A Winter of Ghosts

Chapter Four

Kara scraped snow off the groundand packed it in her hands, giddy with mischief. Hachiro and Ren were busyhurling snowballs at Sora, so her boyfriend did not see her approaching. Shethrew it straight and true, pegging Hachiro in the back of the head.

He spun around, eyes wide withsurprise, ready to retaliate. But when he saw that she had been his attacker,he grinned and gave chase, pursuing her through the snowy clearing while shetried to stop laughing long enough to plead for mercy. Hachiro grabbed her bythe hood of her new jacket, stopping her short, and threw a handful of snowdown the back of her shirt.

Kara went rigid and cried out asthe freezing snow slipped down her back, melting against her skin.

"Oh, you're dead!" shesaid, untucking her shirttail to let the snow fall to the ground. She stalkedtoward Hachiro and he backed away, hands raised, grin growing wider.

"You started it," hesaid. "Good aim by the way. You should play baseball."

"Flattery will not saveyou," she said.

Hachiro stood his ground,surrendering. "Do what you will."

Kara smiled. If her father weren'twandering around amongst the students and teachers, she would have kissed him. Instead,she just shook her head.

"Sorry, Hachiro. It isn'tme you have to worry about."

He frowned, confused, but onlyfor a moment. Sora and Ren bombarded him with multiple snowballs. Kara had seenthem sneaking up on him and had maintained his attention to give them thechance to make extra snowballs.

Miho and Sakura walked over,applauding lightly.

"I love this," Karatold them. "It feels like home."

"How much does it snow inMassachusetts?" Miho asked.

"It depends on the year,like anywhere else," Kara said. "But some winters there's snow fromlate November until the beginning of April. A few years ago we had so manystorms in a row that in my front yard it was above my waist."

"It must seem like anotherworld, like something magical," Miho said, with a dreamy look on her face.

Sakura scoffed. "It soundslike torture. I'd throw myself in front of a bus."

Kara laughed and looked around. Theboys were tiring of snowball fights, but other students were not ready to giveup yet. In the gently falling snow they raced around, chasing one another. Somemade snow angels and others were building tiny snowmen out of the inch or sothat had already fallen. Miss Kaneda and Mr. Yamato had paused the group hereso that they could take a short rest before hiking back to the observatory andthen down to the buses waiting in Takigami Park, but nobody seemed inclined torest. The falling snow made them want to play, as if they were still muchyounger children. Only a handful had taken snacks out of their backpacks,probably because with the fresh snow on the ground there was nowhere to sitdown.

Kara glanced around in search ofher father and Miss Aritomo, eyes narrowed to slits as a gust of wind blewsnowflakes into her face. She didn't see them, but knew they wouldn't be farfrom their students.

"Hey," Sora said asthe three boys trudged over to them. "I just saw Reiko. She said there'san amazing view from an overlook down a path over there."

He pointed vaguely toward thetrees.

"She shouldn't have leftthe group," Miho said.

"It wasn't just her,"Sora explained. "We should go look."

Kara glanced toward the trees,searching for an opening. The snow had started to fall a bit heavier, obscuringher vision, but still did not seem to be amounting to much of a storm.

"How much time do you thinkwe have?" Hachiro asked.

Sakura tugged her hat tighterdown over her ears. "At least five minutes before they try rounding anyoneup, and you know it'll take at least that long to get everyone organized and getthem to stop fooling around. They won't be leaving for at least ten or fifteenminutes."

Miho frowned, wiping snow fromher cheek. "Are you sure?"

Ren put his arm through hers. Thetwo had become close friends during the previous term. "You'll be fine. I'llprotect you from the Yeti."

"The Yeti lives in theHimalayas!" Miho said, arching an eyebrow at him.

"There, you see?" Renreplied. "Nothing to be afraid of."

"Come on," Kara said,looping her arm through Hachiro's in imitation of Miho and Ren. "I want tosee."

The six of them trekked acrossthe clearing together. When Hachiro spotted Mr. Yamato, they gave the principala wide berth, not wanting him to stop them before they got started. When theyreached the trees it took them only a moment to find the path that Soradeclared must be the one Reiko had mentioned, and they followed it with morepurpose and energy than any of them had shown during the rest of the day'shiking.

