January

January, the cold engulfed me in a gust of icy wind. I shivered as I stepped out into the snow covered grass, the cabin has a fireplace and stays warm enough for me to not wear a sweater if I don’t want to. I gripped the flashlight in my hand harder trying to find some kind of warmth in it to no avail. I had to get more firewood to cook the canned soup I have in the cupboard, the shed had enough to last me a few months or so. I trudged through the snow over to the large shed that held the firewood and coal, I opened the heavy door and stepped inside while I turned on my flashlight.

Something rustled towards the back of the room, squirrels. It wasn’t uncommon for some of them to take shelter in the woodshed during the harsh winters here. I ignored the sound and rummaged through the pieces of wood scattered around the floor. I grabbed a few pieces and hugged them to my chest, I heard the rustling again. It was coming towards me, usually they stay as far away as they can get especially in a confined space such as this one. I turned around and shone my light over the wood in hopes to scare away the tiny stalker on my heels. I swear I saw something move but it definitely was not a squirrel. I froze in place waiting for more of a glimpse of it, it was still as the circle of light shook with my hand. I started to step backwards towards the door, but tripped over a piece of wood. Of course I thought my clumsy ass tripping as some weird creature that might kill me is a few feet away from me. I lifted the light back up to where it was before and that’s when I saw it.

It looked like a disfigured furby, its limbs long and skinny. You could see every contour of every bone underneath it’s disgusting, scarred skin. Spots of it’s skin were rotten off exposing the bloody bone and tissue underneath. Then the stench hit me, you couldn’t just see its flesh rotting from its bones you could smell it. It opened its mouth to hiss at me and I saw its yellow, broken teeth decaying and in the same state as the rest of its figure. As it hissed small droplets of spit were forced out with the air, some landing on my feet. I stood up without taking my light off of the creature, it lunged at me arms out trying to grab onto me. It wasn’t more than 3 feet tall, but it moved fast. I ran out the door and slammed it behind me before it could get out, it kept trying to break down the door but it couldn’t being the size that it was. I didn’t have a lock on the shed doors so I held the door shut until I thought it was safe, I started to run to the safety of my cabin but it got out of the door. It was faster than me and before I could run more than a few feet the creature attached itself to my leg. It clawed through my snow pants and jeans and its claws ripped through the flesh of my leg. I yelled in agony and tried to kick it off but it was anchored to my leg. It clawed and clawed at my leg ripping it apart like a paper shredder.

I tried to crawl back to my cabin the pain was too much, it just kept clawing and it was moving up my body. It jumped to my abdomen and clawed again, I couldn’t breathe. My intestine were soon lying in front of me, out of my body turning the snow red. The it clawed out one of my lungs from under my rib cage. I tried to breathe but I couldn’t. It all hurt so badly, I couldn’t do anything. I looked on as it took a bite of my liver, then tossed it. It kept taking out my organs and taking one bite, deciding that they weren’t good, then tossing them aside to try another. It ripped open my chest and finally it took my heart. It took a bite, and then dug in to the rest. I died, so much shock and pain. I couldn’t bear it, but finally I was free.

Original work by P.H.