Part One

Sandi slowed her car down as the falling snow worsened. Her cars headlights bounced back at her and the other ex Fashion Club members. Quinn, next to Sandi in the front seat, squinted ahead. "Maybe we shouldn't have gone to that Christmas sale today, at the Millennium Mall," she said uneasily.

Sandi shrugged "Quinn, what were the chances of the weatherman actually being right for once?", her deep drawl tense with unease. Stacy spoke up from the back seat, where she and Tiffany had been exploring their purchases," Besides, Quinn this was your idea, and you brought as many presents as the rest of us together! Are you sure you won't get into trouble for all this?"

Quinn shrugged and smiled, "No, this is all my own money, from my hostess job. Daria is coming home, for her first college Christmas, and I want everything to be just right, when she shows up Christmas Eve."

Sandi chuckled, "At least you have a sister! I'd trade you my two bratty brothers in a flash, for a smart sister like her!" Quinn made a sour face. "Gee, no thanks, Sandi! I don't know how you can stand those two! But seriously, maybe you and they should make more of an effort to get together, like Daria and I did! It is Christmas, you know, the time for miracles and forgiving."

Sandi sighed deeply. "I loved those two very much, when they were first born. I even helped change their diapers, believe it or not! But Mom got so harsh, there, and Dad just faded into the background, and, uh, you know?"

Quinn sat back and sighed inwardly. She was perfectly aware that Sandi had been scared of herself and Daria for the longest time, which was why she had played all those games with the Fashion Club leadership. But Stacy had brought the whole conflict to a head at last falls graduation, and the Club had fallen apart. The four girls were just discovering that they were friends, though it was hard to tell with Tiffany sometimes. Sandi was so insecure and defensive, though she was really trying to be nicer to people. Stacy was more outgoing now, and even Tiffany would come up with a remark or observation that surprised the others, sometimes.

Sandi slowed the convertible down even more, the car barely crawling on the snow-packed highway. The tall brunette was very tense, and the other girls caught it.

"Sandi, maybe you should stop, now, it looks really bad out there," Tiffany said, in her precise careful English. ."I know it is, Tiffany, but I'm afraid if I stop now, we won't get going again,"Sandi replied. Quinn stayed quiet, as it had been her idea to take this county road, when the state police had closed the interstate highway. The heavy snow had jammed their cell phones as well. The girls could barely see through the snow the thick forest they were driving through.

Sandi slowed the car down to first gear, the convertible barely moving as it crept through the blowing snow. Suddenly, the sound of snow crunching under their wheels changed, as the car left the pavement, and met snow covered grass. Sandi cautiously applied her brakes, and the car came to a stop. She had run off the road, and was powerless to see anything.

Tightlipped, Sandi spoke, "Would everybody try their cell phones again, please? I can't even see the front of the car, now." Quinn, Stacy, and Tiffany all reported their failures. Stacy chirped up, "Sorry, still no signal. "Quinn said, "We ought to be okay. I've read that it really doesn't get too cold during snowstorms. Besides, we can huddle together to keep warm, and we're right next to the road."

Tiffany spoke up from the back seat, "Gee, Quinn, since you're so smart, maybe you should be the President of the Fashion Club!" The other three girls all twisted around, hearing Sandi's trademark putdown to Quinn, only to see a hesitant smile appear on Tiffany's face. Stacy started to giggle, Quinn and Sandi staring at her, then started laughing themselves, the tension from the storm easing out of the car with the laughter, as the snow continued to fall.

Part Two

Tiffany slowly woke up, yawning, She and Stacy had fallen asleep, huddled together, like Quinn and Sandi had in the front seat. She was cold, shivering. The car windows were covered over with frost. Carefully untangling herself from the softly breathing Stacy, Tiffany rubbed a hole in the frost covered window and peered out. Snow still fell steadily outside, and the wind vibrated the convertibles canvas roof. She didn't want to leave the car, cold as it was, but her bladder didn't want to wait. She was really embarrassed, but she would have to wake one of the two girls in the front seat, to get out one of the doors. She leaned forward, and shook Quinn's shoulder, gently. "Hrm?, oh, Tiffany, ah, what's up?" Quinn yawned, barely awake.

"Quinn, I really need to go outside, now, to use the bathroom!"

'Oh, right, sorry, just a minute, okay?"

Quinn scooted over, and let Tiffany push her seat back forward, letting her open the door and step outside. Stacy grumbled sleepily from the back, and Sandi tried to burrow into Quinn like she was a blanket. Quinn suppressed a small "eep!" when one of Sandi's cold hands somehow find its way onto her belly. She carefully pulled it away, and pulled Sandi's bare hands into her lap, covering them with her own. Sandi's sleeping face smiled. "Nobody is ever going to believe this, and I am never going to tell them anyway!" Quinn thought.

