He lay there in his tattered and grimy clothes, his woolly hat half covering his face as the snow settled on him, winter’s innocent victim, frosting his features. And yet the boy still did not move other than his helpless, violent shaking. She knelt beside him, white hair brushing over her face. He looked the same age as her and yet they were in totally different worlds. She’d had a normal life with everything she needed given to her. No tragedies, no hardships. Who knows what this boy had to go through on a daily basis, let alone what had brought or driven him to live and freeze on the streets. Pity for the boy overwhelmed the hating hunger of the colder part of her. She knew she couldn’t just leave him… not now!

She didn’t understand what all these strange things were and why they were happening but she knew that she had some sort of control over them. She had felt winter itself, after all. She stroked his face oh so tenderly, willing for the cold to let go, willing for every chill that needled into his body to reverse, come back and repair its damage. She was not going to let him be cold tonight.

* * *

He always knew he was hanging on by the tips of his fingers. Just surviving. From the time he ran he knew. Charlie had never had it easy. He felt the dread that night when he heard it was going to be a very cold night, like feeling his fingertips slipping slowly. He felt it when it was getting late and he couldn’t find anywhere to shelter from the cold. There were no warm doorways, no abandoned houses, no bus shelters. So he did what he could. He huddled up in an alley; never the best place to go, but there was nowhere else. He wrapped himself up with the heat-conserving newspaper and hoped for the best. It was all he could do.

He felt the stabbing cold like daggers even as he slept. They seemed to claw down his flesh and suck away his will and energy. Not even the newspaper could shield him. He felt himself slipping…
And then it stopped.

The daggers were pulling back, leaving blessed warmth which spread through him with a feathery touch. He could feel life and strength gently re-entering his body. He opened his eyes in slow motion and saw an angel. Purest white in the falling snowflakes as she disappeared like snow on the breath of the wind. He sat up and looked around. There were no footsteps, no sign but a mere memory that she was there. The only certainty was that she was gone.