Like a tidal wave of ice, the cold crushed her. Ever measure of heat she'd carried was torn from her coat before even a semblance of a thought could form, greedily devoured by the empty abyss that surrounded her.

She gasped in shock, and it consumed every molecule of air as it collapsed her lungs inside her chest.

A numbness burned her every nerve. Muscles struggled to suck nonexistent air back into her lungs.

A lifetime of panic passed by in a second. When it was over, she was left with only the cold numbness of acceptance. Tears formed, only to freeze and seal her eyes against the void.

In her last moments, she held on to a single thought, a name that held back the dark. Then that too was stolen and consumed.

And she was nothing. And all was still.

She did not feel the warmth touch her lips and force them to part.

She did not feel her lungs expand as air was forced into them once again.

And when her eyes opened, she saw only white.

And when her thoughts returned, a single name danced alone at the fore, shining like the sun.