The Suicide Master (October Writing Challenge)

Chapter 4: The Cold Wind

Chapter 4

The Cold Wind

The next morning, Emery woke with a shiver.

"Jeez," she muttered, then noticed Amily was already up. "Aren't you cold?" She asked.

"Um, yeah? Sometime last night the temperature dropped to the thirties."

"Jeez," Emery repeated. She grabbed a large sweater from her suitcase and closed their open window. "Come on."

Lucas cursed as he walked out of the room diagonal from the girls'. "It's so cold."

"Then put a shirt on, you moron," Aaron muttered, stumbling out of the room and rubbing his eyes.

"Who opened all the windows?" Charlotte cried irritably.

"The temperature dropped below forty last night," Emery informed.

"Oh," she mumbled. "Come on, we should check on Ethan." Emery nodded. He had slept on the couch the night before, not wanting to make the expedition upstairs.

"Ethan?" Emery called, walking behind the stairs to the living room. He lay on the couch, sleeping. He groaned and opened his eyes halfway, frowning.

"Holy--" Christy stopped Charlotte before she cursed. "It's snowing," she said, bewildered.

Emery shifted her gaze out the window, and her eyes widened at the sight of the small flurries of snow falling from the sky.

"Who turned off the heat?" Ethan asked drowsily.

"No one," Christy answered. "It's snowing."

"It's what?" Lucas exclaimed, coming into the living room.

"Snowing," Amily repeated.

Emery stood from the couch, where she had been examining Ethan's bandage and walked through the dining room.

"Where are you going?" Emery stopped with her hand on the doorknob and turned to her sister.

"I want to see what was in that water," she stated and walked out the door. Amily sighed.

Emery walked down the steps and the dirt pathway to the dock. She was stricken by the cold on her bare legs and kicked herself for not putting on sweats over her shorts.

Emery stood at the end of the dock, a cold wind careening over her, causing goosebumps to raise on her arms and snow to blow through her hair. She looked into the water, her hazel eyes scanning the glistering surface. The sun wasn't out, so the grey clouds reflected off the surface, creating an upside-down universe inside the lake.

She peered into the water where Ethan had been the night before. There was nothing there -- no rocks, no glass, not even the ground. It most definitely was not shallow.

Another gust of cold wind seeped into Emery's skin. She shivered and walked back inside.