At first, Kara liked thestillness of the path. In the gray winter light, with the snow falling, eddyingin gusts of wind, it was so quiet that it felt as though the six of them wereentirely alone on the mountain. She liked that idea, being with her friends onan adventure. Ren marched Miho forward, still arm in arm with her, leading thegroup. They laughed and bumped each other. Sora and Sakura had been paired upby default, and Kara thought they seemed a bit awkward together.

Kara and Hachiro brought up therear, hand in hand, and for a few minutes, it felt like a winter wonderland.

Then, out of nowhere, the windgusted hard enough to bend the trees. Kara and Hachiro staggered and he let goof her hand as the huge gust subsided.

"Wow!" Kara said,reverting to English in her surprise. "What the hell — "

The wind blew again, branches swaying,and with a crack a thick bough broke off of a tree just behind them, fallingacross the path. The gusts continued, settling into a powerful gale that swayedthe trees all around them. Snow blew into their faces and across the path,falling even heavier than before.

"We should go back!" Miho said.

"I'm sure it's just alittle further," Sora replied, glancing around at them. "We all haveto hike back in this. What difference does it make?"

Kara shrugged and looked atMiho. "At least we'll have a story to tell."

"All right," Mihoagreed. "But everyone stay together."

Ren snuggled up beside her andthey marched on. The wind continued to blow and the snow to swirl, but it feltas though they were traveling through a tunnel. She glanced up and saw that abovethe tree line the sky had turned completely white.

On impulse, she tugged Hachiro'shand, pulling him to a stop. When he glanced down, she stood on her tiptoes,wrapped a hand around the back of his neck, and pulled him down for a long,lingering kiss.

"It does feel like magichere," she said.

Hachiro looked nervous andunsure, and when he spoke up, she understood why.

"I love you, Kara."

Her breath caught in her throat,her heart skipping a beat. She swallowed, now just as he nervous as he seemed. Thenshe nodded. "I love you, too."

"Hey!" Sakura shoutedfrom up ahead on the path. "Come look at this!"

Kara took Hachiro's hand againand they raced after their friends, who had become gray silhouettes in thesnow. They had reached an opening in the trees and now Kara and Hachiro emergedbehind them and joined them all on a rocky outcropping that fell away justahead into a steep slope down to the city below. They could see only awhite-veiled hint of lights far, far beneath them.

"Wow," Hachiro said,grinning at Kara to let her know he was imitating her.

She didn't mind. Anyone who didn'tsay 'wow' at such a view in the midst of a snowstorm had to have somethingwrong with them, as far as she was concerned. Now, though, she had other thingson her mind.

"It's getting really bad,"she said.

Glancing around, she saw in herfriends' eyes that they felt the same. What had seemed like an adventure tenminutes ago now seemed like a terrible idea. But they could never havepredicted the storm would grow so much worse so quickly. To Kara it seemedalmost unreal that a gentle snowfall could turn into a blizzard in such a shorttime, but the weather had turned on them.

"We've seen it. Let's goback," Ren said. Despite how much he had liked the idea before, he nowseemed as anxious as any of them.

In unspoken agreement, they allstarted back toward the trees, which had become little more than strangeapparitions in the storm. Long, bare branches reached skeletal fingers into thewhite sky, and black pines were blanketed in snow.

"Wait," Sakura said."Which one?"

"Which what?" Mihoasked.

But Kara saw immediately whatSakura meant. This overlook must have been very popular, because as theyapproached the trees she could see the narrow openings of at least fourdifferent paths — no, five — without any way to tell which one hadbrought them here.

"I think it's the middleone," Hachiro said.

"It's not either of the twoon the right," Sora added quickly.

"No. It's that one,"Sakura said, pointing to the second from the left.

A ripple of fear went throughKara. With all of the other things she had reason to be afraid of, it had neveroccurred to her that she would encounter such fear in such an ordinary way. Butas they looked around at the various paths and the wind gusted harder and thesnow accumulated almost impossibly fast at their feet, piling up on top oftheir jackets and hats and hoods, she felt real terror growing inside of her.

"We have to get back,"she said.

Hachiro grabbed her hand. Throughher glove, she felt him squeeze tightly. "We'll be okay. I promise."

Kara pulled the collar of hershirt up over her mouth and nose, hoping to block the wind. The temperature hadplummeted in minutes. Even with gloves on her fingers hurt, and the hood on hernew jacket kept blowing back, forcing her to hold it closed with one hand.

