I slump against the bottom of yet another tree, defeated. It feels like I've been walking for hours, but I know it's only been about ten minutes. I would go on for a lot longer if it wasn't so cold, but I'm freezing. There's ice in my veins, and the cold feels like it's cutting straight through my skin like a knife, touching my heart. My bare feet feel like blocks of solid ice. I was so anxious about Jack when I was leaving my room that I didn't even think of putting on slippers. Not to mention the fact that I'm only wearing my thin summer pyjamas.
Anyway, it's pretty obvious that nobody else is here. I'm completely alone.
Which is upsetting and all, but is the least of my problems right now.
I have no idea where I am, or where my family is, or how to get back. And if I don't get back soon, I'll freeze to death.
Which doesn't seem like the best plan.
Keep moving. Keep moving.
The last thing I want is to keep moving. What I really want to do is lie down in the soft snow and sleep, but of course that's the worst plan ever. So reluctantly, I get up and trudge on. But it's hard to know where to go, especially as there's no path and every single tree looks the same. I could be walking in circles.
I'm about to give up again when I see something. A wisp of blue smoke, drifting towards me. Then another, and another.
A sudden rush of hope fills my body, as if the sun's come out inside me. Maybe the smoke will take me back again. Back with my family at home, in the comforting hands of reality.
So I stand there without moving as the smoke comes nearer. As it surrounds me, I brace myself for the eerie feeling of being lifted up, but it doesn't come. In fact, the smoke starts clearing, until it's all gone, revealing an amazing sight.
I'm no longer in a quiet, deserted forest. Instead I'm in a sort of city, but I've no idea where. Skyscrapers are standing tall and proud on the horizon, while others are along the busy Main Street where I am standing. Cars are hooting and speeding down the road, and I hear music blasting from one as it zooms past me. The strangest thing is that daylight is filling the busy streets, and the sun is peeping out from behind a few gloomy clouds. It can't be daytime already...
People are everywhere: crossing roads, entering and exiting buildings, sipping cups of coffee, riding bikes or driving, jostling me as they walk past. I touch the arm of a young woman walking past, tapping away on her phone.
"Excuse me, but..."
I trail off. Even when I touched her, she didn't look up from her phone, and she didn't seem to hear me at all. She walks away down the street as though she had never been interrupted.
I try talking to several more people, but none of them seem to notice me, or even be aware of my presence. Then I realise that everyone here has gleaming blue eyes.
I'm invisible here.
I don't know which is more lonely; the still, silent forest or this busy city full of people who are so strangely distant, as if they're in a whole different world to me.
At least it's not freezing cold any more.
It seems possible that my siblings might be here, hidden away among crowds of other people so different to us. I run through the streets, calling their names, looking closely through the crowds for a glimpse of someone I recognise. But by the time the smoke starts to fill the streets again, I haven't had any luck.
When I see the familiar blue, I start running as fast as I can in the opposite direction, hindered by the crush of people. I'm not ready to go to another place- I'm not completely sure that my family isn't in this one yet. But I don't have much choice. The smoke chases me and outruns me, and before I know it I'm surrounded yet again by blue.