Exclamations of shock and surprise mingled with the sound of frustrated groans erupted from the four kids. Almost instantly, cellphone screens lit up, contributing a little light to alleviate the darkness. Sophie dropped the book back into her bag, and lunged out of her seat towards the window, where she peered out over the snow piled up against the glass at a landscape of darkness beyond. The street lamps were out, too. She scanned the road for any signs of approaching vehicles, but there was none. She hadn't been expecting any, anyway. Her thoughts wandered over to that boy who had just left. Where was he at the moment? Had he managed to get to a shelter? It seemed unlikely. And in this darkness, would he ever get to one? Sophie shivered, not from the cold, but from the thought.
"I think it's the substation," spoke up one of the kids, as if it wasn't already obvious. Sophie leaned back in the plastic chair, and closed her eyes for a moment, frustrated and exhausted. Her stomach was starting growl as well. Not for the first time, she thought about the Guardians. What on earth (literally) were they doing? Her eyes flew open and she sat up, oblivious to the amount of chatter that had grown in the past five minutes. Her mind traveled down the dark hallway, winding through corridors till it reached the cafeteria. Food. What she needed at that moment. Was there any chance that she could break in? She envisioned the lockers. Had she stored anything in there?
"Hey, what about the heat?" said her friend, all of a sudden, startling her out of her reverie. Sophie turned to face her, but wasn't exactly sure if she was looking straight at her friend's face. She was reminded of those times when there were black-outs at home, and they were constantly tripping over furniture and relied fully on their sense of hearing and memory of their furniture's locations till they could get to a torch. With nothing to do, they would usually sit cross-legged on the floor in Jamie's bedroom, where the boy would begin rattling about Pitch Black. Young Sophie would sit opposite him, listening intently, not quite sure if she met his eyes. Older Sophie couldn't care less, though.
"What about the heat?" Sophie responded. "It'll stay on, wouldn't it?" She glanced at the dark area where the window was. She could sense the snow was still falling. And the snow level was not going to stop rising. It was freezing out there. The heating had to stay on. But then again, the heat ran on electricity as well. Sophie swallowed. No power, no electricity, no heat.
Perhaps the Guardians were having an off-day and Pitch was on duty instead.
#
There was nothing left to do but to go to bed. Jamie decided to sleep in his mother's room that night, out of concern for her. Mrs. Bennett had lost her appetite and seemed rather lonely. As he walked into the room and announced that he would be accompanying her that night, Mrs. Bennett didn't even look up; merely continued staring at the glowing numbers on the digital clock on her bedside table. Jamie crawled up to his mother. "Sophie will be fine, mom," he assured her. "The high school's got everything. They just have to be resourceful. It's a two-storey building and the cafeteria has enough food stocked up to feed at least five hundred students for about a week, or more!"
Silence hung between them. Mrs. Bennett seemed to be processing her son's words. Jamie just lay there beside her for several moments, not really expecting his mother to reply. But after what seemed like forever, she finally spoke up. "What if she's all alone there? What if she's all alone in that huge high school? It's all quiet and the snow just keeps falling. She'll be so frightened." Mrs. Bennett sounded frightened.
Jamie hadn't thought about that, but he was sure it was not the case. "I doubt that, mom," he said, in as reassuring a voice as he could muster. "There would be at least one teacher. And maybe a couple of other students. I mean, you can't forget the ones who were in detention. They would usually head home late. So it's likely they're stuck there, too, like Sophie is." Mrs. Bennett was still not convinced. Jamie went on. "When you think about, mom, it's good that she's there. What if she left with one of the buses? I don't think they made it far in this snow. It's worse to be trapped in a bus and be snowed on. We'd all prefer a high school building any day, don't you think? And if you had gone to fetch her, you could be stuck in the snow, too."
Mrs. Bennett checked her cell phone again. There were no messages and her call log was empty. "She didn't even say anything. She didn't text to inform me she would be dismissed early today."