"Which is it?" shesaid, voice muffled. "Let's just pick one. At least the trees will keepsome of the wind off of us."

They all studied the entrancesto the paths. Sora shook his head, throwing up his hands, and his eyes werefull of dread and panic.

"This one," Miho said."I agree with Hachiro. The middle."

She didn't sound entirely sure,and Sakura hesitated. But when the others all forged ahead onto the path,grateful for the shelter, Sakura followed. Kara linked arms with her, both ofthem hiding in the windbreak that Hachiro's size provided. They hurried alongthe path, ducking low branches and following a slight curve that Kara did notremember — though she hadn't been paying very much attention. With thesnow whipping around the woods became a blur of dark lines in the white staticof the storm. Snow stung her eyes and, driven by the wind, it managed to sneakinside her hood and down her neck.

Sakura said something that Karacould barely hear through her hood and the howl of the wind.

"What?" she called.

"Where's that branch?" Sakura repeated. Her cheeks were red and blotchy from the cold. Snow had builtup on her hat and clung to her eyelashes. "The one that broke off when wewere coming through here?"

Kara scanned the path ahead,searching. Somehow they had taken the lead, with Hachiro just behind them andthe others bringing up the rear. Panic seethed inside of her. How could thestorm have turned into a blizzard so quickly? Could it subside just as fast? Maybeso, but she knew that they could not risk waiting to let it pass. If not forher father, she would have feared that in the storm, the teachers might nothave realized they had wandered off and might have headed back for theobservatory without them. But her father was with them. No way would he leavewithout making sure that Kara was accounted for.

"Kara?" Sakura called."Where is it?"

The girl's voice soundedfrantic, now. Any traces of her rebellious nature had been obliterated by fear.

Kara had continued to watch thepath but found no sign of the fallen limb, and she knew that if they had comeacross it before she would have noticed. They would have had to step over oraround it. Still, she kept on walking, telling herself that they simply had notbacktracked far enough yet, that the storm made it seem that they had traveledfurther than they actually had.

When they reached a fork in thetrail, with one path veering sharply to the left and the other continuing along, gentle curve to the right, she knew for sure.

"This is wrong!" shesaid, turning to Sakura, heart hammering in her chest. She saw in her eyes thatSakura had realized the truth as well.

"What do we do? Go back?" Sakura asked, glancing around wide-eyed as the others gathered around them.

Hachiro stood close to Kara,still trying to shield her from the storm. She just wanted to be back at home,inside and warm, with her arms around him.

"We don't have time!" Hachiro called over the wind. He pointed to the sharp left-hand fork. "Let'sjust go that way. We picked the wrong trail, but we know the clearing is inthat direction. This path must meet up with the one we took originally, ormaybe it leads straight to the clearing."

"You don't know that,Hachiro!" Ren said, his words almost lost in a gust of snow.

"We can't go back,"Miho said. "I can't even feel my feet now!"

Kara looked at Sakura, searchingher eyes. Sakura had been right about which path they should have taken, or sothey all now believed. If she said to go back, then Kara would go back. Sheknew they all would.

"She's right," Sakurasaid. "We can't spend any more time up here than we have to."

The wind stole some of herwords, but Kara understood. She nodded. "All right, we go — "

"Hachiro!" Renshouted.

They all turned to see that hehad backtracked several paces. In the gray-white tunnel formed by the trees oneither side and the blotted out sky, he looked like little more than a shadow,though he stood only ten feet away.

"What's wrong?" Hachiro called to him.

Ren threw his arms wide. "Where'sSora?"

Kara's heart went as cold as therest of her. She stopped breathing a moment. They all turned round in circles,looking into the trees and both ways up the trail.

"Oh, my God," Karasaid.

"He must've turned back!" Hachiro said.

"Or wandered off the trail!" Kara called, half-turning her face from the wind.

Miho had covered her face withher hands, but now she lowered them, revealing the desperation in her eyes."We've got to go back for him!"

Kara glanced at the trail they'dbeen about to take, the one she thought would lead them back to the rest oftheir group, but then she pulled her gaze away. She nodded and started pastHachiro.

"No!" he said.

Kara stared at him. "We can'tjust leave Sora out here alone!"

Hachiro pointed to the trail."You and the girls go. Ren and I will get Sora and catch up."

Ren took a couple of steps backtoward them. "We will?"

Kara grabbed Hachiro's arm. Somewherein her brain she knew the Japanese word for 'sexist,' but was too cold to thinkof it.

