The Last Unread Voice Message

His first reply was a single word, "Okay."

Then, it was a voice memo from him that said, "Okay, then hurry up. We're waiting for you in the lobby."

Lazy, as always.

He’d only bothered to read the auto-transcribed preview of the first one.

He probably thought my second message was just me telling them to wait.

It had always been like this. Always.

I put down my phone and sat in silence for a long time.

The cabin's front desk phone rang. I answered.

"Yes, I scheduled a private car. To the airport."

The temperature difference between inside and out had given me a slight fever.

My head felt thick and groggy as I waited for the driver.

By the time my mind cleared, there were over a dozen missed calls on my phone.

Without looking at the caller ID, I hit redial.

"Ava, why didn't you follow us?!"

The voice on the phone overlapped with the one right in front of me. I looked up to see Samuel.

His face was a thundercloud. Seeing the suitcase beside me, he snarled, "What the hell is this? Are you throwing another tantrum?"

"Why didn't you come? Do you have any idea how worried Chloe was when she couldn't reach you? She went down a black diamond trail by herself looking for you, and now she's missing!"

I tried to clear my fuzzy head and checked the missed calls one by one.

"She never contacted me—"

Samuel slapped the phone from my hand. It disappeared into a snowdrift.

His gaze was as cold as the ice around us.

"Ava, you're just pissed that I brought Chloe, aren't you? Now that you've gotten her into trouble, what's the point of playing innocent?"

"I never thought you were this kind of person. So cruel you'd harm a friend."

My temples throbbed. I rubbed them and bent down to fish my phone out of the snow.

"If that's what you think, then fine."

I grabbed my suitcase to leave, but he seized my wrist in a vice grip.

"You think you can just run off after causing all this trouble? You're coming up the mountain with me to find her!"

Samuel was much stronger than me, not to mention I was feverish and my limbs felt like lead.

I was dragged onto the ski lift before I could even change out of my thin jacket.

The rescue team was already on site but hampered by the worsening blizzard and near-zero visibility.

Samuel pulled me along, the only sounds our ragged breaths and the scrape of skis on snow.

He frowned and looked back at me. "How many heat packs are you wearing? Your hands are burning up."

My lips were pale. "I'm not wearing any."

He sneered. "Quite the performance."

After a few hundred more yards, the blizzard became a raging whiteout, visibility dropping to less than two meters.

Suddenly, a faint cry for help cut through the howling wind.

Before I could process it, my hand was violently flung away.

"Chloe, it's me!"

The deep snow wasn't packed solid. I stumbled backward, my feet sliding out from under me. I slid uncontrollably for a dozen yards before my back slammed into a thick pine, the impact jarring me to a halt.

Through the swirling white, I saw Samuel hoist Chloe onto his back.

Their two silhouettes became one.

The wind was deafening, but I could still hear Chloe's tearful voice in his ear.

"What about Ava, is she okay?!"

Samuel glanced back into the white void, but he couldn't see me.

"Don't worry about her. You're the most important thing right now!"