Chapter 39

Ryder ripped down an overhanging branch in his path and tossed it into the darkness. “Bryony! Bry, where are you?”

Helena stood in between us in the doorway of the shack, shivering in cold fear. We exchanged glances but didn’t say a word to each other.

“Bry, answer me!” Ryder called, stomping through the woodland vegetation.

The further he ventured into the shadows, the heavier the weight on my chest became. I turned back to Ian who was back on the floor with Lexie, saying his last goodbyes. “We have to go now, Ian. Ryder is leaving.”

“Let him.”

I looked at Austin, who was keeping a close eye on both of us, and then knelt down to Ian’s level.

“Ian, I’m really sorry,” I said in a gentle voice. “Lexie was my friend too, but we can’t stop, we have to go. Please, Bryony is still out there somewhere.”

He ignored me and played idly with Lexie’s rings, twisting them around her slender fingers. Clearing his throat, Austin guided Helena out through the door and said: ‘Listen, we’re going to follow Ryder. We can’t let him go off on his own.”

I nodded. “We’ll be right behind you. Don’t go too far.”

They shut the door behind them and left me and Ian alone in the silence of the room. The smell of blood made my stomach turn, but I didn’t move away. Ian fixed his gaze on Lexie’s wrist and then turned his attention to her hair. He gently tried to comb through the matted knots and straighten them out with his fingers. I knew what he was doing. He was trying to make her look nice; but even as a corpse, Lexie looked like a supermodel. A stab of jealousy came over me as he leant forward and kissed her on the forehead. I closed my eyes and thought about Mina and Rain. I hadn’t said goodbye to them yet. Chances were that I would never be able to say goodbye physically, not even to Lexie. I couldn’t bring myself to it. I was a coward. I hid the truth from myself so that I could never get hurt, but the consequences were that I spent my whole life regretting things.

“We’re going to be OK,” I told him, holding his arm to comfort him. “We’re going to get out of this mess.”

He looked at me with his sore red eyes, and laughed through his nose.

“You know what? I’m sick of pretending that everything’s going to be alright, Ki. I’m sick of pretending that I’m going to be alright. I’m not alright.”

A single hot tear streamed down my face and under my chin. I wiped it away with the back of my hand, reached forward and wrapped my arms around him. I hated to see him like this. Hesitantly, he returned the gesture and then rose to his feet. For a second, it looked as though he was going to say something to me, but he quickly checked himself and settled for holding out his hand to help me up. I noticed that his smile didn’t quite reach his eyes.

Finally, he let out a sigh and turned around. “If I come back, I’ll bring you some antibiotics for your arm.”

“What do you mean ‘if you come back’? Where are you going?” I sniffled as I watched him bend down and lift Lexie’s body from the floor.

“I’m going back to the dorm,” he answered, carrying her tall corpse to the door.

“I’m coming with you.”

“No you’re not.”

I leapt in front of him and blocked the only exit, pressing my back against the door. “Please.”

He sighed and shook his head. “Listen, it’s not that I don’t want you to come, but you’ve done so well to get this far; you’re not giving up now.”

“Neither are you!” I cried. “I’m not going to let you.”

He forced out a dry chuckle and moved me aside with little effort.

“Ian! Stop it!” I yelled as he left the shack and made his way to the tree boundary. “Why are you doing this? Please! I need you!”

He turned around slowly and laughed. “You know something funny? That’s exactly what I’ve wanted to tell you, ever since we came back to St Mercia. Meeting you again, made me feel different. I’ve been meaning to tell you for quite a while now, but the right moment never came. I guess it was never supposed to.”

I took a step forward. “You can tell me now.”

Laughing, he shook his head, “I want to, I really do, but I can’t. It’s not right, Ki. It’s not my job to take care of you, it’s Austin’s, just like it was my job to look after-” his trailed off as he looked down at Lexie, laying in his arms.

I knew that she wasn’t his responsibility. They didn’t love each other. He may have cared about her, but it was never love. But who was I to say that he loved me, or that I even loved him?

“I want you to be safe, Kira, so don’t worry about me- worry about Austin.”

