In the house where she’d grown up, the steps to the second floor opened into the upstairs hallway. It was really nothing more than a gap in the floor with banisters on two sides to keep people from falling through. From the vantage point in her room, it looked as if the floor was slowly swallowing anyone who went down the steps, an image that added to her fear, reinforcing her belief that the monsters lived beneath the floor. Going up was fine, going up led into the light and safety. But going down was bad, because you became like the monsters that lived there.
She spotted movement, and a single pair of legs emerged, hesitantly coming down the steps. Elizabeth moaned. It was one of the monsters from her childhood, unleashed into the present. She was trapped, as in the nightmares she’d experienced as a child, unable to flee as some monstrous creature emerged from beneath the floorboards, threatening to swallow her whole. She moaned as the legs became a body, and then Jasmine staggered into view.
“Where have you been?” Leslie said, relieved, as she stepped into the hallway and crossed to the bottom of the steps to help Jasmine.
Jasmine looked back over her shoulder as the sound of something crackling came from the second floor shrouded in dense shadows. “He’s coming,” she whispered.
Leslie felt it too as she gazed up the steps into the thick shadows crowded at the top. Something snapped with a sound like a gunshot. The panels of the drop ceiling rattled in their frames as the damaged truss bent under the tremendous weight of the snow pressing down upon it. It had never been built to withstand these weights. The ceiling sagged in the shadowy depth, unseen by those below.
Had they been able to see the roof from outside, they would have witnessed it undulating like the waves of an ocean under the growing weight of the snow. As it was, they were unaware of the danger directly above their heads.
Elizabeth retuned from her brief exploration and with Leslie helped Jasmine into the main room as Teddy and Cody entered from the direction of the break room.
“Where’s David?” Teddy said as he crossed the room.
Jasmine shook her head, her eyes alight with terror as she battled the memory of what had happened. The little girl had only touched his hand. But she wasn’t a little girl anymore. She was something more, something that had existed until that very moment in the feverish recess of her nightmares.
“She has to let them go,” Jasmine said as Elizabeth helped her into a seat. “He has come back for them, she has to release them, now.”
Chapter 21
Where is everybody? Andrea wondered as she turned to look at the door leading to the smoking area. She remembered that she had never lit her cigarette, the memory of her aunt washing away her desire to smoke. The storm raged outside, the wind battering itself against the back wall, shaking the door in its frame, driving the swirling sheets of snow to and fro in a wild dance. For a moment she felt it, that wild abandon of the raging wind, and she was compelled to approach the back door.
As she neared the door, she felt cold waves of air emanating from its surface. The small window had been shattered and blood stained its surface; the bits of glass were held in place by a wire mesh that formed small diamonds. When she was next to the door, she heard the faint whistle of the wind as it blew across the broken surface of the glass.
As a child she had dreamed of flying like a bird. Of being as free as the wind to move about without purpose or desire. She felt that old familiar feeling again and she placed the palm of her hand against the chilled surface of the door. When she did, she became aware of that ancient presence hidden in the depths of the storm as a wild abandon washed over her.
She could fly! If she wanted, the promise came on a sweetly sinister voice that whispered in her mind. Her hand dropped to the handle, which was nothing more than a bar one pushed to open the door, and she leaned into it. She had the handle depressed halfway when she came to her senses and realized what she was doing. She backed up, rubbing her hand as the chill that had invaded her flesh slowly drained away.
Andrea was turning from the door when a shadow moved in the window as a face appeared. She spun back around to see who was outside and she recognized the shape of the head gazing in at her. She was bald, the flesh of her face pulled taunt over the bones of her skull; her eyes looked like they could just roll out of their sockets. A pair of dice that always rolled snake eyes.
“Please,” her aunt Dee whispered in her mind, “please let me in. It’s so cold out here.”
The door rattled in its frame, as if Dee were trying to pull it open. Andrea backed away, unable to tear her gaze from the window. The face vanished and she was turning to flee down the hall to the main floor when she spotted Norman emerging from the shadows that filled the other end of the hallway.
“Norman,” she said.
He ignored her as he walked towards the rear door. Andrea crossed the hall and fell into step beside him. He was sweating, the sour odor of fear rolling off of him in waves. She grabbed his arm to stop him. When he looked into her eyes, she saw the terror, the guilt that had been gnawing at his soul.
“What are you going to do, Norman?”
“I have to let Jimmy in. I have to make it all better. Everything will be okay if I let Jimmy in.”
“Who’s Jimmy?”
“He’s my friend,” Norman answered as his eyes slid off to the right and he gazed at the door.
“He’s not out there, Norman.”
“Yes, he is. He’s waiting for me. He told me everything would be okay. Once he was allowed to come inside, I would be forgiven.”
“You can’t let him in, Norman. It’s not safe.” Andrea glanced at the window, spotting the familiar silhouette of her aunt’s emaciated head. She’s not there, she told herself as she blinked her eyes, trying to dispel that image.
“I have to let Jimmy in, it’s so cold outside,” Norman said in a child’s whining tone.
