Page 13 of Trapped in the Christmas Cabin

Whatthey saw out the pane of glass wasn’t what she expected, however.Shehad been thinking they would see the quiet, snowy night and the green and gold and red path that had lit their way to the cabin in the first place.

Instead, there was nothing but a solid wall of white on the other side of the glass.Well, notquite solid—there was maybe an inch of clear space above it but she couldn’t see anything out of it.

“Whatin theSevenHells?”Klausgrowled, frowning.

Kelliwas confused as well.

“Openthe door,” she suggested.“Let’ssee what’s outside.”

“Allright but stay behind me,” he cautioned.

Thetwo of them walked to the door andKlausswept open the door quickly.

Asolid wall of white greeted them.Butthis time,Kelliunderstood.

“Snowedin!”she exclaimed, leaning aroundKlausto scoop out a handful of snow.“We’resnowed in—stuck in the cabin!”

“What?Buthow can that be?Therewas barely an inch of snow on the ground when we came in here a few minutes ago,”Klausgrowled.“There’sno fucking way this much came down in the past ten minutes we’ve been in here.”

“Thatsound we heard—it must have been the snow falling all around us at once,”Kelliguessed.Shehoped uneasily that the roof of the cabin was really strong—it looked like it had snowed seven or eight feet in a single second—they were lucky it hadn’t collapsed under the strain.Thenagain, maybe theQuestarionshad built it to withstand the sudden weight and pressure of a huge amount of snow.

“Thisis fucking ridiculous, they can’t keep us in here!”Klausstarted digging through the snow, which fell in piles around his blackSantaboots and began melting on the hardwood floor immediately.

Butthe more he dug, the more hopeless the situation looked toKelli.Thesnow on the porch was almost as high as his forehead and there was no way to tell how far it went on for.Wasit just the cabin that was snowed in or was the entireChristmasVillagecovered?Therewas no way to know.Still, she did her best to help him with the digging, even though her hands and fingers quickly began to feel numb.

“Klaus,Idon’t know if…if you can tunnel your…your way out,” she panted at last.

“ThehellIcan’t!”he growled.“I’mgoing to?—”

Butjust then he stumbled and fell forward into the wall of snow.

Kellicouldn’t understand what was happening at first, but then she remembered the front porch steps.Hemust have put out his foot, expecting it to land on solid ground and instead the step down was there, making his trip.

“Klaus?Klaus, are you all right?”

Sheblundered into the snowy wall beside him, doing her best to dig him out with her frozen fingers.

ThebigKindredwas thrashing in the snow, trying to get his balance back.Atlast, withKellypulling on the wide blackSantabelt, he managed to get upright, though he was still on his knees on the porch.

“Fuck!”he growled and wiped the snow off his face.“Thisis crazy!”

“No, this issnowed in,”Kellitold him.“Itwas one of the items on the list, remember?Ithink when you checked the ‘MaximumRomance’ box, it included everything else that was offered.”

“You’refuckingserious?”Klausswiped his now damp hair off his forehead.

“I’mafraid so.”Kellinodded.“It’skind of like we went to a restaurant and you ordered everything on the menu.”

“Buthow the fuck are we supposed to get out of here?”he demanded.“Idon’t thinkIcan dig our way out.Imean,Ican try but there’s no way to know how far this goes on.”Hegestured at the snow, where the two of them had barely made a dent.“Ifit goes all the way to the ship, we’ll freeze before we get halfway there!”

“Ithinkwe’re only going to be snowed in for the night if whatIread on the checklist was right,”Kellisaid slowly.“Soit might be better to just come back inside and get warm.”Sheshivered.“Evenwith this fur coat on,I’mfreezing!Andlook at you—you’re soaked to the bone!”

Shenodded at his soddenSantaSuit, which had absorbed alotof melted snow.

“Yeah, guessIam.”Ahard shiver wracked his big body.“Okay, back inside—at least for now.”

Theywent back in andKelliwondered what else was on theMaximumRomancelist.Therewere still a few items she was unsure about.

“I’mgoing to find the bathroom and get a shower started for you,” she said toKlaus.“Youstrip off those wet clothes before you catch a cold.”

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