"Frostbite" by A.M. Bacon

Frostbite

by A.M. Bacon  

Kelly parked her car, hoping for a bit of relief.

  But it wasn’t to happen.

  She could feel that she was followed. 

  She could sense it, but no matter where she looked, no matter when she turned her eyes in any direction, there was nothing. 

  Nobody was anywhere around her.

  She saw no other vehicles. No pedestrians. Nobody dared to be out in this frigid cold, but she had to go out and get some supplies from the store. 

  Grabbing her bag, once more checking her mirrors and looking out the windows, expecting the most hideous of creatures to jump out.

  But nothing was there.

  No beasts slobbering the windows trying to get in.

  Nor any gangs of men ready to beat and rape her for their pleasure.

  Nope. Not even the single heroic man to protect her from the dangers that her anxiety pounded into her brain.

  Just her, her supplies, and her fifty foot walk from the car to her back door.

  How she wished she had a garage to park in. At least then she could be protected from the elements when getting out of her car.

  Being brutally cold outside, she selected the door key on her chain, opened her car door, and stepped out into the arctic blast that immediately surrounded her in its icy grip.

  Her breath was taken away by the frigid environment, if only for a few moments. She inhaled the frozen air, chilling her to her core. Even though she had a few extra layers on for good measure.

  Her first step was a solid crunch in the hard packed snow beneath her boots, It was so loud that it caused her to jump, believing it was a gunshot.

  Turning completely around, ensuring that there was no criminal assailant there to rob or kill her, she continued to her home. Her boots beginning their trek through the short distance of tundra.

  As she stepped closer to her home, and further from her car, she started to sweat. 

  Panic was starting to set in. She was about forty feet from the door when a blast of cold air blew drifting snow across her face, blinding her momentarily. Causing her to freeze. More from fright than the cold.

  She could feel in her gut that something was nearby.

  Spinning around, she fervently searched every possible place to hide. Every shadow, nook cranny and dark place that could potentially contain anything that could and would take her or kill her. 

  But she could see nothing but snow. Looking at the ground, she could see only her footprints between her and her car.

  Feeling just slightly less like there were clawed hands waiting to grab her and ravage her, she struggled forth.

  One step. Two steps. Three steps, Four!

  A horn blared through the neighborhood causing her to react like she had been walking past a door that suddenly opened.

  It was from down the block, but it sudden and loud. Even though it was a delivery truck honking at someone, beckoning them to come out to pick up their delivery.

  She noticed the sounds of the icy snow crystals being blown across the snow, making their own form of music as they slid across the various surfaces.

  Taking multiple deep breaths then exhaling, she reached into her pocket, retrieving her inhaler, she put it to her mouth, triggering it twice and inhaling the Albuterol to help control her breathing.

  It wasn’t meant for her anxiety, but for her Asthma. But she believed it helped. 

  As the medicine worked its way through to her lungs, and finally her breathing under control, she looked again at the door which she was heading towards.

  Another ten steps, she was now less than twenty feet from the sanctuary she called home. Once inside, she would be safe. But she was only just over halfway there.

  After a few more steps, another wind blast and face full of snowflakes, she wiped the snow off, and pirouetted to survey the area, ensuring that nothing was coming after her.

  Breathing a frozen exhalation, she trudged forward. Soon she was only ten feet away, she could see that her footprints from before had been partially filled in by drifting snow, but also noticed something else.

  Another set of tracks that she didn’t recognize.

  Footprints that were a few sizes larger than hers that went to and from her door. 

  Her heart started beating faster, pounding in the cold. She looked in the directions where the footprints had come and gone. They had come from the front of the house, to the back, then back out front.

  This was odd, as she was the only person using this door.

  Rushing the final steps to her door, she inserted her key into the lock, and was ripped violently from the door frame, hurling upwards into the snowy night, crashing down onto the frozen yard.

  As she felt her body being pummelled and her winter gear ripped from her body, she felt the muzzles of the beasts as they ripped into her, devouring her as their blood soaked snouts snorted their growls.

  The beasts had finally gotten her. 

  As she lay dying, she reached into her pocket and pulled the pin, revealing the live grenade she had been keeping for just such an occasion.

  The blast ended her suffering, and sent the beasts into a damaged frenzy.

  If only the beasts had never been summoned in the first place.