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feel.
    I listened to it five times in a row before I fell asleep with the music still humming in my ears.
    I woke once in the night to some banging. I opened my eyes. Everything was hazy. By the dim glow of the woodstove I could make out Bryce, wrapped in a blanket, staring into the depths of the flickering fire. I was going to say something, but I was too tired. I went back to sleep and dreamed about endless powder and peaks that tore holes in the sky.

chapter six
    I woke up freezing. The room was still dark. I checked my watch: 6:00 am. I rolled over and squinted into the dimness. Sam was trying to coax the fire back to life. He put a piece of paper onto a log and began blowing.
    â€œWhy is it so cold?” I said. Sam turned and looked at me. Even in the dim light, I could tell his eyes were bloodshot.
    â€œBryce didn’t put enough logs on the fire last night,” he replied. I looked over at Bryce’s bunk. There was a lump there, but I couldn’t see his head sticking out the top. Dave’s tuque-covered head poked out of the top of his sleeping bag. I leaned over and looked down on Hope’s bunk. It was a mess of pink. Sleeping bag, tuque, even the blanket. Our bags had been brought in by snowmobile the day before. We’d been told to pack as lightly as possible. I had a feeling that Hope hadn’t listened to that advice. Her bag was huge. I have no idea what she’d stuffed in there, but it looked heavy, and she groaned every time she picked it up.
    I swung myself out over the edge of the bunk and landed firmly on the ground. As I passed Bryce’s sleeping bag, I punched the area where I figured his legs would be.
    My fist went deep into nothing. I yanked the sleeping bag back and discovered that the lump was actually Keith Richards. “Sam, Bryce isn’t here.”
    â€œWhat?” Sam leaned away from the stove and looked at me.
    â€œHe’s not here. He’s gone.” A wicked wind howled outside, banging against the window and shaking the door.
    â€œWhere is he?” Sam said.
    â€œI don’t know,” I replied. The bathroom door was closed. “Maybe he’s in the bathroom.”
    I went over and knocked on the door. There was no answer, so I opened it and looked inside. It was a simple bathroom. Simple and empty. “He’s not in here,” I said.
    â€œWhat?” Dave’s sleepy voice came from across the room.
    â€œBryce is gone,” I said.
    â€œWhat? Where would he go?” Dave jumped out of bed.
    â€œI don’t know,” I said.
    Sam held his hands up, palms out, and said, “He likely went out to get a run in.”
    Dave’s eyes went wide, and his voice was little more than a whisper. “It’s still dark out. Where would he go? And what would he do when he got to the bottom of the run?”
    Sam crossed the room and opened the door. Snow blew in, making a thin white blanket on the floor. He stuck his head out and looked left and right. Then he came back in and closed the door.
    â€œHis snowboard’s here.”
    â€œWhat about the snowmobiles?” Two snowmobiles had been left for us to use during our training.
    â€œYeah,” Sam said. “Still here. Both of them.”
    â€œSo where did he go?” Dave yelled. “He couldn’t just disappear!”
    â€œCalm down,” Sam said. “Let’s all just calm down. I’m sure there’s an explanation. I mean, people don’t just disappear, right?”
    â€œWho disappeared?” Hope’s voice came from deep inside her sleeping bag.
    â€œBryce is gone,” Dave replied. “Vanished.”
    â€œWhen I was over at the drop,” I said, “there was…a sound. Like people moaning. Moaning and crying.”
    â€œYou went near the drop?” Dave said.
    â€œI got kicked out of the woods and ended up right next to it.”
    â€œSo what are you saying?” Dave asked. He had taken his