Winter Feast

At the Springwater Resort in the dead of winter, several people were snowbound.

Telephone lines were down, and the nearest town was sixteen miles away. It wouldn’t have been so bad, but the storm was intensifying where travel was becoming impossible.

The bartender, Shellie, had her husband drop her off earlier that afternoon. Now, she was stranded with the others until her husband could get through the heaviest storm to hit central Wisconsin in forty-six years.

Along with Shellie, was Darwin, a carpenter, and his girlfriend, Faith, who worked in The Dells at one of the concession stands during the season.

The others were Charlie, a delivery driver out of Chicago who came to the resort for his winter vacation. Gerald, one of the locals who never worked, yet he always managed to have a lot of money to spend, and then there was Yaz, Shellie’s brother.

There were other people who lived and worked at Springwater, but they were in their own units staying warm the best way they could.

Before midnight would roll around, the resort’s bar, The Hideout, would have five more people added to the list. A total of eleven. There should have been twelve, but one didn’t make it.

__________

“Worse damn storm I’ve ever seen.”

“I know, Yaz. I’ve never seen it this bad either.”

“Hell, who cares how bad it is, sweetheart. Set me and Faith up with another drink. Nothing like a good stiff drink to keep the blood flowing on a night like this.” Darwin wrapped his arm around Faith, who stood under him about half a foot, half-smiled, half-grimaced as Darwin pulled her ninety-seven-pound frame into his massive three-hundred plus pounds of solid muscle.

Charlie, who stood next to fire Gerald was stoking, looked out the window, watched a heavy snow fell across the expansive lake and half-shouted, “That’s about the truth, too. Tonight’s going to be a cold one by heaven. Wouldn’t surprise me if it don’t drop down to fifty below the way things are going.”

“I heard once,” Gerald said loud enough for Charlie to hear, “the last time it snowed like this, twelve people died in this very area. Course that was before all those condo units were built. My daddy told me when I was a boy that when spring rolled around, the bodies were all chewed up by wild animals and what was left of’em were frozen stiffer than a board.”

Charlie looked at Gerald who never batted an eye. “No shit.”

“No, not shit, just frozen dead mutilated bodies,” Gerald smiled slowly.

Behind the bar, Shellie was fixing another round, the fourth one in the last hour for her small group of customers.

“At least we still have electricity to watch TV and get weather updates.” Shellie grinned widely, trying to make light of a situation that was worsening as time ticked off the clock.

“Sis,” grunted Yaz, “I could try to get through. I could take Emmett’s Corner over to Holstead. It would cut about four miles and then I can bring back some help as in a good-sized plow.”

“You’ll do no such thing, Yaz! I’d feel terrible if anything happened to you. You happen to be the only brother I have if you remember right. Just because you’re older, doesn’t make you brighter than me. Just stay here and keep me company.”

“Okay, sis, but I know I could make it.” Yaz let the latter half of his sentence trail off his lips because he knew when Shellie got a stubborn streak in her, he could forget about changing her mind. Snowstorm, hurricane, twister, even a tidal wave were to come through here; nothing would budge her if she didn’t want budged on an issue. Yaz would stay, but he knew he could have made the trip safely.

Darwin, on the other hand, liked the idea.

“I got fifty bucks says you don’t make it, fella. Are you a gambling man, or just a talker?”

“Hey!” yelled Shellie. “I don’t need you egging him on. If I wanted him to go, I’d have let him. Now just drink your drink and leave him alone.”

Looking over at Yaz, Darwin grinned and said, “You always let your sister do your talking for you?”

“Dar,” spoke up Faith, “drop it, will you? You know that it’s way too bad for anyone to go anywhere in this storm.”

“Okay already. I can see I’m outnumbered. Forget about it. I was only teasing the poor guy anyway.”

Darwin’s and Yaz’s eyes met, and there was a glare of discontent spoken ever so silently. Darwin was about to say something sarcastic when the front door was yanked open and the blustering winds of winter could be heard racing and whipping around like a locomotive going right through the bar.

__________

Brenda, the other bartender, struggled to get inside until Claude stood away from the fireplace after building a good-size blaze, and walked over to help her get inside and closed the doors against an angry wind becoming angrier being denied access inside.

