Chapter 6
Chapter
Six
It’s hard to make out the monster’s features in the howling storm, but I catch glimpses through flurries of snow. The terrifying bulk of its broad shoulders. The fur covering it from the shoulders down. A pair of huge horns jutting out of wild dark hair.
An impossibly long red tongue, slithering over its lips and flicking the air as if tasting it.
“What the fuck is that?” I cry out, frozen in place by my fear.
Louis grabs my hands and pulls. I stumble behind him as he yanks me along the porch. When we reach the railing, he releases me, and climbs over onto the snowy bank alongside the house.
“Where are you going?” I ask, watching with my heart in my throat. On the other side of the porch is the side of the cabin, with just a few feet of space above a terrifying drop.
He turns back and gestures to me to follow, then begins to slide along the side of the building. After only a few feet, he’s gone, swallowed by the blizzard.
My breath shudders in my lungs. There are so many ways this could go wrong. One poorly planted foot, and I’m over the edge. Would anybody find me before dawn? Would they even try? How long would I survive in this weather?
I don’t know. But I do know that if I stay here, that thing will catch up to me. I would rather face the storm than whatever that was. So I grab the porch railing and swing myself over and into white nothingness.
Snow pelts my face, stinging and blinding. The worst of the wind is blocked by the cabin, yet I still can barely see. I set my back against the side of the building and shuffle along, squinting sideways in the hopes of a glimpse of Louis, but there’s nothing but white in my vision.
I move painstakingly slowly. With each second in the open air, the cold seeps into me, stiffening my limbs and numbing my face. I scream Louis’s name, but I can’t hear it over the roar of the wind. A particularly strong gust forces my eyes shut, and I stumble right into something solid.
A strangled gasp rips out of my throat. But a moment later, an arm wraps around me. I stifle a sob, pressing my face into Louis’s chest. For a second, I thought he left me out here.
He shouts something in my ear. It takes me a few tries to understand what he’s saying.
“Window?”
I follow his gaze upward and just barely make out the sight of a window on the side of the cabin. This one isn’t covered by metal shutters like the rest. My heart soars—then drops again. It’s too high up to reach, even for Louis.
But maybe he could—
“Boost me,” Louis shouts close to my ear. I blink and pull back, staring up at him. “I’ll pull you up once I’m in.”
I bite my lip, looking from his face to the window. It does make the most sense. I don’t have the upper-body strength to pull him to safety if I go first. This is the only way for both of us to get through the window.
So I ignore the anxious squirming in my gut and take a knee in the snow. I interlace my fingers and hold up my palms as a step for Louis. He touches my cheek with one hand—a brief thanks, I assume—before planting the heel of his boot in my palms.
I wince, arms trembling under his weight.
The ice crusting the edges of his boots bites into my skin.
But I hold steady as he lifts himself up.
He shouts something I can’t hear in the storm, and then glass rains down on me.
I duck my head to avoid getting it in my eyes, and his weight lurches off-kilter.
But he clings to the wall, and I steady myself.
With a low grunt of effort, Louis lifts himself up and begins to squeeze through the window.
I straighten up to watch as he wriggles through the gap.
My heart seizes as he pauses halfway, and I wonder if he’s stuck, if it’s not big enough for him to fit.
A moment later he yanks his jacket, tearing it free from the jagged edges of the broken glass, and tumbles through. Inside to safety.
Yes.
A moment later his face appears in the window, and he extends a hand to me. I blink away relieved tears that sting my cheeks, reaching up toward him. But just as our fingers brush, his eyes slide away from me. The relief melts off his face, replaced by slack terror.
I follow his gaze and see a pair of red eyes approaching through the storm. Mountainous shoulders brace against the wind. The monster moves slowly but steadily, goatlike hooves confident and sure on the icy slope.
It’s here. He is here, and his red eyes are locked on me.
Krampus.
“Louis, pull me up,” I scream, stretching out on my tiptoes to reach for him. But his hand recoils.
“There’s no time,” he shouts.
I shriek a wordless sound of rage and fear and protest.
“Run,” he says. “You have to run! I’ll open the back door!”
And then his face disappears from the window, leaving me here with this thing.
The betrayal hollows out my chest. But my anger is not powerful enough to stand up to the fear sinking its teeth into me as I turn and face the huge creature again.
Through the howling storm, I hear heavy metallic clanking.
He steps closer, and I see the chains wrapped around one of his fists, dragging through the snow behind him.
I scream, stumbling backward. I turn to face the path ahead, to do as Louis told me and find the back door to the house, but one of my boots slips.
The edge of the cliff gives out beneath my heel. My fingertips scrape the side of the building. My stomach bottoms out.
And I tumble backward, down the icy slope.