"What? What?!" Melvin asked Nina, urgently. "What did you see?"
Still staring at him, Nina was finally able to speak. "I saw...you!" She shook her head. "It couldn't have been you, though. You wouldn't do something like this."
"You saw me?"
"As the Shapeshifter."
Melvin flinched at hearing that name. "I haven't transformed into...that in awhile. Believe me, Nina, I'd never kidnap anyone, especially not Santa Claus or my own boyfriend!"
"I know. I believe you. Is it possible that there are others who can turn into something that looks like that?"
"Hmm. I guess it's possible, what with all the fantastic things in the world already. If another shapeshifter did this, then the only questions left would be why they did this-"
"-and where they took Santa and Heat Miser," Nina finished her friend's sentence.
"Exactly."
"We have to find out who did this. Maybe Mother Nature would know something about shapeshifters."
"Don't leave me here alone," Melvin pleaded, apprehensively.
"We'll go together."
They got into Nina's plane and flew to Mother Nature's house, but she wasn't home. Thinking she may have gone to Santa and Mrs. Claus's house, they went there.
As soon as they landed and got out of the airplane, Nina and Melvin approached the front door. Nina stopped and looked around and said, "Something is wrong."
"What do you mean?"
"Listen."
Melvin paid close attention to their surroundings, listening, intently. "I don't hear anything."
Nina nodded. "There's usually a lot of noise from the elves working and from the animals. It's too quiet."
The air was cold and still, and there were no sounds at all, not even birds tweeting or wind blowing. Nina opened the door without knocking and went inside the house, with Melvin following close behind.
"Hello? Mrs. Claus? Tingler? Mother Nature? Winter?" they called out. Their voices were unanswered. They went into the main room, where almost all of them had gathered just a couple of nights before. Now, the room was devoid of people except for them.
Melvin shivered. "I don't like this."
"Me, neither. Let's try searching the house for someone."
"This place is huge. It'll take forever to look through the rooms," Melvin mentioned. "We'd have to split up to cover any ground quickly." He gulped.
Nina nodded, solemnly. "I'll go upstairs. You look on the ground floor. We'll meet back here in 10 minutes, no matter what."
Melvin agreed, reluctantly. "Be careful."
Nina told him she would, then went upstairs and searched through all the rooms. Nobody was in them. All the furniture and decorations were there, as they were before, but there wasn't a person to be seen.
10 minutes passed, and Nina went back downstairs to the main room. Melvin wasn't there. "Melvin?" she called out several times, but he never walked in, nor did he answer.
Nina took a deep, shaky breath, realizing what had happened. After making sure she was completely alone, she left the house and got back into her plane.
Nina flew to Snow Miser's and her ice castle. She landed in the front yard and got out of her plane. As she walked toward the entrance, she stopped in her tracks. Snow Miser's scarf was by her feet. Her stomach churning, she picked it up and saw a vision of him being taken by the same figure in her previous vision.
She looked at the scarf, then up at the entrance. Slowly, she went inside, still carrying the scarf.
To her relief, Snow Miser was sitting on his throne. "Hey, Nina."
"Snowy, you don't know how glad I am to see you!" Nina exclaimed. "Melvin and I looked for your mom, but she's missing, along with everyone else, even Melvin!"
"Gone?" Snow asked.
"Everyone has disappeared: your parents, Mrs. Claus, Tingler, and even the elves. They just...vanished."
Nina was visibly upset. Snow Miser got up off his throne and walked to her. Hugging her, he said, "Oh, Nina, I'm sure they'll turn up somewhere."
Nina looked up at him and roughly pushed him away.