Snow fell slowly onto the speeding car's windshield, being flattened then flung out of the way like nothing. But the amount of snow was so immense it was difficult for the windshield wipers to catch up. Making it challenging for Ryan to see what laid before him. He saw his heavy breaths start to fog up the other side of the windshield, clouding his vision even more. Worriedly, he took his sleeve and wiped him a hole for him to see through. Carefulness was his advantage as his foot refused to press the pedal down any harder, letting the small SUV coast at a soft twenty miles per hour.

"Ryan, you can go a little faster," His wife said, looking up from her phone. Ryan shook his head to disagree. "No. It's too bad outside. I'm not putting anyone's life endanger to go see my brother," He said concernedly. To distract himself, he turned up the dial on the radio. A soft Christmas song calmed Ryan down from the problematic drive. The first few notes of a guitar came from the stereo, Ryan hummed along with it starting to feel more relaxed. Casually, he looked up into his rearview mirror watching his daughter texting on her phone from the back seat.

"Are you excited to go see Uncle Ralph?" He asked his daughter in the back. The teenager shrugged.

"I wanted to go over to Lydia's for the weekend," She complained, looking up from the screen at her father.

"We go to Uncle Ralph's the same time every year. You could have planned your girl party last weekend or this weekend," He lectured over the jingle bells ringing in the song. His daughter put down the phone, and Ryan braced himself for the excuses.

"Well, Lydia's boyfriend had an away game last week, and she had to go. And next week Sarah is going to her grandparents for Christmas," She explained. Ryan's wife looked back from the passenger seat.

"Now Madi, why would they have it next week without Sarah, but have it today without you?" His wife's question erupted a fire that Ryan watched her try to put out. It had been almost three decades since high school and didn't remember that much drama in it. Letting his wife take control, Ryan made the cheery music pull him away from it all as their car slowly traveled along the icy, mountain roads. Slowly approaching the small, mountain town on the other side.

The lecturing stopped, and there was silence under the music from the radio. A little awkward tension pulled between the family. He thought of his brother's horse ranch. The wide-open prairie dazzled in beautiful green and orange colors from the sun. Then there was the nearby forest. It stood tall and profuse for decades after Ryan left. Now in the winter, blankets of snow powdered the ranch, exfoliating the natural beauty it had.

Ryan's memories of the ranch flashed away at the frightening sound of tires screeching and brakes locking. Both sounds not originating from his car. His initial confusion converted into panic once yellow headlights shot through the drenched windshield. A jolting crunch came from the front of the vehicle followed by the seatbelt catching Ryan's body from flying forward. The glass shattered from the windows and windshield. The shards joining the snowflakes that began blowing into the car. Now spinning along the slick road, his instincts pulled on the wheel and slammed both terrified feet onto the brakes. The spinning stopped once the flat way disappeared into the falling mountainside. Pulling the wrecked car and its passengers down its side.

The chilly wind outside blew over, kissing Ryan's frostbitten cheeks. The sensation pulled the beaten man's black eye open. White. Icy white hugging his face's bruises. Ryan, feeling his right arm shake as it moved, pushed himself over onto his screaming back. He fought for every breath. Like a weight was crushing his chest as he laid in the snow. Cheery Christmas music continued nearby, his favorite song reaching its final chorus. When his thrown thoughts crawled urgently back into his mind, Ryan managed to prop himself up on his arms — weakly turning his head toward the whisper-like music. The car laid still between the ancient trees. Upside down with its carriage spewing flames. In orange a few feet away, Ryan could see his wife laying face down as he had been. Her high heels twitched behind her still body.

Ryan gasped, pushing his torso up. Relief came to his arms as he sat facing the wreckage. The bottom of the mountainside began to take its toll, freezing the man to the spirit, and the wreckage's fire providing no warmth. No one else laid around him and his unconscious wife. That visual made the father's spine shiver worse than the cold.

Too tired to think of an alternate location for his daughter. Ryan sat with his broken fingers in his lap. Letting the gales of snow blow over him while he stared into the growing car flames. Listening to the music fade out.

...

Madi found herself laying still. Head resting on her stretched out arm. She let her eye bat open drearily. Then with a yawn sat up like in a bed, only to feel hard stone under her. Her surroundings matched the rock flooring. Aged bricks stacked up into a wall, bent into an enclosed circle around her. Cobweb covered lanterns hung from metal arms, illuminating the crowd of people also stirring awake.

Confused, Madi thought where she had been to where she was now. How did she get here? What was the crunching noise she had heard minutes ago? She patted herself down, nothing but her Sunday dress. Still with the pasta sauce stain from dinner just a couple of hours ago.

