Winter Wonderland

The smell of snow and cold finally hit my nose while I turned to see the tall dark mountains that were covered in ice, we walked following the others on the path as the blizzard brushed against our heads.

The clouds were the color grey, if you would ask anyone here based on the weather it looked like it was 7 in the night but the actual time was 10 in the morning.

“Come one everyone! Just a little longer, we’re almost there!” The camp’s counsel said.

Josh turned his head towards me with an annoyed look on his face, “Jezz Macy, why did you bring us on this stupid trip? This guy just doesn’t stop talking and it’s aggravating.” He whispered.

“We’re on this ‘stuupid’ trip because our marriage is falling apart....” I sighed.

“You’re being ridiculous, our marriage is doing just fine.” I sighed louder in frustration not bothering anymore with Josh. He just wouldn’t listen. A shed of tears slipped through my freezing eyes as my mind lost it. What if this doesn’t work? What if our marriage fails? The truth was I wanted the marriage to work but I wasn’t trying why? I didn’t know and if I had to go through hell just to save my marriage, so be it.

We finally reached the main lodge as we hurried inside the place was huge like a winter hotel but smaller. It was covered in thick dark rugs as the brown wood made it feel very at home. Unlike the outdoors, the inside of the lodge was very warm since there was a fireplace lit on.

Standing next to us were 4 other couples, they had looked very tired and hungry since we had been on foot since 7 in the morning. My stomach growled as we hadn’t had anything to eat since then, and being in all honest, I just wanted to eat and take a nap.

“Alright, welcome, everyone!” The Man said. He smiled as he had a t-shirt and jeans on, “I’m Walter, The owner of this fine camp.” He turns to the camp counsel that brought us here, “This gentleman here is Pete, my assistant.” He pointed to the chairs lying at the right corner of the lodge. The chairs were divided by two for each marriage. The other couples followed his finger to the chairs as they sat down.

Josh and I made it to the back as his face looked bored and stoned, I sighed as I knew he probably had a smoke during breakfast before coming here, no wonder he was annoyed so much, Josh wasn’t the most pleasant guy when he was getting or was stoned.

“Now, I just want to say the fact your here means you want to make your marriages work. During this counseling, we are going to help you so that your marriage can be like it was before, now the main key to a successful marriage is hard work, is everyone willing to do that?” Pete said. The couples all nodded including Josh, I wasn’t sure if he actually meant it or he just wanted to get through this quickly.

“Shouldn’t there be more...counsels?” Asked one lady. From what I had remember earlier today, her name was Belle.

“Yes..your right. The other counsels will be here soon, their flight got delayed due to the storm.” Walter said.

Pete step forward and came into view in our direction, “Alright guys! Before you get going we have our first assignment right now.” Belle and her husband, Sila looked towards Pete confused.

“First assignment right now?” She blurted.

“Shouldn’t we find the cabins or get something to eat? I’m starved!” Silas said.

“Yes that’s the thing, your first assignment is to find your cabins, you as a couple will work together to find it and when you do there will be a fridge packed with your lunch to eat.” Some of the couples sighed in exhaustion as the rest were eager to get food.

“And what if we get lost? How are we gonna find the cabins?” Another man by the name of Ethan said.

“Oh! Don’t worry we got you covered!” Pete said.

“Good luck!” Walter cheered.

Everyone got off the chairs as we were handed maps from Pete allowing us some help to find the cabins, some of the couples sighed in relief, no one wanted to spend hours and hours trying to find a cabin especially since there was a light blizzard outside.

Josh and I headed out of the lodge and back into the cold blizzard, I pulled my jacket on tightly to keep myself warm as best as I could.

“Alright, Macy, according to this freakin’ map, the cabins are located...in Frostbite Woods.” I turned to Josh had been already studying the map as I tried to glace over.

“And how far away is Frostbite Woods?”

“About...2 hours..” Two hours? I never thought the cabins would be that far from the lodge. Why did they have the cabins so far when they could have been close to the lodge to make it easier? Was this a way to try and make marriage get closer? Would this help my marriage?

“Is there a shortcut?” Josh shook his head.

“I doubt it, Macy..” He mumbled.

We continued to walk through the snow for half an hour as I looked around, the blizzard made it kinda hard to see where we were going since the grey in the sky was now an ugly color of dark grey as fog formed the deeper we went as I wasn’t able to see the other couples. I wondered how far they went so far or if they were working together or fighting?

“Josh, can I take a look at the map?” Josh snorted, I looked at him a little hurt at the fact he was being an ass, “What? What did I say?”

“Baby, you’re no good with maps, remember the time you said you knew where that mall you wanted to go to was and got lost on the road for 6 hours straights...I think it’s best if I keep the map.” I clenched my teeth at the fact that Josh didn’t trust me enough to at least let me look, yeah he was definitely being an ass.

“You know you could at least let me look at it? Are you doing this marriage by yourself or am I not part of it too? You forget Walter and Pete want us to WORK TOGETHER or did you not understand?”

“Jesus, Macy! You don’t have to fucking yell! I just think it’s not a good idea to leave the map in your hands.” You felt a sharp pain hit your heart as you squeezed your eyes shut tightly.

“So, you think I can’t find the cabins? Is that it?”

“Macy...”

