"Skip!"

     Abby looked everywhere for her son.

     What she saw, instead, were algren. ​ 

     A dozen of them, once again back in their armor, surrounded Abby and her family. 

     But no Skip. 

     And then she did see him, and that's when, for the first time in what was turning out to be a truly horrifying day, she felt despair that impaled her like a stake...

​     She saw her son lying on the ground covered with snow...

     but not completely covered. 

     What Abby saw of her son was blue. 

     Skip didn't move. 

     He didn't breathe.

​     He looked absolutely and truly dead. 

     "Skip!" Abby yelped. She went for him. Perhaps he wasn't really dead, just very, very close. If they could get him back in the huddle, perhaps the child could...

     "Mom!" Kathy yelled as her mother pulled away from her. "What are..." And then she, too, saw her brother, as did Alison. 

     As one, the three of them sobbed. 

     "We're here!" Trevor yelled from over their heads. "Niki and me! What can we..."

     "Get Skip!" Alison yelled. "Save my son!"

CONTINUE