White Walker (18 page)

The bed of the truck vanished beneath the falling
mountain of snow. The truck bounced up as that immense weight bent
the frame in the middle, causing the body to fold in up on itself.
The roof of the cab was mere inches from the bed of the truck. Judy
groaned, holding her hand over her forehead, blood trickling down
her face from the wound she had received. Jasmine was worse off.
She was trapped in the back seat.

Teddy opened his door and slid from behind the
wheel. Reaching back in, he pulled Judy from the cab of the truck
as the wind shrieked around them with an inhuman voice.

“Can you get out through the side window?” Teddy
said as he hunkered down to look in at Jasmine, who was encased in
the cab of the truck. There was only a narrow opening for her to
squeeze through, and he reached in to help her.

“Grab my hand” he said.

Jasmine grabbed his hand and Teddy pulled. Jasmine
screamed in agony.

“It’s my leg. It’s stuck.”

Racing around the crumbled truck, Teddy looked in
from the other side. Jasmine was indeed stuck, her leg trapped
between the seat cushion and the back of the front seat. Teddy
pushed against the seat back. It moved an inch and he shoved again,
getting another bit of movement.

“Can you get your leg out now?”

“Yes.”

Teddy raced around to the other side as the snow
quickly changed to one direction. Judy stood transfixed, gazing up
at the funnel of snow that was quickly gathering itself up.

“Give me a hand here,” he shouted and she jerked
into action, dropping to her haunches to help Teddy pull Jasmine
from the truck. Only her head and shoulders had cleared the
wreckage when a familiar sound came from the storm around them. It
was the thundering roar of the snow slamming into the ground,
causing the earth to rumble beneath their feet.

Jasmine screamed.

They were driven back by the falling mountain of
snow that cut off Jasmine’s scream in mid-note.

“We gotta get outta here,” Teddy said, pulling Judy
to her feet and dragging her towards the hump of the ridge that was
only a hundred yards away.

“What about Jasmine?”

“There’s nothing we can do for her now,” Teddy said
as he pulled at Judy’s arm.

She stood rooted in place, her gaze fixed on the
flattened wreckage of the pickup buried beneath a pile of snow.
Jasmine’s hand protruded lifelessly from the bottom of the pile,
her fingers bent into a beckoning gesture. Judy took a step towards
her and Teddy pulled at her arm. “There’s nothing we can do, I’m
sorry.”

Judy spun around to confront him.

“Are you going to leave me like that too?”

“What?”

“What if we can’t get away? What then? Are you going
to leave me behind?”

“If we can make it to the ridge we should be safe,”
he said as he glanced back over his shoulder at the hump in the
road. Beyond the hump he was sure he saw the sun lighting the
overcast day. “If we can get to the other side, we might be
safe.”

“And if we’re not?” Judy said.

“We gotta try.”

The wind shrieked around them, tearing at their
clothes, trying to drive them back the way they had come. With
their heads down, their hands interlocked, they bent into the wind
and walked as fast as they could towards the hump of the ridge
ahead of them.

From the wreckage behind them came a stir of
movement. Jasmine’s lifeless hand drew itself into a fist as the
arm was drawn into the pile of snow. Snow slid to the ground, the
pile disturbed from within as Jasmine’s head emerged and she pushed
herself to her feet, bits of snow falling from her body as she
stood. She spotted Teddy leading Judy towards the hump of the ridge
and set out after them.

The errant paths of the swirling snow suddenly
straightened as that irresistible force slowly gathered itself.
Teddy felt himself slipping backwards, the howling voice of the
wind the only thing he could hear as they neared the hump of the
ridge.

“It’s happening again,” he said.

“Why can’t it leave us alone,” Judy screamed as the
snow was drawn into a swirling funnel that quickly grew behind
them.

Teddy spun around to watch and saw Jasmine
staggering out of the wreckage. Judy saw her as well and yanked her
hand from Teddy’s grip. She ran back towards the truck.

“Don’t,” Teddy cried out and chased after her. He
caught up with Judy twenty yards from the truck.

