1
PIPER
The windshield wipers are losing.
I grip the steering wheel tighter, leaning forward like those extra two inches will somehow help me see through the wall of white currently trying to murder me. The weather app said light snow.Light. This is not light. This is the opening scene of a horror movie where the girl ignores all the warning signs and drives straight into her doom.
But I'm not turning back now.
I’ve been dreaming about this weekend for months. It’s a holiday tradition for me and my best friend Mackenzie. Just the two of us, no work, no pressure, no real world.
This is the first time we’ve come to her family’s cabin, but the tradition is the same. Hot cocoa,HallmarkChristmas movies, and talking until 3 a.m. like we’re back in our college dorm instead of two twenty-six-year-old women who should probably have our lives together by now.
Spoiler alert: we don't.
Which is exactly why I need this.
The road curves sharply and my tires slip just enough to make my heart slam into my throat. I ease off the gas.You'refine. You're almost there. The cabin is less than a mile away now.
My phone buzzes in the cup holder and I ignore it. Eyes on the road, hands at ten and two, trying not to think about the steep drop-off to my right that's currently disappearing into the white void.
The trees are so heavy with snow they're bowing under the weight. Everything is muffled and silent. It's beautiful, in a terrifying sort of way. The kind of beautiful that could kill you if you're not careful.
But I made it. Against all odds and my own common sense, I actually made it.
The cabin emerges from the storm like something out of a snow globe. Rustic wood and stone, with a steep roof designed to shed snow and a wraparound porch that's already buried under at least six inches.
I park as close to the porch as I can and kill the engine. There’s an old truck parked off to the side, half-buried in snow, like it hasn’t moved in years. For a moment, I just sit there, letting the adrenaline drain out of my system. My hands are shaking. My shoulders ache from tension.
But I'm here. I'm safe.
The wind rocks my car and I grab my phone, purse, and duffel bag, steeling myself. The second I open the door, the cold steals my breath and stings my cheeks, immediately finding every gap in my coat. I slam the car door and run for the porch, nearly wiping out on the steps.
My phone buzzes again and I yank it out of my pocket, expecting Mackenzie asking if I made it. But when I see her name, there's a string of missed calls. Five of them.
My stomach drops.
I'm fumbling to call her back when it rings in my hand, and I answer before the first ring even finishes.
“Oh thank God,” Mackenzie's voice is pure panic. “Please tell me you haven’t started up the mountain yet.”
“I'm literally standing on your porch.”
Silence. Then: “Oh.”
“It was a little dicey there at the end, but…”
“Piper,no.” She sounds like I just told her I have a terminal illness. “They closed the road. Like, ten minutes ago. I've been trying to call you. You must have driven up right before they blocked it off.”
My brain catches up to her words. “What do you mean they closed the road?”
“The storm's way worse than they thought.”
I look back at my car, at the driveway that's rapidly disappearing and the road that brought me here. The one I just white-knuckled my way up.
“But I'm already here,” I say stupidly.
“I know. And I'm so, so sorry, but…” She takes a shaky breath. “You can't get back down.”