"You're not sending usahead just because we're girls!" she shouted into the wind, blinking awaysnowflakes.

Hachiro shook his headvigorously. "No! Yes, I want you safe, but someone needs to get back tothe group and tell Mr. Yamato we're still out here."

Kara hated parting from him, butHachiro was right. Someone had to go back. As much as she would have liked tostay with him, she worried about Sakura and Miho as well and wanted to makesure they reached the group safely.

"If you get back to therocks and you haven't found him, don't search. Not in this. I'm going to bewaiting for you," she said.

Hachiro gave her a quick kissand then he turned and started back down the path, shouting for Sora. Renjoined in the shouting and the two of them picked up their pace, jogging intothe whiteness until it swallowed them completely.

"Kara, come on!" Sakura said.

With one final glance — thesnow already filling in the prints Hachiro and Ren had just made — sheturned and started up the left-hand trail. Miho and Sakura linked arms with heron either side and the girls raced along this new path, branches droopingoverhead, the storm buffeting them.

They rushed along, huddledtogether, but had gone no more than a hundred yards before their path joinedanother. Kara thought it might be the one they had originally taken to get outto that stony bluff overlooking the city, but she dared not express her hopealoud. They kept on, trudging through the deepening snow. Her fingers and toesand face were numb, her legs like blocks of ice, and she knew that her friendsmust feel the same, though they traveled in silence.

One moment the trees weresagging and swaying in the storm all around them, and then they were surroundedby nothing but white. They had arrived in the clearing without even realizingit. Through the storm she could see vague figures all around them.

"Dad! Mr. Yamato! Someonehelp!" she called.

Shouts came in reply and thefigures rushed through the blizzard to reach them. She heard her father's voicecalling her name, and then he appeared out of the storm and took her in hisarms, asking if she was all right, tearing off his gloves and using his handsto rub her cheeks and warm her face.

"I'm okay," she said,barely aware that she had reverted to English. "We'll be okay. But theboys are still out there. We lost Sora somehow, and Hachiro and Ren doubledback for him."

She quickly described the pathsthey had taken, the rocky overlook they had found, and where she thought theboys would be. By that time Mr. Yamato, Miss Aritomo, and Mr. Sato had joinedthem and listened carefully. With their hats and jackets coated in snow theylooked like they were being slowly whited out, erased from the world.

"Where is everyone else?" Sakura asked, for the clearing was nearly empty.

"I sent the rest of thegroup on their way to get the students off the mountain," Mr. Yamato said.He looked scared and confused. "I don't know how the weather turned soquickly. There was nothing in the forecast about a blizzard like this. Justlight snow, and even that wasn't supposed to come until tonight."

Her father cupped her cheek inhis hands. "Keep moving, Kara. Go down with Mr. Sato and Miss Aritomo. Therest of us will find the boys and follow."

"No!" Kara said."Dad, please. Come down with us."

Hachiro was already out there inthe blizzard. Now that she had her father back, the idea of leaving him behindup there on the mountain made her frantic. She didn't even want to go back downwithout Hachiro, but she knew that they all risked frostbite if they stayed uphere much longer.

"Kara, Mr. Yamato and I aregoing to — "

"Harper-san," Mr. Satosaid, his big glasses spider-webbed with ice, "please go with Kara. I willsearch with Mr. Yamato.

Kara's father hesitated and shegrabbed his hand, silently pleading with him. Then he nodded.

"All right," he said,looking up at Miss Aritomo. "Let's get these girls off the mountain."

Hachiro's throat was raw fromshouting. His head pounded, the cold like a vise on his skull. His gloved handswere stuffed into his pockets and he could no longer feel much at all in hisfeet. He thought he might have to stop and take his boots off, use his hands torub some life back into his feet, but didn't know if that would help or if theexposure would only make it worse.

"Sora!" Ren shouted athis side. "Where are you? Can you hear us? Sora!"

They struggled along togetherside by side, Ren peering into the trees to the right of the path and Hachiroscanning the woods to the left. Another thirty yards and they would be out ofthe woods and back at the rocky overlook whose allure had gotten them all intosuch trouble in the first place.

"Sora!" Hachiroscreamed into the storm.

He opened his mouth to yellagain, but paused, thinking he'd heard some kind of reply from the thickness ofthe snow-covered woods. It might have been the wind, or the creak of a treefelled by the blizzard, but he did not think it had been either.

