Chapter One - Do You Wanna Build a Snowman? He’s dead. I just got the news. Dad’s dead. Austin’s in his room, and I heard him cry out just now, out of pain or just sadness. I ran to my room, my white-grey hair flying behind me as my mother ran after me, calling my name. As I got to my room, she almost made it in, but I slammed the door in her face, locking it. I grabbed the photo of me and Dad when I was eight and sat on my bed. As I looked at the photo, ugly, painful sobs racked my body. As the hot tears rolled down my face, they froze in place, until it was just ice crystals falling onto the photo. “Why?” I sobbed, hugging the photo to my chest. “Why would you leave?” I could almost hear him. “There’s different kinds of snow, Crys. Austin and Lillian are like the soft falling snow, the kind that is beautiful and fragile. But you and Yates are like the hard, packed snow. Beautiful and very tough. The kind for snowmen and snowballs,” Then he’d squeeze my hand and we’d laugh and play. And then he’d say, “Stay strong, Ice Crystal,” Then I’d have my sisters and my brother at my side, then Mother would give Dad a big kiss, showing all her love. The girls and I would scrunch up our noses and say “Ewwwww!” Then we’d all laugh. A knock at my door jolted me to the present times. “Crystal?” My little sister’s voice came through the door. “Go away, Yates,” Tears fell down my face, and I could tell by the sound of her voice that she’d been crying, too. “Lillian’s gone, and Mother won’t come out of her bedroom. Austin disappeared, I don’t know where to, though. Please come out. I don’t wanna be by myself,” She whispered. There was a thunk, and I knew that she’d dropped onto the floor, back pressed against my door. I pulled a pillow over my head, tuning out the noise. ———————⛇——————— It had been a couple weeks since I’d shut myself off from the world. I heard a smash from the main room, and I jumped. A couple minutes later, a soft voice came from outside my door. “I never see you anymore, come out the door, it’s like you’ve gone away…” Yates was singing. The sound of her voice with that particular song was enough to make me cry. So I did. I let the tears drip down my face as I tuned out her voice, and a little while later, a loud crash snapped me out of whatever little ‘trance’ I was in. Somehow I knew what it was. We all had our ways of coping. Lillian’s and Austin’s way was to leave, mine and my mother’s way was to shut ourselves away. And it seemed like Yates’s way was to break stuff. Understandable. I laughed a bit at the noise, everything had been so deathly quiet since Dad died. I hated the quiet. That’s why I always tried to make some noise, but I always got too tired. A piece of paper slipped under my door. It said, ‘C’mon, Crys, come out. Sure, you’re like Elsa, but you don’t need to pull and Elsa’ I knew it was from Aust. I held onto the note as I fell asleep.
