Posted by Night Manager on December 29, 2008 at 11:00pm
WINTER GHOST P 7Oh no…The snow pulls at my legs, trying to keep us from escaping. I slog into the alley but I know that he’ll catch us long before we can reach the other end.What little light filtered through the trees and bushes into the alley from the street lights is suddenly blocked.My legs stop dead… I can’t help myself. I can feel his eyes boring into my back.I hear… it’s like a growl…… no, it’s a word… low, deep and rumbling. Oh God…Why can’t I run? Just run… just run…But I don’t. Instead I’m turning.The dark shadow fills the mouth of the alleyway, just about as wide as and taller than I dare to look up.I’m no longer shivering just from the cold.The growl stops and repeats. Now I hear it more clearly… now I understand.MINESomething inside me stirs and my arms tighten about her. Still I dare not look up. The shadow leans into the alley, blocking off all light and I cringe.*no*A wail sounds in the sky above growing louder, coming closer even as I turn to look up. For a moment it looks like the low hanging clouds have come loose from the sky and are falling down. Then I feel the pressure… almost hot… I see wisps of white leaving the snow piled all about… the wail becomes a tortured angry scream……the wind has returned.Just as the scream reaches its crescendo the descending wall of white slams us down. I twist and fall onto my back, holding her tight, holding her close. There’s no protection from the flying snow as it tears at our skin. Desperately I try and shield her face with my own. If we can only hold out through this gust...But still I hear it… even through the gale…MINEThe tiny splinters of snow stab into my face but I force an eye open. The sky is a dark, the snow races in a never ending streaming from one end of the alley to the other where… the shadow stands, resolute against its attack… and it’s reaching out!I roll us up and stand, leaning into the wind. It’s too strong!One step… we nearly fall.One step… but we slide backwards.MINEThe wind shifts again ever so much and I stumble forward. The far end of the alley is a dark blur but I continue on. The wind screams, the snow pelts our skin, her hair flutters against my face, the deep drifts grab at my feet but I continue on.The alley ends in darkness. I can tell that there’s a drop here… probably another snow covered set of steps but I can’t see anything else. I don’t want to fall… it’ll catch us. How do I…I turn and squint back down the alley. The shadow still looms at the other end, leaning into the wind. The snow is bouncing off of it and piling at its feet into a huge drift. Blurry and dark still I can tell… it’s looking right at us. With a sudden violence it kicks through the snow drift and starts after us. I step backward onto nothing and we fall.For one brief moment we fall as the snow does and I can see each clumpy, unique piece distinctly. How can so much snow…We land on a slope in an explosion of snow and pain. My head snaps back… my arms open and she slips from my stiff numb fingers.OH NO! I have no footing… the snow slides and crumbles beneath me and I tumble. In the spinning swirling snow I catch just a glimpse of the shear material she was wrapped in fluttering then disappearing into the storm.Oh God no…
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