The Frozen Man

by Lex Sinclair

  ‘Why can’t you just walk in? I couldn’t stop you even if I wanted to, right?’

  The creature nodded. ‘True, I could just walk in, Tom. But that would rather impolite, wouldn’t you say so?’

  ‘Y-Yes.’

  ‘I’m not going to ask again, Tom.’

  ‘What happens if I say no to you? Then what?’ Tom raised his voice, in both fear and rage.

  ‘I guarantee you will regret it, more so than anything else you have done this year.’

  ‘How? Why?’

  ‘There are a lot of dangerous people roaming around town these days, Tom.

  Didn’t you know? You were foolish to let your pregnant wife walk the streets alone. You were also extremely foolish to let her drive in her condition, too.

  Were you not?’

  Tom didn’t reply. He glared at the creature.

  ‘It would be an awful tragedy to befall your wife, if she was to get hurt by a mindless thug or have fatal car crash on her way home, isn’t that so?’

  Tom raised his arms, surrendering to the thing that walked the earth in Charles’ body. He took three backward steps and gaped as the Frozen Man stepped over the threshold, enter his home and close the door on the outside world.

  The Frozen Man turned around and faced him. ‘I’m sorry I interrupted your lunch. I know how much you love your peanut butter sandwiches while watching the TV, but you and I both know that this is far more important. Yes?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Tom replied, hating himself for trembling.

  ‘Good... Shall we sit in the living room? I’ll do the talking while you can eat your lunch and drink your can of Diet Coke.’

  Hesitantly, he led the way through the short hallway back into the living room, wishing he had never answered the door.

  ‘There’s no good wishing for things like that, Tom,’ the Frozen Man said, reading his thoughts, the way Tom read a book. ‘I would’ve stood there for an eternity until you opened the door. No, you did the wise thing by answering my call when you did. And don’t worry, Kate won’t be home for a while yet. You know what women are like? She’s probably standing by a shop window ogling some dress she can’t fit into in her current condition.’

  Tom entered the living room and stood by the TV.

  ‘Tom, I think it would be much wiser if we both sat down, don’t you?’

  Tom silently agreed with the ghastly entity standing so close to him he gagged, making his throat tighten. Then he sat back in the corner or the sofa, knocking the TV off using the remote. The Frozen Man took a seat on the chaise lounge next to his CD rack.

  ‘You know why I’m here, yes?’

  Tom shook his head. Then said, ‘Because you want revenge for what we did?’

  ‘That’s not how I would’ve worded it - but yes. You can’t go unpunished for what you did.’

  Fear rushed through Tom. ‘What’re you gonna do to me?’

  The Frozen Man clasped his hands together and leaned forward, ‘Well, that depends on you and Kate. The reason I came to see you while you were alone was, because my being here today would’ve scared Kate half to death. She would shriek the house down and you wouldn’t be sitting here talking to me like a responsible adult. Am I right?’

  ‘You could say that, I suppose,’ Tom said, doing his utmost to remain unruffled.

  The creature gave him a false smile, then continued, ‘No, Tom, there’s no supposing about it. That’s the truth - you and I both know it. Whether or not you want to admit it is another matter. Also, she’s carrying your baby. Now it wouldn’t be very polite of me to ask to come on in knowing that I had just murdered your unborn child, would it?’

  Tom stared daggers at the horrid, manipulative figure. ‘No, it wouldn’t.’

  ‘No need to get aggressive, Tom. I mean, let’s face facts - it’s not even your child, really. If we’re being honest, that is.’

  Tom gritted his teeth, the heat rising to his face like steam out of kettle when it had reached boiling-point.

  ‘That’s what I’m here to talk to you about, Tom. However, you must remain calm and reasonable. We both know deep down how that baby got into your wife’s womb: there’s no denying such an obvious fact. Yet I’m willing to offer you something no man who has ever caused the death of someone like me.’ The Frozen Man regarded him and frowned. ‘Lost your appetite, Tom?’

