The next morning, a brutal Illinois blizzard buried the suburban streets in a thick layer of white.
In the entryway, Carrie aggressively shoved Ava's arms into a massive, neon-yellow puffer coat.
"Mom, I can't breathe," Ava wheezed. The coat was so thick she couldn't even bend her elbows. She looked like a giant marshmallow.
"It's freezing out there," Carrie insisted, zipping the coat all the way up to Ava's chin.
Cody stood by the door. He wore a thin, tailored black trench coat. He stared at Ava with cold calculation.
Mobility reduced by forty percent, Cody thought. In the event of an ambush, she is a static target. She will die immediately.
Jerimiah spun the van keys on his finger. He wore his usual ratty jacket. "Let's go, kids. Clock's ticking."
He pushed the front door open. A blast of freezing wind and snow whipped into the house.
The concrete steps of the porch were coated in a thin, invisible layer of black ice.
Ava waddled forward, her heavy boots clumsy on the slick surface.
Jerimiah walked right behind her. He watched her struggle. A flicker of something unreadable crossed his face before he reached out an arm, as if to steady her, but hesitated, not wanting to hover like an overbearing parent.
As Ava took a step down, her heavy boot found no traction. She stepped directly onto a treacherous, invisible patch of black ice that had formed overnight. Her foot shot forward, completely destroying her center of gravity in a terrifying instant.
Ava let out a sharp gasp. Her feet flew out from under her. She pitched forward, falling face-first toward the solid, jagged ice covering the concrete steps.
Time seemed to slow down.
Cody's pupils dilated. His brain screamed at him to stay out of it. But his body moved on pure, violent instinct.
He launched himself off the top step. He moved so fast he was nothing but a black blur against the snow.
Just inches before Ava's face smashed into the ice, a hard, unyielding arm wrapped around her chest.
The momentum sent Cody sliding across the icy porch. His boots scraped against the concrete, but his core remained perfectly stable. He absorbed the entire shock of the fall, holding Ava safely against his side.
Ava gasped for air, her heart threatening to burst out of her chest. She looked up.
Cody's face was inches from hers. His black eyes were completely devoid of warmth, but his grip on her was iron-clad.
He didn't ask if she was okay. He simply lifted her by the back of her coat, setting her upright on the flat driveway.
Then, Cody slowly turned his head. He locked eyes with Jerimiah, who was still standing on the steps.
Cody's eyes darkened into a terrifying, abyssal black. Raw, unfiltered killing intent radiated from his small frame. He looked at his father not as a parent, but as a hostile threat that needed to be eliminated.
Jerimiah's breath hitched. He hadn't expected the sociopathic kid to react so aggressively to protect the girl.
Jerimiah held up his hands, forcing a nervous laugh. "Whoops! Slippery steps, huh?"
Cody held the stare for three more seconds before turning away. He opened the sliding door of the van and climbed in.
Ava stood frozen in the snow. She looked at Cody's back.
Her chest tightened, but this time, not from fear. The cold, calculating freak of a brother had just risked himself to save her. In this strange, terrifying world, she suddenly felt an anchor of absolute safety.
