A Winter of Ghosts (The Waking Series)

by Christopher Golden, Thomas Randall

  Chapter Four

  Kara scraped snow off the ground and packed it in her hands, giddy with mischief. Hachiro and Ren were busy hurling snowballs at Sora, so her boyfriend did not see her approaching. She threw it straight and true, pegging Hachiro in the back of the head.

  He spun around, eyes wide with surprise, ready to retaliate. But when he saw that she had been his attacker, he grinned and gave chase, pursuing her through the snowy clearing while she tried to stop laughing long enough to plead for mercy. Hachiro grabbed her by the hood of her new jacket, stopping her short, and threw a handful of snow down the back of her shirt.

  Kara went rigid and cried out as the freezing snow slipped down her back, melting against her skin.

  "Oh, you're dead!" she said, untucking her shirttail to let the snow fall to the ground. She stalked toward Hachiro and he backed away, hands raised, grin growing wider.

  "You started it," he said. "Good aim by the way. You should play baseball."

  "Flattery will not save you," she said.

  Hachiro stood his ground, surrendering. "Do what you will."

  Kara smiled. If her father weren't wandering around amongst the students and teachers, she would have kissed him. Instead, she just shook her head.

  "Sorry, Hachiro. It isn't me you have to worry about."

  He frowned, confused, but only for a moment. Sora and Ren bombarded him with multiple snowballs. Kara had seen them sneaking up on him and had maintained his attention to give them the chance to make extra snowballs.

  Miho and Sakura walked over, applauding lightly.

  "I love this," Kara told them. "It feels like home."

  "How much does it snow in Massachusetts?" Miho asked.

  "It depends on the year, like anywhere else," Kara said. "But some winters there's snow from late November until the beginning of April. A few years ago we had so many storms in a row that in my front yard it was above my waist."

  "It must seem like another world, like something magical," Miho said, with a dreamy look on her face.

  Sakura scoffed. "It sounds like torture. I'd throw myself in front of a bus."

  Kara laughed and looked around. The boys were tiring of snowball fights, but other students were not ready to give up yet. In the gently falling snow they raced around, chasing one another. Some made snow angels and others were building tiny snowmen out of the inch or so that had already fallen. Miss Kaneda and Mr. Yamato had paused the group here so that they could take a short rest before hiking back to the observatory and then down to the buses waiting in Takigami Park, but nobody seemed inclined to rest. The falling snow made them want to play, as if they were still much younger children. Only a handful had taken snacks out of their backpacks, probably because with the fresh snow on the ground there was nowhere to sit down.

  Kara glanced around in search of her father and Miss Aritomo, eyes narrowed to slits as a gust of wind blew snowflakes into her face. She didn't see them, but knew they wouldn't be far from their students.

  "Hey," Sora said as the three boys trudged over to them. "I just saw Reiko. She said there's an amazing view from an overlook down a path over there."

  He pointed vaguely toward the trees.

  "She shouldn't have left the group," Miho said.

  "It wasn't just her," Sora explained. "We should go look."

  Kara glanced toward the trees, searching for an opening. The snow had started to fall a bit heavier, obscuring her vision, but still did not seem to be amounting to much of a storm.

  "How much time do you think we have?" Hachiro asked.

  Sakura tugged her hat tighter down over her ears. "At least five minutes before they try rounding anyone up, and you know it'll take at least that long to get everyone organized and get them to stop fooling around. They won't be leaving for at least ten or fifteen minutes."

  Miho frowned, wiping snow from her cheek. "Are you sure?"

  Ren put his arm through hers. The two had become close friends during the previous term. "You'll be fine. I'll protect you from the Yeti."

  "The Yeti lives in the Himalayas!" Miho said, arching an eyebrow at him.

  "There, you see?" Ren replied. "Nothing to be afraid of."

  "Come on," Kara said, looping her arm through Hachiro's in imitation of Miho and Ren. "I want to see."

  The six of them trekked across the clearing together. When Hachiro spotted Mr. Yamato, they gave the principal a wide berth, not wanting him to stop them before they got started. When they reached the trees it took them only a moment to find the path that Sora declared must be the one Reiko had mentioned, and they followed it with more purpose and energy than any of them had shown during the rest of the day's hiking.

  At first, Kara liked the stillness of the path. In the gray winter light, with the snow falling, eddying in gusts of wind, it was so quiet that it felt as though the six of them were entirely alone on the mountain. She liked that idea, being with her friends on an adventure. Ren marched Miho forward, still arm in arm with her, leading the group. They laughed and bumped each other. Sora and Sakura had been paired up by default, and Kara thought they seemed a bit awkward together.

  Kara and Hachiro brought up the rear, hand in hand, and for a few minutes, it felt like a winter wonderland.

  Then, out of nowhere, the wind gusted hard enough to bend the trees. Kara and Hachiro staggered and he let go of her hand as the huge gust subsided.

  "Wow!" Kara said, reverting to English in her surprise. "What the hell —"

  The wind blew again, branches swaying, and with a crack a thick bough broke off of a tree just behind them, falling across the path. The gusts continued, settling into a powerful gale that swayed the trees all around them. Snow blew into their faces and across the path, falling even heavier than before.

  "We should go back!" Miho said.

  "I'm sure it's just a little further," Sora replied, glancing around at them. "We all have to hike back in this. What difference does it make?"

  Kara shrugged and looked at Miho. "At least we'll have a story to tell."

  "All right," Miho agreed. "But everyone stay together."

  Ren snuggled up beside her and they marched on. The wind continued to blow and the snow to swirl, but it felt as though they were traveling through a tunnel. She glanced up and saw that above the tree line the sky had turned completely white.