“It’s not her,” he said.

Judy watched as Jasmine approached them, her steps
faltering as she stumbled forward.

“We gotta help her.”

“It’s not Jasmine.”

“Like hell it’s not. She’s still alive,” Judy said.
She pulled herself away and ran towards the shorter woman. When she
was a few feet away, she stopped abruptly as Jasmine’s features
came into view. Jasmine’s flesh had been replaced by glacial ice,
her eyes burning with a blue-tinged white light. She reached out
for Judy, who stumbled back as Teddy came up behind her.

Teddy shoved Jasmine back and she latched onto his
arm, the chill of her icy flesh freezing his own flesh through his
heavy coat. The storm was gathering itself up for another strike.
Teddy yanked his arm away and Jasmine leaned towards him with her
arms outstretched, trying to encircle and trap him.

“Run,” Teddy shouted to Judy, who stood rooted in
place. She took a hesitant step back, then another, before she
turned and fled into the storm. Teddy kicked out, planting his foot
squarely in Jasmine’s stomach, and pushed her away from him.

He turned and ran as that towering funnel of snow
grew above his head. He caught up with Judy, propelling her forward
as they approached the hump of the road. Then it came to them, that
thundering roar they could feel through their feet, and Teddy
shoved Judy over the hump just as the snow slammed into the ground
behind him. He was driven forward, beyond the hump in the road,
sliding across the snow towards the edge beyond which lay a sheer
drop to the freeway nearly a hundred feet below.

The world spun around him crazily as he slid towards
the edge of the cliff. As he passed under the guardrail, an older
type comprised of thick stranded steel cables suspended between
steel uprights. He grabbed the cable, and a broken strand of the
wire pierced his palm as his feet swung out over the edge. He
pulled himself back as a hot jolt of pain scrambled the length of
his arm as blood seeped out from between his fingers clasped around
the cable.

Judy knelt down beside him, the wind whipping her
hair back and forth as the storm raged behind her. Her hand traced
the hollow of his cheek as she caressed his face, in her eyes he
saw that she had made a terrible decision.

“No,” he shouted, the words torn from his lips by
the ceaseless wind as she stood up and turned to face the raging
storm.

He struggled to pull the steel strand back through
his palm, a white-hot pain lancing his hand as the strand became
tangled in the fabric of the glove he wore. He yanked at his hand,
screaming in a helpless rage tinged by a searing agony as Judy
vanished into the swirling curtains of snow that surrounded
them.

Suddenly the winds of the storm ceased, their
howling voices fading into a preternatural stillness as the
solitary sound of footsteps came from beyond the curtains of snow
that continued to fall from the gray sky above. A color that
perfectly matched his mood as an overwhelming sadness wrapped him
in its chilly embrace.

The sun shimmered with a golden light against the
clear blue of an unblemished sky. Teddy lay on a beach towel spread
out on the warm sands of a strip of beach that vanished into the
distance to either side of him. Though the beach was crowded with
other visitors, he didn’t seem to mind as he watched a group of
small children along the water’s edge. They were gathered around a
young girl, no more than three, who squatted at the water’s edge,
doing something with her hands that was hidden from his view.

“Hey Mom,” one of the children looked up and shouted
to an older lady on Teddy’s left who appeared more interested in
the book she was reading than in what her son wanted. “Hey, Mom,
you gotta see this,” the little boy persisted, “she’s making mini
tornadoes out of the water.”

The woman waved a disinterested hand at her son and
Teddy allowed himself to relax.

A shadow fell across him and he looked up at the
slender silhouette of the person standing above him.

“Is this spot taken?” Judy said as she settled onto
the beach towel beside him.

“Not at all, just don’t tell my wife.”

Judy smiled as her features came into view, her
right eye had become a very light gray, almost white, in sharp
contrast with the soft brown of her other eye. The color of her eye
matched the jagged streak of pure white hair that bisected her
skull, starting directly above her right eye, and ending below her
left ear. It was a feature that had brought many compliments in the
past, as well as an equal amount of jealous anger when Judy was
unable to divulge exactly how her hair had gotten that way.

