Apollo's Muse

Candice (Stranger in the Snow) I

* Pic is of Rosalie - so cute!

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“Candice!” 

Rosalie’s soft hands roused her from the downy dreamland underneath her duvet. Candice blinked her sleepy eyes, spears of brilliant light piercing her sensitive eyelids, prompting her to duck under the covers in a vain attempt to avoid her little sister’s tickling fingers. 

 “Candy, it’s snowing! Come on!”

She peeked from under the duvet, and her heart melted at the sight of her little sister’s liquid hazel eyes and glossy brown curls. 

“Really? It’s actually snowing?”

Curiosity was roused, she lazily pushed of the covers and knelt on her bed, absently clasping her pink silk pajamas in small hands. A fairytale panorama of frosty winter white gleamed outside her window, downy flakes falling slowly as if suspended in time. A pale golden glow reflected of the sugary soft layer that had fallen on the lawn, and dusted the branches of the tall evergreen trees. Squeals could be heard from the neighbors’, and the muted rumble of a passing vehicle could be heard from the street.

Rosalie grabbed her hand, tugging impatiently. Candice let herself be dragged out of bed, and grabbed her fluffy suede slipper boots.

“I’ll be out in a second! Get some shoes on,” she said with a smile and a gentle shove. Rosalie disappeared down the hall, giggling. Candice pulled on her booties and glanced in the vanity mirror on her way out. A rumpled mass of blonde curls framed her face and tumbled down her back, pale cheekbones sharply defining luminous blue eyes. She buttoned a stray button on her silk pajama top, and grabbed Rosalie’s hand as her sister poked her head round the door.

“Finally!” Rosa rolled her eyes.

 “Come on, Rosa! You woke me up before seven o’clock,” she laughed, poking out her tongue at her sister. “What do you expect!?”

Rosa batted her long black eyelashes and wriggled away, dancing to the front door and throwing it open. The door banged violently against the doorstop as the bright-eyed imp leapt into the snow and scooped up a mass of flakes, throwing it into the air with glee. Candice followed her, bending to squeeze the feathery whiteness with her bare hands, balling it up and catching her sister off guard with a well-aimed snowball in the seat of her pants. Rosalie squealed and began wildly scooping snowballs and firing them haphazardly in her direction. Candice ducked behind one of the evergreens and sucked in a breath of the frigid air. 

Her fingers were shaking, pink with cold. She could hear her mother laughing from the doorstep, wrapped in a red woolen coat, watching Rosalie build up a little pile of snowballs behind the letterbox. She could hear the muffled sound of an engine being started and the whirr of tyres on the street. The warbling song emanating from the fluffy brown sparrow perched on the fence, blinking bright eyes against the cold, huddled into it’s downy hood.

Candice breathed deeply, closing her eyes and spreading her arms, feeling the feeble warmth of the autumn sunlight on her pale skin.

Freedom... So light and free, like a butterfly... 

She twirled in circles, her fur-lined boots scuffing sprays of powdery snow in feathery arcs, until she staggered dizzily against the trunk of the tree, her lips curved into a small smile. She opened her eyes, and suddenly caught her breath. 

Wow.

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A boy stood just behind the neighbors’ fence, watching her with dark, dark eyes. They threatened to swallow her whole, those unreadable magnetic pools of emotion.

So much heat... he's so intense... Those eyes...

She flushed and realized that she was barely dressed in front of a stranger, and good looking one, too. She glanced down at the toes of her boots, suddenly feeling like a naked child. His gaze demanded her attention, and she shivered with an unknown feeling as his eyes bored into her. She stepped back, her gaze fixed on his, breathing unsteadily. 

Suddenly something icy cold slapped against her torso, and she screamed, leaping back desperately, raising her arms defensively as Rosalie hailed her in snowballs, the little girl completely oblivious to the tall, dark stranger across the fence. Candice retreated, trying to ward of the well-aimed snowballs, shivering uncontrollably as she ran into the house. She stamped snow from her booties, crossing thin arms across her chest in attempt to keep warm. Mom cried out, scolding Rosalie, wrapping a warm blanket round her eldest daughter before she hurried to run a hot bath.

While Candice soaked in bubbles, her eyes stayed wide open as she memorized the features of the boy that hypnotized her so.

Who was he?

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