Things were even worse for Flash.

She had been through nonstop abuse and constant pain.  She often bit her tongue to keep herself from saying anything, but that made the pain worse.  She wanted to desperately scream at her parents to stop, but she knew they'd only increase the level of abuse if she did that.

She limped back to her room after her most recent session.  She was starving.  She hadn't eaten in days because of two reasons:

1. Her parents rarely fed her.
2. Their food supplies were dropping.

She collapsed onto her bed and stared at the picture hanging on the wall of her and her older sister, Ray.  "...I miss you, sis." she muttered.  "I really miss you."

Her throat burned when she spoke.  She'd go to get a drink, but most of the water was frozen into ice...another side effect of the blizzard.

She groaned and finally got back up, forcing herself to bandage and hide her wounds.  It was more difficult than usual this time.

After she finished, she decided to get her guitar out and practice a little.  She WOULD play loud like she normally did, but she felt like it was best to NOT annoy her parents this time.

"FLASH, ENOUGH." Jay screeched.  Flash immediately stopped playing her guitar and sighed.

"There's nothing fun to do anymore.  My parents ruin everything.  I can't go search for Snow, because Kasai's still gone looking for Fuego." she muttered to herself, annoyed.

She stared out the window, then hesitated when she saw Zakk outside.

"Zakk?  What are you doing out there?" she called out.

"Waiting for you to notice me." Zakk muttered, shoving his hands in his jacket pockets.

Flash quickly leaped out, still carrying her guitar.  "How long have you been out here?"

"Eh, not long.  Just about, er, a few minutes."

"Sorry about the wait..."

"It's SNOW problem."  He shoved a handful of snow in her face.

"!  Hey!  Silly dragon." she muttered, shoving it off of her.  Zakk laughed a little.  She smirked and set her guitar down, then made a snowball and threw it at him, smacking him straight in the face.

"AH!"  He fell backwards, startled.  Flash burst out laughing.

"Gotcha!"

Zakk smirked.  "Oh yeah?  Well, not for long!"

The two of them kept playing together, throwing snowballs and chasing each other through the snow.  They eventually both collapsed in the snow, exhausted and laughing.

"That's the most fun I've had since...well, ever!" Flash said, giggling.

"Yeah, I know.  We should do that more often." Zakk muttered.  Flash nodded in agreement, then sighed.

"Too bad my parents would definitely stop me if they found out."

"Well, just do it in secret then.  Or you could always come over to my place."

"Your place?"  Flash perked up.  She had never seen Zakk's place before.

"Yeah!  We can go right now, if you want."

"Sure..!"

Zakk smiled.  "C'mon, I'll lead the way."  He went into dragon form.

Flash hesitated for a moment.  "C..can't we walk?"

"But flying's faster..." Zakk pointed out.

Flash blushed and looked away.  "I know, but....I can't fly.  I'm afraid of heights.."

"Oh....sorry." Zakk muttered, about to change back, but then got an idea.  "Or you could just hop on.  You can close your eyes and cling to me if you get too scared.  I promise I won't go too fast."

Flash smiled a little.  "...s...sure."

Zakk laid down in the snow to let Flash climb onto his back, then took to the skies.  Flash immediately hugged his neck, startled, but loosened her grip when she realized she was safe.

"Sorry." 

"No, it's fine.  I'm not hurt."

"Okay then..."

Flash took a moment to look at the scenery.  Everything looked so small!  It was like she was looking at a toy set rather than her home.

"Everything's so tiny down there!"

"I know.  Cool, huh?"

"Yeah..."

She stared breathlessly as the world seemed to shrink and almost disappear, then began to grow back to normal size as Zakk slowly landed.

"We're here!"