"She didn't take her phone with her," Jamie said. "And I'm sure she got a friend of hers to send something, but it just didn't get through. There's no reception."
Mrs. Bennett tossed the gadget onto the bedside table before turning off the lamp. The room was in total darkness. Jamie rolled over onto his side, facing the window, which had curtains drawn across it. Just then, he heard a small sound, almost like a click. He turned over to check on his mom, but she was still, either sleeping soundly or just lying awake. But he noticed something else. The numbers on the digital clock were gone. Quietly, in order not to wake his mom should she be asleep, he got out of bed and crossed over to the window, parting the curtains slightly. Darkness out there. He scurried across the room and flipped on a switch, but nothing happened.
"What's going on?" Mrs. Bennett called through the darkness. So she had been lying awake. There was a rustling of sheets as she sat up. "What happened to the clock?"
"Mom, I think the power just went out," Jamie said, trying to sound casual.
There was silence, and he knew just what his mom was thinking. The high school wasn't too far away from the house. Would the power be out there, too?
#
The first thing Sophie noticed when she woke up was the absence of sunlight filtering in through the windows, illuminating the hallway. The emergency lights which had miraculously came on the previous night had gone out. Sophie sat up, feeling a little stiff from sleeping on the cold, hard floor, with her jacket as a pillow, and turned to the glass windows. It was morning, wasn't it? There was a little weak light, but that was all. Was it still night? Sophie wasn't so sure, as grogginess overwhelmed her. She was tempted to lay her head back down on her folded jacket and go back to sleep, but was more curious about the condition of the weather at the moment. It had grown colder in the hallway.
Blinking several times, she finally realised what had happened over night. The snow level had risen to a height of eight feet, or maybe more, pressing against the glass window, almost completely covering it and blocking out the sunlight. A little light filtered in through a small uncovered slice at the top. It was morning. But things hadn't gotten better.
"Guys, wake up!" Sophie called, scrambling to her feet, going over to the window. She stopped several feet from it, feeling the chill radiating. Looking at the snow level and watching her hopes of getting out and heading home that morning being crushed, for a rare moment, Sophie felt frightened.
"Oh gosh!" came an anguish cry from one of the students behind her, before they joined her at the window.
"This is bad, this is really bad," said her friend.
Sophie turned and gathered up her things. "Where are you going?" questioned one of the students. Sophie picked them up in a hurry, before slowing down, realising what she was doing. What was the hurry about? At the moment, she had two things. Snow and time. There was really no hope of getting home that day.
"Second floor," she replied. "I think you should all come, too. Or do you prefer to stay down here?" Without waiting for a response, she walked off down the hallway, headed for the stairs. It grew darker as the distance between her and the windows grew. The other students got up their things as well, and followed her. Upon getting to the second floor, Sophie ducked into a classroom, the same one she had been in before they were dismissed early, the previous day. It seemed like an eternity ago. She dumped her stuff onto the same desk she had sat at, and sank into the seat, opening up a new packet of biscuits. She had came across them while searching in her locker the previous night, with help from the puny light from a cell phone screen. She was glad she had a hoarding habit, unlike Jamie, who feared ants running freely in his locker.
"I think we should save that, Soph," said her friend, dropping into the desk beside her. She jerked her head at the other two remaining students. "They're planning to bust into the cafeteria. You should keep that for back-up, in case their plan fails."
Sophie reluctantly threw the packet back into her bag, and slumped forwards in her seat, staring at the whiteboard and the empty teacher's desk. All of a sudden, chemistry seemed more appealing than being stuck in this snowstorm. The windows of the classroom looked out onto a never ending sheet of white. She drew out her biology book, hoping she would be able to take her mind off the snowstorm by immersing herself in her studies, but the chill made that quite impossible.
"Brr... it's cold! Colder than it's ever been in Burgess!" complained her friend, drawing her jacket tightly around her.
"North Pole's colder," Sophie said, shortly, slightly annoyed.
A mocking smile spread across the other girl's face. "Let me guess, you saw Santa, too."
