The next day dawned bleak and grey. As the girls awoke, groggy from lack of a decent sleep, they looked out the window to find small snowflakes falling gently from a steel-gray sky. Having forgotten about the restlessness from the night before, they looked at each other, excited because everyone loves to walk through freshly fallen snow.

“I can’t believe it’s snowing,” Solana said, her voice a mix of disbelief and excitement.

Miyuki grinned, “Well it’s not rain, but I love freshly fallen snow.”

“Despite everything that happened, so do I,” Solana replied grinning with her friend.

The girls rushed downstairs like a whirlwind eating breakfast as quickly as they could, so they could get outside and make fresh tracks in the snow.

Miyuki’s mom laughed, “Girls calm down; the snow’s not going to disappear.”

“Maybe not, but it could stop snowing,” Miyuki threw over her shoulder as she ran back to her room.

Rushing outside, Miyuki jumped in the fresh snow on the snowbanks. The wind whistled in their ears as she screeched with laughter. Her cheeks were flushed from both the chill that hung in the air and the excitement coursing through her veins from being out in the cold.

Shaking off her hat and washing her face with the fresh snow, Miyuki yelled, “This is so awesome! I feel amazing being out here right now.”

Déjà vu slammed into Solana’s spine so hard she nearly fell into the snow. The chills of fear crept up Solana’s spine and tightened its arms like a vice around her heart. She froze, strength draining out of her. Her thoughts returned to last night, the eerie calm that had set both girls on edge. That same eerie feeling filled every pore in Solana’s body and started to churn her stomach.

Miyuki turned to look at her friend and saw her stiff as a board. “Solana are you okay?” she asked worriedly.

Paralysis shattered, Solana looked back towards her house, “I think my mom’s calling me, I’ve got to go, bye!” She turned and fled.

Miyuki stared after her friend and then slowly walked back to her house. There was something seriously wrong if Solana had taken off like that, and it hurt that Solana didn’t want to confide in her new friend.

Taking one last look at her friend’s house, Miyuki shook her head and dragged her feet up the steps to enter her house.

Solana reached her house and slammed the door shut. She leaned her head against it and shook from fear and a new-found exhaustion. Hearing steps behind her she threw herself at her mother with a devastated, but weak cry.

Her mother hugged her tight despite all the winter gear as Solana burst into tears of fright. She soothed her daughter, stroking her hair, waiting for Solana to run out of tears.

“What’s the matter hon?” Solana’s mother asked.

“Oh mom, it’s terrible! It came back! It’s here. Miyuki doesn’t know it, but it is.” She answered between sobs.

“Hush,” Solana’s mom whispered, “What came back Solana? It can’t be as serious as you’re making it seem.” Though while she said this, Solana’s mom knew exactly what her daughter was talking about. She knew in her bones that her daughter was right.

“The storm.” Solana whimpered, “Its back. Miyuki doesn’t know it, but I can feel it here.” She placed a hand on her chest and kept it pressed hard against her breastbone, a small comfort for the girl.

“But Solana, what if you’re wrong?” Her mom questioned, “You’ve had these feelings before, remember?”

Solana met her mother’s eyes with a shiver, “Not like this. This time, I’m not wrong.” She said, her eyes filling with iron hard certainty as her body began to quake harder.

Keeping the quivering from her voice, her mom said, “Let’s wait until tomorrow. If it really is back, we’ll be able to tell by then.”

Solana nodded, her mouth in a straight line, and walked up to her room. Her mom watched her go, and she wrapped her arms around herself. She knew what was coming and became afraid of what was going to happen next.

The next day dawned grey, stormy, and cold. Fearing her intuition had been right; Solana bundled up in sweaters and sweats and went to find her mother.

“Solana, you were right!” Her mother yelled over the howling winds. “The storm came back.” She turned away while whispering too low for Solana to hear, “I don’t understand why I never felt it before she mentioned it to me yesterday, I should have been feeling this for days.” She allowed her hands to glow for a second warming the air around her briefly before letting the glow fade. She turned towards her daughter who was rooted on the spot. Maybe I was too hasty when I left, we could go back… but what about him?

Solana’s mother flinched at the thought and opened her mouth to comfort her daughter when something crashed behind them.

The two turned to stare out the window. Solana’s breath caught in her throat as she stared at the destruction outside. A tree that had been buffeted by the winds and ice too long, had groaned its last breath and fallen to the ground, taking a few other trees with it. The branches that littered the ground were soon covered with blowing snow, erasing the evidence.

Solana felt tears start trickle down her face. The destruction was unbearable. She shook her head and turned her back to the destruction, trying to keep her stomach from turning too much.

She was putting on her jacket as her mom looked around the corner, “Solana, where are you going?”

“To Miyuki’s,” Solana replied without looking at her mother. Without another word, she yanked the door open and closed it tight behind her. Solana ran blindly through wind and sleet towards her friend’s house, leaving her mother to worry about her lone daughter.

Rushing to Miyuki’s, Solana pounded on the door. She huddled in her jacket in an attempt to keep warm until her friend opened the door. As soon as Solana was out of the cold, blowing winds, she dissolved into tears once again.

“Sol, it’s okay.” Miyuki said, trying to comfort her friend. “It’s just a storm, that’s no reason to be upset.”

Solana pushed her friend away. “Just a storm?” She demanded. “This isn’t just a storm Yuki, this is The Storm. From four years ago. The one that ruined my life.”

Miyuki’s mouth hung open. “No… it can’t be. How do you know?”

Solana’s fists clenched. “Because I can feel it,” She whispered. Pushing her fists into her stomach, she repeated. “I can feel it here.”

“What are we going to do?”

“Do?” Solana laughed, “There is nothing we can do. It’s a storm.”

Miyuki sat on a couch looking thoughtful. “Obviously the exact same kind of storm wouldn’t be back if it was natural right? So, Sol, what if—” Miyuki bit her lip, realizing how outlandish her theory really was. Shaking her head, she finished, “What if this storm isn’t natural?”

Solana scoffed, “That’s ridiculous.”

“Is it though? I mean think about it, looking at you, you look so pale and completely freaked out. You looked perfectly fine yesterday, but now you kind of look like you are half dead. Meanwhile, I feel amazing, like I’ve got all this extra energy coursing through me, looking for a way out. There is no way this is normal.”

Solana looked at her friend, the wheels turning. “I never thought of that before,” she said slowly. “It doesn’t feel normal, like, I feel like there’s something inside me that says this is all wrong. What if it is?”

Shrugging, Miyuki responded, “I don’t know Sol, this is getting strange for me. I know it was my idea, but we’re talking something crazy like magic or something... Magic doesn’t exist.”

Excitement welled up inside Solana despite Miyuki’s protests. “No, no, Yuki, listen. This makes perfect sense. Don’t you see? Can’t you feel it? What if magic does exist? What if there’s a whole other world somewhere? What if this is really their storm?”

Blinking slowly, Miyuki said, “I’m not so sure. It makes sense, but, what are we going to do about it?”

Solana grinned, “We are going to find a way in.”