We lively jumped from off the stones,
and crept below the highest deck.
and where we bellowed down the valley,
the same voice would come calling back.

Down the stairs we slithered and
giggled, as the forest of bare trees encircled us.
And at the bottom, a path we took.
“We’ll follow the river,” she said.

As we pranced down the frozen path,
a light snowfall embraced our cheeks.
And we twirled and swirled where we shouldn’t have,
For there lay a thinner sheet.

Though sooner than we imagined,
a darkness began to creep from the distance.
Perhaps, I thought, we’ve gone too far,
though she insured me we surely hadn’t.

Now, had I listened to myself,
perhaps I would have heard the cracks.
The girls screamed and pranced away,
however, I froze in fear, as the ice moved as they did.

My feet went first, and then my legs,
all at once in the arctic water.
I dug my nails into the ice.
I grasped until I could no longer.

A wave of dark, then a wave of light.
“Her skin is ice!”
My eyes flickered.
“Has she died?”