“I’d like to think we do.”
“Do you love me?”
“Of course I do.”
“But you’re about to tell me I will have to quit.”
“I’m afraid so.”
“Because we’re seeing one another.”
“Well yeah, it’s really the only logical course of action I can think of.”
Judy smiled. “How about this,” she said as she stood up, “we quit seeing one another, I go my way, and you go your way.”
“But I thought you wanted to be together.”
“I do, but I also like this job.”
“But I can’t be your boss and your boyfriend.”
“So I guess you’ll have to settle for being my boss,” Judy said then turned and walked from the room.
“Wait, that isn’t what I wanted,” Teddy called after her, but she ignored him as she vanished through the doors leading back to the main floor.
Chapter 9
Reaching the hallway her resolve broke, the tears she had been holding back flowed freely, and her vision became blurred as she slipped into the women’s bathroom. Liz was at the mirror applying makeup when Judy entered. Judy crossed behind her and vanished into the last stall, closing and locking the door behind her. Sitting down on the toilet, she let her emotions take over, allowing the tears to flow freely as she blew her nose on toilet tissue.
“Are you all right, sweetie?” Liz asked from outside the stall. “Did you and Teddy have a fight?”
“I’m okay,” Judy said as she struggled to get her emotions back under control. A feat that was becoming more and more difficult as her pregnancy progressed. Thankfully the company provided health insurance and she had used it for her initial doctor visits. Physically she and the baby would be fine. Emotionally, at least for her, was another matter.
“Do you want me to get you anything?” Liz said.
“I’m all right. I’ll be out soon.”
“Are you sure?”
“Just let me get myself together here.”
“If you need anything, just shout.”
“I will,” she said as she took a deep breath and tried to gather her thoughts. She had surprised herself when she walked out on Teddy. The idea had come to her when she followed him into the break room. At the time it had really been nothing more than a what if. But when he started talking about their relationship she realized she had to do something to prove, if only to herself, if they really had something or if it was just a passing fancy. A fling that had lasted for a little more than a year. She was confident that what she felt for Teddy was love.
The door opened and she steeled herself for more probing questions from Liz, or heaven forbid, Teddy.
The soft sound of footsteps came from the room beyond the stall door. From somewhere in her past came the remembered sound of footsteps crunching through the snow. She didn’t know where the memory came from, but with it came a chilling fear accompanied by the sound of a dog barking.
The footsteps stopped right in front of the stall she occupied. On the floor, visible beneath the door, lay a shadow that filled her with fear.
He has returned. The thought whispered in her mind and she cringed as the shadow moved closer, accompanied by slow, measured, footsteps crunching through the snow. Cold air filled the stall around her, chilling her flesh, and she hugged herself to stay warm. It was as if someone had opened a window, letting a wintry wind into the warm interior of the bathroom.
The shadow got closer as the chill deepened, bleeding across the floor under the door to the stall, slowly consuming the light as it drew closer to her feet. She lifted her feet from the floor, pulling her knees up under her chin as the shadows spread across the tile like a black stain.
She was only dimly aware of the door opening. Of footsteps moving crisply across the tiled floor.
“Are you all right?” Liz said, breaking the spell she had fallen under. The shadows retreated and the chill flowed away from her. She struggled to catch her breath, not really sure if what had just happened had been real or the product of all the stress she had been under lately.
“I’m okay,” she said, trying to disguise the shakiness in her voice. The footsteps had awakened an old memory from when she was a child. One she had successfully locked away from the cold light of reality. Her dog Charlie had become lost one winter’s morning. He’d been found shortly afterwards, but the details were fuzzy at best, and try as she might, she couldn’t recall anything more about what had happened that day.
Chapter 10
Teddy followed Judy into the hallway. He had been totally unprepared for her reaction, and he stopped when she entered the ladies’ room. Reason overpowered emotion as he decided to let her have the time and space she needed. He was turning towards the main room when he caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned back to the rear door leading to the smoking area. A small wire mesh window set at eye level revealed a white world of swirling snow. The falling snow, driven this way and that by a restless wind, parted to reveal a person standing on the bank opposite the dock. He was dressed in a heavy leather coat whose hem stopped between the knee and ankle. A filthy red scarf was wrapped around his neck, covering the lower half of his face, and a battered leather hat rode low over his forehead. His eyes were hidden in the deep shadows of the brim.
The stranger’s presence sent a shiver down Teddy’s spine before his natural desire to protect others kicked in and he pushed his way through the door. The wind tore at his shirt, causing his tie to whip around his throat as he crossed to the edge of the dock to search for that lonely figure.
“Anybody out here?” he shouted, the words ripped away by the restless wind. But the person he’d seen, or thought he’d seen, was gone.
He was about to go back inside when he was overcome with the sensation of being watched. The shifting sheets of falling snow parted, likes the curtains on a stage, to reveal someone standing on the hill across from the dock.
