Christopher Golden - A Winter of Ghosts

Kara took Hachiro's hand againand they raced after their friends, who had become gray silhouettes in thesnow. They had reached an opening in the trees and now Kara and Hachiro emergedbehind them and joined them all on a rocky outcropping that fell away justahead into a steep slope down to the city below. They could see only awhite-veiled hint of lights far, far beneath them.

"Wow," Hachiro said,grinning at Kara to let her know he was imitating her.

She didn't mind. Anyone who didn'tsay 'wow' at such a view in the midst of a snowstorm had to have somethingwrong with them, as far as she was concerned. Now, though, she had other thingson her mind.

"It's getting really bad,"she said.

Glancing around, she saw in herfriends' eyes that they felt the same. What had seemed like an adventure tenminutes ago now seemed like a terrible idea. But they could never havepredicted the storm would grow so much worse so quickly. To Kara it seemedalmost unreal that a gentle snowfall could turn into a blizzard in such a shorttime, but the weather had turned on them.

"We've seen it. Let's goback," Ren said. Despite how much he had liked the idea before, he nowseemed as anxious as any of them.

In unspoken agreement, they allstarted back toward the trees, which had become little more than strangeapparitions in the storm. Long, bare branches reached skeletal fingers into thewhite sky, and black pines were blanketed in snow.

"Wait," Sakura said."Which one?"

"Which what?" Mihoasked.

But Kara saw immediately whatSakura meant. This overlook must have been very popular, because as theyapproached the trees she could see the narrow openings of at least fourdifferent paths — no, five — without any way to tell which one hadbrought them here.

"I think it's the middleone," Hachiro said.

"It's not either of the twoon the right," Sora added quickly.

"No. It's that one,"Sakura said, pointing to the second from the left.

A ripple of fear went throughKara. With all of the other things she had reason to be afraid of, it had neveroccurred to her that she would encounter such fear in such an ordinary way. Butas they looked around at the various paths and the wind gusted harder and thesnow accumulated almost impossibly fast at their feet, piling up on top oftheir jackets and hats and hoods, she felt real terror growing inside of her.

"We have to get back,"she said.

Hachiro grabbed her hand. Throughher glove, she felt him squeeze tightly. "We'll be okay. I promise."

Kara pulled the collar of hershirt up over her mouth and nose, hoping to block the wind. The temperature hadplummeted in minutes. Even with gloves on her fingers hurt, and the hood on hernew jacket kept blowing back, forcing her to hold it closed with one hand.

"Which is it?" shesaid, voice muffled. "Let's just pick one. At least the trees will keepsome of the wind off of us."

They all studied the entrancesto the paths. Sora shook his head, throwing up his hands, and his eyes werefull of dread and panic.

"This one," Miho said."I agree with Hachiro. The middle."

She didn't sound entirely sure,and Sakura hesitated. But when the others all forged ahead onto the path,grateful for the shelter, Sakura followed. Kara linked arms with her, both ofthem hiding in the windbreak that Hachiro's size provided. They hurried alongthe path, ducking low branches and following a slight curve that Kara did notremember — though she hadn't been paying very much attention. With thesnow whipping around the woods became a blur of dark lines in the white staticof the storm. Snow stung her eyes and, driven by the wind, it managed to sneakinside her hood and down her neck.

Sakura said something that Karacould barely hear through her hood and the howl of the wind.

"What?" she called.

"Where's that branch?" Sakura repeated. Her cheeks were red and blotchy from the cold. Snow had builtup on her hat and clung to her eyelashes. "The one that broke off when wewere coming through here?"

Kara scanned the path ahead,searching. Somehow they had taken the lead, with Hachiro just behind them andthe others bringing up the rear. Panic seethed inside of her. How could thestorm have turned into a blizzard so quickly? Could it subside just as fast? Maybeso, but she knew that they could not risk waiting to let it pass. If not forher father, she would have feared that in the storm, the teachers might nothave realized they had wandered off and might have headed back for theobservatory without them. But her father was with them. No way would he leavewithout making sure that Kara was accounted for.

"Kara?" Sakura called."Where is it?"

The girl's voice soundedfrantic, now. Any traces of her rebellious nature had been obliterated by fear.

Kara had continued to watch thepath but found no sign of the fallen limb, and she knew that if they had comeacross it before she would have noticed. They would have had to step over oraround it. Still, she kept on walking, telling herself that they simply had notbacktracked far enough yet, that the storm made it seem that they had traveledfurther than they actually had.

When they reached a fork in thetrail, with one path veering sharply to the left and the other continuing along, gentle curve to the right, she knew for sure.

"This is wrong!" shesaid, turning to Sakura, heart hammering in her chest. She saw in her eyes thatSakura had realized the truth as well.

"What do we do? Go back?" Sakura asked, glancing around wide-eyed as the others gathered around them.

Hachiro stood close to Kara,still trying to shield her from the storm. She just wanted to be back at home,inside and warm, with her arms around him.

"We don't have time!" Hachiro called over the wind. He pointed to the sharp left-hand fork. "Let'sjust go that way. We picked the wrong trail, but we know the clearing is inthat direction. This path must meet up with the one we took originally, ormaybe it leads straight to the clearing."

"You don't know that,Hachiro!" Ren said, his words almost lost in a gust of snow.

"We can't go back,"Miho said. "I can't even feel my feet now !"

Kara looked at Sakura, searchingher eyes. Sakura had been right about which path they should have taken, or sothey all now believed. If she said to go back, then Kara would go back. Sheknew they all would.

"She's right," Sakurasaid. "We can't spend any more time up here than we have to."

The wind stole some of herwords, but Kara understood. She nodded. "All right, we go — "

"Hachiro!" Renshouted.

They all turned to see that hehad backtracked several paces. In the gray-white tunnel formed by the trees oneither side and the blotted out sky, he looked like little more than a shadow,though he stood only ten feet away.

"What's wrong?" Hachiro called to him.

Ren threw his arms wide. "Where'sSora?"

Kara's heart went as cold as therest of her. She stopped breathing a moment. They all turned round in circles,looking into the trees and both ways up the trail.

"Oh, my God," Karasaid.

"He must've turned back!" Hachiro said.

"Or wandered off the trail!" Kara called, half-turning her face from the wind.

Miho had covered her face withher hands, but now she lowered them, revealing the desperation in her eyes."We've got to go back for him!"

Kara glanced at the trail they'dbeen about to take, the one she thought would lead them back to the rest oftheir group, but then she pulled her gaze away. She nodded and started pastHachiro.

"No!" he said.

Kara stared at him. "We can'tjust leave Sora out here alone!"

Hachiro pointed to the trail."You and the girls go. Ren and I will get Sora and catch up."

Ren took a couple of steps backtoward them. "We will?"

Kara grabbed Hachiro's arm. Somewherein her brain she knew the Japanese word for 'sexist,' but was too cold to thinkof it.