  Tom forgot all about the peanut butter sandwiches. He could barely breathe normal, let alone think about eating or drinking something in the presence of this monstrosity, who wore Charles’ body with the same ease as a normal person wore an old raincoat.

  ‘Tom!’ the Frozen Man called. ‘Try to get a grip on reality for a few minutes.’

  ‘Yeah,’ he said, and then cleared his dry throat. ‘I’m not hungry any more.’

  ‘No wonder. Look at what your wife made you?’ it said, pointing at the sandwiches on the small china plate.

  Hesitant to turn away from the creature, Tom glanced at the mouldy sandwiches. The bread had turned a rotten blue-green hue and white maggots wriggled and crawled out of the crevices. Tom leapt backwards. He blinked, and then saw that the sandwiches were white again, the crusts brown and the peanut butter still fresh from the jar, as it ought to be.

  ‘I can make things very, very unpleasant, Tom.’

  Tom faced Charles’s carcass, having reassured himself a little. ‘You did that?’

  The Frozen Man nodded once. ‘And I can do a whole lot more, Tom. Would you like me to demonstrate for you?’

  Tom shook his head forcefully.

  ‘Wise decision, Tom. I know you are perfectly aware of the kind of things I and my kind are capable of doing. So far we understand one another quite well.’

  ‘Just tell me what is you want and get out. Please!’

  ‘Patience is a virtue, Tom. Not something you should take lightly.’

  Tom sighed explosively. ‘Look,’ he began, ‘we didn’t mean to kill you, all right. You tried to kill Charles, and then me. You didn’t exactly give us a choice.’

  ‘You always have a choice,’ the Frozen Man said. ‘You had a choice on whether or not to leave my recovering shell hanging up in the treetops on that winter day after the storm or to meddle with something you are too stupid to comprehend. You chose the latter, ignoring all the warning signs flashing in your conscience.’

  Tom lowered his head into his lap, but not because he was ashamed, only because he was exhausted with worry and nerve-tattering trepidation. ‘Actually, I didn’t want to cut the body down.’

  ‘No; that is true. However, you went along and put the corpse into the boot of your car and then carried it up into the loft above the garage, did you not?’

  ‘Unwillingly,’ Tom said.

  ‘Yet you did it all the same, did you not?’

  ‘Yes... I did.’

  ‘Then you helped the old fool throw my corpse into the fire, isn’t that also true?’ the Frozen Man asked, not missing a beat.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘You are a murderer, Tom.’

  Tom grimaced at that harsh comment.

  ‘Oh, the truth hurts, doesn’t it?’

  ‘I suppose so.’

  The Frozen Man stopped talking for a few moments. It let what he’d already said sink in before continuing. ‘Why don’t you take a sip of the Coke, Tom?

  You look awfully pale. Might bring some colour back and quench your thirst.’

  Tom glanced at the can of Coke beside his foot, and wanted to open it and gulp some of it down, but couldn’t coerce his hands to move.

  ‘What’s the matter, Tom?’

  ‘I don’t feel comfortable doing anything in your presence,’ he said.

  ‘You’re eager for me to be on my way, I can tell.’

  ‘What gav
e you that impression?’

  The corpse tilted his head back and roared laughter. ‘My, aren’t we humorous today? That’s a good one.’

  Tom didn’t answer. He wasn’t trying to be funny. He just wanted this entity to leave and never show its grotesque countenance to him ever again. ‘What’s your proposition?’ he prompted.

  ‘My proposition is this,’ the Frozen Man said, matching Tom’s irritated tone of voice. ‘You and Kate either decide to have the baby terminated, or you come with me and leave Kate alone for ever? Those are the options... and those alone.

  You have an important decision to make.’

  Tom contorted his face. ‘What the hell are you talkin’ about?’

  ‘From Charles you learned much about my kind, but you didn’t learn the whole truth...’

  ‘Enlighten me.’

  ‘Very well... My kind has walked the earth before your kind was a glimmer in the Creator’s eye. We were the first kind of people.

