Winter Follows

The cold air follows her as she runs across the snowy plains. She is trying her hardest to outrun her pursuers, but she does not exactly blend in with her white background. She ducks behind a tree and begins to bury herself under the snow in an attempt to hide. She holds her breath as she hears them pass her. As her breathing becomes shallow, her vision begins to blur as her body starts losing all feeling. “No, I can’t die here. Please!” She thinks weakly as she desperately tries to cling to life. “Someone help me!” Not only two hours ago, she had been wrapped up tightly in a blanket reading a book, and yet here she is on the verge of a wintery cold death. Of course, this could make anyone start to question their life choices had there been any to make. The events leading up to now were not due to her actions but to her dear departed brothers’ actions.

Rick Shaffer stops for a moment to gather his thoughts. “This does not make any sense at all. I saw her entering this area. She cannot disappear. She is hiding.” He takes his phone out to search and uses his metal detector app. He slowly walks around the area of interest and scans the ground for a metallic object. “All I need is something metal. An earring or a necklace or even a phone itself.” He approaches a tree and scans around it - the phone makes a frenzied sound. Rick puts it away and begins to sweep around the tree with his hand to detect something. He comes across something wiggly yet substantial. “It feels like cartilage. A nose!” He moves huge wads of snow and comes across the pursuee. He scoops up the girl and covers her with his jacket. Rick carries her to his SUV. He has to pry open her slightly frozen mouth to give her some warm tea to help stabilize her body temperature. It was so her system would not go into shock. “It ain’t much, but it is doable.” He climbs onto the front seat and scans for signs of the chasers before igniting the vehicle to take the girl to the hospital.

5 minutes later

The SUV pulls up to the front entrance of the hospital’s emergency department with a screeching halt. Rick enters the hospital with the girl in her arms. “I need some frigging help. This girl has hypothermia.” Nearby staff members run to Rick and take the girl off his hands. The girl and the staff vanish into the emergency hall. Rick exhales deeply and takes a seat in the waiting room. However, he sits up and pats his body as if he is searching for something. “It’s in the SUV,” he mutters to him. He walks back to his SUV and takes it to a more appropriate parking spot before walking back into the hospital. A doctor walks out to find Rick waiting, “Hello, sir, were you the one who brought in the girl earlier?” Rick stands up to shake his hand. “Yes. My name is Rick. Is she okay?”

“I’m afraid she has disappeared. The nurse in charge of watching her left the room only for a moment, and when she returned, the girl was gone. We already have security checking the hospital.” The doctor hesitates before continuing, “I believe she may have left the hospital, which ordinarily shouldn’t be possible, but my staff has checked everywhere.” Rick steps aside to allow two bulky security guards to exit the hospital and search the grounds. “What do you mean ‘disappeared’? As in ‘POOF!’ gone?” The doctor nods, “Basically, sir, it is as if she went ‘poof’ as you put it.”

“Ok, ok, ok - this would be the part where I throw an exasperated fit over the bull that you are feeding me right now. However, the look on your face and the sudden appearance of security guards and nurses is convincing me that you are telling me the truth. Can you take me to the Security Room?” The doctor looks skeptical, “Without proper identification. I cannot allow you access to our security room.”

“I am just concerned about this girl. Can’t you just make an exception?” He shakes his head, “No, sir, I cannot. We will let you know as soon as we have located her.” The doctor leaves Rick in the waiting room area as he continues on his rounds. Rick curses to himself as he walks out of the hospital. He suddenly remembers the security guards who were running around to search the grounds. He struggles to remember the direction, so he takes a shot in the dark and runs to the left. As he turns around a corner, he sees two figures coming towards him. He conducts a quick scan of his environment - there are a few empty parked cars and windows with dark rooms. “Hey, you guys!”

“What is it?” asked one of the security guards. WHAM! BAM! Rick knocks out the guards and pulls them to the nearest parked car to store them inside. He changes into one of the uniforms and sprints back to the hospital. He enters into the security room with the guards' ID card. He scans the multiple screens and notices that there are only a few occupied rooms. “I guess I’ll have to playback the feed for all of these rooms,” he mutters.

Alena was a safe distance away from the hospital. Thankfully she had found her clothes and changed back into them before leaving the hospital.