“Hey, Brenda, it’s not healthy being out on a night like this. You should have stayed in your room and ….”

Claude stopped talking when he saw the look on her face; not a cold look, but a look of real fright that captured her eyes.

“Brenda, what’s wrong, honey? Talk to me.”

The others began moving closer to Brenda when Claude spoke those words. Yaz pulled a chair out from a nearby table and set it in front of the fire as Claude walked her to where she could get warm. Brenda was shivering, not only from the cold and wind outside, but from what she had just experienced.

“Well, ya gonna tell us what’s bugging you?”

Yaz looked at Darwin. “For a change, why don’t you just shut up. She’ll tell us when she’s ready.”

“I’m going to fix her a cup of coffee,” said Shellie. Shellie had never seen such a look on Brenda’s face before.

The lounge area was quiet and remained that way until Shellie walked around the bar and placed a steaming cup of coffee between Brenda’s hands.

“Th-thanks, Shellie.”

“At least the cat ain’t got her tongue.”

Everyone stared at Darwin that time.

“Brenda, what’s wrong?”

“He’s at the bottom of the hill,” came a flat reply.

“Who’s at the bottom of the hell?” asked Charlie.

“David. He’s at the bottom of the hill. Oh, God. It’s terrible.”

Brenda started crying heavily, the sobs racking her body causing her to spill some of the coffee. After a few minutes, she managed to pull herself together.

“Brenda, how bad is he hurt?” Yaz was throwing on his parka as he asked, making his way for the front door.

“NO! Don’t go out there! There, there’s nothing you can do for him. No one can.”

Charlie, who suddenly became nervous, asked, “What do you mean by that, Brenda?”

“He’s, he’s … dead.”

Brenda suddenly became enraged.

“Are you deaf! He’s dead, that’s what I mean! I, I was coming down the hill to relieve Shellie and I didn’t see David until I was almost on top of him. First thing I did was shake him, but he didn’t move. Then I rolled him over to check his face for any cuts or bruises, thinking he might have fallen hard or something and knocked himself out. That’s when I freaked and ran the rest of the way here!”

“Don’t freak out on us now,” said Darwin. “What was it you saw?” This time the sarcasm in his voice wasn’t there.

“That’s just it, I didn’t see anything. His, his face, wasn’t … there.”

Faith shivered, grabbing Darwin’s muscled forearm around her shoulder and gripped Shellie’s hand. Darwin put his beer to his lips and guzzled half a can in one greedy gulp and for the first time he knew to keep his mouth shut. Gerald walked over to the window, then stepped closer to the fire and looked out into the blazing white inferno surrounding all of them.

“Maybe you were mistaken, Brenda. Maybe the storm made you think you saw something else.”

“No, Shellie. I saw what I saw. It was as if his face was either ripped off or something chewed it off.”

The room became even quieter before Yaz spoke.

“Shellie, there are seven of us here. David would have made eight. Who else is living at the top of the hill?”

“There’s the cook, Lucy, and her boyfriend, Matt. There’s Jesse, he’s the one hired to build the houses out along the strip, and our maintenance man, Mike.”

“May heaven help us all. That makes twelve.”

Yaz looked up at Gerald.

“Gerald, you aren’t saying this has anything to do with that wives’ tale about twelve bodies found in the area like it was back in 1953, are you?”

“Yaz, you and all the rest of you can call me a crazy old fool, but it was on a night like this when twelve people died.”

“Okay, so what?” chimed in Darwin.

“Yeah,” said Charlie. “Didn’t you say they were found in the spring, intact?”

“Found in the spring, yes. Intact, I never said that. I said bodies were frozen and mutilated. Big difference.

“There’s more to this story than any of you know. In 1895, this same area had some trappers up here over the winter. Most folks said until the winter of 1953, the snowstorm in 1895 was about the worse ever. It was the following spring twelve trappers were found dead, same way as those people in 1953.”

Brenda, Faith, and Shellie, were shaking and not because of the winds outside but because of the story. Gerald continued.

“Each man back then were found with their heads, arms and legs torn from their bodies. All the body parts could be found but one. The heart. Whatever it was; killed them in 1895 and 1953 didn’t have much sense because it didn’t know how to get right to the heart. Tearing the body apart seemed the only logical way of getting what it wanted.

