. What on earth could it be? Slowly she walked over to the window across the room. She only dared pull the curtains back a fraction of an inch. Again she saw nothing or no one that could have made the noise.

She shivered. It seemed to have got colder all of a sudden, and Crystal noticed that the fire in the living room had died down to a smolder. Only minutes ago it was a roaring flame. Another noise met her ears. It was the rattling of a doorknob. Crystal spun around to face the front door again, and saw with horror that someone was trying to open it. Her thoughts came to a complete halt. Her senses were blocked. She could hear nothing, feel nothing. It was as if someone had pressed pause on her and her alone. All she could see was the knob of the door, shaking from side to side. In the middle of the forest, and in the middle of the night, who the hell on this beautiful green earth could be trying to come into the cabin? She knew it couldn’t be Jerry. No matter how drunk he got, he would always call first. Always.

Suddenly the doorknob stopped moving. She stared for a few more seconds before she realized that the person was no longer trying to come in through the front door. She thanked God with all her heart that she had remembered to lock the door that night. And as if she had been holding her breath, her senses rushed back into her like a deep inhale of air. One thought held her firm to reality.

She had to protect Alyssa.

With adrenaline surging through her, she ran to the closet opposite her bedroom door and thrust it open. As the dust lifted at her feet she pulled back the large winter coats that hung about her until she could see the wall. The silver handle of a safe met her eyes, and she quickly began to turn the combination into it. Long ago Jerry had stored a gun for emergency. It had to be in here.

Fifteen. Twenty-seven. Four. A click.

With sweaty hands she opened the safe, and it creaked loudly, heavy with years of age. In it lay a single black pistol, loaded. Trembling slightly, Crystal grasped it in her hands. For a second she hesitated, but then the thought of Alyssa laying in the room behind her came back into focus. She pulled the gun out and shut the safe.

Crystal held the gun in front of her a little unsteadily, and pointed it at the door. The knob hadn’t started rattling again, but she knew that whoever it was could come back. She would be ready if he did.

"Mama?" she heard from the bedroom. It was Alyssa. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing," Crystal shouted back, trying to keep her voice level. "Just one second."

When she reached the door again, she was trembling more than ever. After a few minutes, or what seemed like an eternity to Crystal, the knob remained still. She could feel her heart pounding inside of her. She felt the blood flow in every vein in her body. If the door were to suddenly burst open that second, Crystal knew she would have no choice but to pull the trigger. But it frightened her, seeing the pitch black gun in her hands. She felt as if she was watching someone else hold the gun, because she could barely feel it. She hardly felt anything at all at that moment, except for the steady pumping of her heart.

A loud noise. Shattering of glass. She jumped back, but didn’t pull the trigger. It wasn’t the door that burst, but the lights. One by one every light bulb in the house exploded, starting with the one directly above Crystal’s head. She fell, the image of showering sparks burned into her retinas. The house fell into complete darkness. She landed hard on her back, and the wind was knocked out of her. Her blood pumped more furiously than ever, and she felt a cold sweat break out over her entire body. The image of her daughter seemed to form in the darkness above her. Fear. Sickening and absolute fear.

Seconds passed by, or was it hours. Crystal didn’t care anymore. All she wanted was to run to her daughter’s room and embrace her tightly and never let go. She would shield her from anything that threatened to hurt them. Crystal would have to be shred piece by piece if they ever wanted to get to Alyssa.

As she turned on her stomach, she was faintly aware of the gun still held tight in her hand. To her surprise, one light hadn’t gone out. It was the table light in the room where Alyssa was sleeping. The light shown through the crack underneath the bedroom door. She hadn’t remembered closing it.

Crystal stood up, completely focused on the ray of light coming from the bedroom. She felt like she was in a dream as she walked down the hallway, and the light seemed to stretch farther and farther away from her reach. Somehow she managed to reach it, and groped for the doorknob in the dark. She noticed her hand shaking violently. Feeling across the door’s surface, her hand finally grasped the doorknob, and she held her other hand out in front of her face, ready to shoot if she needed to. There was a window in her room, and she feared the worst.

She turned the knob and started to push the door open. Its creaking overpowered her senses, seeming as loud as a stereo blasting in her face. The door swung open, and light flooded into the hallway.

At first Crystal couldn’t understand what she was seeing. Alyssa was standing on the bed. She braced herself with her back against the wall, and Crystal saw tears streaming down her face. Alyssa turned and said something to her, but she couldn’t hear what. Her senses were shot again. But then Alyssa turned her gaze away from her mother, and Crystal saw that she was staring at something in the corner of the room. Despite the intense light, one corner of the room was somehow in shadows, and she thought she saw Alyssa scream as she pointed to it.

A man stepped out of the shadows.

He was dressed in a white tuxedo, with shoes to match. Part of his face was still hidden in the darkness, but Crystal could still see his smile.

Before Crystal could react, the man ran and leapt at her. But as he came closer, something happened to him. The suit he wore seemed to stretch and flow, engulfing his entire body. He became a mass of white, hurtling towards her like pale death.

The gun fell from her hand, making a thud against the wooden floor. She was pinned. Crystal was now sure that this had to be a dream. She was staring into the face of a white tiger, its claws digging into the flesh around her shoulders. Its enormous weight was crushing her, and she couldn’t even scream. She simply looked into the monster’s bright blue eyes. Crystal never knew that eyes so blue could exist. And to add to her insanity, she could swear the tiger began to speak with her. Its lips didn’t move, but she heard a distinct voice, ringing clear through the barrier of her senses.

The girl is ours now.

The white tiger released Crystal from its grip, and went back down on all fours. It began to bare its teeth. They were the clearest white imaginable, and looked sharp enough to easily pierce the roughest leather. She felt someone grab her arm. Her other arm. Something grabbed her ankle as well. In a matter of seconds, invisible hands had grasped every part of Crystal’s body.

They were taking her over. Their hands spread over her like black jelly. It was freezing. The tiger walked back into the bedroom, and positioned itself in front of the bed. Alyssa let out another horrifying scream. The tiger bent down low, baring its claws and teeth.

And then it leapt at her.

A surge of life exploded inside Crystal's body. The jelly had come to her face now, and had almost covered her completely. Suddenly, she found her voice.

"No!"