The town has a special glow in the evening light and the snow only makes it more beautiful, resembling a place straight out of a fairy tale. The white of the snow contrasts with the orange glow from inside the deli,  the streets are almost empty because everyone is trying to avoid the snow; the wind's filled with  occasional laughter of someone throwing snowballs.

The deli is buzzing with people, most of them preferring take outs, waiters and waitresses rushing from the kitchen to the counters. Even though it was filled with people, it was peaceful there. Everyone is busy in their own worlds, just wishing for the day to be over.

The five of  them sat sipping milkshakes in a booth in the deli. That place was like a second home to them now. These were the same children whose lives were completely different until a month ago.

None of them had any idea that time that within a month sipping milkshakes in the deli and discussing their lives with four other kids was going to be a new normal.

"I have to confess something," Noah speaks.

"What did you do now?" Kat asks

"Well don't get mad but I showed the weird medical terms paper to a doctor."

"You did what?" Chris screams.

"Hey calm down, I didn't tell him anything else."

"We'd decided not to show them to anyone. How could you do this without even informing either of us?" Amy interrupts

"I did it because I knew none of you would agree with me showing them to a doctor. And we didn't have any leads so I thought maybe a professional would help us decode these terms."

"Well did he though? Help us?" Justin asks.

"No. He didn't understand a single word written there." Noah speaks, hanging his head low.

"If a doctor doesn't know anything how will a retired elementary school teacher know anything?" Kat speaks

"I don't think we can trust anyone with this topic, not even Ms. Dahlia. Telling her anything may or may not be beneficial. But we can't take any risks." Chris speaks.

"But we have to tell her something, we can't just tell her that we're not interested in finding out anything else anymore." Amy speaks.

"We'll give it a few days. A week or so and after that we'll tell her that we think it's just a coincidence since nothing else has happened after that." Justin suggests.

"You think she'll buy that?" Chris asks.

"We don't really have any other choice, do we?" Justin replies.

"Ok. Sounds good. Also nobody fainted or had any weird dreams in the past few days right?" Amy asks.

"No. Nothing yet." Everyone speaks.

"So that's that then, we'll just tell the teacher that it's all a coincidence and try to  find more clues without telling anyone anything." Kat concludes.

Everyone nods their heads in agreement and leaves the deli one by one.

***

Noah starts walking towards his home lost in his thoughts. He checks his watch and sees that he still has some time till he has to return home.

He changes his path and decides to go to the woods behind his neighborhood.

All he could feel on his tender, fragile skin was freezing cold air , he wished he would have worn his huge, and comfortable snow jacket. The sound of silence around him was chilling and fighting, in every possible way, but it didn't scare him he felt like this is where he belonged, he felt like home.

Before he could sit down, he hears a crackle and a snap in the forest around him, he doesn't run.  Instead he decides to follow the sound.

He reaches the spot where he heard the sound only to find out that  a cat had stepped on a delicate frostbitten tree branch.

He settles down on his usual spot. His mind goes back to that evening, the evening where he almost lost his brother. The thought alone gives him goosebumps. He checks his watch and decides to leave.

While walking back to his home, he smells smoke. He keeps walking until he sees a bright glowing light, a fire coming from his neighbours house, a bonfire. He spots a small kid playing around the lawn with his sister. Seeing the happiness and purity in the small kids' eyes he doesn't help but wonder,

What if this is a coincidence?