[Chayden]

Niko’s face was too rigid as he grabbed up something and began to smash through the window. He knew not what it was; he only knew that it was solid enough to break through the wood and glass in their way.
When it was broken enough, he took a step back and kicked the remainders of the glass out. They soared away from him, gleaming bright and sharp in the light cast from the flames. He could see where they had landed perfectly; it gave them just enough room to clamber out onto the snowbank waiting below.

[Chayden]

“Go, Sorsje.”
“But Chester-”
“I’ll hand him to you once you’re through. Go! Jump!”

[Chayden]

With that same frightened expression, Sorsje squeezed through. Her hands were cut and her clothing tore on the shards and splinters that were all that remained of the window once there, but she didn’t even register it. She caught herself on her hands and knees and stood up at once, reaching for the dog. Niko handed it to her, then jumped out himself. He coughed into the snow, drawing a kind of masochistic comfort from the way it’s iciness stung his face.

[Chayden]

Finally, he straightened, too, and tugged Sorsje down underneath her porch, where they were hidden by the reaching banks of snow. She held her puppy to her chest, stroking it, her hands looking for the world exactly like Niko’s had when he tried to scratch at his heart.
He hated seeing her like this. She wasn’t herself.
Faintly, they could hear Marcy and Gerald calling. “Sorsje! Sorsje!”

[Chayden]

Niko was on the ground again. He was sprawled out in a snow divot, reaching out to hold the fabric of Sorsje’s pants. She looked down at him - the touch had made her more of herself.
“I love you.”
“What?”

[Chayden]

She paused, then sunk down beside him. Chester skittered away to the place closest to the house to curl up on the rocks untouched by snow. “Oh, sure, for a minute.”
“There you go, doing that again. No, I love you."

[Chayden]

“I-I... I don’t-”
“Just stay here for a minute.”
“They’ll find us!”
“Shh. Kiss me.”

[Chayden]

Now Niko, too, was sitting. He faced her, looked so earnestly into her eyes...
“Niko, I-”
“Please, Sorsje. I don’t think you understand. I love you. So much.”

[Chayden]

“...Niko...”
And she was crying as she leaned forward, the tears spilling from her cheeks and onto Niko’s as their lips touched. Her nails made grooves in the skin of her chest through her clothes.
“Ouch,” she moaned, digging further into her skin, trying to get to that spasm in her heart as she pressed closer to Niko.
And he was holding her face, rubbing his thumbs on the skin beneath her eyes, taking away the tears...

[Chayden]

Her wet hair was cold against his neck.
“I know. It’s my fault,” Niko admitted against her mouth, taking one of her hands and placing it on his own heart. Something stretched out into her palm... Like a broken bone, sharp and unnatural.

[Chayden]

“I love you,” she sobbed, finally breaking away from him to lay her head on his shoulder.
“I know...”
And then, just like that, he was gone. Sorsje thought that she heard his footsteps, and got up to follow them, but it was only her parents.
“Sorsje! There you are! Chester? Niko?”

[Chayden]

Wordlessly, she pointed at her dog. Marcy hurried over to pick him up and put him inside of her vest, where it was warm.
But Sorsje could do nothing. Her knees would not support her any more. She fell to the snow with a soft thud, one hand on her heart and the other to her lips.

[Chayden]

Why...?
Now, she could think of nothing but Niko. Even as she was lifted up by her father, even as they led her away to her aunt’s house, her thought did not leave him. Where had he gone? Why had he left so suddenly after doing something like that?

[Chayden]

She couldn’t even feel the pain in her bare feet. The world was muted; everything was so far away.
Even as her aunt ushered her into bed, all she could feel was his chest.
She knew, deep within herself, that something had to be wrong. She just couldn’t tell what it was.

[Chayden]

Sorsje curled herslef into a ball and tugged on her hair as she cried again. She wasn’t herself, she wasn’t herself, she wasn’t herself, and it was because of Niko. She needed to go to him, to show herself that she was being ridiculous, to dispel all of this fear and this pain and just hold him.
The last stars of the early morning were disappearing. “I feel so small...”