Frozen

The icy wind whips over my back with a heavy force. My legs tightly tucked under my body. Two numb arms and hands flexing, trying to possibly find an ounce of warmth. I helplessly found none. Grippy soles of boots dug deep into the even deeper snow. A fuzzy hood trying to blockout crisp snowflakes. Eyelashes sticking together, lips purple, fingers blue. I had lost all sense of time. All sense of feeling. I was dying. I was dying a slow and freezing death.

The thick blizzard surrounding me became fiercer. Stronger. As if the earth was creating a vortex of white to welcome me into my coming deep slumber. My body no longer ached. My face relaxed. Muscles unwound from their tight knots. I was prepared to let go.

...I waited...and waited...and...waited... Sleep did not come. My thought process was still running so I couldn't possibly be dead yet. I thrust my crystalized eyelids open and looked around. White on white on white. The same as before. My body heat was gone as far as I could tell. I had been out long enough. All of my energy gone. Will power diminished. Maybe I was still alive because of what I was sensing. I could feel some kind of faint presense.

Then a crunching sound. It was the sound of footsteps struggling through the packed snow. I knew that sound all too well. The crackles came closer. More hurried. Panicked? Did they see me? Was it an animal? Of course it was. Any sane person wouldn't come out here. I hope that thing doesn't want me for dinner. Or was it breakfast? Lunch maybe? How long does it take for a bundled up girl to freeze to death? It wouldn't be as bad as being mauled by whatever was coming at me.

...An animal wouldn't be panicked if it was racing to eat me. Right?