As she stepped off the train and into the crisp mountain air, Esme breathed in deeply and smiled. She closed her eyes briefly and savored the moment. After being cooped up on the stuffy train for over twenty-four hours, it felt amazing to be out in the fresh air, and to be about to experience somewhere new.

She walked toward the door that led inside the train station, and she could already see that it was small and quiet. She had been the only person to get off the train, just like Shereen had kind of predicted. She had told her they rarely got anyone stopping there, but whenever they did, people raved about the place.

She wandered into the station and looked at the little old lady behind the counter who was straining to read a pamphlet through her big, thick glasses, and then she waved to her and passed out the other door and into the street.

The place was so quiet it was almost eerie. But Esme could hear, in the distance, the sounds of life and cheer, and so she set off in that direction. As she kept walking down the deserted mountain road the train station was set upon, she couldn’t help but let her mind run away with her. She wondered what sort of place Lost Creek would turn out to be, and whether it would be full of tourists.

The closer she got to the town, the more cars began to pass by her, and when she saw a sign directing her to Main Street and the town center, she breathed a sigh of relief.

Having the urge to travel and explore in her blood, Esme was used to much of what was out there. But even after being a seasoned traveler, she was still taken aback by the absolute beauty that was present in that little town.

As she walked onto Main Street, she felt her mouth sag open as she looked up and around at all the splendor she was amongst, and she truly felt as if she had just set foot into a fairytale.

The street was long and at the farthest end, it began to wind up the mountain in a deep climb. The stores were all independent and looked like something off a postcard. They had thatched roofs, they were all made out of wood, they had hanging decorations, and the whole place smelled of cinnamon. She could hear the sounds of people laughing and joking, and children played on the side of the streets throwing snowballs at each other as they hid behind cars and teased one another. Locals walked up and down Main Street and greeted each other, smoking fires twirled out of the tops of chimneys, and a group of merry men were sitting next to a fire pit outside one of the taverns drinking ale and smoking pipes.

“This is insane,” she whispered to herself. “I could be in Switzerland… it’s just amazing.”

She hitched her heavy rucksack onto her shoulders again and took a step forward and began to merge with the bustling crowd that was moving down Main Street and up toward the mountain. As she cast her eyes up, she could see the lifts heading up on wires as they disappeared into the clouds, and skiers swooping down the mountain in zigzags and little clusters.

She had never felt so at home somewhere so quickly, and with each step forward she took, she knew she didn’t want to leave. She looked around and tried to single out somewhere that looked like a motel, and luckily, she saw one almost immediately.

It was right there on Main Street and was another wooden building that had been designed to look like an oversized log cabin. It had a thatched roof like most of the other buildings, and it was at least four stories high. She walked toward it slowly and looked through the front window. She could see a reception desk in there, a wall full of information and a stack of newspapers. There was a sign on the wall saying BOOT ROOM, and next to it, a door opened and two heavily ski-clad tourists emerged with their snow boots on and their skis under their arms. 

“I guess this is the place,” she said as she reached for the handle and pushed the door open.

Inside, the place smelled of warm, freshly-baked bread and it made her mouth water. She waited in line for a moment as the people ahead of her either checked out or asked their questions, and then when she approached the counter, the old man behind it smiled up at her with warm eyes.

“Can I help you?” he asked positively.

“Yes, please,” she beamed. “I was wondering if you had any rooms?”

He adjusted his glasses and flicked open the thick, hard-bound book that was laid out ahead of him on the table. He traced his finger down the list of names that had been written in real ink, and he stopped at the bottom and slowly nodded his head.

“I do, actually,” he smiled. “You’re in luck, just one left.”

“Fantastic,” she grinned as she reached into her back pocket for her wallet. “How long can I check in for?”

He looked up at her and shrugged. He didn’t look like he would be bothered if she stayed for ten minutes or ten years.

“I mean, what I’m trying to say is, I am going to be in town for a while, hopefully, so I want somewhere more long-term than maybe your average customer.”

The man nodded his head and started to laugh.

“You can come right out and ask if we do discounts for long-term lets,” he said with a wink.

“Oh, I…” Esme found herself blushing. There was no way she was going to ask him right off the bat, but now that he had mentioned it…

“Sign in for a month and you get a week free,” he said with a raised brow.

