Invisible Strings II

Chapter 7: Twisted Silver

The snow started quietly.

At first, Isadora almost didn't notice it. Just a faint shift in the light outside, the world dimming by degrees. Then the wind changed, brushing against the cottage windows in ghost-soft bursts.

Isadora frowned. She moved toward the window and pulled the curtain back just an inch. Thick flakes were falling now, faster than they should've been, cluttering the air, blurring the trees into pale shadows.

Her phone was already in her hand before she reached for it.

The radar loaded slowly, the signal flickering weakly. A red edge pulsed at the top of the screen, the storm spilling down in a spreading mass. Bigger than it had been earlier. Faster. Sooner.

Behind her, Hannah shifted on the rug in front of the fire. "What's wrong?"

Isadora glanced over her shoulder, then back at the screen. The storm was swallowing the map in blue and white.

"It's nothing bad," she said gently. She turned, offering a small, careful smile. "Just... you're not making it back to campus tonight like I hoped you could."

Hannah blinked. Then shrugged. "I wasn't planning to go back yet anyway."

Isadora smiled a little and rolled her eyes. Even if it weren't snowing, Isadora knew she'd probably have to coax Hannah into leaving. Needing to. But right now... she wasn't. Couldn't.

She turned back to the window, watching the snow thicken like the world was being erased in slow motion. The trees disappeared first, then the fence line, the shape of the pond sinking into white nothingness.

The wind rattled the glass.

"Guess I'm stuck with you," Hannah said lightly.

Isadora snorted. "Tragic."

Hannah smiled, small but real, and settled back down in front of the fire on her phone. Her mug of tea carefully balanced between her legs.

Isadora lingered at the window a moment longer, studying the storm's strange urgency. It was moving wrong. Too fast. Like it had somewhere to be.

A low flicker passed through the cottage. The lights dimmed. Then steadied.

Isadora stiffened. She glanced up at the ceiling lamp, then back outside just as a stronger gust shoved snow against the windows hard enough to make the glass groan.

"Hannah," she said calmly, already walking toward the hallway. "Did you leave anything charging in your room?"

Hannah looked up from the steam rising off her mug. "Uh... my laptop?"

"Okay," Isadora said. "Unplug it. Just in case."

The lights flickered again, longer this time.

Hannah padded down the hall and disappeared into the bedroom. Isadora stayed by the window, watching the trees bend and vanish and reappear in the blowing white. The world outside was turning into something unrecognizable.

She was mid-thought when the power clicked off.

Just silence.

No hum. No soft whirr of the fridge. No clock ticking in the kitchen.

Only the crackle of the fireplace. Only the wind screaming outside.

"Hannah?" Isadora called, her voice louder in the sudden stillness.

A second later, Hannah appeared in the doorway, laptop charger dangling loosely from her hand.

"Isadora?"