"Yeah," Sophie responded, quite truthfully.
As she expected, her friend snorted with laughter. "Seriously, Sophie, you can still crack jokes at a time like this?" Before Sophie could retort, the other two students entered the classroom with a rather heavy-looking bucket of peanut butter and a loaf of bread. Sophie's stomach growled as her smell receptors picked up on the scent of the peanut butter. Breakfast.
"Wow, how did you do it?" she asked, getting up from her seat and hurrying over.
"We just jiggled the lock," responded one of them, nonchalantly. Sophie resisted the urge to just dip her fingers into the bucket. While silently eating, everyone seemed to be contemplating on their fate.
"You know, I think we got lucky," said Sophie, after some time. "I mean, if we took one of the buses, you think we would have made it home by now?"
The other three looked up at her. Their expressions were unreadable. "Was your mom fetching you today?" asked her friend, in a small voice.
Sophie nodded. "Yeah, she was supposed to come at four." As soon as she said that, her friend's cellphone was produced, and the pending messages were skimmed through. Sophie's message to her mom was still there, unsent.
"Mine got through," the girl said. "And I think... I think my mom's stuck somewhere, halfway from my home to the school, in her car, in this storm..." The girl trailed off, but Sophie got it.
The eating resumed. After a while, one of the four students piped up, "Hey, what do you think happened to that other guy and that teacher?"
"They got to a shelter. They've alerted people we're here." Sophie didn't believe that had really happened. In her mind, she saw vivid images of people lying in the snow, hypothermic. But she forced herself into believing it. Being a close friend of the Guardian of Hope, she knew better than to give up on it at that moment.
"We're all doomed. We're all gonna die in here, aren't we?" moaned the other student.
There was enough sunlight pouring in through the second-floor hall windows. Fingers sticky with peanut butter, Sophie walked out into the hall and headed towards the bathroom. It was as cold as anywhere else in the school. She glanced quickly at her reflection in the mirror before turning on the tap. No water gushed out. She tried the next sink, and the next, but none worked. Hurrying back to the classroom, she reported this piece of news to the other three.
"Strange. They were working fine yesterday," said her friend. "I remember well as I was brushing my teeth there."
Sophie couldn't help gazing at the falling snow again. "You don't think..." she trailed off. The others watched her intently. Sophie processed again what she was about to say, in her mind. Did it make sense? "You don't think the pipes froze?"
"I told you we were going to die in here!" groaned the morbid student. "I wonder if we should choose our ideal death locations now? I would like to die in the gym."
Sophie rolled her eyes. For the rest of the day, they did nothing but sit around, read and finish up their homework. By nightfall, the emergency lights came back on and they decided to sleep in the classroom.
Somewhere in the night, there was a clap of thunder which partially woke Sophie. It must've woke the others as well, for she could hear them stirring. But they didn't think much of it, feeling groggy, and returned to sleep. None of them had heard it carefully enough to know it had not been thunder.
#
Jamie considered going out. Why not? He could take his sled. Perhaps he could make it as far as the high school. From all the flying experiences with Jack, he had become almost immune to cold and strong winds.
But Mrs. Bennett would be worried sick. First her daughter, then her son. Burgess had turned into a winter wonderland. Almost everything was buried. Anything could happen out there.
Jamie lay down on the couch in the living room in the darkness, frustrated. Frustrated he couldn't go out, get Sophie and alleviate Mrs. Bennett's stress. Frustrated with the snowstorm. And for the first time ever, frustrated with Jack Frost. Where was he? What was he doing? Was he the cause of all this snow? Did he think this was a joke? From what they could hear on the radio, amidst all the crackling, it had been reported that it was snowing heavier in town, where the high school was. So whatever they were experiencing back home, Sophie was getting it at least 1.5 times worse.
As he always did, Jamie tried to piece together a plan in his mind.
I realise that not many people read this story anymore. Is it because of my chapters? They're too short? I update too quickly? I update too slow? Or is it my writing style, which is too simple and not descriptive? Please tell me!