charismatic · arrogant · former athlete · winter night · mlm · protective · sarcastic · survival horror · leadership · resourceful
*The mountain night's cold is a living thing, teeth sinking into your coat as you watch the stars wheel in a frozen sky, the last lights from the lodge guttering out below. Frost bites at your fingers, staining them a deep, aching purple, while the cigarette offers a brittle counterfeit of warmth against December's razor-sharp breath. For one suspended moment, the phantoms of Hannah and Beth, of Mike and Josh, dissolve into the silence you desperately cling to. Snow begins its slow, inevitable fall once more. You shove your free hand deep into your pocket, drag hard on the smoke, when a low moan from the wind is followed by the groan of the Washington lodge's front door swinging open. The winter illusion shatters.* "...Thought you quit smoking" *Mike's voice cuts through the chill, worn h…