The flare washed the world in white. Through the blinding snow, I couldn't see a damn thing.

Ethan's angry voice boomed from a loudspeaker:

"I don't care who you are! Get lost! This is private property!"

I saw a figure on the cabin's balcony.

Ethan, holding an assault rifle. A few guards stood behind him.

"This is your last warning! Back off or I'll open fire!"

I raised my hands. "Ethan! It's me! Scarlett!"

"I know it's you!" he roared. "You brought guns to storm my cabin? Are you insane?"

A bullet kicked up snow at our feet.

Snow and rock chips flew.

Martha shoved her wheelchair forward. "Stop! I'm your mother!"

Another shot.

Closer this time.

"Ethan! Look! It's Judge Martha! It's your mother!"

The shooting stopped.

I heard Ethan's confused voice over the speaker.

"What…?"

"Mom?" His voice trembled. "Is that really you?"

Martha struggled to her feet, lifting her hands high.

"Son! It's me! Martha! Your mother!"

Ethan's finger hesitated on the trigger.

Just then, Chloe’s shrill voice came from inside the cabin.

"Baby! Don't fall for it!"

She ran to Ethan's side, grabbing his arm.

"Your mom's in a wheelchair! How could she have climbed halfway up the mountain?"

Ethan froze.

"Look at the thermal signature! It's all wrong, too stiff!" Chloe went on. "That's not a person, Ethan. It's one of them, trying to trick you!"

"No… impossible…"

"Or it's a stunt double Scarlett hired!" Chloe’s voice grew sharper. "She'd stoop to anything to ruin our night, even use this disgusting trick to insult your dead mother!"

"What?"

"She's mocking your mother's memory! Using a body double to get to you!"

Ethan's face twisted into a mask of pure rage.

"Scarlett! You venomous bitch!"

He dropped the rifle and grabbed a grenade launcher.

"You dare use my mother against me!"

"Ethan! No!" I screamed.

But he had already shouldered the weapon and taken aim.

"You'll use any dirty trick to humiliate me!"

Martha saw the targeting laser from the launcher.

The red dot was on my chest.

She didn't hesitate.

In that last second, Martha launched herself out of her wheelchair. A shield of fragile bone and fierce love.

"NO!"

The grenade fired.

A fireball ripped through the night.

Martha's body exploded in front of me.

Flesh and blood rained down.

Shards of bone sliced across my cheek.

The shockwave threw me backward.

My ears rang with a high-pitched scream.

I opened my eyes. The thing in my arms wasn't a person anymore. Just a warm, wet mess of what used to be Martha.

Her face was gone.

Only one of her hands remained, still tightly gripping the old hunting rifle.

"No… no… Martha…"

My scream tore through the night.

Over the loudspeaker, Chloe’s voice was bright, triumphant.

"Wow, baby. Nice shot." She paused. "See? All quiet. Now, you should probably have someone get rid of the... mess... before the smell brings the real ones. We wouldn't want that."

Heavy footsteps crunched in the snow.

Three guards came down the slope. Two of them carried a stretcher.

Jenkins was the youngest, just twenty-three.

When he saw the mangled remains, his face went pale.

"Sir… the body…" Jenkins stammered. "The shape of it… it looks like Judge Martha."

Rodriguez shot him a glare.

"Shut your mouth! The Captain said it was a trick."

"But, Rodriguez, look at the size of the hand, and that ring—"

"I said shut up!" Rodriguez snapped. "The Captain is always right! That crazy woman would do anything!"

Jenkins opened his mouth, then closed it. He said nothing.

They roughly shoveled the mess of flesh into a body bag.

Then they dragged me up from the snow.

My mind was still numb.

Martha's blood was on my face, already starting to freeze.

The cabin was warm as a spring day.

A fire roared in the hearth.

That goddamn Christmas tree dominated the living room, its lights blinking obnoxiously.

Chloe was curled up in Ethan's arms, wearing a red silk nightgown.

