"...a lot of you have been phoning in asking about this bizarre cold snap. Well, it's bad news, I'm afraid. It might have popped up out of nowhere, but it doesn't look like it's going anywhere any time soon..."

    A gust of deathly wind blew through the SUV, rattling the loose window frames and drowning out the radio's words. Shivering in her seat, Elise wondered if she should have pulled out something more substantial than the burgundy hoodie that clung to her chilled frame. The snow had slowed to little more than a gentle dusting, yet the car passed by deep puddles of frozen water that testified to the cold's ever-growing potency.

    "...so don't forget to unstick your wipers in the mornings! And if you've got any salt and sand lying around –"

    "Are they still talking about the stupid weather?" Cadence cursed under her breath and punched the radio's power switch, banishing the presenter's warm persona into the dark night. "So it's hella cold. Big deal. Get a grip, put a coat on, and shut the fuck up already."

    "I don't know. Aren't you even a little freaked out?" Elise asked, following the progress of a flock of geese across the sky. The faint moonlight broke through the heavy cloud to drip over their wings, and the silver glow reminded Elise that it was far too late for so many birds to be trying to migrate. "To go from cosy autumn rain to living in a giant freezer is wild. Even the animals didn't see this coming, apparently."

    Weaving the car towards the sprawling university campus, Cadence stuck her arm out of her window and shuddered. "Maybe Mama Earth's finally sick of our shit. It's about time," she said as she landed the car across three parking spaces in the university carpark. "Better hope they left the heating on inside, right?"

    Though she had pulled late, long study sessions in the library, Elise had never arrived at the university so deep into the night. Behind the pale light of the exterior lamps, the heart of the humanities faculty building lay bound in shadow through the yawning windows, shorn of the comfort of recognisable features. Even the carpark asphalt felt foreign as Elise splashed into the void that pooled around the car's tyres. "How are we even going to get in?" she asked, closing the door with a slow, distracted push. "Is there some way to climb up around the other side? You know, I think one of the changing room windows might be loose..."

    "Those ideas might work," Cadence said with a sharp smirk on her face, puffs of amusement trailing from her nostrils. "But I was thinking we could, you know, try the front door first."

    "Are you joking?" The surprise left Elise stranded by the car as Cadence swaggered towards the main entrance. Wresting control of her legs from her shock, Elise scurried to stumble into her friend's line of sight. "There's no way they just leave the building unlocked at this time, Cade."

    Cadence gave out a coy smile and shrugged, then passed Elise's side to reach the main door to the faculty building. With her back to the entrance, Cadence took hold of the handle, pushed it down, and swung the door open into the university's inky interior. "Chill out, killer. You're running with a fully licenced scoundrel now," she said as she awaited her friend's reaction. "Listen to me, and you'll be golden, alright?"

    Bathing in the cloudy breaths that flowed from her friend's face, Elise chased her doubts to the margins of her mind. She nodded her confidence to Cadence and, with a shaking step, followed her friend into the dark corridor.

    The other side of the door held nothing. Elise felt for the firm, lifeless wall at her side, only for the vibrant warmth of Cadence's side to greet her touch. "Still here," her friend said, pushing Elise's hand away with a teasing chuckle. "Looks like the lights are done for the day. Mind busting out your torch? My phone's light sucks."

    "That, and I bet you forgot to charge it before we left," Elise replied as she reciprocated the playful shove Cadence gave her. Finding her phone in her bag, she released a thin wave of pale light into the corridor. "But won't this make it easier for the cameras to spot us?"

    "Have you seriously never hung out here at night before? We're fine. We haven't even done anything wrong yet," Cadence said, pointing back to the open main doors that still swayed in place. "And if we do things right, there'll be no reason for anybody to check the tapes anyway. Just stick with me, killer."

    Elise nodded her acknowledgement and slotted in behind her friend's light-footed strides. The humanities faculty's dignified grey stone walls and bold white fixtures sat behind a wall of shadow, buried far deeper than her feeble phone light reached. Overhead, the void whittled the building's imposing height down to a low, liquid ceiling that forced her neck to stoop with just a glance. Every corner produced a wall of thick gloom to check their progress, and Elise found herself laying a guiding hand on Cadence's shoulder more than once. In the long, empty halls, the buzz of her friend's soul was a persistent comfort.

    A cloud of cooling breath poured out of Elise's mouth and over her face, and she tightened her hoodie around her shoulders. "I guess the heating left with the lights," she whispered, making a point of avoiding the gaze of the photograph portraits splashed along the corridor walls. "It's like a walk-in fridge in here."

    "Just let me know if you feel like cuddling for warmth," Cadence quipped with a flick of her hair. As they passed a classroom, she skidded to a halt and tugged the door open. Taking Elise's light-bearing arm, she ushered her friend inside the room. "Someone's coming. Might be security."