Rick completes 6 out of the seven screens. “Okay, this last one has to be it.” He plays back until the moment he sees the girl being pulled into the room by a nurse via gurney. He stares at the video - the girl appears to wake up and looks around the room. All of a sudden, a static screen appears for a good second or two, and it disappears. The girl is gone - the window remains closed, and the door is left untouched. The sheets appeared to be left untouched as well. “Who is she?” muttered Rick. “...And why were those goons chasing her?” Rick exits the hospital and enters into his SUV. He takes a moment to contemplate on the girl’s possible location. “She might have returned home. I saw her exiting that house when those guys were chasing after her.” He ignites the engine of the SUV and rushes back to the house.

Alena is making her way through the snow that had begun to fall. She checks her surroundings continuously, worried that she was not safe just yet. She had debated going back to her home, but against her better judgment, she knew that going back was her only option. After leaving in such a hurry, she had not managed to grab anything of use, so she needed to go back. Rick gets closer to the house. He sees a figure approaching the front door; he recognizes the icy blue hair. He slowly pulls the car over to exit out of it. “How did you do that?!” She freezes, hearing the car approaching, and once she hears the voice, that was her cue to speed up her departure. Alena runs into the house, locking the door and runs to her room. She grabs a bag, throwing in anything she thought would be useful and necessary. She holds her bag close and runs down the stairs heading towards the back door. Rick acts fast and heads back into his car. He drives to the opposite side of the house; he is anticipating Alena using the back door. She opens the door and runs directly into the car. “I know this is a cliche - but I am not going to hurt you. In fact -I’m the reason why you woke up in the hospital. Why did you leave?” She has fallen to the ground from the impact, and her ears are ringing. She looks up, seeing Rick but not being able to hear him properly. Alena gets up quickly, moving towards the front door, frightened. Rick quickly turns off the car and leaves to give chase. “I hate to do this, but - ” He grabs hold of Alena. “Listen to me. Please! You can’t stay here! They may come after you. They are probably on their way back to this house. You have to come with me. No! Better yet - disappear somewhere else. Leave the city!” Alena breaks free from his grasp and swiftly kicks him back. “I am not defenseless. I don’t know what my brother did to upset you, but he is no longer among the living. So you will have to take your grievances elsewhere.” Rick collapses from the pain. "Ow! Your brother? I didn't even know you had a brother. I saw you running out of the house with a bunch of guys chasing after you. I followed you all because something did not felt right." Her face becomes blank as she processes all that he just told her. "Unbelievable. You expect me to believe that you are just a good samaritan. You do know-how crazy that sounds. Right?"

"Not as crazy as what that doctor told me. He said that you disappeared from your room. As in 'POOF!' you vanished. I was able to watch the action through a recording. Can you imagine all of the attention you're going to get when that footage goes public? Hiding and running away will become extremely difficult. As far as I know, I am the only one who does not want to hurt you, so you will have to trust me." Alena crosses her arms, stubbornly, "I do not have to trust you or anyone for that matter. My evening went from reading a book to being chased through the December snowfall."

"So, if I were to give you the keys to my car, would you be able to get out of this place and look out for yourself?" She goes quiet once more thinking. As much as she does not want to trust this stranger, he may be her only choice. Alena sighs, "What was your plan?"

"For starters, we should get you out of this city and find some sort of safe house. I have a beach house that is about 30 miles from here. Do you have another house that you can retreat to?"

"The more you talk, the more suspicious you sound." Rick rolls his eyes. He tries to be more understanding despite feeling annoyed. "I am just offering a solution. Now I'll ask again - do you have anywhere else to go?"

"No. I do not currently have anywhere else to go."

"Then we will go to the beach house. Let's just get back in the car." For the time it took for Alena to start trusting Rick, the men from before had found them. The cars were coming up the long driveway. "It's now or never. I am getting the car." Rick sprints back to the SUV and drives up behind Alena. Throughout this entire chase, she had not been able to make one decision of her own. However, when she is left with only two options which were getting caught or go with Rick. She chose to get in the car. "Smart move. Buckle up." Rick hits the gas pedal and drives away from the pursuers. The SUV can handle all terrains, including snow; the pursuers were driving sedans. Rick and Alena were able to get away with ease. "It's a good thing that I didn't choose the Camaro. I am sure we lost them. There is no way they will get out of that snow without leaving their cars." The duo enters a highway. "I'm Rick, by the way."

"Alena."