"So — " Renbegan.

Hachiro clamped a hand on hisshoulder, shushing him. "Quiet. Listen."

They stood still and silent forthe count of ten, but heard nothing but the cry of the wind. Hachiro glanced atRen and nodded and the two of them shouted again, this time in one voice,calling Sora's name into the storm, into the woods.

A voice cried out in reply.

"Tell me you heard that!" Hachiro said, turning to Ren.

Ren nodded. "I heard it. Idon't know what I heard, but something. Someone."

"Who else would it be?" Hachiro snapped, but he understood. The cry he had heard might have belonged toan animal. He'd been unable to make out any words, only a voice, calling out.

He stepped off the trail,glancing back at Ren, who swore and set off after him. The two boys crashedthrough the trees, snapping branches and tramping in snow that seemed somehowdeeper. The pines brushed against them as though attempting to hold them backand Hachiro tore his coat on the sharp hook of a thin, bare branch, but theyrushed onward, shouting Sora's name.

That cry came twice more, stillwordless, and Hachiro faltered slightly at the realization that it sounded morelike pain than panic. But further shouts received no reply and soon they beganto slow and finally came to a halt.

"Sora!" Hachiro roaredone last time in frustration.

Regret filled him, weighing himdown, and he turned to Ren, whose eyes revealed that he had come to the samedecision that Hachiro had.

"We have to go back,"Hachiro said.

Ren nodded. "I agree. Thatmight've been him, or it could've been a bird. Sora might have gone back tothat cliff and used the right path. He might already be with the others in theclearing. We have no way of knowing."

Hachiro felt sick, but he knewit was the truth. Sora might have made it back to the group already, but ifnot, Mr. Yamato would tell the authorities and they would get a search partyonto the mountain. He and Ren had done all they could do.

"Sora!" he shoutedone, final time. Then, hating the feeling of helplessness that filled him, heturned to Ren. "Let's go."

Together they made their wayback the way they had come, retracing their steps in the snow, snapping offmore branches, the storm raging even there amongst the trees. Hachiro had takenhalf a dozen steps when he looked up and saw a figure standing between twinpines off to his left.

"Ren, look."

"Sora?" Ren said,quietly at first, and then louder. "Sora!"

The boys barreled through thesnow, running toward those twin black pines, but when they reached thesnow-dusted figure they were brought up short. Hachiro tried to halt but hisleft boot slid out from under him and he fell, tumbling in several inches offresh snow.

Ren had started to pray.

Hachiro rolled to his knees,staring up in disbelief at the statue, there in the midst of the woods and thestorm. Only it wasn't a statue. Somehow, in the short span of time since theyhad seen him last, Sora had frozen to death, his entire body covered in a coatof glistening ice and frosted with snow.

"How is this possible?" Hachiro whispered, though the wind stole his voice so that even he could nothear his own words.

And yet he received an answer.

"All things,"said a voice in his ear, a cold breeze that carried words, as though the winditself were speaking to him. "All things are possible."

Ren spun around in terror, backto one of the pine trees, gazing about wide-eyed for the source of the whispery,insinuating voice. Hachiro watched him with a fresh jolt of fear. Ren had heardit, too. It had not been his imagination, nor was it the voice of some ghost. Somethingwas here with them.

"Show yourself!" hecried.

And it did. Gusts of wind cametogether, spinning the snow into a white, swirling vortex. Hachiro and Renstared as the snow began to sculpt itself into a figure, and when at last thewind subsided for a moment, the snow drifting lazily in the lull, neither ofthem could speak.

She floated atop the snow,leaving no impression. Hachiro could barely breathe. In all of his life he hadnever seen a woman so beautiful. She wore a white kimono, her long hairmatching its color, as though both were made of the snow itself.

"I know this story,"Ren whispered, stepping up beside him. "Hachiro, run!"

They turned to bolt but the windblew up so hard that it knocked them both off of their feet, tossing them intothe snow. Hachiro struck the trunk of a bare, skeletal tree. He started torise, saw Ren doing the same, and then they both glanced up at the Woman inWhite.

Hachiro stared into her eyes,inhumanly black and bottomless, like holes torn in the fabric of the world. Hisheart filled with such terror that he could not move. Her gaze alone had frozenhim with fear.

And then she smiled, her teethsharpened pearls.