I noticed a pattern amongst my stories and decided to change it up a bit this time since well I am fond of big twist and changes! Let's see if you all can notice the slight change between this chapter and the chapters of days past.

It was a cold winter morning. The sun was shining dimly through the clouds that seemed to linger over the icy terrain. Miranda was outside going to get firewood for her family. She always hated this because of how cold it is, but hey someone had to make sure their family didn't freeze every winter.

Miranda was a single mother of two and she loved her kids more than anything else in the entire world, so she knew that she had to be the one to take care of them since their father had died in the war only a few years ago. She still wasn't over his death but she would put up a nice smile for her kids.

The lumber was chopping with ease. She never noticed how strong she was until she chopped wood and saw how this minor task which had been so difficult was incredibly easy. She won't going until all the wood was chopped up and stacked neatly against the outside wall of her house.

"Mommy! Mommy! " she heard her daughter Angelica yell from the back porch. Angelica was only five years old yet she seemed to be a lot less ignorant to the world around her than most of the other kids. It never ceased to amaze her with that. It was as if Angelica could read people's minds and the future.

Angelica came out with a nice pair of warm wool gloves since hers were already covered in snow and sap from the logs. "I thought your hands might be cold so I brought you some gloves!" She said in a nice cheerful tone. Angelica was like her little sunshine always finding a way to brighten her day.

When Miranda finished her task, she went inside to find little baby Peggy playing on the carpet with her big sister. Peggy was only a year old but Miranda knew she would turn out just like her big sister. Miranda wanted to sit down with them and play with them, but there was still work to be done, so she got a quick cup of hot cocoa then went out to try hunting some deer for some food for tonight.

Now I know what you're thinking reader, why does Miranda need to go out hunting for food when she could get a job and buy food at the store. Well I'm not gonna say why that would ruin yet another twist I have up my sleeve with this story.

She went out into the forest searching for any form of prey for her and her kids. After these years of being alone she had grown much tougher but not only that she grew smarter. Miranda could bow tell exactly where the prey was by the little tracks they would leave.

Miranda stumbled upon a large vast empty field. It looked as if you had spread a nice silk white blanket across the land. On the other side of the meadow she saw it.

It was a deer, a big one too. That deer could last her family a good week before they got hungry again, so she knew that she needed to seize her prey. She stalked across the field until she heard a strange sound erupt from the ground below her.

"Momma!" Angelica yelled. Miranda looked down to see just what had made the sound below her. Her eyes widened in fear as she saw what had made the noise.

Now because I'm an evil narrator let me have a small cliff hanger here while I explain exactly what the twist to this story was. First of all every story before this one had a young protagonist facing their doom. Now I'm not sure if you picked that up but this story unlike the others had an older protagonist. To be precise Miranda in this story is 44 while my previous stories had protagonists 25 and under.

The second twist is the fact that unlike my other stories this one takes place in the past. PLOT TWIST!
Yep so that's why she has to chop wood for her family and why she has to hunt for her families food. And just so you know for some interesting facts before I go back to our thrilling tale, this story takes place in southern Canada. The war for which Miranda's husband died in was the French Indian war all the way back then.

Now that I'm done torturing you all by having a cliff hanger there for a second let's resume our story. Let's see where was I...(mutters to self Miranda spots a deer, no a little further ahead. Angelica screams momma no...) AHA here we are.

She looked down to see what made the noise below her and her eyes widened in fear at what she saw.

The plains she was in wasn't a plains at all. It wasn't what she thought and now she would pay for her minor mistake. She was standing on top of a frozen lake. What made it worse was that the ice wasn't thick enough in the center to support her weight.

Miranda knew that there was only one hope to getting off the ice, she had to make a break for it! She ran with all her might towards her daughter who was beginning to cry. The ice cracked and broke beneath her and before she knew it she sunk into the icy depths of the lake.

She tried to swim to the surface of the water for air and to climb out but her boots and weapons weighed her down. She sunk deeper and deeper. Her lungs were screaming for oxygen.

Wait haven't I heard that from somewhere oh wait I have. I read that exact line from Ava's chapter. Man no matter how I try these stories start to blend and merge together like one long interconnected web of deaths.

Anyways

She opened her eyes to see what she could only imagine as her dead body sinking further into the lake.

Miranda floated her soul up to the surface to see Angelica screaming and crying. "Mommy! MOMMY COME BACK!" She was screaming, but no one other than Miranda's soul heard her.

Angelica surprisingly manned up and took over all the jobs that Miranda had before her death, and still took care of her little brother. It broke Miranda's heart too see her kids grow up without their father and mother. It also broke her heart to not even see her love in the afterlife.

Well now wasn't that interesting! A fun little twist on the boring spin all these stories are taking! Then again I am a madman who writes stories about dead people, so maybe it's just me acting like an insane fool.

Merry Christmas and happy New Years!