After all how did one explain what they experienced
without the listener believing that a night in a padded cell might
be in order.

Judy glanced at their daughter Harriet who had
become the center of attention for several older children gathered
at he edge of the surf. They each shared that streak of white hair,
but where Judy’s was flat, Harriet’s hair was full-bodied and quite
curly. Both of Harriet’s eyes were the same shade of gray as her
mother’s right eye, giving her an eerie appearance. In addition to
the odd coloring, there was timelessness in her gaze. Her eyes like
those of an old man who had seen more than his share of the
world.

“What’s she doing?”

“It would appear she is making mini tornadoes out of
water.”

“We’re gonna have to teach her not to do that in
public.”

“She’ll be all right as long as no adults notice,
and even if they did, they probably wouldn’t believe what they’re
seeing.”

“But when she gets older,” Judy said.

Teddy stopped her, “everything will be fine, she’ll
learn.”

They had discovered Harriet’s special ability, a
gift from her other father, when she was two. Judy had been bathing
her and she had stepped away for a moment to retrieve the shampoo.
Upon turning back to the tub she discovered that Harriet had
created a water funnel that stood a full foot above the surface of
the water, controlling it with her hands as she giggled in delight.
Judy had been so startled she’d screamed, causing Harriet to lose
control, soaking Judy to the bone as the funnel exploded.

Teddy had come home that evening to find Judy trying
unsuccessfully to coax Harriet to do it again, a pan of water
sitting on the coffee table in front of her. While they were in the
kitchen talking about what had happened, Teddy glanced into the
living room to see Harriet standing in front of the pan of water,
her hands held out before her as she controlled the undulating
movement of the funnel of liquid that was slowly growing above her,
a smile of pure, innocent, joy lighting her features.

It all made sense then. The old gods, they still
existed, ancient deities brought to these shores by early
immigrants who had spoken of them in the old country, creatures of
legends and folklore, beings of myth who wanted the same thing any
of them did.

The immortality that came from having children.

The group around Harriet split up and she stood
watching the ocean with old eyes as a piece of ice, a side effect
of her little trick, tumbled in the waves crashing against the
shore. Slowly it melted into the warm waters as a heavy sadness
settled over Teddy.

When she got older he knew she would leave them and
return to the frozen north. After all it was in her nature, they
had been blessed with the task of caring for her as she grew up,
but when she became an adult that need to know would send her away
in search of an answer neither of them could provide.

“Are you happy?” Judy said as she rolled onto her
side to look at him.

Teddy rolled over to face Judy as he considered her
question. “Yes,” he answered truthfully. He was no longer a call
center supervisor, having decided to go into retail after they
moved to Florida. The pace was slower and the money wasn’t too bad.
He had Judy, and for however short the time might be, they had
Harriet. But he had learned something even more important than the
fact there were other jobs besides management.

He had discovered that most of the time you did what
you had to. But sometimes, you did what was best for your loved
ones, cherishing every moment you had with them, as you were never
sure when that time would come to an end.

Richard Schiver

May 25, 2014

Shadows danced across the window of Christine’s
darkened bedroom as she lay in bed with her stuffed bunny, Puddles,
held close by her side. With the blankets pulled up to her chin her
gaze moved among the objects in her room around her. The deep
shadows had transformed once innocent objects into nightmare images
that gathered around her.

“It’s okay, Puddles, it’s just your magination,” she
comforted her stuffed bunny.

Puddles had seen better days. One plastic eye was
missing entirely, all that remained of the other was the white
portion, the black pupil having vanished long ago, giving the bunny
the appearance of a one eyed zombie. The fabric was threadbare in
places, testament to having been dragged along behind her in her
travels, and one floppy ear had been reattached so many times it
was a full two inches shorter than the other. At one time Puddles
had been a garishly bright blue with a white chest and belly. But
several years of constant use, along with the occasional washing,
had caused the colors to fade to a ghost of their former
brilliance.