“I’m not trying to be no campfire storyteller, but whatever it was that went and killed all those people, and mind you now, four of them in 1953 were women; it’s back again.”

Darwin was the first to say something.

“That’s a crock of shit if I ever heard anything at all. Nice story, old man. You almost had me going for a minute.”

“Gerald,” said Yaz, “I think that’s about enough.” Looking at Darwin and Charlie, he said, “Put on your coats and help me bring David inside.”

“What good will it do to bring him in here if he’s dead? He’ll just fester and start to smell. That’s what dead bodies do,” said Darwin.

Yaz shot him an angry look.

“David is dead, but his body doesn’t need to be lying around. There are animals out there that could pick up his scent and start chewing on his body. Show a little respect, asshole.”

Shellie grabbed his arm. “Yaz, please, don’t go out there.”

Brenda started crying again. “No! Don’t bring him in here! He doesn’t have a face! Please, don’t!”

“Relax, okay? If David is dead as you say he is, we need to get him covered up and make sure none of the animals get wind of him after daylight. Maybe, and I’m just saying maybe the reason you didn’t see his face is because it was covered with a lot of snow. Snow has this affinity for sticking to beards, and David has one heck of a bush on that mug of his.” Yaz forced a smile which brought a small one to Brenda’s face.

“Maybe you’re right.”

Yaz looked at Charlie and Darwin who were buttoned up and ready to march through winds at seventy-miles an hour.

__________

Outside, three men could be seen turning right, their bodies faintly outlined in the whipping winds and snow. If the snow had stopped, and if the winds had died down, perhaps one of them would have heard a sigh of hunger from the boatshed. A sigh for fresh meat. A very special meat.

__________

“Dammit, Yaz. She said he was at the bottom of the hill. Where the hell is he?”

“Damned if I know, Darwin. Maybe he wasn’t dead like Brenda thought and went back to his room to get some rest.”

“If that’s the case,” Charlie yelled out above the wind, “it would make more sense to come down to the bar. It’s closer.”

“Maybe so.”

Darwin spotted something off to his left.

“What’s that over there by the telephone pole?”

Yaz turned in the direction Darwin was pointing at. Walking over, Yaz saw a baseball cap. David always wore one that would have a funny saying on it. Picking the hat up, shaking away the clinging snow, he looked at it. It read: MY MOM THINKS I’M AT THE MOVIES.

Staring closer, Yaz thought he saw blood but wasn’t sure.

“C’mon guys, let’s get back inside. I don’t think there’s anything we can do here.”

Darwin yelled above the wind, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“If this is what I think it is, Brenda’s right about David, and somebody is playing a cruel game with us. Very cruel.”

Darwin and Charlie looked at each other through slitted eyes trying to avoid the snow’s attack from blinding them. They followed Yaz back down to the bar.

__________

Across the way, behind the boatshed, David’s body lay with his chest splayed open, and a chomping, slurping sound could barely be heard.

__________

Up in his room, Mike was watching channel 3, drinking a beer and eating potato chips. Mike was also getting restless. Ever since the storm hit before noon, he’s stayed inside his small cabin refusing to go anywhere, but now the storm was screwing with the reception and no matter how many times he fooled around with the rabbit ears attached to the TV, he just wasn’t getting a clear picture.

Getting up from his bed for the hundredth time, he pulled the curtains back to take another look at the larger-than-life snowflakes massing together, creating one large flat snowball as he liked to think of it, in front of him. While looking out his window, he could barely see three bodies moving around in the snow. He blinked his eyes and they were gone.

He stopped by his mini-fridge, and opened it, grabbing another cold beer, went back to the bed and sat down. Popping the pull-tab, he took a long pull and smacked his lips together.

“I can’t take this shit any longer. Might as well get my coat on and go down to the bar and see what’s shaking. Something about being alone on a night like this that isn’t right.”

Bending over, Mike grabbed his work boots, slid his feet into each one and pulled hard on the laces. Grabbing his coat, gloves and hat, he buttoned up and walked to the front door muttering, “This is a night I hope will be over soon. Never seen it this bad. No sir, this is about as bad as bad can get.”

