A/n: Finally! The start of SNOW! To all the new readers, welcome welcome! And to all the 'old' readers (not really old of course but you get what I mean) welcome back :D

Important: There is a prequel to this story named 'Nevar', but the two stories can be read seperately. I will of course invite you all to go read it, to have the background of the characters, but it's not necessary.

I will also warn you that there will be drugs, psychological, physical and sexual abuse. It's not my goal to shock anyone, but just to tell the story as realistically as possible. I will give warnings at the start of the chapters if needed.

And now...Enjoy the prologue ! ! ! :)

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When we're young, we never give much thought to things, to words our parents have spoken. When they talk of eating our vegetables, it's just to annoy us. When they tell us to wear a coat when it's raining, it seems so superfluous.

When my parents talked of riddles, I forgot as soon as it had passed. When they told me to stay close to them, I just cared to go explore the world.

When my mother said I shouldn't roll in the snow in the winter, or I would turn into a Snowy Owl, I giggled and asked whether such a bird was really made of snow.

In my head I would grow wings of feathery snow, my hair would turn to thin breakable icicles, and I would fly through the blizzards of the far north.

I had a vivid imagination as a child.

And still, in a way, she was right.

My story is drenched in snow.

Snow and Ice and Blood.

Ice, Blood and…

Snow.

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Prologue

"Female, 20 years old, cardiac arrest after unknown substance abuse." The emergency medical technician yelled as he came through the door, pushing alongside a gurney and surrounded by a flock of nurses.

Dr. Kennedy had had a long day already, but only few emergencies. He was in the break room, trying to get his eyes to stay open properly, when he was called for the case of the 20-year old girl. He grunted as he threw away his cup of lukewarm coffee and ran down the hallway, avoiding all the nurses who went the opposite way. The adrenaline revived him as he approached the end of that hallway, more effective than a hundred cups of coffee.

Dr Kennedy finally joined the party and asked the crew of the ambulance for additional information as they administered first help. But there was not much more to learn. The patient's friend had only had the time to give them an age and a name, but she'd been unable to tell them what the patient had absorbed.

It was exactly what Dr Kennedy wanted to know. He needed to treat the cause of the symptoms, and not just the symptoms themselves; though at the moment, there was no choice but to focus on getting the heart to work properly again. It had slowed to less than 50 beats per minute.

A student was assigned to join the team in their efforts. A young woman with great admiration for the profession she was learning, and with hopes of saving every single life that came through the emergency doors. She jumped in at Dr Kennedy's side.

Nevertheless, as they all worked tirelessly to get the girl's body to come alive again, other problems arose. Nurses began to yell the names of organs at the two doctors, as they shut down one by one. No matter what they did, the body just wouldn't take charge of itself, as if it didn't know how.

And that was when Dr Kennedy understood.

The body didn't respond to their treatment the way it should have. It was confused and unorganized, the wondrous system nature had designed was breaking down.

Dr Kennedy knew it was the end before it came. He also knew then which drug the young girl had taken to. It was one of the new horrors in his world, in everyone's world.

The middle-aged man suddenly felt more tired than he'd been before. He laid a hand on his student's shoulder and pulled the woman back. She didn't understand at first and struggled, but when the sound of death filled the room a few minutes later, she too pulled back and stared.

The young girl lay still on the bed with a tube down her throat. Dr Kennedy's own heart constricted as he looked at her face for the first time. The girl had flowing black hair, shining all around her head like a dark halo. Her skin was smooth and cream-coloured. Her features were asian, and she was small and delicate. Despite her obvious youth, the doctor thought she looked just as tired as he felt.

Dr Kennedy walked out of the room before he began wondering what life the girl had suffered. He didn't do those kinds of things. It wasn't possible. If he started caring for a dead girl today, he wouldn't be able to save the father of two children tomorrow, or the old grandmother the day after tomorrow.

But the doctor also noticed that his intern was having more difficulty letting go. She was not yet used to losing patients, and she probably didn't understand why they'd lost her either. Without understanding there was no acceptance, and without acceptance she would start blaming herself. It was a road doctor Kennedy had gone down before. So even though he was so tired he could collapse on the spot, he decided to take his colleague out of the hospital for a hot beverage and a long talk.

Showered and changed, the surgeon and the surgeon-to-be took place at Mary's. It was a comforting environment with soft cushions and dimmed light. It soothed their raw feelings and calmed them down.

"Sophie." Dr Kennedy began as he watched the intern add three packs of sugar to her black coffee and stir energetically.

The woman looked up and sipped her beverage. Dr Kennedy wondered how it could still be potable, but she didn't seem to mind the taste.

"Her name was Cho-Chang." Sophie volunteered as her gaze dropped towards her cup again. "They picked her up around a bad neighbourhood. They told me she was most probably a prostitute."

Dr Kennedy knew better than to think Sophie was trying to minimize a death by saying it was 'just' a prostitute. He knew Sophie had gone where he hadn't, she'd wondered who the girl was, and what her now ended life had been like.

Dr Kennedy shut his mouth again. He tried not to retain the information he had just gotten. It was not a nice thing to be able to put a name to the body he'd just lost.

"If we'd had time to run a tox-screen, if I'd joined you sooner…"

"Stop right there, Dr Moore." He cut her off rather harshly. "It is a waste of time to go that way, believe me. It is healthier for everyone if you just let it go."

"But how can I?" Sophie fired up. "If we don't know what went wrong with Cho-Chang, how can we save the next person?"

