Six year old Daniel Mcdeal stared excited out the windows of her parents minivan. They had been on vacation and had hit the snowy mountains of Georgia. To Dani's childish eyes everything was magical. Frozen water hung here and there from the side of the mountain and sparkled like jewels. The snow was so fabulously clean it kicked off hundreds of sparkles like diamonds.

Her father had glanced at her in the rear view mirror and winked. To her he was the most handsome wonderful man alive and her mother was surely the beautiful. Her father's warm brown eyes sparkled with good humor and joy. He enjoyed the life of a simple man and his family was everything to him. He went out of his way to spoil his only daughter whom he believed would be the most intelligent woman the world had ever seen. She was already a math whiz and she was picking up technical skills that most teenagers couldn't do.

Her mother turned to her and tucked her platinum blonde hair behind her ear to smile at Dani. Her eyes were a deep blue and mesmerizing. She smiled showing off white perfect teeth and offered her daughter a drink from her pooh bear sippy cup.

Dani took her cup and sucked at it looking around again. She could look out the drivers side of the window and look down past trees to the frozen lake below. She had gotten her mothers platinum white hair and her father's dimples. Being gifted however left her with few friends. Most of the kids she knew that were her age were boring to her. She set her cup down and began to day dream about numbers. She loved thinking about big numbers. Like a million times a million multiplied by nine then divided by 16.

She took them apart put them together and at the same time she made invented wheels and cogs and physical science that would move them and connect them. She heard her mother's voice and pulled her attention away from her inner game.

" David let's pull over it's getting dark."

" No!" Dani cried " Please take me to the top! Daddy you said you'd take us to the top and I'd get to see ski lifts with people on them!"

" Dani sweetheart you know daddy would do anything for you but it is getting kind of dark out and we won't be able to see anything at night."

" Well then we should just go to the top daddy and stay there so we can see the lifts tomorrow!"

Her mother sighed " Dani I know you don't understand but it can be unsafe to drive at night..."

" But mommy you drive at night all the time and you said the only reason people won't drive at night is because other people aren't safe drivers! You said daddy was the safest and that's why you made him drive up the mountain!"

Her mother had chuckled shaking her head softly. " Honestly Dani..."

" Puh-leeaase?!" Dani's eyes filled with tears " Daddy you said you wouldn't go back on your promise like you did the last time!"

Her father flinched and sighed. " You don't have to remind me that I had to cut our vacation short and we didn't get on the lifts Dani! "

Dani sniffled. She had been gifted. Yet on that day she had still been very much a child. So she had cried and begged and her father had caved in agreeing it would be good to get a hotel room at the top of the mountain and see the lifts in the morning and he had driven past a turnoff he had missed seeing because he had been busy making funny faces at his daughter trying to cheer her up.

Her mother had teased them both also not noticing the turn off or the half buried sign.

" Honestly Dani maybe you should be a lawyer." Her mother teased " Arguing with you is like being in a courtroom."

" Look at that beautiful sunset." Her father said motioning out his window. It was indeed beautiful and set off the white snow in the valley below. It had been warmer that day then the previous and it had snowed on top of that so the conditions had been ripe for what happened.

While Dani dreamed again of numbers and wheels that turned and moved her mother suddenly screamed staring out her window. There was a hissing sound and Dani looked around confused thinking maybe they had a tire leaking air. The hissing had become a roar.

" Oh MY GOD GO FASTER!" Her mother had screamed.

Dani had looked out her mother's side and saw nothing but white. Suddenly the minivan had spun and was pulled up from the road and swept down the side of the mountain. Dani had screamed for her father to save her. The show had acquired teeth and claws though they had actually been branches and debris. The way they pressed against the window however made them look like hungry hands. The van flipped and then bounced off a tree that had refused to be uprooted. Her father's window had smashed inward her father's head hitting it and bouncing loosely off it again. Her mother had still been screaming and Dani had still been looking out her mother's side of the van screaming at the claws that scratched and scraped and tried to get in.

