Emily yawned and stretched her arms. Faint light was coming through the closed slats of the shutters in her bedroom. She groggily sat up and wiped the sleep from her eyes. She lay there for a few more minutes, just enjoying the time to relax in bed. Emily's room was full of photographs of her and Jet, kayaking, climbing, hiking, walking, swimming. The other half of her room was full of books. Mostly thrillers, with fantasy novels thrown in the mix. When she did finally get up she found a note on the kitchen table. Out the back, sleepyhead! :) Emily glanced at her watch, surprised to see the time. 10:00! God, she must have been more tired than she'd thought. Grabbing her coat, she went out the back door to find Jet opening it. 

"Finally awake, huh?" Jet asked, a wide grin breaking out across his face.

"Yeah," responded Emily, miming a yawn. "You off on your round of the park?" She questioned.

"Mhmm. Must've been me making a ruckus that woke you. Wanna come?"

"Sure. Let me go get dressed. And have some breakfast" She added, hearing her rumbling stomach.

She got dressed and started to make herself scrambled eggs. As she was cooking she looked out the window and decided it was going to be one of those days. The days when it was the coldest. The days when there wasn't a cloud in sight, and the cool, blue sky turned the air to ice. 

Ready to go, Emily and Jet walked off down the usual trail Jet used to patrol the park. Emily had been right, the thermometer on the cabin wall had read -10⁰C. Emily looked at the way the harsh winter sun reflected off the snow, illuminating the ginormous pines, their tips reaching the clouds. Suddenly she felt Jet's hand on her shoulder, stopping her in her tracks.

"Woah! Watch your step dreamy!" He cautioned.

Emily looked down to find that she had been about to step on an iced over pond. Despite everything you saw in movies, Emily knew not to go sliding around on iced over bodies of water in the park. These iced ponds had weak spots that would shatter the moment you stepped on them. In fact, upon closer inspection, Emily could see that despite the weather the ice covering the pond was precariously thin, and she probably would've fallen through the second she stepped on it. She breathed out in a sigh of relief, and smiled her thanks at Jet. This was how it was. He looked out for her, and she looked out for him. Though that wasn't always how it had been. Emily's mum, Louise, had left when Emily was only five years old, and because of this she could barely remember her. Buried memories of the feel of her golden hair and fragmented words of a long lost lullaby were all she had. That and a worn out piece of paper. Louise had moved to Boston, and left her address on a piece of paper for Emily. For a year after she had left, young, naive Emily had waited for her to come back. One day she finally bit the bullet. Louise was never coming back. Then, of course, Emily had wanted to visit her mother. Until one day, the very day she had been about to ask Jet to drive her to Boston, she had been overcome with a surge of anger at her mother. In Emily's mind, when her mother had left, she had left behind any hope of seeing her daughter again. And yet, Emily had kept the piece of paper with her mother's address on it. It was, after all, the only thing she had left of her.

Suddenly, Emily's head snapped up as she caught the glint of something in the trees. She peered into the trees, hoping to get another glimpse. But alas, there was nothing there. 

"Something up Em?" Jet queried.

"Nah" Emily murmured, already looking back up at the treetops, her mind elsewhere.

Jet just smiled and brought out his walkie - talkie. He was just going to radio in, see who was on duty today, report there was nothing to see and head home early. When he pressed the button, a horrible scratching static burst forth from the walkie - talkie.

"Jeez!" Emily cried, "What the hell is that!"

"I dunno!" Jet cursed, turning it off as quick as he could. "The radio system must be down or something. Why don't we go to Base, check it out."

All the rangers referred to the log cabin where they met as the 'Base'. They had all their maps there, log book, and, it also doubled as a visitors centre. When Emily was younger she used to pretend it was actually a secret base. She and Jet were secret agents, patrolling the park and making sure that no evil fairy - pirates (she'd had a wild imagination when she was little) got into the park. After walking for another ten minutes, they arrived at the simple log cabin, Jet reaching into his pocket and jamming the right key into the door before jerking it to the side.

"Hello?" Jet called, walking inside.

Emily followed and let out a yelp at the same time as him. The fact that there was no rangers here was odd . However, that was not the cause of their exclamations. There was nothing in the Base. Not just no rangers but nothing. Chairs, benches, fridges, maps, photos, letters, computers, food, all of it was gone. The Base was just an empty room.

"Jet..." gulped Emily, reaching for his hand. She was starting to freak out.

"It's okay Em," responded Jet, his mind whirring, cogs turning, trying to grab a desperate grasp on the situation at hand.

"Lets... let's just get out of here okay?" 

"Yeah." Emily quavered, her voice thin and shaky.

Suddenly for some reason, Jet had a daunting idea. It was silly idea; he wasn't living in a horror film, and yet, for some reason he knew he would not feel safe until he checked.

"Come on Em." Jet murmured, already pulling her along with him.

"Wait!" She asked. "Where are we going?"

"To check up on something," he mumbled again.

Shrugging, Emily walked after him along the road from the Base.

After about 4 minutes they reached a block in the road. Emily could hear Jet cursing under his breath. Two trees had fallen onto the road and then been covered in snow. Now Emily realised what Jet had wanted to check. Even their red Jeep couldn't cross that, and without a car it would be a few hours walk into Banff. This explained the other rangers' absence, but the mystery of the empty cabin was still unsolved. And, she thought, the arrow she had found last night. Things just kept getting stranger and stranger. Jet turned to her, a grim smile on his face.

"Looks, like we're on our own this winter Em." Jet declared.

Emily shivered, nut not from the cold. It almost seemed too much of a coincidence. She just shook her head painfully. She wanted to go home, lie down and wake up to find it had all been a dream. But the day's mysterious events would only get darker. 

                                                                                 ***

Upon arriving at the front door of their home, Jet's face turned white, while Emily tried her best not to vomit. Embedded in their front door was a dead rabbit. It was held against the door by an arrow in its neck. 

"Damn pranksters!" Jet yelled in rage. "If I ever catch them they'll get a good beating!"

Emily stifled a sob. How could anyone be so cruel as to kill something innocent, just to play a prank? Jet, still cursing, freed the rabbit from its cruel prison and went off to bury it. Emily saw that Jet had left behind the arrow. Peering closer at it, her blood ran cold. She didn't have to check, she knew. It was identical to the arrow she had found last night. She stood up and looked out at the park. Today had produced more mysteries than Emily had ever had in her routine life, filled with normalcy. But, standing there looking at the arrow, Emily wished that she could go back to that ordinary life. For she was certain that these were nothing more than symbols, bad omens pointing to the future ahead. And what was waiting in the future was something dark. Something very dark indeed.