Mom?

Mom?

Mom?

Why aren’t you moving?

Mom?

Mom?

Mom?

Mom, this isn’t funny, open your eyes.

Get off the floor.

You don’t want to get your nice red shirt all dirty.

Mom?

Mom?

Mom?

Mom?

Mom?

Mom?

Mom?

I think someone’s in the house...

Mom?

Don’t you care?

Hey, wake up!

It’s not funny anymore!

I want to eat!

These dishes won’t wash themselves?

Mom, you shouldn’t have shot that gun

Into your head.

I knew it wouldn’t be good for you.

Mom!

Wake up, Jesus!

Wake up!

I have... candy?

Cake?

Pie?

Guacamole?

Sigh.

I guess nothing is going to work.

I guess.

Hey Mom, I’ll do chores for a week if you come back.

A month?

A year?

Mommy,

Come on! I’m just a kid!

Why’d you leave me all alone?

I can’t buy groceries or have a credit card,

How am I supposed to live?

Mama?

Mama, open your eyes.

Mama please.

I’ll wash the whole house.

I’ll show you my secret candy stash.

I’ll do ANYTHING!

ANYTHING YOU WANT!

MOM PLEASE!

Mama... don’t leave me...

Please don’t leave me here...

Have some decency.

I’m begging you,

Please come back.

Please let God reverse time and come back. I

Don’t want to lose you.

Mom?

Say something?

Please?

I know it’s against the laws of nature, but please come back to life!

Can’t you try?

Don’t you love me?

Mom!

If you come back to life, I’ll...

I’ll tell you what happened to Danny!

It wasn’t my fault, not really...

I was so torn up when he died!

It’s not my fault!

Please, just wake up.

Hopeless, I crawl away from my mother. It’s no use. She’s dead.

Creak.

Creak.

It’s an old house, creaking is normal.

“Son, you have some explaining to do.”

Oh shi—

It’s been four hours since my car broke down and not one other car has come by.

I knew I should have had the heater in this car replaced and why I never did, is beyond me. It’s freezing out there. Has to be a good ten degrees below zero by now and will drop even more before the nights over.

What makes this worse, I didn’t bring any gloves, not even a scarf or hat. Thank goodness I thought to wear my parka but even that can’t keep the cold chill at bay.

But where the hell is everyone tonight? Usually, I’ll see a good amount of traffic both ways, but no, not tonight of all nights.

If someone doesn’t come along before too long, I could freeze to death out here and—what was that? Thought I heard something, almost like a baby crying. Ain’t no babies outside on a night like this and—there it goes again, only closer.

Better roll down my window and take a quick look. Don’t want to leave it down too long since its windy as hell and—oh no! It’s a Kodiak bear! No way! Don’t bears hibernate in winter?

He’s just wandering around, moaning, as if he’s lost or something and—my god! He just nudged the back end of the car! Now he’s banging on it! What! Oh, I can’t believe he thinks this is a place where he can come in out of the cold? Or had he seen me? Bears can smell real good.

He’s scraping the back of the car to my door and he’s stopped! Now he’s roaring, and his paws are hammering against the window and it’s starting to crackle, but where can I go! Not out there!

Window smashed in, he’s reaching for me and ...

Charlie pulled the parka tighter around his slim body and ran through the blinding snow. He was the only one left now. He didn’t see what took his friends, all he saw was a bright red flash of light then the screams. Screams that he knew he would never forget. That red light, could the legends be true? He pushed the thought from his mind and ran on.

Finally! He saw the soft warm glow of the light in the cabin window. Only fifty yards more. He pushed himself to ran faster.

Wham! He felt something heavy slam into his back, knocking him face first into the snow. He groggily turned over and his eyes widened in shock and fear.

The legend was true. It made a weird kind of sense, he thought. Rudolph existed, so why not his evil twin? For every beacon of hope and light in the world there also existed a beacon of despair and darkness. That was what Charlie faced now.

He got to his feet and started backing away from the pawing, growling reindeer. Just when he thought he escape into the cabin, the reindeer’s red nose glowed bright. Surprised by the unexpected light, Charlie raised his arms to shield his eyes. The last thing he felt was the reindeer’s razor-sharp antlers piercing his body.

Khristoff, the Red-nosed Terror of the North had claimed yet another victim.

All day, ever since I first noticed them, I have been talking to myself about anything and everything – the laundry, shopping, cooking, cleaning, the snow that won’t stop falling – whatever comes to mind. I speak aloud although I am alone in order to give an air of normalcy to my world. But nothing is as it seems.