Tiffany walked carefully away from the car, wading through the deepening snow towards a clump of trees. Once out of the wind, the snow wasn't so bad, and she hurriedly did her business. As she walked back through the trees, the gentle sound of the wind blowing through the pine boughs sounded very peaceful. Suddenly, she stopped, puzzled. She could just barely hear something, like a woman singing softly. She turned her head slowly, trying to catch the sound again. She couldn't make out the words, but it had sounded Asian.

Suddenly she saw a dim light away from the road, deeper in the trees. It seemed to swing with the blowing wind. She slowly approached the light, and discovered it was a lantern, hanging on a post in front of a small, weather worn cabin. The wind rocked the lantern back and forth. Tiffany was Vietnamese, but she recognized the light as a Japanese paper lantern. The shutters were closed tight. The house seemed to thrust itself out of the snow. It was single story, with grey wooden planks that had long ago lost whatever paint had been on them. The scene was so dismal, she decided to return to the car at once. She hated turning her back on the house, feeling like it was creeping through the trees after her..She couldn't stop glancing at it, over her shoulder.

The wind roared and pulled at her as she left the shelter of the trees. She stumbled through the deep snow almost blindly. She finally banged into the car, and hurriedly climbed into the back seat, shivering from the cold. Tiffany's teeth chattered as she tried to warm back up in the close to freezing interior of the car. She was still shaken by her strange revulsion to the cabin she had seen. "Thanks, Quinn," she said.

Stacy and Sandi had both been awaken by Tiffany's entrance. Stacy said, "Tiffany, you're white as a sheet, and you're freezing! Are you alright?" Tiffany said, "I'm okay, it's just so cold out there, and I got scared." Sandi and Quinn both turned around, Tiffany and Stacy huddled together, Stacy's arms around her. "Are you okay, Tiffany? What happened out there?" Sandi said sleepily. "I saw a light in the trees, and heard somebody singing,' Tiffany said, "And when I went to go see what it was, I saw a creepy little cabin in the trees. There was one of those little Japanese paper lanterns with a candle in it, out front. It really scared me, for some reason. I know it sounds silly, now."

"Well, silly or not, it's much too cold to stay any longer in this car, " Sandi said. "We're all freezing in here. Let's go knock on the door, and maybe they'll let us stand by their heater, and they might have a telephone we can call home with." Tiffany, still shaken by her strange revulsion, didn't want to go, but she and the other girls collected their purses and cell phones, and she led them back through the trees to the cabin.

The paper lantern still glowed out front, swinging on it's hook. Standing by it, they could see why Tiffany had been uneasy. The cabin seem to be really worn, with only traces of white paint flaking off the walls. The shutters were fastened shut on the small windows, two of which flanked the front door. They didn't see a car or garage, though an opening in the trees suggested a driveway. The wind sighing through the trees suddenly seemed less peaceful. Then they all started to shiver again, and Sandi said,"We've got to get inside, away from this cold!" The girls crunched through the snow to the front door, and Quinn banged with a gloved fist on the thick wood. To her surprise, the door slowly swung open.

Part Three

"Linda, This is Helen, yes, I know it's after 11 PM! I just wanted to know if you had heard from Sandi? Quinn hasn't called me yet, and I'm getting worried. Had you heard the highway had been closed? You hadn't, and Sandi hasn't called you either? Have you called her? Yes, I'll wait while you do." Helen Morgendorffer strummed her fingers on the arm of her living room couch as she waited for Sandi's mother to call her back. The heavy snowfall had her worried about her youngest daughter Quinn. She had almost said "no" to the shopping trip, but Quinn had been so excited about seeing Daria home from college, that she had given in. Quinn had matured so much in the last year. She was slowly turning from a fashion obsessed airhead who twisted boys around her little finger, to a mature young woman, who was slowly improving her grades in school, and thinking seriously about the future. Helen had to admit that she was proud of her. Even her friends in the former Fashion Club had changed, though not to Quinn's degree, Stacy was studying hard, and no longer let people walk all over her(well, at least some of the time). Helen had always had a cool relationship with Sandi's mother, Linda, but the past several months had seen Sandi loosen up, to become a bit more open and considerate of others. Even Tiffany had opened up, to the point of smiling shyly, though she still talked so slowly and carefully.

The phone rang, and Helen picked it up."Linda? Yes, you can't reach Sandi either? And it gives you that can't be reached message? Yes, I'd already called Tiffany's and Stacy's mothers, and they couldn't reach them, either." She didn't say she had deliberately avoided calling Linda. "Yes, but even if they had decided to spend the night there, they would at least call home, and tell us not to worry! I really think we should call the state police, and have them look out for them, at least. Do you know Sandi's license number? Wait, let me write that down, okay, I've got it. Yes, I'll call both the state and Lawndale police. Yes, if I hear anything, I'll call you right away. Thanks again." Helen hung up the phone, frowning. Linda had sounded shocked at the time, so she must have not noticed. Jake was out of town on business, and Daria was still at college in Boston. Sighing, Helen picked up the phone and started to dial.

