Free It's All Downhill from Here by P.J. Night Page A

mountain.
    â€œAlmost there, Soph!” she cried.
    Turning back she saw no sign of Sophie.
    â€œSophie! Where are you?” she called out, her flashlight not much help in the driving snow.
    â€œRight here,” Sophie wheezed, staggering through the snow until she reached Maggie. “You moved too fast. I’m wiped out. Now what?”
    â€œI don’t know,” Maggie said, squinting to see better, trying to get her bearings.
    â€œAre we even going to find our way back to the house?” Sophie asked, her voice trembling as much from fear as from the cold. “Are we going to—”
    â€œThere!” Maggie cried, pointing her flashlight down at the ground. “Footprints!”
    â€œSimon!” Sophie yelled.
    Leading the way, with Sophie straggling alongbehind her, Maggie tried to follow the footprints. They led right to the top of the mountain.
    â€œHe was here!” Maggie cried. “Simon! Where are you?”
    â€œLook, Mags!” Sophie shouted, pointing just ahead. “The footprints change to ski tracks right there. He must have climbed up to this point, then skied down the other side of the mountain.”
    Maggie forced herself to move even faster. Now Sophie was right at her side. Together they rounded the top of the mountain and began to follow the ski tracks down.
    The fresh coating of snow made it harder to follow the tracks. It also hid the fact that the slope of the mountain dropped off sharply and suddenly.
    Both girls lost their footing at the same moment and started tumbling down the mountain.
    â€œAhhh!” they both screamed, but their cries of terror were muffled by the pummeling they were receiving as they rolled down the mountain, completely out of control.
    â€œI can’t stop!” Maggie cried, growing dizzy as she spun head over heels again and again, bouncing, skidding, and sliding downhill faster than she’d thought she could go.
    Maggie finally reached the bottom and rolled to a stop. Sophie crashed into her and the two were still for a moment, catching their breath as the snow fell down on them.
    â€œYou okay?” Sophie finally asked.
    â€œI think so,” Maggie replied, struggling to stand up.
    â€œMy flashlight!” Sophie cried. “It’s gone! I must have lost it as I fell.”
    Maggie looked down. Somehow, her flashlight was still in her hand. She flicked the switch a few times, but it remained dark. The sun was now completely gone. Pitch-black darkness had enveloped them like a thick, impenetrable blanket.
    â€œCome on, come on, come on!” Maggie yelled at the flashlight. She whacked it with the heel of her hand, and the light popped on.
    Sweeping the light along the ground, Maggie gasped in horror. There in the narrow pool of light lay Simon’s broken skis. Simon himself was nowhere to be seen.

Chapter 10
    â€œSimon!” Maggie screamed, her throat aching from all the shouting, the cold, and the overwhelming exhaustion that had begun to overtake her. “Where is he? These are his skis, but they’re all busted up. Simon!”
    â€œThere must have been an accident,” Sophie said, peering through the darkness, then feeling foolish for thinking she might be able to see anything.
    â€œOkay, but where is he?” Maggie asked. “Why would he just leave his skis?”
    â€œMaybe he tried to walk back to the house,” Sophie suggested. “He could be anywhere.”
    Maggie aimed her flashlight back up the mountain, hoping to see footprints leading up and toward the house. She saw none. Turning back around, she spotted something.
    â€œLook!” Maggie called out. Her flashlight lit up a clearly visible set of footprints leading not back up the mountain, but farther away on this side, into a grove of tall pines. “That way. He went that way.”
    Being extremely careful not to obliterate the footprints, Maggie and Sophie hurried along beside them, following the