  ‘You believed that your kind was developed from apes - and the process of evolution, which is false, although not entirely. Humans were developed not from apes, but from my kind. God’s first creation. We were here before the plants, dinosaurs and other creatures - we were before everything. Yet He loathed us from the moment we begun walking His earth. We were an abomination to Him. We looked exactly like you but we possessed powers far greater than your comprehension, let alone consider achieving without assistance from a machine of some kind. Even now in the twenty-first century, you still have not got half the capabilities we have.’

  ‘Why did God create us then, when he could’ve created more of your kind?

  Why did he hate you so much?’ Tom said, wanting to know everything. He was intrigued. But he could also tell from the tone of voice from the monstrosity that, even now, it was still furious with God for loathing His kind.

  ‘God gave us powers that He possessed. Then He grew jealous, because we were almost as powerful as Him. But He couldn’t kill us. Despite the garbage you read in your Holy Bible He could not do that - it would be contradictive to His beliefs. Instead He warned us not to interfere with your kind, as you were His greatest creation. He was proud of you, and condemned us. Some of my kind, understandably, were hurt and angered by His order and rebelled against Him purposely, as you know.’

  Tom thought for a few seconds that this was just another one of those dreadful dreams he and his wife had been having recently, although knew that it wasn’t the case. This was something far more in-depth.

  ‘Our kind mixed with your kind, and trouble arose.’ The Frozen Man seemed to avert his gaze as though his mind drifted back into time.

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘Your kind grew jealous of our kind, like God had foretold us would happen,’ the creature continued. ‘But my kind were the first kind, and therefore believed they were entitled to the freedom your kind was granted. Chaos ensued, as Charles told you in some of his yarns.’

  ‘Why didn’t God just take your powers away?’

  ‘He couldn’t. Once He gives someone a gift - whatever it might be - He can’t take it back. That was a rule He made for Himself, when He first created Earth.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because through you, God wanted to enjoy all the pleasantries of the world.

  But He wanted to see it through the eyes of someone who couldn’t come back to life once they were dead or turn back the hands of time, or turn perfectly good peanut butter sandwiches into mouldy peanut butter sandwiches, just by imaging it. He wanted to make it difficult for you to achieve good things, so then you would learn to appreciate them all the more when you did have them - because you had to work hard for your achievements.’

  ‘Makes sense,’ Tom said.

  ‘God is good. God is great. God is everlasting,’ The Frozen Man.

  ‘Why didn’t your kind just get on with your lives amongst yourselves? Why did you go against His word, knowing it would piss Him off?’

  ‘Because we were here first! We were here before the dinosaurs, before Christ and a lot other things you think happened, which didn’t. We were treated like outcasts. He preferred your kind.’

  Tom shrugged inwardly. If I had created your kind, I would regret it, too.

  ‘However, our kind swore that if your kind ever did us any harm, then we would make you pay the ultimate price.’

  ‘But you used your gifts to hurt us and to get the opposite sex to adore you.

  What did you expect? People don’t like that sort of thing. No wonder God made you outcasts. He gave you incredible gifts and you misused them. You were greedy and selfish.’

  ‘We took what was rightfully ours,’ the Frozen Man challenged.

  Tom shook his head slowly, purposely. ‘The world is God’s and everything in it.’

  The horrid creature glared at him. ‘We worshiped a new leader, who had also been cast out by God from Heaven. And he told us that the world was ours for the taking.’

  ‘What does all this have to do with me and Kate, anyway?’

  ‘You harmed me. Now you must pay. But I am being lenient with you as you were against cutting my body down in the forest, initially.’

  ‘I thought you said in my dreams that we had set you free and that you would grant us a wish?’

  The entity that had taken his friend’s body leant back against the cream- coloured wall. ‘Your wife and you have to decide whether or not you want to bring a baby into the world or if you want to be together. You can’t have both.

  You committed a terrible sin, Tom. You now have to pay the ultimate price.’

  ‘I can’t make a decision like that,’ Tom said.

  ‘Of course not. You and your wife need to discuss and come to a decision.’

  Tom’s breathing became harsh and rapid. ‘Why are you doing this?’