    "You said we hadn't done anything wrong yet!" Despite her protests, Elise followed Cadence's unspoken command and entered the classroom, banishing the light from her phone as the sound of soft footsteps tapped closer. The door clicked shut behind her friend, and the pair peered out from the side of the window to find the source of the approaching sound. "Security wouldn't kick us out if they saw us, would they?"

    Laying Elise against the wall, Cadence kept stabbing her stare down the length of the murky corridor. "No, but we're planning to do something not-so-right before we leave. I'd say the fewer people that know we're here right now, the better." She pricked her ear as the tapping footsteps diverged into two distinct pairs, then fell against Elise's chest, her lips drifting by her friend's ear. "They're passing us now."

    "Who? Security?" Elise asked as she let her hands tuck themselves in the close, cosy confines of Cadence's jacket.

    "Nope, just a couple of other kids," her friend answered, pressing closer to Elise to reveal the forms of two students ambling with their arms around each other's waists. "Probably 'late-night study buddies' making the most of the library's deepest corners, if you get me."

    After a flicker of confused hesitation, Elise gasped, then gagged. "Ick, seriously? People sneak in here at close to midnight just to make out?"

    Her shock earned a warm cackle from Cadence's lips against her neck. "You are so cute," she said, pulling back to look Elise in the eye. "They don't just make out, Ellie. If you want, I can walk you through exactly what they get up to..."

    Deaf to the disappearing footsteps, Elise stood transfixed by the twin sparks of flawless amber that floated in front of her. The girl's lips parted by just a fraction, making a silent promise of the sweet, liberating intimacy that Elise longed for. Her heart shocked her nerves and rattled her joints, eager to pull Cadence into her body and fall under the intoxicating spell that awaited her on the tip of the girl's tongue.

    Only Elise could not move. Every time she met Cadence's gaze, her mind blinded her with images of her friend's eyes at the sight of Melody's picture, or her expression in Melody's company. Cadence wanted to sweep Elise away on yet another wave of lust, as potent as it was fleeting, as devoid of love as her admiration of Melody overflowed with it. Each recalled vision engrained this realisation deeper into Elise's chest, turning the honeyed promises on the girl's lips unbearably, irreversibly sour. Whatever she said, did, or wished, she would never have Cadence's heart.

    Without a word, Cadence shut her eyes and fell forward. Elise flinched and planted her hand on her friend's lips, the heat from Cadence's breath scorching her fingertips with regretful sores. "No," she said, eager to release the pressure that swelled through her body. "Sorry."

    Cadence took Elise's hand and lowered it from her face. "I was only kidding about the kinky stuff, you know," she muttered, locking her fingers around her friend's hand. "What can I say? You're cute when you're flustered, and you're always super flustered right after we –"

    "No, Cade," Elise repeated as she slithered out of Cadence's hold, turning her back to avoid her friend's longing stare. "Just...not now, I mean. We should probably focus on finding what we need."

    "Oh, yeah. Sure. You're right. Totally." Clearing her throat, Cadence peeked out of the window and tapped her knuckles against Elise's shoulder. "I think they're long gone now. Time to get a move on."

    Elise buried her hands in her hoodie's pockets before she gave into the urge to return Cadence's touch. "Right behind you."

    Flagstones made way for sterile white floor tiles along the connecting corridor to the sciences building. Through the broad glassy walls, the sea crashed against the beach, drowning the twinkling sand under black, frothing waves. A single snowflake drifted past the chaotic shore to land on the glass pane, its thin needles retaining their perfect structure.

    "Alright, where to?" Cadence asked as they entered the hall on the far side of the corridor. Against the science building's orderly white, grey, and green palette, her distressed jacket and breezy swagger commanded even more attention than usual. "Did the Simplord tell you which dork-chamber we're hitting?"

    "It's room 1.07, upstairs, though Robin said we should look for the staff room," Elise said, indicating the nearest staircase with her returning phone light. Her roommate's name drew an irritated scoff from Cadence, and Elise stepped ahead of her friend on the steps to see her face. "I know Robin's been a real prick with you since you met him, but I promise he means well. He just has the wrong idea about you."

    Fixing her beanie on her head, Cadence shrugged and hopped up the rest of the steps. "Whatever. It's his loss," she sighed. She searched the top of the staircase for a sense of direction, and her bouncing legs betrayed the frustration hidden by her calm demeanour. "Why do we have to find the staff room if the camera stuff is all in the classroom, again?"

    Weak and waning in the science faculty's broad hallways, Elise's light failed to sketch any of her few recalled landmarks into the scene. "The camera we're looking for is a video doorbell thing on the front door, and it's probably set to alert someone when it detects movement," she said as she hovered her light over the nearest classroom doors to check their numbers. "He said the staff room's on the same corridor as his classes, and the door's usually kept unlocked."

