AN: Anything not crystal clear in this chapter will be explained later on...I apologize for the wait...I've had rank holding upperclassmen ragging my ass for weeks. Damn military colleges...

Change of Season
Encounter

"Catherina! Run!" The panicked sound of her best friend's voice echoed in her skull. She wanted to turn and run back to Jack, her body was begging to but her mind just wouldn't do it. She could hear him screaming in the distance and tears blurred her vision as she ran, her breaths coming in short pants. This was all just a horrid dream and any minute she would wake up. Catherina stumbled, her hands shooting out in front of her. She could hear the voices gaining on her.

"Get up!" It was David, blood streaking the side of his face as he pulled Catherina to her feet.

"Where's Jack?!"

"Move!" David shoved her roughly and she fell forward again, this time colliding with the frozen surface of the creek. The cracking sounds gave her enough warning and a fleeting look of fear washed over David's face before the ice gave out beneath his feet. Catherina let out a scream, one that was emptied into frigid water as she too plunged beneath the thin ice.

The sound of her own gasping woke her up, her hands balled deep in the sheets. Around her fingertips, solid chunks of ice held the blankets together. She shut her eyes and let out a soft sigh, aggravated by the nightmare. Somehow she had survived that night. Jack and David weren't quite so lucky. The police had found Jack's torn body on the edge of the woods. The creek had been dragged for two weeks before David finally bobbed to the surface in the harbor.

"Shit." Catherina swore as the ice on her sheets began to melt, forming puddles on the blankets. She whipped the covers back, yanking them off the bed and tossing them in a pile by the door. She sat back on the bare mattress, her head in her hands.

"…the look on his face! It was like I had punched him in the nuts!" Catherina laughed as she opened the front door of her house, Jack and David close behind her. "Derek, I'm home! I brought the boys with me!"

"NO!" Catherina jumped at the urgency of her brother's command. "No, please, they didn't do anything, pl-" The sound of metal hitting flesh quickly shut her brother up. Catherina waited, eyes wide, as footsteps headed for her. The shadow on the wall grew larger and finally the doorway of the foyer was filled with the ominous figure of a hooded man.

"Shit, run!" Jack was the first to realize what it was in the man's hand and he pushed both of his friends over to the door as the gun went off. Catherina tumbled down the front steps, climbing back to her feet as another shot rang out. David yelled in pain, one hand clutching his shoulder. Blood was seeping from between his fingers but he kept moving regardless.

"The creek!" Catherina screamed. She saw both boys nod and the three of them sprinted across her backyard. Gunshots echoed around them.

Catherina flew to her feet, rubbing her hands together to prevent them from icing over again. Ever since that night, she had noticed something different about herself. Her hands always froze, literally, when she was uncomfortable or threatened. It was a pain sometimes, but at other times it was convenient. The hardest part was trying to hide it. With a lingering sigh she moved to her desk, one hand gently folding around the edge of a picture frame. Her lips tweaked into a hint of a smile, one finger brushing over two separate faces in the photo.

"Oh boys." Another long sigh fell from her lips as she took in the sharp angles of Jack's face and the bouncy curls of David's honey colored hair. Catherina shook her head and set the picture back on the desk, finally tearing her eyes off of the boys frozen in time. Her eyes closed against the familiar pricks and she turned suddenly, grabbing her long coat from the edge of the bed and draping it over her shoulders. The door of her room slammed shut behind her as she strode down the hall, the rubber soles of her shoes squeaking quietly on the waxed floors. One flight of stairs passed quickly beneath her feet and she had just rounded the corner of the staircase to go down another flight when she heard the voices.

"…idiot all the damn time, you can't just do that shit in public Reid!"

"You aren't my fucking mother, Tyler, get off my shit."

"I'm trying to help you Reid!"

"I'm don't fucking need it." Catherina paused on the stairs, her hand gently cradling the railing at her side. This Reid person sounded slightly drunk. The other guy, Tyler, sounded extremely worried. "Just stay out of my fucking business."

"Reid!" Stumbling footsteps echoed in the staircase and Catherina continued on her way down, nearly colliding with a tall boy at the doorway of the first floor. They both stopped, his barely glassy blue eyes scanning her face before they rolled and he stepped to the side. She felt the familiar feeling in her fingertips building up. Her head turned, eyes following the boy's figure.

"Sorry, 'scuse me." Another boy, a little less tall but with more intense eyes, slipped past her up the steps just as the first boy crashed onto the stairs. Catherina stayed still for a moment longer and then remembered why she was even on the stairs in the first place. She tugged her arms through the sleeves of her jacket and pushed open the doors that let her out into the misty chill of the Ipswich evening.

"Don't move. Don't go anywhere. If you have to puke, do it on your side of the room." Tyler Simms said, frustrated, as he tossed his drunk best friend onto the floor.

"Fuck you man." Reid Garwin mumbled, grabbing a pair of dark grey sweatpants and balling them up into a makeshift pillow. Tyler just rolled his eyes and retraced his steps out of the room. "You goin'?"

"Yeah. I'm going to apologize to that girl you blew off."

"Fucking pansy. Whipped bitch." Reid giggled into the sweatpants and broke off with a sigh as Tyler shut the door. Tyler ground his teeth together and flipped the collar of his coat up as soon as he got outside, trying to preserve the heat around his neck. Luckily for him, the dew freezing on the grass outside let him know exactly where the person before him had headed. He followed the imprints all the way to the edge of the woods a couple hundred yards behind the school.

"Oh, you must be shitting me." Tyler grumbled as the footprints disappeared into the forest. Nevertheless, he shoved his hands deeper into his pockets and took the first step onto the frozen leaves. Four steps later, an out of place chill ran down the length of his spine. He shivered, hunching his shoulders over even more.

Catherina placed her elbows on her knees, holding her face in her hands, which were covered by the too long sleeves of her coat. She sighed, watching the fog float in front of her face for half a second before she purposefully exhaled again, reaching out with one hand. Her fingers swept through the vapor in the air and she smiled as she listened to the tiny drops turn to ice and fall to the ground, making a sound similar to rainfall.

Tyler's eyes grew wide in shock as he watched the scene unfold before him. It was the same girl. She had seemed perfectly normal on the staircase but now…

Now her hands were solid chunks of ice, her skin an out of place shade of white against the opaque darkness of the woods. He could hear something that sounded like rain hitting the leaves beneath her feet. He let out a shaky breath and turned, running back to the school as fast as he could. Only behind the safety of his closed and locked dorm room door did he dare reach for his cell phone.

"Caleb." Tyler licked his lips, panting as he parted the blinds with his fingers. "I think I know what's up with the weather."

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