“Fine! If you don’t want to work as a team then you can find the cabin yourself!” I yelled. Josh quickly shouted for me to come back but I didn’t listen I just walked away from Josh as I moved through the snow trying to find the cabin myself. Or was it to be far from Josh? I sighed as I walked 3 miles down the snow that I was being stupid.

I had also realized I was too late as I had no idea where Josh was, I had realized even more that he was right.

The blizzard slowly went down as now the fog got thicker and now the blizzard had stopped completely letting now cold rain hit the ground.

I jumped in shock as my skin felt chills from the icy rain but I looked around as I heard the sound of what sounded like an animal from the trees. I needed to quickly get out of here. I started to run as fast as I could while my head got soaked but the cold was too much.

I wandered towards a tree that was thick so the rain wouldn’t be so bad as I stood under it, I quickly reached into my pocket as I had a lighter in it.

I lit the flames on the lighter moving it around the area, I was scared, lost, and all alone, I shined the flame around near the tree as I noticed a word carved deep into it.

RIP

RIP? Did someone die by this tree? It looked like there were more words but it was too light to read.

After seeing those words I started to feel chills on my neck as my breathing increased dramatically, I suddenly heard footsteps coming closer towards me as my skin started to feel tight and sweaty. I swallowed hard as I looked at both sides before running.

It didn’t take long as I ran before I ran to something or someone before they grabbed me, scared out of my mind, I screamed. I screamed before I realize due to the fear I had the lighter slip into the snow, the lighter was off since it wouldn’t work with the rain.

“It’s just me, Macy..calm the fuck down, baby!” It was Josh, I sighed in relief as I wrapped my arms around him holding him close to me as my body was shaken, he wrapped his arms around me as his face looked confused and relieved that was ok.

“Josh...I’m sorry!” You shrieked, Josh sighed as he rubbed my back in circles trying to calm me down as my tears covered his jacket.

“I came to get you. Do you know how fucking worried I was? Jesus, Macy. We’re in the middle of freezing weather, what if you end up fucking hurting yourself, Macy?” Josh usually didn’t cuss this much unless he was scared or angry.

“I was stupid...” I took a piece of my hair twirling my finger through it, whenever I was scared I would twirl my hair into curls, I didn’t know why but it would help try to keep me calm.

“Josh sighed, “You’re not stupid, you’re just...sometimes..reckless...now come on we need to go, it’s like quarter to 1.” My eyes widen as I realized it had been almost 3 hours since you started looking for the cabin, Josh reached out his hand to me as I took it following him, I wasn’t gonna argue this time, I just want to find the cabin and go to sleep, the whole thing had gotten me shook up that I wasn’t even hungry anymore.

Josh and I hurried through the foggy air as I could hear footsteps not too far away from us my mind couldn’t register what was happening as we hurried to look for the cabin. Would we find out? This whole snow felt like eternal as if we would never get there.

“Alright, we’re here,” Josh whispered.

I looked around to see 6 cabins in total, 3 were on the left side and 3 others were on the right. I looked up looking at the bigger cabin-like lodge. I wondered what that big cabin was used for?

I walked over to the left side with the cabins as I saw one of them had a sign that said taken on it.

“Look’s like when you get to the cabins, you’re supposed to put a sign up letting the others know that cabin is being used,” Josh said. You nod.

“It looks like this one is empty? You want this cabin, babe?” I asked. Josh walked over to me slipping his arm around me bring me towards me as he stared.

“Yeah, this will do. Come on, let’s hurry.”

You followed along with him and went straight inside the cabin. You were shocked to see that there was no fireplace but, as you walked further into the cabin, all you saw was a fridge like Pete said, a bed but no bedroom, a bathroom, a radio attached to the cabin wall, and a table to eat. Was this a joke?

“Well, damn, I didn’t think the cabins would be..”

“Small...” I whispered.

“Yeah..why are the cabins so freakin’ small?” Josh grumbled.

“Hey, everyone! I hope your settling in nicely.” A voice came from the radio. It was Walter. I walked over to the radio, and I noticed a button that read ‘press to speak.’ on it.

Josh and I walked over to the radio, “Hey, Walter? Why the hell are the cabins so..”

“Small? Well, this is just for the beginning. You will all start off at these small cabins.” Josh and I looked at each other completely lost.

“Start off?” I asked.

“Yes, start off, when all of you do well, you can stay at the luxury cabin close by, tho you may stay there for activities and hang out but, you may NOT sleep there, do you understand everything?”

“Yes, we got everything, Walter...”

“Good. See you all tonight! Be at the luxury cabin at 6 ok? See you soon!” With that, the radio went off as we realized he was gone.

“Alright, since that’s all done, I forgot to ask when I found you earlier, I saw you drop what looked like a lighter.” I turned to face Josh as I gulped. “Was that my lighter? You never have used it before, why did you have it, Macy? Are you smoking now?“Josh’s face was a mixture of expression as they held concern, anger, and confusion.

Before I got a chance to answer, a knock was heard from the door, Josh walked over to the door opening it to see Belle and Silas standing there.

“Hey, what brings you two here?” Josh asked.

“So I’m guessing you got the radio call from Walter then...”

“Oh yeah, big time..well, this is gonna be strange and crazy that’s for sure. Is that why you wanted to come by for or?...” Belle and Sila’s faces suddenly changed after that as a scared looked appeared on their face.

“Actually that’s not the full reason we wanted you guys to help.”

“Josh looked at Belle confused, “Help? With what?”

“One of the couples isn’t here yet.”