    "So no breaking in?" Cadence asked, exaggerating the wobble of her lower lip. "Aww. Where's the fun in that?"

    "I think not getting excluded is more than enough fun for me."

    An idle pass of Elise's light lit up the cracks of an old, ramshackle door at the nearest end of a long, narrow corridor. Giving a light pump of her fist, Cadence tapped her friend's shoulder. "Check it, killer. 'Staff Room', dead ahead," she said with a sharp grin. She skipped forward and lay her hand on the door handle, adding a dramatic pause before turning it. "And here we have..."

    Elise shone her light on the door, the light spilling shadows behind every splinter. Cracks split around its hinges and small square window frame, dark scars from years of intense, uncaring use. "Are you waiting for something?" she asked as the staff room door stayed shut.

    "Maybe an apology from Roomie right about now, not that I'll get it," Cadence spat, flicking her hair and folding her arms in displeasure. "The stupid door's locked."

    "Are you joking?" Elise groaned in response, shoving against the door herself to confirm Cadence's statement. A snap of the woodwork drew a startled flash of her light, yet nothing moved in the long corridors around them. "What are we supposed to do now? I don't know if they even keep keys here."

    "Don't worry, I have the perfect key for this door," Cadence said, laughing to herself as she dug in her jacket pocket. The torchlight captured the sheen of the metallic implement as she flourished it from her chest, a slight click announcing the unsheathed blade of Matt's knife. "I guess we're breaking in after all."

    Steaming flumes flared in Elise's panicked gut. "Fuck, Cade! I told you that thing scares the shit out of me," she cried before stamping her voice down to a rasping whisper. "What are you even doing with that?"

    The weapon dazzled in the glow of Elise's light, and Cadence rolled her eyes as she leaned by the door. "Getting us into the staff room, duh," she answered, probing each of the cracks around the window with the edge of the knife. As the blade slipped into a split in the frame, Cadence gave out a grunt and wrestled the blade along the widening crack. Suddenly, wood snapped and glass cracked, splashing the girls in a shower of splinters and shards. Cadence cheered as she reached through the opening and released the door's deadbolt. "Knew it! Gotta love shitty department budgets, right?"

    "What the hell? You can't just do shit like this!" Elise cried as she swept the sparkling dust from her sleeve. Glass scraped underneath her with every stressed shuffle of her feet. "Oh god. They're going to find all this in the morning. What are we going to do? How the fuck do we clean this up?"

    "Cool it, killer. We don't need to clean anything up." Opening the door and passing through, Cadence took hold of the shelf of filing boxes mounted on the wall. She gauged the weight of the box nearest the door, checked the rear side of the shelves, and nodded to herself. "Perfect! Come on through, and I'll cover our tracks."

    Elise stepped over the debris, eyeing her friend's every move. "What are you thinking?"

    Before she answered, Cadence pushed the door shut and threw the archive box against the broken window frame, a whirlwind of loose papers escaping from its interior. She buried the knife behind the shelf and cut through the adhesive strip that held it in place, and the remaining boxes tumbled into a heap at the shelf's edge. "Alright. You're an overworked, underpaid university teaching assistant who's been dragged into work early by their bitchy boss," Cadence said as she settled her hands on Elise's shoulders. "What do you see?"

    "Cade..."

    "Come on! Humour me."

    Rolling her eyes, Elise nudged the side of the fallen archive box with her foot. "The hanging strip gave out, the shelf collapsed, and it knocked this box into the door hard enough to shatter the window," she said with a groan. She rubbed at her arm, yet a glance at Cadence's eager face reignited the anxious fires that burned through her nerves. "It's a bit of a stretch, don't you think?"

    "Ah, whatever. You don't get paid enough to spot that, remember?" Cadence retorted, retracting the knife and slipping it back into her jacket pocket. Her friend's gaze lingered on her, and she stepped forward to poke a finger into Elise's chest. "We're fine. Free and breezy, Princess Peachy."

    "My hero," Elise droned, fighting the urge to smile at her friend's bottomless banks of optimism. "But you forgot about one thing."

    With a tilt of her head, Cadence huffed and flared her nostrils. "Oh yeah? Like what?"

    Stepping between the patchwork of debris and fallen papers, Elise shut the battered door and reset the deadbolt. "There. Now we're breezy."

    Cadence raised an eyebrow as her friend walked past, only moving when Elise reciprocated the earlier playful prod. "Fine. Since you're such a master thief, you can cover our tracks next time," she said, a laugh cracking her lips apart. Walking side-by-side, they followed the faint light of Elise's phone into the staff room.