Becoming more concerned, she pushed herself up as did a few others in the chamber. Some began to think out loud, making distraught expressions. One man in a military uniform began shaking awake people on the floor. As more stood up, the panic started to grow. Teenagers, adults, elderly, all of them talking between themselves. Then the soldier from before pointed to a set of doors that had blended with the dark grey bricks. Madi could see elegant, floral etchings put into the metal.

Remembering her parents, the short teen began moving through the people. "Mom! Dad!" She called over the terrified voices. "Ryan! Sarah!" She then tried. Hoping her parents would respond to their names. None of the adults came to her but did give odd looks to the shouting teen. Madi, feeling her heart sink, continued to push through the people. The volume of her shouts being matched by the soldier in front of the double steel doors. His fist pounding for attention on the other side.

The crowd immediately went dead silent as the double doors began to creak open slowly. To their surprise, a tall man stepped through it. He dressed in an all-white suit with slick, black hair. He had calming smile that everyone around Madi seemed to find comforting. To her it looked cheesy, like one a car salesman would have. When he spoke Madi felt the patronizing undertone that she assumed everyone else was missing.

"Welcome everyone! My name is Michael, and I am your guide today. We have a tight schedule, so I'll make this quick. You are all dead mortals. Yes, dead. Take a few seconds to collect yourselves," He said like reading off a script.

Most just stood silently, awestruck at the realization. Some, more emotive, began to sob to themselves. Madi, with the most, now looked at everything differently. The crunch of the front of her parents' car making sense. Surprisingly none of the people openly denied it.

After a couple of seconds. The white-suited man continued. "As I said. My name is Michael, and I will be your guide today, now if everyone could step out of the summoning chamber. There will be another group coming shortly." Michael said merrily and gestured for the people to follow him, holding one of the doors open. Still keeping her eyes open for her parents in the crowd, Madi held onto her arms tightly as she walked forward. A scenic view displayed before the crowd. Tall grey buildings were clumped together to make a city. Rectangular and winding as they ascended. They stood like shells of their former selves. Wrecked, barely staying up and devoid of light. The street the crowd stood on only went straight and was outlined in gold. Michael spoke again,

"Welcome to the first world, everyone. I will be leading you to the Citadel. There you will be taken home!" He said rejoicefully.

All the people followed the guide as they walked at a rather quick pace down an old, cobblestone street. Street lamps glowing blue flames illuminated in the night. As they walked, they passed another man dressed like Michael who was heading in the opposite direction. The two guides waved at each other as they passed. The whole exchange making the teen shudder. Coming over a hill in the street, Madi and the crowd saw the Citadel. Knowing that it was it due to the building is the only one shimmering and clean. It was rectangular at its base but had an enormous, glass dome on top. All of it pure white with gold trimmings.

Their street was becoming swallowed by more condensed buildings. Walking next to them, Madi saw broken out windows and vines stretching across their faces. Trash littered in the street. She and the group even passed an overturned carriage, one that she remembered seeing in a history textbook. Her curiosity then dragged her eyes to the tops of the buildings. Some were littered with debris while the taller ones remained bare at their tops. Then on a short, rectangular building she saw something that silently startled her. A figure more massive than any human, dressed from head to toe in black. Even without seeing its eyes, she felt it stare at her like a vulture at a corpse. She watched the shadow remove something from his pocket, look at it, then put it away. Eventually Madi had to look elsewhere to keep up with the group, hoping the ominous figure would escape her mind.

The encounter left the teenage girl on the side of the rickety street while they walked on. No one talked to each other. Despite nothing but the guide, something inside Madi made her feel like staying on the road. A driving sense of purpose almost. She ignored it for the moment as she scanned all the adults' faces for the tenth time since leaving the chamber. Still no sign of her parents and she felt her odds were decreasing.

A sudden crashing sound caught the group's attention. It came from the alley next to Madi, and a few people lingered around her. Including the young soldier who squinted into the shadows. He stood like something was to emerge from the poorly lit, puddled road. The noise had sounded like something mechanical crashing onto the street below. Nothing appeared or came from the sound except for Michael's calls back to the few of them.

"No need to stray off the brick street! There hasn't been anything out here in centuries," He advised. Madi looked up at the soldier who shrugged it off. The other men who stopped to stare moved on, but Madi continued to watch. The group began to move along, and Madi stood alone under the street lamp's gentle hum.

Letting out a sigh of silent relief, the teenager turned her back from the alley to return to the group. But before moving a single step, two boney, large hands hugged her waist and yanked her into the driveway. Her chords began to scream for help, but a boney third hand covered her mouth. The course, wrinkled skin reminded her of an older person, but the stench of the invisible kidnappers was more stained than old. She began to hear their panting from fragile lungs. Feeling her back get shoved up against the wet moss on the side of the building, she wriggled under the force of the strangers, continuing to cry muffled screams.