“You can’t open the door, Norman. We can’t let him in.” Until this moment she had not given much thought to what lived in the storm.
She had always believed there were things beyond their comprehension in the wider world around them. Bigfoot did exist, along with a host of other legends and folktales that had survived the intervening years. But even with this background, she struggled to believe a simple winter storm contained anything more dangerous than the freezing cold and the potential to become lost in a blizzard. Yet she had seen the proof of its existence, had felt its sinister touch. Had fallen briefly under its spell.
“Let me go,” Norman said as he tried to slip around her. She stepped into his path. He grabbed her by the shoulders and firmly moved her aside. Then he turned to the door that rattled in its frame, the searching fingers of the wind trying to pry it open, the growing anticipation of getting what it wanted making it rattle harder and faster.
Andrea refused to give up. She reached him just as he started to push against the bar that would open the door.
“Please, Norman,” she said.
A tear rolled down Norman’s cheek, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for any of it to happen.”
“I know you didn’t. It wasn’t your fault.”
“But they said,” he faltered and turned to face her, his eyes two black pools of terror and pain.
“It doesn’t matter what they said. That was then, this is now. The past is what it was.”
He blinked, wiping at his tears. “I didn’t want it to happen.”
“I know.” Andrea wrapped him in her arms and gently placed his head against her shoulder.
“I’m sorry,” he sobbed.
“It’s okay,” she whispered in a soothing voice as she watched the shadowy form at the window. The face that had been there became her Aunt Dee’s and she felt her own sorrow stir. There was nothing she could have done, there was nothing any of them could have done to save her, so there was no guilt for this thing to lure her with.
She led Norman back to the main room.
Chapter 22
Teddy,
Cody, and Judy crossed the main room as Elizabeth and Leslie helped Jasmine to a seat.
“What the hell is she babbling about?” Cody said.
“I dunno,” Liz said.
“I’ll get her some water,’” Judy said. She turned and raced back across the main room, vanishing into the shadowy depths of the hallway as Andrea led Norman across the room to a chair, where he sat down.
“Is he okay?” Teddy said, nodding at Andrea, who answered with a shrug and a sigh.
The lights of the main room flickered on briefly then went out. The air became charged with static electricity as the heavy odor of ozone filled the room. Whispering voices came from the shadows all around them, snatches of conversation that faded in and out of focus, becoming louder, then softer as if someone were twisting the volume knob on a radio back and forth. The air was filled with the odor of roasting flesh, and the screams of children swirled around them in a confused maelstrom of sound, accompanied by the crackling sound of a raging fire. Thunder rumbled distantly as the incessant pounding of the wind battered itself against the outer walls. The storm was growing even more violent. The end was coming. They all felt it on a deep, primitive level.
Cody and Teddy were approaching Jasmine when a sound like that of an electric motor suddenly running out of control washed over them. A high-pitched whine that created a painful sensation at the center of his forehead. The overpowering scent of ozone filled Teddy’s mouth with a metallic taste that made the fillings in his teeth hurt. It felt like his mouth was filled with electricity.
“What the fuck is that,” Cody said, causing Teddy to stop short and turn around.
Behind them, a one-room schoolhouse occupied the center of the main floor. Leslie screamed and backed away as Elizabeth held her hand over her mouth, joining her friend as they put some distance between themselves and the old structure. Teddy had felt it on that primitive level where man’s most basic emotions dwelled. That and the heat that emanated from its presence drove back the chill that had slowly been winding its way through the room.
“You can see it?” Teddy said.
“Of course I can see it. What the hell is going on around here?”
Spectral flames danced around its edges as shadowy shapes flitted to and fro behind the opaque glass of its two small windows. The past and the present occupied the same space; in one stood the drab gray dividers that served to create the maze of cubicles that covered the main floor, in the other was the one-room schoolhouse that looked like it had just been dropped into place from the Kansas plains. With not a straight corner, the schoolhouse stood tiredly, as if a stiff breeze would be enough to bowl it over.
Judy returned, carrying a cup of water, and stopped as she became aware of the schoolhouse. Slowly, cautiously, she approached the ancient building. A face appeared at one of the windows, its features twisted beneath the rippled surface of the glass.
It was all they could afford. The thought filled Teddy’s mind.
Chapter 23
“He wants the children,” Jasmine said as she pushed herself up from her seat and approached the building.
“What are you talking about?” Cody said.
“He wants the children,” Jasmine said, “that’s why he came back. He wants their souls.”
“Who?” Judy said.
“The walker, jack frost, the white one. The one your mother called White Walker.”
“How did you know about that?” Judy said.
“You’ve seen him, haven’t you?” Jasmine crossed to where Judy stood. She looked into her eyes, and placed her hand on her belly. “Does he know?”
“Who?”
“Who do you think?” Jasmine said as she glanced over at Teddy.
“Do I know what?” Teddy said.
“He doesn’t, does he?” Jasmine said with a widening smile that faltered as realization dawned in her eyes. “He’s here for you, for your child. You made a promise. It’s his way into the world of the living.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Judy said as she pushed Jasmine away and retreated to Teddy’s side.
