1 Prologue

The wind scraped and scratched at my window with long icy claws all night long. It wandered down the mountains, whisking around the house, through the fields, and over the taiga forest howling a rabid wail not even the snow could muffle. Voices blended, high shrills and soft groans and menacing whistling all carrying through the blizzard. If it weren't for the frost on my window and the thick snowfall, I would have seen whoever had been running through the snow, casting long shadows that entered my room briefly before fleeing back into darkness. Cossy saw it too. Her low growls and high head were enough to convince me that what I had seen was not just another hallucination. I wasn't dreaming. Logic made the shadow belong to a deer, yet my mind shrieked monster from all those late nights watching one horror movie after another. Cossy just growled. Her body felt tense under my arms as I held her close trying to calm her down. It didn't matter what it was. She has always been afraid of every little sound, every strange and out of place movement.

My room faced the woods, and the dark snow-covered thicket gazed back at me with its hollowed eyes as I whisked my palm across the cold glass of my window. Their twisted bodies swayed hauntingly in the wind, creaking, rustling, whizzing back and forth. With Cossy's growls and my fear, imagination overtook both my sight and my senses. Between blackness, greys, and snow, shuddering silhouettes hunkered between the trees taking on different shapes the longer I stared unblinkingly. Their eyes pierced me with a bitter chill that left me shivering under my blanket. My teeth chatter as I grab ahold of Humphry for further comfort without breaking eye contact.

Cossy's barking snaps me out of my fears, and for a moment I look back out at the dark woods, the silhouettes were only apart of the evergreen trees and their needle leaves rustling off the snow that couldn't hold on. Nothing more than a play of light and shadow I'd tell myself. Just a trick of the eyes. I wonder if she saw the deer again or maybe the eerie sounds of the woods from the blizzard made her just as nervous as me. I wonder if dogs fear monsters the same way people do when they can't see whats lurking in the dark. Maybe Cossy is seeing something I can't. I squeeze little Humphry's body as I keep him close to me.

The blizzard lessened further into the morning, but the winds remained the same. As if some wild starved beast was searching for supper, it roamed the dark woods and into the fields, circling our house before heading across the mountains carrying its frigid appetite towards the towns. Cossy's growls had long hushed even with the wind's constant howling, but I don't think she slept at all. It was still dark outside when her nose nudged my arm. I didn't want to get out of bed, but everyone else is still asleep. I let go of Humphry, leaving him to guard my bed as I head down the stairs with Cossy on my heels. The floorboards creaked under my footfall as the house groaned frustrated with the wind clawing its way inside, arguing over some disagreement.

Grabbing mom's jacket, the lantern, and her boots, I grab Cossy's leash and find her collar laying on the table. I step outside once she's hooked. The gust hits me head-on, biting the side of my neck with icy fangs. Quickly I pull up the hood and turn on the flashlight. Darkness flees from the light, every shadow darting behind the trees and every bush I cast my light over. Cossy trots off ahead keeping her nose at the ground as we walk. I glance wherever the light illuminates. The evergreen trees facing the house towered over me by a landslide. Loud, angry creaking and snapping sounds sprouted a fear in me. Maybe it was my eyes playing tricks on me, but something tall and dark strayed behind the tree line without making a sound. Not like the wind wasn't enough to suppress it. Cossy either didn't notice it and I did, or I was beginning to see things that weren't there. Maybe I was just imagining it.

Suddenly, Cossy started barking so loud and so aggressively she lunged herself towards the woods. She tugged hard enough that my grip on the leash slipped, making me stumble forward, colliding with the four feet of snow. The flashlight buried beneath the snow left me blinded in darkness for seconds before I was able to grab it. When the light flashed in her direction, I yelled out her name, but Cossy had already charged into the forest. I lost sight of her. Her cries blended with the howls of the wind and trees. I cried all night into the morning, and when she didn't come home for three days after, I somehow knew...deep down, she was never coming back.