__________

It could smell frsh food. Outside, it waited.

Mike walked outside. The wind and snow attacked him with a stabbing hardness as he turned right and walked past three other units, two of which were unoccupied and then turned left. As he walked another five feet, he stopped abruptly and stared into the jaws of death.

Mike backed up, almost falling in the snow, shook his head swearing what he was staring at couldn’t be real. The snow was playing tricks with his eyesight; or that he had had one too many beers. He shook his head again and stared once more, his breath caught in his throat.

What he saw stared back at him and uttered a cry of savagery, and even in the blustering wind, Mike would have sworn he could have seen blood drooling over its long fang-like incisors and huge distended mouth.

Mike couldn’t move. It was fear, not the bitter cold that froze him where he stood. He couldn’t even utter a cry for help.

It quickly reached out for Mike and grabbed him by the throat with long, talon-like fingers; its hand, the strength of solid steel had closed around Mike’s neck and literally twisted his head from his shoulders.

Dragging the body like a stuffed animal in one hand and in the other, Mike’s head, it proceeded back to the boatshed to find what it required.

__________

The wind continued to rage against trees and bellow out a demonic sound not heard before, at least not by those who remained in their cabins, and the group who sat huddled around the fireplace.

Once Yaz explained what they found, a hush came over the bar and no one dared speak a word for the longest time.

The front doors seemed to explode open from the gale force winds.

Brenda let out a short scream. Yaz placed himself in front of his sister, and Faith stepped behind Darwin. Charlie and Gerald never moved from where they stood.

“Sorry, guys! Lost my grip on the doors. Wind out there is brutal. Felt for a minute as if I might be blown away to Kansas.”

It was Jesse, with all of his lanky hundred and seventy pounds on his six-foot frame. After closing the doors, he removed his parka and gloves and headed for the crowd by the fireplace.

“Okay, I give up. What’s with all the long faces? I didn’t mean to bust in that way, you know.”

“It’s not that,” said Yaz.

Jesse looked around at the drawn and tight-lipped faces, then down at Brenda, who looked like somebody scared the ever-living hell out of her.

“Okay, somebody want to tell me what’s going on?”

“Did you come straight down the hill to get here?” asked Shellie.

“Nope. I live on the far end of the cabins so I came the other way, and truth be told, it’s shorter, or maybe because it’s so cold, I walked faster. Why? Something happen?”

Yaz showed him David’s hat, coated with splotches of dried blood.

“Oh, wow. No way. I just gave him that hat not more than a month ago for his birthday. Where was he?”

“That’s just it, we don’t know.”

“What? You tell me David’s dead but you don’t know or can’t find his body?”

“I saw him first,” said Brenda. It was terrible. His face was ripped off. The guys went up the hill to find him but now—now his body’s gone, too.”

“So you’re saying someone killed him and has stolen his body on top of that? C’mon guys, that’s hard to swallow.”

Gerald started to tell him the story he told the others, but before he could get started, the front doors opened again. This time, Lucy and Matt walked inside, closed the doors behind them and walked toward the huddled group.

Before Gerald started telling the tale, he first said, “Good, except for Mike, everyone else is here.”

“I saw Mike heading this way about half an hour ago. Saw him walk right by our cabin,” said Matt.

“Besides Mike, David isn’t here either,” commented Lucy.

Shellie made more coffee for everyone to drink. As Lucy, Matt and Jesse settled in with their coffee, Gerald began explaining the mysterious death of David, and not quite possibly, Mike. Then he recounted the tale of the two major snowstorms and how twelve people each time were found horribly and sadistically murdered, and how either a group of killers had been on the loose, or a large man-eating animal surprised twelve people and feasted on them. The most horrific part was that no one was ever apprehended for the killings. Whoever it was, or they were, is back.

When Gerald was finished, for nearly a full minute, the only noise heard were deep breaths of ten people and the crackling wood in the fireplace.

It was Darwin who broke the silence.

“I got a Remington .357 pump in my truck and a .44 in the glove box. Any of you have any guns or anything?”

“I have a Winchester,” said Gerald.

“We have a shotgun behind the bar, and a police-special .32,” said Shellie. “Only thing is, we only have about a dozen shells for the gun. Shotgun’s never been fired and it’s just for show.”