“What the hell is she talking about? What child?” Teddy said.
“It’s nothing,” Judy said, “a bunch of babbling nonsense.”
“What are you talking about, Jasmine?” Teddy said.
Jasmine looked from Judy to Teddy. “She never told you?”
“Just shut up. It’s my business,” Judy said.
Teddy shook his head. “She hasn’t told me anything, why?”
“She’s pregnant,” Jasmine said.
Teddy looked from Jasmine to Judy as his mouth worked silently. He was surprised, yet at the same time he wasn’t. He realized she had been leaving him clues all week. Little things that while not odd in and of themselves, when taken as a whole, with the understanding he now had, added up. He was surprised he hadn’t figured it out sooner.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he said, turning to confront Judy.
“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “With your plans I knew there wasn’t really room for a child right now.”
“But what were you going to do?”
“I don’t know. I wasn’t really sure.”
“You know I would do the right thing by you.”
“I didn’t want you to do the right thing unless it was something you really wanted to do.”
“But I want this. I’ve always wanted this.”
“What about your plan? Your goal to be rich before you started a family?”
“It’s just a goal. Something I wanted to try to do before I settled down. If I didn’t make it, or didn’t succeed for one reason or another, it would be no big deal. We’ll survive.”
“I don’t want you to feel you have to do this. I don’t want to feel like we will survive is our only option.”
“I don’t feel I have to. I want to. I’ve always wanted to.”
“You have a hell of a way of showing it.”
“I wasn’t sure you felt the same way. You haven’t really been open with your own feelings lately.”
“Only because I wasn’t sure about you, especially after what you told me about your own parents and what your family did after.”
“That’s the past. It is what it was, there’s no changing that. What was Jasmine talking about with a promise?”
“It’s nothing, something I said when I was a kid.” Yet she knew it was anything but. As a child she had made a promise to that which inhabited the forest behind her house. Some would say the promise of a ten-year-old girl grieving the loss of a favored pet would never hold up in a court of law and they would be right. Unfortunately that promise had not been made to someone ruled by any court in the world. Her promise had been made to what many believed was a local legend, an entertaining tale whispered over the dancing flames of a campfire. A creature of the storm.
Just like their current situation, the winter storm had surprised a populace more than ready for spring. Restless winds cast the falling snowflakes about in an erratic dance as its depths slowly accumulated. Her dog, Charlie, a Pekinese-poodle mix who had been a part of the family since before her birth, needed to go out.
Always put a leash on him, her mother had warned when she started taking the responsibility of seeing to his daily needs. He likes to run and he won’t come back, so put a leash on him. Her mother’s words echoed in her mind as she led Charlie to the back door. He dutifully followed her and sat as she attached the leash to his collar. Once outside, he raced back and forth, testing the ends of the leash. On his third lunge, the looped end she should have slipped over her wrist slipped from her hand and Charlie darted across the back yard for the tree line that led into the forest depths. There were things out there that would gobble him up like a tasty little snack.
She called for him to come back, but he ignored her pleas, vanishing into a stand of pines whose limbs were sagging from the weight of the snow that had accumulated on them.
She had been frantic as she d
arted back and forth on the small patio, not sure if she should follow, the falling snow quickly coating his trail in a new blanket of white. She raced back inside, slipped on her boots, and returned to the patio. She followed Charlie’s trail into the stand of pines, calling his name and listening for any sound to point her in the direction he’d fled. The snow was falling so fast it was quickly filling in his narrow trail, making it indistinguishable from the rest of that blanket of white.
Once inside the tree line, she looked back at her house, reassuring herself that she could still see it, noting too that her own trail was quickly being obliterated. It was bad enough losing Charlie over her own stupidity; it wouldn’t do for her to become lost as well. The immensity of the forest lay before her, a vast expanse of wilderness that offered little hope. Behind her lay the safety, and warmth, of her house.
She should go back. Charlie could find his own way home. He had in the past, but this time it was different. He’d never been lost in a snowstorm before. As she stood just inside the tree line, struggling to decide which course of action to follow, she heard the steady sound of footsteps coming from the shadowy depths of the forest. With a slow, measured gait, they approached her, and she took a step back, suddenly very afraid.
Who would be out wandering around in a storm like this? she wondered as the footsteps drew closer. Within the blanket of falling snowflakes, she spotted movement. A lone figure dressed in a long overcoat, a filthy red scarf wrapped around the lower portion of his face, a battered cowboy hat pulled low over his eyes.
The sight of him made her want to flee back to the house, yet she stood her ground. She remembered the whispered stories her friends had shared about a lone stranger who would arrive with the storms. No one knew where he lived, and he would only ever be seen during a heavy snowfall. Denise, her best friend, had told her once that the stranger had come to her bedroom window, wanting her to let him in. She wasn’t sure whether to believe her or not, but now, as the stranger slowly approached through the maze of pine trees that marched away in every direction, her fear was tinged with a hint of curiosity.
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