Quiet, Peaceful, and Cold

The snow had come down in the night, like a silent thief, falling to the ground without a sound. It covered the entire city, and just kept on coming. Each small snowflake, seemingly insignificant on its own, yet strangely beautiful and unique, fell among its hundreds, thousands of brethren, which came together when they hit the ground.

And so when the morning came, the city found that it had been invaded, and didn't come alive like it normally did every morning. The city remained in a sort of slumber, or more like a half-sleep, where people were awake but the normal business didn't begin.

Riley slipped out the door, closing it as quietly as she could. Not that her parents would hear if it did make some noise. With all of the shouting they were doing at the moment, Riley could probably slam the door shut and they wouldn't hear. And they probably wouldn't care if they did. They didn't care much about what Riley did these days. They were too caught up in arguing and fighting with each other, at least when they weren't out getting drunk, leaving her to fend for herself at home.

Riley zipped up her coat as she turned to see the beautiful landscape before her. She stepped away from her tiny house into her equally tiny backyard. They were lucky to even have a backyard in a city like this, and it only happened because they lived on the outskirts.

But it didn't matter to Riley how small the backyard was. She was just glad that they had one, because it served as her escape. Whenever she needed to get away, Riley went out to this backyard. She played games of pretend, where she imagined that she was on adventures with her parents, who both loved her and never fought with each other. In these adventures those dreaded bottles that made her parents change into monsters were nowhere to be seen, and Riley and her parents would have so much fun together.

But eventually she would come back to reality, which would hit her like a brick wall. When that happened Riley stopped laughing, stopped smiling, stopped talking. She tried to create as little noise as possible, so that her parents wouldn't get mad at each other.

Riley pushed those thoughts out of her mind. She jumped into the snow, giggling as she tossed handfuls of it up into the air, where it broke apart and floated back down to the ground. On a day like this, Riley could almost believe that she was somewhere else, living a better life, where everybody got along and her parents cared about her. It was so peaceful and quiet out here, the sounds of her parents screaming at each other not making it outside.

So Riley slipped into a different world, where she was happy and content, as she rolled around in the snow and, for a few blissful moments, forgot everything else.

Emma awoke to see nothing but white outside her bedroom window. She glanced at her clock and realized that she'd slept in much later than usual. Normally she was awoken by the sounds of the city starting up, with cars starting to build up out on the street, and the calls of vendors and other street salespeople. But today the city was eerily silent, like her apartment had suddenly become soundproof, and nothing got through it.

But when Emma went to the window, she realized that it was so quiet because there was no one outside. The city looked empty, like a ghost-town of the West. She smiled as she looked out to see the white everywhere, and the snow falling down to join the masses and disappear among them. She felt a strange peace as she watched the winter wonderland of the world outside her window.

Then she shivered, as she realized just how cold it was without her blankets holding her heat in. Emma walked over to her closet, throwing on a sweater and an extra pair of socks. Then she grabbed a blanket and left her room, walking to the kitchen to brew some coffee.

No, she thought to herself, Maybe some hot chocolate today.

So she quickly made some hot chocolate, grabbed her favorite book, and settled down in an armchair in her living room, which faced the row of windows to the peaceful sight outside.

Away from the comfort and warmth of Emma's home, and instead into the harsh and cold winter, John walked, shivering profusely. He pulled his thin and ragged jacket tighter around himself, rubbing up and down his arms to try and generate some heat. When he breathed out it looked like he was smoking again, and each step crunched in the snow as he took delicate steps in it.

But his feet sunk deep into the white powder no matter how lightly he stepped, and some of it had poured into his shoes through the holes in the bottom of them.

John had come out of his sleep freezing cold, with a layer of snow covering him like a blanket that took your heat instead of containing it. He hadn't expected it in the night, and it hadn't been too cold the day before, so he'd taken his chances on the streets so that he could get an early start begging the next day.

After his cold awakening John had quickly made his way to the nearest homeless shelter, to find it already much too full to take him in. So back out into the brisk morning air he had gone, checking on the other homeless shelters, only to find the same things.

So it looked like he was stuck on the streets on this icy day. And there weren't even people out for him to beg from. He would be lucky if he survived until the next day. He'd seen what hypothermia did to people. The winter was a very harsh and dangerous time for those without the warmth of a home.

John found a slight overhang to shield him from the snow, cleared away a spot, and curled himself up into a little ball there, trying to conserve as much heat as he possibly could.

And he sat there, shivering and looking out into the endless and hopeless white stretching out before him.