BLOOD ON THE SNOW

 

Blood on the snow

 “What is that noise?” Harlem asked, squinting into the wall of white. He and his friends were wading through snow that came above their knees, hunting for any kind of shelter. This whole getaway had been a terrible idea from the start; he’d known it the moment they suggested it. Holiday season, broken heart, boredom — his friends had dragged him out here despite his protests about the blizzard. Everyone with half a brain was indoors right now.

“What noise?” Peter shouted back over the wind. “I can’t hear anything except my own teeth chattering!”

“I’m not sure,” Harlem muttered. “I thought I heard… a scream. Far off.”

Jay snorted, his breath fogging in front of him. “Wow. You okay, man? You’re starting to sound paranoid.”

Jay wasn’t happy about this trip either, but what was he supposed to do when his crush Zoe had been so eager to come? Everything had been fine until the car broke down. None of them knew the first thing about engines. Jay had begged to leave him and Zoe inside the car — body heat, common sense — but no, the others insisted everyone walk “just in case” they found shelter. Brilliant.

He stole a sideways glance at Zoe. Her nose had gone bright pink; she was shivering hard. Something fluttered in his chest. He shuffled closer.

“Hey, Zoe.”

“What, Jay?”

“You’re freezing. Mind if I put an arm around you? Shared body heat and all that?”

“You can stuff your body heat somewhere else, Jay. I’m fine.”

“Damn it, Zoe! Your heart can’t be colder than this snow.”

“It is when it comes to you.”

Jay’s face burned despite the cold. He glared off into the blizzard and caught Anthonia smirking at him.

“What’s so funny?”

“Come on, Jay,” she teased. “Never give up before the battle’s even started. Girls like the chase. If she gave in now, where’s the fun in tormenting you?”

Jay muttered something very rude under his breath and stomped ahead, trying to put both women behind him. A moment later he heard his name, soft and sweet. He turned. Zoe was looking at him with big innocent eyes.

“What is it?” he snapped, not caring how harsh it sounded.

“You know, Jay, a real gentleman would let the ladies go first.”

He opened his mouth, closed it, then spat, “Stuff your gentleman somewhere else,” and turned back around.

That was when he noticed Harlem had stopped dead. Peter practically crashed into him.

“What the hell, guys?” Jay yelled. “You want my balls to freeze off while you stare at nothing?”

“There’s blood,” Harlem said quietly, pointing at the snow. “Fresh blood.”

“Blood?” Jay’s voice cracked. “Whose blood?”

“How should I know? I just saw it.”

Zoe stepped forward, peering down. “That could be from the scream you heard, Harlem.”

Harlem straightened slowly and scanned the whiteness. “There are no tracks.”

Jay felt the cold crawl deeper than it had any right to. He tried to wiggle his toes inside his boots and couldn’t feel a thing. Panic spiked. “I don’t wanna be here, man. If whatever did that shows up—”

“Get it together,” Peter said, smacking the back of Jay’s head. “You’re hyperventilating.”

“We’re all gonna die!” Jay wailed. “There’s blood everywhere! I never wanted this stupid trip — Zoe made me come!”

“Shut up!” Zoe snarled. “I didn’t make you do anything, you idiot!”

While they bickered, Harlem’s gaze snapped to something moving in the distance. A dark shape, gliding over the snow without sinking an inch.

“Guys,” he whispered. “Cut it out. Look.”

They all turned. Anthonia clapped a hand over her mouth to muffle a scream. Jay took an involuntary step back.

The figure drifted closer, silent and impossibly fast. When it was only a few yards away, Harlem finally saw its face and felt his stomach drop.

Half the jaw was simply gone — a black hole ringed with torn flesh. The other side was rotting, skin peeling away in wet strips. One eye glowed demon-red; the other was a void of pure black. It grinned, smacking shredded lips.

“What brings you to the Road of the Unknown?” Its voice sounded like wind through a graveyard. “No living soul treads this path when the snow falls. Death waits for all who do.”

“Our car broke down,” Harlem managed. “We’re just looking for shelter.”

“This is no road for humans. A price must be paid, or every one of you will spill your blood upon the snow.”

“What price?” Peter asked, voice steady.

“A life for a life.”

“No!” Harlem shouted.

“Then all of you die here,” the thing said simply.

“This can’t be happening,” Harlem said, shaking his head. “We didn’t choose to come here!”

The creature laughed — a wet, rattling sound — and slid closer until Harlem could smell the rot rolling off it.

Jay, clinging to Anthonia’s hand like a lifeline, found his voice. “So you just ambush travelers and drink their blood? Like the poor bastards back there?” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the red snow.

“They were three,” the thing rasped. “One sacrificed himself. The other two were allowed to pass.”

Peter’s nostrils flared. “You done talking yet?”

Jay blinked. Peter sounded… angry. Dangerously angry.

Because Peter was done waiting. He reached inside his coat and pulled out a length of old iron chain. The moment it cleared his pocket, it began glowing with brilliant white light.

The creature hissed and recoiled as though burned.

“We,” Peter said calmly, “are protected by the Chain of the Dead.”

He whipped the glowing chain in a wide arc. The creature shrieked — a sound like tearing metal — and vanished into the storm as if it had never been.

Silence fell, broken only by wind and chattering teeth.

Zoe was the first to speak. “That… was terrifying.” She glanced at Jay and Anthonia — who still hadn’t let go of each other — and smirked. “You two look cute together, by the way.”

Anthonia rolled her eyes and shoved Jay hard. He stumbled and fell face-first into the snow.

“What the hell was that for?” he sputtered, spitting white.

“Trying to get cozy while we’re about to die, Jay? Really?”

Peter was already coiling the chain back up. Jay scrambled to his feet. “Wait — that thing your grandma gave us before we left? That was it?”

Peter exhaled, watching the darkness where the creature had fled. “Yeah. Looks like Grandma’s got some explaining to do when we get home.”

Harlem stared at the blood on the snow, then at the glowing chain slowly dimming in Peter’s hand.

“Next year,” he said weakly, “we’re going somewhere warm.”

Everyone nodded. No one argued.