Another tear fell from my cheek onto the ground.

“Please,” I whimpered, but my voice was drowned out by the low growls from the clouds above.

The sky poured cold heavy rain down onto us and everything seemed to be so much darker. Ian stopped, looked down at Lexie and then back at me.

“Bye Kira,” he finally said, losing eye contact with me, carefully turning around and carrying Lexie into the woodland.

He didn’t even turn back. That was it; there was nothing more I could say. He wasn’t going to fight for me anymore. He’d given up. Why? Why would he do this when we were so close to getting out of this nightmare? Was he scared that I’d choose Austin over him when it was all over? Was he trying to make the decision easier on me?

I watched him until he disappeared completely and then burst into tears.

“Why? You stupid girl! Why did you let him go?” I cried to myself, keeling over in despair.

I had to make him come back. I had to get someone. But who would he listen to if not me? Only Lexie could twist him around her finger and make him follow her every word.

It was too late, now. He’d gone, and I’d let him like a complete idiot.

Pulling myself together, I forced myself to stop shivering and ran as fast I could into the thick mass of leaves and twigs. I screwed my eyes shut and tried to imagine the times when I used to dance and run around the park for fun. I used to love the feeling of the wind blowing through my hair, and my blood pumping in my legs. Now, whenever I heard the wind whistling in my ears, all I could think of was that someone was behind me, getting closer and closer. I was always running away from something. It was too tiring to waste my energy on running for my own personal pleasure. It would never be the same anyway. The thought that something was trying to kill you and everyone you loved was traumatizing.

My body jerked forward as I slipped on a wet patch of leaves and fell face first to the ground. But in the split second before my body made contact with the floor, something really peculiar seemed to happen. Instead of falling straight into the mud, I felt a soft blanket of snow touch my cheek and cushion the blow.

It took a few seconds for me to realise that something was wrong and slowly, I sat up to find myself sitting in an empty and vast world of whiteness. The snow drifted slowly from the sky and rested on strands of my black hair. I held out my hand and caught a handful of delicate snowflakes. They felt so real. Were they real? Suddenly, someone called out my name in the distance.

“Hello?” I answered, lifting myself to my feet.

The voice seemed to come from every direction. My head spun. It was hard to determine which way was which. Everything literally looked the same. Then, I realised that it wasn’t all the same; right in front of me I could see something vaguely in the falling snow. Instantly, I bottled all emotion and exhaustion and forced as much effort as I could get out of me into running towards the strange silhouette. It wasn’t until I approached it, I realised what it was and looked on in confusion. Standing right in front of me, there was a snowman.

“This isn’t real,” I said out loud, turning around to check whether there was anything else out here.

Nothing.

“You know why you’re dreaming this, Ki,” I chuckled to myself, almost deliriously. “Ian’s got Christmas stuck in your head.”

Positioning myself in front of the strange work of art, I studied the snowman further. Something didn’t feel right about it. Its cold, clammy flesh was great in size. The torso only just matched my height, yet the additional round ball that posed as its head, towered over me. The snowman didn’t have round little cork buttons or a smooth pebble smile, but sharp flint, sticking out from the chest and mouth where a frown replaced the usual jolly snowman grin. The dark menacing eyes, revealing themselves as black as coal, burnt into my own, looking down on me like a bully. A ripped crooked hat balanced unevenly on its head and a long pointed carrot pierced the air like a knife. Increasingly aware of the long branches that seemed to curl up into thin claws, I realised that I had been holding my breath the whole time. Why was the snowman scowling at me like that? Surely the snowman hadn’t called out my name?

“Don’t be stupid,” I told myself, tucking my hair behind my ear and studying the snowman closer.

Suddenly, in the corner of my eye, I noticed a twig twitch on one of its twisted branch arms.

“Oh,” I laughed, just to avoid panic. “I think I see where this is going-”

More finger-like twigs snapped to produce working joints, and the snowman practised movement by flexing its fingers.

“This is crazy,” I said, a huge grin plastered on my astonished face. “This is definitely another dream.”