Byelii, the name whispered through his mind, rising from the dark recesses of his childhood memories. As a child he had been cared for one summer by an ancient Slavic woman who was as wide as she was tall. Teddy never learned what her real age was, but it was a fair bet that she was on the other side of seventy, yet even with her massive girth she was light on her feet and entertained him, if it could be called that, with antique tales of the old country.
She had grown up during the German invasion, in a little village that escaped most of the atrocities that had occurred along the eastern front. Of little military significance, the advancing armies of the Third Reich had bypassed her village. It helped that they had hung a warning at the edge of their little village, a simple sign that to the advancing German armies meant the plague was present. If there were anything the Germans feared more than a Russian bullet, it was disease, especially a disease as devastating as the plague.
Other villages had tried the same thing with varying degrees of success. Depending on their location, the warning resulted in either the village being burned to the ground while the inhabitants were trapped in their homes, or being bypassed entirely and left to die at its own leisurely pace.
One day, his Nanny told him, the Germans had camped outside the village. That night her grandmother had prayed in some forgotten language to an ancient entity she could only translate as meaning White One. That same night a fierce winter storm accosted the village, which was strange as spring had already established a foothold. A steady wind screamed down from the north, carrying with it the cold artic air of the vast northern plains.
The following morning the Germans were gone. Their tents, bedding, weapons, and even half-eaten food still in metal mess kits, was all that remained. It was as if they had simply laid down their possessions and walked off. No one in the village knew what had happened; there was wild speculation, but no reason for their disappearance was ever uncovered. Her grandmother had remained silent throughout the day, a knowing smile on her face,
and when she asked her later that evening what happened to the German soldiers, her grandmother had simply said the White One had led them away.
The memory faded and Teddy was once more on the dock as he gazed into the swirling snow, trying to catch sight of whoever was out there. It never once crossed his mind to take care of himself first. Ever since he had been a child he’d had this natural desire to protect those around him, strangers included. He had tried out several times to join the local fire department but he just didn’t have the physical ability to do the job, forcing him to settle for being an EMT. He’d been blessed with a very skinny frame. Wiry is what his aunt once called it.
Then he saw him, standing on the bank directly across from him. One moment he wasn’t there, and the next he appeared as if he had stepped out from between the sheets of shifting snow. They watched one another across the intervening space and Teddy realized that the stranger was smiling at him, nodding in recognition of the memory his presence had stirred.
Was he the White One his nanny had spoken of?
As if in answer he felt the presence of that creature all around him. It was of the storm that was even now battering at the walls of the building. Its voice the shriek of that wintry wind that swirled around him like the waters of a whirlpool, threatening to drag him down into the black depths of an eternally frozen world. Its touch was the caress of frozen snowflakes that clung to the warm flesh of his cheeks, melting into tiny pools of water that froze on contact with the wintry air.
Suddenly he was a part of the storm, swirling across the frozen landscape like a wild thing un-caged as a strange exhilaration gripped him. He was impervious and nothing could stand in his way. He was an irresistible force of nature unleashed upon an unsuspecting world.
Everything stopped. The wind ceased it restless casting about. The snow, still falling in sheets, dropped straight to the ground in a vertical path.
May I come in? a sinister voice whispered in his mind and Teddy realized how alone he truly was. Nipping at the heels of that realization came the fear of what this stranger represented.
The White One led them astray. The voice of his nanny whispered in soft counterpoint to this creature’s simple request.
Would he lead them astray? The question filled him with remorse.
Of course, came the answer unbidden from the black depths that surrounded him.
Time ground to a halt as the two men gazed across the intervening space at one another. One a leader of sorts, the other a taker of souls. Teddy had what the other wanted and with that realization came the terrified cries of a group of children. The cold was driven away by the memory of a raging fire that seared his flesh and served to break the spell the stranger had placed upon him.
Teddy staggered back as the wind howled in his ears and as it did he heard a forlorn voice crying out with rage at his refusal to permit it access.
Chapter 11
Kevin was becoming quite annoyed with the customer he had on the line. Her company had purchased the latest smart phone and she had been tasked with setting the phones up to access the company’s servers, which contained any number of closely guarded national defense secrets. As soon as she began describing her problem, Kevin understood what the real issue was. She didn’t possess the capacity to operate a phone that was smarter than her. With a sigh, he settled into what he knew was going to be a long procedure as he took her step by step through the process of properly setting up the phone to securely access the company’s servers. Apparently someone who thought they knew what they were doing had tried to do it for her, and it was all screwed up. But it wasn’t that person’s fault, hell no, there was definitely something wrong with the phones.
He was in the middle of explaining how to open the settings screen when the phones went dead. There was no brief sputter to warn him of what was about to happen. One moment the airhead, as he had come to calling her privately, was describing what she was seeing, and then she was gone. Replaced by the faint hiss of a dead line.
