Her foot caught on something hidden beneath the drifted powder—a rock or maybe the edge of the pavement—and suddenly she was falling forward, her hands plunging into the freezing white ground as the air rushed from her lungs.
She tried to push herself up.
Her arms trembled.
Nothing happened.
For a moment she lay there staring up at the black sky as snowflakes drifted slowly down toward her face.
They looked almost pretty.
Like tiny stars.
Her body shivered uncontrollably.
Then, little by little, even the shivering stopped.
That was when the real fear arrived.
Continue on the next page:
