Shroud of Snow

‘Come on, hurry up!’ A ten year old boy shouted aggressively as he struggled to plough through the deep snow. He stumbled and almost fell with each step. Gritting his teeth, he growled with frustration. Large, icy flakes tumbled from the sky and pelted down across his face like shards of glass. He wiped his eyes with his hand that felt numb from the freezing cold and then continued to battle on, over the blanket of snow that covered the pathway across the field. Behind him was his younger sister, Ashley, who was obviously finding it increasingly more difficult to keep up with her brother, particularly since she was only eight and a lot smaller than him. Her matted hair clung to her face; each strand was clotted together with a combination of sweat and the damp air. With each painful step that she took, her ruddy cheeks became a deeper shade of red and her breath was laboured. She was close to tears yet her eyes were wide open from panic, ‘Tom, slow down. I can’t...’ ‘Ashley, grab my hand,’ said Tom’s friend, Adam, who was walking alongside the girl, holding his hand out towards her. His expression was full of fear and his voice trembled uncontrollably. ‘Tom,’ he cried out pleadingly, ‘Tom, we can’t just leave Bradley out there.’ At the mention of Bradley, her little brother’s name, Ashley began to whimper. Tears rolled down her cheeks and dripped off the end of her jaw. ‘Just keep going, we got to get home.’ Tom ignored the commotion behind him. ‘Remember what I said?’ ‘Mum is going to kill us,’ Ashley whined. ‘I’m not going in with you. I’m going to go home,’ mumbled Adam while holding on to Ashley’s hand. Upon hearing this, Tom suddenly stopped, spun around and rapidly moved towards Adam who instantly let go of Ashley’s hand and took a step back, in a futile attempt to keep some kind of distance from his friend. Tom grabbed Adam by the collar of his jacket with his face barely an inch away from his and spat vehemently, ‘Oh no you don’t. You are just as responsible as us. You decided to come along today and so you are as big a part of this as me and my sister.’ ‘Leave Adam alone,’ Ashley screamed and began to wail loudly. ‘Shut up! You got to pull yourself together.’ As Tom said this, he pushed Adam away, letting him fall to the ground. He faced his sister and glared at her angrily. ‘So, we lost Bradley. It is not our fault that he slipped away when we were not looking.’ ‘But…’ Ashley stopped immediately when Tom shot her a threatening stare. ‘It was not our fault,’ Tom hissed menacingly before turning around. Without another word, he picked up his pace and trudged on towards his destination. Deep inside, like the others, he felt extremely scared and wished that he could delay facing his parents. However, he knew that it would be wiser to let them know what happened as soon as possible. Ashley and Adam glanced at each other quickly as they both knew that they should not have abandoned Bradley. Their duty as a sister and friend was to look after him and keep him safe. Their lives would never be the same again.This would haunt them for the rest of their lives.