Kevin Wade Johnson
(Lightly edited for spoilers) Snow falling through skeletal tree limbs above and around, my skis coming down on a mountain slope, and I could just see the tips of the shadow's fingers above as it reached over top of my head from behind me. The skis saved us. We went rocketing down the steep slope, just before the shadows that emerged with us could take hold. I "knew" how to ski, but Serenity really did know, and shot off ahead of me. I couldn't give anything too much thought, I was too busy *shushing* down a slope I'd never seen before, but I shoved my heart back down from my throat as I dodged a tree, then a boulder. The sun shone somewhere, but the heavy overcast muted the day to vague, seemingly sourceless light. The sound of my skis, and faintly Serenity's, were all I heard in the winter cold. I wasn't making any exclamations, and certainly Serenity wouldn't. I held both poles tight in mittened hands. My pack and harness weighed on hips and shoulders. Branches swiped at my head from in front, almost as a hand had moments ago from in back, and all was speed and balance. I found the moves and the equilibrium needed much easier than I'd expected. It reminded me of why, and what I'd left behind. Behind my goggles, I didn't dare let tears start. They'd freeze, or maybe steam the goggles, or both. And goodness knew I couldn't go having some kind of breakdown. Even an expert on skis couldn't do that on a slope like this, I felt certain. But I was having a terrible time. *Someone who cared about me. Someone else who did. Gone. Gone gone gone.* Then ahead of me the slope dropped away, a sheer cliff or something. I rode my skis out to the end of it, no hope of stopping, and not far enough ahead of the shadows to do it anyway. I flew off the end of the slope into empty air. Looked down and saw the mountain had indeed fallen away, more snow and ice and rock visible hundreds of feet below me.
Read this work at the World Public Library (library card needed).