Chapter 1

A young boy couldn't help but stare into the empty room of the new house... well empty except for the old man that seemed to be standing in the middle of the room looking right back at him. The boy a little scared approached the old man and timidly said, "H-hi, my names Mark, what's y-yours?" The old man watching the boys approach just smiled and seemed to fade as the boy got closer until suddenly he just wasn't there anymore. The boy suprised ran back out of the room screaming, "Mommy! Mommy!"
---
Mark sat with his group of friends arms around the brunette curly head Alisa, whom he'd been flirting with all night, as they turned on the T.V in the living room to the hangover as he friend Brent got out a case of beer and handed each one of them a can.
"Hey guys don't forget to trash the cans when you're done. If my mom finds out we've been drinking in the house she'd skin me," marked warned
Brent smirked as he replied, "Don't worry dude your mom will never find out. How'd yea think my dad hasn't figured out where all the missing beers gone to anyways."
"Ssshh," quieted Alisa as the movie started snuggling closer to Mark, "movies starting..."
Mark grinning at the warmth Alisa brought to his chest he took a small glance at her and peeked at the red bra she was wearing underneath her blue spongebob shirt that was way to large for her small petite body. As he glanced at her though he couldn't help but notice someone else was in there with them and looked behind them but no one was there.
"Mark?," Alisa said as she looked at Mark concerned at the sudden alarmed state of Mark's, "anything wrong?"
"Huh? Oh.. no nothings wrong sorry," he replied relaxing himself and assuring himself that he was just seeing things and snuggled in with Alisa with his arm, "let's just watch the movie."
Brent gave him a wink as Alisa's attention returned to the movie.
---

Brent was shit-face drunk as he crashed onto the table of their new apartment as Mark, not so sober himself from the highschool graduation after-party they had gone to, clumsily locked the door behind him before collapsing on the floor himself.
"Luckily he thought he and Brent had already moved into the apartment for their new college life," as he started to doze off into a drunken slumber. But just as his eyes dimmed he swear he saw an old man staring down at him over him with eyes of concern.
---

"Dude. Dude! Wake up?!" Mark heard Brent yell at him in panic as he felt Brent's hand try to shake him awake, "Dude you gotta wake up I have no fucking idea where we are!"
Still feeling the hangover from last nights party the only word he could respond was . "Urgh..."
Then he felt a hard slap on the face which seemed to have completely shocked his whole body because suddenly he was alert, head pounding, and looking around confused, "Wha... huh?"
Brent took Marks head and made Mark concentrate on Brents face, "You here with me man? C'mon man I think we're in deep shit here." Finally grasping a bit of concetration Mark shook Brent off and tried to steady himself with his hand on the soft dirt as he tried to stand.
"Dirt...?" he thought confused. He looked around immediately noticing the vast woods and the abnormally large and thick tree's, "what the fuck..."
Brent stood up looking a bit panicked himself, "Yeah. I said the same thing. At first I thought I was still a bit drunk from last night but i think we may have wandered somewhere trying to get home."
Mark shook his head trying to remember, "No. No that can't be ," he replied his head throbbing wanting to explode, "I remember specifically reaching the apartment. This can't be right."
"You sure man? I mean I'm sure if we were in our apartment i'd be on my bed till this arsing headache goes away not feeling this blasted wind on my face," he said sourly. He was right though it was a bit breezy and cold for it to be summer but he was sure it was day on how the leaves glowed faintly as if light barely passed through the lush bunches of leaves above. Despite though on how breezy it was though light never seemed to poke through the leaves.
"Do you have your phone?" Mark asked searching his own pockets now.
"Out of Coverage, " Brent said disgusted, "believe that? I mean my dad spent money on it just to be able to contact me anywhere I go. Much good it did him." Mark shook his head compared to him even though his own family was a fairly off despite the economic crisis going on Brent's family was the epitomy of rich. It was the reason they were able to afford an apartment despite just graduating from highschool.
Brent was right though he had no service on his phone either. Just how far out were they? Brent threw his phone on the tree and as bounced of the trunk a small pile of snow crashed onto the base of the tree.
Brent suprised jumped back as the pile almost landed on top of him, "Whoa?! What the heck? Look snow.." Mark tried looking up to where the large pile of snow fell from but he just couldn't see far enough past the leaves.
"You think it's leftovers from last winter," asked Brent touching the snow curiously discovering how cold it still was.
"Can't be," replied Mark walking next to Brent feeling the snow for himself, "not after that heat-wave we've been hearing bout in the news. Well whatever we have to walk somewhere until one of us, well till my phone gets some service."
" Sorry got pissed at my phone," brent sheepishly replied digging it out of the snow and finding it in the pileand picking it up, "believe it or not it's still working."

They walked for hours trying to recall last nights shinnanigans when suddenly brent pointed to a small light ahead of them. Excited to mabye finding an exit to this wierd unkown forest they ran towards it hoping they might be able to spot some kind of building they could barge in for help. As they stepped into the light both Mark and Brent stepped on Ice and both fell sliding down a steep slope of ice as they sped down a large glacier of ice out of the forest.
"Holy Shit!" Mark heard Brent cry as they curved and swerved down the mountains of ice until finally mark was launched head first into the largest pile of snow mark had ever seen. A few seconds later he heard the small thump next to him telling him brent had managed to hit the same pile. Brent having had landed backwards into the snow crawled out and had to help dig Mark out of the snow.
"What the fuck man?!" Brent said starting to sound panicked again as he fell down again finally freeing Mark looking around, "Where did all this snow and ice come from I thought it was the summer in Virginia?!" Mark still trying to grasp the ride he just had down the mountain looked up from where they came and saw the line of tree's off in the distance. What shocked him was the huge pile of snow that lay on top of the forest that they couldn't see from inside of it, "whoa...."
Brent was clearly starting to freak out as he started to look around the wind howling carrying his curses with the wind. Picking up Brent, Mark and Brent walked carefully around the giant pile of snow and found the ground to be much more even behind it and covered in a layer of snow rather then ice. Mark noticed they were on a small cliff and he looked down shivering with his friend Brent at his shoulders.
"That's a long way down," Mark said a little dizzy from the height before backing up back to where he thought it was safe then he noticed it. Just a little farther from where they were at and at first he couldn't believe it.
"nu uh... no way," said Brent breathless from what he was seeing. Off in a distance was a city made of ice and stone with towers that soared into the skies and buildings upon building and in the middle what seemed like a palace of crystal and snow. It was something you'd only see in those fantasy flicks Mark use to watch back at home.
"We're definately not in VA anymore," whispered Mark.