Lenore almost had everything she wanted.
In just a few short months, she'd graduate early from high school, start an internship at her father's new startup in San Francisco, and then head off to college in the fall on a full scholarship. Everything...
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It had been a long winter.
On that ill-fated night, hours after the grim discovery in the woods, the vicious rain turned cold. A strange storm moved in on Eden with shocking quickness, covering every branch, stone, and blade of grass in ice before turning into a deluge of snow. Drifts piled around the house and town, and stayed there.
In such conditions, continuing the search for Victor was impossible. But the officials already had their answer. The volume of blood that stained the found sweater had been enough to determine that Victor had been grievously injured. And even if he could have, somehow, survived his wounds, he wouldn't have survived the bitter blizzard that followed.
They all knew that Victor was dead.
Even after the freak blizzard, it kept snowing, and snowing, and snowing. The town had essentially been trapped in their homes for months, unable to leave. For Lenore, that was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because the snow kept her from school, sparing her from the stares and whispers that would inevitably follow. A curse because she had been trapped in the house with her mother, on the edge of the forest that claimed Victor for its own...
The thought still shook Lenore to her core as she stared out from her bedroom window, out into the barren woods at the edge of the yard. It was already April, but snow still clung to the scenery, new buds frozen on the branches. Just beyond those trees, somewhere deep inside the forest, lay Victor—
"Lenore, are you listening?"
Lenore blinked, then turned back to her computer. Her father's furrowed expression waited for her on screen. He was sitting in front of a window, the sky behind him blue and perfect, the exact opposite of the bleak scene outside hers.
"Sorry, I got distracted," she said, feeling bad for ignoring her dad. These days it always felt like her brain was a million miles away. "What were you saying?"
"I said, I have some big news."
"Oh?" Lenore said, trying to arrange her face into something that showed interest. But in the corner of the screen that reflected her own face, she looked pained.
"Your mom has agreed to give up custody."
Lenore's limbs felt like they'd been filled with cement, dragging her down.
"What?"
"You can come and live with me in San Fran!" her dad cheered. "The plan is back on track! We'll have to figure out a way to get the rest of your credits, but that'll be easy enough down here, and—"
"I can't."
On the screen, her dad's face fell. "Huh?"
"I don't want to go to San Francisco."
"B-But," her dad scrambled. "It... It's the plan. Don't you want to follow the plan?"
Lenore stared through the screen, her eyes aching and dry. They'd already used up all their tears. She rubbed at them, but it did little good.
