It was calling to her, in the woods. A house made of logs, made from hands and axes. Her slender digits brush lightly against the wood, her palm searching for -

Yes

- memories of a family, a father and mother. A brother and sister.

Laughter and softness and play dance in her memories and she focuses on the children. They have brown hair and brown eyes and they are beautiful. The girl is exceptionally lovely - no - gorgeous, and the boy is older, handsome and lithe in his youth.

They leave the cabin and she follows, bare feet picking up remnants of old memories like an overgrown, forgotten trail. Laughing and crying all the way to a pond. It's surface looks like ice, but that can't be right because its almost summer.

Tooth stops as she feels a scream ricochet through her and then suddenly it's -

dark and cold and -

she's alone.

Aster sat in class tapping his pencil impatiently. Tooth was absent again. She had missed the Saturday club meeting, school on Monday, and now today.

Shifting to lean forward the pencil end moved to his mouth and his eyes stared beyond the chalkboard, brow furrowed.

Maybe she was sick but how serious would it have to be for her to not text? Even her boyfriend ol' Nick didn't know and if she wasn't talking to Nicholas North, the boy she never stopped calling the entire summer, then they had a problem

A shrill ringing sounded out and everyone jumped up at the sametime as the teacher tried to finish talking about tomorrow's assignment.

Aster quickly shoved his books in his backpack.

Despite his efforts to pack up his pencil rolled off his desk, tinkling in its small wooden way. Stifling a frustrated curse he finishes shoving his stuff in before turning to find his pencil already at hand level.

A girl about his age was holding it out to him and he took it with a thanks. She smiled, he was absolutely sure she smiled before he raced out the door, but he found himself in the hallway, still as stone.

She had called out a 'welcome' but her voice.

It wasn't right.

The tones wavered, two different voices, pitches, speech quality, even age, but -

- there had only been one girl and the words were the same.

Whipping around he raced inside the classroom only to find his teacher flipping through some papers.

The girl was gone and she hadn't passed him.

As he turns, to leave he feels his phone vibrate. Sneaking a look in the crowded hallways he sees that it's Tooth calling, so he passes by his locker and hurries to his beat up little car and flips open his phone on her second call.

"Tooth?!"

Driving to the hospital he races up to her floor, choosing to take the stairs instead of the elevator to work out some of the jittery energy he had running through his had sounded fine but she was in the hospital.

Bursting into her room with a little more force than necessary he sees her on her laptop, decorated with a myriad of colorful magazine cutouts and stickers. She barely startles, barely even looked up when he barreled in, gesturing instead for him to sit on the end of her bed.

"Okay, so I went to the house in the woods and well I got hypothermia which is how I ended up here but anyway I thought we should all go together you know the club and -"

She didn't even look up from her laptop as she chattered on while Aster was stuck on the 'house in the woods' and 'hypothermia' part.

"... so I was thinking we should go see Sandy too and ..."

"Wait."

She does, finally looking at him.

"Ya wen' to th' house 'n th' woods? Th' house 'n th' woods?"

She purses her lips and shrugs, eyes drifting down to the bright screen that he liked to think was why she looked so pale.

"Ya."

He feels his frustration grow as she shrugs it off so nonchalantly.

"Th' house 'n th' woods tha' even North refuse' ta go ta? And the' got hypothermia."

Worry seems fill her eyes as she nods, fingers curling into palms.

"Ya, but Aster. It was calling."

She closes her eyes, lashes fluttering long and dark. She lifts her chin up, lips parted and her nostrils flared as she took in a breath. His best friend was lovely even without the makeup she usually put on.

"Every time I passed by I could see them. Their laughter echoed in my ears, footsteps against grass and frost."

Her head lolls a bit, before she shakes whatever she's thinking off and her eyes snap open and she goes back to her laptop.

"Who's them?"

Her lips have a soft, round indent and without make-up they're a very pale brown pink, blending more with her clear, smooth olive skin. Her eyes are hazel and he swears that instead of the usual blue-green mixed in with the golden brown the middle of her eyes are swirls of purple. Her looks are also exotic, Middle-Eastern with a nose that hooks forward a bit, and maybe something else. He isn't sure because her father died and she doesn't talk about him much except in passing remarks about ghosts haunting loved ones.

All those beautiful features piled a thin heart shaped face, pull together in a reverent look.

"The children," she says breathlessly, "the ones who play and laugh."

Aster snorts at the vague description but even as he does that his heart softens. Children ghosts were the worst. Tragic stories and twisted efforts to hang on to the living.

It broke his heart.

Tooth continued speaking.

"The brother and sister who ran through those woods."

She smiles softly.

"They were beautiful, Aster."

It's quiet in the little hospital room, only the beeping of monitors and the click of heels and laughter from the nurses in the hallways.

"Ho'd ya get hypothermia?"

Tooth sighs and deflates, looking small and tiny in the hospital bed, feathers ruffled.

"They're lonely and scared in the lake."

She shivers.

"It's so cold."

Her eyes flash open again, wide and excited.

"We need to help them."

Aster nods, concern making him furrow his brow even as she goes back to typing.

"I'm trying to do some research online but there's not a lot, so I was thinking we should hit the library whenever I get out of here."

"Ya sure, but how're ya?"

Tooth pauses, fingers crooked over keys, eyes trained on him.

Her lips lift.

"I'm fine, I just fell into the lake and it was cold, but I got out and it was warmer. I went home but I was still shaking and my mom took me to the hospital. I think she was overreacting but you know."

She flashes him a smile, a roll of her eyes, and a twirl of her hands. Then she's back to the screen.

Aster stands, taking in a breath as he stretches.

"Oh you don't have to go." she says, closing the laptop and resting her hands on it.

Even as they settle he watches as her fingers twitch with longing.

He smiles at her.

"Nah, 'ave ya called North though? 'e might be panickin'."

She startles at North's name and barely stops from flinging the laptop off her lap in a mad scramble for the phone on the tiny pseudo nightstand.

"You're right, bye Aster." she call after him as he leaves, giving him a flutter of her thin fingers.

He gives a half-hearted wave back as he leaves the room, closing the door behind him.