As I walked along a dimly-lit trail, I happened upon a glass bubble and was beckoned by its overt familiarity. As inquisitiveness conquered my senses and I peered through, I suddenly realized I was not only acquainted with this posture but had come to regard it as a somber friend, this...outside looking in.
  I saw families nestled by open fires, some fathers had their children close reading stories, a few of the mothers were tucking in their treasures, escorting them to slumber with soft kisses and "I love you's" that only a mother can truly perfect.
  Other children were running home from school in winter wear. Two of them were laughing and spinning around near a drift, their arms entangled, facing each other, soon surrendering their giggly grip to the hungry snowbank. Those without children were nestled deeply into one another, the women resting their heads on the men's chests as strong fingers explored every lock of tresses thereon.
  The truth of these images summoned and taunted me at the same time...I muffled the conflict by resuming my course around the bubble, protectively replacing wistfulness with investigative instinct. After navigating the circumference for what seemed like miles, I began to encounter slight cracks in the bubble, accompanied by cold that threatened to eternally stick the still-damp face from my earlier sighting to the glass with a single careless moment.
  As I proceeded, I noticed the cracks growing bigger and more clustered, until I finally came to what appeared to be an epicenter point...in simpler terms, a hole. I was unable to tell if it had been caused from within or without. The air around me was mild, but on the other side was a deathly chill.
  Then I saw them there...many people frozen in place. There was one row of men and one row of women; each row endless, both with their backs to the other. A few had been frozen in the attempt to rise, more in the journey to add themselves to the assembly. Still others had managed to rise, and apparently had began walking away when captured. One poignant figure had reached her hand out behind her to touch someone in the other row, but the chill had claimed her short of the goal. The majority had what seemed to be countless years worth of ice layers surrounding them, as if they had never moved. But what I saw next horrified me even more...

More to come...