I could barely see in front of me as the wind swirled the snow around me. It made it nearly impossible to see, causing me to nearly slip on a patch of ice. Luckily I was able to catch myself, but I nearly fainted as pain shot through my body. Why did my body hurt? I reached down and brought my gloved hand up, it nearly glared red at me against the white background of the wind. I started to shiver in terror as I glared at the stark red blood on my glove against the overwhelming white. Why am I bleeding? I started to shake, nearly collapsing onto the ground, but somehow I stayed on my feet and started to walk through the biting wind.
I could barely remember what had happened, or why I was walking through this storm. I had to get somewhere, I had to escape, something. What had I forgotten?
I felt my body shiver trying to fight against the cold.
Where am I?
I could tell nothing, could make out nothing, all I could see was the blowing snow around me, and the howling of the wind as it whipped around me. I curled my arms to my chest against the cold, wincing in agony, why did my body hurt? Why couldn’t I remember why I was walking through this blizzard? Why did my body shiver with more than just cold?
All that answered me was the blinding white of the storm. I continued to stomp through the snow, my feet crunching against the packed snow beneath me, the only thing I could hear over the howling wind. I also didn’t know what time it was, due to how the wind swirled against me. I continued to through the snow, my body moving forward unconcerned with my questions.
Everything was dreamlike, a nightmare really, continuously striding through the snow. Blinded, deaf, and my body numb. Perhaps I was suffering from hypothermia, it would explain why my brain was sluggish and slow. Why my body was growing number. I squeezed my arms with my hands, trying to keep feeling in them.
As I did however my body screamed at me and I collapsed onto the ground in agony. Lifting my gloved hands in front of my eyes, and balked at the scarlet blood staring back at me. Highlighted by the blinding white all around me.
Why was I bleeding? I looked down at my arms, and saw rips along my jacket, blood bubbling up from the gashes, now pooling onto the ground forming a red puddle against the snow. Breathing quickly, as I fight against the panic growing inside me, I painfully get up from the ground and start walking against the wind. Something inside me urging me onward.
I fought to retain the fact that I was bleeding, more than likely to my death, but the blinding snow swirling around me eroded it from my mind.
I was trying to retain something? It was important and now it was gone from my mind. The howling of wind became harsher, and an icy shiver traveled up my spine that had nothing to do with the blizzard around me. I started to stride faster, terror urging me onward, something was tracking me. At least I think so? Why am I walking so fast?
What is in front of me?
Something was in the blinding snow, like a small black line. That had to be why I started to walk faster. It had to be. Getting closer I realized that it was a road sign. In a flash I realized that I had been driving on the road, through this blizzard, and then I had crashed into the ditch. I had crashed into the ditch. Why hadn’t I stayed with the car? I had blankets in the car, and traveling through a blizzard was dangerous. It would have been safer to stay bundled up and wait for the plow or police. Looking down at my body I panicked as I saw my jacket shredded, blood covering my chest and arms. Why hadn’t I stayed with the car? What had happened when I went into the ditch?
The wind shrieked as the snow stung my eyes as it became harsher, and I started to run trying to escape. Escape what? I didn’t know, but now that I remembered crashing, I knew something was chasing me? Wasn’t there? I started to slow down, my mind becoming blank as the wind continued to swirl the snow around me.
My teeth started to chatter, something was wrong, my body felt numb. As if ice was spreading from my arms and legs. I was dying, I knew I was, but I needed to continue forward. I couldn’t remember why, why was I walking through this blizzard? Where was my wife and children?
My feet faltered, and I spun around terrified. My wife’s name escaping from my lips, followed by my daughter’s and son’s names. But all that returned was the howling wind, my voice muffled by it’s Omnipresence. The inside of the car as they had spun into the ditch flashed in his mind. The children had been scared, but they had been fine, they had been fine, why had he left them?
Why had he left them, why was he walking through the blizzard?
I turned around and continued walking in the direction I had been heading, away from something, something that I didn’t want remember. Was I purposely forgetting something, or was the cold that was seeping into my body shutting my brain down. I couldn’t remember. Or would I even know?
I paused as I heard a crunching sound behind me, loud enough that I heard it over the howling of the wind. Then another crunch as if something was walking behind me, something large.
My body froze, and I closed my eyes, a tiny whimper escaping my lips. Something was behind me, something that terrified me down to my primal being, my body started to shake like a rabbit being stalked by a large predator. I felt the urge to spin around, to see the predator stalking me, but I kept my eyes shut as I stayed rooted in place. The crunching sound continued, getting closer, and closer.
I gathered my courage and spun around prepared to meet my death with my eyes open.
And saw nothing, just the blinding snow as the wind swirled it around me.
Nothing.
My dying mind must have been playing tricks on me. Turning back I screamed, falling backwards, wincing as I hit the ground painfully. Before me was pale, icy blue, predatory eyes. It shook me to the core. But as soon as I blinked, they were gone. I blinked again, nothing. I was going crazy, looking down at my body my heart froze as I saw the bloody gashes in my coat. I was dying, my mind shutting down, seeing things.
Perhaps my mind was manifesting death as it stalked me.
I felt a bubble of laughter rising, and started to hysterically laugh, though it too was muted by the storm around me. I picked myself up painfully as I continued to laugh, and I started to walk through the blinding snow again.
It was a couple of yards, when I stopped laughing, unable to remember why I had started in the first place.
Why was I walking through this blizzard…?
–The flashing red and blue lights shone against the white of the snow. The blizzard had subsided enough that the plows had been able to get out. It was then that they found a car nearly submerged by the snow that had fallen. So submerged that the plows would have missed it, if not for the jagged bits of metal shinning against the sunlight. Inside were the partial remains of a family. Or at least the police suspected that they had been a family, they still needed to send in the blood samples to confirm that, along with the dental records. A mother, a daughter, and a son. All had been set upon by some sort of predator, the police were thinking that it had been a mountain lion, or a pack of coyotes after the car had been torn apart during the crash. Ten miles down the road they had found a man, who the police suspected of being the father of the poor family, barely alive. Something had also attacked him, but somehow he had escaped, despite his grievous wounds. The man though none responsive, was lucid enough that he did ramble out a few words, which were “It‘s hiding in the snow.” Unfortunately the police weren’t able to figure out what, though they have contacted the State Wildlife Agency to figure out what had attacked this poor family.–
Matthew William Lindquist 