Her home had never felt so quiet and empty..

Part Four

She had risen from the ground with the first snow, exulting in the fall of the white flakes, the frigid winds which lashed the land.. She still felt her hunger, her pain, but it was lessened. She danced lightly above the snow through the trees, leaving no tracks, her white kimono swirling around her slender body, her long, lean legs. Her long black hair swirled around her face, poured down her back. Her pale, almost transparent skin reflected the glitter of the snow. Only during a storm of snow and ice did she feel truly free. Suddenly she froze, smelling something. The black pits which were her eyes widened. Her inhuman beauty thinned and she swirled away toward the old road, and the cabin which had once been her home. A machine was buried in the snow, she swirled around it in curiosity. She scented a trail, and followed it through the trees to the old cabin. Her pale light burned in front of it, as it always did, attracting the curious and unwary. She remembered her last feast there.

Part Five

Quinn froze as the door swung open, it's rusty hinges squealing. A gaping pit of darkness loomed before them. A gust of wind sent a streamer of snow across the rough wooden floorimmediately in front of them. Stacy quavered, "Hello? Is anybody home?" Her trembling voice ending in almost a squeak. They only thing they heard was the wind howling through the trees behind them, and the sigh of snow blowing across the ground. Quinn stepped to the doorway and looked inside, but could still see nothing. Sandi gulped," Ah, Stacy? Doesn't your key ring have a little flashlight on it?"

"Yes, Sandi."

The girls stood there shivering another minute before Stacy blushed, and dug it out of her purse, handing it to Quinn. The little light showed Quinn a one room cabin, with what looked like a barrel with a stovepipe running from it to the ceiling in the center of the room. The only furniture in it was two heavy benches, a small table, and a bunk bed against the wall. There was a small pile of wood next to the barrel. There was no sign anybody had been there for some time. The sound of the three girls behind her teeth chattering brought her back to their current predicament. "It's okay, there's nobody here, come inside!"

The rest of the former Fashion Club walked slowly inside in relief. It was cold inside the cabin, but at least out of the wind. Sandi sighed in mingled relief and frustration, "Well, at least we're out of the wind, but I wish somebody had been here who could have helped us." Stacy, her teeth still chattering, said, "If I had known we're were going to go hiking in the snow, I'd have worn different shoes, and my coat. This is going to ruin my shoes, and this jacket is too thin." Tiffany blinked, opened her mouth to say something, then closed it again. The girls had all dressed lightly, expecting only an all day shopping trip. Their casual shoes had been soaked in the snow, and the legs of their slacks had been soaked as well.

Meanwhile, Quinn was using the small flashlight to look around the room. The barrel was an old one, that somebody had turned into a stove, sitting on bricks above the floor. There was a stack of old newspapers next to the back door. She remembered the counselor back at Camp Grizzly trying to teach the campers how to start a fire, but she and her friends had been gossiping, and she could barely remember anything but the frustration on his face, as he gave up on the chattering girls and stalked away.

While Stacy and Sandi complained about their clothes, Tiffany hesitated a minute, then started to help Quinn search the walls and floor of the old cabin. Sandi turned to say something to Tiffany, and saw her on her hands and knees, carefully looking over the floor. She and Stacy grew silent, looked at each other, then quietly joined in.

It was Stacy who found the wooden match under the old bunk bed. She pulled her dusty hand and arm out with a gasp of triumph. "Look! I found a match!" The other girls all clustered around her in excitement. "Great, Stacy," Quinn said,"Now we can start a fire ,and warm up!"

"Ah, Quinn, have you ever started a fire with wood and things before?"

"No, Sandi, I haven't, has anybody here?"

The girls all looked at each other.

Stacy said, "Well paper burns, and there's some paper by the back door. Maybe we could use some of that to help start it?"

Sandi said excitedly, "Yes, that's it! And we put some little pieces of wood on that, and some bigger pieces on that! I used to help my Dad light up the old fireplace, and that's how he started a fire." Her face saddened. "And then I'd sit on his lap, and he would put his arms around me, and I'd feel so safe and loved.." Her voice trailed off. She hugged herself and turned away from the others, tears glistening down her face. The other three girls grew silent, unsure of what to say. They had never seen Sandi cry before.

. Sandi had very seldom said anything about her life before her two brothers had been born, when she had been the only child. Sandi, still facing away from the others, shook her head, brushed the hair out of her face. "I'll be okay, go ahead, see if you can get the fire started." She added very quietly, in almost a whisper so low the others barely caught it. "Please."