“And what is it a week?” she asked nervously.

“Two fifty,” he smiled.

She tried not to wince, but at the same time, for such a lovely little place, she knew she wasn’t going to find anything less. And she was determined to find work immediately.

“Done,” she smiled as she reached out and shook his hand.

As she headed up to her room with the key in her hand, she couldn’t help but feel as if she was setting out on perhaps her most incredible adventure to date.

 

The room at the motel was small but welcoming, and as she stepped through the door, she breathed a huge sigh of relief.

After being cramped up on the train the previous evening, just the sight of a double bed made her whole body relax and her mind rest easy. She undid the waist strap on her rucksack and let it fall heavily to the floor, before she kicked off her boots and stretched. She ran straight for the bed and hurled herself down on it, stretching her arms up and yawning. The mattress wasn’t the comfiest she had ever lay on, but it was certainly better than the train. She smiled and pulled the blanket up to her chin and rolled onto her side. When she opened her eyes again, she took in the room around her, and she instantly appreciated its rustic charm.

The floor was exposed wooden boards which looked as if they had been recently re-varnished but then scuffed over to ensure they fit with the rest of the décor. There was a thick faux fur rug covering half the room and then ran underneath the bed, and a closet in the corner that was big, old and vintage looking. It had a mirror on the central panel and she could see that the very corner of it had been chipped.

“Bad luck,” she said with her face scrunched up. “It bettered have stuck with the person who broke it, and not with whoever is occupying the room.”

She looked at the lights and the pictures on the walls. The big feature painting that was over the bed, as she tilted her head back, was of a forest and nestled in the very center was a big grizzly bear. There were rustic lanterns with battery operated candles on the sideboard and bedside tables, and there was an antler chandelier swinging in the center of the room overhead. All in all, it felt pretty damned cozy, and she knew she was going to be very comfortable there.

She got to her feet and forced herself to the window so she could look out and over onto Main Street. It was still alive and buzzing with all sorts of activity, and even though the sun was fighting to break through the clouds, she could tell that with the stillness of the air they were going to have snow. The clouds were gray, white, and thick, and the majority of the mountain was completely covered by them. She smiled and looked toward it, and she knew that over the course of the next few hours, the clouds were going to move and bring the snow with it.

“Fresh snow on my first day in town,” she grinned. “How idyllic.”

She heaved her bag up onto the bed and started to unpack. The last place she had been staying was in a city and she had made good use of the laundromat while she had been there. All of her clothes were clean, but they were completely wrinkled and creased, so she hung everything up, one by one, and hoped the wrinkles would fall out of their own accord rather than her having to go find an iron somewhere.

“So, I wonder what this place has in terms of jobs,” she said as she touched her chin and contemplated. She looked at herself in the mirror and realized she looked pretty disheveled after her trip, so she ran a comb through her hair and reapplied a little bit of her make-up that she had already done on the train, and then she whipped off the sweater she had been wearing and pulled on a long sleeve t-shirt which she paired with a big statement necklace.

“Perfect,” she smiled, as she ran her fingers through her white blonde hair. “Now all you need is your snow boots and parka, and you are good to go.

 

She wandered down Main Street and took in the sights, noticing how happy everyone appeared to be there, and how completely friendly and open everyone seemed. The men and women who clearly owned the stores all stood in the doorways and smiled and said to hello to her as she passed. She was handed freshly baked cookies from a stand in the middle of Main Street, and she could hear the chinking of glasses and glugging of ale coming from one of the taverns. It was clearly a place where people liked to have a good time. And could she blame them? Their home was beautiful, and it was idyllic, why shouldn’t they celebrate it in every way possible?

It was no surprise that the town was also awash with tourists. Skiers seemed to be on every corner, and their variety of accents seemed to carry down the whole of Main Street. It made Esme feel more at home, and not like she had just invaded some private town and was the odd one out. After what Shereen, the server, had told her on the train, she couldn’t believe that more people didn’t get off at this stop. It was so bustling and busy, and it was clearly jampacked with visitors. Maybe the people in the neighboring towns wanted to keep Lost Creek a secret.

She scanned her eyes from left to right and looked at what was in front of her. The places that instantly stood out as those with potential for her to find work were a coffee house called The Hideout, and what appeared to be a sports bar called Arlo’s.