It was a sound that made him think of desolate landscapes beneath low gray clouds. A forlorn place where all dropped calls waited to be picked up again. He’d never considered himself an artist, but three days earlier he’d broken down and picked up the supplies needed to try his hand at painting. His sister had always been after him to do something more with his life than work and watch television. There was no wife or children to occupy his free time. He’d dated a few times but had always found the prospect of dealing with someone else’s emotions less than desirable.
Slipping his headphones from his head, he glanced over at Leslie in the next cubicle.
“I think the phones just went dead,” he said.
Leslie, who had just finished her call and was entering the last of her contact notes before the next call came in, stopped what she was doing and tried to connect to an outside line. She looked back at Kevin and shrugged.
“We’ll have to get Teddy to look at it. Maybe it’s just a computer glitch,” he said as he pulled up his Internet browser and discovered that he could still get online. He pushed himself up from his seat and looked out across the sea of empty cubicles.
Cody looked up as Kevin got up from his seat.
“I think the phones just died,” Cody said.
“I just lost my connection,” Norman said as he got to his feet as well.
“Has anybody seen Teddy?” Kevin said.
“Last I seen him, he was in the break room with Judy,” Cody said.
Kevin nodded. He understood what Teddy was going through right now, another compelling reason to remain unattached. The old timers, those who had been doing this for a couple of years, all knew Teddy from when they first started working for the company. At the time they had been contracted to handle the public sector for a major cellular account and each of them had horror stories of dealing with irate customers who had sworn to hunt them down because they couldn’t fix a problem that was the customer’s own fault to begin with. From billing errors, which were numerous, to subscriptions that customers claimed they never signed up for, even though their records indicated they had, to overages in data and text that every customer assumed the company would gladly absorb the cost for.
They had become friends in much the same way a battle-hardened platoon would become brothers under fire. So Kevin felt for what Teddy had to do. Judy was a part of that group as well and the idea that one of them would have to leave just didn’t sit too well with the old timers. If it wasn’t done, then newcomers like Cody and David would believe they could do the same thing and get away with it.
Sometimes you did what you had to instead of what you wanted to.
Kevin moved from the main room into the short hallway that led to the break room. Judy and Liz emerged from the ladies’ room. It was obvious Judy had been crying.
“Is she all right?”
Liz nodded in response before leading Judy towards the main room.
“Is Teddy still in the break room?” Kevin said.
“I guess.” Judy shrugged as she vanished into the main room.
Kevin watched her go then stepped across to the doorway that led to the break room. He found it empty.
“Might as well grab a smoke while we’re back here. Come on, Norman,” Cody said as he pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and leaned against the rear door.
“I ain’t going back out there. I don’t need a smoke that bad.”
“What’s wrong with you?” Cody said.
Norman simply shook his head and backed away from the door leading to the rear dock.
“Suit yourself then,” Cody said with a shrug as he turned and pushed open the door. The wind grabbed it, slamming it against the wall with a crash that made Norman jump as a startled cry escaped his lips. Kevin crossed from the break room as a fierce wind barreled down the short hallway, driving the snow before it, causing the papers pinned to the bulletin board to flutter as if they were insects that had suddenly come to life and were trying to esc
ape their captivity.
Kevin spotted Teddy on the dock. “What the hell,” he shouted as he brought the door back around to close it.
“Teddy,” Cody said as he approached him. He was reaching out with one hand when Teddy suddenly jerked backwards and stumbled into his arms. The wind howled around them like a living thing, screaming in a banshee’s voice as it nipped at their legs.
As the falling blankets of snow parted, Kevin saw the stranger standing on the opposite bank watching them. “There’s somebody over there,” Kevin said, shouting to be heard over the roaring voice of the wind. Cody looked in the direction he was pointing but by then the stranger had vanished. His presence disturbed Kevin on a primitive level. There was something odd about his appearance, yet at the same time it was like he belonged there.
Cody hit him on the shoulder, getting his attention, and Kevin followed them back towards the building. Ice crystals had started to form in Teddy’s hair, framing his face in a wreath of white. His eyes were vacant, distant, fixed on some unseen object. The sight of them sent a chill down the length of Kevin’s spine.
Reaching the door, he swiped his card and Cody pulled the door open. After moving Teddy into the building, Kevin turned and walked back across the small dock to the opposite side. He searched the falling snow for the person he’d seen earlier.
“Are you looking for me?” A gravelly voice whispered on his right and Kevin nearly jumped off the dock. He spun around to confront the stranger, who stood a mere ten feet away.
Too close, Kevin thought as he took several quick steps back to open the space between them.
“Who are you? What do you want?” Kevin said. He sensed that the stranger was smiling beneath the filthy scarf that covered the lower portion of his face, a smile that never quite reached eyes that glittered with a harsh light in the shadows that shrouded his features in darkness.
White Walker Page 4