  The Frozen Man rose. ‘Look at me!’ he ordered. ‘I am very old, swarthy-faced and have deeply-etched creases, and eyes cast far back in my head. My teeth are rotten yellow, as are my fingertips. My body is frail and ready to break at any moment. When you saw me encased in the block of ice, I had been killed - but I was not dead. Far from it. I was merely resting. Then you came and cut me down, hid me away, right here in your home, where I started to decompose.

  Then you killed me. However, unlike you, I will still be walking the earth long after you have perished. Although, now I don’t have my own body, I have to walk the earth for an eternity in this battered old cadaver... but not for long.’

  The tension in the room mounted.

  ‘I want either your unborn child’s body or your body. It doesn’t matter to me who I take... as long as I have what I want. If you do this without causing me any more grief; you will have that peace of mind you wished for. I promise you.’

  Tom didn’t know what to say. Then he opened his mouth, ‘How did my baby get inside Kate?’ he asked.

  ‘The baby’s yours, Tom. Question is, can Kate live without you or the unborn child?’

  ‘She’ll never believe me,’ he croaked.

  The Frozen Man nodded. ‘Yes, she will, Tom. She’ll believe you.’ The figure crossed the living room trailing cinders of flesh on the carpet and stopped at the doorway. ‘I’ll give you the same amount of time it took God to create the earth, before I return. If you haven’t got an answer for me by then, I’ll make the decision for you. And believe me I will... I’ll let myself out. Goodbye.’

  Tom could hear his footfalls creak over the floorboards as the Frozen Man made his way down the short hallway to the front door. When he heard the front door close, he got to his feet, tottering at first because they were shaking excessively, then ran down the short hallway after the corpse, yanked the door open and peered outside.

  The only things he saw and heard that moved were white puffy clouds float
ing overhead in the ocean-blue sky, the tranquil street with the familiar background noises of lawnmowers, children screaming heartily, and a young woman wearing shades passing by his home in her red sports car with the sunroof down - but no Frozen Man.

  30

  Tom waited on the doorstep for Kate to arrive. This situation couldn’t wait. It would be something they needed to discuss and consider immediately. He knew the Frozen Man, or creature, or whatever the hell it was, meant everything it had said. There was no denying that fact. Seven days from now it would return, and they had to have an answer for it or else it would take what it wanted, without remorse.

  No wonder, God doesn’t like them, he thought. The first kind of living creatures, who had gifts beyond his comprehension were also full of gluttony.

  And they didn’t care who stood in their way; they would go through anyone until they got what they craved. They were condemned to this life for ever. Did that mean there was in fact another life after the one on earth?

  Tom sipped his Coke. He didn’t feel like eating his peanut butter sandwiches right now; not after he’d witnessed what the Frozen man had done to them, by mere thought.

  The child or me? What a horrible predicament he found himself in. He thought he knew what Kate would decide and the answer caused him to shudder.

  The sound of a lawn mower a couple of houses down brought him to the surface of the goings on around him and from out of the pool of crazy thoughts accelerating in his head. He drained the rest of the Coke, and then noticed his wife’s car at the top of the street heading towards home. A hard lump the size of a stone worked in the back of his throat. Using the doorframe to steady himself, Tom stood and stepped down onto the driveway where Kate brought her car to a slow halt.

  She turned the engine off and got out. ‘Hi,’ she said, smiling, but wondering what her husband had been doing sitting on the doorstep like a sullen young boy waiting for his mother to return home.

  ‘Hi,’ he echoed, not wanting to sound edgy. ‘Do you want a hand with anything?’

  Kate nodded. Then she went around to the boot, suddenly recalling the day they brought the corpse with them. Tom carried the shopping bags inside. He put them down in the living room area and told Kate that she needed to listen to what he had to tell her, as it was extremely important. He did his utmost to cut a long story short to spare her the grief and sorrow, all to no avail. Kate’s uncontrollable fear kicked in and she started to quiver. He went to her and held her close, hoping the panic would abate.