The van stopped moving but it wasn't until Dani was hoarse that she finally took her eyes off the window on her mother's side. All she saw was white and claws and sharp things poking in her father's side window. She glanced further back and saw just behind her here was a sliver of window that was clear and facing the sky which was getting darker. The window had been knocked partially inward.

There was a low bubbling chuckling sound that scared her. She called to her mom and then her dad but they didn't answer her. She was too young to understand the concept of death but they fact they didn't answer her scared her more then the snow. Then she saw what was making the noise. The corner of the van on the passenger side had a small amount of water trickling in. It was freezing to fast to fill up the van anytime soon the crack in the ice not deep enough to swallow the van whole but Dani watched helplessly as the ice built upon itself more and more.

After it was dark she finally gave up on her parents. She wiggled out of her seat and scrambled to the back of the van were she could see the sky. It also held their things, She dug out the heavy fleece blanket and wrapped up in it. She shivered unable to take her eyes off the window covered in show with things here and there pressing hungrily against the window.
She stood up and called softly for her mom and dad again but received nothing. The water had frozen completely over her mother's feet. The ice was no longer beautiful the snow no longer sparkled and she was afraid the minute she closed her eyes the snow would burst in and eat her up.

She had stayed up all night. Her body had finally forced her to sleep as the sun came up. When she woke up from where she was buried under her coat a blanket and two sweaters her worse fear had been realized. The snow was shifting and moving and the branches moved with a scratching sound as it clawed at the glass. She had started screaming again. She had continued to scream after the rescuers pulled her from the van. She had stopped screaming briefly when they sedated her but once she was at the hospital looking out at the window that was covered in frost she had started screaming again.

The hospital and the local police had done their best to find family for her but she had no one. He parents had been her whole world. The had relocated her to a hospital away from the mountains where the snow barely showed up. They had spoke of therapy to her social worker but between getting her back to Florida where she had lived and getting her into the foster care system therapy had been spotty. She had been hard to place. She had smashed one foster homes entire snow globe collection. She still woke up in what was called night terrors. Sometimes she dreamed of the snow and ice coming after her. Other times it was her mother and father who were angry at her for killing them.

Her father had died instantly from head trauma. Although she hadn't been forced to see it her mother's side had been pieced with a branch from the same tree that had smashed her father's window. Dead and rotting they chased her through a maze of snow and ice telling her again and again that it had been getting dark out and if she hadn't been a bad girl they would still be with her but since she had been bad she had been given to strangers who couldn't seem to deal with her night terrors and her irrational fear and anger.

When she finally came of age she had her anger under control. She dealt with he fear by avoiding snow and ice sabotaging her own ice machine in her freezer. Just one of the wonderful things she had her husband would fight about right up there with her occasional night terrors that left her weeping and clinging to him trying to feel safe in his arms until he finally started turning his back on her.

******* Present ******

" When I turned that corner and saw those hills and all that white..."

" Wow." Vanollope looked suitably impressed " No wonder you freaked out. I would freak out to if something that awful happened to me."

Ralph shook his head and said the only thing he could really think of. It had actually been bothering him a lot.

" Your husband was a stupid ass."

Dani glanced up at him from her hands and gave him a wan smile. " Well Ralph I definetly won't argue there."

" What kind of man won't take care of his wife and make her feel safe? I mean if your goanna be with someone they should always make you feel safe." He continued a bit indigently. It bugged him. Not just the principle but that someone had had Dani in their life, got to wake up next to her and fall asleep next to her and what had they done? They had thrown her love back in her face. Left her alone with her terror.

He heartily wished he could meet the guy. He wouldn't have to worry about keeping anyone safe when Ralph got done with him. He suddenly realized that Dani and Vanollope were staring at him.

" Getting ready to have a tantrum diaper baby?" Vanollope asked smirking.

" No. I don't know. Maybe. It just pisses me off." He grumped. Maybe he should smash a jaw breaker. He eyed the helpless balls of candy.

Dani cleared her throat. Her eyes were shiny but the tears refused to fall. She had stopped crying in her life a long time ago. It never helped her.

" Well madam president I upheld the end of my bargain. Where's your code at?"