Juniper was never afraid of winter per se, but she always felt that winter brought on anxieties for her that she couldn't understand. Consequently, every winter, she prayed hard to keep her family as they are.

   Whenever winter solstice passed without issue along with Jeanne's birthday, June always felt a calm in her heart.

   If she'd had asked her siblings about this problem, they'd have told her they felt similar anxieties, but because none of them ever considered much of it, it was never a topic of discussion.

   "Propago Aevum," Julie repeated with a stronger and fuller diction when she touched the fluttering Snitch that opened into a pocket watch.

   The old man stumbled as he tried to reach Julie and Jon. June saw the earring glow again at the same time. Her instincts told her to break the damn glass and apologize later. So she did just that, not minding the pain that came with it.

   "Your sister, Junie!" The old man on the floor pointed to Jeanne, who was frozen in her seat.

   June remembered tripping with the earring tightly grasped in her small bruised and bloodied hand as she barely caught Jeanne's trembling ones.

   Why she had done what the old man wanted, she didn't know. Though, that wasn't the most curious of that situation.

   Swallowed by the abyss felt like a million years, a never-ending fall to a plummeting death. Julie imagined they'd be squashed, melted onto the ground.

   Jon gripped his hand around hers, a little clammy from the many fears running through his head, mainly death.

   She wanted to call out to him, to tell him she was there, and to reassure him with a lie, but her voice was drowned out by the darkness. So, instead, she squeezed back.

   Jeanne felt like she was dying over and over again. She cried the whole way through, her fingers entwined with June's.

   For June, the feeling of falling was scary, but the darkness was like a warm blanket. She could almost argue that this was just a dream. All she had to do was jolt herself awake, but she couldn't. She'd tried.

   It was endless, the darkness, but it would have to stop at some point.

   Her eyelids briefly lifted and little orange bokeh lights danced around her. Around them. She could feel her sister's hand still holding hers.

   A tall bearded old man in a fancy purple gown caught her eyes as he roared, "Arresto Momentum!"

   She wanted to know who he was, but her lids became heavy once more.