"The patient was intoxicated." Dr Kennedy replied, emphasizing the use of the word 'patient' instead of the girl's name. "There was nothing we could do."

Sophie's mouth dropped open in indignation. "Nothing!" She scoffed. "Of course we could have done something. Are you saying drug users aren't worth saving?" She couldn't believe that the doctor who'd always been so high in her esteem would drop to such lows.

"You misunderstand me, Sophie." The doctor shook his head wearily. He sipped his coffee and paused while enjoying the feel of the warm liquid trickling down his throat. "Today's case…was exceptional. Or at least it used to be. Their number is increasing quickly."

"I don't understand." Sophie said impatiently.

"I've seen this before and I've heard about it from colleagues at other hospitals." Dr Kennedy began his long explanation. "A new type of drug has infiltrated the underground market, and it's making more victims than any that preceded it. It's a potent and deadly mixture of chemicals of which we only know a few yet. And because it is still so new, people are not being warned against it. They take the drug, not knowing they just signed their death sentences. Though even the ones who do know the result, who have witnessed it, find themselves deciding to take it."

Sophie frowned. She had indeed not yet heard of this new phenomenon, but she was immediately aware of the horrifying consequences; she had just witnessed it herself. The girl's body had just…given up.

"How much research has already been done?" She asked, forgetting her coffee entirely as it turned cold by her side.

"Not much. It only circulates in the UK and Western Europe at the moment. Not much has been seized yet, and analyzing the substance proves more difficult than anticipated. Most of the information we have is not from direct analysis of the drug, but from analysing the patients. Most of them are brought in when it is too late, like the girl we just saw. But some have seen doctors before reaching that stage."

"Were they saved?" Sophie interrupted.

Dr Kennedy stared at the eager intern, then slowly shook his head. "That is the most horrifying aspect of this drug." He sighed. "The damage it does to the body is immediate and irreversible. Its effects have been observed in those patients who saw their doctors before they died. From the very first time they take it, the chemical workings of the body are disturbed, both in the brain and in the body.

Normally, all the cells of the human body work together as one, and timing is essential. But this drug deregulates the entire system. Some important chemicals are no longer produced, while others are blocked or insufficient. But the drug acts in place of those chemicals; so in order to continue to function, the person has to keep taking it, and rehabilitation seems impossible. But that of course only worsens the situation, and eventually leads to complete failure of all the organs including the brain, as you saw today. There was absolutely nothing we could do for her.

Even if we'd been able to save her this time, she would've died within a week. The disruption is permanent; the body is unable to keep the harmony. And the heart takes so much damage…"

"So…" Sophie began tentatively; she could not believe such horror existed, "from the very beginning…"

"Yes." Dr Kennedy answered reluctantly. "It could be that some are able to stop taking the drug at an early stage, when there is not so much damage. But we don't know about those patients. For all we know, every person who takes it is dead within a year of the first hit."

Sophie felt numb. She thought of the girl, Cho-Chang. Her view of the event had changed. Now it looked to her as if the girl had come into the hospital a corpse, as if she'd already been lifeless. In a way it was true. Cho-Chang had died a long time ago. It had just taken her body a while to understand that.

"What's its name?" Sophie asked. Unlike Dr Kennedy, she wanted to put names to the dead, and to the killers.

"As we don't know its composition yet, there is no official name." The man answered. He'd also left his coffee go cold; he had no desire for it anymore. "On the streets, they call it 'shhhhh'."

"What?" Sophie frowned. She hadn't understood what the doctor had said. Had he just shushed her? Were there people listening in? Was she supposed to stop talking?

Dr Kennedy took out a pen from his pocket and a napkin from the coffee tray. He wrote two letters, like initials: SH.

"Oh." Now Sophie Moore understood. 'Shhhh' like in 'SH'. She watched as her boss wrote what the letters stood for: Sedate Heart.

"The organization that developed and is currently distributing the drug is also called 'Sedate Heart'." Dr Kennedy explained. "It is unclear whether the drug took on the name of the organization, or if the organization is called after the drug. To my knowledge, the two became known at the same time. But the name is suitable enough for its fatal effects."

Sophie Moore just thought it was disgusting that people would knowingly sell such a deadly substance and then have it called like that. It was right-out cruel, detestable. But there was one thing bothering her in all this. "How do you know so much about this, Dr Kennedy?" She inquired.

The man's eyes flashed at her with sadness more piercing than a scalpel. It penetrated to her very core, and she could almost feel it with him. Sophie immediately regretted her question. But she got an answer all the same.

"My sixteen-year-old son died of it last year." He said as he turned away, looking outside as if he would see his son appear around the corner. "When your child dies, the cause becomes an obsession."

"I'm…so sorry." Sophie answered, feeling utterly defeated. It seemed like there was no hope, not a single sliver of it.

Dr Kennedy kept his eyes on the window, only half seeing the cars passing by. "We have to prepare ourselves, Sophie." He said determinedly. "Many more of these victims will come in, and for a while longer, there will be no way for us to save them." He hesitated for a few seconds, then added uncertainly, "Cho-Chang wasn't the first, and she won't be the last to die in our hands."

Hey everyone. I'm really, but really really curious what you all think of this beginning. I love to have feedback and contact with everyone who reads, to have some dialogue. It makes the life of an author so much less lonely.

Thank you all, and most of all for the support on the the previous part. I wouldn't have gotten this far without all the fantastic reviews and messages :D

Aoiika