  On impulse, she tugged Hachiro's hand, pulling him to a stop. When he glanced down, she stood on her tiptoes, wrapped a hand around the back of his neck, and pulled him down for a long, lingering kiss.

  "It does feel like magic here," she said.

  Hachiro looked nervous and unsure, and when he spoke up, she understood why.

  "I love you, Kara."

  Her breath caught in her throat, her heart skipping a beat. She swallowed, now just as he nervous as he seemed. Then she nodded. "I love you, too."

  "Hey!" Sakura shouted from up ahead on the path. "Come look at this!"

  Kara took Hachiro's hand again and they raced after their friends, who had become gray silhouettes in the snow. They had reached an opening in the trees and now Kara and Hachiro emerged behind them and joined them all on a rocky outcropping that fell away just ahead into a steep slope down to the city below. They could see only a white-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't say 'wow' at such a view in the midst of a snowstorm had to have something wrong with them, as far as she was concerned. Now, though, she had other things on her mind.

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

  Glancing around, she saw in her friends' eyes that they felt the same. What had seemed like an adventure ten minutes ago now seemed like a terrible idea. But they could never have predicted the storm would grow so much worse so quickly. To Kara it seemed almost unreal that a gentle snowfall could turn into a blizzard in such a short time, but the weather had turned on them.

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

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

  "Wait," Sakura said. "Which one?"

  "Which what?" Miho asked.

  But Kara saw immediately what Sakura meant. This overlook must have been very popular, because as they approached the trees she could see the narrow openings of at least four different paths — no, five — without any way to tell which one had brought them here.

  "I think it's the middle one," Hachiro said.

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

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

  A ripple of fear went through Kara. With all of the other things she had reason to be afraid of, it had never occurred to her that she would encounter such fear in such an ordinary way. But as they looked around at the various paths and the wind gusted harder and the snow accumulated almost impossibly fast at their feet, piling up on top of their jackets and hats and hoods, she felt real terror growing inside of her.

  "We have to get back," she said.

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

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

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

  They all studied the entrances to the paths. Sora shook his head, throwing up his hands, and his eyes were full 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 of them hiding in the windbreak that Hachiro's size provided. They hurried along the path, ducking low branches and following a slight curve that Kara did not remember — though she hadn't been paying very much attention. With the snow whipping around the woods became a blur of dark lines in the white static of the storm. Snow stung her eyes and, driven by the wind, it managed to sneak inside her hood and down her neck.

  Sakura said something that Kara could 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 built up on her hat and clung to her eyelashes. "The one that broke off when we were coming through here?"

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

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

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

  Kara had continued to watch the path but found no sign of the fallen limb, and she knew that if they had come across it before she would have noticed. They would have had to step over or around it. Still, she kept on walking, telling herself that they simply had not backtracked far enough yet, that the storm made it seem that they had traveled further than they actually had.

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

  "This is wrong!" she said, turning to Sakura, heart hammering in her chest. She saw in her eyes that Sakura 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's just go that way. We picked the wrong trail, but we know the clearing is in that direction. This path must meet up with the one we took originally, or maybe 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, searching her eyes. Sakura had been right about which path they should have taken, or so they all now believed. If she said to go back, then Kara would go back. She knew they all would.

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

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

  "Hachiro!" Ren shouted.

  They all turned to see that he had backtracked several paces. In the gray-white tunnel formed by the trees on either 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's Sora?"

  Kara's heart went as cold as the rest 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," Kara said.

  "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 with her 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'd been about to take, the one she thought would lead them back to the rest of their group, but then she pulled her gaze away. She nodded and started past Hachiro.

  "No!" he said.

  Kara stared at him. "We can't just 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 back toward them. "We will?"

  Kara grabbed Hachiro's arm. Somewhere in her brain she knew the Japanese word for 'sexist,' but was too cold to think of it.

  "You're not sending us ahead just because we're girls!" she shouted into the wind, blinking away snowflakes.

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

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

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

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

  "Kara, come on!" Sakura said.

  With one final glance — the snow already filling in the prints Hachiro and Ren had just made — she turned and started up the left-hand trail. Miho and Sakura linked arms with her on either side and the girls raced along this new path, branches drooping overhead, the storm buffeting them.

  They rushed along, huddled toget
her, but had gone no more than a hundred yards before their path joined another. Kara thought it might be the one they had originally taken to get out to that stony bluff overlooking the city, but she dared not express her hope aloud. They kept on, trudging through the deepening snow. Her fingers and toes and face were numb, her legs like blocks of ice, and she knew that her friends must feel the same, though they traveled in silence.

  One moment the trees were sagging and swaying in the storm all around them, and then they were surrounded by nothing but white. They had arrived in the clearing without even realizing it. Through the storm she could see vague figures all around them.

  "Dad! Mr. Yamato! Someone help!" she called.

  Shouts came in reply and the figures rushed through the blizzard to reach them. She heard her father's voice calling her name, and then he appeared out of the storm and took her in his arms, asking if she was all right, tearing off his gloves and using his hands to 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 the boys are still out there. We lost Sora somehow, and Hachiro and Ren doubled back for him."

  She quickly described the paths they had taken, the rocky overlook they had found, and where she thought the boys would be. By that time Mr. Yamato, Miss Aritomo, and Mr. Sato had joined them and listened carefully. With their hats and jackets coated in snow they looked 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 the group 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 so quickly. There was nothing in the forecast about a blizzard like this. Just light snow, and even that wasn't supposed to come until tonight."

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

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