"What are you doing out here?" Sera asked worriedly. "Is everything all right?"
The girl laughed easily, a sweet, tinkling sound that carried through the air. "Oh yes," she said happily. "I live in the cabin about a mile down the road. I was going stir crazy so I decided to go for a walk."
"Well, why don't you come inside and have some hot chocolate with my friends and I?"
"Oh, who are your friend's? Maybe I know them."
"Kathleen's parents own the cabin, and she's inside with Danielle now. A few of our other friends went for a walk."
The girl studied her before she turned to look at the woods. "A walk huh?" Something flickered over her delicate features that caused a chill ran up Sera's spine. The girl smiled happily as she shook back her midnight hair. "No, that's all right. I was heading to my friend's cabin. They'll be worried if I don't show up. Maybe I'll stop on my way back."
Sera felt as if there was something wrong with this girl, but she didn't know what, and she couldn't just let her walk through a blizzard without trying to help her. "Are you sure you don't want to come in and warm up for a couple of minutes first?"
"No, I really should be going. My name's Elizabeth by the way, but everyone calls me Beth," she said as she extended a small, gloved hand.
"Serendipity, but everyone calls me Sera. It's nice to meet you."
"That's unusual, pretty though. It's nice to meet you too."
"Thanks. Have a safe walk."
"I will. Have a good day."
Sera hurried back to the cabin and climbed the steps. She swung the back door open and stomped the snow from her boots as she pulled her gloves off. She stripped her jacket off and hurried into the warm kitchen. Danielle and Kathleen were sipping hot chocolate and bickering over a crossword puzzle as they sat at the island.
"They back yet?" Kathleen asked.
"No, not yet."
"For not wanting to go very far, they've been gone awhile," Danielle said.
"Well over an hour," Kathleen muttered.
Sera poured a mug of hot chocolate, and held it in her numbed hands to help warm them up. "They'll be back soon," she said as she took a sip.
"I hope so, it will be night soon."
Sera moved over to the island and stared unseeingly at the crossword. The heat was rapidly sinking into her as shooting pains lanced through her numbed fingers. "I just met a neighbor of yours," she said to Kathleen.
Kathleen frowned as she lifted her head from the puzzle. "A neighbor?" she asked. "Where?"
"Out back, after you guys came inside. She was walking through the woods."
Kathleen plopped her pen on the counter. "We don't have any neighbors, Sera."
Sera frowned as she took a sip of her hot chocolate. "She said she was from a cabin about a mile down the road."
Kathleen chewed on her bottom lip as she glanced back at Sera. "That's funny."
"Why?"
"Well that would be the old McDonald place. His wife died last year, and Mr. McDonald died last month. As far as I know, no one has bought the place."
"Maybe she was a grandkid or something?"
Kathleen picked her pen up. "Yeah, maybe."
"She said she was going to a friend's cabin."
