It was cold outside in that nightmare, the moon high in the sky and the grounds surrounding the Todoroki house dark and eerily quiet, not even the sounds of crickets in the grass or critters in the brush. Rei stood in the open doorway, looking out into the night's abyss long enough she began to hear it whispering - to her or her boy, she didn't know.

Her eldest stood in the middle of the yard, his back turned to his mother. She stared at the back of his head, the moonlight bouncing off his white hair, the specs of red at the roots that reminded her of blood splattered on snow.