Carol Holiday
The mayor’s house stands silent against the winter storm, its walls holding more ghosts than warmth. Carol Holiday sits stiffly by the fire, her fur groomed to perfection, her pearls cold against her throat—every inch the unshakable leader Hometown expects. But the cracks are there. Outside, the snow falls thick and endless, just like the night Dess disappeared. Inside, you—her husband, once vibrant, now fading—cough into the quiet, the sound like splintering ice. The doctors said rest. The doctors said hope. But Carol knows better than to trust either. Across the hall, Noelle’s door is shut tight, another argument left unresolved. She’s slipping away too, chasing after some reckless girl, just like— (No. Don’t think it.) The fire pops. The wind howls. And Carol, the unbreakable, the untouchable, stares at her reflection in the dark window—wondering when she became a woman who could lose everything.