At night, in bed, desperate to sleep and forget, I cannot help but feel the cold fingers of fear creep along my skin. Peering into the dark, I watch in horror as the shadows shift and move, though no light shines through my shuttered windows. As they inch towards my bed, I can feel my body drenched in cold sweat. They pause and I wonder if they have smelled my fear. In a flash, they seem to grow and pulse and almost shimmer. I want to be anywhere but where I am, but I am paralyzed with fear. Until I hear a whisper of nothing in the shimmering blackness beyond the edge of my bed.

I leap, screaming. There is no one to hear. I run through a flickering wall of shifting shadows to my door. As I open it, I feel a snakelike movement creeping up my feet. I jump. The shadows fly out at me from all sides as I dart towards the door to my home. I open it, heedless of the snowy night.

Alas, the shadows are not confined to my home. They are behind me, in front of me, within me. Slowly, the vine-like tentacles encircle my legs. I fall into the snow. I try to use my arms to drag myself away, but I feel the icy darkness seep into my skin, taking hold of my heart and squeezing.

Now, she is one with us.

I sit on their fireplace mantel, their darling little porcelain snow angel, but little do they know. I am no angel.

*********************

Seven-year-old Trixie is the first one downstairs on Christmas morning. Even though she’s anxious to see what Santa brought, she’s also hungry, so she goes into the kitchen to get a bowl of cereal. Filling her bowl with Trix – her favorite because it’s named after her – she looks around the kitchen, avoiding looking in the living room, lest she see her gifts too soon. She’s funny like that; whereas most kids would peek, she doesn’t want to ruin the surprise.

Suddenly, she hears a noise. Putting the spoon down, she looks around, her blue eyes as big as the saucers in her mom’s cabinet. Seeing nothing, she shrugs then goes back to eating. She hears the noise again. She sits real still, trying to get a bead on where the noise is coming from. After a moment, she thinks it’s in the pantry. A mature seven-year-old, she figures she can handle it, so it doesn’t even occur to her to call for her parents.

Tiptoeing to the food storage closet, she puts her ear against it. Silence. Little Trixie hesitantly opens the pantry and sees an angel. She loves the little cartoon mascot for Heavenly Crunch cereal, but she doesn’t take the time to admire it right now.

Just as Trixie turns around, she hears the flapping of wings, but before she can react, the snow angel from her mantle has her down on the floor, sucking her essence through her still mouth. As she succumbs to the angel’s kiss of death, she looks into the angel’s eyes and sees hell.

I saw them, when I was supposed to be alone.

But they were not.

And I had a feeling they saw me too.

I walked along the edge of the lake, bare feet blue with cold.

Numb.

I felt numb.

Finally.

Which was fine, I suppose. There was a reason I was alone, anyway.

Crack.

Eyes met eyes.

Mine, as cold as they’ve always been.

Theirs, several pairs, watching in fragments of the ice, observing.

Beckoning.

Hating.

Longing.

I knew.

I had to go to them.

Water moved and the ice shifted,

And I saw her.

Evelyn.

My love.

She smiled at me, the skin of her mouth splitting, blue blood spilling from her lips...

Her eyes were so beautiful.

Silver.

The ice queen.

She held a hand, and forward I walked, leaving skin upon these frozen wastes.

I didn’t feel it, staring almost through her, towards the lone cabin, surrounded by white pines. Silent, skeletal sentinels guarding my treasures.

I almost saw her hanging there, then remembered where she hung, there in the bathroom.

There for me.

Where I left her.

Still beautiful,

She was here now.

Striding toward me,

More beautiful now, the white translucency of her hand gripping my arm,

Crack.

Breaking it.

I smiled at her in return.

Evelyn.

My love, leading me further out,

To the center of the lake.

I saw others, hands pushing against the surface, their eyes watching me all this time.

One more pair every time I came here,

To this place,

But none of them captured me like Evelyn,

Even as I captured them before,

She was the one.

Crack.

I fell.

To their arms,

From hers.

Evelyn,

I am yours.

Reflected,

In ice,

Captive to you,

As you were to me.

She lay on the cold, dark ground motionless. The sound of footsteps crunching in the snow echoed through the black abyss of the night. What’s happening? Will my friends come back? She felt the rush of shivers flow through her body but she dared not let her body move. The slightest twitch would get her caught.

Stomp. Stomp. STOMP.

The tall menacing figure's boots lingered next to her face. Luckily the car she was under blocked her body from being seen, but he still had impeccable hearing. Breaths shallow, she stared in horror at her tormentor. He moved slowly but with purpose. Where were her friends? Tied up, passed out? Dead? She didn't know, but all she could think about was the boot next to her face and how at any second she could be caught as well.

