The missing posters had not been effective. Susie was still gone. Lost. Outside on her own in the dark, cold, and lonely winter landscape. It had been three days since Hannah had last seen her cat, and she was worried to death about the fate of her small black companion. She had not gone to school that morning. Instead she stayed in her bed, her head resting on the pillowcase. She had been staring at the generic LED lights on her ceiling. They were same ones that they had in her classrooms, the ones that sucked the liveliness and creativity out of her whether she was having a bad day or not. They were so bright they seemed to highlight all her anxiety and concern for her missing cat. She had been lying there all day, wondering where Susie could be as the dark and gloomy thoughts of January consumed her, forgetting how she was letting another day go by.
The alarm clock on her bedside table read the time, 4:17 PM. Slowly, Hannah got out of bed, putting on an old woollen sweater hanging over the end of the bed. She carefully walked into the kitchen of the small flat she lived in together with her mother. Outside, the sun had set, and it was getting dark. A layer of snow covered the few trees scattered around the neighbourhood and the ivy vines that climbed the grey and dull buildings. She had to find Susie, before her cat would freeze to death surrounded by tall blocks of concrete and half-melted muddy snow. Hannah put on her long blue winter coat to protect her from the cold. Then she stepped outside, the cold air hitting her in the face. She turned around, locked the door of her apartment and walked out of her flat building with a determined look on her face.
She couldn't have been searching for more than an hour, but it felt like eternity. The sun was starting to set. In the beginning of her search, her determination had given her strength, but after a while she had just been wandering around the flats. The empty silence outside had something strangely beautiful, but made the buildings look even bleaker and deserted. Her Dr. Martens made a crisping sound in the snow on the sidewalks. She walked slowly, careful not to slip. Right foot up, right foot down. Left foot up, left foot down. Endlessly following the same pattern. She had now walked around all of her neighbourhood and reached the moorland. She liked to come here when the heather was in bloom, but now the whole landscape was covered in snow, reaching endlessly to the horizon. At some spots the green and brown bushes peeked out from underneath the thick layer of snow. She turned right, following the muddy, snow covered path along the heather in the direction of the station. There was nothing to block the wind but the few scarce trees that had long lost their leaves. Its icy fingers wrapped around Hannah's face and turned her cheeks red.
She had lost any perception of time and space, as she slowly approached the train station. Darkness was surrounding her, closing in on her until she was almost claustrophobic. Snowflakes were swirling down, and the wind was growing more forceful. The vicious gusts were almost strong enough to make Hannah fall to the ground. She didn't know why, but she kept going in the same direction. From a logical point of view, she should have stayed within her neighbourhood if she was going to find her cat, but an inexplicable force was pulling her forward. She had now neared the railway to the point where she could see the fence separating her from it through the darkness and snow that was obscuring her vision. Then, all of a sudden, her heart skipped a beat. Across the train tracks, she saw a small black figure. It couldn't be, right? It must be some weird shaped bush, or a branch torn off by the wind and fallen onto the ground near the tracks. Then, the figure moved and cried out in pain. The movement was barely visible, and most of the sound was muffled by the terrible weather conditions, but there were signs of life nonetheless.
Hannah quickly moved closer, until she was holding the fence in her red, freezing hands, nose pressed against it and squinting her eyes. There, across the train tracks, she saw her small black cat lie on the ground. She was filled with relief, but then she saw that near the figure the snow was coloured crimson red. Adrenaline filled her bloodstream. She had to help her companion. Without a second thought, she pulled herself up and climbed onto the fence. She swung her right leg over to the other side. Then she carefully swung her left foot over the fence as well and climbed down. She started to walk as quickly as she could towards her companion, lying there in the snow.
She stopped in front of the tracks and looked both ways, trying to see if there was any light approaching in the distance, but she couldn't see or hear anything except her own breath. She crossed the first track safely and had almost crossed the second. However, in her hurry, she wasn't careful enough in where she placed her feet. As she put her feet on the ice frozen on top of an old, relatively deep, puddle of rainwater, she slipped. She would have been able to keep her balance if it wasn't for the fierce rush of wind that made her lose all control, and she fell to the ground. Luckily, she stopped herself from making a harsh landing by putting down her hands in the soft snow. She tried to get up, still in shock, but her foot was stuck in the ice. She was fighting to get out as hard as she could and was able to give her foot some more room. Her cold body and nearly frozen hands didn't make trying to free herself any easier, and neither did the heavy snowfall or viciously gusting winds. As if the situation couldn't get worse, two blinding headlights were approaching in the distance.