“Not true, Shellie,” said Brenda. “I know where there are six shells we can use.”

Matt walked into the kitchen and returned with a baseball bat.

“Hey, it can’t shoot, bet let me get within swinging range and I guarantee you whatever I hit will feel the bang.”

“That leaves Charlie, Lucy, Jessie and myself without a weapon.”

“Not necessarily true, Yaz.”

Lucy also went into the kitchen and returned a minute later with three very sharp carving knives she handed out to the men. Another chef’s knife she kept for herself.

The lights flickered off and on and the TV signal finally gave up the ghost just as the weatherman said, “Indications are, this storm that is blanketing central Wisconsin, will be letting up sometime between midnight and three in the morning. Actual snow totals are hard to determine at the moment but it appears several records may be shattered. More coverage on this from ….”

__________

It was just after one when Lucy and Matt came out of the kitchen after cleaning up behinds themselves after preparing a meal for everyone.

The television might be shot, but the portable radio was working fine, and everyone sat huddled around as they listened to weather reports coming in, or any breaking news reports. The building hadn’t lost power so the electrical lines themselves were holding up under the storm better than expected, but the telephone as well as cell phone reception wasn’t working.

The expectation was that after the storm quit, as Yaz put it, “It’ll be fine by then. Cell phones should be able to catch a signal by then. Phone lines? Might be a few days on that one if a power box is shot anywhere between here and Del Marva and down over toward the Dells.”

“Won’t help much if whatever’s out there gets us like it did David and Mike.”

“Give it a rest, Gerald,” muttered Charlie.

“What? I’m only saying what the others are thinking. Maybe what I told everyone is just a ghost story I heard growing up, or it’s something that really happened, but by God, we got ourselves two dead people out there somewhere, and they sure as hell ain’t saying one way or the other.”

“Either way,” spat out Darwin, “Faith and me, we got ourselves enough firepower to blow the crap outta whatever’s out there. I ain’t all that worried about it.”

“We can only hope that we all have enough to stop whatever is out there,” said Shellie.

Brenda stood and said, “I’m going to make another pot of coffee.”

“I’ll tag along if you don’t mind,” said Gerald. “No sense you doing that by yourself. Besides ….”

“No need to explain, I don’t mind at all,” smiled Brenda.

Just as Brenda started to turn toward the kitchen, she screamed and pointed to a large window that overlooked what was once a sandy beachfront area and lake, that come summer, would see hundreds of people flocking to lay out on the sand and tan, or ride the small boats for rent across the lake.

All eyes darted to the window and there stood a gargantuan of a creature. Well over ten feet in height, perhaps close to a thousand pounds of pure animalistic fury. Thick mats of hair hung from the body in every direction. Its nose was shaped somewhat like a wolf’s; its eyes set close together and were almost lost amidst the hair surrounding the face and the night itself.

It was the mouth that caused Brenda to scream. It opened so wide, you already knew this creature could bite your head from your shoulders in a single move. Its front and bottom teeth were razor sharp and easily six or seven inches long. And if you thought the weather was playing tricks with your own eyes, you could see flakes of dried blood sticking to them.

In its rage, it raised its mighty arms over its head and roared out a blood-curdling scream. Then it rushed forward and smashed the window inward sending glass flying in every direction as everyone pulled back. Darwin, Faith, Shellie and Brenda raised their weapons and fired. Gerald had to go back and grab his rifle and when he did, the thing reached out and grabbed him by the arm and lifted him through the broken window like a rag doll. Gerald was screaming for help one second, and the next, there was silence.

The bullets shot into this maniacal beast didn’t faze its movements one bit. But what it did next, sent an invisible piercing stab of fear down the backs of each person in the bar.

Gerald’s head flew through the broken window and rolled headlong against the bar next to Faith’s feet. She didn’t scream. She didn’t run. She was frozen to that spot for a good five minutes, and then she puked all over the floor and peed her pants.

Yaz quickly reached for Gerald’s Winchester and yelled, “Everybody! Quick! Move to the rear, toward the kitchen! It’s going to be coming in here after us pretty soon!”

