Jin felt winter coming before they saw it. The dry, icy chill, and their breath coming out in white puffs. A sudden sense of weakness hit Jin around the knees, as something deeper than fear took hold. 

Pure terror. 

Something about the mix of the dark and the cold was flooding their brain with unwanted memories of the worst kind. The confident, feared student was gone, leaving a trembling child behind. Jin was suddenly nothing but a seven year old girl on the streets of an American city, desperately huddled up beneath old clothes and refuse, too terrified to sleep but too tired to stay awake. She was caught in a desperate loop, pinching her too-thin leg until it bruised, half starved, exhausted, don't sleep Jinny, don'tsleep, dontsleep[b]dontsleep[/b]

Winter was brutal and had snatched too many people in the night. The old granny with all the shopping bags had simply gone to bed and never woke again, just cold and solid and empty like she'd never existed. Would she be next? Would she close her eyes and never open them? And who would even know, would she even feel it? Would it hurt, or would it just be... nothing? 

Desperately, Jin clutched at the knife in their hand, trying to will the pain to drag them into the real world. Sensation did that - drove away the memories and reminded them of what was real. Sometimes they used hot water, showering until their skin burned, sometimes they blasted music until their eardrums rung. But it wasn't working this time. This real world didn't seem real, it seemed just as wrong and horrible as the one their memories had drug up. "No, no... wake up, wake up..." Jin slumped, legs going to jelly, their breath starting to speed as the fear started to take over everything else.

And then the pain started, as a massive hunk of ice met Jin's body.