Have you ever really listend to the snow?

The trees, still and cold, reflect silently under a fresh sheet of powder and ice. It crunches under the weight of footsteps-- a single sound that pierces the otherwise motionless forest.

For many, living in a place where certain times a year grace your home with that kind of peace is a great comfort. Some might think it perfect to boil a pot of water for tea and dust off an old book for the evening. For some, like those living in the sleepy town of Everdale, this is not the case.

In Everdale, when the frost creeps through the underbrush... it doesn't do it alone and it always starts at The House.

Kids dared each other all year to run up to the porch and ring the bell, but things change come the first frost. When the first ice forms and the animals begin to hibernate, it ceases to tolerate games.

Some say it's the work of a ghost. Some claim Jack Frost takes up residence for the winter months and doesn't take kindly to tresspassers.

Whatever you believe, the fact remains that what goes into the house after the first snowfall doesn't come out.

Kyle's grandpa snapped the book shut. "Now, you should sleep. It's a school night."

Intrigued, Kyle continued to ask questions while he was tucked into bed. "Is that true, Pa?"

Pa smiled. "Old farts like me and Nanna just tell stories to keep you kids in line, but don't tell her I said that."

Kyle giggled. "'Night, Pa."

Lights all across Everwood darkened for the night. For the first time that year, the snow fell, and for the first time since they'd moved late in Spring, the house awoke.

Some time during the middle of the night, so did Kyle. He folded back his blanket and the cold air of the mansion bit his bare feet. He quickly wrapped himself up in his blanket and went to the kitchen for some water.

On his way back, he noticed something strange. Pa's car wasn't parked in the driveway outside the livingroom window.

Kyle ascended the stairs and cracked the door to his grandparent's room. The bed, dresser, rug-- all of it-- had disappeared. So had Nanna and Pa.

"Pa?" Kyle called, pushing the door open wider, beginning to panic. " Pa?!" He ran back down the stairs, frantic and calling for them into the dark, only to find the living room was empty too.

The tension in the air threatened to choke Kyle as he scrambled for the front door. He clawed for the knob and threw the door against the wall before throwing himself outside into the still falling snow. Kyle looked back at the house over his shoulder.

The mansion loomed over him, still--a predator stalking prey. A gentle knocking that Kyle identified as the front door tapping against the living room wall in the wind echoed through the trees. He picked himself up off the ground and stood before the house.

Darkness shot from within the house with speed like lightning. Choking, black smoke coiled around the young boy before snapping back into the house, slamming the front door behind them.

Just like that, in the dead of the first night of frost, Kyle and his family disappeared.

Have you ever really listened to the snow?