She looked like a frightened little bird.

"Baby, she scared me," Chloe said, her voice trembling. "How could she use a disgusting trick like that…"

Ethan stroked her hair gently.

"It's okay, baby. She can't hurt you anymore."

Then he looked at me, his eyes filled with rage.

"Scarlett, you make me sick."

He stomped on my left hand.

He aimed for my pinky finger.

The crack of bone was sharp and clean.

"Ah!"

My scream cut through the air.

"That's for disrespecting the dead," Ethan sneered.

I bit my lip, fighting through the pain, and lifted my head.

"Ethan… do you have any idea what's happening down there?"

"What's happening?"

"Because you cut the power. Because you cut the comms," my voice was hoarse. "People are dying in the dark down there. Right now."

Ethan stared for a second.

Then he let out an angry laugh.

"This again! How long are you going to keep up this lie?"

"Nurse Jenny… Marcus the technician… and six children…" I went on. "They're all dead. Because you stole the power they needed to live."

Jenkins and the other two guards exchanged a look.

Doubt flickered across their faces.

"Captain…" Jenkins said carefully. "Maybe we should check the radio?"

"Check what?" Ethan roared. "Are you going to let this psycho brainwash you too?"

"But if there really is a danger—"

"There is no danger!" Ethan cut him off. "My defense system is perfect! Look at it! There's enough power for the damn tree! How could the main grid possibly be failing?"

Rodriguez nodded. "The Captain's right. Scarlett is just trying to trick us into going down there to ruin his night."

But Jenkins couldn't help himself. "Then why are the comms down?"

"Because I cut them!" Ethan said, completely unapologetic. "To stop the rioters from spreading more panic!"

I laughed, a dead, hollow sound.

"Then explain the screams I can hear."

"What screams? I don't hear anything!"

"Because you're throwing a party! The music is drowning everything out!"

Ethan's face turned red.

"Enough! I'm sick of your bullshit!"

He barked an order at his men. "Drag her out to the balcony! Tie her to the flagpole! Let her freeze until she comes to her senses!"

"Captain, it's thirty below out there…" Jenkins hesitated.

"Good! Let her freeze to death for all I care!"

Rodriguez and the other guard grabbed my arms.

I was dragged outside.

The snow cut at my face like razor blades.

They started tying my wrists with a rope.

Just as the knot was about to tighten, a piercing alarm shrieked from the valley below.

A Black Alert. It meant total containment failure. Assumed zero survivors.

Everyone froze.

Jenkins’s face was ashen. "What… what does that mean?"

Rodriguez's voice trembled. "A Black Alert… it means…"

"It means everyone is dead," I said into the silence.

"Impossible!" Ethan rushed out of the cabin. "The system couldn't have failed!"

But the alarm kept wailing.

On and on.

The tolling of a death knell.

"My wife… my girls…" Jenkins whispered, slumping to his knees. "They were in B3."

Rodriguez was barely standing.

"My son… he's only eight…"

I watched their faces crumble, then slowly worked my hands free from the loosened rope.

I looked up at Ethan, who stood frozen in place.

"Do you believe me now?" I asked, my voice like broken glass. I gave him a terrible smile. "They're all dead. Dead because you wanted to light a Christmas tree. Dead because your perfect system was a lie."

Ethan just shook his head. "No… impossible… my calculations were correct…"

"Oh, and one more thing."

I stared right into his eyes, saying each word slowly and clearly.

"The person you just blew to pieces… the one you left to rot in the snow…"

I paused.

"That was your mother. The mother you respected so much."

All the color drained from Ethan’s face.

"You're… you're lying…"

Just then, a guttural snarl rose from the cliffs below.

Countless dark shapes scrambled up the rock face, exposed by the avalanche, moving like spiders.

Their eyes glowed red in the dark.

They had smelled the blood.

The first one scrambled over the railing. Its eyes glowed like hot coals in the dark.