Part One
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 small picture 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 her picture 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.”
After a few moments the confusion left Alyssa’s expression, and her face lit up, her eyes twinkling.
“Even Snow Princess?”
“Yes, even Snow Princess,” repeated Crystal, giving a silent sigh of relief. This wasn’t the time to explain things to Alyssa. She would eventually, but not now. Definitely not now.
Although she never told anyone this, the tale of the Snow Princess was Crystal’s favorite. Ever since she had first heard it from her mother as a little girl, she had fallen in love with the story of the beautiful mistress who governed all of winter. She must have told it to her own daughter dozens of times already, but nonetheless she began it again, with just as much enthusiasm as the first time she spun it, despite how she felt at the moment.
The Snow Princess was a dazzling beauty with skin as white as the snow itself. She walked through the forests in a wondrous light, only hovering just above the snow, leaving no trace of her travels. She was the very soul of winter. She protected all living things from the demons that lived in the shadows and in human hearts. The Snow Princess reflected all the beauty of winter, while the demons symbolized the bitter cold that winter brought. But in the struggle for good, the Snow Princess was always victorious. And she was not just winter’s protector, but the very thing that gave it life. There was not a snowflake that fell without having the life breathed into it by the Snow Princess. Without her winter would be nothing. The snows would cease to fall, and all the ice would melt away forever. And Crystal knew that if such a person ever existed, she would owe her everything for preserving the thing that gave her joy. Winter.
“And do you know what her real name is?” she asked, stroking her daughter’s long brown hair.
“She has a name?” said Alyssa, her eyes fluttering in and out of sleep. “You never told me that.”
“Because it’s a secret,” said Crystal. “My mother told it to me when I was about your age, and she said that no matter how bad things seemed, if you called her name in the winter air, the Snow Princess would always come to help.”
“What is it?” said Alyssa, her eyes suddenly bright again.
“Her name is Coventina.” The Snow Princess’ name hung in the air for a moment, and she always felt a sense of comfort whenever she said it.
“Coventina,” muttered Alyssa, and her eyes closed as sleep finally overcame her. Crystal lowered and gave Alyssa a gentle kiss on the forehead, and then laid her own tired head on the pillows and shut her eyes as well. She tried to fight back the tears that had been mounting inside her for the last few minutes, and tried to block it out of her head. She wasn’t a horrible mother. She loved her daughter with all her heart. It wasn’t her fault. But Crystal knew it wasn’t enough.
A Knock.
Her eyes shot open again. Crystal sat up in the bed, startled. The knock had been loud, and it seemed to have come from the front door. As careful as she could, she got up from under the bed covers, trying not to disturb Alyssa. She pulled her night robe as tightly as she could around her as she walked up to the front door of the cabin and looked through the eye hole. 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 sleeping in the room behind her came back into her 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.
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 awake now, standing on the bed. She had 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.
Before Crystal could react, something had leapt from the shadows with inhuman speed, and pinned her against the wall. She felt the gun fall from her hand, making a thud against the wooden floor. 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. Leave.
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, and she was lifted into the air. She didn’t struggle. Paralysis seemed to grip her entire body. They were taking her away. Away from Alyssa. She couldn’t even move her head to look down at her daughter for one last time. Besides, the invisible hands had already carried her into the living room. The front door swung open violently, and the frigid winter air came rushing into the cabin. Crystal had never felt such a breeze before in her life. With a huge thrust she was thrown out of the cabin into the open air. Although she couldn’t feel anything, her eyes were wide open, and she saw the sky with such clarity that it frightened her. Time slowed to a near halt as she soared through the air, and every snowflake and dark cloud was burned into her memory forever. Complete helplessness, absolute and utter exposure.
Time then accelerated as she collided with a tree. Her sensations returned, starting with pain. She slumped down into the snow beneath her, becoming a mass of hair and body. A trickle of blood ran down her cheek. Through the searing pain, Crystal opened her eyes. The cabin was gone. All that remained was a patch of bare dirt.
As the snow continued to fall upon Crystal’s limp body, the howling winds ceased. For a moment all was still, and the only thing she could hear was the sound of her own sobs. Crystal knew that soon the falling snow would cover the patch of brown dirt where the cabin had been, leaving no trace it had ever been there. No trace at all, even of a small seven year old girl named Alyssa.
What do you think? Please feel free to shred it apart. 
You know the drill- feel free to PM if you've got any questions...or when the next chapter's up.
Points: 890
Reviews: 514
Donate