And then she felt the sneeze coming on. Trying to hold her breath as the boots began to stride away, there was a shift.

THUNK

Her boot hit the bottom of the car and caught his attention. Hoping he didn't notice, she curled into a smaller ball. The cold seeping through her skin and into her bones. As she felt the hands around her ankles she realized how light and giddy she suddenly felt. He pulled her out from under the car and she saw the starry night sky and how pretty everything was. This euphoria made her giggly with delight as his warm arms wrapped around her body and a white mask that smelled good was placed upon her face.

Such a pretty, pretty night indeed was her last thought before her consciousness sunk as deep as the snow.

The snow covers the ground outside my home like a satin white death shroud. I have weathered the Christmas atmosphere and all the pomp surrounding it with a sense of grim finality. You see, despite all the joyous romanticism surrounding this time of year, I know the true nature of this soul chilling season. An evil borne from the stuff of nightmares was coming and no amount of peace on Earth and good will toward men could stop it.

So, I sit in front of a flickering fire waiting for that which would surely bring a black end to the naive merriment that intoxicates people when the days grow short and the first snow falls. Oh, I have tried to warn them, but they scoff at my efforts and call me a grinch. I wish I could slip into the same delirium that infects the rest of humanity, but I cannot. It is coming and I will meet my end with my faculties untainted by the warm psychosis brought on by egg nog, colorful lights, and Halmark movies.

The winter silence outside is broken by the harbinger of evil I have been waiting for. I hear the, crunch crunch sound of foot steps on my unshoveled walk as my end grows ever closer. My doorbell rings and I rise to meet my fate. My end may be near, but it will not be said that I ran from it. My hand shakes as I open the door. Outside, a phantom figure standing in the shadow of my door silently hands me that which will be my undoing. Envelopes embelished with the logos of Visa, Master Card, and Discover, bring me to my knees. The first credit card bills of yuletide. My fate is sealed. Death by debt most foul.

We were all together yesterday, we were merry and joyful. No one could have thought that today, we would all be dead-

Yes, I am a dead man speaking, and even as I tell you this I am leaving - blood running from my veins and onto the pure snow.

After we had eaten we went to bed. It was cold, even inside, so we went in pairs to our rooms, turned the heating up and slept, piled up with quilts and blankets as the howling wind whistled around the window panes. After a couple of hours I awoke. I was freezing: cold to the bone. The room was entirely silent, and snow covered the floor- covered my face. I sat up slowly, rying desparately to prevent the covers from rustling. But they did rustle, they crackled and snapped like frozen grass. I flinched at every sound. The silence was deafeningly broken. And there was something in the room.

I could feel its presence, haunting the still, sleeping atmosphere, and it was not human. It was made from death and decay.

Outside the window the moon slipped out from behind a cloud and my heart beat so hard in my chest I nearly fainted- I wish I had! I saw a dark, twisted shape, its protruding snout dripping with something thick and red. I looked at it and it sensed my presence. It looked at me with its shallow, glassy eyes- its stare was as dead as reflection. Lifeless. It crept over to my low bed and its hairy muzzle reeked of destruction and misery. It grabbed my neck in its sharp teeth and hissed about the death of my companions- through the sickening pain I glimpsed the broken corpse on the other bed and knew the end was coming-

#horror #winter #abstract

When Mark invited Cindy to his cabin for the weekend, she was thrilled! He was sweet, his father was filthy rich and he was one of the most handsome men she had ever seen. Initially, she felt a little whore-ish by sleeping with him on their first date, but she figured "fuck it" if having sex with him put her above any other competition to being "Mrs Cindy Lawfield" she was ok with it. It paid off though, two weeks later he invited her to his cabin in the mountains and here she was.

Cindy fell in love with the cabin, the each room seemed more spacious than the last, Mark tended to the fireplace in the den. He told her that he liked to set a scene when spending time with someone special. This of course, made her blush. She already planned to reward his kind actions with passionate and sweaty sex. She looked out of the living room window as the thick snowflakes blanketed the outdoors. She thought about her best friend Jessica and giggled to herself. Jessica confided in her months ago that she wanted to be with Mark, but she never worked up the courage to approach him. Cindy didn't tell Jessica or anyone else about sleeping with Mark or the cabin, she knew Jessica would get jealous. As she looked out window, she felt a sharp peircing pain in the side of her neck. She spun and observed Mark with a syringe containing an unknown fluid. Her vision began to blur as she collapsed on the floor.

"Yo!" Mark shouted aloud. Several unknown men began to enter the room from various locations. Before losing conciousness, she heard Mark speak again. "I hope you brought plenty of lube boys, this is gonna be a great night!"