Frostbitten: The Complete Series Read Online Free PDF Page A

absence.
    “You coming?” Connor asked as students began to leave the class.
    “Uh,” Hanna tried to think of an excuse.
    “C’mon–Just come for one drink. It’ll be fun.”
    Connor stood in the doorway, holding the door as he waited for Hanna to join the group.
    Reluctantly, she tagged along with her classmates. She followed everyone from behind with her gloved hands stuffed deep into her warm coat pockets, and her face pointed down towards the snowy sidewalk.
    It had become impossibly colder since the class had started just a few hours ago. It had reached that temperature where you were lucky if your car started, and you were mental to try and walk more than a few blocks.
     
    The little snowy town was called Snowbrooke, and it earned its name well. You’ve probably never heard of it, and you probably never will hear of it, as it isn’t the most exciting town.
    Snowbrooke is situated in the far north—don’t bother trying to find it on any map, because it probably isn’t there.
    In the winter, Snowbrooke gets less than three hours of sunlight. It snows for nine months of the year. The other three months are ferociously hot and humid.
    During the winter, for those few hours when the sun is up, Snowbrooke gets warm snaps that melt away large portions of the deep snow, preventing the town from becoming completely buried. Unfortunately for the town, the melted snow quickly turns into ice the moment the sun dips below the tall mountainous horizon—so everything from walking, to driving requires extreme caution, and is potentially very dangerous.
    Snowbrooke’s local university is aptly called Snowbrooke University. There are only four other schools in the whole town–none of which accommodating more than a couple hundred students–Two elementary schools, and two high schools.
    At the time, all of the high school upgrading took place in a small rented room at Snowbrooke University. The whole campus wasn’t very large, consisting of only four buildings—two residence buildings, an administration/library building and the larger building containing all of the lecture halls, labs and teaching facilities.
    Attached to the larger of the two residence buildings was a little campus bar, called The Winter’s Den.
    It wasn’t the most popular bar in town, but it was convenient for the lazy university crowd. It was a small little place, but I wouldn’t call it cozy. It was always gloomy, as all of the lights were always overly dimmed—assuming they weren’t burnt out.
    They always kept the music turned down low, and there weren’t any pool tables, dart boards or dance floors—so it wasn’t the ideal place to go if you were looking for anything more than a drink and a conversation.
    The small bar didn’t even have tables big enough for groups of more than four people.
    It’s also worth mentioning that the bathrooms permanently smelled of stale urine, and the food was about as appetizing as a cardboard box.

    That December, thanks to the early winter class break and the abnormally cold weather, the bar was practically empty. There were only a couple groups of older students sitting in the back corners, chatting quietly amongst themselves.
    Andrew led the way, holding the door open for everyone. Then, he walked us all to the bar, where his brother-in-law was working.
    Excited to see Andrew, the bartender brother-in-law reached over and shook his hand.
    “Andrew—back again are we?” the bartender asked.
    “Well, I was in the area, so I thought I’d swing by,” Andrew replied.
    “I see you brought some friends—feel free to sit wherever you’d like. The kitchen isn’t open tonight—the cook didn’t show up for work. But if you guys are hungry, I can throw some fries into the deep-fryer.”
    The bartender scanned our group, smiling handsomely. His eyes stopped on Brittany as she removed her fitted coat, revealing her suggestive outfit and carefully pushed up cleavage. Brittany turned around and made eye