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 ^{(it's beta!)}

It was winter; had been meteorologically for a few days now, but with temperatures steady around 8 degrees Celsius, it hardly felt like it. "Courtesy of global warming", she mumbled to herself as she biked home against the soft, chilly breeze, mentally destroying all cheezy christmas decorations in her wake. The best she hoped for the season was snow, but with zero chances of that, she had put all her hope in serenity. To be left alone.

And the faster she pedalled, the sooner she'd find her peace (also, her front light wasn't working; just one more reason to feel so jaded). In her mind, she laid out her plans for the night: check for e-mails, nice hot long bath, tv dinner, nothing on tv and off to bed. She'd figured someone had to not care that it's a holiday season; in fact, for her it was pretty much just another time of year.

By the time she made it to her apartment building, the streets had died down save for the last few souls scurrying off to the comfort of their family homes. She'd always hated the fake family sentiment that the season instilled in people to the point that her family and friends knew that the one time they shouldn't expect to see her, was this time of year. Come late winter, spring, she'll be running down everyone's door with enthusiasm again, as long as they allow her to make it through the season in peace.

Without much thought of it she locked her bike to "her" part of the railing outside the apartment building, and with little more thought she ran inside and upstairs into her apartment. She slammed the door shut and fell back with her back against it, but corrected herself once she realized the cliché she was acting out. Then and there she decided to skip the e-mail check, "it's all holiday spam these days anyway", and go straight for the bathroom instead.

After some experienced tinkering with the faucets she quickly had the water where she wanted it, and relieved, she undressed and relaxed herself into the tub. Within moments she was dreaming away in her serenity to the tunes of her Death Cab For Cutie CD, a self-made mixtape that never worked outside the cosy bathroom. It was only after half an hour that she started noticing the snow that was slowly building up against her tiny batroom window.

And just as quick as she arrived into her apartment, she got out of the tub, through her bathrobe, and into her clothes. She double-checked through her living room window, but it took some time, "I can't believe it!", to compute that it was actually snowing. And outside she ran, into what she'd hoped to find in the season. She wasn't alone with her astonishment - from all around, people, neighbors, strangers, were pouring into the streets bewildered by the sudden snow.

Staring up into the sky trying to make sense of it all, she hadn't noticed the kind elderly man that had come up to her. "It's a miracle, don't you think?", he asked her, staring up himself as if he'd never seen snow. She glanced over at the man, and then quickly to the ground beneath her feet. "Sorry, I don't believe in miracles..." she softly spoke, a shy smile on her face.