Everyone followed his commands. Once they were all behind the swinging doors leading into the kitchen, Yaz directed Darwin and Faith to stay to the left of the doors, and motioned Shellie and Brenda to the right. He, along with Charlie, Jesse, Lucy and Matt, would stay in the middle.

“With any luck we can catch this bastard in a crossfire and kill it.”

“Yaz,” snapped Darwin, we pretty much hit it hard already and it didn’t slow down a bit!”

“I know, but hopefully this time will be different. Aim for its head this time. If we can blow the head off then it has to die. No head, the body falls.”

It became a waiting game but for how long. No movement or sounds came beyond the swinging doors. All that could be heard was deep breathing from nine bodies.

Every weapon was raised, cocked and ready to fire. Between Lucy, Matt, Charlie and Jesse, they were ready to start throwing knives. Jesse managed to find a hatchet as well.

One thing everyone was sure about; this wasn’t just a storybook tale any longer. Deep down, with no words said, they all felt they were going to die.

__________

Yaz looked at his watch. 2:16.

It had been just over an hour since whatever that thing was had attacked the building and grabbed and killed Gerald and disappeared.

“How much longer,” cried Brenda. “How much longer is that monster going to stop playing games and come after us?”

No one answered.

All anyone could hear was each other breathing. The waiting to die and knowing you will is the most frightening feeling of all.

They sat huddled in their respective places, waiting in the quiet, not knowing when that thing would burst through the swing doors and begin its mayhem.

Darwin lit a cigarette. Jesse had walked over to a walk-in cooler and found the beer cases and pulled out a can of Bud and started drinking. Lucy reached inside her coat pocket and found a stick of gum and removing the foil from around it, popped it in her mouth and started chewing on it hard. Matt, just stayed still but like everyone else, he could feel the tremor in his body taking hold. People’s nerves were reaching the end of the line.

Shellie and Yaz stayed close to each other. Charlie and Brenda just waited out the seconds, wondering when this creature of death would invade their last bastion of hope.

As they were all in the kitchen area, they could hear the front part of the bar being torn to pieces and the loud guttural noises the creature was making.

“Hell, why don’t that thing come in here? What’s it waiting for?”

“No sense in pushing the devil any more than you have to, Darwin,” said Charlie. “Damn thing will find its way back here soon enough.”

Yaz looked at his watch again. 2:17.

The doors flew off their hinges and hurtled across the room.

Jesse never had time to react. It had been quick. One of the doors hit him perfectly in the throat breaking his neck.

This monster of monster’s invaded the room and its head veered left, then right.

Darwin, Faith, Yaz, Charlie, Shellie and Brenda, opened fire and aimed for its head. The creature felt the bullets pierce its flesh and twisted its body in a variety of directions, but no matter how many bullets found their mark, it wouldn’t go down, even after bullets ripped parts of the beast’s flesh away, it continued to move.

It staggered at one point, then regained its momentum and hurled itself onto both Darwin and Faith; its long hairy and overly muscular arms reaching out with fingers of steel and reached out, plucking them both from the floor like picking up an empty paper bag. Then it turned, glared at the others and roared a vengeance that guaranteed its return, leaving the rest standing in what only could be considered absolute defeat as they watched Darwin and Faith being dragged away.

“That settles it,” said Charlie. “Storm or no storm, I’d say it’s high time we get out of here quick as we can before that thing comes back!”

“We’d never make it down the hill without crashing or sliding into something, Charlie,” replied Yaz.

“Yeah, but Charlie has a point. I’d rather take a chance driving out of here verses having that whatever the hell you call that thing, coming back in here and ripping Lucy’s or my head off.” Looking at Lucy he said, “Let’s go, Lucy, we can be inside the van and out of here in two minutes if we hurry!”

Lucy looked around the room, tears sliding down her face.

“He’s right. At least we give ourselves a chance instead of sitting here like ducks getting killed off one at a time.”

Without another word said, Charlie nodded his goodbyes to Shellie, Yaz, and Brenda, and followed Matt and Lucy outside where all the cars were parked.

Charlie immediately went to his car, started the engine which turned over after the third attempt, but his eyes never left Matt and Lucy as they raced to their van.

His mistake.

Charlie’s body wiggled behind the steering wheel for a few minutes as his head hit the pile of snow. Seconds later, the car door was ripped from its hinges and his body was dragged to where the rest of the bodies laid in twisted deformed shapes inside the boatshed.

