Christopher Golden - A Winter of Ghosts

"You're not sending usahead just because we're girls!" she shouted into the wind, blinking awaysnowflakes.

Hachiro shook his headvigorously. "No! Yes, I want you safe, but someone needs to get back tothe group and tell Mr. Yamato we're still out here."

Kara hated parting from him, butHachiro was right. Someone had to go back. As much as she would have liked tostay with him, she worried about Sakura and Miho as well and wanted to makesure they reached the group safely.

"If you get back to therocks and you haven't found him, don't search. Not in this. I'm going to bewaiting for you," she said.

Hachiro gave her a quick kissand then he turned and started back down the path, shouting for Sora. Renjoined in the shouting and the two of them picked up their pace, jogging intothe whiteness until it swallowed them completely.

"Kara, come on!" Sakura said.

With one final glance — thesnow already filling in the prints Hachiro and Ren had just made — sheturned and started up the left-hand trail. Miho and Sakura linked arms with heron either side and the girls raced along this new path, branches droopingoverhead, the storm buffeting them.

They rushed along, huddledtogether, but had gone no more than a hundred yards before their path joinedanother. Kara thought it might be the one they had originally taken to get outto that stony bluff overlooking the city, but she dared not express her hopealoud. They kept on, trudging through the deepening snow. Her fingers and toesand face were numb, her legs like blocks of ice, and she knew that her friendsmust feel the same, though they traveled in silence.

One moment the trees weresagging and swaying in the storm all around them, and then they were surroundedby nothing but white. They had arrived in the clearing without even realizingit. Through the storm she could see vague figures all around them.

"Dad! Mr. Yamato! Someonehelp!" she called.

Shouts came in reply and thefigures rushed through the blizzard to reach them. She heard her father's voicecalling her name, and then he appeared out of the storm and took her in hisarms, asking if she was all right, tearing off his gloves and using his handsto rub her cheeks and warm her face.

"I'm okay," she said,barely aware that she had reverted to English. "We'll be okay. But theboys are still out there. We lost Sora somehow, and Hachiro and Ren doubledback for him."

She quickly described the pathsthey had taken, the rocky overlook they had found, and where she thought theboys would be. By that time Mr. Yamato, Miss Aritomo, and Mr. Sato had joinedthem and listened carefully. With their hats and jackets coated in snow theylooked like they were being slowly whited out, erased from the world.

"Where is everyone else?" Sakura asked, for the clearing was nearly empty.

"I sent the rest of thegroup on their way to get the students off the mountain," Mr. Yamato said.He looked scared and confused. "I don't know how the weather turned soquickly. There was nothing in the forecast about a blizzard like this. Justlight snow, and even that wasn't supposed to come until tonight."

Her father cupped her cheek inhis hands. "Keep moving, Kara. Go down with Mr. Sato and Miss Aritomo. Therest of us will find the boys and follow."

"No!" Kara said."Dad, please. Come down with us."

Hachiro was already out there inthe blizzard. Now that she had her father back, the idea of leaving him behindup there on the mountain made her frantic. She didn't even want to go back downwithout Hachiro, but she knew that they all risked frostbite if they stayed uphere much longer.

"Kara, Mr. Yamato and I aregoing to — "

"Harper-san," Mr. Satosaid, his big glasses spider-webbed with ice, "please go with Kara. I willsearch with Mr. Yamato.

Kara's father hesitated and shegrabbed his hand, silently pleading with him. Then he nodded.

"All right," he said,looking up at Miss Aritomo. "Let's get these girls off the mountain."

Hachiro's throat was raw fromshouting. His head pounded, the cold like a vise on his skull. His gloved handswere stuffed into his pockets and he could no longer feel much at all in hisfeet. He thought he might have to stop and take his boots off, use his hands torub some life back into his feet, but didn't know if that would help or if theexposure would only make it worse.

"Sora!" Ren shouted athis side. "Where are you? Can you hear us? Sora!"

They struggled along togetherside by side, Ren peering into the trees to the right of the path and Hachiroscanning the woods to the left. Another thirty yards and they would be out ofthe woods and back at the rocky overlook whose allure had gotten them all intosuch trouble in the first place.

"Sora!" Hachiroscreamed into the storm.

He opened his mouth to yellagain, but paused, thinking he'd heard some kind of reply from the thickness ofthe snow-covered woods. It might have been the wind, or the creak of a treefelled by the blizzard, but he did not think it had been either.

"So — " Renbegan.

Hachiro clamped a hand on hisshoulder, shushing him. "Quiet. Listen."

They stood still and silent forthe count of ten, but heard nothing but the cry of the wind. Hachiro glanced atRen and nodded and the two of them shouted again, this time in one voice,calling Sora's name into the storm, into the woods.

A voice cried out in reply.

"Tell me you heard that!" Hachiro said, turning to Ren.

Ren nodded. "I heard it. Idon't know what I heard, but something. Someone."

"Who else would it be?" Hachiro snapped, but he understood. The cry he had heard might have belonged toan animal. He'd been unable to make out any words, only a voice, calling out.

He stepped off the trail,glancing back at Ren, who swore and set off after him. The two boys crashedthrough the trees, snapping branches and tramping in snow that seemed somehowdeeper. The pines brushed against them as though attempting to hold them backand Hachiro tore his coat on the sharp hook of a thin, bare branch, but theyrushed onward, shouting Sora's name.

That cry came twice more, stillwordless, and Hachiro faltered slightly at the realization that it sounded morelike pain than panic. But further shouts received no reply and soon they beganto slow and finally came to a halt.

"Sora!" Hachiro roaredone last time in frustration.

Regret filled him, weighing himdown, and he turned to Ren, whose eyes revealed that he had come to the samedecision that Hachiro had.

"We have to go back,"Hachiro said.

Ren nodded. "I agree. Thatmight've been him, or it could've been a bird. Sora might have gone back tothat cliff and used the right path. He might already be with the others in theclearing. We have no way of knowing."

Hachiro felt sick, but he knewit was the truth. Sora might have made it back to the group already, but ifnot, Mr. Yamato would tell the authorities and they would get a search partyonto the mountain. He and Ren had done all they could do.

"Sora!" he shoutedone, final time. Then, hating the feeling of helplessness that filled him, heturned to Ren. "Let's go."

Together they made their wayback the way they had come, retracing their steps in the snow, snapping offmore branches, the storm raging even there amongst the trees. Hachiro had takenhalf a dozen steps when he looked up and saw a figure standing between twinpines off to his left.

"Ren, look."

"Sora?" Ren said,quietly at first, and then louder. "Sora!"

The boys barreled through thesnow, running toward those twin black pines, but when they reached thesnow-dusted figure they were brought up short. Hachiro tried to halt but hisleft boot slid out from under him and he fell, tumbling in several inches offresh snow.

Ren had started to pray.

Hachiro rolled to his knees,staring up in disbelief at the statue, there in the midst of the woods and thestorm. Only it wasn't a statue. Somehow, in the short span of time since theyhad seen him last, Sora had frozen to death, his entire body covered in a coatof glistening ice and frosted with snow.