Madi felt her breath leave her after several attempts to scream. Hearing a match next to her strike made her go silent. The small flame she saw in the alley grew large inside of a box lantern held by a human shape. An older man, lean, with long pulled back hair stepped forward. His face sunken with wrinkled bags under his eyes. Once the stranger stepped forward, the lantern revealed the two men holding her arms and mouth. Shaped like the older adult, but younger, the two looked more like skeletons with skin than full humans. All three wearing raggedy, torn clothes that reeked.

"Look what we got here, boss. Wee little las from Main Street," One of the kidnappers snarled. His teeth were all gone but two above a slimy tongue. Madi heard his words ask for acknowledgment from the older man. She watched the elder remain silent before pushing the lantern closer to her face. Feeling herself sweat with nervousness, Madi watched the man give a toothy smile before speaking calmly to the kidnappers.

"No one saw you, right?" He asked them. Both shook their heads in agreement. "Alright let's have a closer look at our catch,".

Madi felt the old man's eyes wander all over her, occasionally hearing the faint "mmm" and "hmm" from him. After a few minutes the elder spoke.

"Let go of the girl's mouth," He ordered. Feeling the hand leave her face, Madi took in several deep breaths. "Name, girl,"

"Please," Madi stammered.

"Name," He repeated.

"Please let me go," The two kidnappers snickered with wicked grins. The older man pulled the lantern away from her face before answering. "Not happening, las, we're keeping you for ourselves. Let's get the little las home, boys," He said with a smile. The kidnapper's tight grips yanked Madi off the wall, and with all her strength Madi pulled against them. She forced herself to scream as loud as possible for help. But they continued to drag her deeper into the alley behind the lantern.

A sudden, trembling boom exploded in front of the four, halting the older man in his tracks. Madi watched the kidnappers all stare at the blackness before them, except now the alley road was blocked by a shadow.

"Put the girl down," A deep voice growled at the men. Madi felt her heart race faster at the sound, now scared that something inhuman wanted her. She watched the older man's lantern began to shake as he raised it to the large shadow. "It's not what it looks like," He pleaded. The lamp then flew against the left wall, putting out the candle in it. Now in the dark, Madi heard sounds of hitting and the cries of the elder.

Madi then felt the hands holding her up, let go and flee the opposite way back to Main Street. Now free, Madi hurried behind them, reaching the safety of the blue light of a street lamp. After seeing the others dash away, Madi stood behind the tall metal pole, hearing the alley go silent. Except for the sounds of boot steps coming her way.

Instincts told her to run in the direction of the far ahead group, but whatever was about to appear had helped her escape. Her curiosity was conquering her sense of danger. The steps were getting closer in the street followed by a jingle of some metal on the stranger. Madi, holding her breath, peeked from behind the street lamp.

Stepping out from the darkness of the alley stood the tall man from earlier that she watched on top of the building. He towered both in height and build over anyone she had ever seen before. She saw that the jingle from the alley came from silver barrels of two revolvers against the metal holsters. To Madi's surprise, the stranger wore a cowboy attire that Madi remembered from western films she watched with her uncle. Except this giant was covered head to toe in black including his broad, flat brim cowboy hat. The long overcoat he wore would make the stranger disappear in the dark by merely turning around.

"Come on out. Those vagrants are gone. I'm not going to hurt you," He said, looking around the street. Madi hesitated at first but believed the stranger despite her doubts. Slowly stepping away from the street lamp, Madi stood face to face with the man. After doing so she realized she could only see the eyes and the bridge of his nose while the rest of his face covered with a grey scarf that wrapped around his neck under the large coat. Just his eyes revealed his age to the teen. They were bent and old, but in an experienced, long traveled way.

He stepped forward calmly, and Madi cautiously matched him by taking a step. "Are you ok?" He asked, looking down at the teen. In awe of the stranger's appearance, Madi doubted she could lie even if she wanted to. She nodded to her savior, and the giant took a knee before her. "My name is Muira. Yours?" He asked lightly. Madi felt the stranger try his best not to frighten her and despite his size he seemed more human than anyone else she had met since waking up.

"Madi. Madi Ziegler," She said.

Muira stood back up in the street and looked around. Madi watched him reach into his coat and pulled out a large, pewter stopwatch connect on a chain. Flipping open the lid, the cowboy looked and then put the watch away.

"Alright. I'm taking you to the citadel," Muira said to Madi before turning in the direction of the street. Madi looked back in the direction the kidnappers ran in. "Don't worry about them. I'm going to keep you safe," He said honestly. Madi being suspicious of nearly everyone so far, she slightly felt like she could trust someone. In the silence between them, the two moved along the cobblestone street to the bright lights reaching from the jewel of the tarnished city.