But was this just a normal nightmare or was this a kind of premonition, intertwined with the rubbish Ian was talking about earlier? It couldn’t be a premonition. Christ! There’s a freaking snowman coming to life right in front of me.

Suddenly, a loud crack rung in my ears as its shoulder twitched and gained life. I backed away, keeping a close eye its dark, menacing face.

“Wake up, Ki,” I said, without moving my lips. “Come on, wake up!”

I watched on until a creepy aura seemed to grow around the snowman and its dark eyes rotated and targeted mine. Within a split second, I spun on my heel and kicked up the snow behind me. My knee cracked on the solid ground as I slipped on the ice and skidded forwards. Behind me, the snowman’s frown turned into a sinister grin and it slowly slid forward. I tried to get back up and run, but the ice was too slippery to even stand up. My arms spread out, trying to balance my body as I tiptoed as best as I could, falling down every so often. There was no way I was going to get away from that thing. I turned around one last time and felt its sharp bark grasp the purple wound on my arm.

A muffled growl escaped my gritted teeth as the snowman pulled me off my feet and launched me onto the floor. Everything happened so fast. All I could remember about that surreal event was its claws, digging into my flesh and ripping off my skin. I was so weak but I had to get out of there. The clammy coldness of the snowman’s body sunk right through my skin to my organs. My entire body shivered and began to spasm to keep warm; but with the snowman on top of me, it proved impossible. I tried to push the heavy ball off of me, but I wasn’t strong enough. Panting for breath, I slowly reached into my pocket for something to use in my defence. My fingers wrapped around the handle. Not once did I wonder why such a thing was in my pocket. I didn’t need to know. I just needed to use it. I needed to use that knife to save my life.

Drawing back my arm, I dug the silver blade deep into the snowman’s hip. I didn’t know what I was expecting to happen. I guess I wasn’t thinking at the time. I just pulled back my arm again and again. Such strength and power overwhelmed me. And even when the snowman released its grip on me and I kicked it back, I rolled on top of its torso and carried on beating the snowy sculpture. Without a second to lose, I held my dagger with both hands and stabbed deep down, crushing the broad snowman into snowflakes. Gusts of mist escaped from my mouth as I violently slashed the snowman’s face with my knife. I was just so scared. I had to make sure that it wasn’t going to get up and attack me again. I had to make sure it was dead. Eventually, the snowman’s head caved in and I found myself manually ripping apart the snowman’s stomach with my own hands. And still, when the snowman was reduced to fine powder, I was still sat on the ground, crying and scratching away at the remains. My tears scorched my eyes as they welled up in anger.

“Why are you doing this to me?” I screamed at the sky, bursting into hysterical tears.

Looking back down to the floor, my heart skipped a beat, and then stopped altogether. The knife in my hand was hot and dripping with blood. I held the red blade up to my face and watched the thick liquid run down the metal.

“Oh.” A weak gag escaped my mouth as my chest heaved and I looked down to see myself drenched in blood.

I quickly turned over my wrist to check my infection but it seemed that my wound was not the source of where the blood came from. The shock hit me like a bullet. I looked down at the mass of blood and gore, staining the snow before me. Then I remembered what happened to Helena, the night she ran away. It was exactly the same rubbery blood with the same large quantity of it, spilt all over the white blankets. I dropped the knife and slowly backed away from the mess I had made.

“What is this telling you, Ki?” I asked myself. My eyes wide with horror as one possible answer dawned on me. “Am-Am I going to be possessed?”

I focused on the floor once again and froze. If I was to become possessed, is this really the damage I could do? Upon thinking about it a little more, I realised what I had to do. I had to send as many people as I could, past Malevolent’s grave, into the safety zone without becoming possessed and killing someone. But what about Ian? I couldn’t just leave him out there. I had to go back for him.

Suddenly, I felt a chill run down my spine and a hand, grasping me by the hair. I didn’t have chance to see who it was. The next thing I knew, the attacker had pushed my face down in the puddle of blood and I woke up to a darker and drizzlier world of misery. The snow was gone. I was back in reality.

To be continued...