Throwing the now lifeless body atop the rest, it quickly ran up the hill.

Matt was able to get the engine to turn over after the fifth try. Both he and Lucy were buckled in. Matt backed his van out and it was sliding, but Matt corrected the shifting, then put it in gear and started down the hill. The van was moving but also sliding, and Matt knew not to go too fast for fear of ditching the van and being stuck.

Just as they made it past the entrance into the resort, there stood the bestial image in the road. They looked at each other.

“Luce, I love you!”

“I love you too, Matt!”

Matt pressed the gas pedal to the floor and the van spit chunks of snow behind itself as it rammed into the beast, but to no avail. It simply reached out with both its arms and lifted the front of the van as if it were a child’s toy and tossed it to his right. The van smashed against a group of snow-covered trees, killing Matt and Lucy instantly.

It didn’t matter to this creature. It tore away one of the van’s crumpled doors and dragged both bodies back to the boatshed. As with the others, it feasted on that which gave it, its greatest pleasure.

__________

3:09.

“What do you think, Yaz? It hasn’t been back for a while. Do you think maybe that monster finished doing whatever it does?” whispered Brenda.

“Honestly, I don’t know what to think. I can still hear a car running out front and that’s not a good sign. I don’t think Charlie made it. Maybe Matt and Lucy did, but I just don’t know.”

“Me either,” said Shellie, “although I thought I heard some kind of loud noise earlier.”

“Me too, Shellie,” nodded Brenda. “What I haven’t heard was any gunfire or screaming.”

“Maybe the thing finally has what it was after.”

“Don’t believe that, little sister. If what Gerald told us was true, this thing killed twelve people, and unless Matt. Lucy and Charlie got away, which I don’t think they did; it has to kill twelve people, and girls, we round out the last of that number.”

Then they heard the roaring cry of anger, and through the opening where the swinging doors use to be, all three watched the massive brute form, efficiently and casually make its way back to where they lie in wait.

“You two go out the back door, now! Get to my rig, keys are on the visor and get the hell out of here! I’ll hold it off as long as I can!”

“I’m not leaving you, Yaz!”

“Me, either,” cried Brenda.

“I said go! No sense in all of us dying here. If you two can get away, maybe this bastard will fall over dead or something! Just go! MOVE!”

Shellie’s eyes were brimming with tears as she squeezed Yaz’s hands, then both girls stood and went out the back door reserved for an emergency exit in case of fire. Shellie looked back once more and watched as Yaz stood, firing every weapon he could, and then, just as the monstrosity engulfed Yaz, she turned and headed toward the truck.

Try as she might, Shellie wasn’t fast enough.

She could hear the maniac, spawned from hell gaining ground on her, and just as she reached the passenger side, she saw Brenda behind the wheel, engine running and saw the look on her face; a look of sheer abject terror, and Shellie knew her fate; like her brother, like all the rest, was at hand.

She turned to look back, slipped in the snow and now looked up into the gaping jaws of death that was about to sever her forever from life.

“Go to hell!”

This large, huge furry body covered her in a massive shadow, as if a coffin lid were over top her, signaling that life is forever gone.

Brenda just screamed and screamed and screamed.

__________

The lid was removed from her face, and Brenda’s eyes opened and shifted left to right before she finally remembered where she was.

“Yazsorda,” she said between a pleading voice and that of a question; “did I have the dreams again?”

He leaned over, kissed her gently on her cold blue lips, smiled as only a vampire will and said, “I believe so. It was the creature again, was it not?”

“Yes. It is always the creature. One neither of us have ever truly seen. I fear one day it may destroy me, and even you.”

“Perhaps, but one thing I do know, you must be incredibly hungry.”

“You know I am.”

Yazsorda helped Brenda out of her coffin, and they walked out onto the veranda of Yazorda’s spacious home and stared down onto the city of Chicago lit up with all its city lights and blanketed by a thick heavy snowfall.

Brenda smiled and licked her lips. Both she and Yazsorda transformed themselves into winged creatures and flew off into the city.

Tonight she was ravenous. The dreams always made her far hungrier than usual.

Tonight, she would feast on many.