The car was thoroughly stuck. Fisher congratulated himself on parking in a wet ditch. The mud had frozen as the snow fell, making it nearly impossible to get out there. Their only hope was that the snow would stop and the trucks would start coming by soon. He scrawled out a note on the front seat, slammed the car door, and made the trek back in the swirling darkness.

He started back into the woods toward the house. He trudged through the snow, keeping his head down away from the swirling snow. After several minutes, Fisher looked up, dismayed to find himself still in the woods. He twisted around, his footprints streaming out behind him, the snow having already covered his earlier trail. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw Renate’s red coat flapping in the wind, but when he turned back, all he saw was the billow of snowflakes around an endless array of trees. He was lost. Lost in the cold and snow and how long would it be before they found –

His next step brought him out of the woods into the clearing leading to the abandoned house. He breathed a sigh of relief, then stopped cold. He thought he heard someone running through the woods.

“Renate?”

No reply came. He scanned the woods, much like Renate had done before. Through some instinct he could not define, he quickened his pace toward the door and made sure not to look behind him again.