The snow came down harder than I expected—fat, wet flakes like needles stabbing through the gray sky. I’d told myself I had hours before the storm hit, but the cold was biting through my coat, settling into my bones. My legs were numb, my fingers frozen stiff inside my gloves, and my phone? Dead. No signal. No way out. Just endless trees wrapped in white.
No birds. No wind. Just my boots crunching in the frozen snow and my ragged breath burning the air.
I should have turned back hours ago.
But going home meant empty rooms and a bed that still smelled like him, the sheets untouched because part of me was still waiting for a ghost that would never come back.
So I kept walking.
Head down, teeth clenched beneath my scarf, muscles tight against the cold. I was so focused on putting one foo