She could hear the cheering and chanting of men coming from deep inside, and although it didn’t put her off, she didn’t feel as if it looked like the place for her. It looked very light and airy, and she was in the mood for something a little more rough and ready.

She began to walk away from there and headed toward an intersection. She looked back across at the coffee shop and wondered if she could try there instead, but she could already see at least three baristas, and she had the feeling a walk across the busy street and in the ice and snow, would all be in vain.

Just as she was contemplating her next move, something caught the corner of her eye.

She turned and looked left, down the road that was intersecting Main Street, and saw the black awning and the dark, dangerous frontage of a bar.

The Nowhere Bar.

She stood up straight as a smile curved across her lips.

Now that was the sort of place she liked the look of, and it also was completely out of place in this quaint little town. She rubbed her hands together to try and get some blood flow back into them against the biting cold, and then she started to step down the street toward it.

It wasn’t very big from the front, it maybe only looked to be a small, single-story building, but as she got closer, she realized it was the way it had been painted, and it actually took up the entire block.

“Yikes,” she said as she scanned up and down the street and laughed when she realized the sheer size of the place. When she turned back to look at the front door, it literally only looked as if it were going to be around ten meters deep, but it was just that part of the building had been painted black and the rest white.

She looked up at all the windows, which appeared to be mainly blacked out until the second and third floors, and then she approached the doorway.

She could tell the place was probably closed, but she knocked on the door anyway and waited with baited breath. She shoved her hands into her pockets to try and keep them warm, and then when she got sick of waiting, she knocked once more.

There wasn’t a sound from inside the place, and she was just about to turn and walk away, when suddenly a panel at the top of the main door slid open and a pair of eyes glared back at her.

“Yes?” the man’s voice came from deep within. His eyes were intense and they focused in on her and held her there as if she were rooted to the spot.

“Hi,” she stammered as she tried to move forward, but suddenly, it appeared she had forgotten how to use her legs. She shook herself awake and stepped back toward the door. “Umm, are you open?”

“Does it look like it?” the voice responded cockily as his eyes narrowed.

She couldn’t help but notice how clear and powerful they were. They were so green and strong, they were almost intoxicating. She found herself looking away and pushing her hair behind her ear nervously.

“Um, yeah, I mean, obviously you’re not…” she stammered before she started to dig at the ground with her foot nervously. “It’s just, I’m new in town and I was wondering if you had any jobs available? I can start immediately, and I’m a hard worker.”

The man on the other side of the door stayed silent, but she knew he was watching her every move and taking her all in. She cleared her throat and tried not to look too uncomfortable, as the man’s eyes fixed in on hers and held her there again.

“Who told you to come here?” he asked, but this time, a lot more warmly than he had been.

“No one,” she said as she looked around and then back at him with confusion. “I was just taking a walk and I saw this place from the intersection. I thought it looked kind of cool.”

“It is,” he said with what she could only assume was a smirk. “We just don’t get many pretty blonde girls wandering up to this door in the middle of the day.”

Esme felt herself blushing, but she managed to disguise it with a smile and a shrug of her shoulders.

“Well, now you know why,” she said mischievously.

The eyes hadn’t broken from her since the panel had slid open, and she could tell he was considering her proposal, but he was making her work for it. Maybe he was trying to see how easy she found it to quit, or whether she would stand her ground.

Esme was a fighter through and through.

She crossed her arms over her chest and smiled.

“Okay,” he said. “I believe we do have something, but we will have to see if you have what it takes.”

She nodded her head enthusiastically, almost unable to believe her luck.

“Really?” she said with a grin.

“Sure,” he said. “Come back tonight at nine thirty, and wear black.”

With that, the panel slid shut with a snap and he was gone, and Esme was left alone in the street grinning like a lunatic.

“I have a job,” she whispered to herself as she clasped her hands together under her chin. “Only two hours in town and I’ve already got somewhere to live and a means to earn a living… Must be a new record.”

She laughed to herself as she walked away, and she knew that the job was hers, trial or not. There was no way she wasn’t going to fit in there, something about the place just felt right. As if she had been drawn there by some invisible force.

Esme didn’t know a lot about religion, but she knew she believed in fate. And she had the feeling that the moment she had set foot in Lost Creek, it had started to come out to play.