Lahat ng Kabanata ng Climbing for Love, Watching Her Stray: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 10

Skyler's POVThe next morning, the team broke camp and started climbing higher. At 19 thousand feet, the air was painfully thin. Every step felt like I was dragging a mountain behind me.We split into three groups. I was in the second group, and Amber was originally supposed to be with us. But right before we set out, she switched groups."Theo's not doing well. I'm going to the third group to keep an eye on him," she told me. "Stay close to Mike. Don't fall behind."I nodded.All morning, all I could see of her was a distant figure behind us. She stayed beside Theo, steadying him now and then.When we crossed a stretch of loose scree, Theo suddenly slipped and stumbled sideways. Amber grabbed his arm and pulled him back to safety.Shaken, he breathed heavily and turned to her with a nervous smile. "If you hadn't been here, I would've gone straight down, Amber."She smiled back, her voice patient and gentle. "Shorter steps. Make sure your footing is solid before you move. There

Skyler's POVMy consciousness slipped in and out, like a broken switch that flickered on and off.The crevasse was deep, maybe 15 feet. Blue-gray walls of ice surrounded me, smooth as glass. Broken ice and packed snow padded my body.I curled up at the bottom of the crevasse, numb to all sensation.My fingers were stiff with cold, curled into themselves and completely useless. My lips had split open, blood seeping out before freezing into crimson red scabs.I tried calling for help, but the moment the sound left my throat, the wind from above tore it apart. No one could hear me.Amber promised me two hours. I had no idea how much time had passed. My body temperature kept dropping, and my consciousness grew hazier by the minute.My thoughts began to wander. I thought about the first time I met Amber.It was in the university library. She was sitting across from me, reading a thick geology textbook. Sunlight streamed through the window, falling across her side profile.She sudde

Skyler's POV186 miles north of the Arctic Circle was Tromgen, Nordvik.When the plane landed, infinite stretches of snow spread out beyond the window. But the snow here was different from the snow on that mountain.Here, it blanketed the roofs of little cabins like a thick, warm thick blanket.Tracy rented two small cabins facing the fjord, with a little path between them. She didn't stay in my cabin or make any effort to get closer.Every morning, she left breakfast outside my door, knocked twice, and left."Don't you need to work?" I asked her."I'm on a break. Every winter, I take a month off.""Do you come here every year?""Mm-hm. It's peaceful here."That was just the kind of person Tracy was. She didn't say much or do much. She simply stayed there in silence, like a rock that never moved.For the first few days, I didn't want to do anything. I curled up on the cabin rug under a blanket, watching the snow fall outside layer by layer.My body was still recovering. Fro

Skyler's POVA month later, I returned home from Nordvik.The frostbite on my fingers had mostly healed, and a new layer of skin had grown over the one on my left foot. The biggest change wasn't physical. It was the crevasse in my heart. It had finally closed.I did three things after coming back.First, I changed my phone number. Second, I moved. I left the apartment in the same part of the city where Amber and I had lived and moved to the other side of town.Third, I went back to work and buried myself in it.The first time Charlie saw me, he looked me up and down for a long while before sighing in relief. "Good. There's light in your eyes again."I landed a commercial photography project for a major outdoor brand. Our team worked overtime for two straight months.Every day, I stayed in the studio retouching photos until the early hours. When I got too tired, I would put my head down on the desk and sleep for a while.I was so busy I didn't have time to think about anything

Skyler's POVAmber never appeared in my life again. Charlie told me she had quit her job at the research institute and left the city. No one knew where she went.Some said the desert. Others said the mountains. Wherever it was, it was somewhere remote and desolate.Theo also left. He went back to his hometown and got married. He probably still didn't know the full story of what happened. Maybe he did, but chose not to face it.It didn't matter anymore. Those people and those memories came and went like an avalanche.They came into my life with a force that shook everything, then disappeared beneath layers of ice so deep no one could ever reach them.I stayed in the city. I took photographs, retouched them, picked up the occasional commercial project, and sometimes held solo exhibitions.I moved my studio once, from downtown to an industrial park on the outskirts. It was three times the size, and the rent was half as much.There was a grove outside the window. During fall, the l